# A skull for a face: the 1991 "Ruler of the dead" leaflet

A 1991 U.S. psychological-operations leaflet dropped over Iraq draws a bearded man in a beret with a skull for a face above one Arabic line, "Ruler of the dead!" The scan reached Commons through psywarrior.com.

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      Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'

      A skull for a face: the 1991 "Ruler of the dead" leaflet
      A 1991 U.S. psychological-operations leaflet over Iraq draws a bearded man in a beret as a skull above one Arabic line, "Ruler of the dead!" Public-domain

## Techniques named on the archive record

Name-calling
      Date1991Made byU.S. armed forces psychological operations (leaflet air-dropped over Iraq during the Gulf War)MediumLeafletCountryUnited StatesRegimeGeorge H. W. Bush AdministrationSourceUnidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosureSourceWikimedia Commons (scan credited to psywarrior.com) , retrieved October 2, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. 105; Commons PD-USGov) U.S. government work, public domain; the Commons file page carries PD-USGov with author 'Federal Government' and source psywarrior.com. Via Wikimedia Commons.
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  A 1991 U.S. psychological-operations leaflet dropped over Iraq draws a bearded man in a beret with a skull for a face above one Arabic line, "Ruler of the dead!" The scan reached Commons through psywarrior.com.

## What the leaflet prints

The drawing is in black line on white. A man with a beard and moustache wears a beret with a skull badge, and his own face is drawn as a skull, with empty sockets and bared teeth. One line of Arabic sits under him.

حاكم القتلى!

Transcription in the FRAME record. The archive's English, a machine translation it marks as not verified by a fluent reader: "Ruler of the dead!" (also readable as "Governor of the slain"). Full record at propagandaarchive.org.

Content note: the leaflet draws a man's face as a death's-head. It is described here as it was printed.

## Who made it, and how sure that is

The archive credits U.S. armed forces psychological operations and dates the leaflet to the 1991 Gulf War. It classes the source as blurred: the scan on Wikimedia Commons is credited to psywarrior.com, and the Commons page tags it as a U.S. government work by "Federal Government." The Commons file name calls the image "Saddam equals death," but the leaflet itself names nobody. The archive took the file on 2 October 2026. No military catalog number is given.

## How to read it

There is no claim on this sheet that a reader could test. It does not say what the man did, where, or to whom. It gives him a skull and a title and lets the drawing do the rest. That is name-calling at its barest, aimed at the soldiers of the man pictured.

The other leaflets from the same war, gathered in the CIA's Desert Storm display, at least paired a threat with instructions: leave the equipment, walk away, live. This one offers no exit. Whatever the war's merits, a government speaking in its citizens' name owes the same discipline abroad that it owes at home: say what is true and checkable. A skull does not meet that test.

The case study Bush borrowed the 1930s while Baghdad called its hostages guests cites this leaflet next to the surrender invitations.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, "Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'," 1991. U.S. armed forces psychological operations. Wikimedia Commons (scan credited to psywarrior.com), retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. 105; Commons PD-USGov).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991/