USS Liberty

Did the USS Liberty pay the price of intercepting what can be considered an evidence of a war crime against the Egyptian POWs in Al-Arish ??

The USS Liberty was attacked and damaged by the IAF and Israeli Navy on the 8th of June 1967, the American intelligence ship was in the international waters about 23 km from the coast of Sinai , north of Al-Arish. uss liberty-1

It was targeted by the Israeli fighter planes by the Napalm bombs and the torpedo boats

The attack killed 34 U.S service men and wounded at least 173; it was the first deadliest attack against a U.S warship since the World War II and the second deadliest attack after the attack on the USS Stark in 1986 during in the Iraq-Iran war

The Israeli justification that was accepted by the American government then that it was a friendly fire mistake issue, as the IDF identified by mistake as they officially claimed the USS liberty was the Egyptian vessel El-Quseir.

There were American and Israeli investigations there were held then to reach the conclusion it was a friendly fire and due to the American-Israeli relations and the powers of the Jewish lobby in America, it was accepted, despite the fact that till now this conclusion is and was challenged by the crew members who survived and some of the former U.S officials like the former C.I.A director then Richard Helms ” ((Richard Helms in his book Over my Shoulders ; New York ; Random House 2003)) ” :

The board of inquiry (concluded) that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing in attacking the Liberty

The secretary of state then Dean Rusk ” ((” Dean Rusk in his book As I saw it ;New York ; Norton 1990 “))”:

I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. . . . Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn’t believe them then, and I don’t believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.

And Admiral Thomas Moore ((Admiral Thomas Moore ;chief of Naval operations and later chairman and joint chiefs of staff in Washington post June 15th 1991 p.14)); whom will be mentioned later in this report.

To suggest that they could identify the ship is ridiculous.Anybody who could not identify the Liberty could not tell the difference between the white house and the Washington monument

Already the first point of debate was that the USS Liberty couldn’t be mistaken for the Egyptian vessel El-Quseir as Liberty was more than twice as large as El-Quseir, Liberty was a technical research ship while El-Quseir was a vessel, I could not find till now the specification of the Egyptian vessel but from reading the specification of Liberty I can see the huge difference between both watercrafts, it can be noticed from the sky above.

Another important point was the letters written on the ship, USS Liberty was clearly designated with Latin letters not Arabic letters like in case of El-Quseir and Egyptian warships then.

And of course the flag, beside the numbers and letters USS Liberty had three big American flags on it that could be seen very well and us-flagthere was and is a great difference between the American flag and the old Egyptian flag during the 1960s!!

The debate even reached to the head of the U.S navy court of inquiry Admiral Isaac Kidd and the court’s legal counsel captain Ward Boston believed then it was deliberate act from the Israeli side to kill the entire crew of the ship but Kid was forced and ordered by the American government to falsify the report ,check Ward’s declaration in the 8th of January 2004

On December 17th 1987, the Liberty incident file was officially closed between Israel and America, Israel paid nearly $13 millions as compensation to the families of the victims in a very a rare situation

But the file was not closed unofficially because the crew members and victims families wanted to know the truth , because they knew it wasn’t a mistake they didn’t shut up with the $13 million ,on the contrary each year there is a new book or research about the USS liberty and what really happened to it and why

Why it is related to our main subject here, well the one must himself why would Israel bomb American warship, intelligence warship to be specific if this warship didn’t intercept what the IDF considered dangerous, something the world should not know??

Of course theories of why Israel had bombed the American intelligence ship didn’t stop in fact we found very interesting theories that go beyond our imagination for example that it was bombed because Israel didn’t want America to know that it started its invasion to the Syrian Golan, already I don’t how it didn’t want America to know so, if the start of the clash or war was the tension on the Syrian borders, another crazy theory saying that President Johnson was planning with Israel to engage in the war by attacking Egypt as she will be accused for destroying Liberty as the plan was that Israel would go and sink Liberty and Egypt were to be accused , but the heavens had other plans as the attack didn’t sink it and it survived with its crew for two complete hours despite the huge damage , nice theory but I don’t think America was ready then to open another World war with the Soviet Union especially and it was stuck in the Vietnamese war

Check out this interview made by Daryl Bradford Smith in 2006 with former US Officer James Ennes about the American warship that was targeted by Israel in 1967,this interview was conducted on the 1st of November 2006.Please listen and pay attention starting from 10:10

James Ennes 2006 Interview

According to Ennes in less than 15 miles from where the USS Liberty was an execution process for up to one thousand Egyptian POWS, the IDF soldiers ordered them to dig their graves more likely sand ditches where the Egyptians jumped in and the machine guns spoke to them loudly and these machine guns had the last word concerning their lives.

This is confirmed officially when there was an independent commission of inquiry that was formed in the Congress in year 2004; as the Survivors requested a Congressional investigation s in the case with full congressional hearing, as the military investigation that took place after the incident immediately in 1967 was accused of covering up the truth thanks to both President Lyndon Johnson and Admiral John S. McCain Jr; it is enough to know that the U.S navy court which was responsible for investigation made it in 10 days while in such incident it should take not less than 6 months

After the State officials and historians assembled in Washington to discuss the Liberty file and re-open it again, an independent commission of inquiry was formed. This independent commission included Admiral Thomas Moore, General Ray Davis , Admiral Merlin Staring and former Judge Advocate General of the Navy and Ambassador James Akins. This distinguish committee reviewed again the case even after all these years, they interviewed the eyewitnesses from the survivors, they went through all naval, intelligence and other records about the case , again I say after decades.

The findings of this committee confirmed what the eyewitnesses of the survivors like Mr. Ennes and others from those who didn’t believe the official version. The findings of this commission were published in the Congressional records , in the Extensions of remarks by Congressman John Conyers on the 11th of October 2004.

All what we care in this report is that it could be the only international solid proof that there were mass murder operations systematically taking place in Al-Arish as the intelligence ship intercepted what could be described as Israeli communications that proved the occurrence of such horrible crimes and they wanted to hide it from the world. ¨Please zoom in the document¨

Congressional records October 2004

You can check the whole original report at the official Congressional records website which is available to anyone ,you can find it in the 2004 records Vol. 150 , its date is 11th of October 2004.

As you can see the American committee considered the examples of why Israel may hit the vessel was for fear gathering information that they did not want to reveal like the mass murder of our soldiers, how did the American committee reach to that hypothesis If  it did not really take place and they knew about it !!??

Another thing these communications show that the killing spree against our POWs was not an individual act but rather something the Israeli commanders knew and accepted!!

You must check this memorial website about the USS Liberty and the book titled “The Assault on Liberty” written by Jim Ennes, a survivor from the Liberty crew

In the end I would really like to mention my respect and admiration to the crew members who are still working hard to let the world know the truth even after all these decades and also my respect to the late Admiral Thomas Moore.

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