KUWAIT
29th June 2003 : Web Edition No: 11604
Editor-in-Chief: Ahmed Jarallah
 
Ex-minister says he knows nothing about Saddam
DUBAI, June 28, (Agencies): Iraq's wartime information minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf said in an interview aired Friday that he had been hurt by the sight of US troops seizing Baghdad but had no regrets about his role and insisted he knew nothing about Saddam Hussein.

Sahaf, who shot to fame for his wildly inaccurate statements on the military situation in the runup to Saddam's ouster, resisted persistent questioning about the events leading up to what he termed the April 9 "earthquake," saying he would put his assessment in writing in due course. Interviewed by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel "in a suburb of Baghdad," Saddam's information supremo professed ignorance of his world fame, describing himself as "a simple person."

In excerpts of the interview shown on Thursday - marking his first public appearance since he dropped out of sight when the US-led coalition took over Baghdad - Sahaf said he had turned himself in to US forces who questioned him about his past work and then freed him.

"I don't know" if Saddam is alive, or if footage of the former Iraqi strongman broadcast since his overthrow was genuine or pre-recorded, Sahaf said. The ex-minister, whose interview was aired under the theme "Sahaf speaks out," also said, when asked about Saddam and sons Qusay and Uday whose whereabouts are unknown, that he had not seen anyone from "the leadership" since the fall of Baghdad.

Although Sahaf insisted on deferring his verdict on the Iraq "earthquake" to the right time, he was heard telling Al-Arabiya's correspondent in English after the interview had ended that he thought his "adamant answers" were "interesting enough." "Adamant" was an apparent reference to his repeated refusal to make a "hasty" judgement or apportion responsibility for the sudden collapse of the Baath regime.

"I would like to have (all elements) before speaking out. I am now telling you what I can. You and I need more time to go into details," he said. "You do not write history in a TV interview," he said when asked if the Iraqi leadership had erred.

Sahaf said he had "no opinion at all" about the resistance to US occupation and whether it was inspired by the former regime, and described his past relationship with Saddam as "like that of any minister in the government." "I sure was," he said when asked whether he had been pained by the sight of US forces sweeping through the Iraqi capital, where he said he would continue to live as a private citizen, looking after his family and possibly writing memoirs.

Collapse
But although Sahaf refrained from making value judgements, he suggested that the picture of the regime's sudden collapse could be misleading without the knowledge of all factors leading up to April 9, stressing that those factors needed to be researched and checked. "The time has not come to tell the story," he said.

He also said that portraying his remarks about Iraqi successes during the conflict as inaccurate amounted to taking them out of context. "If you go into the timing, hour by hour and day by day, you would see what the justifications (of the remarks) were É When the picture is drawn objectively, you will see that they were not fabricated," Sahaf said.

"That's what you (not I) think," Sahaf interjected when his interviewer reported that many Iraqis saw the advent of the Americans as a "blessing." Sahaf, thinner and his hair turned white since he was last seen before Saddam's ouster, managed a few smiles in the course of the half-hour chat despite his subdued appearance that was a far cry from his old combative self. "Me? I didn't know that," he said when told that he had become a "star" in the West.

"I am a simple person," and "we are a simple, modest family," he said. During the war, the bespectacled Sahaf won fans worldwide for his in-your-face defiance as US and British troops swept through the country in their drive to topple Saddam. "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!" read the first of the "treasury of deathless quotes" on the site. Even US President George W. Bush said in April that he had stepped out of meetings in Washington to catch a few of Sahaf's daily press conferences.

Abu Dhabi television also aired a short interview with Sahaf Thursday night in which he said that while he had given out correct information at the time of the conflict, its "interpretation" by Iraqi officials was not. "Not at all," he said when asked by Al-Arabiya if he regretted having played the role he did under Saddam. Would he do it again? "History does not repeat itself," Sahaf replied.

List
Al-Sahaf is not on the list of the 55 most wanted Iraqi officials. His appearances on Arab television Thursday - in brief clips shown on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya and in a five-minute interview on Abu Dhabi television - were his first return to the public eye since the collapse of Saddam's regime.

Al-Sahaf had been a regular sight on TV before and during the US-led war, sporting military garb and a beret with dark hair peeking out. He boasted of non-existent Iraqi military dominance and hurled insults at coalition forces and their leaders. His outlandish claims and insults during the war bemused fellow Arabs and made al-Sahaf a notorious figure in the West, where dozens of Web sites, T-shirts, and dolls ridiculed him.

One site, Baghdadbobs.com, even advertises al-Sahaf hot sauce: The former information minister's photo and the quote "God will roast your stomachs in hell" are on jar. And last month, the London-based Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation released "Baghdad Bob," an uncensored DVD compilation of al-Sahaf's most memorable remarks. He disappeared the day Baghdad fell to coalition forces on April 9, and reports have said he was hiding in a relative's home in Baghdad, fearing revenge from angry Iraqis.

In the interviews, he wore civilian clothes, his thinning hair was white, and his feisty air had vanished. Al-Sahaf insisted on answering most questions with "yes" or "no," but said he would write everything he knew and has experienced in the future. He added that he was giving up work as a politician and would devote his time now to writing a book.

He rejected the idea of seeking asylum abroad, saying he would remain in Iraq. Al-Sahaf said he was not aware if Saddam was dead or alive, had no comment about recent attacks on coalition forces, and would say little of the last days of the regime. In his interview Thursday with Abu Dhabi television, he said he had little contact with the military in the last few days of the regime, but insisted that he had been convinced of what he had told the international media.
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