Original Body
pstrongCoordinator John Vance offers information, insight, and reading recommendations /strong/p
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pby Staff Writer/p
pMEMORANDUM: ATTACK ON THE USS LIBERTRY JUNE 8, 1967br /
br /Date: June 8, 1997br /
br /From: Admiral Thomas H. Moorer/p
pI have never believed that the attack on the USS Liberty was a casebr /
of mistaken identity. That is ridiculous. I have flown over thebr /
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thousands of hours, searching for shipsbr /
and identifying all types of ships at sea.br /
The Liberty was the ugliest, strangest looking ship in the U.S. Navy. As a communications intelligence ship, it was sprouting every kind of antenna. It lookedbr /
like a lobster with all those projections moving every which way.br /
Israel knew perfectly well that the ship was American. After all, thebr /
Liberty's American flag and markings were in full view in perfectbr /
visibility for the Israeli aircraft that overflew the ship eightbr /
times over a period of nearly eight hours prior to the attack.br /
I am confident that Israel knew the Liberty could intercept radio messagesbr /
from all parties and potential parties to the ongoing war, then inbr /
its fourth day, and that Israel was preparing to seize the Golanbr /
Heights from Syria despite President Johnson's known opposition tobr /
such a move. I think they realized that if we learned in advance ofbr /
their plan, there would be a tremendous amount of negotiating betweenbr /
Tel Aviv and Washington. And I believe Moshe Dayan concluded that he could prevent Washington from becoming aware of what Israel was up tobr /
by destroying the primary source of acquiring that information thebr /
USS Liberty. The result was a wanton sneak attack that left 34br /
American sailors dead and 171 seriously injured.br /
What is so chilling and cold-blooded, of course, is that they could kill as manybr /
Americans as they did in confidence that Washington would cooperatebr /
in quelling any public outcry. I have to conclude that it wasbr /
Israel's intent to sink the Liberty and leave as few survivors asbr /
possible. Up to the point where the torpedo boats were sent in, youbr /
could speculate on that point. You have to remember that the Libertybr /
was an intelligence ship, not a fighting ship, and its only defensivebr /
weapons were a pair of 50-caliber machine guns both aft and on thebr /
forecastle. There was little the men could do to fight off the airbr /
assault from Israeli jets that pounded the Liberty with bombs,br /
rockets, napalm and machine gun fire for 25 minutes. With the Libertybr /
riddled with holes, fires burning, and scores of casualties, threebr /
Israeli torpedo boats closed in for the kill. The second of threebr /
torpedoes ripped through a compartment at amidships, drowning 25 ofbr /
the men in that section. Then the torpedo boats closed to within 100br /
feet of the Liberty to continue the attack with cannons and machinebr /
guns, resulting in further casualties. It is telling, with respect tobr /
whether total annihilation was the intent, that the Liberty crew hasbr /
reported that the torpedo boats' machine guns also were turned onbr /
life rafts that were deployed into the Mediterranean as well as thosebr /
few on deck that had escaped damage. As we know now, if the rescuebr /
aircraft from U.S. carriers had not been recalled, they would havebr /
arrived at the Liberty before the torpedo attack, reducing the deathbr /
toll by 25. The torpedo boat commanders could not be certain thatbr /
Sixth Fleet aircraft were not on the way and this might have led tobr /
their breaking off the attack after 40 minutes rather than remainingbr /
to send the Liberty and its crew of 294 to the bottom. Congress tobr /
this day has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on thebr /
Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace. Ibr /
spent hours on the Hill giving testimony after the USS Pueblo, abr /
sister ship to the Liberty, was seized by North Korea. I was askedbr /
every imaginable question, including why a carrier in the area failedbr /
to dispatch aircraft to aid the Pueblo. In the Liberty case, fightersbr /
were put in the air not once, but twice. They were ordered to standbr /
down by Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Johnson forbr /
reasons the American public deserves to know. The captain and crew ofbr /
the Liberty, rather than being widely acclaimed as the heroes theybr /
most certainly are, have been silenced, ignored, honored belatedlybr /
and away from the cameras, and denied a history that accuratelybr /
reflects their ordeal. I was appalled that six of the dead from thebr /
Liberty lay under a tombstone at Arlington Cemetery that describedbr /
them as having "died in the eastern Mediterranean," as if diseasebr /
rather than Israeli intent had caused their deaths. The Naval Academybr /
failed to record the name of Lt. Stephen Toth in Memorial Hall on thebr /
grounds that he had not been killed in battle. I intervened and wasbr /
able to reverse the apparent idea that dying in a cowardly, one-sidedbr /
attack by a supposed ally is somehow not the same as being killed bybr /
an avowed enemy. Commander McGonagle's story is the stuff of navalbr /
tradition. Badly wounded in the first air attack, lying on the deckbr /
and losing blood, he refused any treatment that would take him frombr /
his battle station on the bridge. He continued to direct the ship'sbr /
defense, the control of flooding and fire, and by his own examplebr /
inspired the survivors to heroic efforts to save the ship. He did notbr /
relinquish his post until hours later, after having directed thebr /
crippled ship's navigation to a rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer andbr /
final arrival in Malta. I must have gone to the White House 15 timesbr /
or more to watch the President personally award the Congressionalbr /
Medal of Honor to Americans of special valor. So it irked the hellbr /
out of me when McGonagle's ceremony was relegated to the obscurity ofbr /
the Washington Navy Yard and the medal was presented by the Secretarybr /
of the Navy. This was a back-handed slap. Everyone else receivedbr /
their medal at the White House. President Johnson must have beenbr /
concerned about the reaction of the Israeli lobby. The Libertybr /
Veterans Association deserves the encouragement of everyone who wantsbr /
the facts of the Liberty incident revealed and proper homage paid tobr /
the men who lost their lives, to their families, and to thebr /
survivors. I have attended many of their reunions and am alwaysbr /
impressed with the cohesion of the Liberty family. They arrive inbr /
town with their whole entourage grandmas, grandpas, grandchildren.br /
They promote the memory of the boys who were killed and I respectbr /
them for that. They are mostly from small country towns, probably abr /
lot like Eufaula, Alabama, where I grew up, and they represent thebr /
basic core of America that has enabled us to be a superpower for sobr /
long. These are the kind of people who will make certain that ourbr /
liberty and freedom survive if fighting is what it takes./p
pBR /POSTSCRIPT BY JOHN VANCE, COORDINATOR OF A FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER/p
pi have submitted this information because i am very disturbed butbr /
not completely surprised by its revelations. i cannot vouch withbr /
complete authority for the complete veracity of this revealing newsbr /
but as an individual seeking the truth, i am convinced that thebr /
facts contained herein that i have read about the USS Liberty are,br /
in my own personal opinion, very highly probable.br /
i would say that i would support a Congressional investigation ofbr /
this attack on the USS Liberty that has been and is continuing to bebr /
called for by the survivors of the USS Liberty attack. i would urgebr /
my readers very strongly to visit the USS Liberty website at:br /
a href="http://208.56.153.48/jim/ussliberty/" title="http://208.56.153.48/jim/ussliberty/"http://208.56.153.48/jim/ussliberty//a/p
pJust as i am horrified and saddened at what has happened on the eastbr /
coast to all of the innocent people that have been killed, i ambr /
just as horrified and saddened about what i have been learning aboutbr /
this equally despicable action. Just as we should seek justice forbr /
those whose lives have been taken on September 11, 2001 on the eastbr /
coast, so should we seek equal justice for those who may have been sobr /
brutally murdered on June 8, 1967./p
pno peace without justice,/p
pjohn vance, Coordinatorbr /
a href="http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net" title="http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net"http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net/a/p
p/pPP.P.S.There is also an excellent book that was just written by Jamesbr /
Bamford, "Body of Secrets" , that also speaks of this despicable act.br /
The specific title of that chapter in the book is "BLOOD" - pgs. 185-br /
239./p
p /pPThe cover of the book reads "A no-holds-barred examination of thebr /
National Security Agency --- packed with the startling secrets aboutbr /
its past, newsbreaking revelations about its present-day activities,br /
and chilling predictions about its future powers and reach./p
p /pPThe NSA is the largest, most secretive, and most powerfulbr /
intelligence agency in the world. With a staff of thirty-eightbr /
thousand people, it dwarfs the CIA in budget, manpower andbr /
influence. Recent headlines have linked it to economic espionagebr /
throughout Europe and to the ongoing hunt for the terrorist leader,br /
Osama bin Laden./p
p/pPJames Bamford first penetrated the wall of silence surronding thebr /
NSA in 1982, with the much-talked-about bestseller "The Puzzlebr /
Palace". In "Body of Secrets", he offers shocking new details aboutbr /
the inner workings of the agency, gathered through unique access tobr /
thousands of internal documents and interviews with current andbr /
former officials. Unveiling extremely sensitive information for thebr /
first time, Bamford exposes the role the NSA played in numerousbr /
Soviet bloc Cold War conflicts and discusses its undercoverbr /
involvement in the Vietnam War. His investigation into the NSA'sbr /
technological advances during the last fifteen years brings to lightbr /
a network of global surveillance ranging from on-line listening postsbr /
to sophisticated intelligence-gathering satellites. In a hard-br /
hitting conclusion, he warns that the NSA is a two-edged sword.br /
While its worldwide eavesdropping activities offer the potential forbr /
tracking down terrorists and uncovering nuclear weapons deals, itbr /
also has the capability to listen in on global personalbr /
communications.br /
/pPLike the breakout bestsellers on Cold War espionage "The Sword andbr /
the Shield" and the "Shield and Blind Man's Bluff", "Body of Secrets"br /
is must-reading for people fascinated by the intrigues of a shadowybr /
underworld. As one of the most important works of investigativebr /
journalism to come out of Washington in years, it should be read bybr /
everyone concerned about the inevitability of Orwells' "Big Brother""./p
p/pPJAMES BAMFORD is the author of "Puzzle Palace", a national bestsellerbr /
when it was first published and now regarded as a classic. He wasbr /
until recently Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World Newsbr /
Tonight with Peter Jennings and has written investigative coverbr /
stories for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazinebr /
and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He lives in Washington, DC./p
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