The nic
e folks over at Foolocracy brought our attention to an interesting story, but the headline at Foolocracy – and the Washington Post story that started it all – both skate right along the edge of prejudice. It seems that prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the CIA was considering some anti-Saddam propaganda.
Both news sources have in their headline “depict Saddam as Gay” and perpetuate the implication that being gay is undesirable and somehow taints a person. The actual “faked” scandal, if there was one, could be Western philosphies on age of consent.
From the Post: The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said.
From Foolocracy: The CIA considered flooding Iraq with grainy videos portraying Saddam Hussein having sex with teenage boys. Another video was to be hacked onto Iraqi airwaves with an imposter Saddam announcing his resignation and turning power over to his much despised son Uday.
James Pavitt, then head of the agency’s Operations Division, insisted the ideas were patently ridiculous. “They came from people whose careers were spent in Latin America or East Asia” and didn’t understand the cultural nuances of the region. Saddam playing with boys would have no resonance in the Middle East — nobody cares,” agreed a third former CIA official with extensive experience in the region. “Trying to mount such a campaign would show a total misunderstanding of the target. We always mistake our own taboos as universal when, in fact, they are just our taboos.”
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