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?
BTW, no "EC-141" was in service in 1967...
Could be, and if so, that may lend credence to the observations that it was computer data transmissions, rather than radio intercepts, that the Israelis were so concerned about. Or maybe, it was Arabic-language reports of the massacre of 100+ Egyptian prisoners by Israeli troops. But the lack of a Hebrew-speaker aboard the Libertyis at odds with Dr. Borne's material *here*. [4th paragraf] Either way, it's certainly a matter worth checking out.
The details of the EC-121 ELINT aircraft intercept [you're right, it was a Warning Star converted Connie- our local Air Guard unit flys C141C aircraft and I just about automatically type out a *4* after *C1...*] are described in James Bamford's book *Body of Secrets* regarding the NSA audio tapes of aircraft intercepts of Israeli pilots describing the American flag on the vessel under attack. Again, whether these were tapes translated later or whether anNSA linguist aboard caught them in realtime is open to question. There've also been some interesting disclosures from a couple of Israeli sources, including Yitzak Rabin...before he was shot to death, though his written autobiography was of course sanitized with the *official line.* And, of course, U.S. Marines pride themselves on never forgetting a fallen fellow Marine, as well...and that too may come back to haunt the Israelis.
This was *1967*, dude. The only "computer data transmissions" that they could have intercepted in-theater were the Link 11 broadcasts associated with the US Navy's Naval Tactical Data System.
"Or maybe, it was Arabic-language reports of the massacre of 100+ Egyptian prisoners by Israeli troops."
Uh...archy...you do realize that this claim was made a long time AFTER the war by Israel-hating jihadists and that there is no evidence whatsoever to back it up?
I know very well when it was; I was with the rest of a U.S. tank battalion putting our M60A1 tanks aboard a ship for a landing in Israel should the Arabs appear to make good on their promise to drive all the Jews into the sea. I had just returned from a tour on the East German/Czech border's 5-km zone with the 14th Armored Cav, and we'd returned to find our barracks and kaserne empty and deserted and our motor pool empty. Even the MPs normally working our front and rear gates were gone. A quick trip to Bad Tolz and some help from 10th SFGs intell staff got us some info and orders as to where to proceed and embark, and I think it was one of the very few times I can recall that the SF guys envied the line infantry and armor guys. We were looking forward to giving the Israelis a hand with their problem, just like a lit of the guys during Desert Storm saw moving the Iraqis out of Kuwait as being neighborly and helpful, even if the people expressed their gratitude more than the political leadership did. And then, of course, we heard about the Liberty, and began to wonder if perhaps the Israelis would bomb a US infantry company and then try to blame it on the Arabs. I'd say we still have to worry about some Israelis who think like that.
As for the possibilities that computer traffic was the desired fruit to be plucked from the air, I was working in a different corner of the spectrum then, so I can only speculate. But I'd think that even you might realize that the Navy wasn't the only computer user at the time. And as for the possibility of a massacre of Egyptians by the Israelis, it may well have been Arab propaganda. Or the Israelis may have simply mistaken them for liferafts.
-archy-/-
In other words, you still can't reconcile the extreme discrepancies between the various American accounts...
But I'd think that even you might realize that the Navy wasn't the only computer user at the time.
They were the only ones using wireless computer networks in that corner of the world. Heck, NTDS was the first serious application of wireless networking anywhere--it was really a couple decades or so ahead of its time (my father spent 30 years of his life working on various aspects of the program, BTW).
And as for the possibility of a massacre of Egyptians by the Israelis, it may well have been Arab propaganda. Or the Israelis may have simply mistaken them for liferafts.
And you continue to read off the script written by the "Death to Israel" crowd.
Hmm.
Why then do you not quote anything from their site in support of your accusations? All of the quotes are from some other site. What gives?
Why? Israel is a socialist democracy, one step away from communism.
Problem is, as has been pointed out your claims are illogical. If the Israeli Navy believed it was outclassed, the IAF wouldn't have been called in until after they had discovered the ship in question posed a military threat.
It is patently obvious by the way the IAF and Israeli Navy acted in concert that the attack was a strategic and planned attack, not merely the reaction of some dumbfounded commanders in the Navy and Airforce coincidentally bringing a communications ship to its knees without having been fired upon themselves.
And we didn't.
What I suspect happened was that some of the Crypto guys knew enough Hebrew to understand enough of what the pilots were saying to know they were identifying us as American.
Warmest regards,
Joe Meadors
To which of my postings are you refering?
Joe
If you are an American citizen you should be ashamed of yourself.
Indicating a planned attack on a ship where the configuration was already known. I can't think of a sorty in history where the target was not even known beforehand which produced such miraculous results.
His research is stunningly biased and full of lies.
An example of this is Cristol’s portrayal of a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July 1967. Then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was testifying, and there was a dispute between him and Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper (R-IA).If an observer reads the committee transcript, it is clear that the senators all believed that the attack on the ship was deliberate, and did not believe McNamara’s statements to the contrary. During this exchange, McNamara simply lied to the senators, telling them that a Naval Court had concluded that the attack was accidental. (The court specifically avoided any statement about Israel’s motives.) The senators did not realize that McNamara had lied to them.
Incredibly, Cristol rearranges this debate to make it seem that the committee believed that the attack was accidental. He quotes a statement by McNamara, “the attack was not intentional,” as if it were a report from this committee and so lists it in his group of reports. (The committee issued no report.) Cristol speaks of the “friendly questions” from the senators, when in fact all questions were skeptical or hostile. The debate ends with Hickenlooper complaining angrily that it is apparently not possible to get at the truth.
Perhaps so, perhaps not. At any rate, you don't hit 100% of the radio antennaes on a comminications ship by accident. You must know where they are in advance and give the pilots these small areas of the ship as primary targets. Simply randomly straffing a ship (claimed to be a mistaken horse-carrier) will not miraculously kill 100% of the communications carriers unless perhaps you sink the ship or there is only one antenna.
My understanding is that the battlegroup commander launched his SIOP birds (the alert birds carrying nukes), and that's why the strike got recalled.
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