Operation Northwoods

Operation Northwoods

“After a nuclear terrorist event, an independent blue ribbon commission's should fully investigate what happened before a military response, and by all means a nuclear response, is authorized.” David J. Dionisi

History has illustrated that internal attacks are sometimes planned as a catalyst for war. For this reason, a nuclear terrorist attack should not automatically be assumed to be the work of al Qaeda or Iran's Qods force.

Consider the 1962 recommendation to President John F. Kennedy that Americans be killed in terrorist attacks to justify an invasion of Cuba. The operation, code named Operation Northwoods, was part of the larger Operation Mongoose program. Operation Northwoods was submitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962.

The Top Secret Operation Northwoods plan called for "massive casualty producing events" that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The proposals included attacking a U.S. commercial passenger plane using a U.S. made reproduction of a Russian made MIG attack aircraft, blowing up a refugee boat, blowing up a U.S. ship, and implementing a series of terrorist attacks in the United States including the capitol. The objective of Operation Northwoods was to concoct a "Remember the Maine" incident and win mass support for an invasion of Cuba.

To read the now declassified Operation Northwoods plan, visit http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/doc1.pdf.

As historical background on the reference to the Maine, on February 15, 1898 the American battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Of the 350 men on the Maine, 266 died. This event motivated U.S. citizens to support a war with Spain. For more information about the Maine, visit http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues98/feb98/maine.html.

Source: James Bamford, National Security Archive, 30 April 2001.

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