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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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