A key event in generating momentum for Operation Desert Storm (the first U.S. war on Iraq), was a fraudulent report concerning the alleged murder of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers. Two months after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi Forces, a story about callous Iraqi soldiers stealing incubators from Kuwaiti hospitals and leaving hundreds of premature babies to die started to circulate in the American media.
On October 10 1990, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on the subject of Iraqi human rights violations. The event featured 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 of a massacre of babies by Iraqi soldiers. ‘Nurse Nayirah’ was, in fact, the daughter of a Kuwaiti ambassador and the testimony had been set up as part of a PR campaign funded by the Kuwaiti government.
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