Flashback to 1991: "Kuwait freed, Iraqis crushed"

[cem]

New York Times, 28 February 1991

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Flashback to 1991: "Kuwait freed, Iraqis crushed"


compiled by Cem Ertür

28 February 2014






"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]








U.S. President George Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and NATO Secretary-General Manfred Wörner hold a joint press conference four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, White House, Washington D.C., 6 August 1990










U.S. President George Bush meets with Turkey's President Turgut Özal, White House, Washington D.C., 25 September 1990




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]






"Kuwaiti nurse Nayirah" gives a fabricated testimony to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, U.S. Congress, Washington D.C., 10 October 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]






U.S. President George Bush gives a speech to the U.S. troops on Thanksgiving Day at the Military Airlift Command ramp at Dhahran International Airport, Saudi Arabia, 22 November 1990










U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, U.S. CENTCOM Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, Lieutenant-General Calvin Waller and Major-General Robert Johnston, 1 December 1990










U.S. President George Bush speaks at a press conference attended by the ambassadors of 27 countries, White House, Washington D.C., 17 December 1990










Britain's Prince Charles is greeted by a Saudi prince during a pre-Christmas visit to the Navy, Army and Air Force units of the British Armed Forces in Saudi Arabia, 23 December 1990










Actress Brooke Shields is aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway during a visit to the Persian Gulf sponsored by the United Service Organizations, 1 January 1991











U.S. President George Bush meets with Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to U.S. Prince Bandar Bin Sultan the day after he announced the end of the war on Iraq and the "liberation" of Kuwait, White House, Washington D.C., 28 February 1991










U.S. CENTCOM Commander Norman Schwarzkopf presents the "Legion of Merit" medal to United Arab Emirates' Chief of Staff Muhammed Said Al-Badi for his role during the war, 2 April 1991










Prior to "Operation Welcome Home" parade, New York Governor Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor David Dinkins give keys to New York City to U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and U.S. CENTCOM Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, New York City, 10 June 1991










U.S. President George Bush shakes hands with U.S. CENTCOM Commander Norman Schwarzkopf as Barbara Bush pins the "Presidential Medal of Freedom", White House, Washington D.C., 3 July 1991










Blackened corpses of Iraqi soldiers lay sprawled on a destroyed truck, Iraq, 12 March 1991



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From the archives:


Burning the cradle of civilization

by B. J. Sabri, Global Research, 23 July 2006


How the U.S. engineered the Iraqi holocaust

by B. J. Sabri, Uruknet, 1 June 2006


U.S. bombing: The myth of surgical bombing in the Gulf War

by Paul Walker, 8 June 1991


The massacre of withdrawing soldiers on "The highway of death"

by Joyce Chediac, 11 May 1991


U.S. conspiracy to initiate the war against Iraq

by Brian Becker, 11 May 1991


Initial Complaint Charging George Bush, J. Danforth Quayle, James Baker, Richard Cheney, William Webster, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf and Others to be named with Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

by International War Crimes Tribunal, 9 May 1991


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