Followers of the lies that lead us to war will well remember one of the late Congressman Tom Lantos’s more sinister (and for Lantos that is saying much) manipulations of US public opinion in favor of war, when he knowingly allowed the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US to present false testimony on Oct 10, 1990 to the US congress about Saddam Hussein’s military “ripping Kuwaiti babies from incubators” and leaving them to die. The young girl, identified only as Nayirah, posed as a Kuwaiti witness to the Iraqi atrocities, but her entire false performance had been concieved and orchestrated by the US public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to lie the United States into war. It worked.
The whole event was orchestrated by the front group “Citizens for Free Kuwait,” and Congressman Lantos knew all along that the testimony was a lie. Of course Lantos should have been prosecuted for war crimes under the Nuremberg Principles and sent off to prison for life, but he never suffered for his criminal acts. In fact, he prospered and lied us into many more conflicts.
Today’s “Organization for Free Kuwait” is called the “Syrian Emergency Task Force” and its representative Elizabeth O’Bagy is another Nayirah-type liar. Kerry is filling in for the role of Lantos, urging all of us to read a recent Wall Street Journal article by the 26 year old “expert” O’Bagy claiming that the Syrian opposition is not at all the al-Qaeda allied extremists we have been warned about and in fact the vast majority are those moderates about whom we should feel proud to support.
The young Ms. O’Bagy wears several hats, it seems. Her “analysis” is published under the guise of her position as an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (the neo-con outfit funded by every defense contractor known to man and headed by neocon royalty Kimberly Kagen).But O’Bagy gets another paycheck from the “Syrian Emergency Task Force,” which is a well-funded front for those pushing hardest for US war on Syria.
O’Bagy’s lies are critical because they give cover to Kerry’s lies about the Christian-murdering insurgents in Syria who Kerry’s boss seeks to bomb into power in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin laughs at Kerry’s claim that al-Qaeda is barely present among those insurgent forces in Syria, calling it blatant lies.
The administration’s claims against Syria are falling apart, sloppy propagandistic lies that they are. Paid liars like Nayirah and O’Bagy have been around forever to fool the American people into supporting war. But perhaps somehow a groundswell is gathering strength. Perhaps Americans are waking up. Members of Congress have been terrified by 500-to-1 calls against war on Syria. Where once a vote in favor of an Obama attack was all but guaranteed, millions of irritated Americans might be turning the tide against war.
Of course it will take many more millions of Americans calling their representatives and calmly (but briefly) explaining their opposition, demanding (politely) an answer as to their Representative’s opinion, and following up with an e-mailed message, but perhaps the outrageousness of Obama’s war plans will bring the silver lining of a broad coalition against war from Main Street, to the Tea Party, to the progressives, to the trade unions, to the concerned Christians, to the silent majority in the Jewish community, to American Muslims who reject Islamic extremism, and so on.
No more Nayirahs, no more O’Bagys, no more neo-Lantosians! Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and Ben Rhodes to the Hague!
Thanks/HT to Economic Policy Journal.
Flickr/ jillaryrose
