Nsa cia forced to release long secret official history of bay of pigs invasion

[Bernice Moore]

National Security Archive Update, August 1, 2011

CIA FORCED TO RELEASE LONG SECRET OFFICIAL HISTORY OF BAY OF PIGS INVASION

National Security Archive lawsuit yields never-before-seen volumes of Massive Study; Agency continues to withhold Volume 5

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh - 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C., August 1, 2011 - Pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the infamous CIA-led invasion of Cuba, the CIA has released four volumes of its Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. The Archive today posted volume 2, "Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy" which contains detailed information on the CIA's negotiations with Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Great Britain on support for the invasion.

"These are the last remaining secret records of U.S. aggression against Cuba," noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba Documentation Project at the Archive. "The CIA has finally seen the wisdom of letting the public scrutinize this major debacle in the covert history of U.S. foreign policy." Kornbluh noted that the agency was "still refusing to release volume 5 of its official history." Volume 5 is a rebuttal to the stinging CIA's Inspector General's report, done in the immediate aftermath of the paramilitary assault, which held CIA officials accountable for a wide variety of mistakes, miscalculations and deceptions that characterized the failed invasion. The National Security Archive obtained the declassification of the ultra-secret Inspector General's report in 1998.

Volume 2 provides new details on the negotiations and tensions with other countries, including Great Britain, which the CIA needed to provide logistical and infrastructure support for the invasion preparations. The volume describes Kennedy Administration efforts to sustain the cooperation of Guatemala, where the main CIA-led exile brigade force was trained, as well as the deals made with Anastacio Somoza to gain Nicaragua's support for the invasion.

Volume 3 of the Official History was previously declassified under the Kennedy Assassination Record Act. The Archive will post a detailed assessment of the declassified history, along with two other volumes tomorrow.

http://www.nsarchive.org

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THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

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[Bernice Moore]

National Security Archive Update, August 15, 2011

TOP SECRET CIA 'OFFICIAL HISTORY' OF THE BAY OF PIGS: REVELATIONS

'Friendly Fire' Reported as CIA Personnel Shot at Own Aircraft
New Revelations on Assassination Plots, Use of Americans in Combat

National Security Archive FOIA Lawsuit Obtains Release of Last Major
Internal Agency Compilation on Paramilitary Invasion of Cuba

Newsweek runs article by Historian Robert Dallek based on Archive work

Archive Cuba Project posts Four Volumes; calls for declassification of still secret Volume 5

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh - 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C., August 15, 2011 - In the heat of the battle at the Bay of Pigs, the lead CIA field operative aboard one of the transport boats fired .75mm recoilless rifles and .55mm machine guns on aircraft his own agency had supplied to the exile invasion force, striking some of them. With the CIA-provided B-26 aircraft configured to match those in the Cuban air force in order to provide a "plausible denial" of the U.S. role in the invasion, "we couldn't tell them from the Castro planes," according to the operative, Grayston Lynch. "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."

This episode of 'friendly fire' is one of many revelations contained in the Top Secret multi-volume, internal CIA report, "The Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation." Other revelations include new information on the CIA's collaboration with the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro as part of the invasion plan, Richard Nixon's role in the invasion preparations, covert efforts to orchestrate the defection of top Cuban officials, Anastacio Somoza's quid pro quos for providing cooperation, and the use of American pilots in the attack on Cuba.

Pursuant to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the invasion last April, the CIA recently declassified four volumes of the massive, detailed, study--over 1200 pages of comprehensive narrative and documentary appendices.

The Archive posted all four volumes today, along with a comprehensive synopsis of the new information contained in them.

But the CIA refused to release a single word of the fifth and final volume of the Official History, written by CIA Chief Historian Jack Pfeiffer between 1974 and 1984. Today, CIA lawyers were expected to present papers in court arguing that Volume V cannot be released for national security considerations among other reasons.

Archive Cuba specialist Peter Kornbluh, who filed the lawsuit, hailed the release as "a major advance in obtaining the fullest possible record of the most infamous debacle in the history of the CIA's covert operations." The Bay of Pigs, he noted, "remains fundamentally relevant to the history of the CIA, of U.S. intervention in Cuba and Latin America, and of U.S. foreign policy. It is a clandestine history that must be understood in all its inglorious detail."

Kornbluh said the Archive would continue to pursue all legal avenues to obtain the release of the entire study. "More than half a century after the dramatic debacle described in the Official History," he noted, "the American public has a right to know the full history of what was done in its name but without its knowledge."

http://www.nsarchive.org


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[Magda Hassan]

At long last here they are. Or at least what is left of them http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB56...s-History/