Part (5) - Psycho USS Liberty Conspiratorial Slanders
by Hank Roth
No Cooperation
No Help Wanted
At 2:51, Oren radioed back to command headquarters that the ship could be
Russian. Rabin called an emergency meeting of his adviser to discuss the
possiblity of large sacale Soviet intervention but at 3:20 Oren notified
headquarters that the ship was not Russian, it was American. At 3:30 the news
was conveyed to Commander Castle, naval atache in Tel Aviv. Israel offered to
help with the wounded. The offer was rejected. One must remember when Marines
were wounded in Lebanon Israel offered then also to treat the wounded and that
offer was then also rejected - causing additional loss of life. There must be
"accountability" for that blunder also.
The attack on the U.S.S. Liberty was not done with malice, but was a genuine
understandable mistake, like many which are often made in battle, and which
could have been avoided if the Liberty had stayed out of harm's way [as we
learned later was the intention of the State Department and the Chiefs of
Staff].
The problem is a lack of accountability. Take the case of the old cargo ship
off North Korea sent to spy. Who sent the Peoblo? It was the skipper who the
Court of Inquiry wanted to blame it on. It wasn't the skipper's fault.
And, who recommended the sending in of Marines into the middle of the Lebanese
civil war with no clearer mission than to establish a "presence?" It wasn't the
Marine Corp, it was President Reagan, and his advisers. And, to his credit,
Reagan did take responsibility for the airport bombing.
Adm. William J. Crewe, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the world
it was all Iran's fault that the Vincennes shot down the airliner, but failed
to mention the ship was in Iranian waters at the time. Deniability, yes; but,
what about U.S. Naval "accountability?"
USS Liberty Slanders (3)
Myths and Facts
Mitchell Bard and Joel Himelbarb
The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a tragic mistake. But it must be
recalled that the incident occurred in the midst of a full- scale war.
On June 8, 1967, the third day of the conflict, the Israeli military command
believed an Egyptian vessel had fired on Israeli positions in El Arish. It
turned out to be the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship assigned to
monitor the fighting, which was 14 miles off the Sinai coast. Israeli war
planes attacked, killing 34 members of the Liberty's crew and wounding 171.
The Liberty was first reported-incorrectly, as it turned out-to be cruising at
22 knots, a rate usually maintained only by warships. The Liberty's flag,
according to testimony of crew members, may not have been discernible because
there was little wind, and the flag was knocked down after the first assault.
Also, after the first attack, the Liberty's commander refused an Israeli
request that the ship identify itself. And, according to testimony of its own
crew, the Liberty bore at least a surface resemblance to the El Quseir, an
Egyptian ship.
The argument that the attack was a horrible error is further reinforced by a
biography of Yitzhak Rabin (Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak
Rabin. NY: HarperCollins, 1998), who was Israel's Chief of Staff during the
war, which says the Israelis initially were terrified that they had attacked a
Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting. When they
learned it was in fact a U.S. vessel, Rabin was still worried that the mistake
might jeopardize American support for Israel.
The misidentification of the Liberty as an enemy vessel was understandable.
Three days earlier, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its
coast and that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels. The
Sixth Fleet was moved, but the Liberty did not get the message.
In 1991, columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak trumpeted their discovery of
an American who said he had been in the Israeli war room when the decision was
made to knowingly attack the American ship.(3) In fact, that individual, Seth
Mintz, was not in the war room at the time and the man who he said had been
with him, a Gen. Benni Matti, did not exist. Also, contrary to their claim that
an Israeli pilot identified the ship as American, the transcript of the radio
traffic between the attack fighters and air force headquarters contains no such
statement.
None of Israel's accusers has been able to explain adequately why Israel would
have deliberately attacked an American ship. Confusion in a long line of
communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and
Israeli sides (a message from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain
at least 20 miles off the Egyptian coast never arrived) is a more probable
explanation.
Accidents caused by "friendly fire" are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S.
Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians.
During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by
"friendly fire." In fact, only the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli
pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns south of Jenin on
the West Bank.
As a former highranking Israeli naval officer, Shlomo Erell, told the
Associated Press (June 5, 1977): "No one would ever have dreamt that an
American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship
was. We were advised by the proper authorities that THERE WAS NO AMERICAN SHIP
WITHIN 100 MILES." [EMPHASIS MINE]
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: "It was
the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the Navy in
whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional."
In 1987, McNamara repeated his belief that the attack was an accident, telling
a caller on the "Larry King Show" that he had seen nothing in the 20 years
since to change his mind that there had been no "cover- up."
Israel apologized for the tragedy and paid nearly $13 million in reparations to
the United States and to the families of the victims. The last payment was
received in December 1989, when the U.S. officially closed the books on the
matter.
Notes
Yitzhak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, CA: University of California Press, 1996, pp.
108-109. Rabin, p. 110.
Washington Post, (November 6, 1991). Hirsh Goodman, "Messrs. Errors and No
Facts," Jerusalem Report (November 21, 1991).
Hirsh Goodman and Ze'ev Schiff, "The Attack on the Liberty," Atlantic Monthly,
(September 1984).
"The Larry King Show" (radio), (February 5, 1987).
Addendum #1
(From Associated Press - provided here in compliance with the Fair Use
Doctrine for education purposes)
"NEW DETAILS ON 1967 ATTACK Newly declassified transcripts back up
Israel's
claim that its attack on an American spy ship during the 1967 Middle East war
was an accident, a Florida judge who has been investigating the case for 16
years said. Israel has always maintained that it thought the ship, the Liberty,
was an Egyptian military supply ship when it ordered its forces to attack on
June 8, 1967, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171. But critics say Israel
knew the ship was American and fired at it to keep the United States from
learning that Israel was planning to attack Syria. Judge A. Jay Cristol
received transcripts of transmissions from two Israeli helicopter pilots, sent
to check for survivors after the attack. The pilots referred to the ship as
Egyptian and were surprised to discover it was flying an American flag. The
recordings were made by an American spy plane hovering over the site." (AP)
Addendum #2
Some of the survivors and some senior U.S. officials have said they
believe
the attack was deliberate, intentional and the objective was to stop American
surveillance of Israel during the war. The tapes reveal that indeed the attack
was unintentional and happened during the "fog of war." US Florida Judge Jay
Cristol successfully petitioned the NSA to release the tapes under the "Freedom
of Information Act".
From David Ensor
CNN Washington Bureau
The recordings were made by a nearby American surveillance aircraft in the
immediate aftermath of the attack.
"For your info, it is apparently an Arab ship," says ground control.
"Roger," says the pilot.
"It is an Egyptian supply ship," says ground control.
"Roger," comes the response.
The NSA released the tapes and transcripts under the Freedom of
Information
Act in response to a request from Miami Judge Jay Cristol.
An author of a book on the attack, Cristol said the tapes show it was a
tragic accident in a time of war -- that the Israelis mistook the ship for an
Egyptian one.
"I don't think there's any question that anyone who reads these tapes
would
be absolutely convinced there was the fog of war out there," Cristol said.
Later on the tape, the Israelis sound confused and concerned. Ground
control orders the helicopter pilots to look for survivors and to check their
nationality.
"If they speak Arabic -- Egyptians -- you're taking them to Al-Arish. If
they speak English -- non-Egyptians -- you're taking them to Lod. Is that
clear?" says ground control.
"Roger," says the pilot.
[...]
Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev said the tapes are "further evidence
that the Liberty incident was a terrible and tragic case of mistaken identity."
Find this CNN article: Here!
Addendum #3
This essay appeared in The New Republic on 7/02/2001 and was titled:
"Why did Israeli troops fire on the USS Liberty?
Unfriendly Fire
by Michael Oren
Partially quoted here in compliance with the Fair Use Doctrine
(Quote)
In 1967, at the height of the Six Day War, Israeli jets strafed and
firebombed a seemingly hostile ship near the Sinai coast. Israeli torpedo boats
quickly converged to finish the job, then abruptly ceased fire and offered
assistance to the battered crew. Israel had attacked the USS Liberty. In all,
34 Americans died, and 171 were injured. Israeli leaders apologized promptly
and profusely, explaining that they had mistaken the Liberty for an enemy
vessel--an explanation that subsequent investigations in both the United States
and Israel upheld. Israel compensated the injured sailors and the families of
those killed. And that's where the story should have ended. After all,
accidental attacks, though tragic, are common in war. In 1967 alone, "friendly
fire" killed 5,373 Americans fighting in Vietnam.
But the controversy over the Liberty attack has endured, generating
conspiracy theories, ethnic defamation, and charges of mass homicide. And,
although a series of recently declassified documents seem to exonerate the
Israelis once and for all, a new book, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the
Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, has resurrected the canard by setting
forth what is arguably the most audacious theory of all: that the Israelis
deliberately attacked the Liberty to cover up a massacre of Egyptian prisoners
of war. Written by James Bamford, a former ABC News producer, and published by
Doubleday, the book has enjoyed a largely respectful, and frequently credulous,
reception in the American press. Yet Body of Secrets has no more basis in fact
than its predecessors. Indeed, it may be the shoddiest screed of all.
[....]
".......Israeli soldiers in the Sinai coastal town of El Arish heard a
violent explosion. The cause was probably a detonation in an ammunition dump,
but when the Israelis saw a ship off the coast, they assumed it was bombarding
them, prompting the Israeli navy to dispatch three torpedo boats. The boats'
commanders had standing orders to fire on any vessel going faster than 20
knots--a speed then attainable only by warships--and, miscalculating their
target's speed as 30 knots, they prepared to attack.
At that point, the Liberty turned toward Egypt. Worried they would lose
their prey, Israeli naval commanders called in the air force. Two Mirages
quickly swooped in. Returning from a bombing run, they were armed only with
30millimeter cannons and air-to-air missiles--hardly ideal for attacking a
boat. But, failing to see either flags or markings on the ship, they strafed
it. Minutes later came a second group of planes, equally ill-suited for a naval
engagement: They carried napalm, a weapon used against land targets. But they
dropped their canisters anyway, and one set fire to the deck, enshrouding the
ship in smoke.
It was at this junction that one Israeli pilot finally recognized Latin,
not Arabic, letters on the hull, prompting Israeli air controllers to call off
the action immediately. But, thanks to a breakdown in communications--again, a
common occurrence in the heat of battle--the order never reached the navy.
Israeli torpedo boats caught up with the Liberty just as one of the American
sailors on board, heedless of McGonagle's order not to fire on the approaching
craft, opened up with a deck gun. The Israeli captain consulted his
intelligence manual, concluded that the ship shooting at him was the Egyptian
naval freighter El Quseir, and fired back torpedoes. Just one hit, but it
killed 25 men. The torpedo boats then closed in and circled the ship, strafing
it with machine-gun fire, until the captain of one boat saw "GTR-5" on the
hull. He immediately halted fire, extended help to the Liberty, and called for
rescue helicopters.
"For many years following the attack, these details remained
unknown--hidden in classified U.S. documents. And, in their absence, conspiracy
theories flourished. The most damning made its debut in 1979, when Jim Ennes
Jr., a former officer from the Liberty, published a book, Assault on the
Liberty, arguing that the Israelis knew precisely who and what they were
attacking. The Liberty's hull was distinctly marked, Ennes wrote, and a large
American flag flew from its mast; yet Israeli ships and planes fired anyway.
The motive? Israel, Ennes said, wanted to hide its impending conquest of
Syria's Golan Heights, an invasion Washington opposed. The fact that the
Israelis offered to assist the ship when they could easily have sunk it, or
were unlikely to risk conflict with their most important ally, did not daunt
Ennes. Ennes's theory found its way into Donald Neff's Warriors for Jerusalem
(a pseudo-history of the Six Day War) and Stephen Green's sensationalist Taking
Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel. Rowland Evans and
Robert Novak took up the charge in their syndicated political column, as did a
1987 special on ABC's "20/20." Joining the cavalcade was Bamford, whose 1982
book The Puzzle Palace denounced Israel for masking its Golan aggression with
"a violent act of terrorism" against the Liberty. Former American officials,
such as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Thomas Moorer and U.N. Ambassador George
Ball, have endorsed Ennes's theory. By 1995 an article in The International
Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence could claim that "all serious
scholarship on the subject accepts Israel's assault as having been perpetrated
quite deliberately." (Ironically, only Arab authors believed the attack was
accidental, insisting that the Liberty had actually been spying for Israel.)
Then, in 1997, American and Israeli archives, observing the 30-year
declassification rule, began releasing top-secret documents relevant to the
case. On the U.S. side, these included the minutes of the Naval Board of
Inquiry; communications between the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House, and
the Sixth Fleet; and internal CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) memoranda.
Jerusalem made available the findings of three military investigations and a
wealth of relevant diplomatic correspondence. Together, the new sources enabled
researchers to reconstruct the precise sequence of events as described above.
They also provided one other crucial piece of evidence: Diplomatic cables
showed that Israel had informed Washington of its intention to attack Syria and
that Washington had not objected--which eliminated Israel's supposed motive for
the crime.
[end quote]
So as Michael writes, "why are we still talking about the Liberty?" Why
indeed. Because as long as there are Israelis there will be those who will
invent these slanders. The Jewish people are the world's favorite scapegoat.
Existential reality of the Jews.
Go to The New Republic for this article and others which will challenge
commonly held and often wrong perceptions. The New Republic is an excellent
resource for information about the Middle East.
MICHAEL OREN is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. His
book
on the 1967 Six Day War was published by Oxford University Press in 2002.
Continued: http://pnews.org/art/ussliberty.shtml
Hank Roth
(Formerly an operations cryptologist/analyst at the White House for the
President of the United States. Also formerly with the Chairman of the
Chiefs of Staff in the War Room at the Pentagon. - veteran of Vietnam and
Yom Kipper Wars - past Commander Jewish War Veterans Post780)
