US Releases CIA Documents on Bay of Pigs Invasion

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: AP

MIAMI (AP) — Newly declassified U.S. documents show a CIA operative accidentally fired on friendly pilots during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

The B-26 bombers flown by the Cuban exiles were disguised to look like Cuban military planes, but the ruse worked too well, the documents indicated. It was not clear, though, if anyone was hurt.

The documents also show U.S. officials authorized limited use of napalm on military targets and to protect the invasion's beachhead area.

Earlier this month, the U.S. made public all but one of five top secret volumes covering the CIA's official history of the failed attack on Fidel Castro's fledgling government. The move came in response to a lawsuit filed in April by the independent, Washington-based National Security Archive. The nonprofit research group has sought for years to declassify all five volumes on the invasion.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/08/15/us/AP-US-Bay-of-Pigs-Declassified.html?_r=1

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Declassified, previously "top secret" CIA documents reveal that during the Bay of Pigs Invasion a CIA operative fired at a friendly pilot, reports the Associated Press. "We couldn’t tell them from the Castro planes," Grayston Lynch explains in the documents. "We ended up shooting at two or three of them. We hit some of them there because when they came at us…it was a silhouette, that was all you could see." That's one anecdote found in the four volumes of declassified internal CIA documents that the National Security Archive posted today. The reports, the result of a FOIA filed by the Archive last April, also reveal the following interesting details of the failed Castro overthrow.

Some high-level CIA officials thought it would be a good idea to get the Mafia involved.

A small group of high-level CIA officials sought to use part of the budget of the invasion to finance a collaboration with the Mafia to assassinate Castro.
Nixon's role as vice president under Eisenhower:

Vice-President Nixon, who portrayed himself in his memoirs as one of the original architects of the plan to overthrow Castro, proposed to the CIA that they support “goon squads and other direct action groups” inside and outside of Cuba. The Vice President repeatedly sought to interfere in the invasion planning.
The CIA knew all along it couldn't succeed.

In perhaps the most important revelation of the entire official history, the CIA task force in charge of the paramilitary assault did not believe it could succeed without becoming an open invasion supported by the U.S. military. On page 149 of Volume III, Pfeiffer quotes still-secret minutes of the Task Force meeting held on November 15, 1960, to prepare a briefing for the new President-elect, John F. Kennedy: “Our original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has instituted,” the document states. “Our second concept (1,500-3000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joint Agency/DOD action.”,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,more......... http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/08/declass... /

[blank space]

1. Wish there were

documents on 911 - greatest ever crime in American history to be even declassified - the investigation was a whitewash.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Wait 50 years

Like this.....sad isn't it?

[dipsydoodle]

2. limited use of napalm ?

:wtf: I hadn't realised that had been used at all.

[Kolesar]

5. It will be humane--more or less

To borrow a line from "Avatar"

[Bragi]

9. The article says "officials aproved" its use

I don't think it was actually used though. More likely that "officials" approved its use, but President Kennedy refused to allow it, since all the evidence shows that he was absolutely opposed to any direct involvement of the U.S military in this operation.

I'd be very surprised if he approved of using napalm, or if it was used. That the hawks in the military would have approved its use would not surprise me at all, though.

[GreenStormCloud]

18. Napalm was used extensively in the latter part of WWII,

and in Korea and Vietnam.

[eomer]

4. Your second link is broken. Here it is, fixed:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/08/declassified-cia-documents-reveal-details-bay-pigs-invasion/41299/

[Demeter]

6. Any Signs of a Poppy Bush?

or a brain?

[trof]

7. I flew with a couple of the Bay of Pigs pilots.

Joe Shannon and Billy Goodwin.
We were in the same AL ANG squadron.
They never talked about it.

[Yon_Yonson]

8. Another CIA CLUSTERFUCK

Here is a link to the B-26 Invader used and I beleive the aircraft used was an A-26 Invader instead of the B-26

http://travelforaircraft.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/a-new-monument-to-fliers-%E2%80%93-the-aviators-of-the-bay-of-pigs-invasion-%E2%80%93-the-douglas-b-26-invader/

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. CIA head.Dulles and his right hand man were fired after this

The right hand man's brother was the mayor of dallas ... weird coincidence,,,
Sorry typing on my iTouch

[Yon_Yonson]

12. Yeah that is a coincident make one wonder how pappa bush fits into this story?

The CIAs dirty paws are blood stained beyond beleif

[defendandprotect]

19. Bush's Zapata Oil was a CIA front -- and ships used for the supply line --

Barbara Jean

Zapata

Houston

Were the names of three of the ships involved --

[L. Coyote]

25. Conneticut Yankees do not name their oil companies after Mexican revolutionaries

Obviously :rofl:

The CIA does operate from oil platforms in the Gulf, just far enough off shore to NOT be subject to US law!

[defendandprotect]

26. Noticed a while back that ...

there was some chat about CIA not being the center of criminality any longer --

with power having moved up the intelligence ladder quite a few notches with new

intelligence organizations.

Remember when we didn't even know that they had built the new intelligence building --

can't remember the name of it or the amount -- but huge!

Guess we found that out after the Wall fell?

But, CIA has lots of tenacles out into the RW money pot around the world --

drugs, KKK, NAZIS, etal --

Cripes, they even took money from kids -- from what I've read, often Federal money for

public education was as much as 50% money for CIA covert activities!!


:hi:

[No Elephants]

17. CIA head Dulles? As in Secretary of State Dulles?

Yeah. Lots of weird coincidences around the JFK assassination.

ETA: Ok, I googled. CIA head Allen Welsh Dulles was the younger broth of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

Get a load of this:

{CIA head} Dulles was one of five children born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife Edith (Foster). He was five years younger than his brother John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of Stateand chairman and senior partner of Sullivan & Cromwell, and two years older than his sister, diplomat Eleanor Lansing Dulles. His maternal grandfather was John W. Foster, who was Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison. His paternal grandfather, John Welch Dulles, had been a Presbyterian missionary in China. His uncle (by marriage) Robert Lansing also was a U.S. Secretary of State.<1> His nephew, Avery Dulles, was a Roman Catholic cardinal, Jesuit priest and noted theologian who taught at Fordham University.

Three Secretaries of State, one diplomat and one CIA head in the same family. Wow.

[defendandprotect]

20. Interesting ... thank you -- !!!

Knew most of that -- but not all of it -- !!

Watched Avery Dulles -- especially as he rose in the ranks of the RCC -- ending up at

the Vatican -- and died back in US at age 90!

I've read that the CIA had long had an interest in the Vatican intelligence lines --

supposedly superior to CIA!

Always thought the Polish Pope -- a Polish Pope!!??? -- was CIA --


This is also the group which gave us Nixon -- who was very harmful to nation and democracy

for quite some long time! And they are capable of giving us other "Nixon's" -- !!

[Octafish]

11. Dulles and Lemnitzer lied to JFK's face regarding invasion.

They told him the rebel force would succeed without U.S. military intervention. The reality was, they knew it would require the Marines, Air Force, Navy and Army to work.

Know your BFEE: At every turn, JFK was opposed by War Party

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. dude

thanks for the info. shows how nasty the CIA was

[Yon_Yonson]

14. Not surprised at all

cia lie now there is a tautology

[defendandprotect]

21. K/R ---

[AntiFascist]

15. So, Nixon as Vice President was directly responsible for....

setting up Mafia assassins to collaborate wth the CIA. That's very telling!

[defendandprotect]

22. While Ike was recovering from heart attack, Nixon was busy working on Operation 40 ....

which was the original name of the Bay of Pigs invasion ----

Nixon was put in place by Prescott Bush and other wealthy Repugs who ran an

ad seeking a candidate to run --

Nixon agreed to do it for $50,000 a year OVER his Congressional salary!

Quite a slush fund at that time--!!


Which is why it is so sad to see people still buying the RW story line that

Watergage/Nixon were a big nothing!

Nothing could be less true!

[Judi Lynn]

23. The last time I heard one of them gibbering about it she called it, a "2nd rate botched burglary."

How ####ing pathetic.

They really struggle to defend themselves. Idiots.

[defendandprotect]

24. Even more than that -- look at where Gordon Liddy and Ollie North ended up!!

Imo, these were people ready to do murder for Nixon -- and Reagan --


Ollie North headed up the Cater hostage rescue missions in the desert --

second in command was Secord -- they simply forgot to attach the equipment

which keeps sand out of the engines on the helicopters!


Look at Gates -- he was a primary player in the October Surprise -- !!


:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

16. CIA dealt with dictators to prepare Bay of Pigs

CIA dealt with dictators to prepare Bay of Pigs
Cuban-exile force helped to defeat Guatemalan coup
By Carol Rosenberg
McClatchy Newspapers Thursday September 1, 2011 6:08 AM

MIAMI — A once-secret CIA history of the Bay of Pigs invasion lays out how the U.S. spy agency came to the rescue of and cut deals with authoritarian governments in Central America, largely to hide the U.S. role in organizing and controlling the hapless Cuban-exile invasion force.

The report provides important evidence of the truth of the adage that the most-powerful people in Central American embassies were the CIA station chiefs.

A newly released part of the CIA’s Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation says ambassadors stepped aside and allowed the CIA to negotiate deals for covert paramilitary bases, CIA pilots and Cuban foot soldiers. They then helped suppress a coup attempt by the Guatemalan army that threatened their foothold in the country.

Nicaraguan Gen. Anastasio Somoza hit up the CIA for a $10 million payoff — development loans — as the price for letting the Americans launch the Cuban-exile invasion from his country.

More:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2011/09/01/cia-dealt-with-dictators-to-prepare-bay-of-pigs.html

[defendandprotect]

27. K/R -- and back to read link later -- thank you!