Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display)
A framed CIA display of Desert Storm surrender leaflets: cartoon panels of aircraft bombing an airfield and a tank column, a bomb marked 'Warning,' a 'this location will be bombed next' message and a two-frame scene of soldiers eating together, captioned in English on the display sheet. The tell is the paired structure: a staged picture of the coming attack next to a named exit ('leave your equipment, save yourselves') and an invitation to surrender.
- Date
- 1991
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War (leaflets air-dropped over Iraqi positions), displayed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- Intelligence
- Regime
- George H. W. Bush Administration
- Leader
- George H. W. Bush
- Audience
- Enemy forces
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Gulf War
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (file originally posted to Flickr by the Central Intelligence Agency), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work, Central Intelligence Agency)
The Central Intelligence Agency, public domain (work of the U.S. government), via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
Desert Storm Surrender Leaflets This location is subject to bombing [Arabic on leaflet:] إن هذا الموقع معرض للقصف! Your equipment will be bombed! [Arabic on leaflet:] إن معداتكم عرضة للقصف! Or defend it and die Leave your equipment! [Arabic on leaflet:] دافعوا عنها ولاقوا حتفكم أو اتركوا معداتكم The choice is yours [Arabic on leaflet:] فالخيار لكم! Time is up! [Arabic on leaflet:] لقد فات الأوان Warning [Arabic on leaflet:] تحذير! This location will be bombed next [Arabic on leaflet:] سيجري قصف هذا الموقع قريباً Leave your equipment save yourselves [Arabic on leaflet:] اتركوا معداتكم وانقذوا أنفسكم Warning Command Of The Joint Forces In The Theater Of Operation An Invitation As guests of the command of the Joint Forces in the Theater of Operation, you are invited to join the Joint Forces with the full benefit of Arab hospitality, security, safety, and medical care, and to return to your family as soon as the situation in which Saddam has put us in is ended. Brother Iraqi Soldiers, This is an open invitation to you and to your brother fighters. I hope you can accept it as soon as you get the chance. Commander Joint Forces in the Theater of Operation [Small Arabic invitation card, headed بطاقة دعوة, is not legible at this resolution: [illegible]]
The English lines are printed on the display sheet as the key to the Arabic. The Arabic on the leaflets reads, in order: 'This location is exposed to bombing!'; 'Your equipment is exposed to bombing!'; 'Defend it and meet your death' / 'or' / 'leave your equipment'; 'So the choice is yours!'; 'The time has come / it is too late'; 'Warning!'; 'This location will soon be bombed'; 'Leave your equipment and save yourselves'.
Read from a photograph of a framed display; the four single-leaflet panels at left of the frame repeat the panels on the sheet and are not transcribed separately. Arabic read from a mid-resolution photograph and machine-translated by Claude, not checked by a fluent reader.
