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Operation Northwoods Constitution into the wastebasket. The pincers clamped down a lit- The first example is in 1962. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of __tle bit harder on the American people. Staff, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, and his fellow JCS members wanted to Presently, America finds itself in the midst of a tumultuous con- remove Castro from Cuba. Exactly what interests Lemnitzer and his flict because of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the fellow warhawks represented are unclear. However, one thing is Pentagon and the World Trade Center. This begs the obvious ques- apparent: these military men considered Castro an impediment to tion: was this attack state-sponsored? Remember the earlier con- be expunged by means of overt war. tention that the majority of terrorism is state-sponsored. Terrorists According to James Bamford, former Washington investigative just do not have the resources, the money or the expertise without producer for ABC, the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned to engineer sev- _ the aid of a government or factions within a government. It is still eral terrorist acts to instigate war (p. 82): too early to know all of the facts and details surrounding the events According to secret and long-hidden documents obtained for of September 11. However, there is evidence suggesting that the Body of Secrets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved attack was no exception to the rule. The investigation of govern- plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the US__ ment complicity begins with an examination of the evidence for government. In the name of anticommunism, they proposed launch - _ government foreknowledge. Warnings were received at the highest ing a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country _ levels of government. in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-con - These and other eye-opening revelations have many people ask- ceived war they intended to launch against Cuba. ing why the US government did not move to stop bin Laden and al- Codenamed Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the writ - _ Qa'ida. This question can be answered with a question: why move ten approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs against bin Laden and al-Qa'ida if they are your assets? of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; The story of the dreaded al-Qa'ida terrorist network begins with for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of National Security Advisor. In his 1997 violent terrorism to be launched in book, The Grand Chessboard: Washington, DC, Miami and elsewhere. American Primacy and Geostrategic People would be framed for bombings The story of the dreaded Objectives, Brzezinski provides readers they did not commit; planes would be al-Qa'ida terrorist network with the motivation for the creation of hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it . . Pe a terrorist threat. He begins (p. xii): would be blamed on Castro, thus giving begins with Zbigniew The last decade of the twentieth cen - Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as Brzezinski, President Carter's tury has witnessed a tectonic shift in well as the public and international world affairs. For the first time ever, a backing, they needed to launch their war. National Security Advisor. non-Eurasian power has emerged not Northwoods even called for the mili- only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power tary to turn on itself (p. 84): relations but also as the world's para - Among the actions recommended was mount. The defeat and collapse of the "a series of well-coordinated incidents to Soviet Union was the final step in the take place in and around" the US Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay, rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United Cuba. This included dressing "friendly" Cubans in Cuban military __ States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power... uniforms and then have them "start riots near the main gate of the Brzezinski celebrates the fact that America is being transformed base. Others would pretend to be saboteurs inside the base. into a world empire. However, he identifies a distinct threat to Ammunition would be blown up, fires started, aircraft sabotaged, America's ascendancy to the position of sole global power: "The mortars fired at the base with damage to installations". attitude of the American public toward the external projection of Operation Northwoods would draw upon history as well, using American power has been much more ambivalent" (p. 24). the 1898 explosion aboard the battleship Maine in Havana harbour _— Apparently, the citizenry's aversion towards imperialistic policies, as inspiration (p. 84): which Brzezinski euphemistically interprets as ambivalence, is an "We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame obstacle to the empire's expansion. After all, there are still plenty of Cuba," they proposed; "casualty lists in US newspapers would patriots who understand that Brzezinski's expansionistic "geostrate- cause a helpful wave of national indignation." gy" is irreconcilable with the tenets of Americanism. The attempt to create a Cuban terrorist threat makes it clear that This sense of awareness has been a major obstacle to the foreign the US government has no reservations about using state-sponsored _ policy elites that Brzezinski represents. Thus far, enough patriots terrorism to achieve its ends. know that none of the "Freedom Documents" (i.e., the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.) makes concessions for the arbitrary extension of American Imperialism and the Terrorist Threat America's authority through brutish military expeditions. As a sov- However, it is in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 that one ereign nation itself, America is supposed to honour the autonomy of sees the tangible enactment of modern-day state-sponsored terror- other countries and is not to initiate militaristic campaigns unless ism. Many Americans have been taught that loners Timothy she is threatened. Yet, Brzezinski believes that adherence to such McVeigh and Terry Nichols, fuelled by militia-inspired conspiracy _ principles could provoke worldwide social upheaval (p. 30): theories and white supremacist propaganda, perpetrated one of the America's withdrawal from the world, or because of the sudden worst terrorist acts in American history all by themselves. emergence of a successful rival, would produce massive internation - What came out of the Oklahoma City bombing? Former al instability. It would promote global anarchy. Czechoslovakian Communist Party Secretariat member Jan Kozak's Brzezinski continues further on in hyperbolic fashion (p. 194): "pressure from above" went to work and passed oppressive legisla- Without sustained and directed American involvement, before tion: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. long the forces of global disorder could come to dominate the world This Act made no one safer and threw the Fourth Amendment to the scene. The story of the dreaded al-Qa'ida terrorist network begins with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's National Security Advisor. American Imperialism and the Terrorist Threat However, it is in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 that one sees the tangible enactment of modern-day state-sponsored terror- ism. Many Americans have been taught that loners Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, fuelled by militia-inspired conspiracy theories and white supremacist propaganda, perpetrated one of the worst terrorist acts in American history all by themselves. What came out of the Oklahoma City bombing? Former Czechoslovakian Communist Party Secretariat member Jan Kozak's "pressure from above" went to work and passed oppressive legisla- tion: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. This Act made no one safer and threw the Fourth Amendment to the 12 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com