The Telegraph (UK) lets us know more about the fate of Saddam Hussein's hapless minister of information, Mohammad Said Sahhaf. I still think his best new gig would be flacking Hillary Clinton's new book.
Even after the statue of Saddam was toppled on April 9, Mr Sahhaf refused to accept that Saddam's era was over. But in the early hours of April 10, with the sound of battle raging ever closer to the studio, in the al-Adhamiyah district, even Mr Sahhaf headed for the exit. "Sahhaf slowly removed his black beret," recalls Raibah Hassan, 35, the manager of the Hikmat studio, the last person to have seen Mr Sahhaf in public. "He folded down the epaulettes on his military jacket to hide his rank and then he reached for a red and white kaffiyeh scarf. He wrapped it around his head as he told us to keep on re-broadcasting until 3am. He said goodbye, and then disappeared out of the back door."
A former Iraqi general who is working closely with Gen Jay Garner, the man overseeing Iraq's post-war reconstruction, told The Telegraph that he had been approached by one of Mr Sahhaf's cousins, seeking a deal. The general described Mr Sahhaf as "naive" and claimed that Saddam used to beat his minister of information.
"Sahhaf's cousin told me he wants to give himself up, but with certain conditions," the former Iraqi general says. "They know I had a connection with Jay Garner and I sent him to see Garner. But I warned him not to set conditions with the Americans.
"He wants to be outside Iraq," said the general, who did not wish to be identified. "He wants to get to Egypt. He has a lot of money stashed there in a bank and loves those Egyptian women very, very much."
Posted by Alan at May 4, 2003 12:16 AM