USS LIBERTY: The Fifth Fleet Sacrifice Why did it happen?

“Truth and America’s honor were ignominiously sacrificed to provide cover for Israel’s transparent lies and despicable act of perfidy.” -Phillip F. Tourney, Pres. USS LIBERTY Veterans Association

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(MELBOURNE, Aust.) - We have long wondered, and conjectured, the “why” of the USS Liberty incident, as it has become known and referred to. “Incident” in this case, being an easier event to push onto the back burner and forget while it simmers away harmlessly, unlikely to boil over and burn the stew.

It was obvious that the Israelis knew at the time what they were doing, who they were attacking and, long ago, I found from my research, sufficient evidence myself, to prove it to my satisfaction at least.

The Commander of the Torpedo Boat Squadron who led the attack and whose boat fired the torpedo which hit Liberty, Admiral Yomi Barkai, IDF (Navy) Retired, went on to become the Chief of the Israeli Defense Forces Navy, largely because of his excellent service in Motor Torpedo Boats, his program which developed the IDF fast MTB missile weapons systems, and his combat record in attacking USS Liberty.

Phil Tourney, who was on USS Liberty, and is obviously an interested commentator, postulates a very reasonable and credible answer to “why” Liberty was attacked.

“Black Flag,” in furtherance of international political intrigues, in which one ship in the US Navy and its crew, were selected and set-up for sacrifice to US/Israeli International intervention objectives and political ambitions. His “black Flag” is not the only creditable one which I have heard of in subsequent years.

I know… Israel, Israel, Israel… it’s becoming tiresome, turning up Israel under every stone. But, there they are! More and more of this stuff, and stuff like this, are appearing everyday.

It is like Grace Halsell says it was, “what we did not know, and were shocked to learn….” But, finding out and telling about it, are horses of different colors, uphill battles, seldom won, which she describes as part of the problem and amongst those things we “did not know.”

It is interesting that she wrote these years ago, during the Clinton Administration. And, that she was once a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson of USS Liberty infamy!

A review of the USS Liberty story explains a lot of how and why we have arrived at the state and conditions in which we currently find America and its governance! The video on your left is part of a continuing series of YouTube posts that are very interesting and educational first-hand perspective reports.

The obvious incident is the deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, in which out of 200 American sailors and Marines 34 were killed and rest wounded, and rescue attempts by carrier-based aircraft were halted by McNamara & Johnson personally. I’m not sure most Americans would know all the details of this incident. Listen to the chilling accounts of survivors in this video.

You may not know of a book on it, written by an officer who was on the ship when it was attacked. The book is Assault on the Liberty by James Ennes available from Amazon.com, and well worth reading.

Several hours of reconnaissance by Israeli aircraft of a US ship flying US flags and openly displaying its markings on the very distinctive ship color with which US Navy warships are painted, was attacked; that immediately knocked out all of its radios (so the Israelis knew what ship they were attacking, and where those radios were located — the one radio that was used to send out a distress call was cobbled together from spare parts & usable pieces of the ones that had been destroyed), then the torpedo attacks, the casualties, AND THEN the US Navy carrier-based aircraft launched to its rescue — which could have saved many of those casualties from happening — were called back twice by McNamara & Johnson.

It is relevant that the crew, when told to keep quiet, did so. And, they were there and experienced the outrage first hand!

They were sailors, trained to obey, and subject to Military Law, and knew that if they disobeyed those orders that they would be sent to prison and kept there. And, they would not have been imprisoned for the true reasons given.

It is the same when troops commit war crimes at the command of seniors. It is the troops who get the blame, and never the seniors.

It was senior command, beginning with the President of the United States, and trickling down from the Secretary of Defense, through the chain of command all the way to the Commander of the Sixth Fleet who betrayed these men.

Others, in previous wars, have been Court Martialled and shot for less.

Look up Operation Cyanide, Remembering The USS Liberty – Four Decades Later and the clandestine involvement of US Air Force pilots and bombers in providing aerial photo intelligence, and launching covert air strikes against Egyptian forces during that war, and the possibility discussed in a series of recently released BBC videos on the USS Liberty “incident”, in which the question of whether the entire attack was not a joint US/Israeli black flag operation, set up to look like an Egyptian attack on Liberty, which nearly provoked a retaliatory nuclear strike against Cairo.

That might answer the “Why did it all happen in the first place?” question.

That might answer the “Why did it all happen in the first place?” question.

Is this yet another cockamamie conspiracy theory?

If it is, it is one of the most far out I have come across yet. And I am one who believes that the first liar doesn’t stand a chance!

The USS Liberty Association has a Homepage at: http://www.gtr5.com/. These men have worked hard and long, and at risk, to gather information on this story. It was they whom we see speaking on the video link above.

Several Israeli motivations have been discussed over the years. The British said that at least one Israeli objective was to keep the US from warning off Jordan, which in those days was the only Arab country that had reasonably good relations with the US, and the Israelis dearly wanted to sucker Jordan into the war so they could more easily take the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (The Brits thought the Israelis would have attacked Jordan anyway, but they wanted it the other way around if they could manage it.) The French said it was to impress on all Arab countries that even then, only a decade after their decision to put AIPAC & company into high gear, Israel had the US (or at least its government) so firmly under its influence that it could even attack a US Navy ship and kill Americans, and get away with it. Personally I think both are correct, but the French argument probably cuts closer to the bone.

The significant point Ennes and the Liberty Association makes is that the US Congress has never conducted an official hearing or investigation of the case, the only “investigation” which was conducted so far was the one Ward Bond and the US Judge Advocates Officer referred to as a “cover-up,” conducted under an inadequate deadline and which the evidence did not support the findings, and the originator was not asked to review before its release, and who found missing parts when he eventually got to read it.

It would be extremely important, today, to have a Congressional hearing, publicly, on TV with all the fanfare that we have become so accustomed to watching on American TV.

This incident is not an isolated piece of deception where a few men were sacrificed to “other interests.” A few thousand more American servicemen have just been sacrificed in the Middle East, along with nearly two million foreign civilians and defenders of their homes… not to mention the ongoing slaughter in Palestine.

Note in Ennes’ book his “theory” of why the attack, when he describes the assassination of hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war! That was a war crime! Cut and dried, black and white, in an official war! They took prisoners out, made them dig their own graves, and shot them in the heads with an Uzi.

These are the people who are dropping bombs and launching missiles into civilian neighbourhoods in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq and threatening to obliterate Iran, if.

In 1947, before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, His Majesty, the late King Abdullah of Jordan made an honest, truthful and wonderful appeal for understanding, sympathy and support to the American public The Hashemites - As the Arabs See the Jews

I do not see how we can discuss Middle East issues without considering the interests and influence of Israel, nor how we can discuss American politics and US domestic and foreign policy without considering the interests and the influence of AIPAC and other Zionist lobbies and organizations.

I furnish an answer via this URL: viewzone.com/dualcitizen.html. (Google “Dual citizenship”) it is a list, and it treats the question of serving two masters (from the “proper” perspective according to Debbie) as well as how it is against US Law, but Israelis are exempted as unique cases. How about that?

It is but one of many answers. Many of the names were involved in the Clinton administration, and I suspect we shall see many of them arise again in the near future in positions strategic to Israeli interests first.

If the facts are true and accurate, then they are facts. Factual lists of people who actually exist, and who hold important or influential positions in government at policy-making levels. This list doesn’t include US Ambassadors in countries of strategic importance to Israeli interests. Go figure!

The solemn duty of removing the dead from the U.S.S. Liberty

Now, tell me again who runs America? And who frames US/Middle East Policies?

Given the ethnic, religious and economic group identities, how do they compare proportionally with their representation in the general public?

I suspect they far exceed the normal distribution of ethnicity in the general public, as they do in the financial centres and Industry which has precipitated the current economic crisis which is destroying monetary and economic systems throughout the world.

I do not consider myself a racist, religious or a sexist bigot, and I certainly object to the Zionist charges that criticism of Zionism, Israeli politics or national policy is racist, anti-Semitic, or religious anti-Jewish bigotry.

I recognize acute distinctions between Israel, Zionism, Jewry, and Semites which AIPAC and some of the other Zionist First and defense organizations recklessly ignore when they levy broad and general ad hominem attacks and charges of bigotry against any critics of Israeli political, national or jingoist policies, activities and meddling in US politics and national affairs.

This is the end result of the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty during the Six Day War

There is no excuse or reason why any American politician who represents Americans first should campaign in Tel Aviv, and kowtow at conventions of foreign dominated and funded Political Action Committee conventions in the manner we have witnessed on the part of ALL of the recent candidates and, historically, during the Clinton administration as well as the recent campaigns.

I have serious doubts that Israeli interests are consistent with the best interests of America and the American people! They certainly do not make a solid platform for peace in the East, or anywhere else in the world.

When you look at everything which is happening in the Middle East, and most of the rest of the world, through these lenses, it all seems to make sense.

As Henry Ford said, it may all be a sham, but it sure describes accurately what has happened and is happening.

And, as Gilad Atzmon says, “when you have all those people thinking alike, you don’t need a conspiracy.”

And Mahatma Gandhi said then, and I reiterate today:

“Journalism has become the art of “intelligent anticipation of events.” Perhaps we may yet wake up the mainstream corporate media dupes.

(Editors Note: A version of this article was first published on March 19, 2009 as a tribute to the USS Liberty survivors.)

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Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. An advocate for Justice and Peace for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Her main focus is US-Middle East Policy issues while writing cutting edge commentary for today's growing number of Internet news viewers seeking unfiltered information about real events. She is committed to exposing Israel Lobbies control of U.S. Middle East Policy. Her Website, mycatbirdseat.com, is a source for many other Salem-News.com reports. She also plays a key role as a Producer for Intifada-Palestine.com and several other groups, all of which we also partner with.