Bruce Baird Profile picture
Former engineer, college professor, and high school history teacher; present-day researcher, writer, and activist who believes you're never too old to question!

Nov 24, 2022, 93 tweets

The "Operation Northwoods" LIE that has been repeatedly used to PROVE that both JFK assassination & 9/11 were INSIDE JOBS executed by the "Military-Industrial Complex" or "Deep State" is #disinfo designed to divert attention from ISRAELI complicity in both JFK & 9/11
Thread
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In March 2001 - just six months BEFORE 9/11 - the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen aired on Fox TV with a dramatic scene in which a Boeing 727 is remotely hijacked by "terrorists" - actually a secret cabal in US govt - & flown into the WTC.
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As I have shown in an Oct 2019 thread, there are a lot of serious questions we could ask about the timing of this pilot, including what possible role Rupert Murdoch played in its production. Was this deliberate Zionist "predictive programming"?
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Far more suspicious is the timing of the release in April 2001 - five months BEFORE 9/11 - of James Bamford’s book Body of Secrets that introduced the world to “Operation Northwoods” that Bamford claimed “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.”
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Bamford described "Operation Northwoods" as planned false-flag attacks in which US civilians would be killed - approved by Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen Lyman Lemnitzer - to be blamed on Cuba as pretext for invading Cuba to take down Castro, only prevented by JFK opposition
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The most elaborate "Operation Northwoods" scheme - one that would get the most attention after 9/11 -involved offloading passengers with aliases from a CIA civilian plane onto a disguised military plane, converting the civilian plane to drone & blowing it up over Cuba!
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Such outrageous #FalseFlag plans from official US govt documents made it easy to convince practically every #911Truther from Day One that "9/11 was an inside job". Hell, even I proudly wore the T-shirt that my students had given me as a retirement gift back in June 2017!
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But before jumping to the conclusion that "9/11 was an inside job" we might consider some very strange things about James Bamford's Body of Secrets and the way the "Operation Northwoods" was PROPAGANDIZED after its release in April 2001 - five months BEFORE 9/11
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Firstly we might ask what was “Operation Northwoods” even doing in a book on NSA? Further in a 763-page book why such inordinate MSM interest in 9 pages dealing w/"Operation Northwoods" and NOT, say, Bamford's shocking revelations abt Israeli sinking of NSA's USS Liberty?
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Even stranger in the way Body of Secrets was promoted was that all the outrageous details that Bamford claimed to have been the first to reveal were actually well publicized in MSM back in Nov 1997 reporting on a major 1500-page release by the ARRB
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archives.gov/files/research…

The only things new that Bamford added in April 2001 was that he completely FABRICATED two stories: (1) the story that there were 15 pages that were actually called "Operation Northwoods" and (2) libelous accusations agst Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer who had died back in 1988
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In the 1500-page ARRB release (that includes Bamford's "15 pages"), the JCS as part of what they called the "Cuba Project" & CIA as part of what they called "Operation Mongoose" proposed many schemes that they referred to by the name "operation"
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But NOT ONCE in 1500-page ARRB release is there ANY reference to "Operation Northwoods"! Even Bamford's 15 pages shows "Northwoods" simply internal filing code name used by JCS in 1962 for who was on distribution list for certain Cuba Project docs
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nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/…

Furthermore, as even Bamford acknowledges, the 1500-pages include many #FalseFlag plans dated before & after the "15 pages", or even "Northwood documents", or even Lemnitzer as head of JCS. So how exactly are the "15 pages" "the most corrupt plan" ever created by US govt?
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For Bamford the #FalseFlags in the "15 pages" are "the most corrupt plan" ever created by US govt b/c he believes they were (for the first time & last time in US history?) actually APPROVED by Gen Lyman Lemnitzer & all the Joint Chiefs (here shown meeting w/JFK in Jan 1961)
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But I do not believe there is anything in any of the ARRB releases available online that suggests the "15 pages" were "approved" in a substantially different way than any of the other "outrageous" proposals in the early 1960s to legitimate the US invasion of Cuba
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Lemnitzer & JCS were merely responding to an official 6 Mar 1962 request to JCS & State Dept from Gen. Edwin Lansdale, JFK's Chief of Operations for the Cuba Project, for "brief but precise description" of "pretexts" to justify possible future military intervention of Cuba
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It is clear from Sec State Dean Rusk's references to "other tracks" & "their" plots - like "joking" abt "Bay of Pigs" in Guatemala - for which "they" could be blamed, that Rusk understood Lansdale was asking for ideas for #FalseFlag attacks executed by US to be blamed on Cuba
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The pattern of the "15 pages" response was established by Jan 1962 after Lansdale informally asked Gen William Craig (rep for both DoD & JCS to Caribbean Survey Group) for ideas for destroying Cuban sugar economy (Task 33b) & provoking Cuba to attack US forces (33c & 33d)
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I have yet to find Craig's list of recommendations for Task 33b destroying Cuban sugar economy but apparently it included the use of CIA non-lethal insect-borne biological weapons (!) that impressed Lansdale & he asked DoD to submit plans by 2 Feb on a "most discreet" basis
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We learn more about the way Craig got these ideas for Tasks 33c & 33d via a memo from the "Special Plans & Ops" group to Craig, who would then check they ideas he thought "might be useful"
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Lansdale's was impressed by the "imaginative ideas" in "Special Plans & Ops" Task 33c & 33d list - which included the idea to simulate an attack agst Cuba, "then if Cuba reacts, 'hit with all we have'"- "which deserve further developing" & asked DoD to submit plans by 2 Feb
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Obviously JFK's Chief of Operations for the Cuba Project Edward Lansdale WANTED this kind of "no idea is too crazy" approach to brainstorming from the JCS, anything that MIGHT help bring down the Castro govt in Cuba
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Besides the official requests, William Craig would also submit unsolicited lists of quite creative "operations" to Lansdale "in furtherance of the objectives of the Cuba Project" like this 2 Feb 1962 list
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The first "Northwoods" filing system code name was not introduced until 7 Feb 1962 but the "Northwoods" documents are not substantially different than what preceded
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maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?d…

19 Feb 1962 Craig sent a memo to Lansdale reporting BOTH the Joint Chiefs AND Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense, had approved the revised Task 33c & 33d plans for provoking Castro to attack US forces, quite toned down from the original "Special Plans & Ops" ideas
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As we will soon see, this same Roswell Gilpatric on 13 March 1962 would similarly approve Craig's letter to Lansdale that WAS Bamford's 15 PAGES (sans cover letters & Craig's signature) - a telling fact that Bamford never mentioned! So WHO was this Roswell Gilpatric?
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In 1961 JFK handpicked Gilpatric, Under Sec of Air Force under Truman, to be McNamara's lieutenant at the Pentagon. As was revealed in 1975 Church Committee hearings, Gilpatric was also "the highest-ranking Kennedy aide working on 'Operation Mongoose'"
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Gilpatric was member of Special Group (SG) along w/McGeorge Bundy, Alexis Johnson, John McCone & Lyman Lemnitzer and all five were also members of SGA (SG augmented by Atty Gen Robert Kennedy & Gen Maxwell Taylor). SGA was created to oversee Operation Mongoose.
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In 1975 Gilpatric testified within the SGA charter "the one thing that was off limits was military invasion.” However, the 19 Feb 1962 Craig memo (as AP noted in Jan 1998 article) clearly shows Gilpatric approved Task 33b & 33c plans designed to lead to US invasion of Cuba
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Now once again turning to Bamford's "15 pages", we begin w/Lansdale's actual "Memorandum for General Craig" of 5 March 1962 in which Lansdale asked Craig for "a brief but precise description of pretexts which the JCS believes desirable for direct military intervention."
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Perhaps acknowledging (acc to Gilpatric) SGA charter preclusion of military invasion, Lansdale added "It is recognized that the action which becomes the pretext must lead to a political decision, which then would lead to military action.”
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William Craig reported on 12 March 1962 the JCS "recommended forwarding for planning purposes a preliminary submission of pretexts which might be used to provide justification for miliary intervention in Cuba" but he NEEDED Gilpatric's approval before sending to Lansdale
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Craig wrote "This doc will be submitted to the DepSecDef [Gilpatric] for approval today [March 13] and forwarded to the Chief of Operations, Cuba Project [Lansdale], if approved." And Gilpatric in a memo for the DOD/JCS Rep Craig the very same day promptly approved the doc!
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Apparently after Gilpatric's approval, that same day (March 13) Craig then forwarded the memo "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba (TS)" DIRECTLY to Lansdale as Craig had done for earlier requests from Lansdale to the JCS/DOD Rep.
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maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?d…

Exact copies (identical font & word spacing) of the rest of Craig's March 13 report is included in Bamford's "15 pages", repaginated and retitled "Appendix to Enclosure A" & "Annex to Appendix to Enclosure A".
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Everything that led Bamford to call the "15 pages" "the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government" was right there in Craig's March 13 report, approved by the JCS AND Gilpatric & undoubtedly brainstormed by the "Special Plans & Ops" group just like Task 33
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I should note that the only place I have found the 13 March 1962 Gilpatric memo & original Craig report is NOT in the JCS records that have been released but in the Papers of Joseph Califano, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army
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maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?d…

So what WAS Bamford's "15 pages"? The cover letter that Lemnitzer signs dated the same day (March 13) is a simplified paraphrase of Craig's cover letter but for some reason directed to SecDef McNamara for approval rather than Gilpatric
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The "15 pages" also includes "Note by the Secretaries" to JCS, most notable for presence of filing system code name "Northwoods" that Joint Secretariat of F. J. Blouin & M. J. Ingelido used, the assumed basis for Bamford referring to the "15 pages" as "Operation Northwoods"
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In a 2-page insert & Appendix B, the "15 pages" does take a stronger stand suggesting the time for waiting is OVER & "any action which becomes pretext for US military intervention WILL lead to a political decision which then WOULD lead to military action"
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But Lemnitzer & the Joint Chiefs didn't think they were the only ones thinking this way. They note actions proposed by US Navy to generate instances in Guantanamo area & State Dept "preparing suggested courses of action to develop justification for US military intervention"
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Indeed, as Fabian Escalante's The Secret War: CIA covert operations against Cuba 1959-62 (1995) shows over and over, creating a pretext for military intervention had been part & parcel of US policy toward Cuba since the Bay of Pigs fiasco
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archive.org/details/Fabian…

The State Dept, DoD & CIA all understood with Operation Mongoose that any CIA-orchestrated assassination of Fidel Castro would still require follow-up US military intervention to bring an end to Communist rule in Cuba
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There were tensions w/CIA as shown in Lansdale's Jan 1962 Program Review where he noted CIA attempts to foster a popular movement - illusory & actual - in Cuba to provide plausible excuse for armed intervention ran contrary to Presidential directive now governing Cuba Project
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But Lansdale was only saying that was not the CIA's job. "Actually, the role of creating the political climate & plausible excuse for armed intervention would be more properly that of State and Defense, if such an objective becomes desirable."
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In 9 Feb 1962 memo to Lansdale, Craig noted JCS & Gilpatric had approved “stake and role” paper as official DOD position that Communist regime in Cuba incompatible w/Western Hemisphere security & DoD prepared to overtly support any popular movement inside Cuba to oust
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Gilpatric & JCS believed that, if handled properly, a poplar uprising or hostile acts committed by Cuban regime agst US forces or property would serve as incidents upon which to base overt US intervention w/o precipitating general war or serious effect on world public opinion
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Roger Hilsman, Director of Intel & Research at State agreed w/others no way to unseat present regime in Cuba by anything short of outright military intervention but feared US heading to fiasco worse than Bay of Pigs b/c no agreement on whether to do so or how to provoke it
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It was in the context of this growing consensus that there would be no way to remove the dire threat of the Cuban regime w/o direct US military intervention that Lansdale on 5/6 March 1962 asked the State & Defense Depts for a list of "pretexts" to justify such intervention
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14 March 1962 Gen Maxwell Taylor (JFK's trusted Military Representative) completed "Guidelines for Operation Mongoose" that he had begun drafting 5 Mar & revised slightly in response to suggestions from McGeorge Bundy (JFK's Nat Sec Advisor) and John McCone (Head of CIA)
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16 March 1962 JFK personally attended a meeting in the Oval Office at which all the major Operation Mongoose players were present: Gen Taylor, Bundy, McCone, Gilpatric, RFK, Gen. Lansdale, DepSecState Alexis Johnson & Gen. LEMNITZER
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Curiously there are two somewhat contradictory accts as to what transpired at this 16 March 1962 meeting - a meeting that plays a key role in Bamford's Lemnitzer story - one from Alexis Johnson (l) & the other from Lansdale (r)
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web.archive.org/web/2003122413…
maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?d…

Taylor's "Guidelines for Operation Mongoose" states quite clearly that in order to overthrow Cuban govt "US will make maximum use of indigenous resources, internal and external, but recognizes that final success will require decisive US military intervention"
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Re Johnson, JFK "expressed general approval" of "Guidelines" but clearly understood JFK did not express or imply approval using US forces for overt military action & was skeptical circumstances would arise justifying & making that desirable but was fine w/contingency planning
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Lansdale reports he told JFK "creating a revolution inside Cuba looked just as valid as ever" but it needed US military participation to support guerillas which could be done w/o US military intervention "but we must be ready to intervene with US forces, if necessary"
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JFK asked if US military intervention was an issue which the Special Group was posing to him now and "Taylor and the Special Group promptly said. 'No.'" Gen Lemnitzer commented the military had contingency plans for US intervention & plans for creating plausible pretexts
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"The President said bluntly that we were not discussing the use of US military force, that Gen Lemnitzer might find the US so engaged in Berlin or elsewhere that he couldn't use the contemplated 4 divisions in Cuba."
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Lansdale concluded "So, we cannot say that we are able now to make a decision on the use of US military force." JFK was fine w/US military support for guerillas but NOT to point required US military intervention. JFK OK with contingency plans & pretexts as long as just plans.
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As for Bamford's "15 pages" I have found NO reference to it in any other records. On 12 April 1962, Lansdale forwarded to Taylor an “advance copy” of JCS “Pretexts” paper stating “I am informed that the Chiefs approved this." This HAS to be Craig's report, NOT Lemnitzer's.
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Minutes of Special Group Augmented for April 12, 1962 show Gen Taylor must have turned around & called the Group’s attention to the JCS paper "which most of them had not yet received” - even though Gen. Lemnitzer was a member of the SGA!
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Even though few outside JCS had apparently seen Gen Craig's "Pretexts" memo by mid-April 1962, it seems RFK had after receiving a briefing from Craig on 21 Mar 1962 (see note upper right) on "Plans to Assist Cubans in Overthrowing the Communist Regime"
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maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?d…

At 22 March 1962 SGA meeting, the day after Craig's briefing, RFK raised possibility US manufacture or acquisition of Soviet aircraft "could be used in a deception operation designed to confuse enemy planes in the air," exactly as recommended by Craig in the "Pretexts" memo!
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SGA added Soviet aircraft could be used "to launch a surprise attack agst enemy installations or in a provocation operation in which Soviet aircraft would appear to attack US or friendly installations in order to provide an excuse for US intervention"!
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sputniknews.com/20171120/us-fa…

19 April 1962 Operation Quick Kick - one of the ops Craig proposed in Feb 1962 for carrying out Task 33 - began large-scale maneuvers on East Coast simulating attack on Caribbean govt hostile to US w/300 aircraft, 83 warships & 40,000 troops w/JFK personally inspecting
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Summer 1962 numerous provocations like Craig's Task 33 ops, esp US soldiers at Guantanamo firing into Cuban territory & violations of Cuban air space, vain attempts to get the Cuban to fire back & create pretext for military intervention but to no avail
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So with that overview of what was going on w/Operation Mongoose in 1962, we are now in a much better position to seriously critique the fiction of Bamford's "Operation Northwoods" or more accurately the "15 pages" since I've already shown NO SUCH THING as OPERATION Northwoods
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Had Lemnitzer & Joint Chiefs quietly slipped over the edge? No
Were 15 pages "secret and long-hidden documents obtained for Body of Secrets"? No
Did the Joint Chiefs draw up the plans? No
Was this "the most corrupt plan ever created by the US government"? Hardly!
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Did JCS propose "launching a secret & bloody war of terrorism agst their own country"? No. If you study the "Pretexts", you will notice in their "no idea is too crazy" brainstorming, the Special Plans & Ops (SP&O) somehow studiously avoided killing ANY American civilians!
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SP&O weren't as considerate of Cuban lives when in suggesting "We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (REAL or simulated)" but when they add "We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees...even to the extent of WOUNDING" you imagine a SIMULATED sinking
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I wouldn't argue w/Bamford that a main purpose of the "Pretexts" was "to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war" although in hindsight coming 7 months before the Cuban Missile Crisis some might argue abt how "ill-conceived" war would have been
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I'd also agree the "pretexts" designed to "trick" the Am people into "a war in which many patriotic Americans & innocent Cubans would die senseless deaths." But I think a case could be made that Am people have been TRICKED into EVERY war they've fought since Lexington 1775!
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Leaders like Polk, Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, FDR, LBJ & Bush have maneuvered Americans to believe the enemy fired first to justify a "good war" of self-defense, ignoring to whatever degree the enemy was maneuvered into firing the first shot or the whole story was fabricated
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Provoking the Cubans to fire the first shot not morally different than Fort Sumter or Pearl Harbor, the only question being in the minds of many "moral" people whether the ends justified the means
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"Pretexts" in "15 pages" not fundamentally different from plans to assassinate Castro or Task 33 "pretexts", all designed to justify US military intervention in Cuba for Am people & the world. "Pretexts" grew more "outrageous" b/c that was requested of "Special Plans & Ops"
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Besides Lemnitzer/JCS hardly some right-wing cabal in approving Craig's March 13 report. Gilpatric approved it before it was sent to Lansdale who recommended it to Taylor who recommended it to SGA. RFK got a briefing from Craig & next day pushed for Soviet aircraft "pretext"!
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Bamford also paints a misleading picture of JFK's attitude at 16 April 1962 SGA meeting saying JFK "told Lemitzer that there was virtually no possibility that the US would ever use overt military force in Cuba" as if JFK was rebuking Lemnitzer for even suggesting "pretexts"
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Actually both Lansdale (l) & Johnson (r) accts clearly show JFK NEVER said "virtually no possibility." He simply did not want to commit at that time to any "pretext" that would NECESSARILY demand US military intervention. But JFK was open to the idea of continued planning.
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That Lemnitzer continue to push need for military intervention to end Cuban security threat until JFK replaced him as JCS chair with Gen Taylor on 1 Oct 1962 - just TWO weeks before Cuban Missile Crisis - is certainly no evidence Lemnitzer & JCS had "slipped over the edge"
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Nevertheless, Bamford never suggests Lemnitzer/JCS connected to #JFKAssassination & certainly makes no assertion about 9/11 (since his book was published before 9/11) so what does Bamford's "Operation Northwoods" have to do with either?
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In short, Bamford's "Operation Northwoods" fits very easily into the most prominent "conspiracy theory," the theory that both JFK assassination & 9/11 were INSIDE JOBS executed by the "Military-Industrial Complex" or "Deep State"
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This kind of "conspiracy theory" was first popularized in the 1962 novel & 1964 movie Seven Days in May in which the right-wing chair of the Joint Chiefs (played by Burt Lancaster) orchestrates a coup agst a liberal president (Frederic March).
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"Conspiracy theories began to circulate almost immediately after President Kennedy was shot, when broadcast commentators reporting the shooting speculated that Dallas right-wingers might have plotted to kill him"
nytimes.com/1992/01/05/us/…
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Twenty years before Oliver Stone's JFK, the 1973 movie Executive Action (again starring Burt Lancaster) shockingly made the conspiracy by a shadowy right-wing cabal to assassinate the liberal JFK look very REAL!
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But it would be Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) that would give rise to the current dominant JFK conspiracy theory in the response by "X" (Donald Sutherland) to Jim Garrison's (Kevin Costner) query: "I never realized Kennedy was so dangerous to the establishment. Is that why?"
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In a nutshell, "X" (echoing the movie's prologue) tells Garrison "the military-industrial complex" (MIC) killed JFK b/c he refused to invade Cuba in 1962, was set to withdraw from Vietnam & wanted to end the Cold War. LBJ gave MIC what it wanted.
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imsdb.com/scripts/JFK.ht…

Oliver Stone's "military-industrial complex" theory of #JFKAssassination would be seconded by two influential books: Peter Dale Scott's Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993) - who popularized the term "deep state" - and James Douglass' JFK and the Unspeakable (2008).
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After Bamford's Body of Secrets came out in April 2001, supporters of the "military-industrial complex" theory of JFK assassination immediately recognized "Operation Northwoods" as just one more piece of evidence in support of what they already thought was the best theory.
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After 11 Sep 2001 it didn't take long for some to see a connection btwn "Operation Northwoods" & 9/11. If JCS could have planned such horrendous "pretexts" in 1962 to justify invasion of Cuba, they certainly could have done so in 2001 to justify war w/Afghanistan, Iraq, etc
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As for The Lone Gunmen pilot broadcast in March 2001 - in which eerily a cabal tried to fly a jet into the WTC & then blame the incident on Arabs in order to provoke a war - it curiously generated little to no notice after 9/11!
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Leaders of the incipient #911Truth movement like Thierry Meyssan, Barrie Zwicker, Michael Ruppert, Webster Tarpley, Alex Jones & Jim Marrs saw "Operation Northwoods" as a precedent for 9/11 suggesting MIC or "deep state" behind 9/11.
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But it will be with the release of the 2nd ed of Loose Change in 2006 that highlights "Operation Northwoods" in its opening sequence that "Operation Northwoods" will go VIRAL as central to unlocking the "truth" of 9/11
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Because this thread is getting a lot longer than I thought it would, I'm going to continue it on a new thread focused on showing how "Operation Northwoods" was PROPAGANDA designed to divert attention from ISRAELI complicity in both JFK & 9/11
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