Posted on 10/30/2002 3:37:06 PM PST by yonif
The Truth about the USS Liberty By Yoni Freeman
In response to the presentation on Tuesday October 30th 2002 of the documentary “The Loss of Liberty” by the Council for the National Interest Connecticut, it is my duty to present the real facts concerning the Liberty incident.
The first question one should ask is who exactly are these documentary sponsors? Well after researching the organization on their website (http://www.cnionline.org/) I concluded that the Council for the National Interest is nothing more than an anti-Israeli organization which also shows tendencies of being anti-Semitic. Here are some excerpts from different Middle East articles, written by them, on their website:
1) "The State of Israel was founded 54 years ago to provide a "home" for a people who had been rejected, uprooted, tortured, maimed and expelled by Europe. Did any of us living then think that the Jews would do the same to their hosts in the "homeland," and reject, uproot, torture, maim and expel their Palestinian neighbors? Whole Palestinian villages have been destroyed without a trace -- so that those villagers who left them in 1948 would never have a village to return to at a later date. Why does this sound familiar? Victims have become victimizers?" http://rescuemideastpolicy.com/ads/ad_1.html
2) "ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: WHOSE EXISTENCE IS REALLY IN DANGER?" http://rescuemideastpolicy.com/ads/ad_2.html
3) "The State of Israel was founded 54 years ago to provide a “home” for a people who had been rejected, uprooted, tortured, maimed and expelled by Europe. Did anyone think that Jews would do the same to the Palestinian people who were already living there?" "From 1947-1949, Israel rejected, uprooted, tortured, maimed and expelled the Palestinian population. Israel destroyed over 415 Palestinian villages, along with their churches and mosques, so that the Palestinian villagers could not return. Once Jews were victims of these atrocities, but it is clear that the Jewish victims in Israel have become victimizers of the Palestinians." "In 1967, Israel invaded the rest of historical Palestine: the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The UN has repeatedly voted that Israel leave the Palestinian land and let the Palestinian people be free. Israel has refused, constantly violating international" "Discrimination and apartheid in Israel are striking. Christians and Muslims are not allowed to rent, buy or lease in 92% of Israel. Israel prohibits Palestinian Christians and Muslims from living in Jewish-only colonies." http://rescuemideastpolicy.com/ads/ad_3.html
4) "We the people of the United States challenge our Congress to confront Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his apartheid policy in the occupied Palestinian territories" http://rescuemideastpolicy.com/ads/ad_4.html Everyone already knows my views concerning Israel so there is really no need for me to bring up counter-points to combat these lies above.
But wait a minute, their website states that their organization is “striving for a balanced Middle East Policy.” Do the excerpts above show this?
As you can see, a biased and anti-Israeli organization presented this video. It was no surprise that an anti-Israeli documentary regarding the USS Liberty was aired, subsequently.
In short, the “documentary” (wrmea.com/archives/march2002/0203104.html),
…dramatically proves, beyond any doubt, that the attack by Israel on June 8, 1967 against the U.S. naval intelligence gathering ship USS Liberty, in which 34 Americans were killed and 171 wounded, was deliberate…
… “Loss of Liberty” makes clear that then-President Lyndon Johnson conspired with Israel and its Israel-First supporters inside the U.S. government to support the “tragic accident” scheme.
In order to understand this issue one must understand the background information regarding this incident. In June 1967, a United States Ship, the Liberty, came too close to the coast of Israel. During those days Israel was in a state of war, warding off attacks of surrounding Arab states who were trying to destroy it. The US ambassador declared in the United Nations that no American ships were in the range of 400 miles from Israel. The National Security Agency, part of the ship’s command, was supposed to give timely orders to the USS Liberty to leave, however, these orders arrived days after the attack.
Eight days later, Israeli Air Force planes and boats attacked the ship, killing 34 and wounding 177. The ship did not sink, and slowly moved crippled to a nearby port. After the incident voices were heard: “Did Israel deliberately attack the USS Liberty?”
Here are the facts: Israel’s understanding was that there were no American ships less than 400 miles off its coast, and as she was at war with Egypt, enemy warships were the only ones thought to be off the coast of Israel. At the time the USS Liberty was bombed, there were explosions on the coast and Israeli command thought it was a naval bombardment from Egypt. It was then that Israel moved to attack what they believed to be an Egyptian ship.
In a bid to attack the ship, Israeli jets were scrambled to the area. The Israeli jets that attacked the Liberty were diverted from other targets, and consequently were armed with napalm rather than iron bombs. In a premeditated and deliberate attack meant to sink a ship, no aviator in the world would choose napalm over iron bombs. In the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, for example, iron bombs sunk US battleships in minutes, and the Liberty, a converted freighter, was no battleship.
There were ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations) that concluded there was never any evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the target was a US ship. Furthermore they concluded that there was substantial evidence the attack was a tragic mistake caused by blunders of both the US and Israel. Seven US presidents, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, have each accepted the conclusion that the attack was a tragic case of mistaken identity. Since the incident the haters of Israel have tried to use this event to try to pull America and Israel apart. This is nonetheless what this Council for the National Interest has tried to do with this presentation. Fortunately this conspiracy theory that this documentary presented on Tuesday at Cummings Center had few takers.
As you can see this documentary didn’t bring forward (1) the fact Israel mistakenly saw this ship as enemy, due to the state of war it was in and bombs shot out from the same area, (2) the US, days earlier, stated there were no ships within 400-miles radius which the Liberty was in, (3) the type of weapon Israel used to attack the ship was napalm, the wrong kind of weapon to use if one wanted to sink the ship(4) there were 10, including 5 congressional investigations, into the incident all concluding that the attack on the USS Liberty by Israel was a tragic mistake.
This incident should serve as a lesson to the Connecticut College administration and related offices in that it should be more vigilant in who it allows to rent its rooms. Making money is ok, but making money off these kinds of organizations is wrong. What’s next? A National Alliance meeting?
Not disingenuous at all.
The USNavy JAGC even admits their Court of Inquiry did not investigate the attack.
I challenge anyone who claims there was a complete and comprehensive public Congressional investigation of the incident to produce that investigation including the evidence and testimony that supports the findings.
Merely mentioning the attack on the USS Liberty during an investigation of worldwide communications (for example) does not make for an investigation of the attack on the Liberty.
Warmest regards
Joe Meadors
joe@ussliberty.com
Read this Excellent page: http://pnews.org/art/1ussliberty.shtml
Depends upon how you define the term "machine gunned.
After they finished their torpedo attack the MTB's did slowly circle the Liberty while MTB personnel fired with machine guns from close range at Liberty crewmen who ventured topside to help their wounded shipmates.
As soon as the torpedo boats came over the horizon I was on the Signal Bridge trying to signal them. I repeatedly sent "USS Liberty US Navy Ship" by flashing light.
Their response was a few bursts of machine gun fire.
Quoting Hank Roth as a source authority on the USS Liberty!
Now I've seen everything!
" Were you a few hundred miles away from the Syrian border, out of range, to spy on the Golan operations? Or were you there to find evidence from a war-crime that did not occur?"
When attacked we were about 77 miles from Ashdod. As to the "true mission" of the ship I haven't a clue. Hopefully that information will come out when the US government deems the attack an appropriate issue to investigate.
The issue has been investigated 4 times. I doubt that the CIA and NSA were forthcomming and I'm sure that information was withheld by the Joint Cheifs. However, it seems to me that you could spend some effort in looking into these issues instead of simply attacking Israel. It seems to me that US intelligence put you into danger without cover, and then left you and your crewmates out to dry to cover their behinds.
Likewise I'm sure that the US Navy has no desire to be questioned on why it refused to have a liason in Israel, to prevent this type of incident.
"Can you explain why Israel would attack the USS Liberty, if it could jam your signals?"
Haven't a clue. Hopefully that information would be forthcoming in the yet-to-be-held US government investigation of the attack.
You do raise a good question.
If the Israelis really did think they were attacking an Egyptian ship why did they jam radios on USNavy tacitcal frequencies.
As far as I know only Mr. Ennes has made the claim.
It does seem odd, though. Israel would have had nothing to gain by attacking the Liberty, if it was doing something that it did not want the US to know about and could ensure temprary silence.
"Can you also expain your involvement with Americans for Middle East Understanding"
Don't know what you mean by "involvement." They offer a forum for people interested in issues like the Liberty attack and let us tell our story in our words.
Both the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars have passed resolutions calling for a Congressional investigation of the attack. Are you going to ascribe dark intentions to their efforts as well?
I assume that you are active in VFW for the same reason I donate money to them. You care about US veterans. Obviously, as a veteren you are quite involved and I commend you for doing so. However, the AMEU is not some apolitical group. They are an anti-zionist group which want to deligitimise Israel.
If you only desire is to see a full investigation of the attack on the USS Liberty, then I would think that you would stay away from anti-Zionist groups and protest when anti-semetic groups use your writtings.
I believe that you are angry with Israel for teh incident (understandably so) and see some conspiracy to protect Israel. This is the basis of your desire to damage Israel and US-Israel relations.
I will state quite categorically that our government is full of people in authority who see no problem with American life rafts being deliberately machine gunned in the water with impunity and without remorse.
It seems very odd to me that Israel would have instigated such an atrocity, only to then have its ships pull back.
Wouldn't it make more sense (if there was some plan) for the Torpedo boads to ensure that the enite crew were dead, and the Liberty was sunk?
The picture was actually taken from the port wing of the Bridge (03 level) looking aft.
The round structure with 3 holes in it is an antenna mount.
Every antenna mount and gun tub had similar direct hits to them during the initial straffing runs by the fast attack Mirage aircraft.
Obviously the intent was to destroy our defensive and communications capabilities on the first attacking runs.
Clearly the attacking forces had done their homework prior to the attack.
In the upper right portion of the photo is the bottom of the port side flag bag.
Depends upon how you define your terms.
What happened was the attacking MTB's machine gunned life rafts we had dropped over the side in anticipation of abandoning ship. They then slowly circled the ship firing from close range at anyone who ventured topside to help their wounded shipmates.
They then took one of the destroyed life rafts aboard and departed the scene for over an hour without making any offer of assistance whatsoever.
The result of their actions is that the crew of a torpedoed American Navy ship was without any chance for survival in the event the ship had gone down.
During their initial air attack they targetted our defensive and communications capabilities by scoring multiple direct rocket hits at every antenna mount and gun tub so we couldn't call for help or defend outselves.
Their second wave of the air attack was with napalm to drive the crew below decks.
This was followed up with three torpedo boats who fired five torpedoes -- one of which scored a hit in our starboard side.
The torpedo boats then slowly circled the ship while firing with machine guns at anyone who ventured topside to help their wounded shipmates. They also aimed their machine guns at the waterline with several bullets crossing the mess decks (full of wounded crewmen). They then machine gunned life rafts we had dropped over the side in anticipation of abandoning ship.
Then, when they finally ceased hostilities, did they offer us any assistance immediately?
No.
They left the scene immediately only to return over an hour later with an offer of assistance.
Some would argue that that scenario reflects very good planning if the intent was to sink the ship, kill all the survivors and ensure they were incapable of contacting anyone with a request for assistance.
If the torpedo that did hit had hit just a few feet forward or aft of where it did we would have gone down like a rock. As it happened the torpedo hit one of the supporting I-beams and most of the explosion was directed away from the ship.
Only by the grace of God did we survive.
During the Court of Inquiry that was convened on the Liberty the President of the Court asked for and received written statements from some 65 Liberty crewmen.
Those written statements as well as the written statement prepared by Jim Ennes are missing from USNavy files.
Wow, that was post 122, and, with the exception of a couple posts from some bogus Admiral it’s a rational thread. A good sign.
Your issue, at least with me, seem’s to be the quality of the investigations. I do approach the subject from the perspective of one who accepts the “fog of war” explanation. I have confidence in Congressional investigations just as I do in our court system. Got Dahmer, got Gacey and Speck, missed OJ, missed WJC.
I understand your perspective, but I’ve seen nothing to convince me that all the previous investigations were flawed. You may not accept the findings, you may not think the evidence supports their findings, you may think they’re incomplete. But I’m not convinced the investigations, nor their explanations, are bogus. Information declassified over the last few years, which has led to renewed interest (good) hasn’t revealed any “smoking guns”.
Personally, I don’t much object to another investigation, Congress spends money on lots of less worthwhile projects. But I think you’re a long way from making the case that there’s a lot to be learned from it.
I didn't say they *sunk* the Liberty, though not for lack of trying with their five torpedoes. Do you still deny it was attacked by Israeli aircraft and 3 torpedo boats?
As for whether the Israeli gunners would have murdered those aboard the two liferafts they shot up [and took the third in tow] unless you were one of the gunners, I don't expect you know what they had in mind. I'll grant you that they may be more correctly described as *machine-cannon* rather than machineguns. But the US Navy named a gunnery training facility for the sailor who who returned fire against the butchers who were going to gun down those on the rafts, when he drew the fire of the Israeli gunners instead.
And Captain Mcgonagle received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the enemy attack.
-archy-/-
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