Iraqi information minister a hit in cyberspace

[thedrifter]

Iraqi information minister a hit in cyberspace

Fan site mulls Sahaf quotes, who will portray him in movies
Friday, April 11, 2003 Posted: 9:55 AM EDT (1355 GMT)


LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A member of Saddam Hussein's vanquished regime has sprung up as an unlikely hero in cyberspace on a Web site embraced by both supporters and foes of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Television news junkies transfixed by daily briefings by Iraqi Minister of Information Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf are now logging onto a few days-old Web site featuring his finest invective against U.S. and British "infidels."

The site describes itself as a "coalition effort of bloodthirsty hawks and ineffectual doves" united in their admiration for al-Sahaf and his pronouncements, such as: "I now inform you that you are too far from reality."

Among al-Sahaf's now-famous declarations was: "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"

Writer and former Greenpeace activist Kieran Mulvaney, a Briton living in Alaska, said he and friends got the idea for the site while watching cable news coverage of the three-week-old war.

"I mentioned to one of my friends that the best part is watching this guy," Mulvaney told Reuters. "He is so brazen that I could almost admire him."

Mulvaney and his friends designed, built and put up the site in three days. Within hours of going live on the Internet, the site "has exploded," Mulvaney said. The same day, U.S. troops marched into Baghdad and al-Sahaf disappeared, or in the view of his new Web site, went on "administrative leave."

"I hope he is alive somewhere so he knows how famous he has become," Mulvaney said. "We've had all kinds of e-mail from literally all over the world. We even had a few e-mails from within the Pentagon saying, 'We really like this guy and we miss him.'"

The site already is offering T-shirts and mugs bearing al-Sahaf's best-loved statements ("My feelings -- as usual -- we will slaughter them all!") and has selected actor and director Sydney Pollack to play the information minister in the Hollywood version of the war.

In the meantime, Mulvaney said he will appeal for sightings of al-Sahaf, and there are plans to poll fans about what the beret-wearing minister should do after the war.

One fan has advocated an urgent campaign to spare al-Sahaf if he is found: "He is too much of a global asset to be murdered/shot/stabbed or otherwise wasted."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2003 Reuters.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/TECH/internet/04/11/offbeat.minister.site.reut/story.web.site.jpg

http//www.WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com
http://64.39.15.171/

Sempers,

Roger

[MillRatUSMC]

http://64.39.15.171/images/story.sahaf.mon.jpg
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information or is it Disinformation?

http://64.39.15.171/
We Love Iraqi Minister of Information site

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."
This is what that Iraqi lawyer was believing.
Till reality hit him in the face.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

[Sparrowhawk]

We call him Baghdad Bob

http://jusd.bizland.com/recallc.gif

he showed up on our web site, the day after he disappeared from Iraq.

We use him when the board of education wouldn't believe we had served them with a recall notice.

The community loves his appearance on our web site.

LOL


http://ssbm.bizland.com/Home.html

[Kegler300]

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/picturejokes/9466.gif

[greensideout]

And I thought HE was funny!!! ROTFLMAO!!!

[NEWB]

:D This showed up in our newspaper out here. Kinda makes a point don't it.

[Sparrowhawk]

showing up in all type of places, sort of like a where's Waldo, but its a where's Baghdad Bob?

[arzach]

Thought I was in 'OZ' at first..."Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain"...

[Sparrowhawk]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1867296.jpg

Mohamed Saeed al-Sahhaf is
butt of jokes, cartoons




CAIRO, Egypt, April 17 — The dean of disinformation, Mohamed Saeed al-Sahhaf, may have disappeared the day Baghdad fell, but he lives on as the butt of Egyptian jokes and political cartoons.


AL-SAHHAF, THE FORMER Iraqi minister of information, was the last visible vestige of Iraqi officialdom.

In daily press briefings, he blithely denied reality, heaping scorn on coalition gains, turning Iraqi defeats into victories with a flick of his tongue and hurling empty threats at U.S. forces.

His increasingly impromptu press briefings ceased the day Saddam’s statue was pulled down in Fardous Square in Baghdad.

But in Egyptian newspapers, a cartoon al-Sahhaf continues to meet the press: “I promised you a surprise,” boasts a proud al-Sahhaf. “The surprise is the Iraqi leaders were the infidels.”

The political cartoon reflects Egyptian disillusionment with Iraqi leaders who chose flight over fight when faced with advancing U.S. troops. Al-Sahhaf had threatened that coalition forces would be met with an unpleasant “surprise” should they attack Baghdad.

Egyptians, renowned in the Arab world for their unfailing sense of humor, have sharpened their wit on the comic figure of al-Sahhaf while venting anger at Iraq’s vanished and vanquished leadership.

Even the most war-weary Egyptians found humor in al-Sahhaf’s wilder pronouncements: “God will roast their stomachs in hell,” he warned the day before Baghdad fell.

But what really captured this nation’s fancy was his frequent use of a word nobody recognized: al “oulouj,” his unique epithet for the coalition forces.

Egyptians hastened to their dictionaries and Arabic professors to find the meaning of the mystery word. An arcane classical Arabic term, “oulouj” has several meanings: “wild ass,” “lout or ruffian,” and “enemy soldiers of the Muslim caliphate” (read: “infidels”).

“What is your last request?” asks the executioner of a man facing the gallows in one Egyptian cartoon. “I only want to know what al-Sahhaf means by “oulouj,” grins the condemned man.

In another cartoon, a proud al-Sahhaf blusters:

“Here we are to teach the criminal infidel invaders a message they will never forget.” In back of him is a crumbling wall bearing the words: “Ministry of Information.” Behind it are U.S. troops.

After al-Sahhaf’s timely disappearance, a joke made the rounds in which al-Sahhaf is captured by U.S. troops and interrogated. “What did you mean by the word ‘oulouj’?” demands an American officer.

Replies a chastened al-Sahhaf, “It means ‘those who forgive.’ ”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlene Gubash is an NBC News producer based in Cairo.