Muhammad Ali Rescues 15 American Hostages 1990
- 8 years ago
Of all the legendary wins in Muhammad Ali’s life, few are as little known as the one he pulled off exactly 25 years ago today: Defying the odds and the American government, Ali traveled to Iraq, where 15 Americans were being held hostage by Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the Gulf War.
As with much in Ali’s life, his mission was misconstrued and criticized. President George H.W. Bush did not approve. “I basically believe these people are playing into the propaganda game that Iraq is holding here,” said Joseph Wilson, then the top American diplomat in Baghdad. “These people traveling to Iraq are making a serious mistake.”
Even The New York Times criticized Ali, suggesting that he was just another egomaniacal celebrity out of his depth.
“Surely the strangest hostage-release campaign of recent days has been the ‘goodwill’ tour of Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight boxing champion . . . he has attended meeting after meeting in Baghdad despite his frequent inability to speak clearly.”
At that point, Ali was 48 years old and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for six years.
Decades before, Ali transcended boxing to become one of the most polarizing figures in America. Shortly after demolishing champ Sonny Liston in an upset on Feb. 25, 1964, he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and joined the Nation of Islam. He was 22 years old, the world heavyweight champion.
The famous sportswriter Myron Cope wrote an editorial shortly after Ali’s conversion that reflects the hysteria this caused. Cope’s refusal to call Ali by his new name was not unusual.
“For a time, when he was confining himself to bad poetry, Cassius was a loudmouth but a likeable character who seemed to be harmless in or out of the ring,” Cope wrote. “Then he won the championship and became, in his own estimation, ‘The Greatest.’ After the fight, he acknowledged that he was a Black Muslim, converted by the arch-extremist Malcolm X, the man who crowed that President Kennedy’s assassination was ‘a case of the chickens coming home to roost’ . . . Clay has been fighting a socio-religious battle with the Christian world.”
Ali refused to be cowed. “I’m the king of the world!” he said. “I’m pretty! I’m a bad man! I shook up the world!”
He was more plain-spoken in challenging white America to look at the black experience, especially as it related to his sport. “Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up,” he said.
In 1967, Ali refused to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. He claimed conscientious-objector status on religious and racial grounds.
“Why should they ask me to go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Ali told reporters in his native Kentucky. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me n—-r.”
Ali was arrested, and on June 20, 1967, he was tried and convicted of evading the draft. He was stripped of his title, banned from boxing for three years, fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years in prison.
“Just take me to jail,” he said.
While his lawyers appealed, Ali was a free man. He continued to make his case to the media, humor intact. He talked about the money he was losing: “Ain’t nobody wanna see the world heavyweight champion drivin’ a Volkswagen,” he said. “I broke my wife’s piggy bank to get gas money.”
Ali took to the college circuit and said he was making $1,500 a speech. The military reported his IQ as 73, yet on college campuses he debated students with the same wit and quickness he unleashed on other fighters. To one young male student who called him a draft dodger:
“You talkin’ about me and about some draft, and all of you white boys are breaking your necks to get to Switzerland and Canada and London . . . You won’t even stand up for me in America, for my religious beliefs.”
Ali returned to the ring in 1970, knocking out Jerry Quarry in Atlanta in the third round. A year later, Ali’s case made it to the Supreme Court. After 21 minutes of deliberation, his conviction was unanimously overturned.
“One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali,” his trainer Angelo Dundee once said. “He was robbed of his best years, his prime years.”
In August 1990, shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saddam took thousands of foreigners hostage. After the United Nations passed a resolution demanding that Iraq pull out of Kuwait, Saddam still had 15 American men, using them as human shields by holding them in buildings America was likely to bomb.
Some of the men had worked at the GM plant in Baghdad. All were civilians.
As recounted in the ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Ali: The Mission,” America’s most famous Muslim went to Iraq. He landed on Nov. 23, 1990, Day 113 of the crisis.
As with much in Ali’s life, his mission was misconstrued and criticized. President George H.W. Bush did not approve. “I basically believe these people are playing into the propaganda game that Iraq is holding here,” said Joseph Wilson, then the top American diplomat in Baghdad. “These people traveling to Iraq are making a serious mistake.”
Even The New York Times criticized Ali, suggesting that he was just another egomaniacal celebrity out of his depth.
“Surely the strangest hostage-release campaign of recent days has been the ‘goodwill’ tour of Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight boxing champion . . . he has attended meeting after meeting in Baghdad despite his frequent inability to speak clearly.”
At that point, Ali was 48 years old and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for six years.
Decades before, Ali transcended boxing to become one of the most polarizing figures in America. Shortly after demolishing champ Sonny Liston in an upset on Feb. 25, 1964, he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and joined the Nation of Islam. He was 22 years old, the world heavyweight champion.
The famous sportswriter Myron Cope wrote an editorial shortly after Ali’s conversion that reflects the hysteria this caused. Cope’s refusal to call Ali by his new name was not unusual.
“For a time, when he was confining himself to bad poetry, Cassius was a loudmouth but a likeable character who seemed to be harmless in or out of the ring,” Cope wrote. “Then he won the championship and became, in his own estimation, ‘The Greatest.’ After the fight, he acknowledged that he was a Black Muslim, converted by the arch-extremist Malcolm X, the man who crowed that President Kennedy’s assassination was ‘a case of the chickens coming home to roost’ . . . Clay has been fighting a socio-religious battle with the Christian world.”
Ali refused to be cowed. “I’m the king of the world!” he said. “I’m pretty! I’m a bad man! I shook up the world!”
He was more plain-spoken in challenging white America to look at the black experience, especially as it related to his sport. “Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up,” he said.
In 1967, Ali refused to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. He claimed conscientious-objector status on religious and racial grounds.
“Why should they ask me to go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Ali told reporters in his native Kentucky. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me n—-r.”
Ali was arrested, and on June 20, 1967, he was tried and convicted of evading the draft. He was stripped of his title, banned from boxing for three years, fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years in prison.
“Just take me to jail,” he said.
While his lawyers appealed, Ali was a free man. He continued to make his case to the media, humor intact. He talked about the money he was losing: “Ain’t nobody wanna see the world heavyweight champion drivin’ a Volkswagen,” he said. “I broke my wife’s piggy bank to get gas money.”
Ali took to the college circuit and said he was making $1,500 a speech. The military reported his IQ as 73, yet on college campuses he debated students with the same wit and quickness he unleashed on other fighters. To one young male student who called him a draft dodger:
“You talkin’ about me and about some draft, and all of you white boys are breaking your necks to get to Switzerland and Canada and London . . . You won’t even stand up for me in America, for my religious beliefs.”
Ali returned to the ring in 1970, knocking out Jerry Quarry in Atlanta in the third round. A year later, Ali’s case made it to the Supreme Court. After 21 minutes of deliberation, his conviction was unanimously overturned.
“One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali,” his trainer Angelo Dundee once said. “He was robbed of his best years, his prime years.”
In August 1990, shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saddam took thousands of foreigners hostage. After the United Nations passed a resolution demanding that Iraq pull out of Kuwait, Saddam still had 15 American men, using them as human shields by holding them in buildings America was likely to bomb.
Some of the men had worked at the GM plant in Baghdad. All were civilians.
As recounted in the ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Ali: The Mission,” America’s most famous Muslim went to Iraq. He landed on Nov. 23, 1990, Day 113 of the crisis.