ali_Hassan
25-08-2002, 19:44
The attack on the Twin Trade Towers in New York is not the first time the US has planned and used terrorist tactics to provoke war and as an excuse to attack a small helpless country as they did in Afghanistan. It was done many years earlier in Cuba.
The following is a summary of a segment of Body of Secrets, written by respected journalist James Bamford, which describes U.S. government plans to create terrorism in this and other countries in order to provoke war.
The former investigative producer for ABC World News Tonight with Peter
Jennings, Bamford has written investigative stories for The New York
Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and other publications.
In his latest book, Bamford relies on long-suppressed official
government records which demonstrate that top Pentagon officials once
called for innocent people to be shot on American streets, planes to
be hijacked and phony evidence to be manufactured, all to convince
Congress and the American public to support a war with Cuba. The New
York Times Book Review commended Bamford's earlier bestseller about
the National Security Agency, The Puzzle Palace, as a "comprehensive
and detailed report on the agency." Bamford's Body of Secrets
includes information about Operation Northwoods, a Pentagon plan of
the early 1960s which called for, in the author's words, "the launch
of a secret campaign of terrorism within the United States in order
to blame Castro and provoke a war with Cuba." After the Bay of Pigs
incident, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved plans for Operation
Northwoods-a plan which, according to Bamford, "called for innocent
people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees
fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent
terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere."
In early 1962, President John F. Kennedy had backed away from
anti-Castro efforts. Determined to have war with Castro's Cuba,
General Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
other chiefs, then agreed they would need to fool Congress, the
American public and other nations into hating Cuba so much they'd
demand war against Castro. The Pentagon proposed, writes Bamford that
"people would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes
would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on
Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as
the public and international backing, they needed to launch their
war." A Joint Chiefs of Staff document read: "World opinion, and the
United Nations forum, should be favorably affected by developing the
international image of the Cuban government as rash and
irresponsible, and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the
peace of the Western Hemisphere." A document obtained by Bamford
shows that Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs said:
* "Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the
arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents
substantiating Cuban involvement also would be helpful in projecting
the idea of an irresponsible government."
* "Advantage can be taken of the sensitivity of the Dominican
[Republic] Air Force to intrusions within their national air space.
'Cuban' B-26 or C46 type aircraft could make cane-burning raids at
night. Soviet Bloc incendiaries could be found. This could be coupled
with 'Cuban' messages to the Communist underground in the Dominican
Republic and 'Cuban' shipments of arms which would be found, or
intercepted, on the beach. Use of MiG type aircraft by U.S. pilots
could provide additional provocation."
* "Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could
appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government
of Cuba."
Another Joint Chiefs document proposed the government should: "create
an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft
has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner en route from
the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The
destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to
cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off
on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to
support chartering a non-scheduled flight."
Other Joint Chiefs recommendations included inciting "well coordinated incidents" near the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. One suggestion involved having "friendly" Cubans dress in military uniforms and start riots near the base's main gate. Others involved starting fires, blowing up
ammunition and damaging base installations. Lemnitzer and other
generals suggested, "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay
and blame Cuba." They added, " . . . casualty lists in U.S.
newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation." Other
plans included the Joint Chiefs' statement: "We could develop a
Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida
cities and even in Washington. . . . The terror campaign could be
pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States."
Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs proposed to "make it appear that
Communist Cuban MiGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over
international waters in an unprovoked attack." They also suggested
the following complex plan: "An aircraft at Elgin AFB would be
painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered
aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami
area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the
actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected
passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual
registered aircraft would be converted to a drone [a remotely
controlled unmanned aircraft.] Take off times of the drone aircraft
and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south
of Florida. "From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying
aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an
auxiliary field at Elgin AFB where arrangements will have been made
to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original
status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed
flight plan. When over Cuba the drone will be transmitting on the
international distress frequency a 'May Day' message stating he is
under attack by a Cuban MiG aircraft. The transmission will be
interrupted by destruction of the aircraft, which will be triggered
by radio signal. This will allow ICAO [International Civil Aviation
Organization] radio stations in the Western Hemisphere to tell the
U.S. what has happened to the aircraft instead of the U.S. trying to
'sell' the incident." Lemnitzer wasn't able to sell the Operation
Northwoods proposals to Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert
McNamara. After Lemnitzer was no longer chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
other Pentagon officials continued suggesting pretext operations. One
scheme involved provoking a war between Cuba and any one of its Latin
American neighbors, as an excuse for the U.S. to join Cuba's
adversary and battle Castro. One plan recommended endangering an OAS
[Organization of American States] member, and having the OAS member
request U.S. assistance. The plan read: "the U.S. could almost
certainly obtain the necessary two-thirds support among OAS members
for collective actions against Cuba." In one report, the Joint Chiefs
suggested they could entice England into war against Castro if they
could attack members of the British Commonwealth, such as Jamaica or
Trinidad-Tobago. The same report recommended paying a Castro
supporter to attack the United States. It read: "The only area
remaining for consideration then would be to bribe one of Castro's
subordinate commanders to initiate an attack on [the U.S. naval base
at] Guantanamo." As Bamford points out, the act of bribing another
country to violently attack an American military base would amount to
treason. Then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze sent a
proposal to the White House in May 1963. It suggested, quoting the
memo: "a possible scenario whereby an attack on a United States
reconnaissance aircraft could be exploited toward the end of
effecting the removal of the Castro regime." The Nitze plan proposed
sending additional American pilots, if Cuba should first attack a
U-2. The plan involved sending the pilots on "unnecessary low-level
reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be
shot down, thus provoking a war," writes Bamford. Again quoting the
Nitze proposal, "[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed
to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident." One Nitze
suggestion was to send pilots on "show off" or harassing missions
over Cuba to provoke an attack. "The initial downing of a
reconnaissance plane," reads the Nitze memo, "could lead at best to
the elimination of Castro, perhaps to the removal of Soviet troops
and the installation of ground inspection in Cuba." A month after the
memo came out, a low-level flight was made, but the Cubans didn't
attack. Every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior Pentagon
official Paul Nitze supported provoking war with Cuba. Fortunately,
wiser heads prevailed. The people in higher level governmental
positions at the time said no to the proposals. Senator Albert Gore
of Tennessee, father of former Vice President Gore, was in the Senate
when the above-referenced events occurred. He recommended the Senate
investigate General Lyman Lemnitzer and the danger of right-wing
extremism in the Pentagon. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee
determined there was danger in the fact that right-wing extremists
within the military had been promoting propaganda which exaggerated
the nature of the Communist threat. The Senate report warned of a
possible military revolt and takeover of the presidency such as the
one portrayed in the movie "Seven Days in May." Bamford says the
pretext war proposals have long been hidden from Congress and the
public under "phony claims of national security." He mentions
provocations of later wars that he considers "right out of the
Operation Northwoods handbook." When government secrets protect the
health and safety of U.S. military personnel, intelligence agents or
the people at large, that's a positive thing. When secrets serve only
to cover up crimes of government officials in order to stifle public
outrage and keep corrupt systems in place, those secrets obviously
hurt the people. How can this country learn from and correct its past
mistakes if our public servants won't admit them and our major media
won't expose and debate them?
The following is a summary of a segment of Body of Secrets, written by respected journalist James Bamford, which describes U.S. government plans to create terrorism in this and other countries in order to provoke war.
The former investigative producer for ABC World News Tonight with Peter
Jennings, Bamford has written investigative stories for The New York
Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and other publications.
In his latest book, Bamford relies on long-suppressed official
government records which demonstrate that top Pentagon officials once
called for innocent people to be shot on American streets, planes to
be hijacked and phony evidence to be manufactured, all to convince
Congress and the American public to support a war with Cuba. The New
York Times Book Review commended Bamford's earlier bestseller about
the National Security Agency, The Puzzle Palace, as a "comprehensive
and detailed report on the agency." Bamford's Body of Secrets
includes information about Operation Northwoods, a Pentagon plan of
the early 1960s which called for, in the author's words, "the launch
of a secret campaign of terrorism within the United States in order
to blame Castro and provoke a war with Cuba." After the Bay of Pigs
incident, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved plans for Operation
Northwoods-a plan which, according to Bamford, "called for innocent
people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees
fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent
terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere."
In early 1962, President John F. Kennedy had backed away from
anti-Castro efforts. Determined to have war with Castro's Cuba,
General Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
other chiefs, then agreed they would need to fool Congress, the
American public and other nations into hating Cuba so much they'd
demand war against Castro. The Pentagon proposed, writes Bamford that
"people would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes
would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on
Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as
the public and international backing, they needed to launch their
war." A Joint Chiefs of Staff document read: "World opinion, and the
United Nations forum, should be favorably affected by developing the
international image of the Cuban government as rash and
irresponsible, and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the
peace of the Western Hemisphere." A document obtained by Bamford
shows that Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs said:
* "Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the
arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents
substantiating Cuban involvement also would be helpful in projecting
the idea of an irresponsible government."
* "Advantage can be taken of the sensitivity of the Dominican
[Republic] Air Force to intrusions within their national air space.
'Cuban' B-26 or C46 type aircraft could make cane-burning raids at
night. Soviet Bloc incendiaries could be found. This could be coupled
with 'Cuban' messages to the Communist underground in the Dominican
Republic and 'Cuban' shipments of arms which would be found, or
intercepted, on the beach. Use of MiG type aircraft by U.S. pilots
could provide additional provocation."
* "Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could
appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government
of Cuba."
Another Joint Chiefs document proposed the government should: "create
an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft
has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner en route from
the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The
destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to
cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off
on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to
support chartering a non-scheduled flight."
Other Joint Chiefs recommendations included inciting "well coordinated incidents" near the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. One suggestion involved having "friendly" Cubans dress in military uniforms and start riots near the base's main gate. Others involved starting fires, blowing up
ammunition and damaging base installations. Lemnitzer and other
generals suggested, "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay
and blame Cuba." They added, " . . . casualty lists in U.S.
newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation." Other
plans included the Joint Chiefs' statement: "We could develop a
Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida
cities and even in Washington. . . . The terror campaign could be
pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States."
Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs proposed to "make it appear that
Communist Cuban MiGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over
international waters in an unprovoked attack." They also suggested
the following complex plan: "An aircraft at Elgin AFB would be
painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered
aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami
area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the
actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected
passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual
registered aircraft would be converted to a drone [a remotely
controlled unmanned aircraft.] Take off times of the drone aircraft
and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south
of Florida. "From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying
aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an
auxiliary field at Elgin AFB where arrangements will have been made
to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original
status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed
flight plan. When over Cuba the drone will be transmitting on the
international distress frequency a 'May Day' message stating he is
under attack by a Cuban MiG aircraft. The transmission will be
interrupted by destruction of the aircraft, which will be triggered
by radio signal. This will allow ICAO [International Civil Aviation
Organization] radio stations in the Western Hemisphere to tell the
U.S. what has happened to the aircraft instead of the U.S. trying to
'sell' the incident." Lemnitzer wasn't able to sell the Operation
Northwoods proposals to Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert
McNamara. After Lemnitzer was no longer chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
other Pentagon officials continued suggesting pretext operations. One
scheme involved provoking a war between Cuba and any one of its Latin
American neighbors, as an excuse for the U.S. to join Cuba's
adversary and battle Castro. One plan recommended endangering an OAS
[Organization of American States] member, and having the OAS member
request U.S. assistance. The plan read: "the U.S. could almost
certainly obtain the necessary two-thirds support among OAS members
for collective actions against Cuba." In one report, the Joint Chiefs
suggested they could entice England into war against Castro if they
could attack members of the British Commonwealth, such as Jamaica or
Trinidad-Tobago. The same report recommended paying a Castro
supporter to attack the United States. It read: "The only area
remaining for consideration then would be to bribe one of Castro's
subordinate commanders to initiate an attack on [the U.S. naval base
at] Guantanamo." As Bamford points out, the act of bribing another
country to violently attack an American military base would amount to
treason. Then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze sent a
proposal to the White House in May 1963. It suggested, quoting the
memo: "a possible scenario whereby an attack on a United States
reconnaissance aircraft could be exploited toward the end of
effecting the removal of the Castro regime." The Nitze plan proposed
sending additional American pilots, if Cuba should first attack a
U-2. The plan involved sending the pilots on "unnecessary low-level
reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be
shot down, thus provoking a war," writes Bamford. Again quoting the
Nitze proposal, "[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed
to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident." One Nitze
suggestion was to send pilots on "show off" or harassing missions
over Cuba to provoke an attack. "The initial downing of a
reconnaissance plane," reads the Nitze memo, "could lead at best to
the elimination of Castro, perhaps to the removal of Soviet troops
and the installation of ground inspection in Cuba." A month after the
memo came out, a low-level flight was made, but the Cubans didn't
attack. Every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior Pentagon
official Paul Nitze supported provoking war with Cuba. Fortunately,
wiser heads prevailed. The people in higher level governmental
positions at the time said no to the proposals. Senator Albert Gore
of Tennessee, father of former Vice President Gore, was in the Senate
when the above-referenced events occurred. He recommended the Senate
investigate General Lyman Lemnitzer and the danger of right-wing
extremism in the Pentagon. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee
determined there was danger in the fact that right-wing extremists
within the military had been promoting propaganda which exaggerated
the nature of the Communist threat. The Senate report warned of a
possible military revolt and takeover of the presidency such as the
one portrayed in the movie "Seven Days in May." Bamford says the
pretext war proposals have long been hidden from Congress and the
public under "phony claims of national security." He mentions
provocations of later wars that he considers "right out of the
Operation Northwoods handbook." When government secrets protect the
health and safety of U.S. military personnel, intelligence agents or
the people at large, that's a positive thing. When secrets serve only
to cover up crimes of government officials in order to stifle public
outrage and keep corrupt systems in place, those secrets obviously
hurt the people. How can this country learn from and correct its past
mistakes if our public servants won't admit them and our major media
won't expose and debate them?