Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf iraq information minister Sahhaf News lying as art

..........Our man in DUBAI, Paul Merc reports 29 April...............

An Arab television network said on Tuesday it wants to give a job to former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, whose colourful daily briefings during the U.S.-led invasion won him a cult following.
Ali al-Hadethi, supervisor of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya
satellite channel, told Reuters that Sahaf, who does not figure
on Washington's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, was welcome to
join the network immediately as a commentator and analyst.
Hadethi said he did not know the former minister's
whereabouts and asked him to contact Arabiya to take up his job.
"We want to benefit from the experience of Mr Sahaf and his
analysis of the current situation and the future of Iraq,"
Hadethi said, without giving details of the job package.
A London-based Arabic newspaper reported, meanwhile, that
Sahaf, dubbed "Comical Ali" for his eccentric denials that Iraqi
forces were being overrun, was now holed up with his aunt in
Baghdad and wanted the Americans to arrest and protect him.
The report said Sahaf had left the northern city of Mosul
four days ago and was staying at his aunt's house in the
capital's Palestine Street.
It quoted a representative of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) who said that U.S. troops had refused to take
Sahaf into custody because he did not figure on the American
most-wanted list, but that negotiations were continuing.
Arabiya television executive Hadethi, asked about Sahaf's
exaggerated statements at his daily briefings, said he "was a
member of the former regime and had to say what the government
wanted. He was repeating what was being given to him without
being able to verify the truth".
Hadethi said his network was already using Saddam's former
U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, as an analyst in Dubai.
Sahaf, with his trademark beret and standing behind a forest
of microphones, quickly built up a worldwide following as his
daily briefings departed more and more from objective reality.

President Bush - fan of al-Sahaf
25-04-2003, 11:19

It seems even U.S. President George W. Bush is a fan of the former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

"He's my man, he was great," Bush stated in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw on Thursday. "Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic."

Bush said he had made a point of watching Sahaf, as well as scenes such as the toppling of a huge bronze likeness of Saddam Hussein.

"I did watch some of his clips," he said. "I get a lot of things secondhand, but in the case of the statue or Sahaf, somebody would say, he's getting ready to speak and I'd pop out of a meeting or turn and watch the TV." (Albawaba.com)
More quotes From MSS AKA Baghadad Bob, Commical Ali

"Even those who live on another planet, if there are such people, would have condemned this action before it started"
"They are not in Najaf. They are nowhere. They are on the moon. They
are snakes in the desert..."
"We're now trying to exhaust them, until our leadership decides the time and method to clean our territory of their desecration."
Question: Is Saddam Hussein still alive? "I will only answer reasonable questions"
"Whenever we attack, they retreat. When we pound them with missiles and heavy artillery, they retreat even deeper. But when we stopped pounding,
they pushed to the airport for propaganda purposes.''
"Yesterday, we slaughtered them and we will continue to slaughter them."
"What they say about a breakthrough [in Najaf] is completely an illusion. They are sending their warplanes to fly very low in order to have
vibrations on these sacred places . . . they are trying to crack the buildings by flying low over them."
"They are retreating on all fronts. Their military effort is a subject of laughter throughout the world."
"It has been rumoured that we have fired scud missiles into Kuwait.
I am here now to tell you, we do not have any scud missiles and I don't know why they were fired into Kuwait."
"Listen, this explosion does not frighten us any longer. The cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river.
I mean here that over the past two days we managed to shoot down 196 missiles before they hit their target."
"This boa, the American columns, are being besieged between Basra and other towns north, west, south and west of Basra....Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east,
south and west. We chase them here and they chase us there."
[On surrenders] "Those are not Iraqi soldiers at all. Where did they bring them from?"
"Yes, the American troops have advanced further. This will only make it easier for us to defeat them"
"We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked"
. "NO", snapped Mr al-Sahaf, "We have retaken the airport. There are NO Americans there. I will take you there and show you. IN ONE HOUR!"
"They are not in Baghdad. They are not in control of any airport. I tell you this. It is all a lie. They lie. It is a Hollywood movie. You do not believe them."
"They are nowhere near the airport ...They are lost in the desert...they can not read a compass...they are retarded."
"They're not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion."
"I triple guarantee you; there are no American soldiers in Baghdad."
His insults were dramatic and every day, he would come up with new epithets to describe the coalition forces and the political leaders. Some of his quoted insults are:

"Rumsfeld, he needs to be hit on the head."
"The insane little dwarf Bush"
"Who is this dog Franks in Qatar?"
"Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld. They are the funny trio"
"This criminal (Bush) in the White House is a stupid criminal"
Iraqi opposition leaders are "bats ... and a bad American product."
"When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfathers of Blair and little Bush were scratching around in caves"
"Wild donkeys/jackasses"
"Sick dogs".
"The louts of colonialism."
"Tarateer"- In Iraqi slang, Tartoor means a guy full of farts (hot air)
"I speak better English than this villain Bush"