American Legion Honchos Betray Liberty Veteransby aletho |
Aid and Comfort to the Enemy
By Allison Weir | CounterPunch | May 16, 2014
The American Legion, founded in 1919, is the nation’s largest wartime veterans’ assistance organization. According to its mission statement, the Legion is committed to “devotion to our fellow servicemembers and veterans.”
Yet, Legion honchos are actively hostile to veterans of the USS Liberty – the most decorated ship since World War II. In fact Liberty is among the most decorated ships for a single engagement in the entire history of the U.S. Navy.
Despite
the Liberty crew’s extraordinary record of heroism, Legion personnel
have repeatedly treated Liberty veterans, their families, and their
friends with arrogance, disrespect, and even disdain that many feel
demeans these American servicemen, their ship, their service to their
country, and the memory of their 34 fellow crewmembers who never
returned.
Legion
bigwigs have torpedoed American Legion members’ resolutions supporting
the Liberty; prevented dissemination of information about the attack;
refused to allow a booth by the Liberty Veterans Association at its 2013
national convention; and privately attempted to convince the Veterans
of Foreign Wars to similarly prohibit a Liberty booth at its
national convention. (The VFW rejected Legion advice and has again
invited the Liberty crew to have a booth at the upcoming national
convention in St. Louis.)
These
actions have largely taken place behind closed doors, since there is
considerable evidence that Legion members in general are supportive of
Liberty survivors and their families – when they learn about them.
The
animosity by Legion honchos toward Liberty veterans most likely has
very little to do with the men who served on the USS Liberty, a
typically diverse assortment of Americans from all over the United
States.
The
problem is that the foreign country that attacked them, killing 34 of
their shipmates and injuring 174, was Israel. And while many people
believe that the U.S. is the most powerful nation in the world today,
this perception is not entirely accurate. Israel, through its
pervasively embedded and extremely well financed lobby, is sometimes
more powerful.
The Attack on the USS Liberty
Let’s look at what happened to the USS Liberty.[1]
In
1967 the Liberty, an electronics surveillance craft whose total
armaments consisted of two pairs of 50 caliber machine guns for use in
repelling boarders, was cruising in international waters in the eastern
Mediterranean. On June 8th, after earlier aerial surveillance, Israeli
air and sea forces suddenly attacked it.
Sortie
after sortie of Israeli fighters and, eventually, torpedo boats pounded
the largely defenseless ship with shells, rockets, napalm, and
torpedoes.
Israeli
forces machine-gunned stretcher-bearers, shot up life rafts, and killed
seamen like one 20-year-old from Missouri who had played American
Legion baseball.[2] Survivors describe the decks covered with body parts
and running with blood. The Israeli onslaught lasted longer than the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
During
the attack, a U.S. aircraft carrier twice launched rescue flights that
were then recalled. The commander of the aircraft carrier, Admiral Geis,
later revealed that President Lyndon Johnson had ordered him to recall
the aircraft because Johnson didn’t want our ally to be “embarrassed,”
and the crew remained undefended.[3]
Crewmembers miraculously kept the ship afloat and worked to save as many lives as possible.
The
tales of terror, fear and heroism are gripping. A doctor operated on
fallen sailors despite his own extensive wounds, including a gunshot
wound, broken kneecap, and 11 pieces of shrapnel in his abdomen, which
he held together with a life jacket. The ship’s captain stayed at his
battle station, exposed to fire, and remained in command for 19 hours
straight, despite great pain and weakness from loss of blood. A
22-year-old sailor from Indiana was cut down while he tried to save
shipmates. He was one of at least five crewmembers who received medals
posthumously.[4]
Liberty
crewmembers have a superlative record of service to their country.
Among the awards won by the officers and crew of the USS Liberty are the
Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, 13 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars,
nine Navy Commendations, 208 Purple Hearts, 294 Combat Action Ribbons,
and the Presidential Unit Citation.[5] Another crewman was also a
candidate for the Medal of Honor, America’s highest award, but there
were too few witnesses left alive to provide the necessary
substantiation.[6]
One would think that all Americans should know of the Liberty
and its valiant crew. One would think that Hollywood cinematographers
would have depicted The Liberty Story in wide screen and living color;
that Liberty survivors’ solemn annual day of remembrance for their
fallen shipmates would be broadcast by Fox News; and that the American
Legion would be steadfast in honoring Liberty’s heroic crew.
None of this has taken place.
Israel
claimed that the attack was a “mistake,” and its partisans went to work
immediately to cover it up. Within a day of the attack, Senator Jacob
Javits and a few others claimed on the Senate floor that it had been
accidental. Crewmembers were ordered not to speak about it to anyone,
from the press to family members to one another.
The
Navy was given one week to look into crew behavior, rather than the
six-month investigation that would normally be accorded an investigation
of an attack on a Navy ship not engaged in hostilities.
After
its weeklong inquiry, the Navy produced a report that focused on crew
response, yet inexplicably declared the attack a case of “mistaken
identity” without citing any evidence to that effect. Much later, it
came out that the White House had ordered the Navy to include that
conclusion, even though it had not been tasked with investigating the
reason for Israel’s attack.
The
press, with a few exceptions,[7] has largely ignored the attack on the
Liberty, or portrayed it inaccurately.[8] Three major documentaries have
been produced, but only one has been shown on national TV.[9] Hollywood
has ignored the incident.
American Legion actions on the USS Liberty
The
American Legion was the first organization to support Liberty survivors
and call for an official investigation of the attack. However, as we
will see, this quickly triggered anti-Liberty pressure that caused
Legion management to back off, and today the American Legion does not
have a single live resolution regarding the USS Liberty – this despite
the fact that three resolutions on the Liberty have been passed by the
general membership, and that many American Legion posts around the
country have attempted to introduce others. In recent years, none of
these has been allowed to make it to the convention floor.
The
Legion’s stance is in stark contrast to that of other veterans’
organizations. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Disabled American
Vets, The Retired Officers Association, and other veterans’ groups have
placed wreaths on the Liberty graves at Arlington National Cemetery; the
Legion has been conspicuously absent.[10] The VFW has at least seven
resolutions on its books calling for an investigation of the attack, the
most recent passed in July 2013.[11] The Legion has none.
In
addition, a multitude of high U.S. military, diplomatic, and
intelligence officials through the years have spoken in favor of the
Liberty crew (see below).
Below is a chronology of the American Legion’s action—and inaction—on the Liberty.
1967
*
Immediately following the attack, the American Legion membership passed
a strong resolution on the incident. American Legion action was
suggested by a New Hampshire resident, and the Legion National Commander
Edward Davis, from North Dakota, encouraged him to write a
resolution.[12]
This
1967 resolution condemned Israeli actions, which it called an
“apparently deliberate attack.”[13] The resolution called on the U.S.
government to “conduct a complete and thorough investigation of this
incident” and to demand full payment from the Israeli government for
compensation to the families, crew, and to the United States for the
damage to the ship.[14]
After
the resolution was passed, there were complaints from the Jewish War
Veterans of America and some Jewish members of the American Legion, and
the resolution was allowed to die without action.[15] The American
Legion member who proposed the resolution stated later that the lack of
follow through was due to pressure by pro-Israel organizations.[16]
For
many years, Israel refused to compensate the United States for the ship
it had destroyed, and the U.S. government failed to push the issue.
Finally, twelve years later, a Senator announced that he intended to
hold hearings on the matter. Israel quickly negotiated a settlement:
Israel would pay $6 million for the ship; in exchange the U.S. dropped
claims to $10 million worth of interest.[17] The ship was valued at $40
million.
1984
* In 1984 the American Legion Magazine commissioned an article on the Liberty, but then killed the article.
The article was by
James Ennes, a Naval officer seriously wounded on the Liberty who had
in 1979 written the first book to give details of the attack. The book, Assault on the Liberty, was widely praised. The Naval Institute named it among its Notable Naval Books, and a Washington Post reviewer said it “should be required reading for all government employees.”
When
Ennes submitted his article to the Legion magazine, however, it was
rejected. Ennes received a kill fee and an apologetic letter from the
editors, who said the editorial board had decided that his article was
“too controversial.”[18]
When Ennes wrote again to the magazine, he was told that the Legion “no longer had a position on the subject.”[19]
(Another magazine, Retired Officer, with a circulation of 350,000 retired military officers, published Ennes’s article to wide acclaim. RO
editors told Ennes that for months after they were “overwhelmed with
mail” that supported the article and the Liberty crew.[20])
Also
in 1984, the American Legion’s National Executive Committee passed a
resolution that rescinded “all Foreign Relations Policy resolutions
adopted by the Annual National Convention or the NEC, 1919-1976.”[21]
This
resolution, entitled “Rescinding Obsolete Policy Resolutions dealing
with Foreign Relations,” was passed at the Committee’s spring meeting.
The general membership does not seem to have been consulted on this
decision. Most American Legion members who voted in favor of a
resolution on the USS Liberty probably have no idea this occurred.
1986
*
In 1986, Liberty survivors pushed for resolutions calling for an
investigation into the attack, which were passed at three local American
Legion posts. Legion officials at the state level, however, rejected
them, saying that “the national leadership of the Legion was opposed to
resolutions on the subject.”
The
survivors managed to bypass the state leaderships and took a resolution
to the national convention in Cincinnati. Once there, however, Legion
management used what the crew describe as “complicated maneuvers” to
scuttle the resolutions. Some of this, according to crewmembers,
involved changing the usual rules of the convention.[22]
Perhaps
as a consolation prize, a resolution calling for a Liberty postage
stamp was allowed to be passed by the membership and was sent to
Washington.[23] This was the second attempt at such a stamp. In 1973
Louisiana Congressman John Rarick, a military veteran who had escaped
from a German prison camp in World War II, had introduced legislation to
issue a postage stamp “in honor of the brave men who served on the
U.S.S. Liberty and U.S.S. Pueblo.”[24]
In
both cases the efforts went nowhere. There is no indication that Legion
management ever followed through on the attempt to have Congress issue a
postage stamp honoring the crew. It died two years later.
1994
*
In 1994 American Legion members managed to get a resolution on the
Liberty passed, perhaps, again, because this time the resolution left
out all calls for an investigation. The resolution “urge[d] the United
States to formally and publicly recognize by time-honored tradition with
customary style, honor, ceremony and publicity, the heroic actions of
the officers and crew of the U.S.S. Liberty, her 34 killed in action,
her 171 wounded and her decorated, including her Medal of Honor
recipient, Captain William L. McGonagle.”[25]
The
American Legion leadership decided to categorize this resolution as
“legislative”, which meant that it would apply only to the two year
Congress then in session. According to the Legion’s “Resolutions and
Reports” handbook, resolutions with “legislative intent” must be
re-submitted every two years. [26]
1998
*
In 1998 five states (it appears that these were Arkansas, Kentucky,
Montana, Texas, and, possibly, Alaska) introduced resolutions at the
national convention calling for an investigation into the attack on the
Liberty. The Legion’s Committee on International Relations killed them.
The
chairman of the committee was John Brieden. Brieden’s college roommate
was future Texas Governor Rick Perry, who in 2007 received Israel’s
“Friend of Zion” award[27] for his fidelity to that nation. Perry later
appointed Brieden to various veterans’ posts. Five years after
blocking the Liberty resolutions, Brieden became American Legion
National Commander.
2002
*
In 2002 the Washington DC Legion delegation introduced a resolution
calling for an investigation of the attack to a foreign relations
subcommittee at the national convention. This was the first step towards
procuring an American Legion resolution.[28]
I
was present at this convention and witnessed most of what subsequently
transpired. I had begun to investigate Israel-Palestine in fall 2000, a
topic I had never previously studied. I was astonished at much of what I
discovered, including the Israeli attack on the Liberty, which I had
never heard about despite growing up in a military family.
When
I heard that a resolution was going to be introduced at the national
convention, I went with the delegation to observe what happened.
When
the DC group introduced the resolution to the subcommittee, every
American Legion delegate who addressed it spoke in favor of it. Delegate
after delegate from diverse parts of America supported the resolution,
and it was passed without objection.
The
DC delegates were jubilant. When a resolution is passed at this level,
they explained, it is virtually assured of adoption. Typically, the
resolution is then rubber-stamped by the next committee, and passed
along to the general membership, which then normally passes all such
committee-recommended resolutions by one simple voice vote.
This resolution, however, was to be different.
The
next day, American Legion staff told the Convention Committee on
Foreign Relations that there was no need for such a resolution since the
Legion already had passed resolutions on the Liberty. The staff and
chair neglected to state that not a single resolution on the USS Liberty
was live, and that therefore it was both necessary and appropriate to
pass this one.
This
communication succeeded in killing the resolution. The main staff
member for this committee had served in Israel; it is possible he is an
Israeli citizen. The Committee chairman was Thomas Bock, of
Colorado.[29] Three years later Bock was American Legion National
Commander.
That
evening, back in D.C., Admiral Thomas Moorer (USN retired) heard about
the scuttling of the resolution. Outraged, he wrote an open letter to
the American Legion Commander requesting that the resolution be put
before the general membership.
Admiral
Moorer was chairman of an association of admirals and generals who want
the US government to conduct a hearing on the USS Liberty. He was also
the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the highest ranking
military officer in the U.S. military — and a retired 4-star admiral who
was once in charge of both the Pacific and Atlantic fleets. He was a
Naval aviator and World War II hero; the Navy’s Tomcat fighter jet was
named after him.
Moorer
had long been outraged at the cover-up on the Liberty attack. In a 1997
memo, he called it a “wanton, sneak attack,” writing: “What is so
chilling and cold-blooded, of course, is that they could kill as many
Americans as they did in confidence that Washington would cooperate in
quelling any public outcry.” Many of the crewmembers, Moorer wrote, were
from “small country towns, probably a lot like Eufaula, Alabama, where I
grew up, and they represent the basic core of America….” [30]
A
woman named Josie Toth Linen, whose brother was killed on the Liberty,
took copies of Admiral Moorer’s letter to the American Legion convention
the following day and began handing them out to American Legion
members. Within minutes Legion management ejected her from the
convention.
Josie’s
brother, Stephen Toth, had posthumously received a Silver Star, the
third highest medal awarded by the US Navy, for “conspicuous gallantry
and intrepidity in action” aboard the Liberty.[31] The citation stated,
“Lieutenant Toth’s aggressiveness, composure under fire, and inspiring
leadership were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United
States Naval Service.”
Toth’s
father, Captain Joseph C. Toth, had been a career Naval officer and
decorated World War II veteran. Captain Toth died of a heart attack a
year and a half after his son was killed. Family members felt the
anguish at his son’s death contributed to his heart attack, along with
distress at the government’s cover-up of the attack and its recall of
rescue flights that might have saved his son’s life.[32]
Apparently none of this mattered to American Legion honchos.
After
being ejected from the convention, Josie started to hand out copies of
Admiral Moorer’s letter on the sidewalk outside the convention. Before
long, a security officer working for the Legion attempted to have her
arrested, calling Charlotte police officers to take her away.
Police
officers refused to make the arrest, however, saying that Josie was
breaking no laws. After a friendly exchange with Josie, the police
officers departed.[33]
The
Legion, however, continued to bar Josie from the convention, even
though she was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary and had paid
the hefty convention registration fee. All for the “crime” of handing
out a letter from a World War II hero on behalf of her brother, who had
been killed while serving his country, and for trying to help American
veterans, the very purpose of the Legion itself.
The
Legion commander, Richard J. “Ric” Santos of Maryland, a retired
insurance adjustor (his military service consisted of five years in the
Naval Reserve),[34] never responded to Admiral Moorer’s letter.[35]
2012
*
In 2012, the American Legion Michigan department passed a Liberty
resolution and submitted it to the national convention. The Michigan
delegate to the convention, Ted Arens, says that American Legion Judge
Advocate General Phil Onderdonk told him, “Your resolution is going
nowhere.” Onderdonk, according to Arens, called the Liberty survivors
“anti-Semites.”[36]
Arens reports that Onderdonk said: “The ship never should have been there, it was a spy ship.”[37]
Onderdonk’s
claim that an American ship is not allowed in international waters is
an extremely surprising statement, particularly from an official of a
self-proclaimed patriotic American organization. Onderdonk’s view
repeats a talking point promoted by Israel that has been rejected by all
segments of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Navy.
It
appears that Onderdonk chooses to ignore the Court of Inquiry’s
statement, “USS Liberty wrote another chapter in the great heritage of
Navy gallantry… her personnel, from Commanding Officer to the most
junior seaman, deserve the highest accolades and acknowledgment it is
possible to bestow for their valor and acts of courage.”[38]
Arens was not allowed to speak at the committee meeting, and the resolution was never placed before the convention.
The
same day, Legion staff turned away two Liberty survivors who had
traveled to the convention to staff a booth for the Liberty Veterans
Association (LVA). The staff declared that the LVA was not on the list
of registered booths.
The
two Liberty crewmembers, Ernest “Ernie” Gallo[39] and Glenn Oliphant,
asked if there was some mistake. The person registering vendors said she
would check.
Oliphant,
a soft-spoken Minnesotan and ordained Methodist minister who lost most
of his hearing in the attack, tells what happened next: “Within a few
minutes [convention official] Andrea Watson… arrived with three security
guards.” Watson said they didn’t have a booth, and a security guard
told them they had to leave immediately.
Oliphant
says he asked Watson if she had a check for a booth from the Liberty
Veterans Association that he believed had been sent in months earlier.
Watson told Oliphant and Gallo that even if she had the check on her
desk she would send it back to them.[40]
2013
*
In 2013 The American Legion refused to allow Liberty survivors to have a
booth at its national convention in Houston. Legion officials have
refused to give a reason.
*
The Legion similarly refused to publish a paid advertisement about the
USS Liberty that a Legion member tried to place in the 2013 convention
program. Again, Legion officials refuse to provide an explanation.
2014
* Legion officials tried to convince the VFW also to deny Liberty veterans a booth at their upcoming national convention.
VFW
officials investigated the Legion’s accusations against Liberty
crewmembers, found the Legion’s claims unconvincing, and invited the
Liberty Veterans Association to again have a booth at the 2014 VFW
national convention.
Legion FAQ misrepresents Liberty attack
*
The American Legion’s website contains a “Frequently Asked Questions”
column in which a segment on the Liberty[41] repeats the pro-Israel
misinformation that supposedly “10 US investigations” found that the
attack was an accident.
In
reality, an official US Navy communication to Congress stated, “The
Court of Inquiry was the only United States Government investigation
into the attack,” and noted, “That investigation focused primarily on
U.S. military communications problems prior to the attack and the heroic
effort of LIBERTY’s crew in damage control during the aftermath of the
attack.”[42]
It
seems likely that the Legion’s FAQ is based on largely refuted claims
made by a Miami bankruptcy judge, A Jay Cristol. (For more on Cristol
and the alleged investigations see sidebar #1, “Questions about
Cristol’s Liberty claims.”)
While
the Navy’s weeklong inquiry called the attack a case of “mistaken
identity,” the Navy attorney tasked with reviewing it before its
release, Merlin Staring, found that this conclusion was unsupported by
the content of the report. Staring was one of the Navy’s most brilliant
attorneys. He eventually went on to become a Rear Admiral and the Chief
Judge Advocate General of the US Navy, thus making him the senior legal
authority in the Navy.
When
Staring indicated that the report’s statement that the attack was an
accident was unsubstantiated, his boss removed the report from his
review – the only time in Staring’s long career that a report he was
given to review was taken away from him. (Incidentally, Staring’s boss
was Admiral John McCain, the present John McCain’s father.)[43]
Staring’s questions about the report were explained 30 years later.
The
Naval officer who had been senior legal counsel for the Naval inquiry,
Captain Ward Boston, came forward with an explosive revelation.
President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had
ordered them to conclude that the attack was a case of “mistaken
identity” despite overwhelming evidence that the Israeli attack “was a
deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew,”
in Boston’s words.[44]
High Officials Say Attack Was Intentional
There
is detailed evidence from Liberty crewmen and other military and
intelligence personnel that the Israeli attack was intentional. Numerous
extremely high US military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials have
espoused this view. Among them are:
Dean Rusk, Secretary of State under LBJ;Richard Helms, Director of the CIARufus Taylor, Deputy Director of the CIAClark Clifford, special assistant to the PresidentLouis W. Tordella, National Security Agency (NSA) Deputy DirectorGeneral Marshall Carter, former director, NSALucius Battle, former presidential advisorMajor General John Morrison, US Air Force, Deputy Chief NSA OperationsOliver Kirby, former deputy director for operations/production, NSALieutenant General William E. Odom, former director, NSAAdmiral Bobby Ray Inman, USN, Director NSA 1977-1981Paul C. Warnke, Undersecretary of the Navy and later general legal counsel to the Department of DefenseRear Admiral Merlin Staring, Staff Legal Office for Commander in Chief US Naval Forces Europe and later Chief Judge Advocate General of the NavyGeorge Ball, under secretary of stateDwight Porter, US Ambassador to LebanonLloyd M. “Pete” Bucher, US Navy, Commanding Officer USS PuebloCaptain Ward Boston, senior legal counsel for the Naval Court of InquiryRear Admiral Clarence “Mark” Hill, co-founder of the Naval Aviation FoundationAdmiral David McDonald, Chief of Naval Operations[45]Vice Admiral Jerome King, Jr., Deputy Chief of Naval Operations[46]
In
2003 the Moorer Commission, an independent commission headed by Admiral
Moorer, reported on Capitol Hill: “There is compelling evidence that
Israel’s attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and
kill her entire crew.”
The
Moorer report went on to state, “In attacking the USS Liberty, Israel
committed acts of murder against U.S. servicemen and an act of war
against the United States.”[47]
Israel attacks Liberty crew, again
Israel
and its American partisans, however, have worked assiduously to promote
Israel’s various versions that the attack was accidental. One of their
targets was survivor James Ennes’s 1979 book, Assault on the Liberty.
Author
John Borne, who wrote a book on the Liberty attack and its aftermath,
describes Israel’s efforts against Ennes’s book: “Journalist friends
told Ennes that the Israeli Government was working hard behind the
scenes to discredit his story.”
Commander
Ennes had sustained a major leg wound in the attack that required
months-long hospitalization. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour
Hersh wrote of Ennes’ gripping book “I’ve never read a more graphic
depiction of war at sea…an insider’s book by an honest participant.”
The
Israeli Foreign Office created a four-page criticism of the book, Borne
reports, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),
which has an annual budget of over $70 million,[48] published a six-page
attack based on the Israeli document. Other pro-Israel organizations
similarly circulated attacks on Ennes’s eyewitness book.[49]
Borne
writes that media coverage of Ennes’s book, which had been
enthusiastic, quickly dried up under this onslaught: “Interviews were
arranged, then dropped, at ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ and ABC’s
‘Nightline.’ Work went ahead at ‘60 Minutes’ and was then canceled.”
Although
some Israel partisans in the U.S. agree that the crew deserve an honest
investigation of the incident, virtually all the institutional members
of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the U.S.[50] that have weighed in on
the incident support Israeli versions over the testimony of the
American crewmen and other American officials.
One
of the most prominent American adherents of the Israeli version is a
Miami bankruptcy judge and former Naval Reserve officer named A Jay
Cristol. Cristol is the author of a 2001 book called The Liberty Incident, which was re-released in 2013 with a few additional chapters under the title, The Liberty Incident Revealed.
The
two editions read largely like legal briefs for Israel[51] and are
strongly criticized by eyewitnesses and other experts on the attack for
what they say are its omissions, misinformation and unsupported claims.
American Legion Officials refuse to answer questions
For
this article, I phoned and emailed the American Legion repeatedly with
specific questions. The Legion answered only a few of these.
The
Legion Librarian assisted me in finding the wording of some of the
resolutions that had been passed. He confirmed that there are no live
resolutions on the Liberty.
I
asked one of the American Legion’s professional staff members about the
inaccurate claims about the Liberty on the Legion website’s FAQ. It
turned out the staff member was very familiar with the Liberty. He said
he had previously researched it and agreed that there had not been an
investigation. He said he would inform the Legion library that the FAQ
needed to be corrected.
This
correction was never implemented, however. When I followed up with the
staff member, he referred me to Philip Onderdonk (the Legion official
also mentioned above). Onderdonk, the staff member told me, was now in
charge of handling my questions. Onderdonk has been the American
Legion’s top lawyer for the past thirty years. (His military service
consisted of serving as a contracting officer for a few years.[52])
I
eventually reached Onderdonk, who brusquely told me I would receive an
official statement from the PR department and hung up. When I called him
back to ask when I would receive this, he said, “You’ll get it when you
get it.” (I eventually did, but it answered none of my questions.) He
then sputtered that I was part of an “anti-Israel” organization and hung
up again.
I’m
president of the Council for the National Interest, whose goal,
announced on our website, is to work for “U.S. Middle East policies that
represent the highest values of our founders and our citizens and that
work to sustain a nation of honor, decency, security, and prosperity.”
Our
mission states: “CNI seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign
policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values,
protects our national interests, and contributes to a just solution of
the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is CNI’s goal to restore a political
environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are
free from the undue influence and pressure of foreign countries and
their partisans.”[53]
CNI
was founded two decades ago by Paul Findley, an 11-term Republican
Congressman from central Illinois, and Paul “Pete” McCloskey, an 8-term
Republican Congressman from California. Findley served in the Navy in
the South Pacific in WWII, and McCloskey served in Korea, where he
received the Navy Cross, Silver Star and two Purple Hearts as a Marine
rifle platoon leader.
In
2010, CNI applied for a booth at the Legion national convention. Legion
convention director Dick Holmes refused our application. He claimed
that CNI’s policies were at odds with the American Legion’s.
While
CNI’s principles, stated above, may differ substantially from those of
Mr. Holmes, attorney Onderdonk, and some other Legion officials, I have
found that they match those of what seems to be a large preponderance of
Legion members. These members similarly want policies based on American
interests and principles, rather than predicated on the desires of a
foreign government.
After
the Legion denied CNI a booth in 2012, I volunteered to help as a
private citizen at the Liberty Veterans booth that year and was duly
credentialed at the convention. After I had assisted at the booth for
several hours, suddenly Holmes, Andrea Watson, and a few henchmen
arrived at the booth. They said that I was not allowed to be at the
booth, despite my credentials, and told me that if I didn’t leave the
convention immediately I would be arrested. I left.
During
my time at the booth, I had witnessed enormous support for Liberty
veterans among American Legion members. Virtually every person who
passed the booth turned out to be receptive and supportive. Some had
known about the attack before and had been outraged ever since. Others
had been unaware of it previously and were astounded at the cover-up.
Many left the booth wearing USS Liberty buttons and promised to tell
others about the incident.
After
I was forced to leave the booth, a Liberty veteran and his wife
continued without me, handing out hundreds of brochures and buttons to
Legion members. Both were thrilled at the deep support and sympathy of
Legion members from all over the U.S.
In 1997 Admiral Moorer described the Liberty reunions he had attended:
“They arrive in town with their whole entourage – grandmas, grandpas, grandchildren. They promote the memory of the boys who were killed and I respect them for that. They are mostly from small country towns, probably a lot like Eufaula, Alabama, where I grew up, and they represent the basic core of America that has enabled us to be a superpower for so long. These are the kind of people who will make certain that our liberty and freedom survive if fighting is what it takes.”
These are the families that the American Legion management continually opposes.
Venerable
Florida columnist Charlie Reese once wrote about Liberty veterans,
“These survivors deserve the support of the American people. Will you
stand by them?”
Philip
Onderdonk, Dick Holmes, and other Legion honchos have given their
answer. Like Israel and many of its partisans, top Legion officials seem
to feel that Israel can kill and injure American servicemen with
impunity, insult them and their families, quash all questions, and
successfully sweep Israel’s lethal attack under the rug.
I doubt most members will agree with them.
Sidebar 1:
Questions about Cristol’s Liberty claims
A
plethora of articles, books, and witness statements support the
conclusion that Israel intentionally attacked the USS Liberty. There
appears to be only one book focused on the attack that takes a counter
view: The Liberty Incident Revealed, by A Jay Cristol.[54]
Cristol
is a bankruptcy judge and former Naval Reserve officer in Miami. [55]
He visited Israel 15 times in the course of writing his book and
suggests that those who rebut his conclusions on the Liberty are
anti-Semitic, have hidden agendas, or are conspiracy theorists.[56]
In
his book, Cristol essentially recounts the official Israeli version of
the attack, which is at odds with that described by American
eyewitnesses and numerous high US military, intelligence, and State
Department officials.
Liberty
specialists and survivors criticize Cristol’s book for omitting
eyewitness testimony, key facts, and statements from US government
investigators contradicting his conclusion. They also say the book
misrepresents the facts and makes unsupported claims. As we shall see,
these accusations are valid.
Historian
John Borne, author of a PhD dissertation on the attack and a subsequent
book, writes that Cristol “describes only the Israeli view, and the
reader has no way to know that he is hearing only one side of a debate.”
In a review of Cristol’s book, Borne details instances in which Cristol
omitted critical information, rearranged the data to give a false
conclusion, and neglected to interview important eyewitnesses.[57]
Similarly,
Captain Ward Boston, senior legal counsel for the Naval Court of
Inquiry that looked into the attack, stated that Cristol’s book “twists
the facts and misrepresents the views of those of us who investigated
the attack.” In fact, Boston said that it was “Cristol’s insidious
attempt to whitewash the facts” that motivated him to finally speak out
in 2002 about the behind-the-scenes intrigue in the Court of Inquiry.[58]
In
the first edition of his book, published in 2001, Cristol listed Boston
in the index and in the text wrote: “Boston brought two special assets
in addition to his skill as a Navy lawyer. He had been a naval aviator
in World War II and therefore had insight beyond that of one qualified
only in the law. Also, Kidd knew him as a man of integrity.”[59]
After
Boston revealed the presidential cover-up and the fact that all the
evidence indicated that it had been an intentional attack, Cristol wrote
an article calling Boston a liar.[60] In his current, 2013 version of
the book, which claims to be “the definitive account,” Cristol fails to
provide Boston’s detailed statements about the Court of Inquiry.[61]
Even
in his chapter on a State Department conference in 2004 in which he
discusses his appearance on a panel, he leaves out author James Bamford
in his list of panelists (though he discusses him later), and does not
tell readers that Bamford read into the record Boston’s dramatic legal
declaration that the Naval Inquiry had been a sham, that Johnson had
ordered the facts to be covered up, and that all the evidence had
indicated that the Israeli attack was intentional.
Cristol’s questionable claims about Admiral Kidd
Cristol
does mention Admiral Isaac Kidd, who was president of the Naval Court
of Inquiry that produced the Navy’s report. Cristol claims a “close
friendship” with Kidd, who is now deceased, and includes some
complimentary statements about Cristol from a letter that he says Kidd
sent him. (He does not include the complete letter.)
Boston,
who said he remained in contact with Kidd after the two worked together
on the Naval inquiry, questioned these statements. He described Kidd’s
reaction after Cristol contacted him for his book. “The Admiral spoke of
Cristol in disparaging terms and even opined that ‘Cristol must be an
Israeli agent,’” Boston wrote in his legal declaration. “I don’t know if
he meant that literally or it was his way of expressing his disgust for
Cristol’s highly partisan, pro-Israeli approach to questions involving
USS Liberty.”[62]
Boston
went on to state: “I find Cristol’s claims of a ‘close friendship’ with
Admiral Kidd to be utterly incredible. I also find it impossible to
believe the statements he attributes to Admiral Kidd, concerning the
attack on USS Liberty.” Rather, according to Boston, Kidd privately
shared the conclusions of others who worked on the Navy report. “Every
time we discussed the attack, Admiral Kidd was adamant that it was a
deliberate, planned attack on an American ship,” wrote Boston.
“Contrary
to the misinformation presented by Cristol and others, it is important
for the American people to know that it is clear that Israel is
responsible for deliberately attacking an American ship and murdering
American sailors, whose bereaved shipmates have lived with this
egregious conclusion for many years,” Boston declared.
Finally,
Boston reveals that Cristol attempted to misrepresent a brief telephone
interview he conducted with Boston before his first book. “Several
years later, I received a letter from Cristol that contained what he
purported to be his notes of our prior conversation,” declared Boston.
“These ‘notes’ were grossly incorrect and bore no resemblance in reality
to that discussion. I find it hard to believe that these ‘notes’ were
the product of a mistake, rather than an attempt to deceive. I informed
Cristol that I disagreed with his recollection of our conversation and
that he was wrong.”
In
a magazine interview, Boston said, “There is no question in my mind
that those goddamned bastards tried to kill everyone on board. I was the
counsel. I put witnesses on. I talked to kids never exposed to combat
who’d seen their friend’s head blown off. Kids who were crying as they
told me what they’d gone through. Those boys who had their heads blown
away were not out fighting [the Israelis]. They were sunbathing. They
weren’t even given a chance to get to their machine guns.”[63]
I
personally interviewed Captain Boston in his Coronado home in 2003,
where he described the facts he had found and the subsequent cover-up in
outraged detail.
Deconstructing Cristol’s “investigations”
Cristol
repeats in his book the Israeli talking point that multiple
investigations have found Israel innocent of intentionally attacking the
Liberty, but closer examination fails to support his claim. Cristol
claims there were several Congressional investigations, yet the
Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress found “no evidence that
the Congress ever held hearings or launched an investigation into the
June 8, 1967 incident with the USS Liberty.”[64]
An
official Navy response to a Congressional inquiry went even further,
saying, “The Court of Inquiry was the only United States Government
investigation into the attack.” Moreover, the letter said, “That
investigation focused primarily on U.S. military communications problems
prior to the attack and the heroic effort of LIBERTY’s crew in damage
control during the aftermath of the attack.”[65]
In
reality, none of Cristol’s alleged “investigations” turn out to be real
investigations, most of the examinations came to no conclusion or
actually suggested that the attack was intentional,[66] an NSA report
that Cristol claims absolved Israel of guilt actually considers this an
“unanswered question” and tilts toward skepticism of the Israeli
claims,[67] and the week-long Naval Inquiry has since been discredited.
(Cristol’s claim is thoroughly laid to rest in a 2005 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.[68])
Of
all Cristol’s claimed investigations, the inquiry is the closest thing
to a real investigation, yet Cristol fails to include the fact that the
report states, “It was not the responsibility of the court to rule on
the culpability of the attackers.”
Cristol
also omits the statements from Boston and Rear Admiral Merlin Staring
that the inquiry did not find evidence that the attack was accidental.
[See main article for details.]
Cristol
does mention Staring (though he misspells his first name[69]), but he
leaves out Staring’s statement that “the conclusions recorded by the
Court were ordered by the President of the United States and his
Secretary of Defense and were inconsistent with and were contrary to any
evidence the Court of Inquiry had adduced.”[70]
The
publisher of Cristol’s first version of the book in 2001 was Brassey’s,
Inc. Brassey’s was known for its works on military history and had been
the U.S. subsidiary of Brassey’s Ltd, but in 1999 it had come under the
ownership of Books International, a warehouse and distribution company
based in Dulles, Va.[71]
Cristol has a number of connections to Israel.
In
the preface to the first edition of his book, Cristol describes his
longtime friendships with a number of high level Israeli officials and
senior military officers. For example, he describes becoming a close
friend of the Israeli Naval attaché as early as 1976. These Israeli
friends, he boasts, “opened doors” for him.
Cristol
writes in the preface that he began his research on the incident with a
trip to Israel, rather than with American experts and crewmembers – at
least one of whom lives in Florida.
Also
in the preface to his first edition, Cristol reveals that the person
who first suggested he write a book on the Liberty was Dr. Haim Shaked, a
professor at the University of Miami.[72] Interestingly, Cristol fails
to inform readers that Shaked is an Israeli citizen.[73]
The
new edition of the book published by the Naval Institute contains none
of this information, because, oddly, it omits this preface entirely.
While second editions of books occasionally contain an additional
preface for the new edition, standard practice is to also include the
first one.
At
the very bottom of Cristol’s website for his book is, in small print,
“Disclaimer.” This links to an unusual, perhaps unique statement, for
the website of a nonfiction book:[74]
Disclaimer“The information on this site is provided ‘as is’ without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, arising by law or otherwise, including but not limited to warranties of effectiveness, completeness, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk of using this information is born [sic] by the user.”
#
Sidebar 2:
The Naval Institute’s changing position on the Liberty
The
new edition of A Jay Cristol’s book about the USS Liberty was published
last September by the Naval Institute. This is a major about-face for
the Naval Institute, which previously published articles rejecting
Cristol’s conclusions and criticizing his first edition.
Decades
earlier, the Institute praised James Ennes’s book detailing evidence
that Israel’s attack was intentional. The Institute listed Ennes’s book
among its “Notable Naval Books for 1980” and a review in the Institute’s
Proceedings Magazine praised it as “awesome.”[75]
In 2002, the Institute’s Proceedings
magazine published a review of Cristol’s first edition by Rear Admiral
Paul Tobin. Tobin disagreed with Cristol’s conclusion that Israel’s
attack on the Liberty was accidental.[76]
In 2003, Proceedings printed
an in-depth, 5,000-word article detailing numerous fatal flaws with
Cristol’s book. The article also contained evidence that top NSA
officials disagreed with Cristol’s conclusions.[77]
Specifically,
this article reported that the NSA officials interviewed “were unaware
of any agency official at that time or later who dissented from the
‘deliberate’ conclusion.” It quoted the NSA director from 1977-1981 as
saying that he “flatly rejected the Cristol/Israeli thesis” and that
this belief was based on his talks with senior NSA officials who had
direct knowledge of the attack.
In 2005, Proceedings
published yet another article blasting Cristol’s book, calling it “bad
history.” The author, who had been a high level military analyst, wrote
that the attack “was quite deliberate and well planned.”[78]
Yet, in 2012, the Institute reversed itself, announcing plans to print the second version of Cristol’s book.
The
Institute’s current advertising campaign for the book proclaims that
Cristol “interviewed all the major participants.” While it is quite
likely true that Cristol interviewed Israeli officials, his alleged
interviews with Liberty crewmembers consisted of attending a Liberty
Reunion several years ago and having a few brief exchanges at the bar
without identifying himself. He later listed those bar conversations as
“interviews.” Few, if any, were aware that they were being
“interviewed.”
One
crewmember who was listed in Cristol’s acknowledgements for his first
edition, Joe Lentini, has actually written an article that criticizes
Cristol’s book as “based on half truths and highly questionable Israeli
reports” and says that Cristol “reaches the wrong conclusions.” Lentini
reports, on the other hand, that Ennes’s book is accurate.[79]
Some of the claimed endorsements of the book are also suspect.
For
example, Cristol’s website features a sentence of praise from Rear
Admiral Paul Tobin’s review, but leaves out Tobin’s main point: “I and
almost all of the U.S. eyewitnesses do not agree with the author’s
conclusion that it was an unfortunate accident.”[80]
Cristol
claims to provide context on the Six-Day war but leaves out much
information. For example, while he discusses highly regarded
investigative journalist James Bamford and his books, he both misreports
what Bamford had said about the Liberty, and he omits Bamford’s
documentation that the war was planned well in advance in order to take
as much land as possible while making it appear that Arab armies had
attacked Israel (a fiction that Israel told the U.S. at the time, but
now admits was false).[81]
Cristol
also leaves out Bamford’s details on how Israeli forces slaughtered
hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war, who were made to dig their own
graves and were then machine-gunned – information that also was reported
by Israeli media, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others.[82]
Overall,
Cristol’s book reads very much like a legal brief for Israel.[83] Not
only does Cristol value the word of Israel, the attacker, over the word
of the USS Liberty crew and numerous American military officers and
officials, he consistently puts pro-Israel spin on confirmed facts. For
example, Cristol quarrels with a U.S. Navy statement referring to the
Liberty as a “noncombatant,” insisting that the Liberty – whose total
armament consisted of two pairs of small machine guns for repelling
boarders and whose off duty crewmembers were permitted to sunbathe
openly on deck – was a “warship.”
Controversies at the Naval Institute
The
U.S. Naval Institute was founded in 1873 and is located on the grounds
of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Despite its official-sounding
name and Academy location, the Naval Institute is actually a private
organization and has no official ties to the Academy or the U.S. Navy.
It is run by a board of directors.[84]
It’s difficult to know the course of events that caused the Institute’s reversal of its previous position on the Liberty.
One factor may have been changes in personnel.
In recent years there have been a number of leadership changes in Proceedings
magazine, the Naval Institute Press, and the Naval Institute itself.
These seem to have resulted in a number of controversies, and some
critics have suggested that new board members were promoting an agenda
disliked by many of its members.
There
were disputes regarding the board’s attempt to modify the Institute’s
mission statement without input from its members, claims by its chair
(disputed by some members) of financial instability, rumors of secret
plans to sell off the Naval Institute Press,[85] and charges of a
“businessman takeover” of the Naval Institute.[86] [87]
The
vice chair and then chair during this period was Stephen M. Waters,[88]
an investment banker who worked for many years at Lehman brothers,
Morgan Stanley, etc. and eventually founded his own companies (some of
which have connections to Israel).[89] He had served in the Navy for two
years after college. [90]
The
controversy over the plan to change the Institute’s
138-year-old-mission was particularly heated. Military columnist Thomas
Ricks discussed it in a Foreign Policy article entitled “The crazy plan to change the longtime mission of the U.S. Naval Institute in Foreign Policy”[91].
Ricks
wrote: “New players on the Institute’s Board of Directors — retired
Navy flag officers and Board civilians who they’ve taken in — are
proposing to drop the Institute’s stated mission and timeless role as
the ‘Independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and
write in order to advance the professional, literary, and scientific
understanding of sea power and other issues critical to national
defense’
“in
favor of a new statement saying that the Institute exists to be ‘An
Independent Forum advocating the necessity of global sea power for
national security and economic prosperity.’
“There was uproar from the membership.[92]”
Ricks reports:
“How’s
this grand scheme playing out? In the naval blogosphere the comments
are universally against; I’ve yet to see anyone in favor. And the
community is getting fired up to fire the Board, at least those pushing
this harmful initiative.” According to Ricks, six board members were
behind the proposal.
Among the multitude who publicly opposed the board’s move was the Proceedings
editorial board[93]. In a statement published in the magazine, they
wrote that the change was being pushed with an “uncharacteristic lack of
open debate” and said they did do not understand “why the membership
has not been able to hear, debate, and decide collectively what the
outcome should be for such a historic determination.”
The
proposed modification, they warned, had the “potential to change the
character of the institution.” The editors were emphatic: “The
independence of the Institute is paramount; without that openness, the
Institute risks simply becoming an organ of whatever entity, whatever
program, is deemed permissible by only a few, whomever those may be.”
An article in Marine Times[94]
reported that critics felt that foisting advocacy onto the Institute
“would imperil the editorial independence of their publications,
including books, Naval History magazine and the journal Proceedings, which has often served as an avenue for active-duty writers to offer criticism of official policy.”
Vice
Admiral Bob Dunn,[95] who had left active duty as the Navy’s top
aviator, was another who adamantly opposed the change. He cautioned, “If
those with the agenda of changing the mission carry the day in this
instance, the Naval Institute as it has been known since 1873 will
degenerate and eventually pass into history…”[96]
In
his commentary he mentioned that in the upcoming Naval Institute
election he was voting for only one of the proposed board members.
When
it appeared that ninety percent of the Institute’s membership opposed
the change and the board was clearly losing the vote, the board tabled
the resolution on March 17, 2011.
Waters
stepped down the next year but according to a Naval Institute staff
member is still closely involved with the Institute. Vice Chair Nancy
Brown, a retired Navy vice admiral, served as acting chair until the
current chair took office, at which point she returned to her position
as vice chair.
During
this period, a significant change was made in the Institute’s book
publishing arm. Rick Russell, who had been the associate publisher at
Brassey’s and was the person who had chosen to publish Cristol’s book,
was hired in 2007 to be the director of the Naval Institute Press.[97]
When Proceedings
had published its 2005 review criticizing Cristol’s book, Russell had
written in on behalf of Brassey’s defending Cristol’s narrative. Two
years later he was hired to head up the Naval Institute Press.
The
current chair of the Naval Institute is Admiral James G. Stavridis.
Stavridis was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and before he retired
and became head of the Naval Institute, he served as Commander, U.S.
European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Previously,
Stavridis commanded US Southern Command in Miami.[98] (Some wonder
whether these ties to Cristol’s turf are significant.)
Stavridis
has spoken of his fondness for Israel. He visited the country early in
his highly successful career, and in 2011 he received an award from the
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), an advocacy
group that promotes “strengthening Israel.”[99]
At
the awards ceremony, Admiral Stavridis made a speech in which he gushed
about “such a magical evening,” sang the praises of Israel in paragraph
after poetic paragraph, and stated: “One of the great benefits of my
job, as the commander of the U.S. European Command, is that I am charged
with military-to-military relations between the United States and
Israel. I’m fortunate to travel there often… I learn more about Israel
with every visit…” [100]
There
is no indication that Admiral Stavridis has ever visited the Arlington
ceremony for the 34 USS Liberty crewmembers that Israeli forces killed
on June 8, 1967, or listened to the mothers, sisters, sons and shipmates
of the victims.
Alison Weir is president of the Council for the National Interest and executive director of If Americans Knew. She is the author of Against Our Better Judgment: The hidden history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel, which has been called “essential in understanding today’s world.” She can be reached at Alisonweir@cnionline.org.
Notes
[1]
One of the most thorough documents on the incident is “A Report: War
Crimes Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel, June 8, 1967:
Submitted to the Secretary of the Army in his capacity as Executive
Agent for the Secretary of Defense, June 8, 2005”
http://www.ussliberty.org/ report/report.htm Also see the recommended books and reports noted below, as well as statements at http://www.usslibertyveterans. org/files/docs.pdf .
[2] James Lee Lenau, January 9, 1947 – June 8, 1967: http://ifamericansknew.org/us_ ints/james-lee-lenau.html
[3]
Author interview with Lieutenant Commander (retired) David Lewis, who
had been chief intelligence officer on the USS Liberty. Also reported in
USS Liberty time line: http://www.ifamericansknew. org/us_ints/ul-ameu.html and http://www.public-action.com/ 911/USSLiberty-lewis.txt A recorded statement by Lewis can be listened to at http://home.roadrunner.com/~ gidusko/liberty/cdrlewis.mp3
[4] David Skolak – http://ifamericansknew.org/us_ ints/david-skolak.html
[6] Ennes, Assault, pp. 176-77.
[7]
There has been a scattering of strong journalistic reports throughout
the past 45+ years. The first was an AP report by Colin Frost.
One of the most thorough was: “Congressional inquiries got nowhere,” by John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent Chicago Tribune, October 2, 2007
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has covered the subject well, as has the Link, CounterPunch.org, and journalists David Walsh and Bryant Jordan at military publications.
[8] See, for example, “American Media Miss the Boat: For USA Today, Freedom of the Press Means the Right to Report It Wrong,” CounterPunch, June 23/24, 2007
US
news organizations have a pattern of reporting on the Middle East in a
highly Israel-centric manner. For more on this see the media studies and
analysis at http://ifamericansknew.org/ media/ and the following articles:
US Media and Israeli Military: All in the Family, CounterPunch, Feb 25, 2010.
“Ethan Bronner’s Conflict With Impartiality: NYT’s Israel Editor’s Sticky Situation,” by Alison Weir, CounterPunch, February 5 – 7, 2010
“Jodi Rudoren, Another Member of the Family: Meet the New York Times’ New Israel-Palestine News Chief,” by Alison Weir, CounterPunch, February 2012 http://ifamericansknew.org/ media/meet-nyt.html
“Myra Noveck & the New York Times: Another journalist with children in the Israeli military,” by Alison Weir, CounterPunch, July 26, 2013.
[9] These are “Dead in the Water,” shown on BBC ( http://youtu.be/52U-uXmhJ_M ); “Cover Up: Attack On The USS Liberty,” shown on the History Channel (view at: http://vimeo.com/15441774 purchase at http://shop.history.com/cover- up-attack-on-the-uss-liberty- dvd/detail.php?p=68276 ); and “Loss of Liberty,” by Tito Howard (view at
http://youtu.be/fFQrsdj7BLs – includes Medal of Honor recipients’ testimony).
(The
History Channel, after airing the documentary, posted an Israel
apologia criticizing the film that was authored by Judith Apter
Klinghoffer, who currently lives in Israel.
[10] “The USS Liberty Affair,” by James Ennes, Jr. The Link, May-June 1984, Volume 17, Issue 2.
[11]
Email communication from VFW. The VFW’s electronic achieves go back to
1996 and contain seven resolutions calling for an investigation. It is
probable that there were also resolutions in the preceding 20 years, but
these years are not yet part of the electronic archive.
[12] Garrett, Paul D., and Kathleen A. Purpura. Frank Maria: A Search for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007. 280
[13] Resolution #508
[14]
After refusing to pay the United States anything for the $40 million
ship it had destroyed (the ship was damaged so badly that it ended up
being sold for scrap), Israel finally paid $6 million. In exchange, the
U.S. dropped claims to $10 million worth of interest.
Author
John Borne points out, “It was not entirely coincidental that Senator
Adlai Stevenson had announced… that he intended to hold hearings on the
matter. The settlement was quickly negotiated and the matter finally
closed. – Borne, John E. The USS Liberty: Dissenting History vs. Official History. 1995, 1995, p. 119.
[15] http://www.ussliberty.org/ sources.htm and Borne, p. 170.
[17] Borne, Dissenting History. 119. (The ship was damaged so badly that it was declared unsalvageable and sold for scrap a few years later.)
[18] Borne, p. 171.
[19] Borne, p. 171.
[20] Borne, p. 171.
[22] Borne, p. 171.
[23]
Communication from American Legion Librarian Howard Trace: “The text of
resolution 385 from the 1986 National Convention is below. The
Convention Committee on Credentials and Internal Affairs recommended
that the resolution be referred to the Internal Affairs Commission,
which was the action taken by the National Convention. At the October
1986 meeting of the National Executive Committee the Internal Affairs
Commission recommended that the resolution be received and recorded,
which was the action of the National Executive Committee.
WHEREAS,
On June 8, 1967, while on official orders in International waters in
the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the U.S.S. Liberty was attacked by
Israeli air and naval forces; and
WHEREAS,
34 U.S. Seamen were killed and 170 were wounded in this attack and only
the courage and resourcefulness of remaining crew members prevented
further loss of life, and of the ship itself; and
WHEREAS, Men who died in that attack have never been honored by their country in any meaningful way; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED,
by The American Legion in National Convention assembled in Cincinnati,
Ohio, September 2, 3, 4, 1986; that The American Legion should petition
the United States Postal Service to design a postage stamp in memory of
the U.S.S. Liberty and its courageous crew, and to have this stamp
released on June 8, 1987, the 20th anniversary of the attack on the
ship.
[24] Bill Summary & Status, 93rd Congress (1973 – 1974), H.R.959, All Information – http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ bdquery/D?d093:1:./temp/~ bd0XSu:@@@L&summ2=m&
The
Congressional Biographical Directory reports that Rarick had “served in
the United States Army for three years in the Second World War during
which time he was captured and later escaped from a German prison camp;
awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.” http://bioguide.congress.gov/ scripts/biodisplay.pl?index= R000065
[25] AMERICAN LEGION RESOLUTION NO. : 205
SUBJECT : RECOGNITION OF CREW OF USS LIBERTY
The
statistic on number of wounded has grown through the years because the
dispersal of the crew following the attack prevented the total number
from being known. Currently, 174 crewmembers have been confirmed to have
been injured during the attack. There may be others who have not yet
come forward. In his book on the incident, Beyond Treason: Reflections on the Cover-up of the June 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty an American Spy Ship, Robert J. Allen writes that one additional injured crewmember has come forward, which would bring the total 175.
Giraldi, Philip. “Rick Perry Abuses His Office for Israel” August 4, 2011. Antiwar.com.
[28]
The resolving clauses were, according to its author Dr. Ernest Sohns:
“Congress should (1) conduct a full investigation and (2) that the
public and surviving Liberty members and their families were entitled to
an investigation.”
[30] Admiral Moorer had long been an outspoken critic of the cover-up on the Liberty. In a 1997 memo he wrote:
I
have never believed that the attack on the USS Liberty was a case of
mistaken identity. That is ridiculous. I have flown over the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans, thousands of hours, searching for ships and
identifying all types of ships at sea.
The Liberty was the ugliest, strangest looking ship in the U.S. Navy.
As
a communications intelligence ship, it was sprouting every kind of
antenna. It looked like a lobster with all those projections moving
every which way. Israel knew perfectly well that the ship was American.
After all, the Liberty’s American flag and markings were in full view in
perfect visibility for the Israeli aircraft that overflew the ship
eight times over a period of nearly eight hours prior to the attack.
I
am confident that Israel knew the Liberty could intercept radio
messages from all parties and potential parties to the ongoing war, then
in its fourth day, and that Israel was preparing to seize the Golan
Heights from Syria despite President Johnson’s known opposition to such a
move. I think they realized that if we learned in advance of their
plan, there would be a tremendous amount of negotiating between Tel Aviv
and Washington.
And
I believe Moshe Dayan concluded that he could prevent Washington from
becoming aware of what Israel was up to by destroying the primary source
of acquiring that information – the USS Liberty.
The
result was a wanton sneak attack that left 34 American sailors dead and
171 seriously injured. What is so chilling and cold-blooded, of course,
is that they could kill as many Americans as they did in confidence
that Washington would cooperate in quelling any public outcry. I have to
conclude that it was Israel’s intent to sink the Liberty and leave as
few survivors as possible. Up to the point where the torpedo boats were
sent in, you could speculate on that point.
You
have to remember that the Liberty was an intelligence ship, not a
fighting ship, and its only defensive weapons were a pair of 50-caliber
machine guns both aft and on the forecastle. There was little the men
could do to fight off the air assault from Israeli jets that pounded the
Liberty with bombs, rockets, napalm and machine gun fire for 25
minutes.
With
the Liberty riddled with holes, fires burning, and scores of
casualties, three Israeli torpedo boats closed in for the kill. The
second of three torpedoes ripped through a compartment at amidships,
drowning 25 of the men in that section.
Then
the torpedo boats closed to within 100 feet of the Liberty to continue
the attack with cannons and machine guns, resulting in further
casualties.
It
is telling, with respect to whether total annihilation was the intent,
that the Liberty crew has reported that the torpedo boats’ machine guns
also were turned on life rafts that were deployed into the Mediterranean
as well as those few on deck that had escaped damage.
As
we know now, if the rescue aircraft from U.S. carriers had not been
recalled, they would have arrived at the Liberty before the torpedo
attack, reducing the death toll by 25. The torpedo boat commanders
could not be certain that Sixth Fleet aircraft were not on the way and
this might have led to their breaking off the attack after 40 minutes
rather than remaining to send the Liberty and its crew of 294 to the
bottom.
Congress
to this day has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on the
Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace.
I
spent hours on the Hill giving testimony after the USS Pueblo, a sister
ship to the Liberty, was seized by North Korea. I was asked every
imaginable question, including why a carrier in the area failed to
dispatch aircraft to aid the Pueblo. In the Liberty case, fighters were
put in the air – not once, but twice.
They
were ordered to stand down by Secretary of Defense McNamara and
President Johnson for reasons the American public deserves to know.
The
captain and crew of the Liberty, rather than being widely acclaimed as
the heroes they most certainly are, have been silenced, ignored, honored
belatedly and away from the cameras, and denied a history that
accurately reflects their ordeal.
I
was appalled that six of the dead from the Liberty lay under a
tombstone at Arlington Cemetery that described them as having “died in
the eastern Mediterranean,” as if disease rather than Israeli intent had
caused their deaths. The Naval Academy failed to record the name of
Lt. Stephen Toth in Memorial Hall on the grounds that he had not been
killed in battle. I intervened and was able to reverse the apparent
idea that dying in a cowardly, one-sided attack by a supposed ally is
somehow not the same as being killed by an avowed enemy.
Commander
McGonagle’s story is the stuff of naval tradition. Badly wounded in
the first air attack, lying on the deck and losing blood, he refused any
treatment that would take him from his battle station on the bridge.
He continued to direct the ship’s defense, the control of flooding and
fire, and by his own example inspired the survivors to heroic efforts to
save the ship. He did not relinquish his post until hours later, after
having directed the crippled ship’s navigation to a rendezvous with a
U.S. destroyer and final arrival in Malta.
I
must have gone to the White House 15 times or more to watch the
President personally award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Americans
of special valor. So it irked the hell out of me when McGonagle’s
ceremony was relegated to the obscurity of the Washington Navy Yard and
the medal was presented by the Secretary of the Navy. This was a
back-handed slap. Everyone else received their medal at the White
House. President Johnson must have been concerned about the reaction of
the Israeli lobby.
The
Liberty Veterans Association deserves the encouragement of everyone who
wants the facts of the Liberty incident revealed and proper homage paid
to the men who lost their lives, to their families, and to the
survivors. I have attended many of their reunions and am always
impressed with the cohesion of the Liberty family. They arrive in town
with their whole entourage – grandmas, grandpas, grandchildren. They
promote the memory of the boys who were killed and I respect them for
that. They are mostly from small country towns, probably a lot like
Eufaula, Alabama, where I grew up, and they represent the basic core of
America that has enabled us to be a superpower for so long. These are
the kind of people who will make certain that our liberty and freedom
survive if fighting is what it takes.
- The Link, Vol.30, Issue 3, July-August, 1997, published
By Americans for Middle East Understanding
[32]
Witnesses report that Lyndon Johnson personally ordered rescue flights
be recalled, saying that he didn’t want “our ally to be embarrassed.”
Johnson later ordered that the one quickie inquiry into the attack cover
up the fact that all the evidence indicated that it had been
intentional. An excellent article about Johnson during this time and his
close relationships with pro-Israel advisors such as Walt Rostow and
friends such as Mathilde Krim (a former member of a Zionist paramilitary
group) is “How LBJ’s Vietnam War Paralyzed His Mideast Policymakers,”
by Grace Halsell, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1993, 20.
[33]
Feeling that Legion members had the right to know of Admiral Moorer’s
letter, I assisted Josie in handing it out. The Legion’s security
official also tried, and failed, to have me arrested for an activity
that was both highly legal and that was in accord with the Legion’s
official mandate of helping U.S. veterans. Legion members, with only one
exception, took the letter without objection. Some thanked me for
distributing it.
[34] “American Legion leader enjoys homecoming visit,” By Beth Perdue, Standard-Times Correspondent, April 14, 2002.
[35] Bio included in http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ American+Legion+National+ Commander+to+Tour+Indiana+ American+Legion…-a081107300
.[35] There is an urban myth that American League commanders are
uncompensated; in reality they appear to have an annual salary of about
$200,000.
[36] Open letter to Onderdonk from Arens, posted at http://www.usslibertyveterans. org/files/ ArensLtrtoALOnderdonk.pdf
[37]
Military.com associate editor Jordan Bryant describes a brief interview
he conducted with Onderdonk in which he asked Onderdonk about his
comment to Arens.
Jordan
writes, “Onderdonk acknowledged he told Arens the ship should not have
been there ‘because it was too close to shore.’ He said he knew it was
too close to shore because he had seen photos taken from where the ship
was and you could see land.”
Bryant
then pointed out two things to Onderdonk. “One was that Liberty’s
location in international waters has never been in dispute. The other is
that what he saw in the photos proves nothing, that I could see Morocco
from Gibraltar but that did not put me in Moroccan waters.”
[38] US Naval Court of Inquiry report, p. 158.
[39] Ernest “Ernie” Gallo was president of the Liberty Veterans Association and is the author of Liberty Injustices: A Survivor’s Account of American Bigotry, ClearView Press, 2013.
[40] Statement by Glenn Oliphant. (The Legion refused to answer questions.) Additional information in Liberty Injustices: A Survivor’s Account of American Bigotry, by Ernest A. Gallo, 110-112.
[42]
March, 16, 2005 response to Congressman Rob Simmons on official
Department of the Navy letterhead by Jane G. Dalton, Captain, JAGC, U.S.
Navy. Dalton was the Navy’s Assistant Judge Advocate General for Civil
Law and managed a 75-person legal team that advised the Secretary of the
Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations. http://www.google.com/url?sa= t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web& cd=4&ved=0CDkQFjAD&url=http% 3A%2F%2Fwww.cap-press.com% 2Fpdf%2F1550.pdf&ei=Go- FUsCoLOHWiwLm-YCgBA&usg= AFQjCNExjq6R5mFPnsAJZBKYUAo4Qx lLsw&bvm=bv.56643336,d.cGE& cad=rja
[43]
The attorney, Merlin Staring, eventually became a rear admiral in
charge of the entire legal department of the U.S. Navy. His speech at
the Navy Memorial June 8, 2007 can be viewed at http://www.ifamericansknew. org/us_ints/ul-staring.html
Boston’s
declaration can also be accessed at the link below, as well as
declarations by other personnel testifying about the cover-up: http://www.usslibertyinquiry. com/evidence/witness/witness. html
[46]
King was a Captain and McDonald’s assistant in 1967. He said that no
one at the time believed Israeli forces had confused the Liberty for a
37-year-old Egyptian horse transport half its length. King said, “It
certainly was not mistaken identity. I don’t buy it. I never did. Nobody
that I knew ever did either.” – James Scott, Attack on the Liberty,
p. 233. Scott’s excellent book, published in 2009 by Simon and
Schuster, contains significant information not available when Ennes and
Borne wrote their books.
[47] http://ifamericansknew.org/us_ ints/ul-commfindings.html Findings
of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on the
USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the
Ship was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States
Government, CAPITOL HILL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
OCTOBER 22, 2003 – http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ query/Z?r108:E11OC4-0056:
OCTOBER 22, 2003 – http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
[49] “Remember the Liberty,” by John Borne, The Link, July-August 1997
[50] See a partial list of the Israel lobby (with a combined annual budget somewhere in the range of a billion dollars) at http://www. councilforthenationalinterest. org/israellobby/israellobby
An example of a person who supports the crew: http://hnn.us/article/194
[51] Beyond Treason: Reflections on the Cover-up of the June 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty an American Spy Ship, by Robert J. Allen, J.D. particularly analyzes Cristol’s legalistic approach.
Allen,
who is a retired police investigative captain, deconstructs some of
Cristol’s strategies. For example, Allen writes that while “Judge
Cristol in his book cites the Hearsay Rule to denigrate and impeach the
witness contentions of the Liberty crew,” the reality is that
such information is often “given a presumptive credence and probative
value” and is regularly used in investigating crimes, obtaining search
warrants, bringing about indictments in federal court, etc. (pp 110,
455-456) While Allen’s book is unfortunately marred by lack of editing
and typos, it contains a useful forensic investigation of the attack,
provides significant information on NSA actions, and demonstrates places
where Cristol’s book at times inadvertently provides evidence counter
to his claims.
[54] Some articles have also taken an anti-Liberty stand, including pieces by Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News and by Israeli Ambassador (and former Israeli military officer) Michael Oren in the New Republic. For a detailed rebuttal of the claims in these articles, some of which were taken up by Cristol, see
[55]
It is difficult to learn much about Cristol’s personal background
despite his prominent position as an author and governmental official,
whether he received outside funding for his project, and the names of
those who assisted him in writing his book. He refuses to divulge what
the “A” in his name stands for (it appears to be Ahron) and has not
responded to requests for an interview. It appears from census records
that his great grandfather was among the first wave of Jewish colonists
who had gone to Palestine in the late 1800s to create a Jewish state on
land that that at that time was approximately 80 percent Muslim, 15
percent Christian, and 5 percent Jewish.
There
have at times been criticisms of Cristol’s judicial actions in Miami.
In his role as a bankruptcy judge in Miami, Cristol sometimes
adjudicates cases involving extremely large sums of money. According to
mainstream news reports, a Miami lawyer-accountant that Cristol
sometimes assigned as a bankruptcy trustee was found to have been
involved in a decade-long shell game. The IRS also said that the man,
Lewis Freeman, owed millions of dollars for his public promotion of what
they termed a tax dodge. Cristol’s connection to Freeman was mentioned
in several articles about the scandal. The articles reported that
Cristol called Freeman “an expert in his field” and said that his
criminality came as “a total shock” to Cristol. Cristol called his fall
from grace “an unimaginable, terrible tragedy.” An article
pointed out, however, that Freeman’s work had been called into question
years earlier and that some people had tried to remove him from a case
at the time. See for example:
- Siobhan Morrissey, “Fall From Grace,” ABA Journal, June 10, 2010.
- John Pacenti and Jose Pagliery, “Prominent Miami Receiver Charged in Multimillion-Dollar Fraud,” Daily Business Review, Feb. 4, 2010
There are also some anonymous Internet articles (e.g. http://barejustice.com/news. court.florida.corruption. bankruptcy-060311.html ) that accuse Cristol of “cronyism.”
[56] http://archive.frontpagemag. com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID= 17293 – Another Anti-Semitic Canard Dies, By: Nathan Guttman Ha’aretz | Thursday, July 10, 2003
“Judge Cristol tells Post how he set record straight on USS Liberty”,
Jerusalem Post Jul. 10, 2003 | JOEL LEYDEN
Jerusalem Post Jul. 10, 2003 | JOEL LEYDEN
[57] Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1999, page 62, “The Liberty Incident,” By A. Jay Cristol, Univ. of Miami, 1997. Reviewed by John E. Borne.
An earlier article by Borne also discusses Cristol’s claims: A CLOSER LOOK AT A. JAY CRISTOL’S DISSERTATION. John E. Borne
See also: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
May-June 2007, pages 26-27, “Special Report: Four Decades of Twisting
Facts About Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty,” By James Ennes
Cristol refuses to debate – see http://www.ussliberty.org/ gotcher2cristol.htm
[58]
Declaration of Ward Boston, Jr., Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.) Counsel to
the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry’s investigation into the Israeli attack
on the USS Liberty
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 2003, pages 42, 53, “Navy Captain, Other Officials Call for Investigation of Israel’s Attack on USS Liberty”
By Delinda C. Hanley
“Israel Attack On USS Liberty ‘No Accident’ Says Helms,” By Bryant Jordan, Staff Writer, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, 7-7-2
[59] p. 149.
[60] “Why You Shouldn’t Pay Attention to the Claims that Israel Attacked the USS Liberty,” A Jay Cristol, History News Network.
[61]
Instead, he mentions only one small part of what Boston said, and then
goes on to describe a strategy that lawyers use to discredit statements
that hurt their case.
[62] Declaration of Ward Boston, Jr., Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
[63] “Navy Captain, Other Officials Call for Investigation of Israel’s Attack on USS Liberty,” By Delinda C. Hanley, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 2003, pages 42, 53
[65]
March, 16, 2005 response to Congressman Rob Simmons on official
Department of the Navy letterhead by Jane G. Dalton, Captain, JAGC, U.S.
Navy. Dalton was the Navy’s Assistant Judge Advocate General for Civil
Law and managed a 75-person legal team that advised the Secretary of the
Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations. http://www.google.com/url?sa= t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web& cd=4&ved=0CDkQFjAD&url=http% 3A%2F%2Fwww.cap-press.com% 2Fpdf%2F1550.pdf&ei=Go- FUsCoLOHWiwLm-YCgBA&usg= AFQjCNExjq6R5mFPnsAJZBKYUAo4Qx lLsw&bvm=bv.56643336,d.cGE& cad=rja
[66]
For example, one of the alleged ten investigations was a report by a
single individual, Clark Clifford, done without any staff and without a
firm conclusion as to the cause of the attack. Cristol claims that
Clifford later told him that the attack was “a mistake,” and then
includes a partial quote from Clifford’s memoir that appears to
substantiate this statement: “[T]here was no evidence that the highest
levels of the Israeli government… were aware of Liberty’s true
identity…”
However,
Cristol leaves out Clifford’s statement in the same book demonstrating
that Clifford did not believe in the “mistaken identity” version put
forth by Cristol: “I do not know to this day at what level the attack on
the Liberty was authorized and I think it is unlikely that the full
truth will ever come out…” p. 447.
[67]
On page 171 Cristol writes that the NSA “concluded in the report that
the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian ship as a result of
miscalculations and egregious errors.”
However,
the NSA report actually states, “The fact that two separate torpedo
boat commanders made the same false identification only raises the
question of the veracity of both commanders. The El Kasir [the Egyptian
ship] was approximately one-quarter of the Liberty tonnage, about
one-half its length, and offered a radically different silhouette. To
claim that the Liberty closely resembled the El Kasir was most
illogical.”
The
report also specifically notes, “When NSA’s deputy director read the
decision of the Israeli Defense Forces Preliminary Inquiry, he summed up
his personal feelings on the subject by calling it ‘a nice whitewash.’”
Finally,
Cristol fails to inform readers that the lead author of the report,
William D. Gerhard, wrote a synopsis of the attack, Attack on the USS Liberty: An Edited Version of SRH-256, available in a book by the Aegean Park Press, that thoroughly discredits Cristol’s claim that the attack was unintentional.
This
book reveals that Israel’s official preliminary investigation into the
attack, “The Yerushalmi report,” was suppressed and reports that those
who tried to obtain it were sometimes told that the release would
“embarrass an ally.”
Gerhard’s
book also includes a report by Carl F. Salans, a legal advisor to the
U.S. Department of State, which examined the Israeli report that
concluded that Israel’s attack was “accidental.” Salans’ report found
that virtually every major Israeli point was contradicted by U.S.
information.
Finally,
the book also includes “A Juridical Examination of the Israeli Attack
on the USS Liberty” by Lieutenant Commander Walter L. Jacobsen, JAGC,
USN, published by the Naval Law Review, Winter 1986. This states:
“The Israeli attack on the Liberty was intentional and premeditated.”
It further says, “The decision to attack the Liberty was a conscious
one, taken by Israeli leadership in the command center,” and provides
considerable information for this conclusion.
[68] “Cristol Claim of 13 Investigations Into Israel’s Attack on USS Liberty a Travesty,”
By Terence O’Keefe, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2003, pages 14-15.
[69]
While anyone should be forgiven for typos, it is perhaps revealing that
Cristol continually calls Merlin Staring “Merwin” Staring, and does
this in both versions of his book. This suggests that the Naval
Institute did not fact-check the book before publishing it.
[71] Publishers Weekly, “Brassey’s Inc. Acquired” Oct 04, 1999 – http://www.publishersweekly. com/pw/print/19991004/24043- brassey-s-inc-acquired.html
[72] Cristol, The Liberty Incident, Brassey’s, 2002, p. xviii http://www.as.miami.edu/ judaic/pdf/Shaked-Bio.pdf
[74] http://libertyincident.com/ disclaimer.html – accessed May 14, 2014.
[76] Book Review: The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Spy Ship, United States Naval Institute. Proceedings Annapolis. Author: Tobin, Paul, Aug 2002, p. 88
[77] “Friendless Fire?” By David C. Walsh, Proceedings Magazine, June 2003, http://www.usni.org/magazines/ proceedings/2003-06/ friendless-fire
Also available (but without sidebar) on Military.com:
In
addition to Inman, the officials were Oliver Kirby, the “godfather” of
the NSA’s Auxiliary General Technical Research program; retired Air
Force Major General John Morrison, the agency’s then-second-in-command;
and former NSA Director retired Army Lieutenant General William Odom.
[78] “Liberty Victims Did Not Die in Vain,” by Anthony R. Wells, US Naval Institute Proceedings, March 2005, pp. 88-89.
[80] http://www.thelibertyincident. com/book.html
and The Liberty Incident: The 1967 “Israeli Attack on the U.S. Spy
Ship” United States Naval Institute. Proceedings Annapolis, Author:
Tobin, Paul, Aug 2002, p. 88
Cristol
also states that Vice Admiral Donald D. Engen praised his work. But the
allegedly direct quote he cites from Engen’s book, “Wings and Warriors: My Life as a Naval Aviator,”
is actually a modification of what Engen had written. In the book Engen
actually calls Cristol “Rear Admiral [sic] Jay Crystol [sic],” bringing
into question how carefully, or even whether, Engen read Cristol’s
work. This is possibly why Cristol quotes him inaccurately.
[83] See note #48 for the discussion of this by Robert J. Allen, J.D.
[85] http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/04/us-naval-institute- someone-lied-for-1.html
– On the official Naval Institute blog a regular contributor wrote: “I
honestly believe Steve Waters, John Morgan, Nancy Brown, and the other
Board of Director members are dishonest and potentially deceitful, and I
have been provided enough evidence to convince myself that legal
counsel flat out lied to the membership today and to the face during a
direct question from of one of the very few Naval Officers in attendance
at the annual meeting. Until those people are no longer running the
organization as members of the Board of Directors, I see no reason to
volunteer my time supporting that organization, because USNI isn’t going
anywhere anyway.”
[86] Posts from the Naval Institute website and its related blog, “Information Dissemination”: http://blog.usni.org/2011/03/ 14/a-letter-from-stephen-m- waters-u-s-naval-institute- board-of-directors and http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/04/united-states-naval- institute-open.html and http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/04/us-naval-institute- someone-lied-for-1.html and http://blog.usni.org/?s=% 22steve+waters%22&x=0&y=0 April 2011. http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/04/united-states-naval- institute-letter-to.html and http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/02/us-naval-institute- mails-bad-ballots-to.html and http://www. informationdissemination.net/ 2011/03/united-states-naval- institute-new.html and http://www.usni.org/us-naval- institute-2011-member-ballot
[87] Sam Fellman, Staff writer Naval Institute, “board nixes change to charter,” Marine Corp Times, March 23, 2011
[97] http://alt.revisionism. narkive.com/tAkhvBVK/uss- liberty-another-investigation. 3 and http://webcache. googleusercontent.com/search? q=cache:dZBsik6uif0J:www. zoominfo.com/p/Patrick- Russell/33565174+&cd=8&hl=en& ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a and http://connection.ebscohost. com/c/articles/16997025/ liberty-victims-did-not-die- vain
[99] Its website is http://www.jinsa.org/
. One of JINSA’s activities has been to take hundreds of top ranking
military officers on trips to Israel, where they are “well briefed on
the security concerns of Israel, as well as the key role Israel plays as
a friend and ally of the U.S.” http://www.jinsa.org/programs/ about-jinsas-generals-and- admirals-trip-israel#. UiKG9LyhWBU
[100] “JINSA Presents Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award to Admiral James G. Stavridis, Nov. 16, 2011 – http://www.jinsa.org/events/ annual-awards-dinners/henry-m- scoop-jackson-distinguished- service-award-dinners/jinsa- present#.UgxeYlOhWfU and http://www.jinsa.org/events- programs/jackson-award- dinners/speech-admiral-james- stavridis-commander-us- european-command-u#. Ug1pzVOhXUo
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