Friendly Fire (Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba)

ABCnews.com ^ | 1 May 2002 | David Ruppe

[sailor4321]

Plus, we were fighting the war we had been preparing for forty years to fight on the central plains of Europe, i.e., against Soviet doctrine and equipment.

[Icthus]

Yea I know...unfortunately, the ones who do, live in Palm Beach County! ;o)

[Isle of sanity in CA]

From ABCNEWS.COM

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.

Then why is it in the book?

[MinorityRepublican]

Plus, we were fighting the war we had been preparing for forty years to fight on the central plains of Europe, i.e., against Soviet doctrine and equipment.

Yes, that reminded me. The Iraqi used inferior, outdated Russian equipment. We should really take Saddam out now. He's only at 40% of his 1990 peak strength.

The sequel will be a cakewalk. Just like the first time.

[sailor4321]

Wasn't "The Puzzle Palace" timed such that it helped build momentum behind the Frank Church drive to emasculate the intelligence services?

Sounds like this guy Bamford is one of the lefts' hacks charged with implanting disinformation when needed....

[fporretto]

Ordinarily, I'd snort something like this away, but as it's coming from Bamford it's not wise to do that. He's a pretty reliable investigator, with at least one good book (The Puzzle Palace) to his credit. So he might be mistaken -- I sincerely hope he is! -- but I doubt he's actively trying to deceive anyone.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[MinorityRepublican]

Yea I know...unfortunately, the ones who do, live in Palm Beach County! ;o)

Haha, that seemed so long time ago. I know it only have been 2 years, but it felt more like 20, heh.

[Enemy Of The State]

Geez...who could ever believe such a thing. Certainly our government has never been guily of manipulating its own people or terrorising them. I mean its not like they have ever tested drugs (LSD) or biological agents on their own military or anything...

[demlosers]

...Frank Church drive to emasculate the intelligence services?

The "The Puzzle Palace" was published in 1982, Senator Churches emasculation of the CIA [no assassination] came during the late 1970s -- the Jimmy Carter years as I recall.

[Isle of sanity in CA]

Yeah, this guys really credible

Here's a good critique of this idiots earlier work I found in TNR (conservative HQ?)

Having laid out his theory of the attack, Bamford moves on to the alleged cover-up. Following the assault on the Liberty, he writes, American Jewish organizations conspired with the Johnson administration to quash any investigation of Israel. "With an election coming up, no one in the weak-kneed House and Senate wanted to offend powerful pro-Israel groups and lose their fat campaign contributions." No evidence whatsoever is presented to support this slur, which belies Bamford's contention that "critics [of Israel] are regularly silenced by outrageous charges of anti-Semitism."

One would hardly expect such shoddy work to garner serious attention. But it has. Writing in The New York Times on April 23 ("BOOK SAYS ISRAEL INTENDED 1967 ATTACK ON U.S. SHIP"), James Risen relayed Bamford's claims intact, without any attempt to solicit a countervailing view. In The Wall Street Journal, Timothy Naftali lauded Body of Secrets as an "authoritative and engaging book." National Public Radio invited Bamford on the syndicated talk show "Fresh Air," where he accused Israel of committing "massive war crimes" against Egyptian soldiers and civilians. The interviewer, Neal Conan, never challenged him. Indeed, only one critique to date--Joseph Finder's in The New York Times Book Review--dared to question Bamford's sources or the logic of Israel "perpetrating one massacre in order to cover up another."

[sailor4321]

Thank you! You've jogged my memory!

The issue at the time "The Puzzle Palace" was published was President Reagan's proposal to remove some of the "safeguards" (l.e., shackles) the Church committee had put in place. Frank Church was still around, of course, and cited Bamford's book as he spouted off about the awsome power of the NSA and the danger from the right...

Why do they always fear "the right" when it was the left that gave us virtually every murderous tyranny spawned in the 20th Century? The right didn't murder 135 million people, the left did.,

[tet68]

Hmmm.let me try, CIA., heroin,black ghettos,USS.Liberty,jewish congress,
Jakobs Ladder, Mel Gibbson,diamonds( can't leave those out)
Angola,Algore at bay of pigs.com.
Wow, this is harder than I thought, my tinfoil kap is off to you!

[VOA]

...this reminds me of those news reports a while back about the massacre during the Korean war.

You probably already know this, but for lurkers...
The story of the No-Gun-Ri was blown apart by Joey Galloway (the same guy who
was played by Barry Pepper in "We Were Soldiers").

And a book exposing the errors in the reportage has also been highly rated
over at www.amazon.com:

No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident by Robert Bateman

[mykej]

"Yes, that reminded me. The Iraqi used inferior, outdated Russian equipment. We should really take Saddam out now. He's only at 40% of his 1990 peak strength.

The sequel will be a cakewalk. Just like the first time."

You mean we'll go 50 miles in and turn around?

[Intolerant in NJ]

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......thank G*d cooler heads prevailed and we went to an obviously more sensible and practicable plan to get Castro - "Operation Mongoose" captained by RFK himself and manned by, among others, the Mafia, who undertook such daring-do as trying to introduce itching-powder to Castro's beard.......

[Enemy Of The State]

gee mr. tet. maybe someone in my family could explain to you what its like to be subjected to LSD without consent. oh but im sure you would doubt his exisistance as much as the the abuse of US troops in Vietnam

[tet68]

Maybe you should document it and post a thread.

[lavaroise]

The liberals always use the Reichtag fire humanitarian martyrdom bull to get their stuff going, and then they accuse the rightwing US to do just that. It's pathetic.

[Skywalk]

I made something of a mistake buying Bamford's Body of Secrets book. I should have read about the author prior to purchase because if I had known I would get an entire section of the book dedicated to demonizing Israeli actions in '56 and then more demonization because of the USS Liberty and villification of the right wing element in the US Military in the 50s and 60s I would have put the book back on the shelf.

While the book has some good information and research, I can't help but wonder how much of it to trust as it seems written by a lefty FOR a lefty audience.

[sailor4321]

you would doubt his exisistance as much as the the abuse of US troops in Vietnam

I was a US troop in Vietnam and I swear I was abused even once. Didn't know any other US troops who were abused and never heard of any such thing "on the grapevine". Now, it was tough duty for sure --- just can't say we were abused.