----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 12:43 AM Subject: Memo: U.S. Mulled Fake Cuba Pretext [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This is hot off the Associated Press wire, Wed., 4-25-01: ____________________________________________ http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7BJJO000 April 25, 17:05 EST Memo: U.S. Mulled Fake Cuba Pretext By RON KAMPEAS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking a pretext to invade Cuba, senior Kennedy administration officials contemplated blowing up a U.S. navy ship in Guantanamo Bay, faking casualties, and blaming it on Fidel Castro, according to declassified papers. In a March 1962 memo, an anonymous Pentagon official outlined "a series of well coordinated incidents ... to take place in and around Guantanamo to give genuine appearance of being done by hostile Cuban forces." Possibilities included "Sabotage ship in harbor; large fires -- napthalene," a misspelling of naphthalene, a combustible chemical compound, and "Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funeral for mock victims." A March 13, 1962, letter from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara says the chiefs have studied the document and "recommend that the proposed memorandum be forwarded as a preliminary submission suitable for planning purposes." The Lemnitzer letter and the memo were uncovered by author James Bamford, whose book, "Body of Secrets," includes a chapter on covert anti-Castro activities. The George Washington University-affiliated National Security Archives also revealed the memo and related documents. The memo was written at the behest of senior Joint Chiefs official Brig. Gen. William Craig, who was involved in planning "Operation Mongoose," the ill-fated attempt to topple the Castro regime through sabotage and disruption. A month earlier, Craig had written Attorney General Robert Kennedy -- who supervised Mongoose -- urging him to consider such pretexts, but only as a last resort. The author of the anonymous memo describes his proposals as "Remember the Maine incidents." The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor in 1898, killing 266 sailors, and quickly became the pretext for U.S. intervention in the Cuban revolution, sparking the Spanish-American war. It is not known whether the explosion was accidental or sabotage. Among the proposed "incidents": -- Blowing up a pilotless drone near Cuban waters, and pretending the wreckage was of a military plane shot down by Castro's forces. "Casualty lists in U.S. papers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation," it suggests. -- Launching a pretend terror campaign in the Miami area and in Washington, even faking some woundings. -- Recruiting friendly Cubans to stage an attack on the U.S. naval base, riots near the base, and sabotage inside the base. In his letter to Attorney General Kennedy, Craig says faking pretexts for invasion is a "dangerous game" and prefers sabotage and backing of dissidents that characterized Mongoose. Still, he urges Kennedy to consider feinting an invasion into Cuba to provoke the Cubans into attacking the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base -- which would provide a real pretext to invade Cuba. "The military believe that the continued existence of the Castro Communist regime is incompatible with the minimum security requirements of the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere," Craig writes. The memos were written nine months after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when Castro's forces crushed a CIA-trained Cuban exile army. Smarting from the humiliation, U.S. military leaders were eager to bring Castro to heel. In his book, Bamford says Lemnitzer's personal writings suggest he fully endorsed faking pretexts to invade Cuba, and urged the proposals to McNamera, who rejected them. The former defense secretary denied ever hearing of such plans, and said he didn't believe Lemnitzer or Attorney General Kennedy seriously considered them. "I cannot conceive of (the Mongoose) committee thinking about a 'Remember the Maine' operation, it makes no sense," McNamera told the AP. "There were contingency war plans, yes, but there are contingency plans to invade the moon." However, others said such proposals were par for the course at the time. Wayne Smith, at the time a Cuba desk officer at the State Department, noted that a plan to fake a Cuban attack on Guantanamo simultaneous with the Bay of Pigs landing failed because the boat carrying the faux-Cuban soldiers developed engine trouble. "After the Bay of Pigs, nothing could raise our eyebrows," he said. --- On the Net: National Security Archive: http://www.nsarchive.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
