Comical Ali saw Ted Heath as ally Iraq really needed

THE year was 1993 and Iraq had a problem. It desperately needed some parts for one of its power stations but the equipment, manufactured by a company in Britain, was being blocked under United Nations sanctions.

Up sprang Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. He was then foreign minister but was latterly better known as the overly optimistic information chief nicknamed Comical Ali after claiming that American troops were being slaughtered at the gates of Baghdad when they were actually seizing control of the city.

Al-Sahaf had a plan. Like many of his other schemes that came to light last week in documents unearthed in a room next to his former office in Baghdad, it seemed, at best, to suggest a shaky understanding of affairs in the outside world.

He decided to call on Sir Edward Heath, the former British prime minister, for help.

In files in folders marked “Britain, 1993”, al-Sahaf called Heath one of two “effective elements” in tackling the steam turbines issue. The other was Lord Prior, the former Northern Ireland secretary and chairman of GEC from 1984-98.

Heath, related the minister, had a “strong friendship” with Prior, who had a connection, it was claimed, with NEI Parsons, the power-engineering group from Newcastle upon Tyne that had helped to build the al- Mussaib power station 120 miles north of Baghdad.

According to al-Sahaf, Heath had promised the head of the Iraqi interests section in London that he would “co-operate” with Prior in helping to get the spare parts shipped since they were intended for humanitarian and civilian purposes. In the hope of spurring him on, al- Sahaf wrote Heath a letter.

“I am hoping to secure your good offices in order to expedite the reshipment to Iraq of steam turbine/generator parts that belong to unit number three of the al-Mussaib thermal power station,” it said.

A spokesman for Heath said last week that he did not recall the request: “Sir Edward has also contacted Lord Prior to discuss the matter. Lord Prior regards it as highly unlikely he would have acted on the request by getting involved in seeking to obtain parts from NEI Parsons as he was working for a rival company at that time.”

Whatever the case, nothing seemed to dampen al-Sahaf’s enthusiasm for plotting ways of undermining the UN embargo. Files recovered by The Sunday Times from the foreign ministry refer to a welter of eccentric initiatives that raise questions about how he survived in the job until early 2001, when he was demoted to minister of information.

One of his final reports was dated January 30, 2001, when he wrote to Saddam to propose using Loik Le Floch-Prigent, former head of the French state oil company Elf, as an intermediary in negotiations with George W Bush, the newly installed American president.

It did not seem to matter to al-Sahaf that “Mr Loik”, as he called him, was embroiled in a corruption case that would land him in jail.

“Mr Loik”, wrote al-Sahaf, had met Iraq’s ambassador in Paris and offered to use his “friendship” with Bush to help to increase western investment in Iraq’s oilfields.

“Mr Loik said that through his good relations with George Bush’s family and American oil companies, he could transfer an indirect message to the American side that would open new doors in Iraqi-American relations.”

Al-Sahaf recommended that Le Floch-Prigent be allowed to visit Baghdad for discussions. The reply a few days later from Saddam was curt and dismissive. “We do not agree,” it bluntly stated. Nor could the palace have taken kindly to many of al-Sahaf’s other initiatives over the years.

There was the time he informed Saddam on March 25, 1993, of a report in the “Zionist London Times” about a waxwork of Saddam being unveiled in Madame Tussaud’s.

He volunteered that the Iraqi representative in London had yet to inform the ministry of Saddam’s exact location, perhaps suggesting anxiety in Baghdad that the great leader may have been slotted into a hall of horrors.

A few days later, however, al-Sahaf sent another note to the palace entitled Waxworks. Attached to this was a picture of Saddam’s wax effigy and the triumphant news that the exhibit had been placed in “the hall which includes statues of state presidents”.

No less surprising was the minister’s habit of passing on “hostile” articles from the British press to his master, one of them a satirical diary from The Guardian newspaper chronicling Saddam’s secret sojourn in Britain and entitled Saddam Hussein: the Oxford Years.

The piece said Saddam had enrolled at Magdalen College, Oxford in the 1960s and was thrown out of a pub after “downing seven pints of Old Scuds and trying to turn the pool table towards Mecca”.

Saddam, who is said to have run away from peasant origins to enrol himself in school, was not displeased by the spoof. Far from it: he may have had a sense of humour.

A few days later al-Sahaf received a reply from the palace: “President Saddam Hussein has commanded that this should be published (in Iraq) in order that honest Iraqis can enjoy themselves with this joke despite its mischievous intent. Make the arrangements.”

The papers also refer to George Galloway, the Labour MP who is suing The Daily Telegraph for libel over allegations based on Iraqi intelligence documents that he received money from Saddam’s regime.

As far back as 1993, Galloway and Tam Dalyell, another Labour MP, are described in foreign ministry records as being “sympathetic” to Iraq. Heath was referred to in the same bracket, although there was no suggestion of anything inappropriate in any of the politicians’ relationships with Iraq.

“We can approach them regarding Iraqi interests in Britain,” was al-Sahaf’s verdict of the MPs when pondering how to win NEI Parsons’s agreement for shipping the turbines in July 1993.

Whether or not the “effective elements” had any effect, the Department of Trade and Industry issued an export licence the following month.

Such bizarre schemes can only add to the legend of al- Sahaf, whose television performance during the fall of Baghdad turned him into a figure of fun for the tabloids and a gift for cartoonists.

Even Bush admitted popping out of meetings to catch his appearances. “He was a classic,” Bush said last week. “Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there.”

There are moves to exploit al-Sahaf’s image for commercial purposes, too. A Comical Ali doll, which speaks some of his more absurd lines, went on sale earlier this month.

Last week Ryanair, the Dublin-based airline, launched an advertising campaign in which he is described as the “new head of information” of easyJet, a rival carrier with which it is engaged in a price war.

Some advertising experts say that the campaign may backfire. “Experience shows if you associate your brand with bad people, it doesn’t do any good,” said Lord Bell, chairman of Chime Communications.

What al-Sahaf — whose fate is yet to be clarified — would make of it all remains unclear.

Heath was one of those Tories disloyal to Mrs. Thatcher. She must be quietly chuckling to herself at this point. ;)

And so am I. ;)

Regards, Ivan

There was the time he informed Saddam on March 25, 1993, of a report in the “Zionist London Times” about a waxwork of Saddam being unveiled in Madame Tussaud’s.

That is our Baghdad Bob!

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