The Deprogram Podcast

During the Gulf War, Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah served as Kuwait’s Ambassador to the United States, a role he held from 1981 to 1992. In this capacity, he played a crucial diplomatic role in rallying U.S. and international support following Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. He was instrumental in coordinating efforts to secure American military and political backing for Kuwait’s liberation, including facilitating diplomatic engagement with top U.S. officials. He was also involved with Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a U.S.-based public relations campaign funded by the Kuwaiti government to influence American public opinion and policy. His daughter Nayirah’s widely publicized but later disputed testimony about Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators was part of this campaign, which has been scrutinized for using emotional appeals to bolster support for U.S. intervention.

The Nayirah testimony was false testimony given before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who was publicly identified only as Nayirah at the time, and presented herself as having been a volunteer nurse at a Kuwaiti hospital at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In her testimony, which took place two months after the invasion, she claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. Her portrayal of Iraqi war crimes was aimed at further increasing global support for Kuwait against the Iraqi occupation during the Gulf War, which resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait by a 42-country coalition led by the United States. In January 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah had never been a nurse.