Washington: The most effective anti-Iraq story which legitimised repeated US efforts during the Gulf War to kill President Saddam Hussein, namely portrayal of the Iraqi army as baby-killers, had ‘no basis, the Middle East Watch, an American human rights organisation, declared after a 16-month investigation.
The canard had been broadcast all over the world by the daughter of the Kuwait Ambassador to Washington, who took an assumed name for appearing before a congressional subcommittee. Her identity became known because of an investigating American journalist.
The Middle East Watch said it interviewed Kuwaitis who once claimed to be witnesses to the deaths of babies (the babies in incubators were said to have been thrown on the hospital floor where they died because the Iraqis wanted to take the incubators to hospitals in Baghdad). The Kuwaits confessed to the Middle East Watch that their Information was second hand. An examination of the cemetery where the babies supposed to have been buried in mass graves and hospital records showed that there was no such Incident. In fact, most of the incubators were supposed to have been carted away to Baghdad were accounted for. (Hindu Feb, 9)
