Cairo, Oct 23: Iraq's former Information Minister said that ex-President Saddam Hussein has no chance to return to power and that history will decide whether he was a good or a bad person. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf was speaking in a special interview to an Arab television network to answer viewers' questions about his five-week series, which finished last week.
"History does not move backward and he has no chance to return; he who says so is ignorant of the reality of life. This subject is finished," al-Sahhaf said.
Asked by a viewer whether Saddam was a good or bad person, al-Sahhaf said, "History will judge Saddam Hussein, either positively or negatively." During the first four days of the war, which began March 20, al-Sahhaf said Saddam was "in a state of ecstasy" about the progress of his soldiers in Basra, in southern Iraq.
"But to the contrary, he was angry when reports reached him that Ba'ath Party units' fighting was bad, and he immediately changed their leaders with military officers," he said yesterday. Al-Sahhaf cast doubts about mass graves found after the fall of the regime.
"This issue should be investigated thoroughly and decided by the court because there is a lot of inaccurate stories about it," he said. He did not elaborate.
During the five episodes, the defiant al-Sahhaf always stood up for Saddam and the former Iraqi regime. Bureau Report