And Now, the Al-Sahaf Talking Doll
Mon April 21, 2003 07:46 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - People who joined the cult-like following of Iraq's wartime spokesman Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf can now buy a talking doll and hear him say things like "our initial assessment is that they will all die" as often as they want. The Connecticut company Herobuilders.com built the doll and also sells others that make fun of Iraq war allies President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The company made the "Iraqi Dis-information Minister Action Figure Doll" of the former Iraq Information Minister al-Sahaf, who disappeared from Baghdad after the invasion of U.S. troops whose presence he had bizarrely denied.
TV viewers around the world took a liking to his often colorful statements that became the butt of television talk show jokes in the United States. A Web site, http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, drew 4,000 hits a second after its launch a week ago.
The doll says, "There are no Americans infidels in Baghdad, never. Our initial assessment is that they will all die. I am not scared and neither should you be. They're not even within 100 miles of Baghdad."
Herobuilders.com owner Emil Vicale said he wanted to take advantage of the craze and built the doll of al-Sahaf dressed in trademark army fatigues and black beret to be sold for $35.95.
"We were able to obtain a digital copy of his voice, his sound bites," Vicale said. "We were able to digitize that and impregnate that on a voice chip."
Other dolls sold by the same company include "Saddam Insane," "President G.W.," "Butcher of Baghdad," "British Ally," and "Osama is Drag" -- al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a pink dress. H
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