Operation Northwoods: The History of the Controversial Government Plan to Stage False Flag Attacks on Americans and Blame Cuba

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In 1968, a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs on a routine (but secret) mission crashed near Thule Air Base in Greenland. In the aftermath of the crash, American and Danish officials launched a project to clean up radioactive debris and collect the scattered pieces of the nuclear bombs. However, for years later, news reports out of Denmark and the U.S. questioned whether all four bombs had really been located. [ Photos: Top-Secret, Cold War-Era Military Base in Greenland] Twelve of these proposals come from a 2 February 1962 memorandum entitled "Possible Actions to Provoke, Harass or Disrupt Cuba," written by Brig. Gen. William H. Craig and submitted to Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale, the commander of the Operation Mongoose project. [7] [10]

Physical documentation on Operation Northwoods became declassified through the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. This act declassified a total of four million documents, including Operation Northwoods, and was made available through the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. However, public knowledge of Operation Northwoods did not come until 2001 with the release of a book by the author James Bamford titled Body of Secrets. [20] Media Advisory: National Archives Releases Additional Materials Reviewed by the Assassination Records Review Board, archives.gov, 11/17/97 [cached] We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities, and even in Washington." A 'Remember the Maine' incident could be arranged in several forms: a. We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba..."

Why The U.S. Military Planned False Flag Attacks Directed At Cuba

The U.S. could “blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba.” Or, they could blow up an unmanned vessel, then conduct a fake rescue operation. “Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation,” the report noted. 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 Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. Several other proposals were included within Operation Northwoods, including real or simulated actions against various U.S. military and civilian targets. The operation recommended developing a "Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington", which involved the bombing of civilian targets, which was to be blamed on the Cuban government to paint a false image of Fidel Castro and misinform the American public. a b Mike Feinsilber, "At a tense time, plots abounded to humiliate Castro," Associated Press ( AP), 18 November 1997; also available here. U.S. Air Force U.S. Air Force General Edward Lansdale was the commander of the anti-Cuban Operation Mongoose, under which Operation Northwoods was developed.

One of the most well-known secret research programs is the Manhattan Project, which eventually produced the world's first atomic bombs. The project began in 1939, and was cloaked in secrecy as physicists investigated the potential power of atomic weapons. From 1942 to 1946, Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led the Manhattan Project. A series of well coordinated incidents will be planned to take place in and around Guantanamo to give genuine appearance of being done by hostile Cuban forces. James Bamford's book Body of Secrets describes the documents and the surrounding atmosphere. The proposal was presented to Secretary of Defense McNamara on March 13, 1962, and apparently rejected. Was this an "out of control" proposal by military chiefs completely out of step with the Kennedy administration?

The Legacy Of Operation Northwoods

Annex to Appendix to Enclosure A: Pretexts to Justify U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba". media.nara.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-08-13 . Retrieved 3 September 2009. On March 13, 1962, Lemnitzer presented Operation Noththwoods to Defense Secreary Robert MacNamara. Approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the document outlined a number of ways that the U.S. could incite a war with Cuba. Source The mission of the secret armies was simple: Prepare for a potential communist takeover and lead an armed resistance should such a takeover occur. In some countries, "preparing" for Soviet invasion included espionage and the hoarding of ammunitions. Memo from DoD/JCS Representative on Caribbean Survey Group to JCS: Justification for Military Intervention in Cuba, 9 Mar 1962

Arrival ceremony for Giulio Andreotti, President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, April 17, 1973. (Image credit: National Archives and Records Administration) It is assumed that a single agency will be given the primary responsibility for developing military and para-military aspects of the basic plan. It is recommended that this responsibility for both overt and covert military operations be assigned the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The only way we would have succeeded is by doing exactly what the Russians were doing all over the world, by imposing a government by tyranny, basically what we were accusing Castro himself of doing.” This plan ... should be developed to focus all efforts on a specific ultimate objective which would provide adequate justification for US military intervention. Such a plan would enable a logical build-up of incidents to be combined with other seemingly unrelated events to camouflage the ultimate objective.Explore the wealth of reliable, verifiable information on 9/11, including several excellent documentaries, in our 9/11 Information Center available here. Jon Elliston, editor, Psywar on Cuba: The Declassified History of U.S. Anti-Castro Propaganda (Melbourne, Australia and New York: Ocean Press, 1999), ISBN 1-876175-09-5. N E W  Y O R K, May 1, 2001 -- In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. The plan was drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed by Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to the Secretary of Defense. Although part of the US government's anti-communist Cuban Project, Operation Northwoods was never officially accepted; it was authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but then rejected by President Kennedy. None of the false flag operations became active under the auspices of the Operation Northwoods proposals. Other ideas included simulating a shootdown of a US civilian airliner in a convincing way, and contriving "Cuban" subversion of neighboring countries.