In the run-up to America's 2003 invasion of Iraq, a CIA team brainstormed ways to attack public perception of Saddam Hussein among Iraqis. One of the psyops plans was to "flood Iraq with videos" that depicted the dictator having sex with a teenage boy. The CIA hoax "hidden camera" videos were to be shot "very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session," according to a former official familiar with the plan.
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.
Man oh man, my kingdom for a torrent. Anyway, just one problem with the CIA's man-boy-love-tape plans:
"Saddam playing with boys would have no resonance in the Middle East — nobody cares," [said a] 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."
CIA unit's wacky idea: Depict Saddam as gay (Washington Post)
