Ran across something on the web tonight that I thought was at least mildly related to this topic.

Note that this comes from ABC ... that's gotta be "official" enough, right?

Now, to be clear and to make sure I'm not accused of intellectual dishonesty ('specially by myself), I should point out that ABC itself doesn't make the report, they're careful to qualify their statements with words like "reportedly" a lot. Much the same way they use the word "allegedly" whenever the government tells them anything, these days (hey, you never know -- the good guys might get elected at some point and everybody might be held accountable).

quote:
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.
quote:
"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."
quote:
The Joint Chiefs even proposed using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba, the documents show.

Should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, they wrote, "the objective is to provide irrevocable proof … that the fault lies with the Communists et all Cuba [sic]."
quote:
"The scary thing is none of this stuff comes out until 40 years after," says Bamford.
Hey, we're all pretty young guys. Bet we can all live another forty years and see who's right.

http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/jointchiefs_010501.html