Actually, this tactic was used with great success in 1990 before Gulf War I. Remember those stories of Iraqi soldiers removing the newborn babies from the incubators in the Kuwaiti hospital? The stories were later revealed to be utter bullsh!t, and the woman who gave this testimony to Congress turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S. or something like that.
And here's the best angle to this story: the woman who gave that testimony was prepped by an adviser at a major PR firm. The adviser's name was Victoria Clarke -- yes, current Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke!