I love Terry McAuliffe. He's awesome.

Post-war life
On June 25, 2003, the London newspaper The Daily Mirror reported that al-Sahhaf had been captured by coalition troops at a roadblock in Baghdad. The report was not confirmed by military authorities and was denied by al-Sahhaf's family through Abu Dhabi TV. The next day al-Sahaf himself recorded an interview for the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel. Al-Sahhaf said that he had surrendered to US forces and had been interrogated by them. He was reportedly paid as much as $200,000 for the television interview, during which he appeared very withdrawn in contrast with the bombastic persona he projected during the war. Many of his answers consisted of a simple "yes" or "no". He refused to speculate on the causes of the downfall of the Iraqi government and answered only "history will tell" when asked if video clips purporting to prove that Saddam Hussein was alive were genuine, amid speculation at that time that Hussein had been killed during the war.

His fame quickly evaporated as the war continued into the "insurgency" phase; from the middle of 2003 onward, he faded from the public spotlight, and is no longer a figure in the war.

Although questioned by American authorities, al-Sahhaf was released, and there has been no suggestion of charging or detaining him for his role in the Saddam Hussein government. He is now living in the United Arab Emirates with his family.

When asked where he had got his information he replied, "authentic sources—many authentic sources".<7> He pointed out that he "was a professional, doing his job".

Mr. al-Sahhaf has since become a symbol for corporate and other communications that stubbornly refuse to acknowledge facts. One such instance was the reaction of Sampo Bank to reports of vulnerabilities in the new IT platform the bank switched to in March 2008.<8>

Much of the information given by al-Sahhaf during the war was clearly inaccurate. It has been argued that the same is not true of his predictions about the post-war situation. In 2007, British journalist Marina Hyde contrasted the comments of al-Sahhaf with those made by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, arguing that the former's view of the likely outcome of the war reflected the 2007 situation more accurately than Blair's descriptions.<9>

Global Crossing

McAuliffe has been criticized by political commentators such as William Safire and Arianna Huffington for his ties to Global Crossing, a company that went bankrupt in 2002 amidst what The New York Times called "many of the same accusations that have made Enron into one of the largest corporate scandals in history."

In 1997, McAuliffe purchased a pre-IPO $100,000 stake in Global Crossing. By 1999, McAuliffe sold his investment, which was then valued at $18 million dollars. Howard Kurtz of CNN reported that McAuliffe sold his shares years before there was "any hint of trouble with the company."

In March 2004, former Global Crossing executives paid $325 million without acknowledgment of wrongdoing to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging fraud. In April 2005, former executives agreed to pay fines for failing to disclose "material information" in the company's financial reports, settling a three-year inquiry by the Security and Exchange Commission.

Rick Perlstein, in his book review of McAuliffe's memoir, What a Party!, wrote that McAuliffe's involvement with Global Crossing compromised McAuliffe's ability to attack Republican ties to the Enron scandal during the 2002 midterm congressional elections. Republicans ended up winning a majority in the U.S. Senate. Frank Rich of The New York Times contrasted McAuliffe's characterization of Enron as "a web of greed and deceit" with Mcauliffe's defense of his investment in Global Crossing.


Herman v. Moore

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor sued Jack Moore, pension fund manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, on the basis of several deals made with McAuliffe. In one deal, McAuliffe and the pension fund partnered to buy commercial property in Florida, with McAuliffe investing $100 while the pension fund put up $39 million.McAuliffe received a 50% interest in the partnership and emerged with $2.45 million from his original $100 investment. The lawsuit was called Herman v. Moore, with Alexis Herman, the Secretary of Labor, as the plaintiff. In October 2001, Moore and another union official agreed to pay six-figure penalties for their roles in the deals and the union agreed to reimburse the pension fund. McAuliffe was not charged with wrongdoing.