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Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Printable Version

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Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Jan Klimkowski - 07-07-2013

Stone's team have also found footage of the Hill & Knowlton psyop involving the fraudulent testimony of Nayirah and of George Bush Sr, pompously putting his hand in his pocket, as he lies about the babies taken from incubators and "tossed across the floor" by "Hitler" Hussein.



Jan Klimkowski Wrote:More on George HW Bush and his PR machine's own Gleiwitz incident:

Quote:December 28, 2002

"What We Say, Goes!"
How Bush Sr. Sold the Bombing of Iraq
by MITCHEL COHEN

"The U.S. has a new credibility. What we say goes."

President George Bush, NBC Nightly News, Feb. 2, 1991

In October, 1990, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, identified only as Nayirah, appeared in Washington before the House of Representatives' Human Rights Caucus. She testified that Iraqi soldiers who had invaded Kuwait on August 2nd tore hundreds of babies from hospital incubators and killed them.

Television flashed her testimony around the world. It electrified opposition to Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, who was now portrayed by U.S. president George Bush not only as "the Butcher of Baghdad" but -- so much for old friends -- "a tyrant worse than Hitler."

Bush quoted Nayirah at every opportunity. Six times in one month he referred to "312 premature babies at Kuwait City's maternity hospital who died after Iraqi soldiers stole their incubators and left the infants on the floor,"(1) and of "babies pulled from incubators and scattered like firewood across the floor." Bush used Nayirah's testimony to lambaste Senate Democrats still supporting "only" sanctions against Iraq -- the blockade of trade which alone would cause hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to die of hunger and disease -- but who waffled on endorsing the policy Bush wanted to implement: outright bombardment. Republicans and pro-war Democrats used Nayirah's tale to hammer their fellow politicians into line behind Bush's war in the Persian Gulf.(2)

Nayirah, though, was no impartial eyewitness, a fact carefully concealed by her handlers. She was the daughter of one Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the United States. A few key Congressional leaders and reporters knew who Nayirah was, but none of them thought of sharing that minor detail with Congress, let alone the American people.

Everything Nayirah said, as it turned out, was a lie. There were, in actuality, only a handful of incubators in all of Kuwait, certainly not the "hundreds" she claimed. According to Dr. Mohammed Matar, director of Kuwait's primary care system, and his wife, Dr. Fayeza Youssef, who ran the obstetrics unit at the maternity hospital, there were few if any babies in the incubators at the time of the Iraqi invasion. Nayirah's charges, they said, were totally false. "I think it was just something for propaganda," Dr. Matar said. In an ABC-TV News account after the war, John Martin reported that although "patients, including premature babies, did die," this occurred "when many of Kuwait's nurses and doctors stopped working or fled the country" -- a far cry from Bush's original assertion that hundreds of babies were murdered by Iraqi troops.(3) Subsequent investigations, including one by Amnesty International, found no evidence for the incubator claims.

It is likely that Nayirah was not even in Kuwait, let alone at the hospital, at that time; the Kuwaiti aristocracy and their families had fled the country weeks before the anticipated invasion. Some defended their country at the gaming tables in Monte Carlo, where at least one member of the ruling family was reported to have gambled away more than $10 million as his fellow rulers called for economic and military assistance from abroad.

As invasions go, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was relatively -- I stress the word "relatively" -- bloodless. Despite the heart-rending testimonies TV viewers in the U.S. were subjected to night after night, fewer than 200 Kuwaitis were killed. Compare that to such "peaceful" ventures as the U.S. invasion of Panama the year before, which killed an estimated 7,500 Panamanians; or, a year after the Gulf war, the 10,000 Somalis killed by <U.S./U.N>. troops in what was portrayed as a "peace mission" to bring food aid to the allegedly starving region.(4)

How did Nayirah first come to the attention of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which put her before the world's cameras? It was arranged by Hill & Knowlton, a public relations firm hired to rally the U.S. populace behind Bush's policy of going to war. And it worked!

Hill & Knowlton's yellow ribbon campaign to whip up support for "our" troops, which followed their orchestration of Nayirah's phony "incubator" testimony, was a public relations masterpiece. The claim that satellite photos revealed that Iraq had troops poised to strike Saudi Arabia was also fabricated by the PR firm. Hill & Knowlton was paid between $12 million (as reported two years later on "60 Minutes") and $20 million (as reported on "20/20") for "services rendered." The group fronting the money? Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a phony "human rights agency" set up and funded entirely by Kuwait's emirocracy to promote its interests in the U.S.

"When Hill & Knowlton masterminded the Kuwaiti campaign to sell the Gulf War to the American public, the owners of this highly effective propaganda machine were residing in another country" -- the United Kingdom -- writes Sharon Beder and Richard Gosden in PR Watch. "Should this give pause for thought? Does it demonstrate a certain potential for the future exercise of global political power -- the power to manipulate democratic political processes through managing public opinion," which Hill and Knowlton demonstrated 10 years ago?(5)

All of this is concealed in a new HBO "behind-the-scenes true story" of the Gulf War, which is being released at this crucial political moment. As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting writes, "HBO's version of history never makes clear that the incubator story was fraudulent, and in fact had been managed by an American PR firm, not Iraq. Curiously, however, the truth seems to have been clear to Robert Wiener, the former CNN producer who co-wrote 'Live from Baghdad.'As he explained to CNN's Wolf Blitzer (11/21/02), 'that story turned out to be false because those accusations were made by the daughter of the Kuwaiti minister of information and were never proven.' Unfortunately, HBO viewers won't know that when they see the film."(6)

In 1998, Hill and Knowlton found a new client -- President Clinton -- who hired them to advise him and to polish his image. The last time they were involved, by the time their lies were exposed TV newscasters were waxing ecstatic over the rockets' red glare, computerized "smart-bombs" bursting in air, and 250,000 people were dead.

Mitchel Cohen is the co-editor of Green Politix, the national newspaper of the Greens/Green Party USA. He can be reached at: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com



NOTES

1. Doug Ireland, Village Voice, March 26, 1991.

2. The use of the Big Lie to manipulate public opinion and neutralize opposition to a particular war was not invented by Bush. See, for instance, James Laxer, "Iraq: US has match, seeks kindle: American leaders have often falsified reasons to attack other countries," (ActionGreens, Mar. 31, 2001). Laxer is a Political Science Professor at York University, Toronto.

3. ABC World News Tonight, 3/15/91.

4. In actuality, people in only certain areas of Somalia were starving -- those that had been subjected to IMF structural adjustment programs. See, Mitchel Cohen, "Somalia & the Cynical Manipulation of Hunger," Red Balloon Collective, 1994.

5. Sharon Beder and Richard Gosden, "PR Watch," Volume 8, No. 2, 2nd Quarter 2001. The PR firm has since been working at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry to ban over-the-counter vitamin and nutritional supplement sales in Europe.

6. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, "HBO Recycling Gulf War Hoax?" December 4, 2002.

Mitchel Cohen is the co-editor of Green Politix, the national newspaper of the Greens/Green Party USA. He can be reached at: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen1228.html



Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Keith Millea - 07-07-2013

Quote:PS as per my question above, is this series really being shown in America?

Have the likes of Faux News and the NYT been allowed to marginalise and ignore Stone's Untold History?

Well,heck if I know.I don't watch TV...:kraka:

Much thanks for sharing your observations Jan.......


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Tracy Riddle - 08-07-2013

Hill & Knowlton had a long history of association with the CIA. They were also involved in managing the BCCI scandal, and the Covenant House child abuse scandal (according to the book The Nazi Hydra in America by Glen Yeadon).


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Kara Dellacioppa - 08-07-2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKVnur5DkdI


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Magda Hassan - 08-07-2013

Kara Dellacioppa Wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKVnur5DkdI
What Are We Waiting On?
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
There's a great and a bloody fight 'round this whole world tonight
And the battle, the bombs and shrapnel reign
Hitler told the world around he would tear our union down
But our union's gonna break them slavery chains
Our union's gonna break them slavery chains
I walked up on a mountain in the middle of the sky
Could see every farm and every town
I could see all the people in this whole wide world
That's the union that'll tear the fascists down, down, down
That's the union that'll tear the fascists down
When I think of the men and the ships going down
While the Russians fight on across the dawn
There's London in ruins and Paris in chains
Good people, what are we waiting on?
Good people, what are we waiting on?
So, I thank the Soviets and the mighty Chinese vets
The Allies the whole wide world around
To the battling British, thanks, you can have ten million Yanks
If it takes 'em to tear the fascists down, down, down
If it takes 'em to tear the fascists down
But when I think of the ships and the men going down
And the Russians fight on across the dawn
There's London in ruins and Paris in chains
Good people, what are we waiting on?
Good people, what are we waiting on?
So I thank the Soviets and the mighty Chinese vets
The Allies the whole wide world around
To the battling British, thanks, you can have ten million Yanks
If it takes 'em to tear the fascists down, down, down
If it takes 'em to tear the fascists down


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Kara Dellacioppa - 08-07-2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_PqkeS7Mc


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Jim Hackett II - 08-07-2013

First, YES!!!!!!
Magda "Thy Will Be Done" is NOT TO BE MISSED by any wanting to see behind the curtain of "fundamentalism and faith" being used a cloak for foul deeds. Apologies for all Caps above but the concept rates the emphasis IMHO. More in a moment.

Jan,
I do not know why Stone's series of integrity is being ignored. I can say that a few people do want to see the Hidden History when the issues can be found on video for broadcast or sales of DvDs. Watching one episode leads to desire to see other hour episodes. I have recorded the series to prevent it from being memory-holed as well as to save money. The discs are for my own use in my home, none for sale.
Stored right beside TMWKK and Bob Groden's videos.
Fortunate to have snagged the episodes of TMWKK numbers 7,8,9 the only time they were broadcast here in US. The box set of the first 6 episodes I bought.

Partly I "blame" (lack of a better word), the constant strategy of tension to distract WeThePeople and like minded folks globally, from the events controlled by the jerks behind the curtain.
I don't like poisoned kool-ade. A few do and still cling to the idea 'that the system still works'. How anyone could stretch an imagination to define Bu$h/Cheney as legitimate office holders, I'll never understand. Selected not elected and then the historical record of what THEY DID, no legitimacy for them or Obama's forgotten promises in my views.
Pat Act still empowered Barak!, er Mr. President.
Just another professional liar, like almost all spooks. The University of Chicago attendance should have warned me.....
Nothing good comes of the Rockefeller roots. Nothing.

I am rereading GMEvica's "A Certain Arrogance" as it fits well with the "Thy Will Be Done" premise, using religion as a means to enable mind-control ops as well as outright theft of property and murder of indigenous folks to serve a presumed "pathway to God".
The "gospel" is not a black op tool, or should never be taken as a black op. This was an Inquisition of a modern rebirth of religious fascism IMHO.
This gospel is supposed to be about giving love and turning folks on to the eternal love from powers beyond human love.
Convert and give up your belongings is not part of reality, nor the gospel uncorrupted.
It ain't Jim Douglass' way of seeing love and Satygraha.

I promise I am going to complete the anti-fascist thread all the way into today's history.
How can I not do so when all the events tie together? I ache to skip ahead to MKUltra and MKSearch etc, but cannot.
1914 AWDulles and AHitler and "general" Ludendorff are calling.

Best Regards
And Thanks for the Woodie Guthrie stuff.
This land is made for you and me.
Jim


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Jan Klimkowski - 08-07-2013

Keith, Jim, Kara, Tracy - many thanks for your posts.

So, to all our American members, is it correct that rather than engaging with Oliver Stone's magnificent Untold History, MSM has chosen to ignore it?

To pretend that Stone's series doesn't exist whilst reporting extensively on every twitch of a celebrity skirt and every misdemeanour of an overpaid athlete?


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Tracy Riddle - 08-07-2013

Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Keith, Jim, Kara, Tracy - many thanks for your posts.

So, to all our American members, is it correct that rather than engaging with Oliver Stone's magnificent Untold History, MSM has chosen to ignore it?

To pretend that Stone's series doesn't exist whilst reporting extensively on every twitch of a celebrity skirt and every misdemeanour of an overpaid athlete?


And you were expecting something different?

:flypig:


Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" -- Reviews and Discussion - Jan Klimkowski - 08-07-2013

Tracy Riddle Wrote:
Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Keith, Jim, Kara, Tracy - many thanks for your posts.

So, to all our American members, is it correct that rather than engaging with Oliver Stone's magnificent Untold History, MSM has chosen to ignore it?

To pretend that Stone's series doesn't exist whilst reporting extensively on every twitch of a celebrity skirt and every misdemeanour of an overpaid athlete?


And you were expecting something different?

:flypig:

Some histories are clearly, ahem, destined to remain untold.....

:unclesam: