I've become very curious about one "Haitham Rashid Wihaib", who's been
popping up in various news reports recently. But he sounds fishy to
me, and I'm not sure he exists, or is who he says he is. My question
is: is there any credible evidence that this person exists, and that
he was in fact "minister of protocol" for Saddam Hussein from 1982 to
1988, and later defected to London.

I don't expect that Internet searching will turn up much. The man
seems to have absolutely zero Internet presence prior to a few weeks
ago, when he started turning up in interviews and on a couple of talk
shows. A gold-standard response to the question would be a list of
Iraqi top-level officials from that time period, similar to this:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/chiefs/chiefs84.html

Other places to look might be newspaper reports of his defection,
books from other Iraqi dissidents, London phone books, reports of
meetings, etc. Or, perhaps you can ask reporters or news organizations
whether they've fact-checked his existence.

Here are some links to his media appearances:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=395705
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2928377.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/tvsites/afterdark/ (29 March)

Also, "The Big Story with John Gibson" ran an interview with him on
April 7.

I cataloged the previous wave of quotes in my blog here:

http://blogs.levien.com/person/raph/diary.html?start=1

I think the most likely explanation is that he's been fabricated by US
or UK intelligence as a way of planting rumors into the press. It's
also possible that he's for real, but has kept a low profile until
recently, for fear of retaliation. But I'm puzzled why the media
citations are so bogus. There are other fishy things too - his surname
seems to be absolutely unique. Of course, a possibility there is
simply spelling variation.

I promise a tip of at least another $50 if there's clear-cut evidence
exposing him as a fake. It would be interesting to learn that the BBC
and Independent have been taken in. I'm happy to provide more
speculation, but I suspect that the researcher will be able to
duplicate my Internet findings quickly.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 10 Apr 2003 01:14 PDT

I've located evidence that Mr Wihaib was telling his story at least 6
months ago. I realize that this isn't definitive proof that he's
"real," but it does negate the possibility that he was "invented" in
just the last few weeks.

Would this evidence constitute an answer?

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 10 Apr 2003 02:43 PDT

Dear raphlevien-ga 
I have found evidence from 1995 (pay per view database) that he does
exist albeit under a slghtly different name. Do wish for a brief
summary and links to these articles to be posted as an answer.
answerfinder

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Clarification of Question by raphlevien-ga on 10 Apr 2003 09:39 PDT

Yes, a 1995 citation with an alternate name would be satisfactory. I'd
prefer a citation from his time in Iraq, but this will do. Thanks!

Dear raphlevien-ga 

The first article is an Associated Press article dated October 10,
1995 with the headline "Iraqi Diplomat in Europe Defects, Joins
Opposition"
The article states that the former diplomat had defected to Britain
and had joined exiled opposition groups.
He was believed to be Haitham Rashid Hassan who was former head of
protocol at Saddam’s presidential palace and had served at the Paris
and Dakar embassies. He fled Iraq after an attempted assassination
attempt.
There is a confirming article in De Stem, October 11, 1995

The next article is dated October 13, 2002 in the News of the World (A
tabloid Sunday paper in the UK which specialises in the racier side of
life). The article describes Haitham Rashid Wihaib as Saddam’s right
hand man who had fled from Iraq in 1994 and was the ex Iraqi
ambassador to Senegal. It was stated to be his "first in-depth
interview since he defected from Iraq in 1994". It then goes on to
describe his knowledge of Saddam’s involvement in drugs and women.

To view these articles go to LexisNexis 
http://web.lexis.com/LNE/login_en.asp?referer_domain=LNE001
Click> START
Select> News sources per document
Click> CONTINUE
You will now have the search page.
Type “Haitham Rashid”               Make sure you use the quotation
marks. Click> SEARCH
You should have 49 documents. Documents 44, 48 and 49 are those
referred to above.  Pay per view is $2.50 per article.

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

Search strategy
LexisNexis

Thanks, that does satisfy my curiosity, and appears to disprove my
theory that he'd been invented by Western military intelligence.
Thanks again!