THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Union-Tribune editorial
UNDOING A COVER-UP

EVIDENCE JUSTIFIES REOPENING USS LIBERTY CASE

April 1, 2004

The bitter debate over Israel's attack on the U.S. Navy
intelligence ship Liberty on June 8, 1967, seems no closer to
resolution today than it was 36 years ago. Surely it's time, a
generation and a half later, for the U.S. government to release
everything it knows about an attack that killed 34 American
sailors and intelligence analysts, wounded 171 others and has
never been satisfactorily explained.

The Liberty's survivors, the families of those killed and
wounded, the American people and history deserve better than a
permanently unresolved controversy of this magnitude.

Israel insists that the deadly attack, which occured in
international waters off the Sinai coast while the Liberty
eavesdropped on combatants' communications during the
Arab-Israeli Six Day War, was a tragic case of mistaken
identity. Surviving members of the Liberty's crew, which
suffered 70 percent casualties, are convinced that the prolonged
air and sea attack was deliberate. The U.S. government, in what
many charged was a transparent cover-up, officially accepted
Israel's explanation of mistaken identity.

Yet, the acrimonious controversy lived on, waxing and waning
through the years as each side put forth new information and
conflicting interpretations.

Over the past year, those who believe that Israel's assault on
the Liberty was deliberate have collected important
corroborating evidence. As noted in David Walsh's essay in
Sunday's Insight section, several former U.S. intelligence
officials and analysts, breaking their long silence, say that
electronic intercepts of the attacking pilots' radio
communications that day prove that the Israelis knew they were
attacking an American ship.

Oliver Kirby, a former operations director for the super-secret
National Security Agency (for which the Liberty was collecting
intelligence), was assigned by NSA in 1967 to review classified
information on the attack. In a recent telephone interview with
Jim Ennes, a retired naval officer and Liberty survivor, Kirby's
first words were, "I can tell you for an absolute certainty that
they (the Israelis) knew they were attacking an American ship."

Ward Boston, a retired Navy captain who served as chief legal
officer to a Navy court of inquiry on the Liberty attack, says
the court's finding of "mistaken identity" was dictated by
then-President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara. Boston cites "overwhelming evidence" to the contrary
that the naval court was ordered to ignore.

These recent revelations, among others, argue persuasively for
reopening the Liberty case if the truth is ever to be
discovered. Clearly, the U.S. government, not to mention
Israel's government, continues to conceal vital information
about the Liberty attack. Claims to the contrary
notwithstanding, Israel's attack on the Liberty has never been
properly investigated.

Almost 37 years after the fact, it's time it was.

__________________________________________________ _____________

o__ I'll tell you the truth about the USS LIBERTY, visit
_./)_
(_) \(_) http://home.cfl.rr.com/gidusko/liberty/

_____________________(updated frequently)______________________


Another SD Union Tribune article on USS Liberty:

http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=14242

Iraq War to Protect Israel:

http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=14226
USS LIBERTY CASE EVIDENCE JUSTIFIES REOPENING