- "Anybody who couldn't identify the [USS] Liberty
could not tell the difference between the White House and the Washington
Monument!" - The late Admiral Thomas Moorer
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- ARLINGTON, VA -- On a beautiful, but very humid morning,
Friday, June 8, 2007, I joined about two hundred others at the National
Cemetery, located here, on the south side of the Potomac River, opposite
Washington, D.C. My invitation card read: "No Greater Love: The 40th
Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony: Honoring the 34 Americans killed on the
USS Liberty." (1) The proceedings began at 12 noon sharp, with a prayer
given by U.S. Navy chaplain, Rev. Ray Houk. There was a presentation of
colors, tributes, a roll call of remembrance, a wreath-laying ceremony,
musical selections and the playing of taps. One of the keynote speakers
was Stan White, the former Senior Chief Petty Officer on the Liberty (AGTR-5)
on the fateful day in question. By the time he got done making his very
touching remarks, there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd.
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- Background: On a clear afternoon, June 8, 1967, the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) bombarded the Liberty, in international waters, 13
miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, and tried to sink it and kill
all 294 American on board the spy ship. They did so after several hours
of close reconnaissance of the vessel. The Israelis have falsely claimed
it was all just a "accident," since they thought they were attacking
an Egyptian vessel. This is the same phony "accident" line that
they used after they ran over Peace and Justice activist Rachel Corrie,
in Rafah, Occupied Gaza, with a 9-ton bulldozer. Few, if anyone buys their
utter nonsense.
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- After the one hour ceremony, I rode with Lt. James Marquis
Ennes, Jr. over to the luncheon sponsored by the USS Liberty Veterans Association,
at the Officers Club, at Fort Myer, VA. It was only a short car ride away.
Mrs. Pat-Blue Roushakes, whose husband, Allen M. Blue, was killed on the
Liberty, was the driver. Mr. Blue was a civilian technician. He died, along
with 24 crew members, when the first, ultra-deadly, Israeli torpedo struck
the vessel. Lt. Ennes was also serving on the Liberty the day of the Israelis'
malicious strike. He was on the bridge of the vessel. His book, "Assault
on the Liberty," is a compelling eyewitness account of what really
happened on June 8, 1967. It is in its 12th printing. I asked him after
lunch, how he had felt during the ceremony earlier that morning: He answered:
"The thoughts that always come back to me time and time again is that
this 'thing' is still being covered-up after forty years. We know without
doubt from the circumstances that it was a 'deliberate' attack. Anyone
who looks carefully at the details knows that it was 'deliberate' and that
includes such people as Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, and all of the
heads of all of the Intelligence organizations. But, the word that gets
out is that we that we are still told...falsely...that there were 15 investigations...That
claim is...absolutely totally false."
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- Thanks to Peter Hounam's expose, "Operation Cyanide,"
more light has recently been shed on the Liberty controversy. The author,
a veteran investigative reporter, believes the murderous Israeli attack
was a set up to blame the Egyptians and to bring the U.S. into the 1967
Six Day War on their side. The Liberty was an easy target for the Israeli
jet planes, which were loaded with rockets, napalm and machine guns, too.
Couple that with the repeated attacks on the vessel by their death-dealing
motor torpedo boats. The bloodbath, a War Crime, by any fair standard,
lasted for over 75 lethal minutes, killing 34 brave Americans and seriously
wounding 174 others. (2)
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- Question: Why didn't the U.S. retaliate against the Israelis?
According to Hounam, the White House knew within minutes of the Liberty
attack, that the perpetrator was really Israel (p. 94). On two separate
occasions, the White House recalled aircraft rescue missions for the Liberty.
On the last attempt, President Lyndon B. Johnson told Rear-Admiral Lawrence
Geis of the Sixth Fleet, "I WILL NOT EMBARRASS OUR ALLY." The
Liberty was then left "dead in the water," without any assistance
for over 16 hours. (3) At pp. 267-268, Hounam said: "Sinking the Liberty
and blaming Egypt and the Soviets would have freed Johnson's hand to do
almost anything--even to drop an atomic bomb on Cairo. Trouble only arose
when the Israel operation failed and the...ship stayed afloat." From
the beginning, a cover-up of what really happened to the Liberty was put
in place at the highest level of government. One of the men who is alleged
to have played a role in that cover-up was none other than the father of
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)--the late Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. (4)
Sen. McCain, like others in the mostly cowardly U.S. Congress, has refused
to champion a full and public Congressional inquiry into the
Liberty affair.
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- Hounam also disclosed some inside stuff on the "303
Committee." It was working on a project called, "Frontlet 615."
It was later described as: "A secret political agreement in 1966,
by which Israel and the U.S. had vowed to destroy [Egypt's Gamal Abdel]
Nasser." The military name for the operation was, "Operation
Cyanide." At the time all of this was going down, LBJ's popularity
was hitting rock bottom because of the quagmire that was the Vietnam War.
One of his closet advisors was a Zionist zealot, Walter W. Rostow, his
then-Special Assistant for National Security Affairs. Here is how Hounam
described the Neocon-like Rostow: "A sinister, Svengali-like figure,
or simply the biggest and best fixer? He was crucial in determining [for
LBJ] which way the U.S. might respond to the threatened hostilities in
the Middle East...Rostow was a hawk who believed in...the Vietnam War and...
his Zionism was strongly felt and expressed...(He) had daily contact with
the President." Shades of Paul Wolfowitz and other Neocons,
who helped to drive the U.S. into the Iraqi War. (5)
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- For the sake of speculation, just imagine this scenario:
The U.S. President on June 8, 1967 was a patriot in the tradition of "Old
Hickory," Andrew Jackson. Instead of recalling our aircraft that were
on their way to rescue the Liberty, he (or she) orders them to continue
on their mission, not only to defend the vessel and to stop the massacre,
but to retaliate against the Zionist thugs by bombing their naval base
at the port of Ashdod, their military headquarters at Tel Aviv and Haifa,
and for good measure, dropping a few MX missiles on Dimona, their then-secret
Nuke-making facility, located in the Negev desert. If, only?
-
- One Liberty veteran, who asked me not to use his name
in my story, told me he was below deck on the day of the mass killings
by the Israelis. He said: "When it was announced [on the intercom]
to 'stand ready to receive a torpedo,' I chalked myself off. My whole life
quickly passed before me. I thought for sure I was going to die. When the
torpedo did hit, I thought it was going to sink the ship, it listed so
badly." He added, after pausing, "I loved that ship!"
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- Getting back to Lt. Ennes. He was the first member of
the crew to spot the Israeli planes. He wrote at p. 60: "I pointed
to a single delta-wing Mirage jet about 45 degrees above the water, paralleling
our course in that pattern that had become routine." Lt. Ennes, at
p. 62, then recalled his injuries as a result of being hit by the first
Israeli air strike: "My khaki uniform was bright red now from the
two dozen rocket fragments buried in my flesh. My left leg broken above
the knee, hung from my hip like a great beanbag. The taste of blood was
strong in my mouth as I tested my good leg. Was I badly hurt?" Suffice
to say, Lt. Ennes did recover from his physical injuries. But, there are
other kinds of wounds, that one never recovers from, but can only live
with. Knowing that your government abandoned you in your time of desperate
need is surely one such severe psyche wound. What LBJ did to the men of
the Liberty is a stain on our Republic!
-
- Finally, as to whether the U.S. Congress will ever do
anything to bring justice to the cause of the Liberty, Lt. Ennes answered:
"I don't really see that happening. But, we can't stop asking for
it."
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- Notes:
-
- 1. ussliberty.org
- One of the 34 murdered victims on the USS Liberty was
Petty Officer William B. Allenbaugh, a native of my home town, Baltimore,
MD, and also a graduate of Calvert Hall H.S., my alma mater. Petty Officer
Allenbaugh left behind a wife and two very young children: a daughter,
Patricia; and a son William. I was pleased to meet his son, William B.
Allenbaugh, Jr., and his family at the ceremony. His poem about his hero
dad can be fotp://www.ussliberty.org/allenb.htm>http://www.ussliberty.org/allenb.htm
- 2. http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gidusko/Lva_press_release.pdf and
- http://www.freewebs.com/gidusko/report.htm
- Keep in mind, that Israel has also been charged with
War Crimes by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for their outrageous
conduct in 2006, in Occupied Gaza and the West Bank, and in Lebanon, too.
The result: Nothing! It's like the state of Israel is completely immune
to the Laws on the Planet Earth! See:
- http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13767/index.php3. Check
out an excellent documentary, "Dead in the Water," on the USS
Liberty, by the BBC. It's available on DVD, at: http://members.aol.com/gidusko/flyer.gif
- 4. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Hughes0712.htm
- 5. http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htm#1
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- © William Hughes 2007.
-
- William Hughes is an author and videographer. His work
can be found at:
- http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=liamh2 Contact:
- liamhughes@comcast.net.
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