- (Washington, DC) -- On Friday, June 10 at 1:00 pm, Hotel
Washington, 515 15th St NW, in the Washington Room 11th floor (hit R for
roof in elevator), Moe Shafer, board member of the USS Liberty Veterans
Association and Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, USN, Ret., Former Judge Advocate
General of the Navy who was involved with the initial Court of Inquiry
investigating the attack in 1967 will present details of the Report of
War Crimes brief filed on behalf of the USS Liberty Veterans Association
concerning the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
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- The Report was filed with by James R. Gotcher, General
Legal Counsel, USS - LVA, with the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon
on June 8, the 38th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty.
-
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- By establishing prima facie evidence that Israel committed
war crimes the Secretary of Defense under existing Dept. Of Defense directives
is obligated to initiate an inquiry into the commission of war crimes,
an investigation that should have been carried out 38 years ago.
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- Gotcher was an Air Force intelligence officer in Vietnam
in 1967 and is one of three intelligence officers who were in different
parts of the world at the time. Independent of each other they signed
sworn affidavits that they saw intelligence messages saying the USS Liberty
was under attack by Israeli aircraft in the Mediterranean.
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- Moe was a 3rd class communications technician on the
USS Liberty and survivor of a torpedo attack that killed 25 of his ship
mates in the part of the ship where he was stationed.
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- Captain Ward Boston, a JAG (Naval Legal) Officer involved
with the initial inquiry and retired FBI agent examined the original
copy of the Court of Inquiry record released under the Freedom of Information
Act and declared it a fraud. It is not the record I certified and submitted
in 1967, says Captain Boston.
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- Lloyd Painter, Officer of the Deck on the USS Liberty
and retired secret service agent of 24 years testified that his statement
mentioned in the report, that the Israeli torpedo boat crews machine gunned
the USS Liberty inflatable life boats was removed from the final report
that was submitted in 1967.
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- Immediately following the press conference there will
be a panel discussion at the Washington
-
- Moderator
- Gary Powers, Jr.
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- Panelists:
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- * Joseph Lentini - Will present a brief history of
the ship and the attack; recent events re. political and military issues
and what is wrong with the Israeli story as it has evolved over the years.
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- He is a career Public Servant, presently a GS-14 level
staff member of the Environmental Protection Agency. Recently honored by
the Navy and the National Security Agency (NSA) for training efforts related
to establishment of a Cryptologic Military History Program. He was a crew
member of the USS Liberty and wounded during the attack.
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- * Ken Halliwell - Will analyze the gun camera photos
and illustrate why they are fraudulent.
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- Semi-retired telecommunications and information systems
engineer. He worked for ATT & Lucent Technologies for 15 years. Former
Communications Technician with Naval Security Group 1968 - 1974.
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- * Ernie Gallo - Will cover the following topics:
- Ward Boston's affidavit which identifies the beginning
of a cover up
- Recently declassified cable from McCain to SECNAV
- The Jan 04 State Dept Discussion Panel
- Current FOIA research
-
- Completed a 30 year career with the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). Following his CIA career worked GTE, TriCorps, and British
Aerospace Enterprises. He is a member of: the Elks; Veterans of Foreign
Wars; Naval Cryptographic Veterans Association; and the Cold War Veterans.
Served on the USS Liberty during the attack.
-
- The USS Liberty Veterans Association are hosting their
38th reunion in DC. There will be a memorial service on June 8th at Arlington
National Cemetery where 11 crew members are buried; a meeting of the crew
on June 10th ; Memorial Plaque Dedication at the US Navy Memorial on June
11th followed by a banquet on the evening of the 11th.
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- PDF File: http://ussliberty.org/report/report.pdf
- HTML File: http://ussliberty.org/report/report.htm
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- Remarks Made By Knowledgeable American Leaders
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- "A nice whitewash for a group of ignorant,
stupid and inept [expletive deleted]."
- -- Handwritten note of August 26, 1967, by
NSA Deputy Director Louis W. Tordella reacting to the Israeli court decision
exonerating Israelis of blame for the Liberty attack.
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- "Never before in the history of the United
States Navy has a Navy Board of Inquiry ignored the testimony of American
military eyewitnesses and taken, on faith, the word of their attackers.
- -- Captain Richard F. Kiepfer, Medical Corps,
US Navy (retired), USS Liberty Survivor
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- "The evidence was clear. Both Admiral Kidd
and I believed with certainty that this attack...was a deliberate effort
to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew.... It was our shared
belief. . .that the attack. . .could not possibly have been an accident....
I am certain that the Israeli pilots [and] their superiors. . .were well
aware that the ship was American."
- -- Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, US Navy (retired),
senior legal counsel to the US Navy Court of Inquiry
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- That the attack was deliberate "just wasn't
a disputed issue" within the National Security Agency
- -- Former NSA Director retired Army Lieutenant
General William Odom on 3 March 2003 in an interview for Naval Institute
Proceedings
-
- Former NSA/CIA Director Admiral Bobby Inman "flatly
rejected" the Cristol/Israeli claims that the attack was an accident
- -- 5 March 2003 interview for Naval Institute
Proceedings
-
- Of four former NSA/CIA seniors with inside knowledge,
none was aware of any agency official who dissented from the position that
the attack was deliberate
- -- David Walsh, writing in Naval Institute
Proceedings
-
- "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 "
- -- US Secretary of State Dean Rusk
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- "...the board of inquiry (concluded) that
the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing in attacking the Liberty."
- -- CIA Director Richard Helms
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- "I can tell you for an absolute certainty
(from intercepted communications) that the Israelis knew they were attacking
an American ship."
- -- NSA Deputy Director Oliver Kirby
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- "That the Liberty could have been mistaken
for the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir is unbelievable"
- -- Special Assistant to the President Clark
Clifford, in his report to President Lyndon Johnson
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- "The highest officials of the [Johnson]
administration, including the President, believed it 'inconceivable' that
Israel's 'skilled' defense forces could have committed such a gross error."
- -- Lyndon Johnson's biographer Robert Dallek
in Flawed Giant, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 430-31)
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- "It appears to me that it was not a pure
case of mistaken identity."
- -- Captain William L. McGonagle, Commanding Officer,
USS Liberty, speaking at Arlington National Cemetery, June 8, 1997
-
- "To suggest that they [the IDF] couldn't
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."
- -- Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations
and later Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, quoted in The Washington Post,
June 15, 1991, p. 14
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