# Conversation and Fun > Just Conversation >  24K web "gold" - AUDIO tributes to a man called "Bob"

## rinselberg

His real identity was "Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information", but TV viewers around the globe came to know him as "Baghdad Bob". This was his face:



And *this* was his voice: It's a three-minute *audio clip* from an NPR broadcast of April 13, 2003. "Bob" speaks first. (At the very end, some vintage "Rummy", but that's another story ...)
http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCo...1&mediaPref=WM

When I clicked on the URL (above), a new Windows Media Player icon appeared on my desktop: I had to click on the icon to play the audio clip.





When CENTCOM distributed the famous "52 Most Wanted Iraqis" playing cards, "Bob" wasn't even in the deck - an omission that was later "corrected" on the web with some artful editing:








*A musical tribute*

"He's generally not lucid, or in touch with reality ..."


> Where do you find these things? It's a classic! Perfect in every way - the cadence, the instrumentals, the vocals and the content. A tune that has it all. I hope it becomes the making of a new OptiBoard post. It would be a shame to waste it on an audience of only one. I might even send this one to my brother.


One of my friends in cyberspace, commenting on this four-minute *audio track* that I sent:
http://www.scandaloussquirrel.com/baghdadbob.mp3





His "day" was short - just a few weeks in the spring of 2003, as Coalition soldiers closed in on Baghdad. But it was memorable. For those few weeks, he was, as much as anyone else, the official face and voice of Iraq - the "old" Iraq. And unintended as it may have been, it was standup comedy at its side-splitting best. "Baghdad Bob" was on the lips of General Tommy Franks and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw after the declaration of "Mission Accomplished", President Bush smiled and confessed: "He was my_ man._ He was great. Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there."


As bombs rained down on Baghdad, the Coalition air campaign picked up the media tagline "Shock and Awe" - but "Bob" shot right back with "*Mock* and Awe" ...



Maybe he just really, really needed to update his prescription eyeglasses ...





> In an age of spin, al-Sahaf offers feeling and authenticity. His message is consistent - unshakable, in fact, no matter the evidence - but he commands daily attention by his on-the-spot, invective-rich variations on the theme. His lunatic counterfactual art is more appealing than the banal awfulness of the Reliable Sources. He is a Method actor in a production that will close in a couple of days. He stands superior to truth ...
> 
> _Jean-Pierre McGarrigle, We love the Iraqi Information Minister._


If only the laughs would have kept on coming ...

_Images: http://www.angelfire.com/ar3/somegaveall/navframes.html_


Postscript:

Brief video clip (edited). Windows Media Player.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY

One minute video clip from BBC News. RealPlayer.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY

If a new icon appears on your desktop, you may have to "click it" to start the video playback.


*rinselberg* has posted previously on this topic, under the post titles Traffic and weather, together, RX for Victory, Stockholm Five-0 and A fellow of infinite jest.

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