So, let's get in the wayback machine and go back to 1990. Iraq has invaded Kuwait. That's a bad thing, but the people of the United States are split on whether we should declare war and kick the invaders out.
Enter Hill & Knowlton, the world's largest PR firm at the time. Congressman Jimmy Hayes (D-LA) estimated that Kuwait had hired at least 20 PR firms to whip up US opinion and lobby congress in support of war. Hill & Knowlton was the mastermind of this effort (the man that ran the Washington office of H&K was Bush Sr.'s chief of staff when he was Vice-President).
On October 10th, 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on Capitol Hill to present to the American people the atrocities committed by Iraq. A note on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus: though to all appearances this was an actual Congressional committee, it was actually just an association of politicians. It was chaired by Tom Lantos (D-CA) and John Porter (R-IL). These two also co-chaired the Congressional Human Rights Foundation. Guess where the foundation's office space was located... in Hill & Knowlton's Washington, DC office.
So, this congressional front for a PR firm is presenting a list of human rights violations. John McArthur, in his book The Second Front, points out that "The Human Rights Caucus is not a committee of Congress, and therefore it is unencumbered by the legal accouterments that would make a witness hesitate before he or she lied... Lying under oath in front of a Congressional committee is a crime; lying from under the cover of anonymity to a caucus is merely public relations."
The emotional high point of the hearing was the testimony of a 15 year-old Kuwaiti girl known only as "Nayirah". Her full name was kept confidential, according to the caucus, to prevent reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Nayirah stated, with properly spaced sobs, that she volunteered at a Kuwaiti hospital. She said that she witnessed Iraqi soldiers entering the hospital with guns. According to her statement, they "... went into the room where the babies were kept in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."Horrible. In the three months between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war the story travelled far and wide. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony and in front of the UN Security Council.
Here's the rub. What the Human Rights Caucus and Hill & Knowlton failed to reveal was that "Nayirah" was actually a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, Saud Nasir al-Sabah, who sat in the hearing room listening to her testimony. It was later confirmed by Kuwaiti investigators that Nayirah had been coached by H&K vice-president Lauri Fitz-Pegado and that the story was false. After the war, even Amnesty International was unable to verify the story and was forced to issue a retraction.
In the end, the vote to go to war succeeded by a five vote margin. Did this outrageous lie turn the tide in war's favor? Almost certainly.
Some of you will say that I'm naive to think it's foul, or even unusual, for politicians to lie to us. Most people will lie to further their cause or gain or retain power, especially when they are convinced that they are acting for the good of all. I guess this all goes back to whether honor is cultural, or whether there are some things that are inherently right or wrong.
I get angry when I feel manipulated. It just seems to me that if the truth wasn't enough to go to war, why should we go to war? I'm also appalled that there are companies out there that make their living on lies. I know, I know. Naive.
But if you really stop and think about the lies that you are told every day, how does it make you feel?
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The source of this information is http://www.prwatch.org/.
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Update: See this website for more discussion on Lauri Fitz-Pegado: http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/medsearch/FocusAreas/riegle_report/hearing/hearing_s04.htm
