Talk:Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf

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Removed from article. If someone has more exact information to add, then there is no reason not to put it back. As it is now, it adds nothing but a sense of incompleteness, I think -- Egil 05:04 Apr 11, 2003 (UTC)

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Contents 1 Timeline 2 Video link 3 Comical Alis Nickname in Wales 4 Sahhaf or Sahaf? 5 Baghdad Bob 6 I F**king Love This Guy! 7 Wasn't he right ? 8 al-Sahhaf's academic career 9 "comparable to a similar watershed event that came out of the Arab-Israeli wars several decades earlier"

[edit] Timeline

•  ???? - ???? : Ambassador of Iraq to Sweden
•  ???? - ???? : Ambassador of Iraq to Burma
•  ???? - ???? : Ambassador of Iraq to UN
•  ???? - 1990 : Ambassador of Iraq to Italy
• 1991 - 2001 : Foreign Minister of Iraq
• 2001 - 2003 : Information Minister of Iraq

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I've removed the following, it seems un-encyclopedic, at least as long as the significant of it (if any) it is not explained:

al-Sahaf does not have a moustache, which is special for an Iraqi man.

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I don't agree. There is no POV here; the article simply reports the existence of the nickname, which is widely used and known in the English-speaking world, regardless of whether it is "racist". Also I think there is no longer any dispute that many of his public statements were untrue. -- VV 03:55, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Using Google to search for "comical ali", I asked for all occurrences which were NOT .us or .com sites, and it still comes up with 14,600 hits. RickK 03:59, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Comical Ali is a redirect. I don't see your point. --Jiang

"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 and earned him the nickname Comical Ali (an allusion to former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid's alias, Chemical Ali). "

Wikipedia is not calling him that, only asserting the fact that others have done so. that is NPOV. We dont assert that people are calling Powell "Comical Powell" because this is not the fact. I don't think this came out of the US government - it was from the internet pop culture. --Jiang 04:53, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Video link

I've removed this from the page:

• Video Profile, with clips of his finest moments (2:37, Sky News, in Windows Media Format)

The link is 404. If anyone can find another copy of it or something similar, it would be good to have. --Ben Brockert 02:15, May 25, 2004 (UTC)

Put it in again. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 16:59, 2004 Aug 14 (UTC)

[edit] Comical Alis Nickname in Wales

During the Iraq War, he would have been known in Wales as "The Liar of Baghdad".

Draig goch20 23:34, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sahhaf or Sahaf?

The title says Sahhaf, but in the article it says Sahaf, which is correct?

The "correct" version is written in Arabic, not Roman letters. There is no single way of transliterating Arabic letters to Roman ones. So either is correct. – Quadell ^{(talk) (bounties)} 18:50, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Baghdad Bob

OK, so the British nickname Comical Ali has been explained for US readers, but we Brits get no explanation of "Baghdad Bob". Why Bob? Why is it funny? (Don't answer here or on my talk page please, put it in the article! :)) --kingboyk 13:55, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Bob is, generally speaking, regarded as the sort of name given to an oaf, fool, or general moron. His statements earned him that status, and thus he was named Baghdad (location) Bob (mental capacitcy). -USMA2010

I think many people named "Robert" would disagree there. The comedy comes from both the fact that Bob is a short, common American name and the alliteration that occurs. This brings it into conformity with other names like "Axis Sally" and such. —BassBone (my talk · my contributions) 09:14, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting to note that whilst the British nickname is funny the American one isn't.217.43.102.22 22:37, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

To a Brit, anyway. Actually, I recall reading at the time that the Americans who dubbed him that didn't find him very funny, either. They came up with the name more out of derision than anything. Wahkeenah 02:51, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I F**king Love This Guy!

Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf I salute you!

Live long and prosper!

Yeah! He definitively was a beacon of humour to all of us. But today, there's just despair in Iraq.--Keimzelle 23:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wasn't he right ?

His statement about Americans being burnt in their tanks and going to surrender is becoming more and more true. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.68.44.148 (talk) 16:54, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

• Maybe, but he left out the part about Saddam being at the end of his rope. Wahkeenah 20:56, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] al-Sahhaf's academic career

I can't tell where I read of that, but I believe the following to be correct:

• that al-Sahhaf studied English literature (English fiction, to be precise)
• that he studied in England
• and that he has a brother whose is a M.D. in a Ireland or Northern Ireland hospital.

--Keimzelle 23:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "comparable to a similar watershed event that came out of the Arab-Israeli wars several decades earlier"

Which was...? Don't make allusions like that without explaining them! 81.158.1.11 02:26, 31 March 2007 (UTC)