New Challenge To The US Media

With the video from Jordan showing a woman making shocking accusations, it is worth recalling the last time when a woman was shown on TV making shocking accusations.

The day after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Kuwaitis living in the US hired the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton - a job worth $1 million a month. This was the biggest ever contract in the history of public relations to improve the image of their corrupt, oil-rich regime.

The story of how Iraqi troops, in the first days of the invasion, went into Al-Adan hospital, tore the sick babies from incubators and left them on the cold floor to die was graphically told to Congress on November 1990 before the crucial vote to send US troops (passed by about 5 votes).

What the audience didn't know however was that the 15-year old girl who made the moving, tearful testimony was none other than Niyirah al-Sabah - daughter of the US Ambassador to Kuwait. She had allegedly worked as a volunteer in the maternity ward of the hospital. But nurses who live in the two story white building opposite the hospital in Kuwait City claimed that they had never seen the girl before in their life.

The entire move towards the Gulf War had thus been motivated by a blatant lie. The girl had been "trained" by Hill and Knowlton. The renowned international human rights group Amnesty International took out full-page newspaper spreads to publicise the babies incident. It had unwittingly (and not for the first time) transformed itself from a charity to a propaganda tool. Andrew Whitley of Middle East Watch described the story as a fabrication but it took months for the truth to come out. President Bush mentioned the incubator incident in five of his speeches and seven senators referred to them in speeches backing a pro-war resolution.

A manufactured terrorist act by GWB!

"Within minutes, an explosive device which had been hidden in a false ceiling at the Radisson went off. It showered shrapnel and debris on guests and staff attending a wedding reception in a large banqueting hall." http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1502689&issue_id=13240 "The bomb at the Hyatt may have been delivered in a package."

blueflame1,, your links broken.

Iraqi woman admits on Jordanian TV her role in hotel bombing

Irish Independent : Suicide bombers blitz three hotels in Jordan

 At least 60 dead  300 injured  al-Qa'ida blamed

SUICIDE bombers struck at three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman last night, killing at least 60 and injuring more than 300.

The bombers attacked the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in the city centre within a few minutes of each other.

The three hotels are popular with foreigners.

Police believe the attacks were the work of al-Qa'ida. Jordan is the homeland of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

The first explosion, which police said was a suicide attack, tore through the lobby of the Hyatt, cutting down staff and guests.

Witnesses said they saw at least seven bodies in the rubble.

Within minutes, an explosive device which had been hidden in a false ceiling at the Radisson went off. It showered shrapnel and debris on guests and staff attending a wedding reception in a large banqueting hall.

"We are evacuating people from the hotel," a police source said. "Some are dead and there are many wounded."

Jordan, a key Middle Eastern ally of the US, had largely escaped the terrorist attacks that have hit other parts of the region.

Its capital, Amman, is viewed as a haven of stability, although there have been isolated incidents - an American diplomat was murdered in 2002.

Ayman al-Safadi, the editor of Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, said: "Finally the terrorists have succeeded in breaking the security in Jordan."

Police spokesman Maj Bashir al-Da'aja said the authorities believed the blasts "were suicide bombings". He declined to elaborate.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in the 1990s which was severely criticised by some of the Islamic world's more radical elements.

Israeli tourists and business visitors often stay at Amman's superior hotels and it is possible they were intended as targets for the attack.

But the Israeli government said none of its citizens had been caught up in the explosions.

The attacks were expected to lead to a security clampdown in Jordan, with local Islamists being the target of the authorities.

The country's King Abdullah was educated partly in Britain.

He came to the throne in 1999 after the death of his father, King Hussein, who also enjoyed close relations with Britain.

The bombings will be the most serious test yet of King Adbullah's rule, as he must catch the killers without adding to the support for Islamic extremism in his country.

Mary Fitzgerald, an Irish journalist, said the three hotels are popular with western and Israeli tourists and are within a small are of downtown Amman.

The bomb at the Hyatt may have been delivered in a package.

There were reports last night that a wedding was taking place at the Radisson at the time of the bombing.

Jeffrey Anhut, a teacher in Switzerland of Irish descent, was trying to comfort people at The Big Fellow Irish Bar, just 10 minutes from the hotels where the bombs went off.

"I was eating with friends in the restaurant next to the bar when I saw a huge ball of fire shoot up to the ceiling and then everything went black," a French UN official said.

He was eating at the Hyatt at the time of the blast. "It caused absolute devastation."