'THE USS LIBERTY': AMERICA'S MOST SHAMEFUL SECRET
 http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives/2001/04/the_uss_liberty.php

EXCERPT:

"Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally? 
Most likely because 'Liberty' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim,
 made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel,
and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation."

Note: Israel has a long history of aggression under pretense of self-defense.
The entire Middle East conflict has resulted from the terror tactics of Israel
as documented in this symbolic "ATTACK ON LIBERTY" and the 9-11 Truth
of THE ISRAELI CONNECTION to get U.S. support of war on Muslims. -CR


NEW YORK - On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula.  Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army.

'Liberty', a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennas and electronic "ears" including TRSSCOMM, a system that delivered real-time intercepts to Washington by bouncing a stream of microwaves off the moon.

'Liberty' had been rushed to Sinai to monitor communications of the belligerents in the Third Arab Israeli War: Israel and her foes, Egypt , Syria , and Jordan.

At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty', which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.

At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died.

Israeli gunboats circled the wounded 'Liberty', firing at crewmen trying to fight the fires. At 1515, the crew were ordered to abandon ship. The Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House.

An hour after the attack, Israeli warships and planes returned. Commander McGonagle gave the order. "prepare to repel borders".  But the Israelis, probably fearful of intervention by the US Sixth Fleet, departed. 'Liberty' was left shattered but still defiant, her flag flying.

The Israeli attacks killed 34 US seamen and wounded 171 out of a crew of 297, the worst loss of American naval personnel from hostile action since World War II.

Less than an hour after the attack, Israel told Washington its forces had committed a "tragic error". Later, Israel claimed it had mistaken 'Liberty' for an ancient Egyptian horse transport.  US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink 'Liberty'.  So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack.

In contrast to American outrage over North Korea's assault on the intelligence ship 'Pueblo', Iraq's mistaken missile strike on the USS 'Stark', last fall's bombing of the USS 'Cole' in Aden, and the recent US-China air incident, the savaging of 'Liberty' was quickly hushed up by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

The White House and Congress immediately accepted Israel's explanation and let the matter drop. Israel later paid a token reparation of US $6 million. There were reports two Israeli pilots who had refused to attack 'Liberty' were jailed for 18 years.

Surviving 'Liberty' crew members would not be silenced. They kept demanding an open inquiry and tried to tell their story of deliberate attack to the media. Israel's government worked behind the scenes to thwart these efforts, going so far as having American pro-Israel groups accuse 'Liberty's survivors of being "anti-Semites" and "Israel-haters". Major TV networks cancelled interviews with the crew.  A book about the 'Liberty' by crewman James Ennes was dropped from distribution. The Israel lobby branded him "an Arab propagandist".

The attack on 'Liberty' was fading into obscurity until last week, when intelligence expert James Bamford came out with "Body of Secrets", his latest book about the National Security Agency.  In a stunning revelation, Bamford writes that unknown to Israel, a US Navy EC-121 intelligence aircraft was flying high overhead the 'Liberty' electronically recorded the attack. The US aircraft crew provides evidence that the Israeli pilots knew full well that they were attacking a US Navy ship flying the American flag.

Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally?  Most likely because 'Liberty' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim, made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation.

In fact, Israel began the war by a devastating, Pearl-Harbor style surprise attack that caught the Arabs in bed and destroyed their entire air forces.

Israel was also preparing to attack Syria to seize its strategic Golan Heights . Washington warned Israel not to invade Syria, which had remained inactive while Israel fought Egypt.  Bamford says Israel's offensive against Syria was abruptly postponed when 'Liberty' appeared off Sinai, then launched once it was knocked out of action.  Israel's claim that Syria had attacked it could have been disproved by 'Liberty'.

Most significant, 'Liberty' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.

Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: "Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident". Why?

Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this "third rail" issue.

Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism - not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard.  Crew member's graves were inscribed, "died in the Eastern Mediterranean"... as if they had be killed by disease, rather than hostile action.

A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel , and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberal toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.

Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened.

Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.

Posted by Eric Margolis on April 29, 2001 08:51 PM
 
--------- related article:

EX-OFFICER ALLEGES COVER-UP IN PROBE OF SPY SHIP ATTACK
By James W. Crawley
San Diego Union -Tribune Staff Writer
2-17-04

 
Ward Boston is an unassuming octogenarian who resides in a gated community on Coronado 's Silver Strand.

A retired Navy captain, he hardly attracts attention in a town full of active-duty and retired sailors.

Yet Boston is in the maelstrom of a nearly 37-year-old controversy surrounding Israel 's deadly attack on the Navy's spy ship Liberty during the Six-Day War with Egypt , Syria and Jordan . The June 1967 attack killed 34 Americans and wounded 171.

Last October, Boston broke decades of silence and declared that the Navy admiral who investigated the incident had been ordered by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to conclude it was a case of mistaken identity, despite evidence to the contrary.

As the chief counsel for the Navy's court of inquiry, Boston had an insider's view.

"I didn't speak up earlier because I was told not to," Boston said in an interview.

His revelation, repeated last month before a State Department conference about the Six-Day War, has rekindled a smoldering debate over how it happened and whether the United States and Israel covered up the truth.

Anti-Israel factions portray Boston 's words -- true to his legal background, memorialized in two affidavits but rarely spoken to an audience larger than one person -- as proof of Israel 's guilt.

Israel's supporters, including a federal bankruptcy judge who researched the attack and wrote a book on it, say Boston is lying. Some pin an anti-Semitic badge on his lapel.

On Web pages and through e-mail, an electronic brawl is raging over Boston 's disclosures among his admirers and detractors.

But, for the men who survived the attack, Boston 's comments endorse views smelted in cordite, blood and smoke.

"We feel we've been vindicated," said James Ennes, the Liberty's officer of the deck the day of the attack, which left him severely wounded.

"We've been saying for 37 years that the court of inquiry was a fraud, that it was corrupted, that it ignored evidence and made findings not supported by the evidence," said Ennes, whose book about the incident claims it was a deliberate Israeli attack.

Boston's cover-up allegation is "enormously significant," said author James Bamford, who has written several books about the super-secret National Security Agency, which analyzed radio intercepts from Liberty and other U.S. surveillance ships.

"It's equivalent to former Supreme Court (Chief) Justice Earl Warren coming out and saying 'the Warren Commission report on (the) Kennedy (assassination) -- everything we said was not what we believed, but we were pressured to say it,' " Bamford said.

"It puts an enormous shadow over everything that was in the (Navy) report," he said.

Even with Boston 's affidavits and some newly released documents presented at the State Department conference, no consensus was reached on whether the attack was deliberate, accidental or the result of negligence.

---

The Liberty was a Navy spy ship, plain and simple.

Like its ill-fated sister vessel Pueblo, which was captured by North Korea six months later, the Liberty was festooned with antennas and its cargo holds were converted into top-secret locked compartments lined with receivers where petty officers eavesdropped on other nations' militaries.
During the Six-Day War, the Liberty loitered off the Sinai Peninsula, listening to Israel 's lightning victory over Egypt .

On the afternoon of June 8, 1967, Israeli jets strafed the ship. Hours later, Israeli torpedo boats attacked. By the evening, 34 U.S. sailors were dead and 171 injured.

Israel said the attack was a terrible mistake caused by the misidentification of the Liberty as an Egyptian vessel. Investigations followed, including the Navy's court of inquiry.

That's when Ward Boston's involvement began.

---

If Hollywood had discovered Boston , he could have been the real-life prototype for Cmdr. Harmon Rabb, one of the leads on the television show "JAG."

In the Pacific during World War II, Boston flew harrowing photo-reconnaissance missions over Tokyo and Iwo Jima in Navy Hellcat fighters, sometimes making three passes over a single target -- once to take pre-bombing pictures, then joining other planes in attacking the target and, finally, a post-attack pass to photograph the damage.

After the war, Boston went to law school, passed the bar and entered private practice. Meanwhile, he continued to fly Navy fighters as a reservist, including its first jet, the FH-1 Phantom.

In the late 1940s, he joined the FBI and was assigned to field offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles . During the Korean War, he rejoined the Navy, this time as a JAG officer.

By June 1967, Boston was legal officer for then-Rear Adm. Isaac Kidd Jr. when the flag officer was assigned to head the hastily convened inquiry into the Liberty attack.

Unable to interview hospitalized sailors and Israeli military and civilian officials, the investigative panel was given just a week to examine the battered ship, interview survivors and collect radio intercepts and other information.

Boston said it was obvious then who was responsible.

"There's no way in the world that it was an accident," Boston said.

In his affidavits and a recent interview, Boston recounted how he and Kidd discussed their conclusions about the survivors' testimony.
"(Kidd) referred to the Israelis as 'murderous bastards,' " Boston said.

After Kidd delivered the panel's report to Washington officials, Boston said the admiral told him, "they aren't interested in the facts or what happened. It's a political issue. They want to cover it up." Then Kidd admonished Boston to keep silent.

Boston said Kidd told him privately that orders came from Johnson and McNamara to find the incident was a mistake and not a deliberate act.
There is no documentation to support Boston 's account.

Kidd died in 1999 at 79 after a career topped by command of the Atlantic Fleet. He never spoke of a cover-up.

The late '60s was the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union . The Soviets were backing the Arab nations; the United States was allied with Israel . U.S. troops were fully engaged in Vietnam and the United States was fearful of growing Soviet influence, especially in the oil-rich Mideast .

Those who claim the attack was no accident argue that Israel wanted to stop the Liberty from snooping on its military during the war.
Boston kept quiet too, until the 2002 publication of "The Liberty Incident," by Judge Jay Cristol, provoked him.

Cristol's book, based on more than 10 years of research and hundreds of interviews and the collection of thousands of documents, argued that Israeli pilots, sailors and top military officials, in the heat of combat and the fog of war, were unaware the Liberty was a U.S. ship, mistaking it for an Egyptian vessel.

The two men spoke twice during the 1990s while Cristol researched his book, but Boston said recently that he only discussed his career and did not reveal details of the inquiry.

"It is Cristol's insidious attempt to whitewash the facts that has pushed me to speak out," Boston said in a Jan. 8 affidavit, read by Bamford at the State Department conference last month. Boston did not attend the conference.

Boston's affidavit was passed to Bamford by a friend who believes that Israel is responsible for the attack on the Liberty .

The judge, during a recent telephone interview, discounted Boston 's contention that Johnson and McNamara covered up Israel complicity.
"I think those (accusations) are kind of nonsense," Cristol said.

Cristol -- also a former Navy pilot and JAG officer -- said Boston 's comments show that he either lied in 1967 by knowingly filing a false report or that his memory has changed with age.

Referring to Cristol, Boston said, "I'm not going to get into a spitting contest with a skunk."

He also rejected suggestions that he is anti-Semitic, while acknowledging some sympathy for the plight of Palestinian refugees.

As he splits his day between local organizations and daily visits to the gym to loosen up arthritic joints, Boston remains largely oblivious to the electronic cacophony of e-mail and Internet chat that makes him out to be either a patriot or a patsy for anti-Israel factions.

That's because Boston doesn't have a computer. Friends print out and pass along Internet postings mentioning him or his statements.
"I'm a dinosaur," he said. "I use a pencil with an eraser and a typewriter."

James W. Crawley: (619) 542-4559; jim.crawley@uniontrib.com
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040217-9999-1n17liberty.html