I Have a dog named Cat
So, if I told you that the United States government planed and executed the entire 9-11 attack against ourselves just to start a war so that we could get back into Iraq, would you believe me? I’m guessing not. Hell, I wouldn’t believe me either (before I heard about Operation Northwoods anyway). I would have thrown the idea right up there with Big Foot and Nessie.
A little while ago, a close friend of mine approached me with that statement and I about fell out of my chair laughing at him and how absurd his statement was. That’s when I noticed that he wasn’t laughing. I looked at him and asked him if he was serious, and he was. That’s when he handed me a printout of a declassified document that’s over 40 years old. It’s amazing how a couple pieces of paper can completely change your views on your own government.
It was a Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense. The subject was, “Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba (TS).” And was prepared by L. L. Lemnitzer, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. This document was signed by all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presented to President Kennedy as a brainstorm on how to initiate war with Cuba. Just to get your brain going, here’s a couple of the ideas they proposed so that we would have a reason to invade:
- Use the death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt at putting a man in orbit and blame the Cubans for blowing it up
- Start false rumors about Cuba by using clandestine radios
- Stage mock attacks, sabatoges, and riots and blame the Cubans
- Sink an American ship at Guantanamo Bay, or destroy an American aircraft (with unmanned drones, fake funerals, etc)
- Detroy a fake commercial aircraft supposedly full of “college students off on a holiday”
- Stage a “terror campaign” including “real or simulated” sinking of Cuban refugees.
Now listen to me carefully here. This isn’t some whack conspiracy theory. This really happened. The document was declassified via the Freedom of Information act. You can see the scanned document here (http://emperors-clothes.com/images/north-i.htm). This has been covered by many different news agencies, and a few books have been written on this as well.
I was holding proof in my hands that our own government was fully capable and willing to stage an attack on our own people/land just to give the “American people” a reason to go to war with another country. Something similar happened that started the Spanish-American war. The USS Maine in 1898 was sunk off of Havana shores which started the entire war. Still to this day it’s unknown as to how it was sunk or who even destroyed it. It didn’t matter then though, it was a reason. There was also a similar incident that was suggested to be the cause of our involvement in the Vietnam war. In 1964, there was an “incident” referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This was when two American destroyers where allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. It has been suspected for many years that this was a staged act by US officials in order to build up public support for American involvement. The Pentagon has always denied such allegations, stating that the US would never engage in such deceit. Well…that’s a bold faced lie. Now the American people have proof signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they would in fact do that, and even more!
After the Freedom of Information Act was enacted, Lemnitzer (the Operation Northwoods drafter) ordered that all Joint Chiefs of Staff documents relating to the Bay of Pigs be destroyed. This one was missed. When you really go through the document, you’ll find your jaw drop lower and lower the more you read. The thing that killed me the most is that this is just one document over 40 years old that slipped through the cracks and made it to the light of day. How many other similar documents were there, are there, that we will never know about? I’m guessing that this is just the tip of an iceberg that we’ll never really know all about.
The first thing the document talks about is who should and should not see this memo. The entire thing was labeled Top Secret. It was also strictly prohibited to be allowed to be seen by US NATO officers, Chairman, US Delegation, United Nations Military Staff Committee, and commanders of unified or special commands. In otherwards… no one other than us.
Here’s my favorite block, “This plan, incorporating projects selected from the attached suggestions… 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 and create the necessary impression of Cuban rashness and irresponsibility on a large scale, directed at other countries as well as the United States.” Scared yet?
On page 8 there’s a direct reference to the USS Maine incident where the say, “We could blow up a drone (unmanned) vessel … in the vicinity of Havana … as a spectacular result of Cuban attack for the air, or sea, or both.” And they finish with, “Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.” Yay. Let’s tell our country that the Cubans just killed a bunch of Americans! That’s a great idea…
The next idea was, “We could develop a Communist terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.” Replace the city of Miami with New York City. Catching on yet?
There was another idea to dress up a US aircraft as a Communist MIG and use it to shoot down an American aircraft so that we could blame the Cubans. The biggest concern with this idea though was, “The primary drawback to this suggestion appears to be the security risk inherent in obtaining or modifying an aircraft. However, reasonable copies of the MIG could be produced from US resources in about three months.” Phew! I was afraid they were going to say something about how deceitful it would be to lie to our own country and blow ourselves up, but no no no… It’s just a minor setback on how to paint the aircraft =)
On page 10, suggestion number 7 specifically mentions “Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft.” I really hope it’s sinking in by now. If that doesn’t click, maybe this will help, “It’s possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a charted civil airliner enroute [sic] from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama, or Venezuela.” Sound familiar yet?
So now I present to you a situation where 4 planes were hijacked. Two were flown into the WTC, 1 into the Pentagon, and one crashed out in Pennsylvania. This obviously sparked US citizen outrage for blood and we jumped into Afghanistan to get Osama at all costs. Next thing you know we’re being told that Saddam is the guy we should be concerned about, because he “harbors terrorists”. Now we have captured him, placed in a new government, and we’re still over there. I just have one question… weren’t we after Osama??? If so, where the hell is he and how come our government doesn’t seem to care about him anymore? I mean, we’re constant bombarded as to how there’s a terrorist in our ass at every moment, and how we should question our family members of being terrorists, but what about the guy who supposedly did all this?
So, is it possible that our own government staged a terrorist attack on our own land just so that they could have a reason to get into Iraq? Absolutely! They’ve done it before! The only difference is that this president didn’t decline the memo!
If you want more information on Operation Northwoods, here’s a couple articles for you:
ABC News article on Operation Northwoods
Online copy of Operation Northwoods document
PDF version at George Washington University
Operation Northwoods on SourceWatch
Excerpt from Body of Secrets, p.82 and following