James Bamford: U.S. Officials Proposed Staging Terror Attacks in the U.S.& Blaming Cuba during the 1960's
/Would the U.S. government stage a
terrorist attack on its own citizens on American soil? Yes,
according to shocking once-secret documents unveiled by a respected
mainstream journalist.
Exclusive To American Free Press
By Michael Collins Piper
In the wake of the tragic Oklahoma City bombing, media pundits raised voices of horror at the suggestion by some that U.S. government operatives might have played a part in orchestrating the bombing for some geopolitical purpose or purposes unknown.
However, in 2001, six years after the Oklahoma tra gedy, best-selling author James Bamford, a veteran journalist, released Body of Secrets which revealed that in January 1961, top U.S. policy makers were considering a horrific scheme to launch terrorist attacks on American citizens and point the finger of blame at Fidel Castro's communist Cuba.
Here's what Bamford wrote:
According to documents obtained for Body of Se crets, [then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Army General Lyman] Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs proposed secretly to stage an attack on the Ameri can naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-and then blame the violent action on Castro. Convinced that Cuba had launched an unprovoked attack on the United States, the unwitting American public would then support the Joint Chief's bloody Carib bean war. After all, who would believe Castro's denials over the word of the Pentagon's top military commanders? The nation's most senior military leadership was proposing to launch a war, which would no doubt kill many American servicemen, based solely on a fabric of lies. On January 19, just hours before [then-President Dwight] Eisen hower left office, Lem nitzer gave his approval to the proposal. As events progressed, the plan would become only the tip of a very large and secret iceberg.
Lemnitzer, a self-described "imaginative planner," kept his initial plan in cold storage. However, after the new Kennedy administration's Bay of Pigs fiasco, which left Fidel Castro stronger than ever before, Lemnitzer reinvigorated his scheme under the name "Operation Northwoods." Bamford reports that:
The plan, which had the written approval of the chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 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. 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 Lemnister and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.
What makes this so additionally disturbing is that this was not some wild scheme by only some "mad bomb ers" inside the military. In Bamford's estimation, "the idea may actually have originated with President Eisen hower in the last days of his administration."
Bamford reports that Eisenhower was determined to invade Cuba and that if Castro did not provide an excuse prior to the inauguration of newly-elected Presi dent John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower suggested that the United States "could think of manufacturing something that would be generally acceptable."
What Eisenhower was suggesting, writes Bamford, was "a bombing, an attack, an act of sabotage carried out secretly against the United States by the United States. Its purpose would be to justify the launching of a war. It was a dangerous suggestion by a desperate president." Lemnitzer, Eisenhower's protegé since World War II days, was eager to carry out the plan.
Although a direct proposal for the assassination of then-astronaut (and future U.S. Senator) John Glenn was never formally put in writing, Lemnitzer did propose that "IF" Glenn's historic earth-orbiting journey of 1962 should happen to be interrupted by an explosion of his rocket, the U.S. government should:
Provide irrevocable proof that . . . the fault lies with the Communists et al Cuba . . . by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cuba . . .
Lemnitzer also had in mind the possibility of a dramatic scenario recalling the 1898 disaster which befell the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor, sparking the Spanish-American war:
We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba. Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.
Terrorism on American soil by Americans against Americans-but blamed on Castro-was also offered up by Lemnitzer and his advisors:
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 . . . . We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). . . . We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized.
Among the proposals cited by Bamford, quoting the original documents:
o 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.
o Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government of Cuba.
Following in Lemnitzer's tradition, like-minded "intellectuals" in the defense establishment continued to formulate plans passed on to the military leadership that were designed to provoke a war through a staged terrorist attack. One proposal, cited by Bamford, read:
A contrived "Cuban" attack on an OAS [Organi zation of American States] member could be set up and the attacked state could be urged to "take measures of self-defense and request assistance from the U.S. and OAS; the U.S. could almost certainly obtain the necessary two-third support among OAS members for collective action against Cuba."
This same proposal made the suggestion that the United States should bribe someone in the Castro re gime to launch an attack on an American military in stallation. This, Bamford points out, constituted treason.
Bamford also reveals that one of the defense department's civilian "intellectuals," Paul H. Nitze-then an assistant secretary of defense-came up with a plan sent to the White House in May 1963. Nitze proposed-in Nitze's own chilling words:
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.
In the event Cuba attacked a U-2, Nitze proposed sending in additional American pilots, this time on dangerous, unnecessary low-level reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be shot down, thus provoking a war. "[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident," said Nitze. Bamford adds wryly that "Nitze, however, did not volunteer to be one of the pilots."
In later years, Nitze-along with his ally Lem nitzer-would emerge as one of the Israeli lobby's key contacts inside the defense establishment in official Washington. Nitze and Lemnitzer, who shared ethnic ties to Israel, worked relentlessly through a variety of venues to advance Israel's cause, manipulating Ameri can policy to benefit their favorite foreign nation. (For more on Nitze's associates, see the story on pages 4, 5 and 6 of this issue.) H
Body of Secrets (hardcover, 720 pps., $32.95) is available from First Amendment Books (FAB), 1433 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. Call 1-888-699-NEWS if you would like to order using Visa or Mastercard.
Exclusive To American Free Press
By Michael Collins Piper
In the wake of the tragic Oklahoma City bombing, media pundits raised voices of horror at the suggestion by some that U.S. government operatives might have played a part in orchestrating the bombing for some geopolitical purpose or purposes unknown.
However, in 2001, six years after the Oklahoma tra gedy, best-selling author James Bamford, a veteran journalist, released Body of Secrets which revealed that in January 1961, top U.S. policy makers were considering a horrific scheme to launch terrorist attacks on American citizens and point the finger of blame at Fidel Castro's communist Cuba.
Here's what Bamford wrote:
According to documents obtained for Body of Se crets, [then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Army General Lyman] Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs proposed secretly to stage an attack on the Ameri can naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-and then blame the violent action on Castro. Convinced that Cuba had launched an unprovoked attack on the United States, the unwitting American public would then support the Joint Chief's bloody Carib bean war. After all, who would believe Castro's denials over the word of the Pentagon's top military commanders? The nation's most senior military leadership was proposing to launch a war, which would no doubt kill many American servicemen, based solely on a fabric of lies. On January 19, just hours before [then-President Dwight] Eisen hower left office, Lem nitzer gave his approval to the proposal. As events progressed, the plan would become only the tip of a very large and secret iceberg.
Lemnitzer, a self-described "imaginative planner," kept his initial plan in cold storage. However, after the new Kennedy administration's Bay of Pigs fiasco, which left Fidel Castro stronger than ever before, Lemnitzer reinvigorated his scheme under the name "Operation Northwoods." Bamford reports that:
The plan, which had the written approval of the chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 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. 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 Lemnister and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.
What makes this so additionally disturbing is that this was not some wild scheme by only some "mad bomb ers" inside the military. In Bamford's estimation, "the idea may actually have originated with President Eisen hower in the last days of his administration."
Bamford reports that Eisenhower was determined to invade Cuba and that if Castro did not provide an excuse prior to the inauguration of newly-elected Presi dent John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower suggested that the United States "could think of manufacturing something that would be generally acceptable."
What Eisenhower was suggesting, writes Bamford, was "a bombing, an attack, an act of sabotage carried out secretly against the United States by the United States. Its purpose would be to justify the launching of a war. It was a dangerous suggestion by a desperate president." Lemnitzer, Eisenhower's protegé since World War II days, was eager to carry out the plan.
Although a direct proposal for the assassination of then-astronaut (and future U.S. Senator) John Glenn was never formally put in writing, Lemnitzer did propose that "IF" Glenn's historic earth-orbiting journey of 1962 should happen to be interrupted by an explosion of his rocket, the U.S. government should:
Provide irrevocable proof that . . . the fault lies with the Communists et al Cuba . . . by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cuba . . .
Lemnitzer also had in mind the possibility of a dramatic scenario recalling the 1898 disaster which befell the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor, sparking the Spanish-American war:
We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba. Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.
Terrorism on American soil by Americans against Americans-but blamed on Castro-was also offered up by Lemnitzer and his advisors:
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 . . . . We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). . . . We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized.
Among the proposals cited by Bamford, quoting the original documents:
o 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.
o Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government of Cuba.
Following in Lemnitzer's tradition, like-minded "intellectuals" in the defense establishment continued to formulate plans passed on to the military leadership that were designed to provoke a war through a staged terrorist attack. One proposal, cited by Bamford, read:
A contrived "Cuban" attack on an OAS [Organi zation of American States] member could be set up and the attacked state could be urged to "take measures of self-defense and request assistance from the U.S. and OAS; the U.S. could almost certainly obtain the necessary two-third support among OAS members for collective action against Cuba."
This same proposal made the suggestion that the United States should bribe someone in the Castro re gime to launch an attack on an American military in stallation. This, Bamford points out, constituted treason.
Bamford also reveals that one of the defense department's civilian "intellectuals," Paul H. Nitze-then an assistant secretary of defense-came up with a plan sent to the White House in May 1963. Nitze proposed-in Nitze's own chilling words:
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.
In the event Cuba attacked a U-2, Nitze proposed sending in additional American pilots, this time on dangerous, unnecessary low-level reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be shot down, thus provoking a war. "[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident," said Nitze. Bamford adds wryly that "Nitze, however, did not volunteer to be one of the pilots."
In later years, Nitze-along with his ally Lem nitzer-would emerge as one of the Israeli lobby's key contacts inside the defense establishment in official Washington. Nitze and Lemnitzer, who shared ethnic ties to Israel, worked relentlessly through a variety of venues to advance Israel's cause, manipulating Ameri can policy to benefit their favorite foreign nation. (For more on Nitze's associates, see the story on pages 4, 5 and 6 of this issue.) H
Body of Secrets (hardcover, 720 pps., $32.95) is available from First Amendment Books (FAB), 1433 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. Call 1-888-699-NEWS if you would like to order using Visa or Mastercard.
