way back before the first Iraq war Muhammad Ali personally rescued American
hostages from Saddam Hussein and he didn't even throw a punch on august 2nd
1990 Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi army invaded neighboring Kuwait it surprised
Adam Saddam had little trouble taking hostages and nabbed many Westerners
working in Kuwait and back in Iraq and luck would have it
General Motors actually had a plant in Baghdad chock full of Westerners and
yeah they were all taken what was GM doing with a plant in Baghdad anyway
make an Escalade it's for Saddam's homies weird anyway
needless to say so now I'm taking over Kuwait and his taken of American
hostages prompted the UN to give a deadline of January 16th 1991 to pull
out of Kuwait and return the hostages but in true Saddam Hussein fashion he
just doubled down who in 15 of those American hostages two strategic
locations inside Iraq to be used as human shields in the event of
retaliatory strikes from the multinational force that was growing
larger by the day in October Saddam released the foreign women and
children but many in the State Department fear that the remaining
hostages would be killed and coalition forces engaged the Iraqis in Kuwait
either by friendly fire or by their Iraq captors and that's when the greatest
boxer of all time stepped into the International ring no pun intended
Muhammad Ali was highly regarded in the Islamic world especially after he
changed his name from Cassius Clay Ali decided that he was not gonna stand for
any of this BS going on in the Middle East and at the behest of the Ramsey
Clark peace organization he traveled to Baghdad with the mission of coming home
with all of those hostages many back at home were critical of Ali's trip the
Bush administration worried it would legitimize Saddam's invasion the US
media accused Ali of trying to boost his own popularity and perhaps win the Nobel
Peace Prize and the New York Times claimed Ali was actually aiding Hussein
and they criticized his ability to communicate reporting surely the
strangest hostage release campaign of recent days has been the goodwill tour
of Muhammad Ali he has been attending meeting after meeting in Baghdad despite
his frequent and ability to speak clearly damn
hew New York Times by 1990 Elie had been fighting Parkinson's disease for six
years suffering from tremors and slurred speech he had to use hand signals
communicate to his spokesman many times during his interactions in Iraq but he
still managed to visit schools to talk to people on the streets and pray in
Baghdad's mosques crowds flock to him wherever he went and he never turned
anyone away it would be part of his promise to Hussein to trade hostages for
an honest account of the situation during his trip he actually ran out of
Parkinson's medication but stayed in the country until he can meet with the Iraqi
dictator he was bedridden for days at a time this trip was far from a publicity
stunt as the greatest was suffering but refused to leave until he could attempt
to get the hostages released the Irish Hospital in Baghdad replenished Ali's
medication just before Saddam Hussein agreed to meet with Ali set as the Iraqi
dictator praised himself for how well he treated American prisoners and oddly
reiterated his promise to bring back to the u.s. his honest account of his visit
the American hostages met with aalia's Hotel in Baghdad that night and will
repeat created on December 2nd 1990 after four months of captivity six weeks
later the US and the multinational forces staging in Saudi Arabia during
Operation Desert Shield launched Operation Desert Storm coalition forces
liberated Kuwait from Iraqi troops in a hundred hours critics claimed Ali's
involvement seemed to play into Hussein's propaganda game but hostage
negotiations are notoriously complex the United States doesn't exactly have a
clear policy on how to handle situations where Americans are held as collateral
by foreign governments according to Bill Richardson who served as a US ambassador
to the UN and has been involved in negotiations with North Korea
America's hostage negotiation strategy is broke
that or you just need to send in Dennis Rodman
so whatever all these motivations or even Hussein's at the end of the day
their conversation brought Americans home
Muhammad Ali did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize but he was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and Liberty medal in 2012 if you know
about a time when a civilian went above and beyond and saved the day leave us a
comment we'd love to tell that story also remember what Muhammad Ali always
used to say drink like a sailor and sting like a Seabee all right bye-bye
shirt