What did the declassified documents reveal?

Operation Northwoods was a covert plan proposed in 1962 by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operation was intended to create a series of false-flag events to justify military intervention in Cuba. It was conceived during a period of heightened tension between the United States and Cuba, following the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power. The primary goal of Operation Northwoods was to fabricate acts of terrorism and aggression that could be attributed to the Cuban government, thereby providing the U.S. government with a pretext for invading the island. This document, a Foreign Broadcast Information Service report, was released on October 7, 2024, through a Freedom of Information Act request. It is a combined message from the Central Intelligence Agency, dated June 10, 2005, and is part of the CIA's release of documents related to Operation Northwoods. The report discusses the possibility of an assassination attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The author, Oscar Heck, writes that Chavez' life is in danger and that his potential assassination is probably orchestrated by the U.S. government. Heck references Operation Northwoods, a plan to covertly engineer various pretext events to justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba, and suggests that a similar operation may exist for Venezuela. The report highlights several events that support this possibility, including the Granda affair, where a Colombian FARC revolutionary forces leader was kidnapped in Venezuela by Colombian government-paid mercenaries, and Chavez' visit with Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, which was used to portray Chavez as planning with and collaborating with world leaders who support and harbor "terrorists." The report also mentions the U.S. government's National Endowment for Democracy's financing of sectors of the Venezuelan opposition, which created havoc and chaos in Venezuela with the intent to destabilize the country. The report concludes by stating that Chavez should be worried about a potential assassination attempt, and that the U.S. government may have orchestrated such an attempt. The document is a chilling reminder of the U.S. government's history of covert operations and its willingness to use false-flag events to justify military intervention. This is what the public record looks like at its most ordinary. The document can be found at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/operation-northwoods/.

Why was this case declassified?

This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process.

Operation Northwoods

◆ BLUF — The short version

S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operation was intended to create a series of false-flag events to justify military intervention in Cuba. It was conceived during a period of heightened tension between the United States and Cuba, following the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power.

Date: JUL 6 · 2026
Release: Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)

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Episode notes

Operation Northwoods was a covert plan proposed in 1962 by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operation was intended to create a series of false-flag events to justify military intervention in Cuba. It was conceived during a period of heightened tension between the…

Questions about this case

What was Operation Northwoods about?: S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operation was intended to create a series of false-flag events to justify military intervention in Cuba. It was conceived during a period of heightened tension between the United States and Cuba, following the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power.
Why was this case declassified?: This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Storyflo narrates it directly from the public release.

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Operation Northwoods

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