O'Keefe publicly acknowledged Saddam Hussein as a "violent dictator" and "mass-murderer" before he arrived in Iraq; it has been speculated he did this in an attempt to neutralize the perception that the human shields were simply pawns of Saddam. Consequently, he received no favor from Saddam, his influence within the action declined rapidly as he traveled to Iraq, and eventually he was deported days before the invasion. Before his deportation he repeatedly alleged Western support for Hussein during some of his most notorious atrocities; ultimately he argued that it was the people of Iraq who would suffer most from war.[2][3][4]