How False Testimony and a Massive U.S. Propaganda Machine Bolstered George H.W. Bush’s War on Iraq

This is what propaganda looks like, people. Nayirah al-Sabah, with her crocodile tears and trumped-up testimony, was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, Saud Nasser al-Sabah, when she was coached by the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, on behalf of their client, the Kuwaiti government, the inveterate enemy of Iraq, to make false claims on tv.

Bush Sr.'s 1991 invasion of Iraq depended on his former role as CIA director of disinformation, ginning up a war with phony evidence, such as this video testimony. Amnesty Intl fell for this war propaganda--hook, line and sinker. A few reporters went "off the reservation", such as Chris Hedges, to question the Bush Sr's administration's case for war in the Gulf, in 1991.

This was the beginnings of #fakenews in the late 20th century, used to convince the mainstream media and the general public to go to war, even when starting an unnecessary war is recognized as a war crime. This playbook was used against by Bush Jr. and Cheney to gin up the next U.S. invasion of Iraq, in 2003.

Full transcript of this critical journalism available at https://democracynow.org -