NationStates Jolt Archive


Operation Northwood

Quagmus
16-05-2006, 01:12
After browsing through this, I wonder: If people were prepared for it back in 1962, why wouldn't otherr people 'just do it' in 2001? What's the difference?

from here: (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/)
April 30, 2001

Pentagon Proposed Pretext for Cuba Invasion in 1962

In his new exposé of the National Security Agency entitled Body of Secrets, author James Bamford highlights a set of proposals on Cuba by the Joint Chiefs of Staff codenamed OPERATION NORTHWOODS. This document, titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba" was provided by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as the key component of Northwoods. Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba. These proposals--part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose--included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake "Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," including "sink[ing] a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated)," faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a "Remember the Maine" incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage. Bamford himself writes that Operation Northwoods "may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government."
(If this is just Fake/Crap/Lies, please explain.)
Quagmus
16-05-2006, 10:55
Did the constant bush-defenders just roll over and die? I admit that there is good reason to give up the fight and move on to the impeaching; I just didn't believe that all it took was to point out that the government did once have plans to make terror attacks on U.S. citizens. :)

Goes to show the importance of learning a little history; even if it is so Very Recent.

Also goes to show the administrative importance of keeping information away from the administratees, if you look at it from a practical perspective.
CanadaCity
16-05-2006, 18:54
Let's see..

No one would've died from this operation. It was all 'fake'. Never happened, the people who suggested it got fired...

Why are you even linking this? You are comparing a democrat adminstration several decades ago to what we have now. Are you telling me that democrats/republicans are in it together?
Kroisistan
16-05-2006, 19:02
Let's see..

No one would've died from this operation. It was all 'fake'. Never happened, the people who suggested it got fired...

Why are you even linking this? You are comparing a democrat adminstration several decades ago to what we have now. Are you telling me that democrats/republicans are in it together?

You didn't know?:eek:
Tactical Grace
16-05-2006, 19:13
Never happened, the people who suggested it got fired...
New ones were hired to take their place. Ideas go in and out of fashion. But someone is always paid to create them.
Duntscruwithus
16-05-2006, 21:51
I've always understood that basically, the Pentagon has invasion plans for pretty much every country in the world. I doubt it is any different from any other military either.
Pinokio
16-05-2006, 21:53
Let's see..

No one would've died from this operation. It was all 'fake'. Never happened, the people who suggested it got fired...

Why are you even linking this? You are comparing a democrat adminstration several decades ago to what we have now. Are you telling me that democrats/republicans are in it together?
Well, thanks for bumping it for me, I had decided not to...:fluffle:

I am pointing out that a US administration actually and seriously considered staging terrorism, in order to justify war. They also considered acts of 'Remember the Maine' character in order to gatherpublic support. I find this eerily similar to the conspiracy theories of how 9.11. came about.

I especially find it interesting to know that such a plot, by a U.S. government, is not only conceiveable, but was actually and seriously considered. Don't you?

And btw, yes, people would have died from the proposed terrorism in Florida.
Pinokio
16-05-2006, 21:55
I've always understood that basically, the Pentagon has invasion plans for pretty much every country in the world. I doubt it is any different from any other military either.
Do you think the Pentagon has plans on how to cook up an excuse for those invasions? What excuse to invade the U.K.? China? Venezuela?
Tactical Grace
16-05-2006, 21:56
I especially find it interesting to know that such a plot, by a U.S. government, is not only conceiveable, but was actually and seriously considered. Don't you?
I find it obvious. It's pretty much what the secret services are for.
Pinokio
16-05-2006, 22:01
I find it obvious. It's pretty much what the secret services are for.
I found it obvious too, but only in theory. That this was actually what happened shocks little old me a bit.