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“Nothing
Will Come Between Us”
Israeli
Assault on American Servicemen Ignored 35 Years On
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USS
Liberty. Torpedo hole clearly visible
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A
new documentary broadcast by the BBC, is trying to bring attention
to an Israeli attack on American personnel that both the US and
Israel would rather remained in the dark. In the 1967 war, as Israel
was torturing Egyptian prisoners of war at Al Arish, some 13 miles
off the Mediterranean coast, the Israeli air force was bombing the
USS Liberty, resulting in the deaths of 34 American servicemen.
Equally disturbing is the claim that the US launched nuclear- armed
planes to attack Cairo, only to turn round when they realized that
it was no Arab enemy, but longtime ally Israel, that was responsible
for the attack. Isabelle Humphries speaks to ship survivors and a
researcher who refuse to let it lie.
Attack
on Unarmed US Intelligence Ship
On
June 8, 1967, the Israeli air force sent more than 800 rounds of
cannon fire, rockets, heavy bombs and burning napalm on to an
American intelligence ship, the USS Liberty. In an attack that
lasted more than an hour, three Israeli vessels fired five torpedoes
at the ship, virtually destroying the American boat. Escaping
sailors were hit by machine gun fire, leading many survivors to
believe that it was Israel’s intention to kill all aboard. Yet,
despite the loss of American life and 171 injured servicemen,
Congress still refuses to launch an official investigation to
reassess the original Court of Inquiry, which claimed it was merely
a tragic accident.
The
Navy Court of Inquiry, held just 10 days after the attack,
officially accepted Israel’s claim that it mistook the Liberty for
an Egyptian ship. This is despite the fact that the ship was flying
a large American flag and had its name painted in English in
five-foot letters on the side. Survivors of the attack have had a
boost to their campaign this year by articles and letters in the
July edition of the Navy Times. Retired Captain Ward Boston,
who was the legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry, told the
publication that he and the Court’s president, the late Rear
Admiral Isaac Kidd, always believed that Israeli forces knowingly
attacked the Liberty.
Inquiry:
A Set Up?
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Flag
clearly shown although Israelis claim they did not see it
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Jim
Ennes was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty on the day
of the attack, and is instrumental in leading the campaign for the
truth to be made public. Ennes told IslamOnline that he believes the
new testimony in the Navy Times gives greater credibility to
their campaign, “especially as the Court of Inquiry is the only
investigative body that talked to the crew.”
Critics claim that there have been several American and US
investigations into the incident, yet as Ennes points out, none of
these subsequent investigations talked to survivors. Boston and
Kidd, however, were actually taken out to meet the Liberty as it was
taken back to Malta following the attack. The two officers saw the
ship and interviewed those at the scene, giving Boston’s new
statements greater credibility than later investigators. “The
truth is, most of those were not investigations at all, or looked
into other things such as the training and performance of the crew
and the adequacy of communications, and not into the question of
whether or not it was a deliberate attack against a ship known to be
American,” said Ennes. “Most used the Court of Inquiry as their
main source. So their reports were but the poisoned fruit of a
poisoned tree.”
Why
Bomb an Ally?
Survivors
and researchers give two possible explanations as to why Israel
would knowingly bomb a staunch and valuable ally. The first is that
the Israelis may have feared that American officers on the ship had
intelligence on the imminent Israeli invasion of the Golan Heights.
On the other hand, many people believe that it is no coincidence
that the American ship was only 13 miles away from Al Arish, at a
time when Israel is believed to have been executing hundreds of
Egyptian prisoners of war. A war crime officially denied by Israel,
in the past decade Israeli and American media have both acknowledged
that the executions took place.
The
irony was that there were no Hebrew speakers aboard the ship. The
USS Liberty crew was mandated to spy on old enemies: the Russians,
not their ally Israel. Whatever the reason, a growing number of
people in the US and abroad are accepting the view that Israel
bombed the ship intentionally to annihilate any incriminating
evidence of their role in the 1967 war.
American
Servicemen Claim Attack on Cairo Only Narrowly Averted
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Exit
hole created by missiles that passed entirely through the ship
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On the latest TV documentary, “Dead in the Water,” US servicemen
testify on camera that “nuclear-armed” planes were sent to
attack Cairo on receipt of the news in Washington. The US
authorities falsely assumed that it was an Egyptian attack on the
Liberty, and thus officials ordered immediate retaliation. The
planes were recalled when it was realized that the attacker was
actually the Israeli forces.
“The
sources in the film are a crew-member from the aircraft carrier USS
America who saw the planes launched; a US Navy radio operator who
heard the radio traffic about them being launched which he is
certain was referring to nuclear-armed aircraft; and the account
given by a Liberty survivor of a conversation at the time with the
commander of the Sixth Fleet carriers in which he (the admiral)
describes what happened,” producer Chris Mitchell told IslamOnline.
The radio operator states on camera that he heard US Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara personally give the orders. A couple of
other witnesses talked to program makers off camera. When
interviewed by the team, McNamara denied the charges.
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Caskets
being loaded in Malta
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The
film so far has not caused shockwaves, as the BBC only showed it on
a low-audience digital channel. “…it should have stirred up a
hornet’s nest of controversy,” said Mitchell, “I certainly
think people in Cairo might like to know how close they came to
being incinerated by a US nuclear bomb.”
The
documentary is to be premiered this month in North America at the
Vancouver International Film Festival, and distributors plan to sell
it to other international channels. Survivors, campaigners and
researchers are hoping that more witnesses and evidence will be
uncovered as the film is broadcast. If you would like to know more
about the campaign, see www.ussliberty.com
or email Jim Ennes at Jim@Ennes.com.
Isabelle
Humphries is a
British freelance journalist and Development Director at Sawt Al
Amel (Laborer’s Voice), an organization supporting Palestinian
workers inside Israel. She has an MA in Middle East Politics and is
also a freelance writer for the Cairo Times. You can reach her at innazareth@yahoo.co.uk
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