From Berkeley's First Amendment Center

pstrongCoordinator John Vance offers information, insight, and reading recommendations /strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD 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 p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p