Slate has recruited PR pros to analyze the Iraqi information minister's bizarre speech in which he claimed that there were no Americans in Baghdador that perhaps there were Americans in Baghdad, but they were committing suicide en masse. (Or that maybe the Republican Guard had made themselves invisible and were now blasting U.S. Marines with their superhuman heat ray vision.) Some responses:
· Mike McCurry (Bill Clinton's press secretary): "I'm sure the poor guy has to do this because someone's going to shoot him if he doesn't. At least I never had that problem."
· Frank Mankiewicz (vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton): "I think this guy is playing on the fact that there are really millions of people who just don't believe the U.S. under any circumstances."
· Maurie Perl (Conde Nast's senior vice president for corporate relations) "I'm going to have to take a pass on this one," (adding that she's on deadline with something else.)
· Bobby Zarem (entertainment industry flack): "I want them all killed...I don't think anyone is listening or cares."
Professionals offer advice to Iraq's unhinged information minister [Slate]