Sailors, please take a moment Monday to remember the 34 Liberty crewmen
murdered by the Israelis, who knew EXACTLY what they were doing, in
1967. There is fresh information in this report directly from the crew
survivors and first hand report by others involved, who were all
threatened with courts martial if they even talked to each other about
this attack. Three sailors I went to school with were killed. The only
reason I was not aboard Liberty as a new technician was the luck of the
draw, something that has nagged at me for many years.

Larry

Liberty Attacked - May 8th, 1967....

================================================== ======================


Published on Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack

by Ray McGovern
What's the difference between murder and massacre?

The answer is Terry Halbardier, whose bravery and ingenuity as a
23-year-old Navy seaman spelled the difference between the murder of 34
of the USS Liberty crew and the intended massacre of all 294.

The date was June 8, 1967; and for the families of the 34 murdered and
for the Liberty's survivors and their families, it is a "date which will
live in infamy" - like the date of an earlier surprise attack on the
U.S. Navy.

The infamy is two-fold: (1) the Liberty, a virtually defenseless
intelligence collection platform prominently flying an American flag in
international waters, came under deliberate attack by Israeli aircraft
and three 60-ton Israeli torpedo boats off the coast of the Sinai on a
cloudless June afternoon during the six-day Israeli-Arab war; and (2)
President Lyndon Johnson called back carrier aircraft dispatched to
defend the Liberty lest Israel be embarrassed - the start of an
unconscionable cover-up, including top Navy brass, that persists to this
day.

Given all they have been through, the Liberty survivors and other
veterans - who joined Halbardier to celebrate his belated receipt of the
Silver Star - can be forgiven for having doubted that this day would
ever come. In the award ceremony at the Visalia (California) office of
Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman pinned the Silver Star next
to the Purple Heart that Halbardier found in his home mailbox three
years ago.

Nunes said, "The government has kept this quiet I think for too long,
and I felt as my constituent he [Halbardier] needed to get recognized
for the services he made to his country."

Nunes got that right. Despite the many indignities the Liberty crew has
been subjected to, the mood in Visalia was pronouncedly a joyous one of
Better (42 years) Late Than Never. And, it did take some time to sink
in: Wow, a gutsy congressman not afraid to let the truth hang out on
this delicate issue.

Treatment Accorded the Skipper

As we gathered in Congressman Nunes's office, I could not get out of my
head the contrast between this simple, uncomplicated event and the
rigmarole that senior Navy officers went through to pin a richly
deserved Medal of Honor on another hero of that day, the Liberty's
skipper, Captain William McGonagle.

Although badly wounded by Israeli fire on June 8, 1967, McGonagle was
able to keep the bombed, torpedoed, napalmed Liberty afloat and limping
toward Malta, where what was left of the bodies of the 34 crewmen killed
and the 174 wounded could be attended to.

Do the math: yes, killed and wounded amounted to more than two-thirds of
the Liberty crew of 294.

I remembered what a naval officer involved in McGonagle's award ceremony
told one of the Liberty crew: "The government is pretty jumpy about
Israel.the State Department even asked the Israeli ambassador if his
government had any objections to McGonagle getting the medal."

When McGonagle received his award, the White House (the normal venue for
a Medal of Honor award) was all booked up, it seems, and President
Johnson (who would have been the usual presenter) was unavailable. So it
fell to the Secretary of the Navy to sneak off to the Washington Navy
Yard on the banks of the acrid Anacostia River, where he presented
McGonagle with the Medal of Honor and a citation that described the
attack but not the identity of the attackers.

Please don't misunderstand. The Liberty crew is not big on ceremony.
They are VERY-not-big on politicians who wink when Navy comrades are
killed and wounded at sea.

Getting the Truth Out

The Liberty survivors are big on getting the truth out about what
actually happened that otherwise beautiful day in June 1967. Last
Wednesday's award of the Silver Star to Terry Halbardier marked a
significant step in the direction of truth telling. Is it too much to
hope that the example set by Nunes may embolden other lawmakers to right
the wrongs done to their Liberty-veteran constituents - and thus to chip
away at what's left of the cover-up?

Halbardier said he accepted his Silver Star on behalf of the entire
294-man crew. He and fellow survivor Don Pageler expressed particular
satisfaction at the wording of the citation, which stated explicitly --
with none of the usual fudging -- the identity of the attackers: "The
USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats in
the East Mediterranean Sea.." In the past, official citations, like
Captain McGonagle's, had avoided mentioning Israel by name when alluding
to the attack.

I think former U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck put it best in condemning
this kind of approach as "obsequious, unctuous subservience to the
peripheral interests of a foreign nation at the cost of the lives and
morale of our own service members and their families." Strong words for
a diplomat. But right on target.

Were it not for Halbardier's bravery, ingenuity, and technical
expertise, the USS Liberty would surely have sunk, taking down much - if
not all - of the crew. Israeli commando helicopters were ready to take
care of any personnel still that survived the sinking.

The first thing the Israeli aircraft bombed and strafed were the
Liberty's communications antennae and other equipment. They succeeded in
destroying all the antennae that were functional. One antenna on the
port side, though, had been out of commission and had escaped damage.

On Deck-Just a Guy From Texas

In receiving the Silver Star, Halbardier made light of his heroism,
claiming that he was just a guy from Texas who could do a whole lot with
simple stuff like baling wire. (In the infantry we called this kind of
thing a "field expedient.") In any case, with his can-do attitude and
his technical training, he figured he might be able to get that
particular antenna working again. But first he would have to repair a
cable that had been destroyed on deck and then connect the antenna to a
transmitter.

The deck was still being strafed, but Halbardier grabbed a reel of
cable, ran out onto the deck, and attached new cable to the antenna so a
radioman could get an SOS out to the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean.

Voila. "Mayday" went out; almost immediately the Israeli aircraft and
torpedo ships broke off the attack and went back to base; the Israeli
government sent a quick apology to Washington for its unfortunate
"mistake;" and President Johnson issued orders to everyone to make
believe the Israelis were telling the truth - or at least to remain
silent.

To their discredit, top Navy brass went along, and the Liberty survivors
were threatened with court martial and prison if they so much as
mentioned to their wives what had actually happened. They were enjoined
as well from discussing it with one another. As Liberty crewman Don
Pageler put it, "We all headed out after that, and we didn't talk to
each other."

The circumstances were ready-made for serious Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder.

The stories shared by Liberty survivors after the award ceremony,
including descriptions of the macabre but necessary effort to reassemble
torpedoed body parts, and the plague of survivor's guilt, were as
heart-rending as any I have heard. They are stories that should be
shared more widely for those muzzled far too long - those who, even 42
years later, might be helped by being in contact with other Liberty
survivors, and being able to talk about it.

These were the deep emotional scars to supplement the ones all over
Halbardier's body, some of which he uncovered when asked by the local
press gathered there in Visalia. Typically, Halbardier made light of the
shrapnel that had to be plucked out of his flesh, emphasizing that he
was lucky compared to some of the other crew.

No Mistake

Despite Israeli protestations, the accumulated evidence, including
intercepted voice communications, is such that no serious observer
believes Israel's "Oops" excuse of a terrible mistake.

The following exchanges are excerpts of testimony from U.S. military and
diplomatic officials given to Alison Weir, founder of "If Americans
Knew" and author of American Media Miss the Boat:

Israeli pilot to ground control: "This is an American ship. Do you still
want us to attack?"
Ground control: "Yes, follow orders."
..........

"But sir, it's an American ship - I can see the flag!"
Ground control: "Never mind; hit it!"

Haviland Smith, a CIA officer stationed in Beirut during the Six-Day
War, says he was told that the transcripts were "deep-sixed," because
the U.S. government did not want to embarrass Israel.

Tapes Also Destroyed

Equally telling is the fact that the National Security Agency (NSA)
destroyed voice tapes seen by many intelligence analysts, showing that
the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing.

I asked a former CIA colleague, who was also an analyst at that time,
what he remembered of those circumstances. Here is his e-mail reply:

"The chief of the analysts studying the Arab-Israeli region at the time
told me about the intercepted messages and said very flatly and firmly
that the pilots reported seeing the American flag and repeated their
requests of confirmation of the attack order. Whole platoons of
Americans saw those intercepts. If NSA now says they do not exist, then
someone ordered them destroyed."

One need hardly add at this point that the destruction of evidence
without investigation is an open invitation to repetition in the future.

Think interrogation videotapes, for example.

As for the legal side: the late Captain Ward Boston, unburdened himself
on his accomplice role as the Navy lawyer appointed as senior counsel to
Adm. Isaac Kidd, who led a one-week (!) investigation and then followed
orders to pronounce the attack on the Liberty a case of "mistaken
identity."

Boston signed a formal declaration on Jan. 8, 2004, in which he said he
was "outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this
country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.'"
Boston continued:

"The evidence was clear. Both Adm. Kidd and I believed with certainty
that this attack . was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and
murder its entire crew . Not only did the Israelis attack the ship with
napalm, gunfire, and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned
three lifeboats that had been launched in an attempt by the crew to save
the most seriously wounded - a war crime .

"I know from personal conversations I had with Adm. Kidd that President
Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to
conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

W. Patrick Lang, Col., USA (ret.), who was the Defense Intelligence
Agency's top analyst for the Middle East for eight years, recounted the
Israeli air attacks as follows:

"The flight leader spoke to his base to report that he had the ship in
view, that it was the same ship he had been briefed on, and that it was
clearly marked with the U.S. flag.

"The flight commander was reluctant. That was very clear. He didn't want
to do this. He asked them a couple of times, 'Do you really want me to
do this?' I've remembered it ever since. It was very striking. I've been
harboring this memory for all these years."

Lang, of course, is not alone. So too Terry Halbardier, who told those
assembled last Wednesday, "I think about it [the attack on the Liberty]
every day."

Why Sink the Ship?

What we know for sure is, as the independent commission headed by former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Thomas Moorer put it, the
attack "was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill
her entire crew."

What we do not know for sure is why the Israelis wanted that done. Has
no one dared ask the Israelis?

One view is that the Israelis did not want the United States to find out
they were massing troops to seize the Golan Heights from Syria and
wanted to deprive the U.S. of the opportunity to argue against such a
move.

James Bamford offers an alternative view in his excellent book, Body of
Secrets. Bamford adduces evidence, including reporting from an Israeli
journalist eyewitness and an Israeli military historian, of wholesale
killing of Egyptian prisoners of war at the coastal town of El Arish in
the Sinai. The Liberty was patrolling directly opposite El Arish in
international waters but within easy range to pick up intelligence on
what was going on there. And the Israelis were well aware of that.

But the important thing here is not to confuse what we know (the
deliberate nature of the Israeli attack) with the ultimate purpose
behind it, which remains open to speculation.

Also worth noting is the conventional wisdom prevalent in our Fawning
Corporate Media (FCM) that Egypt forced Israel into war in June 1967. An
excellent, authoritative source has debunked that - none other than
former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin! In an unguarded moment in
1982, when he was prime minister, he admitted publicly:

"In June 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the
Sinai approaches do not prove that [Egyptian President] Nasser was
really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided
to attack him."

Thus, the Israeli attack admittedly amounted to starting a war of
aggression, and the occupied West Bank territories and the Golan Heights
- gained by the Israelis in the 1967 war - remain occupied to this day.

The post WWII tribunal at Nuremberg distinguished a "war of aggression"
from other war crimes, terming it the "supreme international crime,
differing from other war crimes only in that it contains the accumulated
evil of the whole."

Perhaps the attempt to sink the Liberty and finish off all survivors
qualifies as one of those accumulated evils.

Terry Halbardier summed it up this way on Wednesday:

"There's lots of theories but let's just say they didn't want us
listening in to what they wanted to do."

Getting Away With Murder

In sum, on June 8, 1967, the Israeli government learned that it could
get away with murder, literally, and the crime would be covered up, so
strong is the influence of the Israel Lobby in our Congress - and
indeed, in the White House. And those USS Liberty veterans who survived
well enough to call for an independent investigation have been hit with
charges of, you guessed it, anti-Semitism.

Does all this have relevance today? Of course.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the new Israeli Prime Minister has now had an
up-close-and-personal chance to take the measure of our new president
and has already thumbed his nose at Barack Obama's plea for a halt in
illegal construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The Israelis seem convinced they remain in the catbird's seat, largely
because of the Israel Lobby's influence with U.S. lawmakers and opinion
makers - not to mention the entr‚e the Israelis enjoy to the chief
executive himself by having one of their staunchest allies, Rahm
Emanuel, in position as White House chief of staff.

The recent Obama-Netanyahu encounter reminded me very much of the
meeting in Vienna between another young American president and Nikita
Khrushchev in early June 1961. The Soviets took the measure of President
John Kennedy, and we got the Cuban missile crisis, bringing the world
close to nuclear destruction.

Netanyahu is currently whipping up frenzy and fear in the face of what
he calls the "existential threat" posed by Iran - frenzy about the
"danger" from Iran that could lead to military action of some kind. So
confident is Netanyahu of the solidity of his position with movers and
shakers in the U.S. that he may be sorely tempted to mount the kind of
provocation that would be aimed at confronting Obama with an unwelcome
choice between joining an Israeli attack on Iran or facing dire
political consequences at home.

And nothing is outlandish any more. Remember Seymour Hersh's report
about Cheney's office conjuring up plots as to how best to trigger a war
with Iran?

"The one that interested me [SH] the most was why don't we build - we in
our shipyard - build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats.
Put Navy Seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our
boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up."

Mullen's Message

President Obama might want to think about delivering a pointed message
via a senior U.S. military officer. It worked last time.

In early July 2008, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike
Mullen, was sent to Israel to read the riot act to then-Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, who seemed to be itching to start hostilities with
Iran while Bush and Cheney were still in office.

We learned from the Israeli press that Mullen, to his credit, went so
far as to warn the Israelis not to even think about another incident
like the attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967 - that the Israelis
should disabuse themselves of the notion that U.S. military support
would be knee-jerk automatic if Israel somehow provoked open hostilities
with Iran.

This is the only occasion of which I am aware when a U.S. official of
such seniority braced Israel about the Liberty incident. A gutsy move,
especially with Cheney and Elliott Abrams then in the White House, two
hawks who would bless - or even encourage - an Israeli provocation that
would make it very difficult for Washington to avoid springing to the
defense of its "ally."

The Israelis know that Mullen knows that the attack on the Liberty was
deliberate. Mullen could have raised no more neuralgic an issue to take
a shot across an Israeli bow than to cite the attack on the Liberty. The
Jerusalem Post reported that Mullen cautioned that a Liberty-type
incident must be avoided in any future military actions in the Middle
East.

Will Netanyahu give more weight to Mullen or to pro-Israel politicians
like Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey? Lautenberg, who has visited
Israel 80 times since 1968, spoke with the Jerusalem Post earlier this
week and pledged full support for pretty much whatever Israel wants to
do:

"Israel didn't ask us permission to drop bombs twice on Syrian nuclear
facilities. I don't hear America scolding Israel for what it did then.
Hypothetically, if Israel were able to get rid of Iran's nuclear
bomb-making capability, I'm sure that America would not send Israel a
chastising email message. We have to give Israel the courtesy of
[allowing it to] make its own decisions."

For good measure, Lautenberg said Israel "won't return to the '67
borders. They are insufficient to permit Israel to function."

Let me ask again: Will Netanyahu give more weight to Mullen over
Lautenberg and a pro-Israel U.S. Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton)
who spoke about "obliterating" Iran during last year's campaign?

In gauging President Obama's clout with the Washington power-brokers,
Netanyahu is likely to draw conclusions more from things like Obama's
inability, or reluctance, to turn off the feckless, counterproductive
sabotage squads inside Iran, than from any warnings Netanyahu may have
heard from the president to please not attack Iran.

Seems we are pretty much back where we were a year ago, when it looked
like Olmert might mount some kind of provocation involving Iran. Perhaps
President Obama should send Adm. Mullen back to Israel.

And perhaps this time Mullen should take Terry Halbardier with him.

Netanyahu needs to be confronted without delay. And June 8, the 42nd
anniversary of the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty, could prove an
interesting time to be in Tel Aviv.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the
ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as
a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and
chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering
Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should be
ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should
be ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com




These men were aboard at the time, serving on the Liberty. Do they sully
their own service by promoting this "garbage"?

http://www.gtr5.com/

--
KLC Lewis

Irrefutable photographic proof of alien visitations!
www.KLCLewisStudios.com

So wait, this traumatic incident in your life that turned you into an
incurable raving conspiracy theorist happened to someone else? You
weren't even there??

Stephen

Larry wrote:
Sailors, please take a moment Monday to remember the 34 Liberty crewmen
murdered by the Israelis, who knew EXACTLY what they were doing, in
1967. There is fresh information in this report directly from the crew
survivors and first hand report by others involved, who were all
threatened with courts martial if they even talked to each other about
this attack. Three sailors I went to school with were killed. The only
reason I was not aboard Liberty as a new technician was the luck of the
draw, something that has nagged at me for many years.

Larry

Liberty Attacked - May 8th, 1967....

================================================== ======================


Published on Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack

by Ray McGovern
What's the difference between murder and massacre?

The answer is Terry Halbardier, whose bravery and ingenuity as a
23-year-old Navy seaman spelled the difference between the murder of 34
of the USS Liberty crew and the intended massacre of all 294.

The date was June 8, 1967; and for the families of the 34 murdered and
for the Liberty's survivors and their families, it is a "date which will
live in infamy" - like the date of an earlier surprise attack on the
U.S. Navy.

The infamy is two-fold: (1) the Liberty, a virtually defenseless
intelligence collection platform prominently flying an American flag in
international waters, came under deliberate attack by Israeli aircraft
and three 60-ton Israeli torpedo boats off the coast of the Sinai on a
cloudless June afternoon during the six-day Israeli-Arab war; and (2)
President Lyndon Johnson called back carrier aircraft dispatched to
defend the Liberty lest Israel be embarrassed - the start of an
unconscionable cover-up, including top Navy brass, that persists to this
day.

Given all they have been through, the Liberty survivors and other
veterans - who joined Halbardier to celebrate his belated receipt of the
Silver Star - can be forgiven for having doubted that this day would
ever come. In the award ceremony at the Visalia (California) office of
Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman pinned the Silver Star next
to the Purple Heart that Halbardier found in his home mailbox three
years ago.

Nunes said, "The government has kept this quiet I think for too long,
and I felt as my constituent he [Halbardier] needed to get recognized
for the services he made to his country."

Nunes got that right. Despite the many indignities the Liberty crew has
been subjected to, the mood in Visalia was pronouncedly a joyous one of
Better (42 years) Late Than Never. And, it did take some time to sink
in: Wow, a gutsy congressman not afraid to let the truth hang out on
this delicate issue.

Treatment Accorded the Skipper

As we gathered in Congressman Nunes's office, I could not get out of my
head the contrast between this simple, uncomplicated event and the
rigmarole that senior Navy officers went through to pin a richly
deserved Medal of Honor on another hero of that day, the Liberty's
skipper, Captain William McGonagle.

Although badly wounded by Israeli fire on June 8, 1967, McGonagle was
able to keep the bombed, torpedoed, napalmed Liberty afloat and limping
toward Malta, where what was left of the bodies of the 34 crewmen killed
and the 174 wounded could be attended to.

Do the math: yes, killed and wounded amounted to more than two-thirds of
the Liberty crew of 294.

I remembered what a naval officer involved in McGonagle's award ceremony
told one of the Liberty crew: "The government is pretty jumpy about
Israel.the State Department even asked the Israeli ambassador if his
government had any objections to McGonagle getting the medal."

When McGonagle received his award, the White House (the normal venue for
a Medal of Honor award) was all booked up, it seems, and President
Johnson (who would have been the usual presenter) was unavailable. So it
fell to the Secretary of the Navy to sneak off to the Washington Navy
Yard on the banks of the acrid Anacostia River, where he presented
McGonagle with the Medal of Honor and a citation that described the
attack but not the identity of the attackers.

Please don't misunderstand. The Liberty crew is not big on ceremony.
They are VERY-not-big on politicians who wink when Navy comrades are
killed and wounded at sea.

Getting the Truth Out

The Liberty survivors are big on getting the truth out about what
actually happened that otherwise beautiful day in June 1967. Last
Wednesday's award of the Silver Star to Terry Halbardier marked a
significant step in the direction of truth telling. Is it too much to
hope that the example set by Nunes may embolden other lawmakers to right
the wrongs done to their Liberty-veteran constituents - and thus to chip
away at what's left of the cover-up?

Halbardier said he accepted his Silver Star on behalf of the entire
294-man crew. He and fellow survivor Don Pageler expressed particular
satisfaction at the wording of the citation, which stated explicitly --
with none of the usual fudging -- the identity of the attackers: "The
USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats in
the East Mediterranean Sea.." In the past, official citations, like
Captain McGonagle's, had avoided mentioning Israel by name when alluding
to the attack.

I think former U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck put it best in condemning
this kind of approach as "obsequious, unctuous subservience to the
peripheral interests of a foreign nation at the cost of the lives and
morale of our own service members and their families." Strong words for
a diplomat. But right on target.

Were it not for Halbardier's bravery, ingenuity, and technical
expertise, the USS Liberty would surely have sunk, taking down much - if
not all - of the crew. Israeli commando helicopters were ready to take
care of any personnel still that survived the sinking.

The first thing the Israeli aircraft bombed and strafed were the
Liberty's communications antennae and other equipment. They succeeded in
destroying all the antennae that were functional. One antenna on the
port side, though, had been out of commission and had escaped damage.

On Deck-Just a Guy From Texas

In receiving the Silver Star, Halbardier made light of his heroism,
claiming that he was just a guy from Texas who could do a whole lot with
simple stuff like baling wire. (In the infantry we called this kind of
thing a "field expedient.") In any case, with his can-do attitude and
his technical training, he figured he might be able to get that
particular antenna working again. But first he would have to repair a
cable that had been destroyed on deck and then connect the antenna to a
transmitter.

The deck was still being strafed, but Halbardier grabbed a reel of
cable, ran out onto the deck, and attached new cable to the antenna so a
radioman could get an SOS out to the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean.

Voila. "Mayday" went out; almost immediately the Israeli aircraft and
torpedo ships broke off the attack and went back to base; the Israeli
government sent a quick apology to Washington for its unfortunate
"mistake;" and President Johnson issued orders to everyone to make
believe the Israelis were telling the truth - or at least to remain
silent.

To their discredit, top Navy brass went along, and the Liberty survivors
were threatened with court martial and prison if they so much as
mentioned to their wives what had actually happened. They were enjoined
as well from discussing it with one another. As Liberty crewman Don
Pageler put it, "We all headed out after that, and we didn't talk to
each other."

The circumstances were ready-made for serious Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder.

The stories shared by Liberty survivors after the award ceremony,
including descriptions of the macabre but necessary effort to reassemble
torpedoed body parts, and the plague of survivor's guilt, were as
heart-rending as any I have heard. They are stories that should be
shared more widely for those muzzled far too long - those who, even 42
years later, might be helped by being in contact with other Liberty
survivors, and being able to talk about it.

These were the deep emotional scars to supplement the ones all over
Halbardier's body, some of which he uncovered when asked by the local
press gathered there in Visalia. Typically, Halbardier made light of the
shrapnel that had to be plucked out of his flesh, emphasizing that he
was lucky compared to some of the other crew.

No Mistake

Despite Israeli protestations, the accumulated evidence, including
intercepted voice communications, is such that no serious observer
believes Israel's "Oops" excuse of a terrible mistake.

The following exchanges are excerpts of testimony from U.S. military and
diplomatic officials given to Alison Weir, founder of "If Americans
Knew" and author of American Media Miss the Boat:

Israeli pilot to ground control: "This is an American ship. Do you still
want us to attack?"
Ground control: "Yes, follow orders."
.........

"But sir, it's an American ship - I can see the flag!"
Ground control: "Never mind; hit it!"

Haviland Smith, a CIA officer stationed in Beirut during the Six-Day
War, says he was told that the transcripts were "deep-sixed," because
the U.S. government did not want to embarrass Israel.

Tapes Also Destroyed

Equally telling is the fact that the National Security Agency (NSA)
destroyed voice tapes seen by many intelligence analysts, showing that
the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing.

I asked a former CIA colleague, who was also an analyst at that time,
what he remembered of those circumstances. Here is his e-mail reply:

"The chief of the analysts studying the Arab-Israeli region at the time
told me about the intercepted messages and said very flatly and firmly
that the pilots reported seeing the American flag and repeated their
requests of confirmation of the attack order. Whole platoons of
Americans saw those intercepts. If NSA now says they do not exist, then
someone ordered them destroyed."

One need hardly add at this point that the destruction of evidence
without investigation is an open invitation to repetition in the future.

Think interrogation videotapes, for example.

As for the legal side: the late Captain Ward Boston, unburdened himself
on his accomplice role as the Navy lawyer appointed as senior counsel to
Adm. Isaac Kidd, who led a one-week (!) investigation and then followed
orders to pronounce the attack on the Liberty a case of "mistaken
identity."

Boston signed a formal declaration on Jan. 8, 2004, in which he said he
was "outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this
country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.'"
Boston continued:

"The evidence was clear. Both Adm. Kidd and I believed with certainty
that this attack . was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and
murder its entire crew . Not only did the Israelis attack the ship with
napalm, gunfire, and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned
three lifeboats that had been launched in an attempt by the crew to save
the most seriously wounded - a war crime .

"I know from personal conversations I had with Adm. Kidd that President
Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to
conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

W. Patrick Lang, Col., USA (ret.), who was the Defense Intelligence
Agency's top analyst for the Middle East for eight years, recounted the
Israeli air attacks as follows:

"The flight leader spoke to his base to report that he had the ship in
view, that it was the same ship he had been briefed on, and that it was
clearly marked with the U.S. flag.

"The flight commander was reluctant. That was very clear. He didn't want
to do this. He asked them a couple of times, 'Do you really want me to
do this?' I've remembered it ever since. It was very striking. I've been
harboring this memory for all these years."

Lang, of course, is not alone. So too Terry Halbardier, who told those
assembled last Wednesday, "I think about it [the attack on the Liberty]
every day."

Why Sink the Ship?

What we know for sure is, as the independent commission headed by former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Thomas Moorer put it, the
attack "was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill
her entire crew."

What we do not know for sure is why the Israelis wanted that done. Has
no one dared ask the Israelis?

One view is that the Israelis did not want the United States to find out
they were massing troops to seize the Golan Heights from Syria and
wanted to deprive the U.S. of the opportunity to argue against such a
move.

James Bamford offers an alternative view in his excellent book, Body of
Secrets. Bamford adduces evidence, including reporting from an Israeli
journalist eyewitness and an Israeli military historian, of wholesale
killing of Egyptian prisoners of war at the coastal town of El Arish in
the Sinai. The Liberty was patrolling directly opposite El Arish in
international waters but within easy range to pick up intelligence on
what was going on there. And the Israelis were well aware of that.

But the important thing here is not to confuse what we know (the
deliberate nature of the Israeli attack) with the ultimate purpose
behind it, which remains open to speculation.

Also worth noting is the conventional wisdom prevalent in our Fawning
Corporate Media (FCM) that Egypt forced Israel into war in June 1967. An
excellent, authoritative source has debunked that - none other than
former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin! In an unguarded moment in
1982, when he was prime minister, he admitted publicly:

"In June 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the
Sinai approaches do not prove that [Egyptian President] Nasser was
really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided
to attack him."

Thus, the Israeli attack admittedly amounted to starting a war of
aggression, and the occupied West Bank territories and the Golan Heights
- gained by the Israelis in the 1967 war - remain occupied to this day.

The post WWII tribunal at Nuremberg distinguished a "war of aggression"
from other war crimes, terming it the "supreme international crime,
differing from other war crimes only in that it contains the accumulated
evil of the whole."

Perhaps the attempt to sink the Liberty and finish off all survivors
qualifies as one of those accumulated evils.

Terry Halbardier summed it up this way on Wednesday:

"There's lots of theories but let's just say they didn't want us
listening in to what they wanted to do."

Getting Away With Murder

In sum, on June 8, 1967, the Israeli government learned that it could
get away with murder, literally, and the crime would be covered up, so
strong is the influence of the Israel Lobby in our Congress - and
indeed, in the White House. And those USS Liberty veterans who survived
well enough to call for an independent investigation have been hit with
charges of, you guessed it, anti-Semitism.

Does all this have relevance today? Of course.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the new Israeli Prime Minister has now had an
up-close-and-personal chance to take the measure of our new president
and has already thumbed his nose at Barack Obama's plea for a halt in
illegal construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The Israelis seem convinced they remain in the catbird's seat, largely
because of the Israel Lobby's influence with U.S. lawmakers and opinion
makers - not to mention the entr‚e the Israelis enjoy to the chief
executive himself by having one of their staunchest allies, Rahm
Emanuel, in position as White House chief of staff.

The recent Obama-Netanyahu encounter reminded me very much of the
meeting in Vienna between another young American president and Nikita
Khrushchev in early June 1961. The Soviets took the measure of President
John Kennedy, and we got the Cuban missile crisis, bringing the world
close to nuclear destruction.

Netanyahu is currently whipping up frenzy and fear in the face of what
he calls the "existential threat" posed by Iran - frenzy about the
"danger" from Iran that could lead to military action of some kind. So
confident is Netanyahu of the solidity of his position with movers and
shakers in the U.S. that he may be sorely tempted to mount the kind of
provocation that would be aimed at confronting Obama with an unwelcome
choice between joining an Israeli attack on Iran or facing dire
political consequences at home.

And nothing is outlandish any more. Remember Seymour Hersh's report
about Cheney's office conjuring up plots as to how best to trigger a war
with Iran?

"The one that interested me [SH] the most was why don't we build - we in
our shipyard - build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats.
Put Navy Seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our
boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up."

Mullen's Message

President Obama might want to think about delivering a pointed message
via a senior U.S. military officer. It worked last time.

In early July 2008, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike
Mullen, was sent to Israel to read the riot act to then-Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, who seemed to be itching to start hostilities with
Iran while Bush and Cheney were still in office.

We learned from the Israeli press that Mullen, to his credit, went so
far as to warn the Israelis not to even think about another incident
like the attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967 - that the Israelis
should disabuse themselves of the notion that U.S. military support
would be knee-jerk automatic if Israel somehow provoked open hostilities
with Iran.

This is the only occasion of which I am aware when a U.S. official of
such seniority braced Israel about the Liberty incident. A gutsy move,
especially with Cheney and Elliott Abrams then in the White House, two
hawks who would bless - or even encourage - an Israeli provocation that
would make it very difficult for Washington to avoid springing to the
defense of its "ally."

The Israelis know that Mullen knows that the attack on the Liberty was
deliberate. Mullen could have raised no more neuralgic an issue to take
a shot across an Israeli bow than to cite the attack on the Liberty. The
Jerusalem Post reported that Mullen cautioned that a Liberty-type
incident must be avoided in any future military actions in the Middle
East.

Will Netanyahu give more weight to Mullen or to pro-Israel politicians
like Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey? Lautenberg, who has visited
Israel 80 times since 1968, spoke with the Jerusalem Post earlier this
week and pledged full support for pretty much whatever Israel wants to
do:

"Israel didn't ask us permission to drop bombs twice on Syrian nuclear
facilities. I don't hear America scolding Israel for what it did then.
Hypothetically, if Israel were able to get rid of Iran's nuclear
bomb-making capability, I'm sure that America would not send Israel a
chastising email message. We have to give Israel the courtesy of
[allowing it to] make its own decisions."

For good measure, Lautenberg said Israel "won't return to the '67
borders. They are insufficient to permit Israel to function."

Let me ask again: Will Netanyahu give more weight to Mullen over
Lautenberg and a pro-Israel U.S. Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton)
who spoke about "obliterating" Iran during last year's campaign?

In gauging President Obama's clout with the Washington power-brokers,
Netanyahu is likely to draw conclusions more from things like Obama's
inability, or reluctance, to turn off the feckless, counterproductive
sabotage squads inside Iran, than from any warnings Netanyahu may have
heard from the president to please not attack Iran.

Seems we are pretty much back where we were a year ago, when it looked
like Olmert might mount some kind of provocation involving Iran. Perhaps
President Obama should send Adm. Mullen back to Israel.

And perhaps this time Mullen should take Terry Halbardier with him.

Netanyahu needs to be confronted without delay. And June 8, the 42nd
anniversary of the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty, could prove an
interesting time to be in Tel Aviv.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the
ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as
a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and
chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering
Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should
be ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com



"You sully their service .. " .... what the **** ? You little yellow
asshole..
The *******s killed US sailors, attacked our ship, and you use the word
"sully".

I wan't on the ship also .. but I remember that ****head Lyndon Johnson, the
piece of
**** who lied about Vietnam every night on tv.. and I remember the Jews and
their
lying about this attack..

Ganz,, you little bitch asshole .. I ever get my hands on you I will rip
your little tiny balls off.

Wilbur: Just sign your donor card and die.

"KLC Lewis" wrote in message
...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should
be ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com




These men were aboard at the time, serving on the Liberty. Do they sully
their own service by promoting this "garbage"?

http://www.gtr5.com/

--
KLC Lewis

Irrefutable photographic proof of alien visitations!
www.KLCLewisStudios.com




They're not serving their own best interest in my opinion, but at least they
have the credibility of having been on the ship.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Janet O'Leary" wrote in message
...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should
be ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com



"You sully their service .. " .... what the **** ? You little yellow
asshole..
The *******s killed US sailors, attacked our ship, and you use the word
"sully".

I wan't on the ship also .. but I remember that ****head Lyndon Johnson,
the piece of
**** who lied about Vietnam every night on tv.. and I remember the Jews
and their
lying about this attack..

Ganz,, you little bitch asshole .. I ever get my hands on you I will rip
your little tiny balls off.

Like I'm afraid of a man who masquerades as a woman...

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"KLC Lewis" wrote in message
...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
"Larry" wrote in message
...
loonatic rant removed

You sully their service and memory by promoting this garbage. You should
be ashamed of yourself.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com




These men were aboard at the time, serving on the Liberty. Do they sully
their own service by promoting this "garbage"?

http://www.gtr5.com/

--
KLC Lewis

Irrefutable photographic proof of alien visitations!
www.KLCLewisStudios.com




Re-thinking, restating my opinion, I think they have a right to get at the
actual facts without gov't interference.

Maybe Larry needs to re-read the info on their website, since he uses this
to promote his anti-semetic positions, at one point claiming that Hitler
didn't finish the job. From the website in part:
Anti-Semitism and the Anti-American Apologists


The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme positions
taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theorist and other such
groups which often seek to identify with us and to usurp our story as their
own. We have no connection with and do not support or encourage support from
any of these groups including National Alliance, National Vanguard, The New
Order, National Socialists, The French Connection, Liberty Lobby, American
Free Press, Republic Broadcasting, AFP's Liberty Radio Hour, or other such
groups. We wish harm to no one and encourage social justice and equality for
everyone; we seek only accountability for the criminal acts perpetrated
against us and can do that without help from hate-mongers.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...

Re-thinking, restating my opinion, I think they have a right to get at the
actual facts without gov't interference.

Maybe Larry needs to re-read the info on their website, since he uses this
to promote his anti-semetic positions, at one point claiming that Hitler
didn't finish the job. From the website in part:
Anti-Semitism and the Anti-American Apologists


The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme positions
taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theorist and other such
groups which often seek to identify with us and to usurp our story as
their own. We have no connection with and do not support or encourage
support from any of these groups including National Alliance, National
Vanguard, The New Order, National Socialists, The French Connection,
Liberty Lobby, American Free Press, Republic Broadcasting, AFP's Liberty
Radio Hour, or other such groups. We wish harm to no one and encourage
social justice and equality for everyone; we seek only accountability for
the criminal acts perpetrated against us and can do that without help from
hate-mongers.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

And I agree with their position whole-heartedly. I am opposed to the "Israel
can do no wrong" mindset. It is not anti-Semitic to point out when they have
crossed the line and perpetrated attrocities, just as it is not
anti-American to point out when our own government has done the same.

--
KLC Lewis

Irrefutable photographic proof of alien visitations!
www.KLCLewisStudios.com