Discrediting foreign dictators with fake rumors is a noble tradition among covert operatives — consider the Cold War–era plan to distribute doctored photos of a fat Fidel Castro — but a recently revealed CIA proposal involving Saddam Hussein is sparking debate. A former official told The Washington Post the CIA planned to "flood Iraq" in 2003 with a grainy video purporting to show the Iraqi dictator having sex with a teenage boy. Is "strategically" suggesting that a dictator is homosexual just a form of gay-bashing?
As we learned from Abu Ghraib, such tactics backfire: Such a video would do little but expose the "homophobic Western military culture that breeds such attitudes," says Daniel Villareal at Queerty. The "gay antics" in which our soldiers forced Abu Ghraib prisoners to participate did nothing but turn the rest of the world against America for "acting like homophobic fratboys."
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