Region | Iraq
CIA plotted faking Saddam Hussain sex video
The plans were aborted following strong opposition from James Pavitt
- By Habib Toumi, Bahrain Bureau Chief
- Published: 15:05 May 27, 2010
Manama: Kuwaiti bloggers have played down the significance of an allegedly secret attempt by the CIA to flood Iraq in 2003 with a video that depicts Saddam Hussain as gay and having sex with a teenage boy.
According to the report, published by the Washington Post on Wednesday, and quoting two former American intelligence officials, the CIA's Iraq Operations Group, during the planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, looked at a number of ideas for discrediting Saddam Hussain in the eyes of his people.
“One was to create a video purporting to show the Iraqi dictator having sex with a teenage boy. It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” said one of the former officials familiar with the project.
“Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session. The idea was to then flood Iraq with the videos.”
Another idea was to interrupt Iraqi television programming with a fake special news bulletin. An actor playing Hussain would announce that he was stepping down in favour of his son Uday.
“I’m sure you will throw your support behind His Excellency Uday,” the fake Hussain would say.
According to the former officials, the CIA however, did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquour and savouring their conquests with boys.
“The actors were drawn from some of us darker-skinned employees,” they said.
However, the plans were aborted following strong opposition from James Pavitt, then head of the agency’s Operations Division, and his deputy, Hugh Turner, who “kept throwing darts at it.”
For Kuwaiti bloggers, whose country was invaded by Saddam in 1990, the idea was unnecessary on the grounds that there were other scandals plaguing the former Iraqi leader.
“The latest scandal was when he was hiding in a hole while calling upon other people to fight. This is a real scandal,” the Eastern Gate Keeper wrote.
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