The Nayirah Testimony: The Incubator Story That Sold a War
In October 1990, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl identified only as 'Nayirah' told a congressional caucus that she had seen Iraqi soldiers take babies from hospital incubators and leave them to die. In 1992 The New York Times reported that she was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. and that a public relations firm had arranged her testimony. The Times said human rights monitors later refuted the story.
Verdict: Confirmed. This one really happened. The core events are documented in the official records and reporting cited below. How we rate stories
The Story
On 10 October 1990, two months after Iraq invaded Kuwait, a 15-year-old girl spoke to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington. Identified only as Nayirah, she said, as later quoted by John MacArthur in The New York Times, that she had watched 15 infants taken from incubators at al-Adan Hospital in Kuwait City by Iraqi soldiers who 'left the babies on the cold floor to die.'
The caucus chairmen said her identity was being withheld to protect her family. In a Times op-ed in January 1992, MacArthur, the publisher of Harper's magazine, revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States. A Times editorial days later said her appearance had been arranged by the PR firm Hill & Knowlton for Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a Kuwaiti-sponsored group then pressing Congress for military intervention.
The Times said she was 'not just some Kuwaiti but the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S.'
The editorial also said Rep. Tom Lantos, a caucus co-chairman, knew who she was and concealed it, even from his fellow co-chairman. Lantos said her family tie did not alter her credibility. The Times disagreed: 'Had her identity been known, her accusations surely would have faced greater skepticism and been questioned more closely.'
The core claim did not hold up. MacArthur wrote that an ABC reporter had shown it to be almost certainly false in March 1991, after interviewing doctors who stayed through the occupation. The Times said Amnesty International, which first verified the story, later refuted it, as did other monitors. The deception, an undisclosed connection presented to Congress through a PR campaign, is well documented. As the Times put it, Saddam Hussein 'committed plenty of atrocities, but not, apparently, this one.'
Origins
According to a January 1992 New York Times op-ed by John MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine, Nayirah spoke to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on 10 October 1990, two months after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The Claims
- The testimony was staged to build public support for war with Iraq.
- Her identity was deliberately hidden from the public.
- A PR firm working for a Kuwaiti-funded group arranged it.
Key Evidence
- MacArthur wrote that Nayirah 'is the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S., Saud Nasir al-Sabah.' The caucus chairmen had said her identity would be kept secret 'to protect her family from reprisals in occupied Kuwait.'
- A Times editorial on 15 January 1992 said her testimony 'was arranged by the big public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton on behalf of a client, the Kuwaiti-sponsored Citizens for a Free Kuwait, which was then pressing Congress for military intervention.'
- The editorial said Rep. Tom Lantos, a caucus co-chairman, 'knew the girl's identity but concealed it from the public and from the other caucus co-chairman, Representative John E. Porter of Illinois.'
- MacArthur wrote that seven U.S. senators cited the incubator story in speeches supporting the January 1991 war resolution, which passed the Senate 'by only six votes.'
The Evidence Against
- The editorial said Saddam Hussein 'committed plenty of atrocities, but not, apparently, this one.' It said the accusation, 'at first verified by Amnesty International, was later refuted by that group as well as by other independent human rights monitors.'
- MacArthur wrote that ABC reporter John Martin showed the story to be 'almost certainly false' in March 1991, after interviewing hospital doctors who stayed in Kuwait during the occupation.
- Lantos said her being the ambassador's daughter 'did not alter her credibility,' according to the editorial. The Times replied: 'That doesn't wash.'
Documents & Sources
- NewsDeception on Capitol Hill (The New York Times editorial, 15 January 1992, archived) web.archive.org ↗
- NewsRemember Nayirah, Witness for Kuwait?, John R. MacArthur (The New York Times op-ed, 6 January 1992, archived) web.archive.org ↗
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