Flashback to 1991: "Kuwait freed, Iraqis crushed"

"The [1991] war on Iraq was portrayed in the U.S. as a war without casualties. Yet, on the first day of air strikes against Iraq (Jan. 17, 1991), the U.S. dropped explosives equivalent to the explosive power of the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Throughout the duration of the bombing, explosives equivalent to seven nuclear bombs were dropped, in addition to internationally banned biological and chemical weapons."   [ Burning the cradle of civilization  by B. J. Sabri, 23 July 2006]

Turkish leaders assured Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d yesterday that US forces could use military bases here against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, US officials said. "Of course, we now have the use of bases here in Turkey as a part of agreements under the North Atlantic Alliance arrangements and understandings," Baker told reporters before leaving Ankara for Brussels, where he will hold talks with NATO officials today. Turkey is one of the 16 members of the alliance. Baker said that "in the event there were to be full-scale hostilities . . . I'm quite confident we could count on our allies the Turks."

The United States maintains more than a dozen joint facilities with Turkey [...]  The most pivotal facility now is [NATO's Incirlik Airbase] [...] near the town of Adana, 500 miles from Iraq, where sophisticated American aircraft and about 2,400 US personnel are stationed. It is the only tactical US air base between Italy and the Far East and therefore would be essential in moving swiftly against Iraq.


[excerpt from:  Turkey would support us in case of war, Baker says  by Adam Pertman, Boston Globe, 10 August 1990]

A tearful 15-year old ‘Kuwaiti’ girl tells the story, before the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Human Rights, that gun-wielding Iraqi Arab soldiers had removed Kuwaiti Arab babies from their incubators and left them on the floor of a Kuwait City hospital to die. The transcripts of the shocking testimony were sent to most major news outlet throughout the West. The video-tapes of the hearing were ‘leaked’ to several TV stations. Op-ed columnists had a field day. The horrifying tale was repeated again and again, ad nauseum, by the U.S. press in particular, and referred to by virtually every major American politician. [...]

It turns out that the she was the daughter of one of the Emirs of Kuwait and a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family. And this Emir was also, the uh, Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S. [Saud Nasir Al-Sabah.]
The girl, known only by her first name and fictive position (’Nurse Nayirah’), had been previously coached by a team from Hill & Knowlton (then the world’s largest PR firm). [...]  Needless to say, the girl’s testimony turned out to be completely false. Not only was Nayirah not even a nurse anywhere and almost assuredly was not in Kuwait when the Iraqis invaded, but it was later determined that the hospital in question had not one incubator removed, nor were there any actual reports of infant deaths at any Kuwait hospitals.

[excerpt from:  Incubator babies, “stonings” & Amnesty International’s dirty propaganda war  by Aion Essence, AlterNet, 25 September 2010]