(1). ABC's 20/20 and CBS's 60 Minutes showed "coverage" of an emotional hearing before
Congress by an anonymous Kuwaiti refugee girl. This girl testified that Iraqi soldiers had stormed
Kuwaiti hospitals and seized incubators to be shipped back to Iraq. In many instances, these
incubators were occupied by Kuwaiti newborn babies. These Iraqi soldiers threw these babies out
of the incubators, thus dooming them to death. President Bush used this incident in several of his
speeches to create public support for his war plans. The terrifying truth with this testimony is that this
poor refugee girl was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S., and that her entire testimony
"had, in fact, been rehearsed before video cameras". By whom were these manufactured films
created? By a public-relations firm named Hill and Knowlton, whose director was Craig Fuller,
former chief of staff to George Bush when he was Vice-President.
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The government and the media began dehumanizing the Iraqis by stereotyping their race. False
stories which surfaced just before the war depicted the Iraqis as cruel and heartless terrorists. One
of the best known tales of Iraqi brutality was the "incubator story." On October 10, 1990, a fifteen
year old girl told the Congressional Human Rights Caucus she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers taking
premature babies from their incubators and "leaving them on the cold floor to die" (qtd. in Clark 31).
The Bush administration quickly picked up on this tale, and claimed 312 children had died this way
(Clark 31). According to President Bush, "There's no horror that could make this a more obvious
conflict of good versus evil" (qtd. in MacArthur 67). In the Senate, where the war resolution was
passed by a five vote margin, six senators referred to the incubator story in their speeches as a
reason to vote for war (MacArthur 70). Later it was revealed that the Kuwaiti witnesses who
testified had all been lying about their identities. The fifteen year old girl turned out to be the daughter
of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, a fact known by those who organized the hearings
(Clark 32). Had Kuwait (with help from the United States) not created and manipulated this
propaganda, there would have been a lot less support for the war.
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Approached by a Washington-based Kuwaiti lobby group that became increasingly
          anxious about the only lukewarm sympathy of the American public for the people of
          Kuwait, still reeling under the heavy blow of the invading Iraqi army in August 199O,
          Hill & Knowlton devised a truly clever scheme to change this situation, and to win
          American hearts and arms over to the Kuwaiti cause. Thus, in October 1990, the firm
          staged a stunning display of Kuwaiti suffering and Iraqi brutality in the form of a young
          Kuwaiti girl's "teary testimony" before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and, of
          course, an American television audience. The 15-year old hospital nurse of Kuwait
          city, Nayirah, told the horrible story of the "incubator babies", how she watched Iraqi
          soldiers who had invaded the city hospital remove 15 premature infants from their
          incubators and put them on the floor to suffocate there. The girl's story, confirmed by
          Amnesty International, achieved immediate results: If America had been wavering at all
          as to whether to defend its interests in the Arab world militarily, and come to the aid of
          the desperate Kuwaiti, the account of Iraqi atrocities removed all doubt. Hill &
          Knowlton made a killing in media manipulation for which it could congratulate itself.
          And if it had not been Satan that the firm represented in this case, it was also not a
          horrified Kuwaiti nurse that the firm put on the Congressional floor, but the very
          daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States.10 

          The story of deception does not end here, however, even though several opportunities
          presented themselves to set the record of the Kuwaiti incident straight. Shortly after the
          end of the Gulf War, ABC reporter John Martin, curious about the Congressional
          testimony of the Kuwaiti "nurse," checked it out himself. At the Kuwait City hospital he
          found a surprised group of officials who knew of no infants that had been "dumped
          from their incubators." Martin's findings were circulated to most of the news media and
          Amnesty International struck its "findings" from the records. Yet except for Reuter's
          News Service, reporting Martin's discovery at Kuwait City, the press made no effort to
          report the truth. On the subject of duping the American public with fake evidence it
          remainded silent. Is there a better signal than this that the American news media, with
          few exceptions, gave its tacit consent to the Hill & Knowlton subterfuge? The financial
          gains from this maneuver were no doubt as spectacular as the maneuever itself, though
          of more enduring importance for the media world seemed to be the pioneering role the
          firm played in media manipulation. Before staging the "incubator-babies" drama, Hill &
          Knowlton had done a thorough R & D job--to the tune of $ 1 million, as one reporter
          pointed out--in order to assess "the most effective way to win support for a strong
          action."11