"Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic," Bush laughed in an interview with NBC television Thursday, when reminded of al-Sahhaf's remarks to the effect that Iraqi troops were repulsing US forces at the Baghdad airport and that the war was almost over.

"You know, a lot of the stuff I get, people come in and report to me -- did you hear what so-and-so said, or did you see that? So I get a lot of things secondhand," Bush said.

"But in the case of the statue (of Saddam being toppled), or Sahhaf, somebody would say he's getting ready to speak, and I'd pop out of a meeting or turn and watch the TV," the US president added.

"He was great."

Al-Sahhaf vanished, when US forces entered central Baghdad, and may be dead but his words are still very much alive on the Web.

Among them: "My feelings, as usual, we will slaughter them all."

"Our initial assessment is that they will all die."

"Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege."

SPACE.WIRE