9/11 conspiracy tales this much we know to be true …

Humanist, March-April, 2002 by Michael I. Niman

One of the more disturbing stories references a 1962 covert U.S. government plan called Operation Northwoods, which supposedly called for U.S. government-sponsored terrorist attacks against Washington, D.C., and Miami, Florida. The attacks--which were to include bombing buildings and shooting citizens, as well as a faked hijacking--would be blamed on Fidel Castro's government in Cuba. The ensuing outrage among U.S. citizens would provide the necessary backdrop for an otherwise politically untenable full-scale invasion of Cuba. The plan was reported to be the brainchild of then Joint Chiefs of Staff General Lyman Lemnitzer. Conspiracy theorists are having a ball with this story. The implications after September 11, 2001, are obvious and unthinkable. But it's just another e-rumor. Right?

Here are the facts: Yes, General Lemnitzer did cook up a plan, Operation Northwoods, to cause mayhem and blame it on Cuba. Yes, a plane would be hijacked and blown up. But it would be empty, with a list of ersatz casualties being released. The information on bombings was also vague. There's no evidence of a plan to cause civilian casualties, though Lemnitzer's plan proposed that "we could blow up a [U.S.] ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba." He explained, "Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation." He also suggested sinking boats of Cuban refugees and blaming that too on Cuba.

When I finally tracked down and read the truth, I was actually relieved in the knowledge that, no, our government never actually planned to bomb Washington or Miami. I turned off my computer and took a break from writing. But then it hit me. If not for the initial buildup of fear and paranoia induced by the exaggerated e-rumor, I'd have been shocked at learning that our government actually planned to murder Cuban emigrants on the high seas, kill U.S. Navy personnel, and, in effect, terrorize the entire country into submitting to a draconian political agenda and supporting an otherwise unthinkable war.

This wasn't the deranged plan of a lone lunatic. It was approved by all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presented to the Kennedy administration on March 13, 1962. John F. Kennedy killed the plan but was later killed himself. Lemnitzer resigned, but the Joint Chiefs continued their scheming, cooking up plans to instigate a war between Cuba and another country, thus justifying a Persian Gulf-style war against Cuba. Operation Northwoods remained a secret for nearly forty years until James Bamford, a former ABC News investigative reporter, unearthed it while researching his second book, Body of Secrets, about the secretive National Security Agency, Doubleday has since published Bamford's book. ABC News briefly carried the story of Operation Northwoods back on May 1, 2001. Hardly a fly-by-night journalist, Bamford has been regularly published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. His 1983 book about the NSA, The Puzzle Palace, was a national bestseller. His expose of Operation Northwoods is bulletproof--and in light of the September 11 tragedy quite alarming.

DISINFORMATION AND PATRIOTISM

Bamford's story is obscure and little known, having been played down or ignored outright by the mass media. This is where the e-rumor comes into play. It's incredible. It exaggerates the real story just enough to destroy its credibility, yet it travels fast and far. It's an info-virus. It's disinformation. It reeks of conspiracy theories. It's not credible. And hence, Bamford's story, if and when we finally run into it, also isn't credible. Been there. Heard it.

September 11 has unleashed a tidal wave of patriotism, defined by dictionaries as zealously supporting the authority and interests of one's country. It has also unleashed a current of paranoia as people here in the United States strive to understand what is happening to us, our country, and the world.

Those who are looking for clues to keep up with, and possibly figure out, the current political dynamics, are suddenly awash in both information and disinformation. It's time for rumor control.

Journalists should be slaves to the truth, searching out stories and presenting them to the public, letting the chips lie where they fall. It's the public's responsibility to then sort the stories out, making of them what they will. In that light, here are a few facts and stories that proved to be true. Make of them what you will.

THE LATEST DOPE ON ANTRAX

According to a December 10, 2001, report by the Federation of American Scientists FAS), all of the anthrax mailed to both the media and the offices of two Democratic U.S. senators originates from the U.S. bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick. This validates the mid-October reports in the British press identifying the anthrax plaguing U.S. mail as being from the Ames strain used by the U.S. military. Those reports didn't stop U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from speculating on Nightline six weeks later that the Iraqis might be responsible for the anthrax attacks. The FAS report, however, clearly states that the Senate sample contains a special form of silica used in the U.S. process. It doesn't contain bentonite, which is used by the Iraqis. The FBI now suspects that the anthrax was sent by a lone male domestic terrorist, recently immunized against anthrax, with both high tech lab (microbiology) and forensic experience. All indications now point to a single highly trained Nazi wacko--not al-Qaeda or Iraq. While Rumsfeid might have capitalized on the anthrax generated hysteria, it is highly unlikely that this is a Northwoods-style operation since no covert agency would use an anthrax strain with a genetic signature pointing back to an embarrassing U.S. government bioweapons program.