“Fabricate Big Story to Take Play Away” –
This guy tells the story of how they got past the
three cop cars waiting for them in the parking lot across the street. “We’d
call the police station and report a knife fight in a bar across town, and
right away, they would all take off, their lights flashing and sirens wailing,
while we got away clean.”
It seems like the CIA had the same idea when their
role in the Guatemalan coup in 1954 became public knowledge – create a media
diversion – UFOs, Sextuplets….- “to take the play away” from the real political
action.
Some say this was the real motive behind the
kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in the days following the assassination of
President Kennedy.
The role of the CIA in the 1954 Guatemalan Coup is
detailed in some government records released a decade ago and the New York
Times reported on them.
In 2003 the State Department released a collection
of previously classified documents, one in particular reflects on the CIA’s
role in the 1954 Guatemala coup that ousted president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and
replaced him with Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, the CIA operation code named
PBSUCCESS.
One memo reads: “At 1500, 18 September 1953, a
meeting was held at the office of [Allen W. Dulles, the Director of Central
Intelligence] to discuss the present status of PBSUCCESS and to consider future
plans for this operation…Cabell [Gen. Charles P. Cabell, the agency’s deputy
director] stated that he concurred in approval of the general plan but felt
that the budget estimate should be increased to $3,000,000 to provide more
adequately for contingencies. Mr. Dulles agreed.”
A week later, Col. J. C. King, chief of the Western
Hemisphere division, CIA Directorate of Operations, in a memo outlining tasks
for the Guatemalan Chief of Station included collecting data “which could be
used for character assassination….,” and “transmit all rumors re Arbenz
officials...” and “prepare a weekly ‘psychological barometer’ report on local
conditions.”
Among the rumors “combining fact and fiction, which
ought to be circulated” included “A group of Soviet commissars…have landed…the
government has issued orders to devalue the quetzal,…all boys and girls 16
years old will be called for one year of labor duty in special camps,…food
rationing is about to be introduced….Arbenz has already left the
country….announcements from the National Palace are actually made by a double,
provided by Soviet intelligence….lessons in atheism,…add rumors of your own,
following the day-by-day changes in the situation.”
“Paramilitary Action: An initial shipment of
approximately 15 tons of arms and ammunition is now ready for shipment from
[DELETED} and subsequent transshipment to [Col. Castillo Armes in]
Nicaragua…This material is intended for use by [Col. Castillo Armas] in his
Nicaraguan training center and to test facilities for clandestine introduction
of arms into Guatemala.”
A November 5, 1953 memo from CIA Headquarters notes:
“Station was instructed to mail ‘mourning cards’ for 30 successive days to
Arbenz and top Communist leaders. Cards were to mourn the purge or execution of
various Communists in the world and to hint forthcoming doom to recipients.”
A Telegram from PBSUCCESS HQ in Florida to CIA HQ on
January 30, 1954 specifically ordered the fabrication of sensational news
stories in order to serve as a media distraction “to take play away” from the
coup.
“White Paper [issued by the Guatemalan government]
has effectively exposed certain aspects of PBSUCCESS….If possible, fabricate
big human interest story, like flying saucers, birth sextuplets in remote area
to take play away.”
From: New York Times, July 06, 2003, By Stephen
Kinzer.
Word for Word/Coup Control; The CIA’s Cover Has Been
Blown? Just Make Up Something About UFO’s.
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