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Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf

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Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf (also Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf) (born 1940) is an Iraqi diplomat and politician. He came to wide prominence around the world during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, during which he was the Information Minister of the country.

al-Sahaf was born in Hilla, near Karbala. He joined the Baath Party in 1963 and served as Ambassador to Sweden, Burma, the United Nations and Italy, before returning in Iraq to serve as Foreign Minister in 1991. The reasons for his removal as Foreign Minister in April 2001 are unclear, but his achievements in the position were often claimed to be less satisfactory than that of his predecessor, Tariq Aziz. At least one report suggests that Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein, was responsible for the removal.

al-Sahaf is probably most known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War, where his lies, fantasies and colourful description of his enemies reached further heights as the war progressed. On April 7, 2003, seemingly totally untouched by the fact that the fall of Baghdad and the Saddam Hussein regime was imminent and obvious to everyone, and American tanks patrolling the streets only a few hundred meters from the location where the press conference was held, he claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates. His last public appearance as Information Minister was on Tuesday April 8, 2003, when he said that the Americans "are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender."

It is important to note that although appearing as obvious lies to a western public, the descriptions uttered by al-Sahaf were well received in parts of the Arab world most fiercly in resistance of the war, expressing their beliefs or at least hopes. This made the quick fall of Baghdad a total surprise, to the extent that for instance Syrian television did not send images from the events.

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