most effective ever. It was also one of the most lucrative,rnyielding over $11 million for only 20 weeks of work endingrnwhen the war started in January 1991. But to the Kuwaitis, thernprice represented only one ten-thousandth of their royal family’srnholdings outside Kuwait during the war, surely a bargainrnfor getting their oil patch back.rnIn seeking to get the United States into war, the firm left nornlever of influence untouched. It even had a man at the WhiternHouse, an old pal and former staff chief of Mr. Bush, CraigrnFuller. While serving as the firm’s president and chief operatingrnofficer, he was frequently observed by reporters at thernWhite House during the Gulf crisis. Precisely what he accomplishedrnis not known. But at least one unusual event hadrnhis fingerprints all over it.rnIt was a special meeting of the United Nations SecurityrnCouncil just two days before its vote to set January 15, 1991, asrnthe deadline for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait. When U.N. membersrnarrived on the morning of November 27 expecting torndebate a Palestinian issue, they found their august chambersrnturned into a propaganda forum for Kuwaitis with gory storiesrnto tell about Iraq’s occupation of their tiny fiefdom. Thernwalls were plastered with photographs of alleged torture victims,rnand an extra large contingent of journalists had beenrninvited by H&K to see the horror show. When some Americanrnmembers objected, they were overruled by United StatesrnAmbassador Thomas Pickering, whose turn it was to serve asrnpresident of the council that day.rnDuring morning and afternoon sessions, Kuwaitis testifiedrnto many unspeakable atrocities reportedly committed by thernIraqis. The most shocking story was told by a man callingrnhimself a surgeon and claiming that 120 newborn babies hadrnbeen dumped out of their incubators and left to die on thernfloor. I le said he had helped bury 40 of them. News outletsrngobbled up his allegations without question or even a hint tornthe public about the p.r. machinations so clearly apparent tornreporters.rnActually, the incubator charges were not new; only thernnumbers were. Six weeks earlier, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girlrnidentified only as Nariyah, a hospital worker, had caused arnsensation when she tearfully told a public hearing of the CongressionalrnHuman Rights Caucus that she had witnessed 15rnsuch murders by Iraqi soldiers. Eventually, Amnesty Internationalrnpushed the toll to an incredible 312 in testimony beforernthe House Foreign Relations Committee. That was far morernthan even the number of incubators in Kuwait.rnH&K had done its job well in arranging these public forums,rnrounding up witnesses, and writing testimony. The escalatingrnincubator charges had a strong impact on the Americanrnpeople and their elected representatives. Several legislatorsrncited them among the reasons they voted for military action.rnPresident Bush trumpeted the claims on numerous occasions.rnJohn R. MacArthur, author of a book on the Gulf crisis, calledrnthe charges “the most influential factor” in getting the UnitedrnStates into war.rnBut the story was not true. I’he facts did not emerge untilrnafter the war when reporters went to Kuwait to check on thernaccusations. I’hcy found abundant evidence of Iraqi crueltyrnbut nothing to indicate that infants were deliberately murdered.rnA year after hostilities had ended, MacArthur revealedrnthat the alleged hospital worker was actually the daughter ofrnthe Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Private investigatorsrnworking for the Kuwaiti government later interviewedrnher and found that she had been merely a brief visitor to thernhospital and had seen only one baby outside its incubator.rnMeanwhile, the U.N. “surgeon” turned out to be a dentistrnprofessing no knowledge of incubator deaths.rnBut it was too late to matter to anyone except I I&K’s competitorsrnin the public relations business, who resented thernpossible effect of the firm’s behavior on the image industry’srnpublic image. Yet this was not the only debatable activity ofrnthe firm in the name of Kuwaiti “Citizens.” Behind that facade,rnthe firm generated much propaganda for war by organizingrnrallies and special “days,” such as National Free KuwaitrnDay. It also produced and distributed 40 video “news” releases,rnrecycling creations like Nayirah’s story as news to viewersrnaround the world.rnUnlike some American representatives of foreign interests,rnH&K eventually registered at the Justice Departmentrnas a foreign agent, disclosing details of its contract butrnno copies of its propaganda as required. It was not until Aprilrn1992 that “Citizens” finally filed data revealing its true identityrnas a creature of the Kuwaiti government, not a grass-rootsrnorganization as indicated by its title.rnMeanwhile, agents for Kuwait set up other “citizensrngroups,” which advertised widely for military action. Onernwas I’he Coalition for America at Risk headed by Sam Zakhcm,rnformer U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain in the Reagan administration.rnIn a full-page ad in the Washington Post, therngroup warned against negotiating with Saddam Hussein. In arnnews story, the Post trustingly reported that the group hadrnraised nearly $1 million from private citizens. Eighteenrnmonths later, the paper reported Zakhem’s indictment onrncharges that he had secretly taken $7.7 million from Kuwait’srnambassador for a grass-roots campaign but had diverted allrnbut $2 million to himself and two friends.rnAnother effort to win public support for war was launchedrnby the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf. Itrnstarted with a full-page ad in the New York Times arguing thatrnmore urgent than freeing Kuwait was destroying Iraq so itrncould not “threaten the security and well-being of all nations.”rnCo-directors were Richard Pcrle, a defense official forrnReagan, and Ann Lewis, a former political director of thernDemocratic National Committee. The main organizer wasrnStephen Solarz, a New York congressman who was gerrymanderedrnout of office in 1992.rnWhat was not said in the ad was that the organization representedrnthe unspoken but influential Israeli factor in thernGulf affair. The 50 prominent signers of the ad reflected thernunique power of the pro-Israel lobby to unite liberals and conservatives,rnJews and Gentiles, in bending American foreignrnpolicy to the benefit of the Jewish state. Solarz, a liberalrnDemocrat, was one of the leading backers of Israel—andrnwar—on Capitol Hill. The Committee had enough clout tornmeet with President Bush twice. The ad reflected the expressedrnfear of Israeli government officials and others thatrnthe budding U.N. coalition might free Kuwait but not destroyrnIraq’s military power, which they saw as the principalrnthreat to Israel’s security.rnAlthough the Israeli factor in the Gulf crisis was “very instrumental”rnaccording to James Zogby, president of the ArabrnAmerican Institute, it was rarely discussed in public. Threernweeks after the Iraqi invasion, right-wing commentator PatrnBuchanan blurted out on a TV talk show: “There arc onlyrnMAY 199.3/25rnrnrn