9-11's Predecessor.

Are (democratic) governments capable of killing their own civilians in order to achieve a higher goal? Let me rephrase this sentence: could a (democratic) government attack its own civilians in a staged attack in order to mobilize support for a war?

Anyone who is a regular on the internet has seen the literally thousands of conspiracy theories surrounding the horrific events on that dreadful September the eleventh morning. With the exception of a few well-argued, well-documented few, nearly all of them are hardly worth reading or watching, for the human mind and paranoia can produce the most preposterous conspiracy theories.

Personally I don't want to focus too much on the events on September eleventh, so much has been written, so much is documented that I don't feel that my contribution could be of any significance. What I do want to focus on is the question whether a democratic government could be capable of such an attack. I'm not going to answer that with a yes or a no, but here's food for thought: if one assumes that people in general and the ruling military elite have not changed significantly during the past 40 years, one would be tempted to answer “yes,” especially when analyzing what is called “Operation Northwoods.” A very real and spine-chilling plan, formulated by the American military elite to stage attacks on American civilians in order to mobilize support for an invasion of Cuba.

Below is an ABC News article from May 2001. After September the eleventh, the mainstream media hardly mentioned this ever again, fearing that this would be interpreted a unpatriotic.


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.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America's largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

"These were Joint Chiefs of Staff documents. The reason these were held secret for so long is the Joint Chiefs never wanted to give these up because they were so embarrassing," Bamford told ABCNEWS.com.
"The whole point of a democracy is to have leaders responding to the public will, and here this is the complete reverse, the military trying to trick the American people into a war that they want but that nobody else wants."

Gunning for War

The documents show "the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government," writes Bamford.




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