When the tragic events of Sept 11, 2001 occurred, there were many who speculated about the real causes and agents involved.
Though the Western media was quick to point the finger of accusation at the Muslim world, many dissident voices in the West ranging from the level-headed to the sublimely ridiculous began to contemplate other possible explanations for the worst terrorist attack on the United States ever.
Granted, some of the theories propounded then were far-fetched by anyone's standards. Some of them hypothesised about the possibility of a broad coalition of malevolent forces, ranging from the extreme right to Christian fundamentalists working with the Iraqis, Libyans, North Koreans or even the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. Others suggested that the whole thing may have been an 'insider' plot by the top brass to topple the US government itself and open the way for the rise of the army.
Whatever the case may be, we now see the end results of Sept 11 as the bitter harvest is being reaped by the security and intelligence agencies in the US. With the creation of the Department of Homeland Defence, the US will have, for the first time, a gargantuan centralised security apparatus to monitor and spy on its own population.
We can forgive some of the more sceptical voices within the US itself when we consider the country's own record as far as the security and intelligence apparatus is concerned. For increasingly we have been exposed to the country's own murky past, as revelations of misdeeds and irregularities come to the surface. The theory that the attack on the US was orchestrated by the US government itself does not seem too far fetched when we look back at what the American security services have been up to since the 1960s.
One of the most brazen attacks on the fundamental rights and liberties of American citizens came in the form of a little-known operation codenamed "Operation Northwoods" that was hatched in 1962-63.
A time of witch-hunts
Though few of us may have heard of it (and that is no surprise, considering the fact that it was kept under wraps for 40 years), Operation Northwoods was one of the most ambitious, dangerous and illegal covert operations ever hatched by the American Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It has been recorded in detail by the scholar James Bamford in his book Body of secrets: how America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ eavesdrop on the world .(1)
One has to remember the political climate of the time. During the 1960s, America was in a state of Cold War against the Soviets and communist China, and the American state was being kept in an (albeit undeclared) permanent war footing.
This was the time of the McCarthy witch-hunts, when the FBI was rooting out suspected communists and leftists in the media, academia and political establishment. The American government was not only spying on the Soviets and Chinese they were also actively engaged in spying on their own people, constantly on the lookout for 'traitors' and 'commies' under the blanket.
The biggest headache for the US security and intelligence services then was Cuba. President Eisenhower, himself an ex-general and man of war, was determined to bring down the pro-Soviet government of Fidel Castro at all costs. Efforts were made to undermine Castro from within and without. It was well known even then that US covert operatives had tried to assassinate Castro or at least topple his government by whatever means necessary.
But Eisenhower failed in his task, and on Jan 20, 1961 was forced to step down as the new President John F Kennedy came to power.
Despite the popular image of Kennedy today (thanks in part to his valorisation at the hands of several Hollywood directors) as a man of peace and liberal values, it was a fact that Kennedy himself was no different from Eisenhower when it came to the question of protecting American interests abroad. Kennedy was the one who authorised the expansion of the scale of US military involvement in Vietnam, and he too shared Eisenhower's distaste for the Castro government.
Plot to kill innocent people
But even Kennedy could not match the pathological loathing for Castro that was the exclusive purview of America's generals and heads of the CIA, FBI and NSA. Among the hawks, the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman L Lemnitzer was the most aggressive and uncompromising. It was he who had counselled Eisenhower to declare an all-out war against Cuba and to invade the tiny island with US ground, sea and air forces. (p 63)
The most dangerous thing about Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs of Staff was that they were, by then, a law unto themselves and totally beyond the control of the Congress. As Bamford notes: "no one in Congress could have known it at the time, but Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs had quietly slipped over the edge". (p 82)
Working quietly among themselves in secret locations that were not open to the public, Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs of Staff "drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the US government. In the name of anti-communism, they proposed launching a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba". (p 82) This became known as the highly secret (and illegal) Operation Northwoods.
Operation Northwoods was by far the most cynical, immoral, dangerous and potentially embarrassing plan that was ever passed by the JCS. It involved the deliberate and random killing of US civilians, indiscriminate bombing in the streets and buildings all over the country, deliberately planting evidence in the homes of innocent people and framing them for crimes they did not commit. It also called for acts of wanton terrorism, including the hijacking of aeroplanes and attacks on civilian targets. (p 85) The aim was to create a climate of anger and fear, so that the public would support further militarisation and an invasion of Cuba which would be blamed for all these attacks.
As Bamford notes, this covert operation was both immoral and illegal in every respect: "Operation Northwoods called for a war in which many patriotic Americans and innocent Cubans would die senseless deaths all to satisfy the egos of twisted generals back in Washington, safe in their tax-payer financed homes and limousines." (p 83)
Lest it be forgotten, Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were hardly humanitarian interventionists. They did not believe that the Cuban people deserved to be 'saved' from communism and given democracy instead. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion (which was a botched CIA operation), they became convinced that Castro was a popular leader in Cuba and his own people would not turn against him. Their solution, therefore, was to invade the island, kill or capture Castro, and then place the entire population of Cuba under detention at the hands of US troops. (p 87)
Trumping up wars
The only thing that saved Cuba at the time was the removal of Lemnitzer by Kennedy and McNamara. This put the operation on hold and the JCS were unable to act. In the years that followed, US covert operations were carried out in other countries that seemed more important for military and strategic reasons: Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, Greece and Iran.
But this does not alter the fact that Lemnitzer was "a dangerous, perhaps even unbalanced, right-wing extremist in an extraordinarily sensitive position at a critical time". (p 90)
He was, however, one of many. As Bamford notes, Operation Northwoods received the approval and support of the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, including senior Pentagon official Paul Nitze. (P 90)
In the light of the revelations in James Bamford's recent book, one could only agree with the author that "it is clear that deceiving the public and trumping up wars for Americans to fight and die was a standard, approved policy at the highest levels of the Pentagon". (p 91)
Today, we wonder if any kind of ideological or methodological shift has taken place in the corridors of power in the US. In the wake of Sept 11 we have witnessed the rising fortunes of men like Donald Rumsfeld, who have called for the expansion of US military and security capabilities across the board, so that the US can strike first at its enemies "with devastating effect".
While it is pointless to argue over who was really behind the Sept 11 attacks on the US at this stage, it is easier to see who has really benefited from it. As American law-makers prepare the way for the introduction of new laws to extend the scope for public surveillance and monitoring of its own citizens; as the generals wait to see the latest hi-tech weapons roll off the assembly line, and as America's covert ops units prepare for the new assignments in countries far away, Lyman L Lemnitzer must be smiling in his grave.
Endnotes:
- James Bamford, Body of secrets: how America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ eavesdrop on the world . Arrow Books, London, 2002.
Dr FARISH A NOOR is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist. 'The Other Malaysia' tries to unearth aspects of Malaysia's history and culture that have been erased or relegated to the margins in order to remind us that there remains another Malaysia that is often forgotten.