Ledende amerikanske militærfolk udarbejdede i 1960'erne planer for terror, som skulle skabe folkelig opbakning bag en krig mod Cuba. Det skriver ABC News.
Planerne omfattede mord på eksilcubanere, angreb på både med cubanske flygtninge, flykapringer, terroranslag i amerikanske byer og angreb på et amerikansk skib.
Planerne omtales i en ny bog, Body of Secrets, skrevet af journalist James Bamford:
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 and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.
"These were Joint Chiefs of Staff documents. The reason these were held secret for so long is the Joint Chiefs never wanted to give these up because they were so embarrassing," Bamford told ABCNEWS.com.
"The whole point of a democracy is to have leaders responding to the public will, and here this is the complete reverse, the military trying to trick the American people into a war that they want but that nobody else wants."
Webmagasinet Salon skriver, at general Hugh Shelton, der var amerikansk stabschef under Bill Clinton og i dele af George Bush' præsidentperiode, i slutningen af 1990'erne blev spurgt af et kabinetsmedlem, om USA ikke kunne lade et U2-rekognosceringsfly flyve så lavt og så langsomt over Irak, at Saddams tropper kunne skyde det ned:
"... one of the Cabinet members present leaned over to me and said, “Hugh, I know I shouldn’t even be asking you this, but what we really need in order to go in and take out Saddam is a precipitous event — something that would make us look good in the eyes of the world. Could you have one of our U-2s fly low enough — and slow enough — so as to guarantee that Saddam could shoot it down?”
The hair on the back of my neck bristled, my teeth clenched, and my fists tightened. I was so mad I was about to explode. I looked across the table, thinking about the pilot in the U-2 and responded, “Of course we can ...” which prompted a big smile on the official’s face.
“You can?” was the excited reply.
“Why, of course we can,” I countered. “Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.”
Episoden omtales ifølge Salon.com i Hugh Sheltons nyligt udkomne erindringer.
