The Kuwaiti Incubator Baby Hoax

A key event in generating momentum for the first U.S. War on Iraq, "Operation Desert Storm" was a fraudulent report of the murder of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers. On October 10, 1990, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on the subject of Iraqi human rights violations. The centerpiece of the event was the emotional testimony of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name, Nayirah. Her full name was supposedly being kept secret to protect her from Iraqi reprisals. The girl relayed a shocking story while sobbing.

I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital. While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.
The massacre never occurred. The girl was actually the daughter of a Kuwaiti emir, and had been coached by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton to give persuasive false testimony.

Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City." 

Die abgehackten Kinderhände in Belgien wurden eines der wichtigsten Propagandamittel gegen Deutschland im 1. Weltkrieg. Francesco Nitti , Ministerpräsident Italiens vom 23. Juni 1919 bis zum 15. Juni 1920, sowie viele andere gingen dieser Lüge nach, konnten aber keinen einzigen Fall ausfindig machen. Die Lüge hatte allerdings einen tatsächlichen Hintergrund: Bei den belgischen Kolonialherren im Kongo war Händeabhacken üblich, und zwar als brutale Bestrafung von Eingeborenen. Unter der Terrorherrschaft der Belgier Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts sollen etwa zehn Millionen Kongolesen umgebracht worden sein.
ABCD

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