Does the CAMERA have any comment on this "trophy" photo that has been circulating the net? Anxiously awaiting your take on this photo.
Posted on 03/14/2002 3:08:20 PM PST by RCW2001
Another 'conspiracy' just like this one?
Well actually I wasn't thinking along those lines but now that you mention it.
Why do you think the Knesset keeps trying to 'float this pig'?
It's bad PR anyway you frame it? Surely you can concoct a conspiracy out of 'their' motives...now can't you?
You win, I guess the Israelis there were just incompetent for perpetrating such a long attack on a friendly ship that couldn't effectively defend itself let alone pose a threat. It's dealing with people like you here on FR that reminds me of the hate cycle that everyone over their seems to be stuck in. All sides are getting exactly what they deserve.
I'll be sure to write the President and my congressman tomorrow in support of the President's plan of forcing Sharon to accept land for peace, just for you!
When the strike on the Liberty was announced my boss, a three war SfC, Infantry, said how could anybody be that F'en Stupid.
Fast foreward 20 years. I was one of the first Prodigy members. One of the most interesting BBS' was the Sink the Liberty topic, aside from Current Events. I can flame with the best, but the Veronicas were something else, I have never seen such hate, I am a Viet Nam veteran and I know how to hate.
Dick Ennes (Moderator) sent me several e-mails telling me to cool it when I blew my cork, it has been 10 years since then I want the Truth.
That one for some reason did not catch your eye, did it?? Hmmmmm.
Ehud Barak offered land for peace at Camp David - Arafat said nyet.
I expect to see US "monitors" in place pretty soon. You can figure out what that means for the terrorists.
Israel screwed up, big time. Lots of people believe it was intentional, including me.
The reasons remain unknown. We do not know the reason Israel attacked, nor do we know why our own government chose to let them get away with it.
A lot has happened since then, and it is not relevant to the current situation at all.
He offered some land for peace. The letter I have now been inspired me to write will be in support of the Saudi peace plan. It was easier being pro-Israeli when I didn't have to deal with any.
Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency by James Bamford
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Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency by James BamfordBook ReviewBody of Secrets/ Evidence of Deliberate Israeli Attack on USS Liberty Beyond Circumstantial at Last By Andrew I. Killgore |
On June 8, 1967, Israeli planes and warships attacked the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship off the coast of the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, killing 34 Americans and injuring 171. Israel has insisted ever since that the attack was “a tragic accident”—in spite of overwhelming circumstantial evidence to the contrary.
June 8 was a clear day, the American flag was flying, while the name of the ship (USS Liberty) and its identifying markings (GTR-5) were clearly visible. Israeli planes circled or flew near the Liberty for an hour or two before the attack began, so there could have been no chance that the Israelis mistook the Liberty, as they claimed, for the El Quseir, an Egyptian vessel configured quite differently and only one-third the Liberty’s size.
The surviving crewmen of the Liberty have been frustrated over the ensuing 34 years in their demands for a real investigation of the Israeli attack. They have borne personal witness that attacking Israeli planes and motor torpedo boats tried to sink the Liberty and kill all of the Americans aboard her. But an Israel-leaning American media and U.S. Congress have continued to cover up for Israel.
Two major books, Assault on the Liberty (1980) by Jim Ennes, a lieutenant on the Liberty who was badly injured during the attack, and the scholarly The USS Liberty by John E. Borne, carefully examine the Liberty attack, leaving in tatters Israel’s “tragic accident” claim. Through the years Israel has fabricated ever more claims in an effort to refute new evidence about the Liberty as it has emerged. It has adamantly rejected any investigation into the attack which, if Israel really had attacked the ship by mistake, would clear its name.
Now—finally—comes James Bamford’s vast new book (720 pages) on the National Security Agency, Body of Secrets—including 60 pages dealing with the Liberty. Its reports of Hebrew-language recordings of communications by attacking Israeli planes and ships demolish the continuing series of lies constructed by Israel to conceal its crime against the United States. Some representative excerpts of those conversations follow in the paragraphs below.
The Middle East had been heating up for several months before Israel attacked Egypt on June 5, 1967, claiming in a barrage of lies that Egypt was attacking it. The Liberty had been sent at top speed from West Africa to within 12 miles of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to follow what was going on. At the same time, NSA electronic listening posts were airborne between the military side of Athens airport and the Israeli-Egyptian coast. On June 8 these planes flew high overhead, picking up voices in Hebrew of the Israeli attackers.
“What we could see was the GTR-5 written on that ship. And we gave those letters to the ground control.” (Israeli pilot on June 8, 1967, identifying the USS Liberty.)
“It had a big Star of David on it and it was flying just a little bit above our mast of the ship….they [Israeli pilots] had seen the ships’ markings and the American flag.” (USS Liberty crewman describing an Israeli reconnaissance plane circling the Liberty.)
“Oil is spilling into the water.” (Israeli Mirage pilot reporting back to base during the attack on the Liberty.)
“Great, wonderful, she’s burning.” (Israeli pilot as the USS Liberty was being attacked.)
“He’s hit her [the Liberty] a lot…There’s black smoke, there’s an oil slick in the water.” (Israeli army commander at just-occupied El Arish, Egypt, reporting on the results of the Israeli attack.)
“Hey, Chief, I’ve got really odd activity on UHF [ultra-high frequency employed by Israel]. They mentioned an American flag. I don’t know what’s going on.” (U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki, fluent in Hebrew and Russian, relating a conversation with another Hebrew-speaking linguist during the attack on the Liberty. Nowicki was aboard an NSA surveillance plane, not, repeat not, on the Liberty.)
“He’s going down low with the napalm all the time.” (Shouted in Hebrew from El Arish during the attack on the Liberty.)
“It would be a mitzvah [blessing] if we can get a flight with iron bombs. Otherwise, the Navy’s going to get here and they’re going to do the shooting.” (Israeli pilot during the attack.) Author Bamford points out that three Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk with such bombs at the World War II naval battle of Midway, explaining that the pilot was hoping for the coup de grâce, to sink the Liberty before the Navy arrived to finish her off.
“Pay attention. The ship’s markings are Charlie Tango Romeo-5.” (Israeli pilot to his headquarters.) The Liberty was actually GTR-5, the pilot having misread the “G”.
“He told me about the activity and the American flag as being mentioned again…I heard a couple of references to the flag during an apparent attack. The attackers weren’t aircraft; they had to be surface units [we later found out at USA-512] it was the Israeli motor torpedo boats attacking the Liberty. Neither [the other Hebrew linguist] nor I had ever heard MTB attacks in voice before, so we had no idea what was below us. I advised the evaluator; he was mystified as we were.” (Nowicki, in the NSA EC-121 aircraft above, relating a conversation with another Hebrew linguist.)
“I watched in horror as the floating life rafts were riddled with holes. No survivors were planned for that day. When the ‘prepare to abandon ship’ was announced, what was left of our lifeboats were released overboard; they were immediately machine-gunned by the torpedo boats. It was obvious that no one was meant to survive this assault.” (Stan White, top American enlisted man on the Liberty.)
“Israel chose to honor Motor Torpedo Boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty. The ship’s wheel and bell were placed on prominent display in the [Israeli] naval museum, among the maritime artifacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud.” (Author Bamford.)
“As I recall we recorded most, if not all, of the attack. I heard a couple of references to the [American] flag during an apparent attack.” (NSA Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki, described by author Bamford as an enthusiastic supporter of Israel who originally thought his information would help clear Israel. Instead, as Bamford writes in Body, “It convicts the government. If the Israelis did see the flag, then the attack was cold-blooded murder…”)
“After many years I finally believe the attack was deliberate.” (Liberty Captain William McGonagle, dying of cancer after maintaining a silence of more than 30 years.)
“To speculate on the motives of an attack group that uses unmarked planes and deprives helpless survivors of life rafts raises disturbing possibilities, including the one that the Liberty crew was not meant to survive the attack, and would not have, but for the incorrect 6th Fleet radio broadcast that help was on the way—which had the effect of chasing off the MTBs [motor torpedo boats].” (From an article by Navy Lt. Commander Walter J. Jacobsen for the U.S. Navy’s Naval Law Review.
The USS Liberty’s desperate call for help saved the ship and the survivors. The promised help from the 6th Fleet never arrived, but it did drive off the Israeli attackers.
As long known, and reported in Body, President Lyndon Johnson ordered the 6th Fleet rescue flights to return to their carriers. This shameful act is “explained” by LBJ’s stated determination not to embarrass Israel, an “ally” in Johnson’s words.
Johnson is long dead and there is no way to get any clarification from him. But Israel is very much here and still sticking by its compound lies about the Liberty which it has been able to sustain—sort of, and in a pathetically shameless way—because the overwhelming evidence of its guilt was circumstantial.
But not any more.
The immense importance of Body of Secrets is its direct evidence, from NSA’s Hebrew-language recordings of the Israeli attackers, that the attack was deliberate. Even the Israeli mantra that “we never saw a flag” is shown in Body to be just another part of the old compound lie.
What will Israel do now? A recent New York Times book review of Body tries to dodge the basic theme of Israeli guilt. Instead it dwells on Bamford’s stated view that Israel sought to cover up its execution at El Arish of several hundred Egyptian prisioners-of-war.
In fact, Israel’s motives hardly count. The killing and wounding of Americans constitute the crime. Jim Ennes speculated that Israel sought to prevent the U.S. from learning of its forthcoming attack on Syria’s Golan Heights. This writer’s guess is that Israel sought to sink the Liberty, kill all of its crew and blame the Egyptians.
The hope is that Body and the publicity surrounding it will stir the U.S. Congress to carry out a real investigation; or that Israel will stop lying and finally admit the truth. A congressional investigation does not seem an unreasonable hope. An Israeli confession seems wildly improbable.
If neither of these happens, a lawsuit against Israel by the surviving crewmen and relatives of those killed would now have a greater chance of success.
Andrew I. Killgore is the publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Does the CAMERA have any comment on this "trophy" photo that has been circulating the net? Anxiously awaiting your take on this photo.
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