# Saud Nasir Al-Sabah

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Saud Nasir Al-Sabah," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saud-nasir-al-sabah/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States in the run-up to the 1990 Iraqi invasion; per John Kiriakou, "just a lovely, lovely man, very generous with his time"; the diplomatic channel through which the CIA, working from the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington, communicated its escalating June–July 1990 warnings that Iraq was preparing to invade.*

- **Position:** Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, late 1980s–1990
- **Kiriakou's characterization:** "Just a lovely, lovely man, very generous with his time"
- **Role in 1990 warnings:** The Washington channel through which CIA warnings reached the Kuwaiti foreign ministry

**Saud Nasir Al-Sabah** was Kuwait's Ambassador to the United States in the run-up to the 1990 Iraqi invasion. Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou): *"Ambassador Saud Nasir was just a lovely, lovely man, very generous with his time. We had a very good close relationship with him."*[1]

Kiriakou, then an overt CIA analyst, was a regular visitor at the Kuwaiti embassy: *"I would go and say, 'Hello, Mr. Ambassador. I'm John Kiriakou from the CIA.' He knew me as that kid from the CIA."*[2]

In June and July 1990 the CIA's warnings to Kuwait were communicated *"two ways. We would do it through the Kuwaiti embassy, which would have been Ambassador Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, and then in Kuwait the ambassador would have gone to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense."*[3]

On the morning of the August 2, 1990 invasion President George H. W. Bush was on the phone with the ambassador when Kiriakou and his boss arrived in the Oval Office.[4]

## The incubator-baby testimony

Kiriakou has separately identified the ambassador's connection to the fabricated "incubator babies" story used to build support for the Gulf War. Watching a congressional hearing as a young CIA Iraq leadership analyst, he recognized the 15-year-old girl testifying that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers throwing premature babies from hospital incubators as Saud Nasir Al-Sabah's daughter, and told his boss on the spot that she was fabricating the story.[5]

## See also

- [Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sheikh-jaber-al-ahmad)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 5:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=315s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
2. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 5:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=346s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
3. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 13:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=786s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
4. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 28:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=1707s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
5. SND#40 Gulf Mines & Incubator Babies w/John Kiriakou (2019-06-14), at 43:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM85ukUYXm8&t=2612s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-14-slow-news-day/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saud-nasir-al-sabah/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt