ISRAEL'S
ASSAULT
ON THE USS LIBERTY
Declaration of
Ward Boston, Jr.,Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Counsel to the U.S. Navy
Court of Inquiry’s investigation
into the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty
Dated: January 9, 2004
at Coronado, California.
The Price We Pay When Free Speech is Stifled By Paul Findley, class of '43 [Filed 9-22-05]
The political cost of supporting the USS Liberty
The USS Liberty: By Eric S. Margolis
Israel's 1967 attack on U.S. ship deliberate, book says
Introduction of Victor Ostrovsky and Comments on the USS Liberty
Statement in the US House of Representatives June 6, 2002, by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney:
USS Liberty Did Israel commit one war crime to hide another?
chicagotribune.com
Special report
New revelations in attack on American spy ship
Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel
didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident
By John Crewdson 10-2-07
Dated: January 9, 2004
at Coronado, California.
Declaration of
Ward Boston, Jr.,Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Counsel to the
U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry’s investigation
into the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty
I, Ward Boston, Jr. do declare that the following statement is true and complete:
For more than 30 years, I have remained silent on the topic of USS Liberty. I am a military man and when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States, I follow them.
However, recent attempts to rewrite history compel me to share the truth.
In June of 1967, while serving as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps, Department of the Navy, I was assigned as senior legal counsel for the Navy’s Court of Inquiry into the brutal attack on USS Liberty, which had occurred on June 8th.
The late Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, president of the Court, and I were given only one week to gather evidence for the Navy’s official investigation into the attack, despite the fact that we both had estimated that a proper Court of Inquiry into an attack of this magnitude would take at least six months to conduct.
Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., then Commander-in-chief, Naval Forces Europe (CINCUSNAVEUR), at his headquarters in London, had charged Admiral Kidd (in a letter dated June 10, 1967) to “inquire into all the pertinent facts and circumstances leading to and connected with the armed attack; damage resulting therefrom; and deaths of and injuries to Naval personnel.”
Despite the short amount of time we were given, we gathered a vast amount of evidence, including hours of heartbreaking testimony from the young survivors.
The evidence was clear. Both Admiral Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. Each evening, after hearing testimony all day, we often spoke our private thoughts concerning what we had seen and heard. I recall Admiral Kidd repeatedly referring to the Israeli forces responsible for the attack as “murderous bastards.” It was our shared belief, based on the documentary evidence and testimony we received first hand, that the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate, and could not possibly have been an accident.
I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors, who had ordered the attack, were well aware that the ship was American.
I saw the flag, which had visibly identified the ship as American, riddled with bullet holes, and heard testimony that made it clear that the Israelis intended there be no survivors. 10. Not only did the Israelis attack the ship with napalm, gunfire, and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned three lifeboats that had been launched in an attempt by the crew to save the most seriously wounded — a war crime.
Admiral Kidd and I both felt it necessary to travel to Israel to interview the Israelis who took part in the attack. Admiral Kidd telephoned Admiral McCain to discuss making arrangements. Admiral Kidd later told me that Admiral McCain was adamant that we were not to travel to Israel or contact the Israelis concerning this matter.
Regrettably, we did not receive into evidence and the Court did not consider any of the more than sixty witness declarations from men who had been hospitalized and were unable to testify in person.
I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of “mistaken identity.”
In particular, the recent publication of Jay Cristol’s book, The Liberty Incident, twists the facts and misrepresents the views of those of us who investigated the attack.
It is Cristol’s insidious attempt to whitewash the facts that has pushed me to speak out.
I know from personal conversations I had with Admiral Kidd that President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of “mistaken identity” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Admiral Kidd told me, after returning from Washington, D.C. that he had been ordered to sit down with two civilians from either the White House or the Defense Department, and rewrite portions of the court’s findings.
Admiral Kidd also told me that he had been ordered to “put the lid” on everything having to do with the attack on USS Liberty. We were never to speak of it and we were to caution everyone else involved that they could never speak of it again.
I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of that statement as I know that the Court of Inquiry transcript that has been released to the public is not the same one that I certified and sent off to Washington.
I know this because it was necessary, due to the exigencies of time, to hand correct and initial a substantial number of pages. I have examined the released version of the transcript and I did not see any pages that bore my hand corrections and initials. Also, the original did not have any deliberately blank pages, as the released version does. Finally, the testimony of Lt. Painter concerning the deliberate machine gunning of the life rafts by the Israeli torpedo boat crews, which I distinctly recall being given at the Court of Inquiry and included in the original transcript, is now missing and has been excised.
Following the conclusion of the Court of Inquiry, Admiral Kidd and I remained in contact. Though we never spoke of the attack in public, we did discuss it between ourselves, on occasion. Every time we discussed the attack, Admiral Kidd was adamant that it was a deliberate, planned attack on an American ship.
In 1990, I received a telephone call from Jay Cristol, who wanted to interview me concerning the functioning of the Court of Inquiry. I told him that I would not speak to him on that subject and prepared to hang up the telephone. Cristol then began asking me about my personal background and other, non-Court of Inquiry related matters. I endeavored to answer these questions and politely extricate myself from the conversation. Cristol continued to return to the subject of the Court of Inquiry, which I refused to discuss with him. Finally, I suggested that he contact Admiral Kidd and ask him about the Court of Inquiry.
Shortly after my conversation with Cristol, I received a telephone call from Admiral Kidd, inquiring about Cristol and what he was up to. The Admiral spoke of Cristol in disparaging terms and even opined that “Cristol must be an Israeli agent.” I don’t know if he meant that literally or it was his way of expressing his disgust for Cristol’s highly partisan, pro-Israeli approach to questions involving USS Liberty.
At no time did I ever hear Admiral Kidd speak of Cristol other than in highly disparaging terms. I find Cristol’s claims of a “close friendship” with Admiral Kidd to be utterly incredible. I also find it impossible to believe the statements he attributes to Admiral Kidd, concerning the attack on USS Liberty.
Several years later, I received a letter from Cristol that contained what he purported to be his notes of our prior conversation. These “notes” were grossly incorrect and bore no resemblance in reality to that discussion. I find it hard to believe that these “notes” were the product of a mistake, rather than an attempt to deceive. I informed Cristol that I disagreed with his recollection of our conversation and that he was wrong. Cristol made several attempts to arrange for the two of us to meet in person and talk but I always found ways to avoid doing this. I did not wish to meet with Cristol as we had nothing in common and I did not trust him.
Contrary to the misinformation presented by Cristol and others, it is important for the American people to know that it is clear that Israel is responsible for deliberately attacking an American ship and murdering American sailors, whose bereaved shipmates have lived with this egregious conclusion for many years.
Dated: January 9, 2004
at Coronado, California.
Ward Boston, Jr., Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Senior Counsel to the USS Liberty Court of Inquiry
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-boston.html
The Price We Pay When Free Speech is Stifled
By Paul Findley, class of '43
[Filed 9-22-05]
To explain my wrinkles, I admit that my first convocation lecture at Illinois College occurred forty years ago, twenty years before most of you were born. Wow! The march of years!
The college offered me the same privilege perhaps a dozen times since, but this time I invited myself. I did so because I have a message arising from the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and another I learned sixty-five years ago from Joe Patterson Smith, a blind Illinois College professor. Both messages, I believe, are vitally important to everyone in this chamber.
Freedom of speech, the very essence of the U.S. Constitution, is the keystone of just governance everywhere and anywhere. It is the most precious of human rights, and our history is replete with evidence that it is even more precious in wartime than in peace.
One day, Joe Pat, as we called him but not to his face, told his history class that integrity is the most important qualification for public office. That message stuck in my mind ever since.
In those days, Franklin D. Roosevelt seemed to be America's permanent president. I criticized his policies in a column I wrote for the Rambler, but I believed that he had integrity. In fact, I innocently believed that anyone elected president must have integrity to get the job. In recent years, my confidence in both the status of free speech and presidential integrity has been shaken.
Our country is in great peril today, and our trouble began in terrible events that started 38 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean, happenings that scuttled truth and free speech and concealed gross malfeasance in high office.
I take you back that far in history only because the lying, trickery and cover-up that occurred at that time opened flood gates of criminal behavior in Middle East policy that engulf us today.
You will find some of the facts I report almost beyond belief. They are not make-believe. They are the truth, but due to a cover-up directed from the White House for the past 38 years, the truth has surfaced only bits at a time. Let's return to June 8, 1967. The place? The headquarters of the military high command in Israel. Presiding over a staff meeting was Israel's most famous and supremely-confident warrior, General Moshe Dayan. That day, Israel's decisive defeat of Arab armies in the Six-day War seemed certain. The United States, led by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was bogged down in its war in Vietnam. I was a new member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. My focus was Europe, not the Middle East.
It was about 1p.m., Tel Aviv time. Three hours earlier, Israeli pilots reported to headquarters that repeated, close-in reconnaissance positively identified a vessel off the coast of Gaza in international waters as the USS Liberty, an unarmed U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship.
Dayan immediately stunned his staff by ordering air and sea forces to sink the ship, even though the vessel was a military arm of the only major nation fully committed to the survival of Israel. Dayan wanted it destroyed without a trace and ordered the assault carried out with utmost secrecy. One of his generals remonstrated: "This is pure murder." Several Israeli pilots refused to attack.
Beginning at 2 p.m., Israeli forces pounded and blistered the USS Liberty with cannon, rockets and napalm from the air and torpedoes from sea craft. The attack instantly wrecked the ship's communication system, and soon killed thirty-four sailors, wounded 174 others, and riddled the ship with holes. Bodies and body parts were soon scattered on the deck. Most of the victims were at duty stations below deck when a torpedo ripped a hole forty feet wide just below water line. Lifeboats were lowered into the water in expectation of an abandon-ship order, but they were immediately shot to pieces by Israeli gunfire. One more torpedo would likely have sunk the ship and its entire crew.
After two hellish hours, the assault suddenly ended. An act of great bravery had led to an SOS that spared the ship and what remained of its crew. Terry Halbardier, a Liberty sailor, risked his life by mounting a long-wire antenna on the deck while it was being strafed by Israeli gunfire. This feat enabled radiomen to broadcast a lone appeal for help before the makeshift antenna too was destroyed. The SOS was picked up by U.S. aircraft carriers nearby, as well as by Israeli intelligence. The SOS wrecked Dayan's scheme to pin the blame on Egypt. Israel had no choice. It had to stop the assault and try to construct a plausible lie.
Now we move to the USS America, the command ship of the aircraft carrier group. On receiving the SOS, group commander Admiral Lawrence Geis immediately ordered fighter aircraft launched to defend the Liberty, then reported to the White House in Washington both the SOS and the aircraft launch.
Moments later, the admiral received the shock of his long career. Over a radio phone, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, calling from the White House, shouted six words: "Get those planes back on deck." The call was relayed through a U.S. base in Morocco.
Tony Hart, the U.S, Navy petty officer who made the relay, heard the incredulous admiral protest: "Mr. Secretary, but the Liberty is under attack and needs help." McNamara's response: "Get those goddam planes back on deck." The admiral appealed again. This time he said, "Sir, I respectfully wish to appeal the order to higher authority." McNamara's terse response: "This order comes from highest authority. The president is right here. He says he doesn't care if the whole ship sinks, he is not going to war with an ally [Israel] for a couple of sailors. Get those planes back on deck." Geis ended the conversation by saying, "Aye, aye, sir." He ordered the planes to turn back, the first time in history that the U.S. Navy refused to answer an SOS.
Three days later, Geis summoned to his cabin Lt. Comdr. Dave Lewis, a severely burned survivor who had been the officer in charge of the large crew that managed intelligence-gathering on the USS Liberty. During the assault, Lewis was standing below deck about ten feet from the torpedo blast that opened the forty-foot hole in the ship's side.
The explosion damaged his eardrums, seared both eyelids shut and burned his eyeballs and other parts of his body. He survived because the blast rolled his body up in a hot but protective sheet of steel.
The next day, Lewis was picked up by helicopter and brought to the USS America's sick bay, where surgical lancing reopened his eyelids. Two days later, when Lewis arrived at the admiral's quarters, Geis closed the door, assuring privacy for the two. He told Lewis: "I want someone to know I tried to get help to the Liberty. You just happen to be that someone." He then repeated the entire conversation he had had with McNamara and offered another reason for summoning Lewis: "I know there will be an effort to cover up the facts, and I wanted someone to know the facts and who said what in case I am ordered to be silent." The admiral paused before concluding the conversation with this curious order, "I am swearing you to secrecy on what I just said." Lewis kept the secret for twenty years, breaking silence only when informed of Geis' death.
Now to the situation room in the basement of the White House, the morning after McNamara ordered the planes returned to deck. President Johnson had just received a message of apology. In it, the government of Israel falsely claimed the Israeli forces believed the ship was a military vessel of Egypt.
In a public announcement, Johnson engaged in prevarication himself. In it, he played down the severity of the assault and accepted Israel's lie as the truth. He had already issued a secret order that covered up all aspects of the tragedy. He appointed Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd to conduct a Court of Inquiry but, at the same time, he scuttled free speech and integrity by ordering him to absolve Israel of any blame when the court's report was written.
Next stop Malta, where the heavily damaged USS Liberty was berthed, then to Naples, Italy, where some survivors were billeted. At each stop, following presidential orders, Kidd personally ordered all survivors, some still in hospital beds, to maintain absolute secrecy about their ordeal.
He warned them that they would face court martial and imprisonment if they said anything to anybody about what happened. They were forbidden to tell even their families. In short, Johnson stripped Kidd of free speech and ordered him to do the same to the hapless survivors. They were later given medals, but these were distributed in unpublicized ceremonies far from the White House.
The official cover-up continues to this day. The official answer to all inquiries is an official lie: the assault on the Liberty was a tragic case of mistaken identity on the part of Israel. Over the years, Liberty survivors have pleaded repeatedly with official bodies, individual Members of Congress and major media for full disclosure of the facts. To no avail.
Besides being a shocking war crime, the assault was stark ingratitude. At the time, President Johnson was secretly providing unmarked U.S. military aircraft and personnel to aid Israel in its war against the Arabs.
Why did Dayan order the destruction of a U.S. Navy ship?
The question remains unanswered, but here is the theory most Liberty survivors accept: It was a cold-blooded, supremely-brazen criminal scheme intended to trick the United States into a fighting alliance with Israel against Arabs states.
Dayan believed Israel could get by with a monstrous hoax: secretly destroying the USS Liberty and its crew but fixing the blame on Egypt. He probably speculated that in a day or so after the sinking, Israeli officials would be able to display to news media Liberty wreckage that drifted ashore and point the accusing finger straight Egypt. He was convinced that anti-Arab fury would then spur Congress into a quick war declaration against Egypt and its war partners. With America's forces battling at its side, Israel could reasonably expect this would consolidate its gains of Arab territory and guarantee Israel's security far into the future.
Another theory, one that some survivors find plausible: Israel decided to destroy the USS Liberty quickly, because its intelligence crew might learn Israel's secret plans to invade Syria the next day, and disclosure might provoke a controversy that would foil the plans. Either way, sinking the Liberty would be a high-risk gamble. Except for the lone SOS appeal, Israel's trickery, whatever its motive, might have worked. In Moshe Dyan's autobiography, he does not mention the USS Liberty.
Why the presidential cover up? Johnson's reaction is even more shocking and inexplicable than the assault itself. Was the cover-up a frantic effort to win U.S. Jewish support for the faltering war in Vietnam? Was the president afraid that disclosure would provoke anti-Israel outrage so powerful that all U.S. aid to Israel would cease? Was it pressure from prominent Zionist leaders?
All of the above may have been factors. Prominent Zionists Arthur and Matilda Krim were close personal advisers and companions during Johnson's election to a full presidential term in 1964, and significantly, Matilda was almost constantly at his side in the White House or in touch by telephone throughout the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war that included, of course, the assault on the Liberty.
Johnson was the first U.S. president since Truman to display strong support of Israel. As president, Dwight Eisenhower forced Israel to back down from illegal acts, including its 1956 election-eve invasion of Egypt.
During John F. Kennedy's successful campaign for the presidency in 1960, he refused a proposal made by a group of New York Zionists. They offered to finance his campaign if he would promise, if elected, to let them control Middle East policy.
Was it fear? By the time of the assault on the Liberty, U.S. pro-Israel groups had already effectively redefined anti-Semitism to include any criticism of Israel. Accordingly, almost all U.S. citizens-especially politicians-have a haunting fear of being charged with anti-Semitism, that is, doing something or saying something that could be construed as being unfriendly to Israel.
Ambassador George W. Ball once cited the reckless charge of anti-Semitism as the most powerful instrument of intimidation used by Israel's U.S. lobby.
All presidents since Kennedy have treated Israel as if it is either sacrosanct or 220-voltage. They have recognized that Israel's U.S. lobby is highly organized, politically powerful, aggressive, and successful. The intimidation is not limited to federal officials.
Today, almost everyone is uneasy when Israel is mentioned in other than laudatory tones. Everyone can find an excuse to avoid even the slightest public criticism of Israeli behavior. It is a sobering example of censorship, unofficial but effective-a troubling illustration of the price the American people pay when free speech is stifled.
Forced to make a quick decision in the Liberty crisis, Johnson may have concluded that covering up the truth would cause no long-term harm to America's vital interests. If so, it was a dreadful blunder.
The cover-up marked a major turning point in U.S. foreign policy, not just a blip on history's screen. It prompted small Israel, acting through its powerful lobbying apparatus in the United States, to take firm control of mighty America's Middle East policies and engage broadly and brazenly in criminal activity. It convinced Israeli leaders, beyond any lingering doubt, that the Jewish state could literally get by with murder-even of defenseless U.S. sailors-without disturbing America's unconditional support.
The cover-up showed that Israel could draw blood from its American patrons to feed its own scofflaw ambitions for territorial conquest. Israel could violate property and human rights-even deliberately break the bones of teenagers, bulldoze homes and orchards, pen up Palestinians behind high walls of their own property, thumb its nose at rules of the International Court of Justice, Geneva institutions, and its solemn obligations under the United Nations Charter with scarcely a murmur of complaint from its chief beneficiary. For Israel, the rule of the lawless replaced the rule of law.
The cover-up cleared the decks for massive U.S. aid to Israel. It set virtually a sky's-the-limit precedent for tapping the U.S. Treasury, the Defense Department's munitions stockpiles, and all of America's top-secret technology.
The aid began to soar in all forms-financial, military and diplomatic. All of it was unconditional and remains so today.
No rules or strings are attached. U.S. officials are even denied the usual authority to monitor how aid money is spent. Israel demonstrates its command of the U.S.-Israeli relationship in various ways. One is especially ugly: Israel occasionally tortures detained U.S. citizens, even teenagers, with impunity.
This calamitous criminal tide is the byproduct of President Johnson's fateful cover-up. And the original, root cause of this horror is the disappearance of free speech and integrity in the making of U.S. Middle East policy. For years, there has been no real debate, no unfettered exchange of opinion, no thorough discussion of this vital of policy anywhere in our government.
There is no dip in U.S. aid even when Israeli prime ministers publicly defy U.S. presidents, as they occasionally do. Our officials routinely look the other way when Israel steals secrets. The imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard was the exception that proves the rule. These crimes get little attention in our thoroughly intimidated major media, but the rest of the world sees our Congress as a bunch of trained poodles that jump through a hoop held by Israel. Once revered worldwide, America is now reviled.
Two powerful religion-driven lobbies are prominent in Israel's entry into bold criminality. One consists of a relatively small group of Jewish zealots, whose most prominent and effective voice is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], founded a half-century ago. Its membership is relatively small, consisting mainly of secular Jews often called Zionists and others who are ultra-Orthodox. The other lobby, whose influence emerged in the last twenty years, consists of millions of fundamentalist Christians who accept a controversial interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelations. This lobby is loosely-organized but effective, with televangelists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell providing most of the leadership.
Both groups contend that present-day Israel is a central part of God's plan and must be kept strong and united until the arrival on earth of each group's messiah. The two have political power so great that Congress dutifully appropriates billions to Israel.
This occurs year after year, without conditions or serious discussion, much less real debate. Their grip on our government is unhealthy for the well-being of Israel and the United States, as well as for Christianity and Judaism.
What is best for America in the Middle East is never examined on Capitol Hill or in the executive branch, much less given the priority it deserves. I know. I was a Member of Congress for twenty-two years. I have followed the grim scene closely ever since.
The bitter fruit of this bias is bad policy, gross favoritism on behalf of one small nation, Israel, and against all other states in the region. The financial cost is not the greatest price of this bias, but it is immense. A study in the Christian Science Monitor places the cost of U.S. aid to Israel since 1975 at $1.6 trillion, the equivalent of $320,000 for each citizen of Israel. Per capital aid to Arab states during that period is slightly above zero.
This policy bias could not have occurred, even for a year, if free speech had prevailed on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Any U.S. president in the last 38 years could have prevented 9/11 simply by suspending all U.S. aid until Israel vacated the territory it has held illegally since 1967.
If the truth about the assault on the Liberty had been officially disclosed--if surviving crewmen had been permitted to exercise the right of free speech--public outrage would have forced a major change in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Future U.S. aid would be tied to firm conditions and to accountability rules like those demanded of all other recipients of U.S. aid.
Israel would not have been lured into lawbreaking by protective, unconditional U.S. support. Years ago, I heard Moshe Dayan state that Israel would have no choice but to obey U.S. demands if they were firm conditions of eligibility for U.S. aid.
After many years in politics, I am convinced that America's gravest burden today is the quiet but firm domination of our Middle East policy by these two religion-driven lobbies and their associates. Their power is an unprecedented phenomenon that reaches far broader and deeper than the USS Liberty and its crew, important as their fate is to hundreds of families and to the proud annals of the U.S. Navy.
Liberty survivors are hurting. Palestine is hurting. Israel is hurting. America is hurting. You are I are hurting. For this hurt, guilt must be shared. Israeli leaders are guilty of criminal activity. Our Members of Congress and President George W. Bush are guilty of supporting this criminal activity. So were every Congress and every president beginning with the Lyndon Johnson administration. I am among the guilty. While a Member of Congress, I frequently criticized Israel and urged President Jimmy Carter to suspend all aid to Israel, but in the end, I voted for this aid. I should have voted no every time.
What can you do to get America's Middle East policy back on the high road where it belongs? Go back to scholastic and work-a-day chores? Of course. But as opportunities arise, seek civilized discussion of our Israeli relationship with any one who will listen.
Robust debate of U.S. Middle East policy-especially within our political system-is absolutely necessary. We must liberate ourselves from the suffocating mystique that enables religion-driven lobbies to stifle free speech. You can help. Each of you should enter America's political mainstream. Promote free speech, unfettered debate.
Climb the political ladder and, as you do, offer integrity as your foremost qualification. Each of you can make a difference. You can help restore the strength of the U.S. Constitution and its precious bill of rights, of which the most precious is the freedom to speak without fear. It is a cause worthy of your urgent attention. Get involved. Never, never give up.
The political cost of supporting the USS Liberty
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
January/February 2002-Vol. XXI, No.. 1
Material from the WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS may be reprinted without charge with attribution to WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS. Bylined material must also be attributed to the author. This release does not apply to photographs, cartoons or reprints from other publications.
Address: P.O. Box 53062 Washington, D.C. 53062
Telephone: 202 939-6050
REFUSAL TO INVESTIGATE ISRAEL'S 1967 ATTACK ON USS LIBERTY A "NO-BRAINER" ONE LEGISLATOR'S STORY
SIDEBAR: I WAS (AND AM) CONSIDERING LEAVING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER THIS ISSUE.
By Marlin Schneider
In the summer of 1998 I received an e-mail from a Wisconsin citizen in Oshkosh who asked all the members of the Wisconsin legislature to see if anyone would introduce a resolution requesting Congress to investigate an attack by the Israelis in 1967 on a ship called the USS LIBERTY. This seemed like a no-brainer that would be supported by Wisconsin veterans wanting to help another group of veterans denied their right to petition their government for a redress of grievances. I looked into the issue a bit and discovered that, indeed the ship had been attacked, an apology offered, reparations paid - but that the veterans of that ship were still being denied a full-scale congressional investigation, which they believed necessary to finally bring closure to the issue.
The LIBERTY veterans believed that the attack on their ship was deliberate and not friendly fire, and that it had been covered up by the United States Navy and the State Department for years because of reprisals by influential people who would bring down any politician with the audacity to ask questions about the attack. Some of the people who later talked to me both within and outside our own capitol warned me to beware of massive political contributions against me and even potential assassination. I laughed that off because I have never been anti-Israel and, in fact, the people who got me to run in 1970 were Jewish constituents whom I admired because in the 1950's they had taken on Sen. Joseph McCarthy right here in central Wisconsin. Moreover, one of my former assistants was the daughter of a rabbi incarcerated at Buchenwald who now works for a Jewish organization in New York City.
I also thought that a lowly state legislator was too small a potato for anyone to care much about.
In my naiveté I learned that the only "no-brainer" around here was me.. The resolution was introduced in the 1999-2000 session and sent to our committee on Veterans and Military Affairs. It got a unanimous vote in committee after they heard testimony about the incident. Curiously, however, it suddenly got held up in the Rules Committee by the Republican majority leader. I had promised the people who had asked me to introduce the legislation that I would make a motion to pull the bill from the Rules Committee if the majority leader wouldn't report it out. Little did I know the trouble this would cause me in the Democratic caucus. My Democratic colleagues became very angry with me for wanting to move this bill, and demanded that I not do so.
In my then-30 years in the Wisconsin Assembly, this was the first time I had heard anyone ask another member to go back on his or her word. I refused. I made the motion on the floor in the spring 2000 session and was soundly defeated by both sides of the aisle. After the 2000 elections, in a secret Democratic caucus, I was sacked as assistant Democratic leader and removed from a leadership position because I had had the audacity not to back down earlier that year. Set free from the constraints of “leadership,” I introduced the resolution again in the current session. This time, however, I toned down the rhetoric of the resolution to try and satisfy its critics. Alas, even that doesn't satisfy them. They do not want this matter investigated. They called me an “anti-Semite” and a “racist.” I told them that I would not accept that line of bull, and the words we had in caucus were very harsh. In November, on the floor of the Assembly, after I was once again even more soundly defeated, I told them I was (and am) considering leaving the Democratic Party over this issue. I could not in good faith faith support a party which cannot see fit to support to support me. Even more importantly, however, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can see fit to provide this group of veterans their just due in seeking their Constitutional right to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Amid all this rancor I had the most marvelous opportunity last summer to meet with five USS LIBERTY veterans in Grafton, Wisconsin, where a library is named in honor of the ship. I watched as men now in middle age still break down and cry over the events of 34 years ago. My colleagues told me that we should just forget this because it happened 34 years ago. I replied that I could not recall anyone saying that the Israelis should have just forgotten Adolf Eichmann because World War II had long since been over. To that I received no response. When I met with the survivors of the attack I told them that, if I had to go down, I could think of no better reason than to go down with the men of the USS LIBERTY.
Interestingly, one of those killed on the LIBERTY was from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. One of the boys killed on the USS COLE was from Fond du Lac. Nobody said we shouldn’t have a full investigation of that terrorist act. On the day the Assembly took up the resolution on the LIBERTY we had taken up and passed a resolution on Puerto Rico and had a group of former Marines from Fond du Lac present the colors. We then passed a resolution honoring the members of our Assembly who also are serving or who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Such patriotism does not seem to extend to the veterans of the USS LIBERTY.
It is very hard to deal with this issue because the press will not cover it. Even when I wrote to each and every major veterans organization, including the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I did not get even the courtesy of a response. From Wisconsin’s congressional delegation I either received State Department drivel, or mostly no response at all. One member did express an interest and I intend to share The History Channel’s report on the LIBERTY with him. I received no response when I wrote to the previous Israeli government. When I wrote to Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who hosted a meeting of LIBERTY survivors, and to the majority leader of the Minnesota Senate I likewise was stone-walled, and am still awaiting a response. Maybe Jesse just doesn’t correspond with cheeseheads.
I am very angry about this. These were American sailors. They are still loyal to their country. Their country is disloyal to them. History is replete with examples of cover-uo and scapegoating by those in power. Pearl Harbor, the USS INDINAPOLIS, the USS IOWA, the USS STARK, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the USS PUEBLO - all are examples of scapegoating or flat out cover-up. The USS LIBERTY is just the worst example. These men and their families deserve as much and respect and honor and love as all others who have served our country Their country - especially those who “serve” in the Congress of the United States - doesn’t have the guts to stand up for them. These sailors and intelligence officers deserve “the love and thanks of man and woman.” The summer soldiers and the phony sunshine patriots in legislative bodies from Madison to Washington deserve nothing but contempt for letting them down.
-----------------------------------------
Marlin Schneider is a former assistant Democratic leader of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
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http://ussliberty.org/schneider.txt
The USS Liberty: By Eric S. Margolis
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/margolis12.html
5-2-1
NEW YORK - On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army. 'Liberty,' a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennas and electronic 'ears' including TRSSCOMM, a system that delivered real-time intercepts to Washington by bouncing a stream of microwaves off the moon. 'Liberty' had been rushed to Sinai to monitor communications of the belligerents in the Third Arab Israeli War: Israel and her foes, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty,' which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.
At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431 hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died. Israeli gunboats circled the wounded 'Liberty,' firing at crewmen trying to fight the fires. At 1515, the crew were ordered to abandon ship. The Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House. An hour after the attack, Israeli warships and planes returned. Commander McGonagle gave the order. 'prepare to repel borders.' But the Israelis, probably fearful of intervention by the US Sixth Fleet, departed. 'Liberty' was left shattered but still defiant, her flag flying.
The Israeli attacks killed 34 US seamen and wounded 171 out of a crew of 297, the worst loss of American naval personnel from hostile action since World War II. Less than an hour after the attack, Israel told Washington its forces had committed a 'tragic error.' Later, Israel claimed it had mistaken 'Liberty' for an ancient Egyptian horse transport. US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink 'Liberty.' So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack. In contrast to American outrage over North Korea's assault on the intelligence ship 'Pueblo,' Iraq's mistaken missile strike on the USS 'Stark,' last fall's bombing of the USS 'Cole' in Aden, and the recent US-China air incident, the savaging of 'Liberty' was quickly hushed up by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
The White House and Congress immediately accepted Israel's explanation and let the matter drop. Israel later paid a token reparation of US $6 million. There were reports two Israeli pilots who had refused to attack 'Liberty' were jailed for 18 years. Surviving 'Liberty' crew members would not be silenced. They kept demanding an open inquiry and tried to tell their story of deliberate attack to the media. Israel's government worked behind the scenes to thwart these efforts, going so far as having American pro-Israel groups accuse 'Liberty's' survivors of being 'anti-Semites' and 'Israel-haters.' Major TV networks cancelled interviews with the crew. A book about the 'Liberty' by crewman James Ennes' was dropped from distribution. The Israel lobby branded him 'an Arab propagandist.'
The attack on 'Liberty' was fading into obscurity until last week, when intelligence expert James Bamford came out with Body of Secrets, his latest book about the National Security Agency. In a stunning revelation, Bamford writes that unknown to Israel, a US Navy EC-121 intelligence aircraft was flying high overhead the 'Liberty,' electronically recorded the attack. The US aircraft crew provides evidence that the Israeli pilots knew full well that they were attacking a US Navy ship flying the American flag.
Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally? Most likely because 'Liberty's' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim, made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation. In fact, Israel began the war by a devastating, Pearl-Harbor style surprise attack that caught the Arabs in bed and destroyed their entire air forces.
Israel was also preparing to attack Syria to seize its strategic Golan Heights. Washington warned Israel not to invade Syria, which had remained inactive while Israel fought Egypt. Bamford says Israel's offensive against Syria was abruptly postponed when 'Liberty' appeared off Sinai, then launched once it was knocked out of action. Israel's claim that Syria had attacked it could have been disproved by 'Liberty.' Most significant, 'Liberty's' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.
Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why? Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.
Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism -- not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. Crew member's graves were inscribed, 'died in the Eastern Mediterranean..' as if they had been killed by disease, rather than hostile action.
A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel, and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberals toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.
Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened. Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's' dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2001
For more information on the USS Liberty:
http://www.ussliberty.org/jim/ussliberty/liberty.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/04/23/liberty.attack/index.html
Israel's 1967 attack on U.S. ship deliberate, book says
April 23, 2001 Web posted at: 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 GMT)
From David Ensor CNN National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new book quotes U.S. officials around during the 1967 Israeli attack on a U.S. surveillance ship as saying the attack was not an accident -- as Israel has always claimed -- but deliberate.
The attack, in which 34 American sailors died, was carried out to prevent the United States from eavesdropping on Israeli military activities, author James Bamford writes.
The USS Liberty was attacked during the Six Day War on June 8 by air and sea forces off the Sinai coast. Israel said the ship was mistaken for an Egyptian one and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson then accepted the explanation.
Israel later paid modest reparations to the families of the 34 Americans killed, and to the 171 others who were injured.
What the Israelis did not know, according to "Body of Secrets" -- published by Doubleday and scheduled for release Tuesday -- is that the U.S. National Security Agency had a surveillance plane flying above the Liberty.
The book quotes by name a Hebrew-English translator on that U.S. plane as saying the Israeli pilots talked about completing an attack. He said "they mentioned an American flag" -- suggesting the Israelis knew they were attacking a U.S. ship.
Bamford's other named sources include a former top N.S.A. official who conducted a review of the attack and an Air Force major general.
Israeli officials have not responded to CNN calls seeking comment.
Bamford writes that National Security Agency intercepts of the Israeli pilots and sailors remain secret to this day, although his sources say the communications would clearly show the Israelis attacked the U.S. ship deliberately.
As for motive, Bamford speculates in the book that the Israelis may not have wanted the United States to know that "at that same moment, a scant dozen or so miles away, Israeli soldiers were butchering civilians and bound prisoners by the hundreds, a fact that the entire Israeli army leadership knew about and condoned, according to the army's own historian."
Survivors of the attack on the USS Liberty have long argued that the Israelis had to know they were attacking an American ship, since the ship was circled repeatedly at a low altitude by Israeli aircraft before the attack and the ship was flying U.S. flags.
Bamford is an intelligence specialist and the author of a previous best-selling book about the NSA called "The Puzzle Palace."
For more information about the USS Liberty:
http://www.ussliberty.org/jim/ussliberty/liberty.htm
Introduction of Victor Ostrovsky and Comments on the USS Liberty
Our last speaker will be introduced by a very distinguished and interesting gentleman known to many of you over the years as a maverick Republican, a liberal Republican, a pain in the Republican butt, but always a Republican, and a great figure from the state of California, a great former Marine from the Korean War. He holds two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star and a man of great moral conviction and courage, the Honorable Pete McCloskey.
Paul N. McCloskey
It is my privilege to introduce to you one of the most exciting speakers on this continent, Victor Ostrovsky. But before I do I want to tell you a story that Willis Carto gave me permission to tell you about the meaning of Spotlight and one great achievement of Spotlight.
It’s a story of the USS Liberty that, some of you may remember, in 1967 was attacked by the Israeli Navy, torpedo boats - aircraft. Suffered the casualties of over 190 young sailors, and a ship that was literally unarmed; it was a surveillance ship off the Egyptian and Israeli coast during the 1967 War. Israeli planes machine gunned it, torpedoed it from torpedo boats, and when they lowered lifeboats, machine gunned the lifeboats. The intent, that there would be no survivors. The boat did survive, limped back to port. The story was covered up. Lyndon Johnson had ordered airplanes to support it. When he learned that it was an Israeli attack the airplanes were withdrawn. The U.S. Navy covered up the story for many years, dispersed the crews and were told not to discuss it. You can imagine this crew in 1967 having suffered probably more casualties than any naval engagement since the battle off Guadalcanal of the Solomon Islands. They were devastated by the fact that nobody recognized them.
One day a little town up in Wisconsin in a town called Grafton, a town north of Milwaukee of twenty-thousand people, they were conducting what is fairly rare in America. They wanted to have more libraries, unlike turning away and closing libraries, the city of Grafton determined that they would have a library. They put out a fund-raising effort. They brought in a professional that told them, “If you’re going to raise three-million dollars for a library you’ve got to find somebody that will give a half of a million dollars. Then you get so many gifts at one-hundred thousand dollars, so many at ten-thousand, and you raise the money like that.” You all probably have been involved in that kind of campaign for the YMCA or something in your own community. So they said, “How do we get this half of a million dollars?”
There were two old men that came over to this country in the early part of this century. They had founded a machine tool shop that had become successful. All during the depression the Grob Brothers, G R O B, the Grob Brothers did two things. They read Spotlight every week and they also, whenever the town or the community needed money, would give the money - such as a little league baseball team, nursing home, new wing for the hospital. The Grob brothers were the heart and soul of the town of Grafton, Wisconsin. Well they got Mr. Grob, one of the Grobs, to pledge the half million dollars. They went to him and said, “Well Mr. Grob, do you want to call this new library the Theodore Grob Memorial Library?” He said, “No!” He had been reading in SpotLight about the USS Liberty and the injustice. He said, “I want to name it the USS Liberty Memorial Library.”
It caused an international sensation. They had just dedicated the Golda Meir Library of Milwaukee. The entire Jewish community rose up and said, “We can’t have a USS Liberty.” They accused them of anti-Semitism in the Milwaukee Journal. They had an ex-CPO that was the mayor of the town and they stuck to their guns and finally dedicated the USS Liberty Memorial Library.
The surviving crew members came, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was a memorial, which had the names of the thirty-four dead on that memorial. They had six old men that fired a salute with the old Springfield rifle. They had a band and everybody was just overjoyed. In the meantime the press was appearing them as an anti-Semitic town.
That night I was invited to dinner with Mr. Grob, who by reading the Spotlight had caused this crew to come from all over the United States and restored their faith. It was a little like the Vietnam War Memorial did for the Vietnam veterans. Sitting across from Mr. Grob, he said, “McCloskey, I’ve read your record in the Spotlight over the years. You’re right on this issue. But you’re a damn liberal.” And we have been good friends ever since.
So when a voice speaks the truth it can lead to great things. In the Spotlight, no matter how many times over the years they have called me a liberal or disagreed with me on believing with me on the United Nations or one of those liberal positions, I have never ceased to thank them for what they did for the surviving sixty or seventy members of the Liberty which take their faith from that dedication at the little town of Grafton, which would not have happened but for Spotlight.
The man I am going to introduce to you now has shown as much or more courage than many of the Marines that I fought with in Korea and watched fight in Vietnam. Victor Ostrovsky is a former member of the Israeli Mossad, a patriotic Israeli, his wife is a patriotic Israeli, but they concluded some years ago that the Mossad control and leadership over the Israeli government was such that somebody had to speak the truth about it. Victor and his wife in Ottawa, Canada, Victor wrote a book called By Way of Deception. He has written a follow up book called The Other Side of Deception. Those two books should be mandatory reading for every citizen in the United States. In the book By Way of Deception he described that the Mossad has a network all over the world of Jewish communities, in France, and Canada, London, the United States, who inadvertently and sometimes knowingly and sometime unknowingly furnish information to the Mossad which can be funneled back to Israel to discredit American citizens who speak out against Israel. The Anti-Defamation League, of all the thirty-three major Jewish organizations in this country, is the most pro-Zionist. If you take your cue, as I do, from George Washington’s farewell address, you will remember his cautioning against foreign entanglements, either great hatred against a nation or great affection for a nation, which might lead the United States into foreign policy positions which are inimical to the United States. There is no foreign relationship of the United States today that becomes close to the relationship with the nation of Israel. And there is no nation whose foreign policy is sponsored and supported by a community of supporters in the United States, who so rigorously controls Congress in all matters affecting the Mid-East in Israeli policy.
When Victor Ostrovsky wrote his book the Israeli government tried to suppress it. Our freedom of speech in this country, freedom of the press permitted the publication of the book that sold two-million copies and has done more to educate Americans about the insidious excessive influence of the Israeli government and their supporters in our political system than any book that I know. The courage that caused him to publish that also subjected him to the very real possibility of assassination, which he will describe, because of the dedication of certain elements in Israel to the execution or suppression of voices who speak out critical to Israel.
I come from California where Alex O’Day, an Arab-American who spoke out on a television program, indicated that he thought what Yasar Arafat was saying was a voice of peace. He was blown up by a bomb when he went into his office the next day. The plans of his office were discovered in the possession of Roy Bullock, a paid agent of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the plans for that office that was blown up and had assassinated this American citizen who had spoken out in criticism of the policies of Israel.
Victor Ostrovsky has spoken the truth. Because the truth hurts, he is subject to assassination at any time. I have particular thanks that I want to express to him. I served in a minor capacity on one of the commissions, appointed by my friend George Bush. George Bush outraged the American Jewish community, if you recall, by taking a position that our aid to them of ten billion dollars should be conditioned on a reasonable Israeli position toward a Mid East peace. Victor Ostrovsky spoke out and said that the President of the United States is subject to the possibility of assassination by a Mossad hit team when he goes to Spain to an international convention. By his willingness to speak out he may have saved the life of the President of the United States. In any event they have decorated me for various things, Victor, for fighting in Korea. I know of no act of courage that begins to match the courage that you have shown..
MEMORANDUM: From: Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
Subject: Attack on the USS Liberty June 8, 1967 Date: June 8, 1997
http://208.56.153.48/jim/ussliberty/
I have never believed that the attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity. That is ridiculous. I have flown over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thousands of hours, searching for ships and identifying all types of ships at sea. The Liberty was the ugliest, strangest looking ship in the U.S. Navy. As a communications intelligence ship, it was sprouting every kind of antenna. It looked like a lobster with all those projections moving every which way. Israel knew perfectly well that the ship was American. After all, the Liberty's American flag and markings were in full view in perfect visibility for the Israeli aircraft that over-flew the ship eight times over a period of nearly eight hours prior to the attack. I am confident that Israel knew the Liberty could intercept radio messages from all parties and potential parties to the ongoing war, then in its fourth day, and that Israel was preparing to seize the Golan Heights from Syria despite President Johnson's known opposition to such a move. I think they realized that if we learned in advance of their plan, there would be a tremendous amount of negotiating between Tel Aviv and Washington. And I believe Moshe Dayan concluded that he could prevent Washington from becoming aware of what Israel was up to by destroying the primary source of acquiring that information the USS Liberty. The result was a wanton sneak attack that left 34 American sailors dead and 171 seriously injured. What is so chilling and cold-blooded, of course, is that they could kill as many Americans as they did in confidence that Washington would cooperate in quelling any public outcry. I have to conclude that it was Israel's intent to sink the Liberty and leave as few survivors as possible. Up to the point where the torpedo boats were sent in, you could speculate on that point. You have to remember that the Liberty was an intelligence ship, not a fighting ship, and its only defensive weapons were a pair of 50-caliber machine guns both aft and on the forecastle. There was little the men could do to fight off the air assault from Israeli jets that pounded the Liberty with bombs, rockets, napalm and machine gun fire for 25 minutes. With the Liberty riddled with holes, fires burning, and scores of casualties, three Israeli torpedo boats closed in for the kill. The second of three torpedoes ripped through a compartment at amidships, drowning 25 of the men in that section. Then the torpedo boats closed to within 100 feet of the Liberty to continue the attack with cannons and machine guns, resulting in further casualties. It is telling, with respect to whether total annihilation was the intent, that the Liberty crew has reported that the torpedo boats' machine guns also were turned on life rafts that were deployed into the Mediterranean as well as those few on deck that had escaped damage. As we know now, if the rescue aircraft from U.S. carriers had not been recalled, they would have arrived at the Liberty before the torpedo attack, reducing the death toll by 25. The torpedo boat commanders could not be certain that Sixth Fleet aircraft were not on the way and this might have led to their breaking off the attack after 40 minutes rather than remaining to send the Liberty and its crew of 294 to the bottom. Congress to this day has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on the Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace. I spent hours on the Hill giving testimony after the USS Pueblo, a sister ship to the Liberty, was seized by North Korea. I was asked every imaginable question, including why a carrier in the area failed to dispatch aircraft to aid the Pueblo. In the Liberty case, fighters were put in the air not once, but twice. They were ordered to stand down by Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Johnson for reasons the American public deserves to know. The captain and crew of the Liberty, rather than being widely acclaimed as the heroes they most certainly are, have been silenced, ignored, honored belatedly and away from the cameras, and denied a history that accurately reflects their ordeal. I was appalled that six of the dead from the Liberty lay under a tombstone at Arlington Cemetery that described them as having "died in the eastern Mediterranean," as if disease rather than Israeli intent had caused their deaths. The Naval Academy failed to record the name of Lt. Stephen Toth in Memorial Hall on the grounds that he had not been killed in battle. I intervened and was able to reverse the apparent idea that dying in a cowardly, one-sided attack by a supposed ally is somehow not the same as being killed by an avowed enemy. Commander McGonagle's story is the stuff of naval tradition. Badly wounded in the first air attack, lying on the deck and losing blood, he refused any treatment that would take him from his battle station on the bridge. He continued to direct the ship's defense, the control of flooding and fire, and by his own example inspired the survivors to heroic efforts to save the ship. He did not relinquish his post until hours later, after having directed the crippled ship's navigation to a rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer and final arrival in Malta. I must have gone to the White House 15 times or more to watch the President personally award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Americans of special valor. So it irked the hell out of me when McGonagle's ceremony was relegated to the obscurity of the Washington Navy Yard and the medal was presented by the Secretary of the Navy. This was a back-handed slap. Everyone else received their medal at the White House. President Johnson must have been concerned about the reaction of the Israeli lobby. The Liberty Veterans Association deserves the encouragement of everyone who wants the facts of the Liberty incident revealed and proper homage paid to the men who lost their lives, to their families, and to the survivors. I have attended many of their reunions and am always impressed with the cohesion of the Liberty family. They arrive in town with their whole entourage grandmas, grandpas, grandchildren. They promote the memory of the boys who were killed and I respect them for that. They are mostly from small country towns, probably a lot like Eufaula, Alabama, where I grew up, and they represent the basic core of America that has enabled us to be a superpower for so long. These are the kind of people who will make certain that our liberty and freedom survive if fighting is what it takes.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer June 8, 1997
i have submitted this information because i am very disturbed but not completely surprised by its revelations. i cannot vouch with complete authority for the complete veracity of this revealing news but as an individual seeking the truth, i am convinced that the facts contained herein that i have read about the USS Liberty are, in my own personal opinion, very highly probable. i would say that i would support a Congressional investigation of this attack on the USS Liberty that has been and is continuing to be called for by the survivors of the USS Liberty attack. i would urge my readers very strongly to visit the USS Liberty website at: http://208.56.153.48/jim/ussliberty/
Just as i am horrified and saddened at what has happened on the east coast to all of the innocent people that have been killed, i am just as horrified and saddened about what i have been learning about this equally despicable action. Just as we should seek justice for those whose lives have been taken on September 11, 2001 on the east coast, so should we seek equal justice for those who may have been so brutally murdered on June 8, 1967.
no peace without justice,
john vance, Coordinator A First Amendment Center Berkeley, Ca http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net
Statement in the US House of Representatives June 6, 2002,
by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney:
Mr. Speaker, I speak to commemorate and recognize the tragic attack that took place against the U.S.S. Liberty on June 8, 1967. Although thirty-five years have come and gone since this historic event, the survivors of the U.S.S. Liberty are still struggling with the fact that their story has never been heard. While there has never been an official investigation into this event, we have learned from survivor accounts that for over 75 minutes the Israeli Defense Forces attacked the U.S.S. Liberty, killing 34 American soldiers and wounding an additional 172. With over 85% of the crew either dead or wounded, they somehow managed to keep the ship afloat after being hit by over 1000 rounds of rocket, cannon, machine gun, napalm hits, and even a direct hit from a torpedo. This unprovoked attack took place in international waters, and by a trusted ally. The only explanation given to the survivors and their families as to why this attack took place was that it was an accident and that their ship was not identified as being American, regardless of the fact that our flag was proudly flown throughout the attack. Unfortunately, that explanation is not good enough for those whose lives have been impacted by this attack, and it should not be good enough for the American people. Let's not wait another thirty-five years before we provide the survivors of the U.S.S. Liberty an official investigation into why this attack took place and allow them to tell their story. We owe them more than a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice; we owe them the truth.
from The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs May/June 1996
USS Liberty Did Israel commit one war crime to hide another?
By James M. Ennes, Jr.
Washington Report readers know the story well. In 1967 on the fourth day of the Six Day War, the armed forces of Israel attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty for 90 minutes in international waters in broad daylight following several hours of close, low-level reconnaissance. Thirty-four men died, 171 were hurt, and the ship was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped.
The government of Israel has lied about the circumstances ever since, telling a story markedly different from that told by American survivors. Congress has refused to question Israel's demonstrably false account, even though the State Department's own analysis finds the Israeli story to be untrue.
Yet the most pressing question remaining from that infamy is not whether the attack was deliberate. That was settled long ago for most reasonable people. The question is why Israel risked its cozy relationship with America by killing American seaman on the high seas.
Indeed, spokesmen for Israel use that question in Israel's defense. Why, they ask, would Israel risk alienating its American friends?
So why did Israel attack? Intelligence analysts and others have long supposed that Israel attacked to prevent the ship from reporting the impending invasion of the Golan Heights, then imminent despite cease fire pleas by the United States. Israel's defenders reject that explanation.
Recent reports in the Israeli and Egyptian press suggest another powerful possibility.
According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army - the army that claims to hold itself to a higher moral standard than other armies - executed as many as 1,000 Arab prisoners during the 1967 war.
Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish.
Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.
"I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes," Bron wrote. "Afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets."
Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area.
USS Liberty was nearby
As those executions were underway, America's most sophisticated intelligence platform, USS Liberty, was less than 13 miles from El Arish.
We were close enough to see the town mosque with the naked eye. With binoculars we could make out individual buildings and might have seen the executions if we had looked in the right place.
Could our operators have heard voice radio messages revealing these killings? Did senior Israeli officers sanction the murders, or did they learn of them? How would they have reacted to the knowledge that USS Liberty was nearby and might have heard incriminating radio traffic?
Would they have been desperate enough to attack an American ship?
The Liberty attack was a war crime
The attack on USS Liberty was itself a war crime. US Navy Commander Walter Jacobsen, a Navy Legal Officer then doing graduate work at George Washington University, conducted an extensive legal analysis of the attack.
His conclusion, reported in the Winter, 1986, Naval Law Review, was that several aspects of the attack violated provisions of the Geneva Conventions -- war crimes. Specifically, Commander Jacobsen found that the attack was not legally justified, that it constituted an act of aggression under the United Nations Charter, that the use of unmarked aircraft, the wanton destruction of life rafts in the water, the jamming of international radio distress frequencies, and the failure of the torpedo boat commanders to render immediate assistance to a disabled and helpless enemy were all violations of international law.
US refusal to investigate violates Geneva Conventions
For years, USS Liberty survivors have asked Members of Congress to investigate the circumstances of the attack.
The Israeli version is untrue. We did fly a flag. We did identify ourselves. We were in international waters. They did not stop firing after seeing our flag as they claim, but continued to fire for another 40 minutes. The attack lasted 75 minutes and was not brief or accidental as Israel claims. We did not "attempt to hide" or escape when detected, as Israeli has charged. These things are easy to prove.
More important are the war crimes discussed by Commander Jacobsen. These things should have been investigated in 1967. Yet U.S. officials have ignored the offenses for 29 years, refusing to investigate or even to acknowledge them.
That refusal is itself a crime. The United States, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, is "under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed" violations of the conventions, and to see that violators are brought to trial.
There are no exceptions. War crimes reported to government officials must be investigated and perpetrators tried.
Yet even this is ignored by U.S. officials. Liberty survivors for many years have reported the crimes committed against us and have requested an appropriate investigation. Despite the law, our complaints are ignored. No investigation of these charges has ever been held.
Recently Liberty's Joe Meadors, a former president and chairman of the Liberty Veterans Association, has filed formal complaints with the House and Senate Ethics Committees against members who have ignored our complaints.
To no surprise, these complaints, too, are being ignored.
Navy Refusal to investigate violates Navy Regulations
When the Liberty was attacked, Captain Joseph Tully in the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga received the ship's call for help and immediately sent jet aircraft to her assistance. Tully's jets were recalled almost immediately by orders from Washington. As a result, American jet fighter support was withheld for more than 90 minutes. By then the damage was done and 34 men were dead or dying.
Had those aircraft been sent, they would probably have arrived before the torpedo boats started their part of the attack. At least 25 lives could have been saved.
We survivors have tried for 29 years to learn why we were denied the immediate air support that we were promised in case of trouble. There are no answers. The Navy still will not even admit that help was not sent, even though one of the aircraft carrier commanders has offered to testify that he was forbidden to help us.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the body of law that governs every military person, provides that "Any person subject to this chapter who before or in the presence of the enemy . . . does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to . . . troops, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces . . . when engaged in battle . . . shall be punished by death or such punishment as a court martial may direct."
That provision was clearly violated when Liberty's air support was withheld. Yet the Navy will not even admit that we were not defended.
George Orwell suggested in 1945 that some animals are more equal than other animals. Some countries, too, it would seem.
James Ennes retired from the Navy in 1978 as a lieutenant commander after 27 years of enlisted and commissioned service. He was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty on the day of the attack. His book on the subject, Assault on the Liberty (Random House, 1980), is a "Notable Naval Book" selection of the U.S. Naval Institute and was "editors choice" when reviewed in The Washington Post.
chicagotribune.com
Special report
New revelations in attack on American spy ship
Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel
didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident
By John Crewdson 10-2-07
JEWS OF THE WORLD
UNITE.
Some Jewish Leaders.