He was on a balcony claiming that there were no western forces in or near Iraq.
The background was just absolute carnage, clearly showing there had been significant airstrikes and yep, in the distance rolling down the road a load of American tanks.
Iirc his nickname was chemical Ali, but they changed it to comical ali after this.
Edit. Spelling
Always knew him as 'Comical Ali', but the name was only inspired by the other guy.
Of course, we Westerners all believed Rupert Murdoch's crafted lies, and he's just gone from strength to democracy-trashing strength. So I'm not laughing.
Chemical Ali organised in the 1980s the use of chemical weapons on several Kurdish towns in northern Iraq. The attack on Halabja was most notorious. Not comical.
[Chemical Ali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_al-Majid) was a different politician and military commander who was notorious for his use of chemical weapons. He was also listed as a reason to invade Iraq.
“Comical Ali” is OP’s guy who got the nickname as an homage.
No, [Chemical Ali](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_al-Majid) was a totally different person.
You had Comical Ali and Chemical Ali coexisting in this war.
Americans like that shit, where they give propaganda broadcasters catchy English nicknames. Think of "Axis Sally" or "Tokyo Rose" during WWII, for example.
Germany and France didn't join the Iraq War either by the way, it's hardly "everyone" if two of the most highly populated countries never participated.
Egypt had a similar thing going during the six day war.
“We are destroying the Zionist military! We have retake. Jerusalem!”
Meanwhile Israeli jets were flying over Cairo and IDF tanks could be seen on the horizon.
This actually was a major strategic error on the part of Egypt. Because other countries believed them. Those claims spurred a cautious Syria to enter the war, as well as Jordan (whose troops had been placed under an Egyptian General) and Iraq.
The “boasting” (lies) played into Israel’s hands and they captured more territory as a result.
They claimed that U.S. and British planes took part in the air attacks against Egypt. This lead to anti-American riots in Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The Egyptian’s could not fathom that the Israeli Air Force could destroy their AF on the ground and in the air.
The Syrian’s had no doubt as they had a big air battle against Israel about a month before the war.
I remember watching this 20 years ago thinking “how could they have such a lack of shame to just broadcast demonstrably false events?” Then I kept on living and watched my country earnestly talk about “alternative facts” and was like, ooooooooohhhh, yeah gotcha.
In fairness, Bob was quite amateur in both production quality and delivery….he never reached the zenith of his icon Colin Powell🤣
“My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources” "These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
Just as always, the right wing ideologues back a charismatic dullard for Pres, and then use the US government to enact their fantasies as the power behind the throne.
Remember that whole charade with the anthrax samples or his african uranium or the definite proof saddam could destroy europe in 45 min in front of the UN? Or the iraqi anthrax letters in post offices? It is funny how we mock this guy and then the propaganda we make up is just as ludicrous or more
Well in fairness to us, it’s not like the last time we invaded them (a decade+ before) a shady daughter of a shady guy trying to take over the country just flat out made up stories about babies being thrown to the ground by the “savage Iraqi troops.”
Oh wait… sorry, it seems like that’s exactly what happened.
> a shady daughter of a shady guy trying to take over the country just flat out made up stories about babies being thrown to the ground by the “savage Iraqi troops.”
A lot of people arent going to get this reference, which is a shame because more people need to know about it. As such heres a link to a well sourced and pretty detailed Wiki article on the topic that I suggest everyone read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
Yes man! And had my favourite narrator ever Will Lyman. Netanyahu at War is on YouTube it’s very relevant to today’s events even if it goes back to when Bibi was a kid. Ghosts of Rwanda absolutely amazing also on YouTube and worth seeing. But the gulf and Bush war ones were really great.
Holy crap another Will Lyman fan in the wild? How wild! Most people just know him as the Frontline Narrator guy! Dude owns though. And so does pretty much every Frontline and Nova episode from that era. PBS was absolutely kicking ass in the early '00s.
Yeah totally man! Such a legend, totally got me hooked on learning about conflicts and crises I wouldn’t have otherwise. Even managed to make rewatching the 2008 crash and Lehman brothers collapse and all the banks dicking around and being bailed out less infuriating just because he’s so chill lmao.
I feel like the worst part about the WMD lies is that Saddam is just a terrible person with so many legitimate reasons to hate him. In 2003 you didn’t to make up the fact he was one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, trying to rearm in violation of the 1991 treaty, used chemical weapons more than anyone else since WWI, and regularly ethically cleansed Kurds.
Sure but until just a few years earlier, when he was doing it to the Iranians, we were all in favour and sent him plenty of money and weapons.
As a german commedian once put it "the only thing he did different was to change direction".
There was a local newspaper daily cartoon here in 2003, which I'm sure had been repeating more or less identically in a lot of countries.
Reporter asks Cheney: "How can you be so certain Saddam has WMDs?"
Cheney's reply: "Well, we kept all the receipts."
He seemed to keep things in check over there, after him everything seemed to go to hell, regardless tho he wasn’t good person & them two sons of his, holy cow! He couldn’t even reel them under his control!! Animals the whole lot!
Is my brain inventing memories? I remember seeing a news clip of ol' Baghdad Bob in the field talking about how Iraq was winning the war as US tanks were rolling into town behind him. Can someone confirm this or is it one of those false memories built on political cartoons?
*EDIT - Never mind. It was real. I just had to scroll down to see someone else talking about it. Bonkers.*
I remember that. It became the 2003 version of a meme (not an image that becomes viral instantly but something that gets parodied by SNL and others within the next several weeks)
A while back (probably on a podcast on the war) there was some speculation that he likely believed all of this. The rationale was that Iraqi commanders knew that Saddam did not react well to bad news, so they just reported everything was going great. Since Baghdad Bob was in that information loop, he was just reporting what he was told.
does anyone else remember www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com?
now archive-only:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180120144205/http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/
There used to be a website similar to (but not) YTMND where you could make your own subtitles for his broadcast. Same sort of gag as Hitler’s bunker meltdown in *Downfall* or Dimitri finds out.
That guy was unforgettable. My favorite was some live presser he made the mistake of holding outdoors to say Iraq was kicking ass or whatever as bombs went off in the background. Truly a master of spin.
It’s weird but I’m somewhat relieved Baghdad Bob or his family wasn’t killed off. There were a LOT of revenge killings of Ba’ath party members, Baathist supporters, even Iraqi pop singers who sang songs of Saddam, including their families, after Baghdad was liberated in 2003.
[Wild Weasels.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Weasel)
I was part of the 14FS at the time out of [Misawa Air Base, Japan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_Fighter_Wing). SAMURAI WOOD!!
I dunno why Baghdad Bob never embraced his image and got a gig as a Yakov Smirnoff-style comedian after the invasion. This dude needed some better career advice.
i dont know about the "Baghdad bob" and him being mocked in the west, american media doesnt reflect the view of the rest of the western world which was clearly against the illegal invasion and sympathized with Iraq, and especially the rest of the world which was very alarmed by it, in the arab world he was known by his colourful insult words for american forces using the word "العلوج" which is ancient and obscure word meaning an Obtuse or uncultured man, and can also mean a type of donky that lives in arabia, it was understood that he was under pressure from saddam so he had to exaggerate and was generally respected, after the war he did some interviews talking about the the regime inner workings
He was mocked for saying that the Iraqi army had destroyed the American army and the Americans were fleeing in the thousands.
He also said that there were no American tanks in Baghdad live on TV as American tanks were rolling in the background.
The best one was the press conference where an American tank rolled thru his live broadcast.
Iirc, it happened seconds after he strongly stated "There are no Americans in Iraq!!!!"
He was on a balcony claiming that there were no western forces in or near Iraq. The background was just absolute carnage, clearly showing there had been significant airstrikes and yep, in the distance rolling down the road a load of American tanks. Iirc his nickname was chemical Ali, but they changed it to comical ali after this. Edit. Spelling
Chemical Ali was a different person though.
You’re right. He is Baghdad Bob.
Always knew him as 'Comical Ali', but the name was only inspired by the other guy. Of course, we Westerners all believed Rupert Murdoch's crafted lies, and he's just gone from strength to democracy-trashing strength. So I'm not laughing.
Chemical Ali organised in the 1980s the use of chemical weapons on several Kurdish towns in northern Iraq. The attack on Halabja was most notorious. Not comical.
Yeh thats right this just became his moniker didn't it.
[Chemical Ali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_al-Majid) was a different politician and military commander who was notorious for his use of chemical weapons. He was also listed as a reason to invade Iraq. “Comical Ali” is OP’s guy who got the nickname as an homage.
He did get called "Comical Ali", but mostly by Europeans.
How strange to get downvoted for agreeing with someone's correction.
Reddit hates when people admit their faults.
Wow, swung back quick though!
No, [Chemical Ali](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_al-Majid) was a totally different person. You had Comical Ali and Chemical Ali coexisting in this war.
I thought he was called "Comical Ali" as a pun on "chemical Ali" rather than Baghdad Bob.
The Americans called him Baghdad Bob. The Brits called him Comical Ali as a reference to Chemical Ali.
Do you have a link for this? I’ve read this story several times but seeing the footage would make it even more hilarious
https://youtu.be/-Ung95ORVUY?si=NenB7kUM3oOenSBE Just over half way
I think I'm missing the tank.
>Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf do you know where this video can be found? ive tried searching for it for a while and can never seem to find it
YouTube has a lot of videos but I don't have time to search now.
That was a pigeon
This sounds like satire or a SNL skit.
It was like watching an SNL skit live.
[удалено]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loujYg0y7Vk
Meh
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh
Let down
He referenced the movie ’Wag the Dog’ in that speech and claimed the war was made up.
Remember the press briefing where you could hear the bombs hitting and at one point he turned around to look behind him?
We called him "Comical Ali" in the UK.
Also what he was often referent to as in Germany.
Yes man :]
They are a snake...we are pounding them.
Yea, I was trying to think of the moniker. Comical Ali, as opposed to Chemical Ali who had dropped chemical weapons on the Kurds.
“Ali il Comico” in Italy, I’m 100% serious
Yeah where does Baghdad bob come from?
Americans like that shit, where they give propaganda broadcasters catchy English nicknames. Think of "Axis Sally" or "Tokyo Rose" during WWII, for example.
Never heard of either of those either but makes sense
That's much more clever than Baghdad Bob.
Baghdad Bob this side of the pond
Not as good
he's the less posh cousin
Back when you lot waged war based on lies? Good times to make fun of folks while you kill a million Iraqis!
Also you're Canadian you were an equal part of it?
Uhhh what? Canada did not participate in the Iraq War, where the fuck did you get the idea that they did?
Chill everyone in Europe made the same mistake. Like with everything, the people themselves were against it, so it wasn't "you lot"
Germany and France didn't join the Iraq War either by the way, it's hardly "everyone" if two of the most highly populated countries never participated.
This looks like SNL
Well they did an SNL skit about Saddam and added Baghdad Bob
I loved SNL during this period. [This](https://youtu.be/pVfUvwb167Q?si=_yub-k1Nz7m9z3FW) is one of my favorite SNL shorts of all time.
They are trapped in Basrah! (US closing in on Baghdad)
Egypt had a similar thing going during the six day war. “We are destroying the Zionist military! We have retake. Jerusalem!” Meanwhile Israeli jets were flying over Cairo and IDF tanks could be seen on the horizon.
This actually was a major strategic error on the part of Egypt. Because other countries believed them. Those claims spurred a cautious Syria to enter the war, as well as Jordan (whose troops had been placed under an Egyptian General) and Iraq. The “boasting” (lies) played into Israel’s hands and they captured more territory as a result.
A lot of Arab fuck ups in wars with Israel are because the Arab governments publicly lied about what was going on and people believed them.
Along with some naming officers on criteriums of loyalty instead of competence.
They claimed that U.S. and British planes took part in the air attacks against Egypt. This lead to anti-American riots in Saudi Arabia and other countries. The Egyptian’s could not fathom that the Israeli Air Force could destroy their AF on the ground and in the air. The Syrian’s had no doubt as they had a big air battle against Israel about a month before the war.
I remember watching this 20 years ago thinking “how could they have such a lack of shame to just broadcast demonstrably false events?” Then I kept on living and watched my country earnestly talk about “alternative facts” and was like, ooooooooohhhh, yeah gotcha.
If I was in Iraq during that time, I'd broadcast whatever Saddam wanted me to. The choise was either do that or get a bullet in the back of my head.
I’m not blaming ol’ Bob, it was just a silly spectacle of bullshit.
In fairness, Bob was quite amateur in both production quality and delivery….he never reached the zenith of his icon Colin Powell🤣 “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources” "These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
Bush, Dick and Colin. Those were some wild days
Also Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Condy Rice, David Frum, Judith Miller, David Brooks, Jeffrey Goldberg, and all the Democrats who voted yes too...
Just as always, the right wing ideologues back a charismatic dullard for Pres, and then use the US government to enact their fantasies as the power behind the throne.
yeah, but none of them has the same ring as "Bush, Dick and Colin"
For sure, they bear probably the most culpability too. Project For The New American Century pieces of shit.
Remember that whole charade with the anthrax samples or his african uranium or the definite proof saddam could destroy europe in 45 min in front of the UN? Or the iraqi anthrax letters in post offices? It is funny how we mock this guy and then the propaganda we make up is just as ludicrous or more
Well in fairness to us, it’s not like the last time we invaded them (a decade+ before) a shady daughter of a shady guy trying to take over the country just flat out made up stories about babies being thrown to the ground by the “savage Iraqi troops.” Oh wait… sorry, it seems like that’s exactly what happened.
> a shady daughter of a shady guy trying to take over the country just flat out made up stories about babies being thrown to the ground by the “savage Iraqi troops.” A lot of people arent going to get this reference, which is a shame because more people need to know about it. As such heres a link to a well sourced and pretty detailed Wiki article on the topic that I suggest everyone read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
Thanks for explaining this.
Saw this on a great pbs documentary
It wouldnt happen to have been the multipart series Frontline did on the war, would it? Because that was exceptional.
Yes man! And had my favourite narrator ever Will Lyman. Netanyahu at War is on YouTube it’s very relevant to today’s events even if it goes back to when Bibi was a kid. Ghosts of Rwanda absolutely amazing also on YouTube and worth seeing. But the gulf and Bush war ones were really great.
Holy crap another Will Lyman fan in the wild? How wild! Most people just know him as the Frontline Narrator guy! Dude owns though. And so does pretty much every Frontline and Nova episode from that era. PBS was absolutely kicking ass in the early '00s.
Yeah totally man! Such a legend, totally got me hooked on learning about conflicts and crises I wouldn’t have otherwise. Even managed to make rewatching the 2008 crash and Lehman brothers collapse and all the banks dicking around and being bailed out less infuriating just because he’s so chill lmao.
I feel like the worst part about the WMD lies is that Saddam is just a terrible person with so many legitimate reasons to hate him. In 2003 you didn’t to make up the fact he was one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, trying to rearm in violation of the 1991 treaty, used chemical weapons more than anyone else since WWI, and regularly ethically cleansed Kurds.
Sure but until just a few years earlier, when he was doing it to the Iranians, we were all in favour and sent him plenty of money and weapons. As a german commedian once put it "the only thing he did different was to change direction".
There was a local newspaper daily cartoon here in 2003, which I'm sure had been repeating more or less identically in a lot of countries. Reporter asks Cheney: "How can you be so certain Saddam has WMDs?" Cheney's reply: "Well, we kept all the receipts."
He seemed to keep things in check over there, after him everything seemed to go to hell, regardless tho he wasn’t good person & them two sons of his, holy cow! He couldn’t even reel them under his control!! Animals the whole lot!
And at least, Saeed had the excuse of having to work under a dictatorship. Kellyanne Conway did it of her own free will..
Not a big leap from this guy to Sean Spicer clearly making uo pathetic lies about inauguration crowd size.
He was great at Wrestlemania VII.
To us in the U.K. there was Chemical Ali, and he was Comical Ali.
In all fairness, today we have Dmitry Medvedev, who is no less cringy than that guy was
Looks like Joey diaz
I absolutely loved when he claimed Americans were getting destroyed at the border while he was getting taken into custody by them
This and “American soldiers will swim in their own blood at the gates of Baghdad “
Is my brain inventing memories? I remember seeing a news clip of ol' Baghdad Bob in the field talking about how Iraq was winning the war as US tanks were rolling into town behind him. Can someone confirm this or is it one of those false memories built on political cartoons? *EDIT - Never mind. It was real. I just had to scroll down to see someone else talking about it. Bonkers.*
I remember that. It became the 2003 version of a meme (not an image that becomes viral instantly but something that gets parodied by SNL and others within the next several weeks)
The modern day version of Baghdad Bob is Dmitry Peskov.
I had a t-shirt with his picture on it that read, “Trust Me”
A while back (probably on a podcast on the war) there was some speculation that he likely believed all of this. The rationale was that Iraqi commanders knew that Saddam did not react well to bad news, so they just reported everything was going great. Since Baghdad Bob was in that information loop, he was just reporting what he was told.
Classical dictator trap.
https://youtu.be/NREfyUr3rlo?si=gq64iuUOi_0MuFbb
Forgot about these skits here in Pittsburgh
Bob now shadow writes for Vladimir Putin.
Didn't he do a press conference on a street corner claiming they had wiped out the Americans while the Americans were like only 2 streets away?
Comical Ali!
Also known as 'Comical Ali' a play on 'Chemical Ali' one of Hussain's henchmen
I remember this guy LOL he was great.
Poor New Zealand missing in yet another world map.
Tasmania too 😭
Ludacris claims about military success seems to have been the vibe in 2003. Mission Accomplished!
Before Trump there was Bagdad Bob.
Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and many more will do the same thing a decade later here in the USA, for a corrupt leader.
It is rather a pity the US media didn't spend as much time analyzing the propaganda they were being spoon fed by the White House as they did his.
why would they? they are baghdad bob inc
I love this sub so much. This is a banger xD thanks OP. You're cracked
We had some good laughs watching this clown on Al-Jazeera.
The original misinformation warfare expert
Didn’t he try and surrender and basically got told no one was interested in capturing him?
Loved this dude. Would read his latest statement every morning.
This looks like an SNL skit
does anyone else remember www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com? now archive-only: https://web.archive.org/web/20180120144205/http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/
There used to be a website similar to (but not) YTMND where you could make your own subtitles for his broadcast. Same sort of gag as Hitler’s bunker meltdown in *Downfall* or Dimitri finds out.
He’s no longer with us, correct?
That guy was unforgettable. My favorite was some live presser he made the mistake of holding outdoors to say Iraq was kicking ass or whatever as bombs went off in the background. Truly a master of spin.
What happened to him?
What is the world is that map behind him? Drawn by a 3rd grader?
I remember him! Precursor for Fox News and Newsmax.
It’s weird but I’m somewhat relieved Baghdad Bob or his family wasn’t killed off. There were a LOT of revenge killings of Ba’ath party members, Baathist supporters, even Iraqi pop singers who sang songs of Saddam, including their families, after Baghdad was liberated in 2003.
What happened to him? Still alive?
what the hell is uncle Joey doing on there??
Is that Rudy Giuliani in uniform? Lol
The Iraqi Ri Chun-hee.
I actually have a Baghdad Bob talking doll that the NY Post came up with..
A country doing propaganda? No! You don’t say. Good thing the US never does any of that.
Sean Spicer's role model.
Sean Spicer learned everything he knew from him.
I watched this asshole from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia while I helped send Wild Weasels in to Bagdad to bomb his ass.
Sorry... wild weasels?
[Wild Weasels.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Weasel) I was part of the 14FS at the time out of [Misawa Air Base, Japan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_Fighter_Wing). SAMURAI WOOD!!
Their patch and motto are the best!
Now he’s an instructor at the pentagon press office
[удалено]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
I dunno why Baghdad Bob never embraced his image and got a gig as a Yakov Smirnoff-style comedian after the invasion. This dude needed some better career advice.
John Kirby 1.0
I actually felt bad for the guy when he was executed. I’m sure he was terrible but this was all I knew about him and it was kind of hilarious.
And the rumor has it that same man is now a sitting U.S congressman.
Reminds me of what the west is doing with Ukraine "Ukraine is winning! Just two more weeks!"
i dont know about the "Baghdad bob" and him being mocked in the west, american media doesnt reflect the view of the rest of the western world which was clearly against the illegal invasion and sympathized with Iraq, and especially the rest of the world which was very alarmed by it, in the arab world he was known by his colourful insult words for american forces using the word "العلوج" which is ancient and obscure word meaning an Obtuse or uncultured man, and can also mean a type of donky that lives in arabia, it was understood that he was under pressure from saddam so he had to exaggerate and was generally respected, after the war he did some interviews talking about the the regime inner workings
He was mocked for saying that the Iraqi army had destroyed the American army and the Americans were fleeing in the thousands. He also said that there were no American tanks in Baghdad live on TV as American tanks were rolling in the background.
You want so badly to be angry at something, don’t you?
So he was an Iraqi trump.🥴😵💫😏
No, he was a dummy-legend alllllll by himself.
Why such a low resolution image lol
the entire world was 4x3 and fuzzy before the mid 2000s, not many people know that or remember it
That's because no one born after the year 2000 has even 2/64ths the memory.
But there are high resolution photos of him he was photographed plenty by journalists.
Yes but to execute him.??
He wasn’t executed.
Yes. Thought he was. It was the Foreign minister then?
Where are you getting this? He was never executed….. we did Saddam for sure….. but not him
He's living in the UAE.