------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 22:30:38 -0800 (PST) From: MichaelP <papadop@peak.org> Subject: Operation Dirty Tricks !!1
This kind of activity could only have been authorised under an earlier administration.
Couldn't possibly happen now.
MichaelP ====================================- Copyright c 1997 The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- At the height of the Cold War, American military strategists recommended a string of bizarre events intended to harass and humiliate Fidel Castro or get him overthrown, newly released Defense Department documents show. Some 1,500 pages of Pentagon memos show that military strategists cooked up plans to fake photos of Castro "with two beauties in any situation desired"; to simulate the downing of American planes or the sinking of a U.S. ship to provide the pretext for a Cuban invasion; to use Cuban refugee pilots to provoke a "distracting" in-flight argument with a Cuban pilot over the radio; or to distribute valid one-way airline tickets to Mexico City or Caracas, Venezuela, "to create unrest and dissension amongst the Cuban people." The memos were generated at a time when U.S. policy-makers were preoccupied with the threat they thought Castro posed. Many were written after the aborted April 1961 American-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion and before the October 1962 showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union over the placement of missiles just 90 miles off American shores. One plan, called "Operation Dirty Trick," was intended to pin the blame on Castro in the event that the Feb. 20, 1962, Mercury-Atlas flight of astronaut John Glenn, America's first orbital flight, ended disastrously. The objective, said a 1962 memo entitled "Possible Actions to Provoke, Harass or Disrupt Cuba," was "to provide irrevocable proof that, should the Mercury manned orbit flight fail, the fault lies with the Communists et al Cuba." "This would be accomplished by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubans." The "Dirty Trick" memo was among a number of previously classified military documents from 1962 to 1964 that were released by the Pentagon at the instigation of the Assassination Record Review Board. The board is a small agency created by Congress to make available any records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. "These documents further expand the historical record by illustrating the United States government's deep interest in developing a policy that would force Castro from power during the early 1960s," said historian Anna Nelson, a member of the board. When Kennedy was killed, Cuba was immediately suspected of involvement. The documents show that: On April 10, 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara that the United States overthrow the Castro government. "In view of the increasing military and subversive threat to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere posed by the communist regime in Cuba, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that a national policy of early military intervention in Cuba be adopted by the United States," said a memo signed by the late Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The military leaders offered the opinion that this could be done "without risk of general war." The month before, the Joint Chiefs' "Cuba Project" suggested staging "a 'Remember the Maine' incident" by blowing up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blaming Cuba or by staging the disappearance of an Air Force plane and blaming Cuban MIGs for downing it. "Remember the Maine" was the slogan Americans adopted when they blamed Spain for sinking that American warship in Cuban waters and went to war against Spain in 1898. To disillusion ordinary Cubans, a memo recommended that a faked picture showing "an obese Castro" with two women "and a table brimming over with the most delectable Cuba food" be airdropped or circulated in Cuba. The caption would say something like, "My ration is different." Said the Pentagon plan: "This should put even a Commie Dictator in the proper perspective with the underprivileged masses." A memo written by Army Chief of Staff Earle G. Wheeler a month after Kennedy's assassination said the new president, Lyndon Johnson, opposed "sabotage and harassment" and opposed any "high-risk actions." By MIKE FEINSILBER, The Associated Press _________________________________________________________________ [ Global | Stateside | Sports | Politics | Opinions | Business | Techserver | Health & Science | Entertainment | Weather | Baseball | Basketball | Football | Hockey | Sport Server | MAIN ] _________________________________________________________________ Copyright c 1997 Nando.net Do you have some feedback for the Nando Times staff?
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