Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (محمد سعيد الصحافMuḥammad Saʿīd Al-Ṣaḥḥāf; born 1940) is a former Iraqi diplomat and politician. He came to wide prominence around the world during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, during which he was the Iraqi Information Minister under Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, acting as the spokesperson for the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Saddam's regime.

He is best known for his grandiose and grossly unrealistic propaganda broadcasts before and during the war, extolling the invincibility of the Iraqi Army and the permanence of Saddam's rule. His announcements were intended for an Iraqi domestic audience subject to Saddam's cult of personality and total state censorship, and were met with widespread derision and amusement by Western nationals and others with access to up-to-date information from international media organizations. In the US he was popularly known as Baghdad Bob, in the UK as Comical Ali, and in Italy as Alì il Comico.

Before the Iraq war
Al-Sahhaf was born in Hilla, near Karbala to a Shi'ite Arab family. After studying journalism at Baghdad University he graduated with a Masters degree in English literature. He planned to become an English teacher before joining the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1963. In the early days of the Ba'athist regime he read out regular announcements of recently executed Iraqis on state television. He served as Ambassador to Sweden, Burma, the United Nations and Italy, before returning to Iraq to serve as Foreign Minister in 1992. The reasons for his removal as Foreign Minister in April 2001 are unclear, but his achievements in the position were often claimed to be less satisfactory than that of his predecessor, Tariq Aziz. At least one report suggests that Uday Hussein, son of the President Saddam Hussein, was responsible for the removal.

During the Iraq war
Al-Sahhaf is known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War. His colorful appearances caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob (in the style of previous propagandists with geographical aliases - some of them alliterative, such as "Hanoi Hannah" and "Seoul City Sue") by commentators in the United States. He was nicknamed Comical Ali (a wordplay allusion to Chemical Ali, the nickname of former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid) by commentators in the United Kingdom; commentators in Italy similarly nicknamed him Alì il Comico.

Al-Sahhaf said that Americans and British were attacking civilians: "They bombed civilian neighborhoods and those cowards used cluster bombs." He denied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which is consistent with what later investigations concluded. Allied forces did, indeed, use cluster bombs in civilian neighborhoods, whether by accident or design. His last public appearance as Information Minister was on April 8, 2003, when he said that the Americans "are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender".

He gained something of a cult following in the West, appearing on T-shirts, cartoons, and in internet phenomena. In the UK, a DVD documentary was sold about his exploits and televised interviews, called "Comical Ali".

Post-war life
On June 25, 2003, the British newspaper The Daily Mirror reported that al-Sahhaf had been captured by coalition troops at a roadblock in Baghdad. The report was not confirmed by military authorities and was denied by al-Sahhaf's family through Abu Dhabi TV. The next day al-Sahhaf himself recorded an interview for the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel. Al-Sahhaf said that he had surrendered to US forces, had been interrogated by them and released. He was reportedly paid as much as $200,000 for the television interview, during which he appeared very withdrawn in contrast with the bombastic persona he projected during the war. Many of his answers consisted of a simple "yes" or "no". He refused to speculate on the causes of the downfall of the Iraqi government and answered only "history will tell" when asked if video clips purporting to prove that Saddam Hussein was alive were genuine, amid speculation at that time that Hussein had been killed during the war.

His fame quickly evaporated as the war continued into the insurgency phase; from the middle of 2003 onward, he faded from the public spotlight, and was no longer a figure in the war.

Although questioned by American authorities, al-Sahhaf was released, and there has been no suggestion of charging or detaining him for his role in the Saddam Hussein government. He is now living in the United Arab Emirates with his family.

When asked where he had got his information he replied, "authentic sources—many authentic sources". He pointed out that he "was a professional, doing his job".