JFK Records: CIA Tainted Sugar Intended for the USSR
The CIA intercepted a significant shipment of Cuban sugar that was intended for the USSR, as revealed in the newly released files concerning John F. Kennedy.
TroibNews 
Newly released files concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy reveal that American spies executed an operation to contaminate 800 bags of sugar transported from Cuba to the USSR during the 1960s.
Journalists, including Ben Norton and the Washington Post, analyzed one file documenting a “clandestine operation” conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency just months before the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In August of that year, the CIA discovered a cargo ship carrying 80,000 bags of brown sugar to the USSR, as noted in a declassified document addressed to General Edward Lansdale, who was the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for special operations at the time, and had extensive experience with the CIA.
The American spies initiated a strategy to contaminate the shipment, learning that the vessel would make a brief stop in Puerto Rico for minor hull repairs and would need to unload a portion of its cargo.
“Through a clandestine operation, which was not detected and is not traceable, we were able to contaminate 800 of these bags of sugar,” the document stated. The CIA claimed that these contaminated bags would spoil the entire shipment, rendering it “unfit for human or animal consumption in any form.”
The intent behind the operation was not to poison the Soviet populace, but rather to diminish their enjoyment of food.
“The contaminate we used will give the sugar an ineradicable sickly bitter taste, which no process will remove,” the spies indicated, asserting that it was “not in any sense dangerous to health.” They believed it would “ruin the taste of the consumer for any food or drink for a considerable time.”
If the operation succeeded, it was projected to cause financial losses for the Soviet Union between $350,000 and $400,000 at that time, according to the document. The outcome of the shipment, however, is unclear, as RTN could not locate any relevant Soviet records on the matter.
In 1960, the US implemented its first significant embargo against Cuba, ceasing all sugar purchases from the nation among other restrictions. This action was a response to the Cuban Revolution, which ended the tenure of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Washington also pressured its NATO allies to stop importing Cuban sugar. Subsequently, the USSR emerged as one of Cuba’s primary sugar importers.
Rohan Mehta for TROIB News
Journalists, including Ben Norton and the Washington Post, analyzed one file documenting a “clandestine operation” conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency just months before the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In August of that year, the CIA discovered a cargo ship carrying 80,000 bags of brown sugar to the USSR, as noted in a declassified document addressed to General Edward Lansdale, who was the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for special operations at the time, and had extensive experience with the CIA.
The American spies initiated a strategy to contaminate the shipment, learning that the vessel would make a brief stop in Puerto Rico for minor hull repairs and would need to unload a portion of its cargo.
“Through a clandestine operation, which was not detected and is not traceable, we were able to contaminate 800 of these bags of sugar,” the document stated. The CIA claimed that these contaminated bags would spoil the entire shipment, rendering it “unfit for human or animal consumption in any form.”
The intent behind the operation was not to poison the Soviet populace, but rather to diminish their enjoyment of food.
“The contaminate we used will give the sugar an ineradicable sickly bitter taste, which no process will remove,” the spies indicated, asserting that it was “not in any sense dangerous to health.” They believed it would “ruin the taste of the consumer for any food or drink for a considerable time.”
If the operation succeeded, it was projected to cause financial losses for the Soviet Union between $350,000 and $400,000 at that time, according to the document. The outcome of the shipment, however, is unclear, as RTN could not locate any relevant Soviet records on the matter.
In 1960, the US implemented its first significant embargo against Cuba, ceasing all sugar purchases from the nation among other restrictions. This action was a response to the Cuban Revolution, which ended the tenure of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Washington also pressured its NATO allies to stop importing Cuban sugar. Subsequently, the USSR emerged as one of Cuba’s primary sugar importers.
Rohan Mehta for TROIB News
