http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=833Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty
Questions By Justin Cowgill
On June 8, 1967, the armed forces of Israel attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty for 90 minutes in international waters following several hours of close, low-level reconnaissance. Israel was later to claim the attack was a mistake, a simple case of misidentification, but survivors maintain otherwise. And some researchers contend that the attack was a deliberate attempt to prevent US Intelligence from witnessing the massacre of Egyptian Prisoners Of War.
According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army executed as many as 1,000 Arab POW's during the 1967 war. Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish.
Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.
"I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes,?Bron wrote. afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets.?
Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area.
As these executions were underway, America's most sophisticated intelligence platform, USS Liberty, was less than 13 miles from El Arish.
Could the USS Liberty have intercepted voice radio messages authorising these killings? Did senior Israeli officers sanction the murders, or did they learn of them? How would they have reacted to the knowledge that USS Liberty was nearby and might have heard incriminating radio traffic?
We may never know because Israel, America's Ally,?launched a murderous attack on the virtually unarmed American intelligence ship.
To this day, many Americans are unaware that this attack even took place. But recently, PRAVDA.Ru took the opportunity to interview Mr. Hrankowski, a survivor and crew member of the USS Liberty.
Greetings Mr. Hrankowski! We at PRAVDA.Ru greatly appreciate this exclusive interview. We feel that, as a USS Liberty survivor, you are in the unique position to shed light on actually what happened and why. It is a great tragedy that 34 young American sailors died while serving their country. It is an even greater tragedy that the general public knows next to nothing about this event.
What position did you serve on the USS Liberty?
My position on the USS Liberty was in the Engineering Department. I was a boilerman. I also worked for the chief engineer in the log room office.
One of the main questions regarding this attack is whether or not the Israeli attackers knew that they were attacking an American ship. The Israelis have claimed that they misidentified the Liberty for the Egyptian horse carrier El Quseir, but it has been reported that the USS liberty flew an American flag and was distinctly marked with US markings. It is also known that slow moving recon plans flew over the USS Liberty numerous times. Is there any doubt in your mind that the Israeli military knew that they were attacking an American ship?
There is no doubt in my mind that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was deliberate. Israel has claimed that it was a mistake and that they were firing upon an Arab horse freighter. The El Quesir was the name of the Arab ship. It was tied up and not sea worthy during the Six Day War, and the Israelis knew this.
As for our Flag. All American ships fly the flag. Ours was flying until the Israelis shot it down and within seconds another was put up. It was our holiday Ensign, sized 9 feet by 13 feet.
As for the slow moving aircraft. Planes started flying over us and checking us out at 5:30am and did so 9 to 13 times until the attack at 2:00PM. There is no doubt in my mind that they knew who they were attacking.
It has been reported that the USS Saratago, responding to a SOS from the Liberty, launched jets to help the Liberty approximately 15 minutes into the Israeli attack. Why were the jets recalled? One could say that this act left American sailors to be murdered by an enemy force?
A message from the USS Liberty got to the USS Saratoga 9 minutes into the attack. The USS Saratoga launched a flight of fighters immediately and they were called back. This happened three different times throughout the attack. Robert MacNamara called them back twice, and President Johnson called them back once, saying his thoughts were not for the USS Liberty. He did not want to embarrass his ally Israel. That act did leave us to get murdered, and what it actually is called is abandonment.
Once your captain, William Loren McGonagle, realized that the Liberty was in danger of sinking, he ordered the crew to abandon ship. At this point, there were only three life rafts left that weren't damaged. Your crew placed as many wounded into the life rafts and lowered them over the side of the Liberty. Please tell us what happened next.
The order was given by the captain to abandon ship, because he thought we were going to sink. Three life rafts were in the water, but then Israeli Torpedo boats came up to them and shot two of them up and grabbed one on the boats. That is against the Geneva Convention.
What prompted the Israelis to terminate their assault?
I'm not sure what caused them to terminate the attack, but after 2 hours, they could not sink us. I would think that their time had run out.
How long did it take for American help to arrive?
It took 16 hours for the American fleet to get to us. But that night, while we were sailing to the sixth fleet, a Soviet ship offered help to us. They said that they would stay just at the horizon and if our ship was going to go down, they would help us.
In a recent letter to President Bush, survivor Phillip F. Tourney claimed that the crew of the USS Liberty were ordered to remain silent under threat of court martial, imprisonment, or worse, and we all know what worst meant.?Did you yourself experience such threats?
Admiral Kidd was the one who ordered us silent. That was a direct order to all of the crew. I heard it myself that day.
If what has been reported is true, the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty can only be described as deliberate. In your opinion, why did this attack take place?
As for why the Israelis attacked us, I'm not sure. I would not be able to give you a reason, because it would only be a guess. There is a new film out by the BBC called Dead in the Water. It was released in England on 6-10-02 and it gives some startling new evidence as to why the attack happened.
Has the American government considered reinvestigating the attack?
There are a few Congressional personal interested in helping us. We're hoping that they are really willing.
It would seem that this event has been covered up. Given all the information that has come forth and the testimony of such people as Secretary of State Dean Rusk and former JCS Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer, the version that this attack was a mistake is very hard believe, which means that it was covered up for some reason. Why, in your opinion, was such a tragic event as an attack on US sailors covered up?
You ask if the USS Liberty attack was covered up. My answer is simple: yes, it was. The question still remains today as to why. And with a Congressional Investigation, all the facts should be laid out and the reasons known.
Your commanding officer, Captain William Loren McGonagle, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his services to his country. However, unlike tradition, when the president of the United States bestows the Congressional Medal of Honor, Captain McGonagle was awarded his medal in the Washington Navy Yard. In your opinion, why wasn't your captain awarded the medal according to tradition?
Our Captain did receive the Congressional Medal of Honor but not in the White house like it usually is given, but in a shipyard in Washington DC. Not many of us knew that he got it until many years later. On his written citation, there is no mention that Israel was the attackers. The same goes for all of our medals and citations; the Israelis are not mentioned at all.
In your opinion, if the general American public were to become fully aware of Israel's attack on the Liberty, could this affect the special relationship that America shares with its ally Israel? For instance, if many Americans learned of the attack and the cover-up, they might be less willing to bankroll Israel with financial and military aid.
I'm not sure if that would happen. I think that if the truth be known about the attack it would hurt for a little while, but it would be a piece of history finally put to bed.
Do you keep in contact with fellow Liberty survivors? If so, do they express hope that American will reinvestigate the attack?
We USS Liberty survivors are always in contact. We all fight for the same thing. They want the investigation to happen soon, so we can all go on with our lives.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I thank PRAVDA.Ru for the time to express my views of the June 8, 1967 attack on my ship, the USS Liberty. I do hope your country will be able to see the new film by the BBC Dead in the Water by Mr. Christopherer Mitchell. There is also a new book that goes along with the new film. It was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Mr. Peter Hounam and is due to come out very shortly. The film and book open the incident up very well.
1,000+ Egyptian Military Officers Executed by Israeli Army in 1967
Reprinted with permission from The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1996
USS Liberty: Did Israel commit one war crime to hide another? By James M. Ennes, Jr.
Article Published on U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Pages, March 27, 1998
Washington Report readers know the story well. In 1967 on the fourth day of the Six Day War, the armed forces of Israel attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty for 90 minutes in international waters in broad daylight following several hours of close, low-level reconnaissance. Thirty-four men died, 171 were hurt, and the ship was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped.
The government of Israel has lied about the circumstances ever since, telling a story markedly different from that told by American survivors. Congress has refused to question Israel's demonstrably false account, even though the State Department's own analysis finds the Israeli story to be untrue.
Yet the most pressing question remaining from that infamy is not whether the attack was deliberate. That was settled long ago for most reasonable people. The question is why Israel risked its cozy relationship with America by killing American seaman on the high seas.
Indeed, spokesmen for Israel use that question in Israel's defense. Why, they ask, would Israel risk alienating its American friends?
So why did Israel attack? Intelligence analysts and others have long supposed that Israel attacked to prevent the ship from reporting the impending invasion of the Golan Heights, then imminent despite cease fire pleas by the United States. Israel's defenders reject that explanation.
Recent reports in the Israeli and Egyptian press suggest another powerful possibility.
According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army - the army that claims to hold itself to a higher moral standard than other armies - executed as many as 1,000 Arab prisoners during the 1967 war.
Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish.
Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.
"I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes," Bron wrote. "Afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets."
Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area.
USS Liberty was nearby
As those executions were underway, America's most sophisticated intelligence platform, USS Liberty, was less than 13 miles from El Arish.
We were close enough to see the town mosque with the naked eye. With binoculars we could make out individual buildings and might have seen the executions if we had looked in the right place.
Could our operators have heard voice radio messages revealing these killings? Did senior Israeli officers sanction the murders, or did they learn of them? How would they have reacted to the knowledge that USS Liberty was nearby and might have heard incriminating radio traffic?
Would they have been desperate enough to attack an American ship?
The Liberty attack was a war crime
The attack on USS Liberty was itself a war crime. US Navy Commander Walter Jacobsen, a Navy Legal Officer then doing graduate work at George Washington University, conducted an extensive legal analysis of the attack.
His conclusion, reported in the Winter, 1986, Naval Law Review, was that several aspects of the attack violated provisions of the Geneva Conventions -- war crimes. Specifically, Commander Jacobsen found that the attack was not legally justified, that it constituted an act of aggression under the United Nations Charter, that the use of unmarked aircraft, the wanton destruction of life rafts in the water, the jamming of international radio distress frequencies, and the failure of the torpedo boat commanders to render immediate assistance to a disabled and helpless enemy were all violations of international law.
US refusal to investigate violates Geneva Conventions
For years, USS Liberty survivors have asked Members of Congress to investigate the circumstances of the attack.
The Israeli version is untrue. We did fly a flag. We did identify ourselves. We were in international waters. They did not stop firing after seeing our flag as they claim, but continued to fire for another 40 minutes. The attack lasted 75 minutes and was not brief or accidental as Israel claims. We did not "attempt to hide" or escape when detected, as Israeli has charged. These things are easy to prove.
More important are the war crimes discussed by Commander Jacobsen. These things should have been investigated in 1967. Yet U.S. officials have ignored the offenses for 29 years, refusing to investigate or even to acknowledge them.
That refusal is itself a crime. The United States, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, is "under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed" violations of the conventions, and to see that violators are brought to trial.
There are no exceptions. War crimes reported to government officials must be investigated and perpetrators tried.
Yet even this is ignored by U.S. officials. Liberty survivors for many years have reported the crimes committed against us and have requested an appropriate investigation. Despite the law, our complaints are ignored. No investigation of these charges has ever been held.
Recently Liberty's Joe Meadors, a former president and chairman of the Liberty Veterans Association, has filed formal complaints with the House and Senate Ethics Committees against members who have ignored our complaints.
To no surprise, these complaints, too, are being ignored.
Navy Refusal to investigate violates Navy Regulations
When the Liberty was attacked, Captain Joseph Tully in the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga received the ship's call for help and immediately sent jet aircraft to her assistance. Tully's jets were recalled almost immediately by orders from Washington. As a result, American jet fighter support was withheld for more than 90 minutes. By then the damage was done and 34 men were dead or dying.
Had those aircraft been sent, they would probably have arrived before the torpedo boats started their part of the attack. At least 25 lives could have been saved.
We survivors have tried for 29 years to learn why we were denied the immediate air support that we were promised in case of trouble. There are no answers. The Navy still will not even admit that help was not sent, even though one of the aircraft carrier commanders has offered to testify that he was forbidden to help us.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the body of law that governs every military person, provides that "Any person subject to this chapter who before or in the presence of the enemy . . . does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to . . . troops, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces . . . when engaged in battle . . . shall be punished by death or such punishment as a court martial may direct."
That provision was clearly violated when Liberty's air support was withheld. Yet the Navy will not even admit that we were not defended.
George Orwell suggested in 1945 that some animals are more equal than other animals. Some countries, too, it would seem.
James Ennes retired from the Navy in 1978 as a lieutenant commander after 27 years of enlisted and commissioned service. He was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty on the day of the attack. His book on the subject, Assault on the Liberty (Random House, 1980), is a "Notable Naval Book" selection of the U.S. Naval Institute and was "editors choice" when reviewed in The Washington Post. top of page
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-atrocities-uss-liberty.html
Also, U.N peacekeepers, Indian U.N Peacekeepers went to see if El Arish too place when the Israeli convoy that participated in the massacre attacked the unarmed U.N peacekeepers and killed 14 of them in cold blood.
