USS Liberty - Israel's "War of Self Defense"

IDF Brig.General Aryeh Biro took part in the 1956 war,not 1967 war.
As stated before Biro admitted that executions of POW's was not discouraged or punished in IDF.He said there were many bloody hands in IDF.
He was involved in 1956 executions of Egyptian POW's.
Ben Eliezar in 1967.
Ground commanders,Eitan,1956,Yahron,Dori in Lebanon in 1980's and list goes on....
Killing unarmed POW's is a war crime.

www.zundelsite.org/old_zundelsite/.../080515_Israels_hush_up.php

www.washington-report.org/backissues/0296/9602017.html
 
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So we have a new question on USS Liberty? Looks like 3dgeo put new point of egyptian POW's during 1967 war in his Post #213. OK... it is a new revelation about massacre of egyptian soldiers...in 1956 and 1967 wars.Well what should we do....where to start...Well lets do this thing,what happened or not happened in 1956 war lets leave it for another forum,it doesn't belongs to USS Liberty case.
Now.....aah I recalled something,didn't I mention already somewhere Mr Bamford? wait a sec.... here he is in my post #91
Right it's him and his book is also there.The only problem is I made error,I said his book "Dead in the water",but actually the book name was "Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" (April 24, 2001),and "Dead in the water" was a BBC TV documentary (21 August 2004),which mentioned his book.OK,so far so good,lets proceed.
First of all lets see who Mr Bamford is...ok the internet is saying till recently he was a Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News.OK.
So at this moment we can already say this,whatever he was saying about USS Liberty he was not eyewitness to the event,right? Yes he was a reporter not a sailor.OK.
Lets see what he said in his book: http://hnn.us/articles/191.html

'As the Liberty sat within eyeshot of El Arish, eavesdropping on surrounding communications, Israeli soldiers turned the town into a slaughterhouse, systematically butchering their prisoners. An eyewitness recounted how in the shadow of the El Arish mosque, they lined up about 60 unarmed Egyptian prisoners, hands tied behind their backs, and then opened fire with machine guns until the pale desert sand turned red.
This and other war crimes were just some of the secrets Israel had sought to conceal since the start of the conflict".

OK pay attention....in the shadow of the Mosque.....nice.So lets say you stay some half a mile from this place would you be able to see clearly what was going there in the shadow?...well.... and the USS Liberty was....14 miles from there...well.OK.
So Bamford was mentioning only 60 prisoners...,lets look on another website,very famous 'jew-loving' site: http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-atrocities-uss-liberty.html,what they say,we all are curious ,aren't we?

"Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessedIsraeli troopsexecuting Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinaitown of El Arish.
Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the ElArish airport wherethey were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their handsheld on the back oftheir necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escortan Egyptian POW fromthe group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Thenthe man would betaken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.
"I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes," Bronwrote. "Afterwards, the (Israelimilitary) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of themleveled an Uzi at himand shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets."
Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave wasfilled. Then an IsraeliColonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area".

Well,....the prisoners were diging even their own graves...and their number already incresed to 150. OK,so far so good.... We are getting closer to somewhere... Continue.next post

Bamford Not an eyewitness,fine.
His revelation that recently declassified NSA info. that a EC-121 spy plane flying high above Liberty with Hebrew linguists on board recorded IAF attacking planes IDENTIFYING Liberty as flying American flag and ordered by ground controlers to proceed with attack anyway is not relevant?????

OK,If you want eyewitnesses my friend ask Liberty's survivors.
www.ussliberty.org.
They have been savaged for 40 years by the Israel apologist crowd,
for daring to recount what they saw.
The slaughter of their crewmates by Israeli forces.
 
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Bamford Not an eyewitness,fine.
His revelation that recently declassified NSA info. that a EC-121 spy plane flying high above Liberty with Hebrew linguists on board recorded IAF attacking planes IDENTIFYING Liberty as flying American flag and ordered by ground controlers to proceed with attack anyway is not relevant?????

OK,If you want eyewitnesses my friend ask Liberty's survivors.
www.ussliberty.org.
They have been savaged for 40 years by the Israel apologist crowd,
for daring to recount what they saw.
The slaughter of their crewmates by Israeli forces.
IT is very clear that you are not familiar with USS Liberty incident.Yes EC-121 plane was sent in the vicinity of USS Liberty,and started recording already after the attack by israeli torpedo boats took place.The actual record of ES-121 was released by NSA in 2003.The record was between pilots of two israeli helicopters,which were sent to investigate the situation and israeli headqwarter air base.This tape is available now.You yourself can read it and even paste the translation from hebrew here if you want.
 
State of the art Liberty same as 60 year old Egyptian horse transport?

IT is very clear that you are not familiar with USS Liberty incident.Yes EC-121 plane was sent in the vicinity of USS Liberty,and started recording already after the attack by israeli torpedo boats took place.The actual record of ES-121 was released by NSA in 2003.The record was between pilots of two israeli helicopters,which were sent to investigate the situation and israeli headqwarter air base.This tape is available now.You yourself can read it and even paste the translation from hebrew here if you want.
Not familiar? Hmm!! ok,
The helicopter tapes are a sham with many blank sections(see Israel manipulations)Israeli submissions with questionable authenticity at best.
Came out with the Cristol farce of a book to absolve
Israeli slaughter of 34 US seamen.
If you say that the EC-121 was over the attack after the fact then you either have not read Bamford's book or you
are using the disinformation tactic like Judge Cristol.
One of the American Hebrew linguists onboard the EC-21 has come forth!! Overheard IAF piolts ID American flag on Liberty.
It was a clear day friend.Israel flew hours of reconaissance over liberty prior to attack.

It was murder on the high seas!

I have asked Jim Ennes,Jr,USN Ret. if he could look in on this discussion.We will see if he does.If not he has written a full accountof the attack(Assault on the Liberty,Reintree Press) and has published many articles.
Ennes was officer on deck during Israeli attack.Wounded and recepeint of Purple heart.AN EYEWITNESS as you say!
Maybe you can bring some some of the Israeli crew of MTB-203.That was the Israeli boat that caused most damgge to Liberty.The Israeli government awarded them medals.There's
The Israeli tropedo boats machinegunned Liberty's liferafts in the water! There's a shot up Liberty liferaft in one of their maritime museums.Ask the American witnesses.....

It took days to recover the grissly body parts of the dead out of Liberty's hull in Malta.The unarmed ship would not go down due to the courage of her Defiant skipper,Capt.McGonagle and her brave crew.
Israeli attackers used enough fire power to sink an aircraft carrier.Their claim: They thought they were attacking a sixty year old Egyptian horse carrier,El Quesir???
Who buys this bull??

Visit and support the American survivors
www.ussliberty.org
 
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IT is very clear that you are not familiar with USS Liberty incident.Yes EC-121 plane was sent in the vicinity of USS Liberty,and started recording already after the attack by israeli torpedo boats took place.The actual record of ES-121 was released by NSA in 2003.The record was between pilots of two israeli helicopters,which were sent to investigate the situation and israeli headqwarter air base.This tape is available now.You yourself can read it and even paste the translation from hebrew here if you want.
The helicopter tapes are a sham with many blank sections(see Israel manipulations)
Came out the Cristol farce of a book to absolve Israeli slaughter of 34 US seamen.
If you say that the EC-121 was over the attack after the fact then you're either have not read Bamford book or you
are using the disinformation tactic like Judge Cristol.
The Hebrew linguists have come forth!!
I have asked Jim Ennes,Jr,USN Ret. if he could look in on this discussion.
Ennes was officer on deck during Israeli attack.Wounded and receipernt of Purple heart.AN EYEWITNESS as you say!We will see.If not he has written a full account and has published many articles.
Maybe you can bring some some of the Israeli crew of MTB-203.That was the Israeli boat that caused most damge to Liberty.The Israeli government awarded them medals.The Israel tropedo boats machinegunnd Liberty's liferafts in the water! Ask the American witnesses.
It took days to recover the grissly body parts of the dead out of Liberty's hull in Malta.The unarmed ship would not go down due to the courage of her Defiant skipper,Capt.McGonagle and her brave crew.
Israeli attackers used enough fire power to sink an aircraft carrier.Their claim: They thought they were attacking a sixty year old Egyptian horse carrier,El Quesir???
Who buys this bull??

Visit and support the American survivors
www.ussliberty.org
 

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The helicopter tapes are a sham with many blank sections(see Israel manipulations)
Came out the Cristol farce of a book to absolve Israeli slaughter of 34 US seamen.
If you say that the EC-121 was over the attack after the fact then you're either have not read Bamford book or you
are using the disinformation tactic like Judge Cristol.
The Hebrew linguists have come forth!!
I asked you to put here recordings from american plane not recording submitted by Israel.I did not read Bamford book as well as Ennes book.....so....Did not we agree already that Bamford was not an eyewitness? I would suggest you to take some leisure time and to read this forum from the beginnig,because i was here already quite time and had put a lot of material.I never did claim here that i am the only correct person,i just put some material to think and everybody can make their own decisions.It is difficult to start all over again and again if some points were discussed already earlier in this Forum.So the tapes with recording of american plane were cruicial to the case.Paste the translation of recordings here.
 
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I asked you to put here recordings from american plane not recording of israeli pilots.I did not read Bamford book as well as Ennes book.....so....Did not we agree already that Bamford was not an eyewitness? I would suggest you to take some leisure time and to read this forum from the beginnig,because i was here already quite time and had put a lot of material.I never did claim here that i am the only correct person,i just put some material to think and everybody can make their own decisions.It is difficult to start all over again and again if some points were discussed already earlier in this Forum.So the tapes with recording of american plane were cruicial to the case.Paste the translation of recordings here.
Yes the Israeli tapes/translations do not hold water,my friend.
They reveal what the Israelis think will stenghthen
their bogus claim.
You want to take them at face value then do so.
Want to ignore the blank parts of the tapes then do so.
Bamford states EC-121 US Hebrew Linguists high overhead,at time of attack,recorded IAF pilots Identifying an American flag on Liberty,and were ordered by ground controllers to proceed with assault on the unarmed American ship regardless.This,declassified recently.How much more clearer than that ??
But you did not read the book!
In that you have not read any American accounts(Bamford,Ennes,and Scott)
Then it's safe to assume that The Israeli account(s) are what you are going by and accepting,hook,line,and sinker.
You accept the Israel fabrications at face value and practices of disinformation for people that have little background on the matter,methinks.
Suggest other folks who are not being Israel conned here to visit Liberty survivors site:
www.ussliberty.org

Smaller of two vessels below in thumbnail is Israeli claim what they "mistook" Liberty for ?
2:1 SIZE RATIO,
Turn of last century Egyptian horse transports were never equiped with oversize Radar dish!!! Man O'Man
 

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Yes the Israeli tapes/translations do not hold water,my friend.
They reveal what the Israelis think will stenghthen their claim.
You want to take them at face value then do so.
Want to ignore the blank parts of the tapes then do so.
Bamford states EC-121 Hebrew Linguists over liberty,at time of attack,recorded IAF pilots Identifying an American flag on Liberty,and were ordered by ground controllers to proceed with attack.Declassified recently.How much more clearer than that ?? But you did not read the book!
At this point i have to ask you how old are you?At least to know whom i am speaking to......I am 56 years old.The reason i am asking you this ...maybe private information,because......well you repeated in two postings the same thing....Israeli tapes are a shame.....Well...look,do you understand what i am asking you to do? I am very nice to you...,I am asking you to paste here AMERICAN TAPES,AMERICAN TAPES...you see,not israeli tapes with blank spots!!!!!! The reason i am asking you to paste here AMERICAN TAPES is because.....Mr Bamford claims in his book something.....recorded not on Israeli tapes but on AMERICAN TAPES,recorded by American plane,not Israeli plane.....And that what i am nicely asking you to paste here,right? right!!!!!! So in order to know what Mr Bamford claims we have to know what AMERICAN PLANE EC-121 was recording when it was there.Right?...Right....So go ahead and paste these tapes here....
 
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not only that'they also put them in camps and killed thier childrfenb with gas'then burned thier corpses.
jee 23 years before the allies destroyed entire countries and killed thousends of innocent people.
but ofcpurse if u can blame the minority that lives on the plane desert then why not?:D
So your point is that we should not discuss the case of deliberate murder of American sailors by the Jewish military because 23 years before other people did worse?

Google an online vocabulary and find the phrase "hypocrit".

@Greg2k

What interest would Americans who are pro-Israeli to an extent of endagering their own national interest have in forging these tapes?

Of course we wont quote Israelis because they kept lying and would refuse as much as pay compensation, why wouldnt they compensate for people they murdered? If there's any more proof of dishonesty on Israeli side i dont know what could it be.
 
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USS LIBERTY mistake or mass murder?

Hey my friend this is not about me or how old we be.
some Bamford excerpts:

As the slaughter continued, neither the Israelis nor the Liberty crew had any idea that witnesses were present high above. Until now, that is. According to information, interviews and documents obtained, for nearly 35 years the NSA has hidden the fact that one of its planes - a Navy EC-121 ferret - was overhead at the time of the incident, eavesdropping on what was going on below. The interceptions from that plane, which answer some of the key questions about the attack, are among the NSA's deepest secrets. The ferret had taken off from Athens for its regular patrol of the eastern Mediterranean, and at about the time that the air attack was getting underway, Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki heard one of the other Hebrew linguists on the plane excitedly trying to get his attention on the secure intercom. "Hey, chief," he shouted, "I've got really odd activity on UHF. They mentioned an American flag. I don't know what's going on." Nowicki asked the linguist for the frequency and "rolled up to it". "Sure as the devil," said Nowicki, "Israeli aircraft were completing an attack on some object. I alerted the evaluator, giving him sparse details, adding that we had no idea what was taking place.

After landing back at Athens airport, Nowicki and the intercept crew were brought directly to the processing centre. "By the time we arrived at the USA-512J compound," he said, "collateral reports were coming in to the station about the attack on the USS Liberty. The NSA civilians took our tapes and began transcribing. It was pretty clear that Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats attacked a ship in the east Med. Although the attackers never gave a name or a hull number, the ship was identified as flying an American flag. We logically concluded that the ship was the USS Liberty.

In the days following the attack, the Israeli government gave the US government a classified report that attempted to justify the claim that the attack was a mistake. On the basis of that same report, an Israeli court of inquiry completely exonerated the government and all those involved. No one was ever court-martialled, reduced in rank or even reprimanded. On the contrary, Israel chose instead to honour motor torpedo boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty. The ship's wheel and bell were placed on prominent display at the naval museum, among the maritime artefacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel had attacked the ship and killed the American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson administration and Congress covered up the entire incident. Johnson was planning to run for president the following year and needed the support of pro-Israel voters.
A mistake or mass murder? It was a question Congress never bothered to address in public hearings at the time. Among those who have long called for an in-depth congressional investigation is Admiral Thomas Moorer, who went on to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. "Congress to this day," he said, "has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on the Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace." Perhaps it is not too late.
[Extracted from Body of Secrets by James Bamford, published by Century
MORE Grizzly INFO.:
www.middleeast.org/read.cgi?category=Magazine
 
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Hang on sec, even though I really don't see the point in this argument as we all know what happened but for some reason we have 16 pages none of which tell us why it happened, you have opened a can of worms in you somewhat vigorous defense of this action in that it is a crime to attack an unidentified ship in international waters.

Just for shits and giggles look at the outcry when the Russians shot down a Korean airliner that was within its air space so why do you think Israel (or anyone else for that matter) should get away with attacking an unidentified ship in international waters?

To add some more to this mix.
US built Israeli F-4 Phantom jets shot down a Libyan civilian airliner lost in sandstorm over occupied Sinai in 1969.
Plane was carrying Pilgrims on way back from Mecca.

The 1969 Israeli excuse:thought it suspicious that no Egyptian missiles had been fired at the CIVILIAN plane, nor MiGs scrambled to intercept it.
So the Israelis shot it down.
108 people dead,5 survivors

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Arab_Airlines_Flight_114
 
Well, you know my friend... Our countries these day dont care much about honesty, truth etc...
The political groups care about money and power... They can lie to the civilians, and the military cant say anything to the politics, because the head of the military branches is in bed with these economic/political groups (the president).

No body important cares about these fine seamen who died this day.

And it's not just the US and Israel... But the US and the Saudis kings/princes... etc...

Honest people are dying everyday for money and power... It's not something new. It's called corruption. And we live in a corrupt world.

Did you think that these lobbies we see in Washinton are there for the truth? for moral values? for justice?

They dont care about that. They are there to pressure the honest people, to gain power and influence... And of course, to twist reality and shut up the idealists who want to see some truth.

We all know that what happened is fishy... To say the least... But the politics want say anything because the people who defend Israel at all cost are more active than the honest people who want to hear the truth.
 
Le Mask:"No body important cares about these fine seamen who died this day:.

More the reason not to let this go.
Hey the US Senator from Tel Aviv,Joe Liberman wants to now Attack Yemen.
He's been pushing for US BLOCKADE of Iran.An act of war.
He be against funding heathcare for the American people as "too expensive".
Never thought any US funding for Israel as too expensive,though.

www.ussliberty.org
 
Israeli attack on uss liberty

Part 1
Intelligence analysts and others have long supposed that Israel attacked to prevent the ship from reporting the impending invasion of the Golan Heights, then imminent despite cease fire pleas by the United States. Israel's defenders reject that explanation. Recent reports in the Israeli and Egyptian press suggest another powerful possibility.
According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army - the army that claims to hold itself to a higher moral standard than other armies - executed as many as 1,000 Arab prisoners during the 1967 war.
Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish. Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks.
Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave. "I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes," Bron wrote. "Afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets."
Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area...
As those executions were underway, America's most sophisticated intelligence platform, USS Liberty, was less than 13 miles from El Arish. We were close enough to see the town mosque with the naked eye. With binoculars we could make out individual buildings and might have seen the executions if we had looked in the right place.
Could our operators have heard voice radio messages revealing these killings? Did senior Israeli officers sanction the murders, or did they learn of them? How would they have reacted to the knowledge that USS Liberty was nearby and might have heard incriminating radio traffic? Would they have been desperate enough to attack an American ship? [May 1996]


THE COVER-UP
At the height of the six-day war in 1967, Israel attacked a US spy ship, killing 34 men and injuring many more. The Israelis claimed it was an accident, the Americans backed them up. But, as James Bamford reveals in his new book, both governments concealed the horrific truth
[The Guardian, UK - 8 August 2001]: Early in the morning of Thursday June 8 1967 and the first rays of sun spilled softly over the Sinai's blond waves of sand. A little more than a dozen miles north, in the choppy eastern Mediterranean, the USS Liberty headed eastward. But the calmness was like quicksand - deceptive, inviting and friendly - until it was too late.
As the Liberty passed the desert town of El Arish, it was being closely watched. About 4,000ft above was an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft. At 6.05am, the observer on the plane reported back to Israeli naval headquarters: "What we could see were the letters written on that ship and we gave these letters to ground control," he said. The letters were "GTR-5" - the Liberty's identification. "GTR" stood for "General Technical Research" - a cover designation for the National Security Agency (NSA)'s fleet of spy ships.
The Liberty was in dangerous waters at a dangerous time. The six-day war, in which Israeli air and ground forces launched a massive attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan, was raging. Fearing involvement in a Middle East war, the US joint chiefs of staff needed rapid intelligence on the ground situation in Egypt. Ships were considered the best option for the job. They could sail relatively close and pick up the most important signals. Also, unlike aircraft, they could remain on station for weeks at a time, eavesdropping, locating transmitters, and analysing the intelligence. And so the Liberty, which was large, fast and had been stationed relatively close on the Ivory Coast, had been ordered in.
Throughout the morning, the ship sailed on, with reconnaissance repeated at approximately 30-minute intervals. At one point, an Israeli air force Noratlas Nord 2501 circled the ship and headed back towards the Sinai. "It had a big Star of David on it and it was flying just a little bit above our mast," recalled crew member Larry Weaver. "I was actually able to wave to the co-pilot. He waved back and actually smiled at me - I could see him that well. There's no question about it. They had seen the ship's markings and the American flag. They could damn near see my rank. The underway flag was definitely flying, especially when you're that close to a war zone."
By 9.50am, the minaret at El Arish could be seen with the naked eye like a solitary mast in a sea of sand. Although no one on the ship knew it at the time, the Liberty had suddenly trespassed into a private horror. At that very moment, near the minaret, Israeli forces were engaged in a criminal slaughter. Three days after Israel had launched the six- day war, Egyptian prisoners in the Sinai had become a nuisance. There was no place to house them, not enough Israelis to watch them, and few vehicles to transport them to prison camps. But there was another way to deal with them.
 
Israeli attack on uss liberty

Part 2
As the liberty sat within eyeshot of El Arish, eavesdropping on surrounding communications, Israeli soldiers turned the town into a slaughterhouse, systematically butchering their prisoners. An eyewitness recounted how in the shadow of the El Arish mosque, they lined up about 60 unarmed Egyptian prisoners, hands tied behind their backs, and then opened fire with machine guns until the pale desert sand turned red.

This and other war crimes were just some of the secrets Israel had sought to conceal since the start of the conflict. An essential element in the Israeli battle plan seemed to have been to hide much of the war behind a carefully constructed curtain of lies: lies about the Egyptian threat, lies about who started the war, lies to the US president, lies to the UN Security Council, lies to the press, lies to the public. Thus, as the American naval historian Dr Richard K Smith noted, "any instrument which sought to penetrate this smoke screen so carefully thrown around the normal 'fog of war' would have to be frustrated".
Into this sea of deception and slaughter sailed the USS Liberty, an enormous spy factory loaded with the latest eavesdropping gear.
About noon, as the Liberty was again in sight of El Arish, and while the massacres were taking place, an army commander there reported that a ship was shelling them from the sea. But that was impossible. The only ship in the vicinity was the Liberty, and she was eavesdropping, not shooting. As any observer would have recognised, the ship was a tired old second world war vessel crawling with antennae, and unthreatening to anyone - unless it was their secrets, not their lives, they wanted to protect.
By then the Israeli navy and air force had conducted more than six hours of close surveillance of the Liberty off the Sinai and must have positively identified it as an American electronic spy ship. They knew she was the only military ship in the area. Nevertheless, the order was given to kill her and at 12.05pm, three motor torpedo boats from the port of Ashdod, about 50 miles away, departed. Israeli air force fighters, loaded with 50mm cannon ammunition, rockets and napalm, followed.
Without warning, the Israeli jets - swept-wing Dassault Mirage IIICs - struck. On board Liberty, Lieutenant Painter observed that the aircraft had "absolutely no markings", their identity unclear. He then attempted to reach the men manning the gun mounts, but it was too late. "I was trying to contact these two kids," he recalled, "and I saw them both; well, I didn't exactly see them as such. They were blown apart, but I saw the whole area go up in smoke and scattered metal. At about the same time, the aircraft strafed the bridge area. The quarter-master, Petty Officer Third Class Pollard, was standing right next to me, and he was hit."
The Mirages raked the ship from bow to stern with armour-piercing lead. A bomb exploded near the whaleboat aft of the bridge, and those in the pilothouse and the bridge were thrown from their feet. Commander William L McGonagle grabbed for the engine order annunciator and rang up all ahead flank.
In the communications spaces, radiomen James Halman and Joseph Ward had patched together enough equipment and broken antennae to get a distress call off to the Sixth Fleet, despite intense jamming by the Israelis. "Any station, this is Rockstar," Halman shouted, using the Liberty's voice call sign. "We are under attack by unidentified jet aircraft and require immediate assistance."
"Great, wonderful, she's burning, she's burning," said an Israeli pilot.
At 2.09pm, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, operating near Crete, acknowledged Liberty's cry for help. "I am standing by for further traffic," it signalled.
After taking out the gun mounts, the Israeli fighter pilots turned their attention to the antennae so the ship could not call for help or pick up any more revealing interceptions. Then the planes attacked the bridge, killing instantly the ship's executive officer. With the Liberty now deaf, blind, and silenced, unable to call for help or move, the Israeli pilots proceeded to kill her. Designed to punch holes in the toughest tanks, their shells tore through the Liberty's steel plating like hot nails through butter, exploding into jagged bits of shrapnel and butchering men deep in their living quarters.
As the slaughter continued, neither the Israelis nor the Liberty crew had any idea that witnesses were present high above. Until now, that is. According to information, interviews and documents obtained, for nearly 35 years the NSA has hidden the fact that one of its planes - a Navy EC-121 ferret - was overhead at the time of the incident, eavesdropping on what was going on below. The interceptions from that plane, which answer some of the key questions about the attack, are among the NSA's deepest secrets.
The ferret had taken off from Athens for its regular patrol of the eastern Mediterranean, and at about the time that the air attack was getting underway, Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki heard one of the other Hebrew linguists on the plane excitedly trying to get his attention on the secure intercom. "Hey, chief," he shouted, "I've got really odd activity on UHF. They mentioned an American flag. I don't know what's going on." Nowicki asked the linguist for the frequency and "rolled up to it". "Sure as the devil," said Nowicki, "Israeli aircraft were completing an attack on some object. I alerted the evaluator, giving him sparse details, adding that we had no idea what was taking place."
Deep down in Liberty, Terry McFarland, head encased in earphones, was vaguely aware of flickers of light coming through the bulkhead. He had no idea that they were armour-piercing tracer bullets slicing through the ship's skin. Larry Weaver had run to his general quarters station but it was located on an old helicopter pad that left him exposed and vulnerable. He grabbed a dazed shipmate and pushed him into a safe corner. "I said, 'Fred, stay here, you've just got to because he's coming up the centre'," Weaver recalled. "I got in the foetal position," he said, "and before I closed my eyes I looked up and I saw the American flag and that was the last thing I saw before I was hit. I closed my eyes, just waiting for hell's horror to hit me. And I was hit by rocket and cannon fire that blew two and a half feet of my colon out and I received over 100 shrapnel wounds. It blew me up in the air about four and a half, five feet. And just blood everywhere."
 
Israeli attack on uss liberty

Part 3
Stan White raced through the sick bay for the enclosed NSA spaces. "Torn and mutilated bodies were everywhere," he said. "Horrible sight!"
As soon as the Mirages pulled away, they were replaced by Super Mystere fighters which raked the ship. A later analysis would show 821 separate hits on the hull and superstructure. Now, in addition to rocket, cannon, and machine-gun fire, the Mysteres attacked with 1,000lb bombs and napalm. Deafening explosions tore through the ship and the bridge disappeared in an orange-and-black ball. Lying wounded by shrapnel, his blood draining into his shoe, was Commander McGonagle. Seconds later the fighters were back. Flesh fused with iron as more strafing was followed by more rockets, followed by napalm.
As the last fighter departed, having emptied out its onboard armoury, turning the Liberty's hull into a flaming mass of grey Swiss cheese, sailors lifted mutilated shipmates on to makeshift stretchers of pipe frame and chicken wire. Damage control crews pushed through passageways of suffocating smoke and blistering heat, and the chief petty officer's lounge was converted into a macabre sea of blood-soaked mattresses and shattered bodies.
After landing back at Athens airport, Nowicki and the intercept crew were brought directly to the processing centre. "By the time we arrived at the USA-512J compound," he said, "collateral reports were coming in to the station about the attack on the USS Liberty. The NSA civilians took our tapes and began transcribing. It was pretty clear that Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats attacked a ship in the east Med. Although the attackers never gave a name or a hull number, the ship was identified as flying an American flag. We logically concluded that the ship was the USS Liberty."
At 2.50pm (Liberty time), 50 minutes after the first shells tore into the ship and as the attack was still going on, the aircraft carrier USS America, cruising near Crete, was ordered to launch four armed A-4 Skyhawks. At the same time, the carrier USS Saratoga was also told to send four armed A-1 attack planes to defend the ship. "Sending aircraft to cover you," the Sixth Fleet told the Liberty at 3:05pm (9.05am in Washington). "Surface units on the way."
At that moment in Washington, President Johnson was at his desk, on the phone, alternately shouting at congressional leaders and coaxing them to support his position on several pieces of pending legislation. But four minutes later he was interrupted by Walt Rostow, national security adviser, on the other line. "The Liberty has been torpedoed in the Mediterranean," Rostow told Johnson excitedly.
The NSA's worst fears had come true. "After considerations of personnel safety," said deputy director Tordella, "one of my immediate concerns, considering the depth of the water and the distance of the ship off shore, had to do with the classified materials on board." Tordella got on the phone to the Joint Reconnaissance Centre (JCS) and spoke to the deputy director, a Navy captain named Vineyard. "I expressed my concern that the written material be burned if at all possible, and that the electronic equipment be salvaged if that were possible," he said.
But Tordella was not prepared for what he heard. According to NSA documents - classified top secret - he was told that some senior officials in Washington wanted above all to protect Israel from embarrassment. "Captain Vineyard had mentioned during this conversation," wrote Tordella, "that consideration was then being given by some unnamed Washington authorities to sink[ing] the Liberty in order that newspaper men would be unable to photograph her and thus inflame public opinion against the Israelis. I made an impolite comment about the idea." Almost immediately, Tordella wrote a memorandum for the record, describing the conversation, and then locked it away.
A cover story for the Liberty was then quickly devised. "She was a communications research ship that was diverted from her research assignment," it said, "to provide improved communication-relay links with the several US embassies around the entire Mediterranean during the current troubles."
On the Liberty, black smoke was still escaping through more than 800 holes in the hull, and the effort to hush up the incident had already begun. Within hours of the attack, which left 34 men dead and two-thirds of the rest of the crew wounded, Israel asked President Johnson to quietly bury the incident. "Embassy Tel Aviv," said a highly secret, very limited distribution message to the state department, "urged de-emphasis on publicity since proximity of vessel to scene of conflict was fuel for Arab suspicions that the US was aiding Israel." Shortly thereafter, a total news ban was ordered by the Pentagon. No one in the field was allowed to say anything about the attack. All information was to come only from a few senior Washington officials.
Later that morning, Johnson took the unusual step of ordering the JCS to recall its fighters while the Liberty still lay smouldering, sinking, fearful of another attack and with its decks covered with the dead, dying and wounded. On board the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, Rear Admiral Lawrence R Geis, who commanded the carrier force in the Mediterranean, was angry and puzzled at the recall and protested to the secretary of defence, Robert S McNamara.
Geis was shocked by what he heard next. "President Lyndon Johnson came on with a comment that he didn't care if the ship sunk, he would not embarrass his allies." Geis told Lieutenant Commander David Lewis, head of the NSA group on the Liberty, about the comment but asked him to keep it secret until after Geis died. It was a promise that Lewis kept.
In the days following the attack, the Israeli government gave the US government a classified report that attempted to justify the claim that the attack was a mistake. On the basis of that same report, an Israeli court of inquiry completely exonerated the government and all those involved. No one was ever court-martialled, reduced in rank or even reprimanded. On the contrary, Israel chose instead to honour motor torpedo boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty. The ship's wheel and bell were placed on prominent display at the naval museum, among the maritime artefacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel had attacked the ship and killed the American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson administration and Congress covered up the entire incident. Johnson was planning to run for president the following year and needed the support of pro-Israel voters.
A mistake or mass murder? It was a question Congress never bothered to address in public hearings at the time. Among those who have long called for an in-depth congressional investigation is Admiral Thomas Moorer, who went on to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. "Congress to this day," he said, "has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on the Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace." Perhaps it is not too late. [Extracted from Body of Secrets by James Bamford, published by Century
 
, Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki heard one of the other Hebrew linguists on the plane excitedly trying to get his attention on the secure intercom. "Hey, chief," he shouted, "I've got really odd activity on UHF. They mentioned an American flag. I don't know what's going on." Nowicki asked the linguist for the frequency and "rolled up to it". "Sure as the devil," said Nowicki, "Israeli aircraft were completing an attack on some object. I alerted the evaluator, giving him sparse details, adding that we had no idea what was taking place.
Yes 3dgeo,you are doing good job,you can paste the book of Lt Ennes here too.I want to ask you one question,just one question: Why A J Cristol was interested in the tapes recorded by EC-121 and even used american judicial system to force NSA to release them?What do you think,why?
 
Well, As I see the situation. I think that the real victim in this story would be Israel.

The US government is the corrupt one in the story. They allow the Israeli forces to do whatever they want for political/religious reasons.

In the US there is a very active population supporting Israel blindly for religious reasons. To fulfil some kind of prophecy or god knows what. They dont do that for justice or for the Jewish populations right to live in peace... They do it for their own religious beliefs. Because the Jews have some role in their prophecies.

And the US government is using these people to gain support and political power in the US.

And Israel is the spoiled child in the story. Unable to negociate correctly with its neighbors because of the big brother USA behind him telling him to do whatever he wants...

And in this episode, you see how the US government is corrupt. If it was China who killed these men... I could understand. Their deaths were "classified" to avoid a war that would destroy the world...

But here, it's "just" Israel. Not because it's a small country... But it's an ally... and a democracy with a "working and decent justice system"...

All they had to do... was to arrest the criminals who did that. It would be good for the US government (their reputation), for the victims (justice), for the Israelis (less bad apples to declare futur wars)...

But as the US government doesnt react... The criminals are free to harm Israel again in the future...

What a sweet ally... More like a disfonctional family if you want my opinion...

But no worries, we are still in the industrial era, the golden age where energy is cheap... We can afford to be unfair... And to piss off the whole world...

ANd with a little luck, it will last for a while... Let our kids deal with that.
 
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