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However, the only agricultural commodity identified as a target in any
covert sabotage document we have seen is sugarcane,
78
a major export
crop whose disruption would contribute to US economic destabilization
goals. As late as October 1962 the CIA indicated that it did not have the
capability to attack this crop.
79
In October 1962, in response to SGA de-
mands for a more aggressive program of sabotage, specific target lists
were developed; there were no crops or animals listed among the 30-40
identified targets.
80
The absence of documentary evidence for this operation suggests that it
did not happen. It is very unlikely that DOD would have attempted sabo-
tage in Cuba outside of Operation Mongoose, or to have proceeded with-
out SGA approval. Furthermore, we have found no instances in the re-
cord of the involvement of any agency other than the CIA in covert
sabotage operations inside Cuba. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
search of CIA records produced no documents on ND in Cuba in 1961
and 1962.
81
A FOIA request for DIA documents (submitted in December
2003) on this topic has yet to be answered.
In a telegram two days after the story appeared, apparently from CIA
headquarters to Latin American CIA stations, the news story was sum-
marized and the claim made, “there is no record in HQS of any CIA con-
nection with the matter described in the article. We also checked with the
DIA. Officials there have no record of the matter described in the article
and to date have been unable to identify the 'DIA source' mentioned in
the article.”
82
Shortly thereafter Stansfield Turner, then director of the
CIA, wrote in answer to a query from Senator Inouye, chair of the Select
Committee on Intelligence, that “DIA has informed my staff that they can
find no basis in fact for the allegations made in the article. In addition,
CIA has no information of any kind connecting with the alleged inci-
dent.”
83
All of this suggests that no formal CIA-directed sabotage was involved
in the 1962 ND outbreaks. However, during this period there were many
sabotage actions initiated by militant expatriate Cuban organizations,
with CIA materiel support, but not under CIA control.
84
There is little
mention in declassified documents of these independent sabotage activi-
ties, and it is not clear that it would have been recorded if ND had been
introduced by such an action. There is documentation that on occasion
this independent sabotage was aimed at agricultural targets; sabotage of
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