thedrifter
05-04-03, 07:13 AM
Dancing With the Former Iraqi Information Minister
Cult of Sahhaf Flourishing Among Online Commentators
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2003; 5:04 PM
Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, the flamboyant and foolish former Iraqi information minister, is fast making the transition from mouthpiece for a dying dictatorship to international pop star.
The latest news on this master of misinformation comes from Victoria Newton, gossip columnist for Britain's top selling tabloid, The Sun. She reports today that Sahhaf's greatest sound bites will soon hit the dance floor.
"The crackpot's ridiculous rants about the Gulf war - such as 'There is no presence of American infidels in Baghdad' when U.S. troops were easily seen just a few hundred yards away - are to be featured on a new record," she writes. Newton quotes the record's producer as saying the dance tune is "set to be massive. There has already been a lot of interest from record stations and club DJs."
Sahhaf's celebrity, which originated in his delusional, defiant statements on the mythical defense of Baghdad, has mutated into something bigger. A ridiculous buffoon to many in the West, he struck others in the Arab world as an admirable die-hard. With his versatile image, this apparatchik is now an icon of media unreality.
There are "Minister of Misinformation" T-shirts for sale on eBay. Britain's SkyNews reported last month that there is a talking Sahhaf doll which voices such Sahhaff classics as "Our initial assessment is that they will all die." A Web site devoted to his career, welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, is still drawing massive traffic and spawning imitators.
Reuters reported Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking to U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's airport, "fired a parting shot at Sahhaf, who just a few weeks ago was telling reporter that U.S. forces were nowhere near the facility.
"I must say I'm surprised to see you here at Baghdad airport," Rumsfeld said. "The world was told there were no Americans here - over and over and over. But I guess it's the last time we heard from that fellow."
Not hardly. Sahhaf has gone global.
In Thailand, a columnist for the Chiang Mai News describes Sahhaf in today's edition as just one liar in a "Battle of Pinocchios" fought by international media organizations. Colin Hinshelwood likens Sahhaf's disinformation to the alleged pro-American bias of CNN and BBC. In India, an editorial in the Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper, lauded Sahhaf last week as a "winner" for not conceding defeat in the face of overwhelming information.
That defiant quality apparently recommends him to Arab audiences. On Monday, the Arab News, a Saudi Web site, reported that an Arab satellite TV channel, Al-Arabiya, has offered Sahhaf a job either "presenting special programmes or being a political analyst or both."
The director of Al-Arabiya "denied that the channel was looking for publicity," saying Sahhaf was chosen "because he has things to say about Iraq and he is one of the few Iraqi officials not wanted by the Americans; he is not on the list of 55 wanted Iraqis."
Sahhaf's brand of defiance, seen as delusional in the West, is actually admired by many Arabs, according to Albawaba, a Web portal based in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
"The former Iraqi foreign minister's confidence, along with the surprising resilience of Iraqi fighters in the first weeks of the war, have become an unlikely source of pride for an Arab world that has watched the invasion in impotent anger. 'He's the comic relief of the war,' said Salwa, a 59-year-old Egyptian teacher. 'At the same time, he's the voice of victory that we want to believe.' . . . In English translation, al Sahaf came off as a little ridiculous, but in Arabic, the former minister's choice of words was salty in an old-school way."
Voice of America quoted Sa'id Sadek Amin, a public opinion and media expert in the Arab world, as saying "Mr. Sahaf became a cult hero because he told the Arab public what it wanted to hear.
"The way Sahaf was presenting what was going on was very sarcastic, and also it was uplifting Arab morale. He was popular because the audience wanted him to win, wanted to believe him, even if he was telling lies. They wanted to believe him, they wanted to feel that the Americans are not winning, and he was providing them with what they wanted to hear."
And that's the problem, say some Arab media critics.
For the editors of the Arab News "a great many [Arabic] journalists and media outlets have been left with egg on their face" because they accepted Sahhaf's "wild claims." "In the Arab media, it wasn't so much a question of confusing patriotism with reportage as confusing news with wishful thinking. In a word, what was lacking was objectivity and critical self-analysis."
Writing in the London-based Arabic language daily Asharq al Awsat on April 17, Egyptian writer Ahmad Abbas Salih argued that defeat in war for Iraq meant that the Arab rhetorical style has to change.
"One of the most distinctive features of Arab rhetoric in general is that it is one sided," Salih wrote, "In other words, it is subject to the supervision of the existing power and it backs the patriarchal regime, which in essence is built on glorifying the president and calling for obedience to him. This obedience system prevails in the relationship between every boss and his subordinates in the various social circles. It starts at the elementary school and continues all the way to university."
Salih did not mention Sahhaf by name, but he clearly had the former information minister in mind when he said, "This type of political and intellectual system does not like reason, welcomes dogmatic beliefs, and finds it easy to use them for its purposes. It uses its control of the mass media to entrench and affirm these beliefs. By doing so, it acts as an enemy to enlightenment and modernization."
One thing seems certain - Sahhaf will be back. Reports that he committed suicide after the fall of Baghdad are unfounded, says Al Bawaba. The news site reported Wednesday that Sahhaf is seeking to surrender but U.S. forces have declined to arrest him.
© 2003 Washingtonpost.Newsweek
Sempers,
Roger
Cult of Sahhaf Flourishing Among Online Commentators
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2003; 5:04 PM
Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, the flamboyant and foolish former Iraqi information minister, is fast making the transition from mouthpiece for a dying dictatorship to international pop star.
The latest news on this master of misinformation comes from Victoria Newton, gossip columnist for Britain's top selling tabloid, The Sun. She reports today that Sahhaf's greatest sound bites will soon hit the dance floor.
"The crackpot's ridiculous rants about the Gulf war - such as 'There is no presence of American infidels in Baghdad' when U.S. troops were easily seen just a few hundred yards away - are to be featured on a new record," she writes. Newton quotes the record's producer as saying the dance tune is "set to be massive. There has already been a lot of interest from record stations and club DJs."
Sahhaf's celebrity, which originated in his delusional, defiant statements on the mythical defense of Baghdad, has mutated into something bigger. A ridiculous buffoon to many in the West, he struck others in the Arab world as an admirable die-hard. With his versatile image, this apparatchik is now an icon of media unreality.
There are "Minister of Misinformation" T-shirts for sale on eBay. Britain's SkyNews reported last month that there is a talking Sahhaf doll which voices such Sahhaff classics as "Our initial assessment is that they will all die." A Web site devoted to his career, welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, is still drawing massive traffic and spawning imitators.
Reuters reported Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking to U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's airport, "fired a parting shot at Sahhaf, who just a few weeks ago was telling reporter that U.S. forces were nowhere near the facility.
"I must say I'm surprised to see you here at Baghdad airport," Rumsfeld said. "The world was told there were no Americans here - over and over and over. But I guess it's the last time we heard from that fellow."
Not hardly. Sahhaf has gone global.
In Thailand, a columnist for the Chiang Mai News describes Sahhaf in today's edition as just one liar in a "Battle of Pinocchios" fought by international media organizations. Colin Hinshelwood likens Sahhaf's disinformation to the alleged pro-American bias of CNN and BBC. In India, an editorial in the Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper, lauded Sahhaf last week as a "winner" for not conceding defeat in the face of overwhelming information.
That defiant quality apparently recommends him to Arab audiences. On Monday, the Arab News, a Saudi Web site, reported that an Arab satellite TV channel, Al-Arabiya, has offered Sahhaf a job either "presenting special programmes or being a political analyst or both."
The director of Al-Arabiya "denied that the channel was looking for publicity," saying Sahhaf was chosen "because he has things to say about Iraq and he is one of the few Iraqi officials not wanted by the Americans; he is not on the list of 55 wanted Iraqis."
Sahhaf's brand of defiance, seen as delusional in the West, is actually admired by many Arabs, according to Albawaba, a Web portal based in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
"The former Iraqi foreign minister's confidence, along with the surprising resilience of Iraqi fighters in the first weeks of the war, have become an unlikely source of pride for an Arab world that has watched the invasion in impotent anger. 'He's the comic relief of the war,' said Salwa, a 59-year-old Egyptian teacher. 'At the same time, he's the voice of victory that we want to believe.' . . . In English translation, al Sahaf came off as a little ridiculous, but in Arabic, the former minister's choice of words was salty in an old-school way."
Voice of America quoted Sa'id Sadek Amin, a public opinion and media expert in the Arab world, as saying "Mr. Sahaf became a cult hero because he told the Arab public what it wanted to hear.
"The way Sahaf was presenting what was going on was very sarcastic, and also it was uplifting Arab morale. He was popular because the audience wanted him to win, wanted to believe him, even if he was telling lies. They wanted to believe him, they wanted to feel that the Americans are not winning, and he was providing them with what they wanted to hear."
And that's the problem, say some Arab media critics.
For the editors of the Arab News "a great many [Arabic] journalists and media outlets have been left with egg on their face" because they accepted Sahhaf's "wild claims." "In the Arab media, it wasn't so much a question of confusing patriotism with reportage as confusing news with wishful thinking. In a word, what was lacking was objectivity and critical self-analysis."
Writing in the London-based Arabic language daily Asharq al Awsat on April 17, Egyptian writer Ahmad Abbas Salih argued that defeat in war for Iraq meant that the Arab rhetorical style has to change.
"One of the most distinctive features of Arab rhetoric in general is that it is one sided," Salih wrote, "In other words, it is subject to the supervision of the existing power and it backs the patriarchal regime, which in essence is built on glorifying the president and calling for obedience to him. This obedience system prevails in the relationship between every boss and his subordinates in the various social circles. It starts at the elementary school and continues all the way to university."
Salih did not mention Sahhaf by name, but he clearly had the former information minister in mind when he said, "This type of political and intellectual system does not like reason, welcomes dogmatic beliefs, and finds it easy to use them for its purposes. It uses its control of the mass media to entrench and affirm these beliefs. By doing so, it acts as an enemy to enlightenment and modernization."
One thing seems certain - Sahhaf will be back. Reports that he committed suicide after the fall of Baghdad are unfounded, says Al Bawaba. The news site reported Wednesday that Sahhaf is seeking to surrender but U.S. forces have declined to arrest him.
© 2003 Washingtonpost.Newsweek
Sempers,
Roger