The ever-optimistic front-man for the Iraqi regime during the war to topple Saddam Hussein — Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf — may have vanished but he has resurfaced on the Internet with a website containing his finest pearls of wisdom.
The site — www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com — was created this week by supporters and foes of the US-led invasion of Iraq, who, like many across the globe were often flabbergasted and amused by Sahhaf’s pronouncements during the three-week campaign to take Baghdad.
Wearing his trademark green uniform and black beret, the bespectacled minister stoutly denied throughout the war every advance by the coalition even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
On Tuesday, as US tanks secured a key bridge over the Tigris and the hotel where he normally met the media came under fire, Sahhaf calmly told reporters the situation was under control and that Iraqi troops were preparing to ”crush” the invaders.
”They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks,” Sahhaf said.
He vanished on Wednesday, when US forces entered central Baghdad, and may be dead but his words are still very much alive on the Web.
Among them: ”My feelings, as usual, we will slaughter them all.” ”Our initial assessment is that they will all die.” ”Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 26-million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege.” And this dire assessment of the coalition troops’ state of mind: ”I can say, and I am responsible for what I say, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly.”
One visitor to the US-based site commented: ”This gentleman has achieved bullshit that transcends bullshit and becomes a thing of wonder. As a lawyer, I can only stand back and watch in awe.” The site is also marketing T-shirts bearing a photograph of Sahhaf and one of his quotes. – Sapa-AFP