NEW YORK, FEB 22: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in a report kept secret for 36 years, blamed its own arrogance, ignorance and incompetence for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the New York Times said today.The 150-page report was locked in a CIA safe for 36 years and all but one copy was destroyed, the newspaper said.
The inquiry was at last released last week under the US Freedom of Information Act to the National Security Archive, a non-profit group that collects and publishes declassified government reports.
The report concluded that the CIA's secret operation was ``ludicrous or tragic or both'', the paper said. The Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 sought to overthrow President Fidel Castro. A CIA-trained landing force, made up of Cuban emigrants, was quickly crushed and the fiasco became a humiliating episode for the US.
Among the CIA's errors cited in the report were an out-of-control budget, officers who did not speak Spanish and a ``complex and bizarreorganisation situation.''
CIA leaders at the time dismissed the report, written by CIA inspector General Lyman Kirk Patrick as motivated by personal malice, the paper said.``This operation took on a life of its own, the agency was going forward without knowing precisely what it was doing,''the report said.
¬Ut›T@¼Tt› people, including three LTTE suicide-bombers, were killed and the temple extensively damaged in the blast. The sources said Dharmalingam had personally picked the three suicide bombers from Batticaloa for the attack.ad ¬Ut›h?¬Ut› efforts failed. American forces in the Gulf would remain ``long enough'' to ensure Iraqi compliance with the UN resolutions, he said.
Defence secretary William Cohen today told a television programme that sanctions against Iraq would be lifted if it complies fully with the UN security council resolutions.
The US still hopes for a diplomatic solution but will resort to military action in the absence of such a statement on date to be fixed by President Clinton,Cohen told the NBC's Meet-the-Press programme.
He said America would not target Iraqi President Saddam Hussein personally during a military action but the world would welcome a change of regime in Baghdad, he said, adding Washington looks forward to working with a new Iraqi regime for a more productive and broad relationship.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told BBC that sanctions imposed on Iraq could be lifted if Saddam Hussein signed a satisfactory deal with the UN. He said the pact would have to be in writing and must ensure total stoppage of Iraq's arms development programme.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
