NEWS JUST IN - LIBERTY

[Dad Ernie]

I just received this that I thought might be of interest to all:

GUEST REPORT

2. MEMOS SHOW LIBERTY ATTACK WAS AN ERROR

By Nathan Guttman, Ha'aretz - Weds. 9 July, 2003

WASHINGTON - New documents released this week by America's National

Security Agency support Israel's version of a long-festering controversy

between the two countries: Israel's shelling of an American spy ship, the

USS Liberty, off the coast of Gaza during the 1967 Six-Day War

Israel has always said it had no idea the ship was American, but conspiracy

theorists and anti-Israel propagandists still claim Israel struck the ship

in the full knowledge that it was American.

The documents, originally defined as top secret, were made public by

Florida Judge Jay Cristol, who has been investigating the Liberty incident

for years and published a book on the subject last year. On Monday, the NSA

gave him a transcript of conversations held by two Israeli Air Force

helicopter pilots who were hovering over the Liberty after it was hit, and

these tapes confirm Israel's claim that the attack on the ship, which

killed 34 American servicemen and wounded 171, was a tragic error.

After the Liberty was bombed by both the Israel Air Force and the Israel

Navy, the two helicopter pilots were summoned from their base to assess the

damage and evaluate the possibility of rescuing the surviving crew members.

An American spy plane, which had been sent to the area as soon as the NSA

learned of the attack, recorded their conversations, which took place

between 2:30 and 3:37 P.M. on June 8, the third day of the war.

The spy plane also recorded the orders radioed to the pilots by their

supervisor at Hatzor Base, which instructed them to search for Egyptian

survivors from the "Egyptian warship" that had just been bombed - thus

supporting Israel's claim that it had believed the ship was Egyptian when

it ordered it attacked. "Pay attention. The ship is now identified as

Egyptian," the pilots were told.

Nine minutes later, Hatzor informed the pilots that it was not an Egyptian

warship, but an Egyptian cargo ship. Only at 3:07 were the pilots first

informed that the ship might not have been Egyptian at all: Hatzor told

them that if they found Arabic-speaking survivors, they should be taken to

El-Arish, but if they found English-speaking survivors, they should be

taken to Lod. "Clarify by the first man that you bring up, what nationality

he is, and report to me immediately," the supervisor instructed, according

to the transcript. "It's important to know."

Then, at 3:12, one of the pilots informed Hatzor that he saw an American

flag flying over the wounded ship. He was asked to investigate and

determine whether it was really an American ship.

This is not the first time such transcripts have been made public: Israel

gave its own recordings of the pilots' conversations to the British

television station Thames in 1987. But conspiracy theorists charged that

Israel had doctored the tapes before handing them over to the station in

order to hide the fact that it struck at the Liberty intentionally. No such

imputation can be made about these new transcripts, as they were never in

Israeli hands.

Israel has always said it attacked the Liberty, which America sent to the

region to gather intelligence on the progress of the war, because it

believed it was an Egyptian supply ship ferrying supplies to the Egyptian

troops that Israel was then fighting. When it discovered the error, it

immediately informed the Americans, apologized and paid compensation to the

victims' families.

The incident was investigated by inquiry commissions in both Israel and the

United States, and both concluded that it had, indeed, been a tragic error.

Nevertheless, the controversy never died. In 1979, one of the survivors,

James Ennes, published a book accusing Israel of bombing the American ship

deliberately. Ennes claimed an Israeli spy plane had hovered over the ship

all morning and had surely identified it as American, since the American

flag was clearly visible.

A later book, written by James Bamford, charged that Israel hit the ship in

order to keep America from learning of its plans to attack Syria, and

further claimed that the NSA had tapes of conversations among Israeli

pilots that not only confirmed this, but also proved that the tapes

released by Israel had been doctored.

Another claim that appears frequently on the dozens of Internet sites

devoted to the affair is that Israel hit the ship to conceal a mass murder

of Egyptian soldiers on the Sinai peninsula.

In its letter to Cristol, the NSA stressed that, contrary to the claims

that often appear in such books and Web sites - that the agency has tapes

from both the Liberty and from a nearby American submarine that confirm

Israel's guilt - the only tapes that exist were those made by the spy plane

and given to Cristol this week.

"It's the last piece of intelligence that remained classified, and every

rational person that will read it will understand that there is no truth in

these conspiracy theories against Israel," Cristol said yesterday. But he

added:

"Those who hate Israel, who hate Jews, and those who believe in conspiracy

will not be convinced by anything."

Cristol, a former U.S. navy pilot and legal officer, began investigating

the Liberty incident 14 years ago. Since publishing his book, which

vindicates Israel, he has received threats and been accused of being an

Israeli agent. "I take this lightly, but I am saddened to learn that there

is this kind of hate toward Israel," he said.

[George]

What's interesting about this article is how much it refutes the History Channel documentary of this very incident. Also what's interesting is that I received several emails from believers saying they would not sign the petition for Israel because Israel is not our ally citing this as one of several key evidences to support their claim.

Interesting world we live in,

Your brother in Christ with much agape love,

George

[Guest shadow2b]

What's interesting about this article is how much it refutes the History Channel documentary of this very incident. Also what's interesting is that I received several emails from believers saying they would not sign the petition for Israel because Israel is not our ally citing this as one of several key evidences to support their claim.

Interesting world we live in,

Your brother in Christ with much agape love,

George

George ---my brother--I watched that documentary just the other evening on the history channel---

I whole-heartedly agree with the statement that it was an accident-----whether or not it was is NOT

the deciding factor that should determine our support of ISRAEL------EITHER WE as christians LOVE &

support GOD'S PEOPLE ISRAEL or WE face GOD'S penalty for that refusal, which IS the "same" as {CURSING} "THAT" which GOD has "BLESSED" & by so doing we become {CURSED} of GOD------I choose to BLESS GOD'S PEOPLE ISRAEL------GOD-BLESS-YOU--MY--BROTHER-FOR-STANDING-WITH-GOD'S--PEOPLE--ISRAEL-------------------------{Gary}

[Guest shiloh357]

Cristol's new book on the subject, blows away all of the consipiracy theories that have been circulating for the last thirty years. Newly declassified information proves that this was an honest mistake