The Truth about the USS Liberty

College Voice of Connecticut College | Will be Nov. 1st | Yoni Freeman

[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?

[Mordoch]

came over to campus and presented a new documentary "showing" that there was a conspiracy between Lyndon Johnson and the Israeli government to make the USS Liberty incident look like an accident.

Uhhhh, it was definately no accident. Outright attack would be more appropriate description.

[Mordoch]

Why would they want to thwart US communications intellgence gathering?

Thanks! Hardest I've laughed all day!

[green team 1999]

Pre-attack reconnaissance. Israel claims that the only aircraft near us were high in the sky carrying troops to the front lines. Not so. This airplane is typical of eight separate daylight reconnaissance aircraft that circled us a total of thirteen times during the morning, often so low directly overhead that they rattled the deck plating

[green team 1999]

Israeli torpedo boat circling the ship

(at that distance even without glasses crew could have seen us flag)

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

i>Fact, Israel was at war with Egypt and as there was an understanding there were no US Ships in the vacinity it simply thought it was an Egyptian ship.

But the USS Liberty looked nothing like the Egyptan ship Israel claimed to have "mistakenly" thought it was. (Do Egyptian ships fly American flags?)

I'm pro-Israel, but I have also been in touch with and have listened to Jim Ennes, and I find him very credible. As someone said earlier, I'll take the word of our sailors. I believe them.

[green team 1999]

Israeli Mystere jet during the attack. This picture was taken by Captain McGonagle using the 35MM camera kept on the bridge.

[green team 1999]

The Egyptian horse carrier El Quseir which Israel claims their forces mistook for the USS Liberty

[Mordoch]

Info on this

[green team 1999]

Air ducts exploded from the force of the torpedo explosion

[green team 1999]

Superstructure battle damage

(they were shooting with everything they got,but the ship refused to sink)

[Mordoch]

They don't deny the truth. They did fire upon the ship, but in a mode of where they didn't know it was American.

Wanna buy some swampland?

[green team 1999]

Rocket holes, port side

[green team 1999]

Battle and fire damage, signal bridge

[green team 1999]

USS Liberty, listing and battle damaged

[green team 1999]

USS Liberty arriving Valletta, Malta Her American flag is clearly visible This is the same size flag that Israeli forces claim they could not see

(notice the center mast with us flag)

[quietolong]

The Japanese government took full responsibility for sinking the Panay but continued to maintain that the attack had been unintentional. The formal apology reached Washington on Christmas Eve. Although Japanese officials maintained that their pilots never saw any American flags on the Panay, a U.S. Navy court of inquiry determined that several U.S. flags were clearly visible on the vessel during the attacks. Four days before the apology reached Washington, the Japanese government admitted that the Japanese army strafed the Panay and its survivors after the navy airplanes had bombed it. The Japanese government paid an indemnity of $2,214,007.36 to the United States on April 22, 1938, officially settling the Panay incident

Sound familiar ?

See it can happen to anybody

On Dec 11 1937 The Japanese made the same error. Opps Sooo sorry

The above excerpt is from "Two Japans": Japanese Expressions of Sympathy and Regret in the Wake of the Panay Incident

On Dec 11 Th. 1937 the Japanese attacked and sank the Gunboat U.S.S. Panay in China on the Yangtze River.And clamed it was mistake.

The Sinking of Panay, 12 December 1937

PR-5 USS Panay

Isn't it something how history repeats self.

[quietolong]

I spent 10 years in the VP Navy ( the designation given to air patrol squadrons ) Flying over ships and ID them. And you all are trying to tell me Israeli pilots are blind and a bunch of Dullards. And there air intelligence people are morons ? That they went duaaa for over an hour as air and sea units attacked. I don’t think so. There some of the best in the business.

The ship was easier to spot that a unmarked cop car sitting looking for speeders.

It’s clean & shinny, has persons with uniforms on and has antennas sticking out all over it. And it was flying a US flag & had US Navy marking on it.

As a TV personality would say.. Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

[eclectic]

HA-HA-HA! Of course Egyptians putting on American flag and uniforms in order to infiltrate Israeli waters is totally unthinkable.

Don't pee on my leg, indeed

[D-fendr]

thanks for your reply.

Was the US opposed to Israel taking the Golan? Were we a threat to their defense efforts?

I think it was justified morally and for their defense, and I thought the US position agreed.

So, I'm afraid I still don't see the motivation there.

thanks again.