Readers Write: No cover up of attack on USS Liberty

The Island Now

Joe Meadors of the USS Liberty Veterans , another survivor of the 1967 tragic friendly-fire Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, insists  that the attack was a “war crime,” that the U.S. government has permitted Israel to commit the attack “deliberate[ly],” “with impunity and without remorse.” (Attack on USS Liberty remains untold story, 11/21/2014).

This accusation is  a borderline blood libel akin to the anti-Semitic myth that Jews use the blood of murdered gentile children to make matzos.

Mr. Meadors also contradicts my reference, in a prior letter, that “honest closed-door inquiries were conducted by the CIA, the NSA, the JCS, as well as by both houses of Congress. 

All reached the same conclusion: That the Israeli attack upon the USS Liberty had been the result of error, and nothing more.” 

He denies that these investigations ever occurred and asserts that the 98-page report that summarizes these investigations, “The ‘USS Liberty’: Case Closed,” by Michael B. Oren (http://tinyurl.com/khsuzkl), should not be believed because the author is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and presumably not objective.

I ask Mr. Meadows whether the surviving victims of the traumatic attack can be more objective.

Mr. Oren has written the definitive history of the 1967 war, “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East,” rated 4.5 of 5 stars at Amazon.com based on 296 reviews. 

The book won the Los Angeles Times History Book of the Year Award and the National Jewish Book Award.

Mr. Oren has a masters degree in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs where he was an International Fellow and a DACOR Fellow. 

He also earned an master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He has written other books, articles, and essays on Middle Eastern history, and is the author of the New York Times best-selling “Power, Faith and Fantasy.” 

Oren has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown universities in the United States and at Tel Aviv and Hebrew universities in Israel. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and a contributing editor to The New Republic. He did not achieve all these honors by being a liar.

Dealing with Mr. Meadors’ assertions: The CIA declassified final report for its Liberty investigation, that Mr. Meadors asserted never occurred, is available here, http://www.thelibertyincident.com/cia.html, along with testimony excerpts from the Senate investigation that Meadors  asserted also never occurred. He also asserted that the attacking Israeli pilots were “told by their controller that we were an American ship before they began their attack.” 

All these assertions are contradicted by the report linked to above. Here are excerpts:

 From the CIA report: “7. It was not until 4:12 p.m. (9:12 a.m.) that the Israelis became convinced that the Liberty was American. This was about 44 minutes after the last attack on the ship and the attack had been apparently  called  off, not because the ship had been identified, but because it seemed to be sinking…The Israeli offer of assistance was declined because of the sensitive mission of the ship.”

Also from the link: “On 27 Feb 1978, the Director of Central Intelligence responded by letter to five questions put to the agency by Sen. James Abourezk. In response to question 5:

‘Finally, could I have your judgment and that of the Agency you head, based on information acquired by the Agency from all sources, that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was deliberate or an honest mistake?’

“Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence, responded:

‘It remains our best judgment that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was not made in malice toward the United States and was a mistake.’”

I could use lots more space to discuss other investigations but I trust that the above is sufficient.

 Len Mansky

Roslyn

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