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Sahhaf Back On TV Screens
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Sahhaf said his wartime information was correct, but its "interpretation" was not
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DUBAI
, June 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqi wartime
information minister Mohammed Saed al-Sahhaf re-emerged on Arab TV
Thursday, June 26, saying he had turned himself in to
U.S.
forces in
Iraq
and was released after questioning.
For
the first time since he dropped out of sight after U.S.-led forces captured
Baghdad
on April 9, the ex-information minister appeared on two Arab satellite
channels.
Sahhaf's
surprise reappearance followed a report that he had been captured by
U.S.
forces occupying
Iraq
, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The
report of his capture, published Wednesday, June 25, by Daily Mirror,
had not been confirmed by the Pentagon or other
U.S.
sources.
"I
went to the Americans... through some friends, and was questioned
about a number of issues related to my work," Sahhaf told
Al-Arabiya news channel in snippets aired by the Dubai-based TV ahead
of the release of the full interview on Friday, June 27.
"After
the interrogation, I was released," he said while shown in a
living room in what the TV said was "a suburb of
Baghdad
."
U.S.
Central Command would not confirm his claim that he had been
interrogated and freed.
"We
don't have him, and there is no information from our people on the
ground to back up these reports," a spokeswoman for Central
Command told BBC News Online.
Sahhaf,
who gained world fame for upbeat assessments of the military situation
on the eve of the collapse of the regime that were in stark contrast
with developments on the ground, came across as a subdued version of
his old self, looking thinner and with his hair turned white.
While
insisting that he had given out correct information of which he was
convinced at the time of the hostilities, Sahhaf made a thinly veiled
criticism of Iraqi officials in charge of the conduct of the war,
describing their reading of developments on the ground as inaccurate.
"The
information was correct, but the interpretation was not -- (such as
saying) that this (advance by
U.S.
forces) can be handled, this is not the major war front, the situation
is under control," he explained.
Sahhaf
said that during the last few days before
Baghdad
's fall, he had been in contact with "whoever I could find among
military leaderships" in
Baghdad
, but he refused to comment on a suggestion that "it was the
Iraqis, not
America
, who toppled Saddam" by failing to resist the U.S.-led invasion
forces.
The
flow of information was slow and the military sources of that
information also "shrank" as the fighting went on, he told
Abu Dhabi TV.
Asked
about the whereabouts of ousted president Saddam Hussein, Sahhaf told
the Abu Dhabi-based channel: "I know nothing."
In
the interview with Al-Arabiya, Sahhaf said that the moments that
preceded the fall of
Baghdad
were "difficult not for one individual, but for everyone,"
although the time had not come to "document" and relate all
the events leading up to Saddam's ouster.
Sahhaf's
decision to speak out triggered a media war of sorts among the
region's main satellite networks, with Abu Dhabi television
broadcasting its own interview with him from Baghdad shortly after
Al-Arabiya scooped the rest with his first appearance in two and a
half months.
During
the war, he won fans worldwide for his in-your-face defiance as
U.S.
and British troops swept through the country.
A
website in his honor, www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com,
featuring his most quotable remarks, drew an overwhelming response
after its launch, attracting 4,000 visitors per second at one point,
according to its webmaster.
"There
are no American infidels in
Baghdad
. Never!" read the first of the "treasury of deathless
quotes" on the website.
Even
U.S. President George W. Bush said in April that he had stepped out of
meetings in
Washington
to catch a few of Sahhaf's daily press conferences.
"He
was great," Bush told NBC television.
The
head of Al-Arabiya told AFP in April that his news channel was
prepared to offer Sahhaf a job.
"We
see no problem in having Mr. Sahhaf join us. First of all, Sahhaf is
not on the list of the 55
Iraqis most wanted by the Americans, and he won international fame
(during the war). We would be happy to have him on our team," Ali
al-Hedeithy said.
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