America & Saddam Hussein: A Friendship Gone Wrong (Part 2)

In an excerpt from, "Prince Of Darkness: Richard Perle" By: Alan Weisman the author explains the relationship that America had with Saddam Hussein.

"At the end of the Gulf War in 1991, President George H. W. Bush signed an order directing the CIA to foment an overthrow of Saddam Hussein by his own military. According to one estimate, $100 million was set aside for the project. Not having enough operatives in place to make that happen, the CIA hired the Rendon Group, a public relations company, to set up radio and television operations to produce anti-Hussein propaganda...

The destabilize-Iraq account was so large that Rendon had trouble spending the money fast enough. As one employee put it, 'We tried to burn through $40 million in a year. It was a very nice job.' The Rendon propaganda machine would churn out phony stories about Saddam in the British press and watch how each would be picked up and embellished by the American press. In its first year on the Iraq account, Rendon claims not only to have formed the Iraqi National Congress (INC) but also to have given the organization its name. The INC, a coalition of Iraqi and Kurdish groups dedicated to the overthrow of Saddam, became the vehicle for the CIA's propaganda efforts...

In January of 1992, the Rendon Group set up the Iraqi Broadcasting Corporation as well as Radio Hurriah, which began beaming bunk from a U.S.-controlled transmitter in Kuwait. Months later, it convened a meeting in Vienna of major Iraqi opposition groups and named the umbrella organization the Iraqi National Congress." -From, "Prince Of Darkness: Richard Perle" By: Alan Weisman