U.S. agency confirms sinking of USS Liberty was accident

Haaretz ^ | 9/7/2003 | Nathan Guttman

[Courier]

Sounds like an Israeli agent. Wish all Americans were Israeli agents

http://www.thelibertyincident.com/author.htm


About the Author

In November 1951, during the Korean conflict, A. Jay Cristol joined the US Navy as an aviation cadet, earning his Navy Wings of Gold in April 1953. He deployed with VS-37, a Navy anti-submarine squadron aboard the aircraft carrier Princeton (CV-37) to the Western Pacific and the Sea of Japan. He was also part of TG70.4 during February 1955, in support of evacuating Nationalist Chinese from the Tachen Islands near the Communist China mainland in the South China Sea. He flew day and night missions as both a hunter pilot flying the Grumann AF-2W and a killer pilot flying the Grumann AF- 2S. He was subsequently attached to the Fleet All Weather Training Unit, Pacific at San Diego, California as an instrument flight instructor and taught maneuvers for the delivery of nuclear weapons. Upon returning to civilian life, Cristol joined the Naval Air Reserve where he qualified as a four-engine Navy transport plane commander. In the 1960s, he flew operational flights during the Cuban Missile Crises and volunteer airlift missions to Vietnam.

After 18 years as a Naval aviator, Cristol joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He graduated with distinction from Naval Justice School. He served as a lawyer for another twenty years. His duties included teaching law of war and serving as the administrative officer for the summer Naval Reserve law courses. In 1983, he was made an honorary professor by the Naval Justice School. He has performed special active duty in the office of the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations. In the 1980s, the Department of Defense sent him to the International Institute of Humanitarian Law at San Remo, Italy to lecture on Law of Naval warfare to senior foreign military officers. Captain Cristol retired in 1988. He wears more than a dozen military decorations including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.

In civilian life, Cristol became a lawyer and practiced civil law. He served as Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida during the 1959, 1961, 1963, and 1965 sessions of the Florida Legislature. In 1985, after 25 years of law practice, he left his position as senior partner in a firm he founded to accept an appointment to the federal bench. He continues to serve as Chief Judge Emeritus in the Southern District of Florida. He is also an adjunct professor, teaching at the University of Miami School of Law.

An interest in international terrorism led him to enroll in the Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Miami where he researched and wrote on terrorism. Because of his background as a navy pilot, a navy lawyer (JAG), a lecturer in law of naval warfare, a civil lawyer, and a federal judge, members of the faculty encouraged him to research and write about the Liberty incident. He spent ten years researching the subject and was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Miami Graduate School of International Studies. His collection of research material on this subject is considered to be the largest and most complete of any collection on the subject in the entire world. After completing his dissertation, he obtained declassification of additional heretofore secret documents through many Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals. His book, The Liberty Incident, was written to update and complete the historical record. He has written numerous articles on law, aviation, history, and other subjects.

Judge Cristol remains an avid aviator. He made his first flight in a Piper J-3 Cub on Biscayne Bay in 1945. He has personally piloted a Ford Tri-Motor, the Goodyear Blimp, a Soviet MiG-15, and many other unique, antique, or historic aircraft. In 1998, he became one of the few persons to have an airplane named after him when Pan Am named one of their 727 aircraft the Clipper A. Jay Cristol. He is a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida and a founding member of the Wings Over Miami Military and Classic Aircraft Museum in Miami, Florida.

[Dubya]

WHICH of the american sailors do you believe

I believe all of them.

Which ones don't you believe?

GOD BLESS THE USA.

[Poohbah]

Good points....and when did the Egyptian "navy" ever pose a threat to Isreal?

The modern era of naval warfare is generally accepted as having begun shortly on October 21, 1967, when the Israeli destroyer Elath was sunk by antiship missiles fired from Egyptian patrol boats 13 miles away. The Elath was the first ship ever sunk by antiship missiles.

BTW, those same missiles were quite usable against Israeli shore targets.

We told Israel that we had no naval vessels operating off of their country. The Israelis' only mistake was believing the US government.

[Dubya]

IMO Judge Cristol is wrong.

[Dubya]

The Liberty Incident By A. Jay Cristol, Univ. of Miami, 1997.

[Poohbah]

I believe all of them.

Which do you believe when their statements flatly one another?

[Dave S]

Why would the NSA release this at such a late date if they were just making it all up? Are you saying the intercept was doctored by the NSA? For what purpose?

All we have is this paper as proof that they did. You have any independent sources?

Doctored, well of course the NSA would never do that, the government would never lie. Someone in the CIA or White House recently lied to President Bush about Iraq attempting to buy nuclear fuel from Niger but its INCONCEIVABLE that the trusty Nixon administration would lie to support an ally once the damage was done.

[Courier]

Wrong about what?

Get it through your head. All Cristol is doing is digging into the issue.

The NSA is proving Israel did not with knowledge deliberately attack an American ship.

Think Cristol is making this up? That no such NSA transcript exists?

Will find out soon enough.

[TheAngryClam]

All of them, of course. Doublethink is the practice of simultaneously holding two contradictory opinions.

[Poohbah]

You do realize that the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs generally follows a Wahabbist Waco line--because they're funded by Wahabbist Wackos?

[Teacher317]

But no anti-Semite will ever be convinced. They will just say that the US gov't is controlled by "The JOOZ" and that this is an ongoing part of some conspiracy

I'm very pro-Israel, but I still don't think this report is accurate. Every nation makes mistakes, every nation has a part of their history that is unsettling. The attack on the Liberty is part of Israel's. That doesn't make me an anti-Semite.

[TheAngryClam]

I remember a story I used to hear that I think applies to the sailors' situation.

Four "less than stellar" students were enrolled in a mathematics class, and carpooled to school together, which lead to them skipping class together. One day, they inadvertantly skipped an important exam. They begged their professor to allow them to make up the exam, arguing that they missed class because their car had a flat tire that morning. Even though they had missed a lot of class, he agreed. The students were pretty proud that the professor bought their lies. When they came to take the test, the professor put each of them into different corners, and passed out the test. There was only one question on the page: "(100% of your grade) Which tire was it that was flat?"

[Courier]

That's the point.

This was a mistake. It may have even been in a sense criminally negligent (although heat of war should be a mitigating circumstance) but it was not deliberate.

And that's all that really matters.

Condolences to the victims of the Liberty and all incidents of friendly fire.

[Dave S]

there is no way on God's Earth, these men know what was in the Israelis' mind.

No but the Americans know what flag they were flying? Do the Israelis always attack and then check the wreckage to see what they attacked?

[TheAngryClam]

Not that I'm calling the sailors liars (I just realized it sounds like that).

Simply that you can tell that there's a serious problem when the stories don't match.

[Dubya]

Whats your point?

[LouD]

I know all about Occam's Razor - I also have read a number of accounts of the Liberty episode.

The balance of the evidence would indicate that Israel knew exactly what they were doing - That is what Occam's Razor tells us. Do you think the Israelis incapable of deception operations? Deception ops have been a hallmark of the Israelis since the beginning.

Your homework, my condescending friend, is to read the accounts of the sailors onboard, before you jump in blazing insults out your fourth point of contact.

[NormsRevenge]

All Cristol is doing is digging into the issue.

---

I commend him for his persistence. Can we get him to check out the 1947 Roswell incident next or if FDR knew we were going to be attacked at Pearl Harbor?

I am going to withdraw from where I may have too energetically jumped in and go back to other issues and a cold beer.

It was a tragedy , any way you cut it.

[TheAngryClam]

When it is very possible that your country might not exist a few hours later, shoot first and ask questions later is a very, very understandable policy.