U.S.S. Liberty
Talk1this wiki

Added by LurgisThe United States Ship LIBERTY AGTR-5 was an intelligence ship targeted and destroyed with the loss of 34 sailors by the USA's chief ally, Israel, in 1967 during the fourth day of Israel's expansionist Six Day War. Despite the preponderance of evidence, subsequent American governments accept Israel's gimme- explanation of "mistaken identification" of the US' state-of-the-art spy-ship as the single cause of prolonged attack using heavy armaments. However objective international observers, survivors of the attack- & even a few Israeli fighters place this incident as another of Israel's hastily aborted, long-denied "False flag operations"- Military 'double-crosses' designed to "scapegoat" innocent parties with complete culpability for Zionist crimes. After 40 years, Americans who were present on and suffered with the USS Liberty continue to disbelieve and protest the 'official explanations' as inconsistent with any observations.
Contents |
Overview
Edit
On the fourth day of Israel's six-day rout of its southern neighbors- June 8, 1967- the USS Liberty was on routine patrol in international waters of the Mediterranean. Israel has argued that the Liberty provoked attack by failing to fly it's American flag, and also by firing a short burst of warning shots from a machine gun- shots directed towards a torpedo boats approaching "in firing formation" and refusing radio communication. During a two-hour assault the officers and men of the USS Liberty were brutally attacked and nearly sunk by camouflaged warplanes and torpedo boats of the nation of Israel- ostensibly the USA's closest strategic ally. Americans reported the accompanying planes were without identification. The fact these Israeli assets were in the area together with torpedo boats made it obvious to the survivors the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate. Moreover, the ship had been subject to low level flyovers from Israeli jets for several hours before the characteristically cowardly attack was initiated on the unarmed Liberty.
The US and Israeli Governments continue to deny USS Liberty sailors an explanation for the attack and the failure of American fighter aircraft to respond from US Navy Carriers, operating in the Mediterranean. A subsequent review revealed fighters were in fact dispatched twice to aid the unarmed Liberty, and on both occasions they were ordered to stand down before making visual contact with the helpless, bullet, torpedo, and missile-riddled carcass of the USS Liberty, in international waters.[1] Subsequently, while Israeli torpedo boats surrounded the unarmed Liberty intent upon dealing the helpless Liberty a fatal blow, help remained hours away. Thirty-four American sailors were killed and 174 were wounded by Israel that day. The dispatch of these fighters at least meant news of the attack had reached the outside world, forcing the cessation of the Israeli torpedo attack before the American ship could be sent to the bottom, accomplishing the Israeli goal of killing all aboard. No hero has yet come forward to discuss the moral conflicts faced by the crew of the nearby U.S.S. Saratoga as their comrades aboard the "Liberty" perished for want of timely assistance... Nor has anyone involved disclosed the sources of treason behind what was apparently a retreat and/or stand-down order.
The only apparent motive for all of this was another in a long series of "false flag" attacks by Israel- ie., designed in this case to trick the American public into assuming they'd been attacked by Egypt during the Six Day War of 1967. A more successful operation could've drawn Americans into supporting Israel's Six-Day-War of aggression. But the deception was immediately foiled- by an Israeli pilot at the scene. He was shocked by the Zionist duplicity and openly refused to fire on the American ship; His argument with his superiors via radio was intercepted by American intelligence stationed in Lebanon.[2]
Despite such clear 'in flagrante delicto' evidence, USA politicians including President Johnson and Armed Forces Secretary McNamara ordered that American investigators find Zionist Israel innocent of all this savage duplicity against our nation and its sailors.
In 2001 it was revealed that the incident was actually under observation by the National Security Agency's high-flying aircraft. The once-secret evidence consistently supports the observations of Liberty's sailors. Intelligence expert James Bamford revealed in his book about the NSA "Body of Secrets" that unknown to Israel a US Navy EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft was overhead the equally high-tech spy vessel 'Liberty,' electronically recording the attack. The aircraft evidence showed that the Israeli pilots attacked a US Navy ship flying the American flag.[3]
Why did Israel try to sink a vessel of its benefactor? 'Liberty's' intercepts had flatly contradicted Israel's claims made on 5 June that Egypt had attacked Israel first. Again time proves Israel to be a bellicose pipsqueak adept only at dishonest manipulation. This aggressive war began with Israel's Pearl-Harbor attack, which destroyed entire Arab air forces. Israel's neighbors only fought together defensively. Israel continually creates its own opposition, in order to destroy its neighbors. Does Israel recognize any limits to it's designs?
Cover-up alleged in probe of U.S.S. Liberty
Edit
Even more shocking was Washington's response. Capt. Ward Boston was a Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of this attack on the USS Liberty. Capt. Boston says then-President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary Robert McNamara simply ordered his inquiry to conclude the entire incident was due to mis-identification- the accident Israeli admirals have claimed it was. In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara ordered those heading the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity'- despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
BBC interviews of surviving USS Liberty Crew Members included Fireman John Hrankowski who reports that 9 minutes into this attack the USS Liberty was in contact with other US Armed Forces in the area, and directly requested support from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saratoga. Apparently US air support did subsequently approach the Liberty during the initial attacks- but were then ordered turned back. Any refusal to aid fellow service-members under attack is a criminal matter. Refusal to investigate this matter implicates both Secretary McNamara and President Johnson in not only treason but abandonment of US troops during attack, a policy evidently respected by subsequent Administrations.
Virtually every knowledgeable American official of the era- with the lone exception of Secretary Robert McNamara- has gone on public record calling the attack deliberate and the Israeli story untrue:
•"...one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel of former military officials and former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.[4]
•Admiral Thomas Moorer was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack. Adml. Moorer has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, and has requested Congress to investigate.[4]
Under law and international treaty, the United States is obligated to investigate all reports of war crimes by or against US Forces. As of June 2005, the USS Liberty Veterans Association has filed a formal report of War Crimes Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel, with the US Department of Defense. [5] This report obligates the response of an official investigation. Survivors are still waiting for any reply. Instead Israel eventaully paid a token reparation of US $6 million.[3] At that point the Zionists of the USA and Israel worked together again to supersede international law, so that the affair of the 1967 Liberty Incident may forever be considered "closed" by their mutual bureaucratic agreement.
The real questions now facing the free American people must ask why the US Government is more concerned with providing any cover for Zionist 'false-flag' operations, rather than immediately terminating Israeli-Zionist policies permitting political assassination of Americans. At a press conference, Adml. Moorer asked "Why would our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own?"[4]
Until that is answered, all Americans citizens might consider whether they are not being used as the legal targets of either fraudulent government.
Israeli pilot story
Edit
Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. 'Pete' McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli, he was "lead pilot" in the attack. When he recognized the Liberty as flying the American flag he informed his headquarters, but was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.[6] There have been subsequent reports that two of the Israeli pilots refused to attack the 'Liberty' and "were jailed for 18 years".[3]
A dual-citizen Israeli major has met with survivors to tell them that he was in an Israeli war-room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war-room knew that they were attacking an American ship, according to this Israeli major. After allegedly receiving threats, this source has since recanted these statements.[6]
However the then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Dwight Porter has confirmed the pilot's story, and revealed the pilot's protests (transmitted via radio) had already been monitored by U.S. intelligence stationed within his embassy in Lebanon. Ambassador Porter told the story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, and has also offered his testimony to US authorities, but claims that testimony has never yet been secured.[6]
Unmarked aircraft
Edit
USS Liberty sailors report that Israel attacked the Liberty using unmarked aircraft. This one observation tends to prove Israel knew exactly who they were attacking. Israel's story is that they thought USS Liberty was an Egyptian ship and therefore a legitimate target of war. Were that true, there would be no reason to attack a supposedly Egyptian ship with unmarked aircraft! The only possible reason to use unmarked aircraft to attack the ship is that Israel knew it was an American ship and intended to sink it, then to blame the attack on Egypt.
Moorer, who as top legal council to the official investigation is in a position to know, agrees that Israel intended to sink the USS Liberty and blame Egypt for it, thus dragging the United States into a war on Israel's behalf.[4] Such "False-flag operations" may now be seen as a commonality in the history and policy of Zionist Israel. Before Israel's terrorist days under "British Palestine", Zionism's founders were ideologically motivated to permit even the sacrifice of specific, national-local Jewish populations to further yet another nationalist-isolationist utopia. Starting with the Lavon affair, through the USS Liberty, to the fake radio transmitter that tricked Reagan into attacking Libya, modern Israel's game has been to frame "Arabs"wholesale and set "Arabs" up as either military targets for the United States Security Forces- or offer them to soul-warping [but equally klepto-profitable] Zionist prison archipelagos.
Sources
Edit
Over 100 references (& most critical) of the events of 8 June 1967 are referenced by Wikipedia:USS Liberty incident. Unfortunately the Wikipedia [WP] site is now recognized by Zionist Israel as "THE major source of information in the world". Israel proudly advertises that WP is under the constant, paid review of trained Zionist assets. So the WP reference list is archived-&-linked below** out of a protective "historical" interest.
However this WRH-Wikia article is not persuaded by racist-Zionist warmongering argument.
This HRH article on "The USS Liberty Incident" is based on a much smaller, more critical and Zionist-neutral, original WRH Article located at
<refname=WRH_Lib>WRH_Articles: USS Liberty
This present <refname=wikia_Lib>Wikia article</ref> references similar critical sources found in:
References
Edit
- ↑ BBC-4 interview with Fireman and survivor John Hrankowski, 2002
- ↑ "Israeli Pilot Speaks Up" in "Assault on Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years" by Jim Ennes, in the Washington Report on Mid-East Affairs. June 1993,p.19
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The USS Liberty': America's Most Shameful Secret by Eric S. Margolis; 2May,2001
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Moorer Report. Findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the Ship was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States Government
- ↑ War Crimes Committed against U.S. Personnel, June 8, 1967
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Assault on Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years by Jim Ennes, in the Washington Report on Mid-East Affairs, June 1993,p19.
www.gtr5.com - The U.S.S. Liberty Memorial
www.newsday.com/today-in-history 8June2010.
www.newsday.com/letters-1.334991
www.newsday.com/letters-deliberate-attack-1.478666
External links - Of International Interest
Edit
Film
- BBC-4 Documentary Dead In The Water, Originally aired April 2002
- A documentary film titled "Loss of Liberty"
- BrasscheckTV Documentary Video: "Loss of Liberty—The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty"
Survivors of the attack
- USS Liberty Veterans Association website
- USS Liberty Memorial, by survivor Jim Ennes. This site includes a wide variety of documents, photographs, statements by survivors, and responses to authors who argue that the attack was a mistake.
- U.S.S. Liberty Memorial
- War Crimes Committed against U.S. Personnel, June 8, 1967
- USS Liberty, by John Gidusko, former Electronics Material Officer aboard the USS Liberty before the attack.
- 8th June: Liberty Memorial Day
- Captain Ward Boston (USN, Ret.), chief counsel to the Navy's Board of Inquiry interviewed on Electric Politics June 29, 2007
- 43 Years After Surviving Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, US Veteran Joe Meadors Seized by Israeli Forces on Gaza Aid Flotilla - video report by Democracy Now!
- The Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship, online ebook.
Secondary Literature
- Israeli communications said to prove IAF knew Liberty was U.S. ship, Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz, October 4, 2007.
- Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Israel Deliberately Attacked US Ship, Daily Star, January 21, 2004.
- A Juridical Examination of the Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty by Lieutenant Commander Walter L. Jacobsen, JAGC, USN
- USS LIBERTY: Public History vs. Dissenting History, by John Borne
- U.S. Navy and Marine Casualties in Wars, Conflicts, Terrorist Acts, and other Hostile Acts
- Telegrams Cast Doubt on Liberty Report, Navy Times, June 4, 2007 by Bryant Jordan
- Conflicting comments rekindle Liberty dispute, Marine Corps Times, June 26, 2002, by Bryant Jordan
- Alison Wier article from Counterpunch June 22, 2007
- USS Liberty attack tapes released by David Ensor, CNN.
- Chicago Tribune Article 2007
- San Diego Union-Tribune: Lifting the "fog of war" by David Walsh
**Of Further Special Historical Interest:
Edit
Resources & Refs from The"WP:USS Liberty Incident" Article[s]
Edit
Books
Edit
- Scott, James, The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship, Simon & Schuster, 2009, (ISBN 978-1-4165-5482-0)
- Cite book |last=Bregman |first=Ahron |authorlink=Ahron Bregman |title=A History of Israel |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2002 |location=London |isbn=0333676319
- Cite Book |author=Cristol, A. Jay|title=The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship|location=Dulles, Virginia|publisher=Brassey's|year=2002|isbn=1-57488-414-X
- Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Michael B. Oren, Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-515174-7)
- Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship, by James M. Ennes, Jr. (ISBN 0-9723116-0-2) Currently in its 9th printing.
- The Puzzle Palace, by James Bamford, Penguin Books, 1982, has a detailed description of the Israeli attack on the SIGINT ship USS Liberty, and the events leading up to it, on pages 279–293.
- Body of Secrets, by James Bamford, devotes a detailed chapter to the incident, and concludes it was deliberate. Doubleday, 2001 (ISBN 0-09-942774-5)
- Peter Hounam, Operation Cyanide: Why the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War III, Vision Paperbacks. 2003, ISBN 1-904132-19-7,
- Anthony Pearson, Conspiracy of Silence: The Attack on the USS Liberty, 1979 ISBN 0-7043-2164-5
- John Borne, The USS Liberty, Dissenting History vs. Official History
- Cite Book|author=Thomas, Baylis|title=How Israel Was Won: A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict|location=Lanham, Maryland| publisher=Lexington Books|year=1999|isbn=0-7391-0064-5||Ch.15,"The Six Day War and Its Consequences" dissects the sequence of events and concurrent attacks on Arab towns, exploring possibilities the attack on this U.S. ship was an intentional act to prevent U.S. monitoring of Israeli actions; with intent to kill all U.S. personnel on board before any communications could be transmitted.
External links
Edit
U.S. government sites
Edit
- Attack on a Sigint Collector, the U.S.S. Liberty, by William D. Gerhard and Henry W. Millington, U.S. Cryptologic History series, National Security Agency, 1981, partially declassified 1999, 2003.
- Additional information released by the National Security Agency on July 2003 and June 2008, including audio recordings (mostly in Hebrew) of conversations between two Israeli helicopter pilots and their control tower following the attack, transcripts of the recordings (in English), and follow-up reports, completed on 8 June 2007 by other reports.
- Naval Historical Center, featuring photographs of the ship and crew, and the aftermath of the attack.
- National Security Agency's Memorial Wall, including list of names inscribed on the wall.
- White House Commission on Remembrance: USS Liberty, a U.S. Congressional initiative that honors those who died in the service of the United States.
- U.S. Navy JAG Corps investigations library contains links to record of proceedings for high-profile investigations, including the USS Liberty.
- U.S. State Department library contains links to documents and messages related to the Six Day War and the USS Liberty attack.
Sources claiming attack was a mistake
Edit
- US tapes confirm Israel's '67 attack on 'Liberty' was accidental
- The Liberty Incident, by A. Jay Cristol
- The USS Liberty: Case Closed Azure article by Michael Oren
- Michael Oren's "Six Days of War." Ballantine Books, 2003, p. 263–271
- Memos show Liberty attack was an error Haaretz article by Nathan Guttman
- Return of the USS Liberty Critique of Bamford's "Body of Secrets" from Honest Reporting
- Bamford Bashes Israel: Conspiracy Theorist Claims Attack on USS Liberty Intentional from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
- Viewers’ Guide to the History Channel’s Cover Up: Attack on the USS Liberty from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
- The USS Liberty Attack from the Anti-Defamation League
- USS Liberty: Israel Did Not Intend to Bomb the Ship by A. Jay Cristol
- USS Liberty on www.sixdaywar.org
- USS 'Liberty' hit was unintentional, says CIA
Sources claiming attack was deliberate
Edit
Survivors of the attack
Edit
- USS Liberty Veterans Association website
- USS Liberty Memorial, by survivor Jim Ennes. This site includes a wide variety of documents, photographs, statements by survivors, and responses to authors who argue that the attack was a mistake.
- USS Liberty, by John Gidusko, former Electronics Material Officer aboard the USS Liberty before the attack.
- Assault on Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years by Jim Ennes at Washington-Report
- Dead in the Water BBC documentary (2002).
- BrasscheckTV Documentary Video: "Loss of Liberty—The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty"
- 43 Years After Surviving Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, US Veteran Joe Meadors Seized by Israeli Forces on Gaza Aid Flotilla - video report by Democracy Now!
- The Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship, online ebook.
Other critical sources
Edit
- USS Liberty attack tapes released by David Ensor, CNN.
- Chicago Tribune Article 2007
- Israeli communications said to prove IAF knew Liberty was U.S. ship, Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz, October 4, 2007.
- Captain Ward Boston (USN, Ret.), chief counsel to the Navy's Board of Inquiry interviewed on Electric Politics June 29, 2007
- A Juridical Examination of the Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty by Lieutenant Commander Walter L. Jacobsen, JAGC, USN
- USS LIBERTY: Public History vs. Dissenting History, by John Borne
- Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Israel Deliberately Attacked US Ship, Daily Star, January 21, 2004.
- San Diego Union-Tribune: Lifting the "fog of war" by David Walsh
- BBC Documentary Dead In The Water
- U.S. Navy and Marine Casualties in Wars, Conflicts, Terrorist Acts, and other Hostile Acts
- Telegrams Cast Doubt on Liberty Report, Navy Times, June 4, 2007 by Bryant Jordan
- Conflicting comments rekindle Liberty dispute, Marine Corps Times, June 26, 2002, by Bryant Jordan
- Alison Wier article from Counterpunch June 22, 2007
- The Moorer Report. Findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the Ship was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States Government
- War Crimes Committed against U.S. Personnel, June 8, 1967
- 8th June: Liberty Memorial Day
- A documentary film titled "Loss of Liberty"