Studeo
19th June 2010, 09:25
FLOTILLA ATTACK MIRRORS USS LIBERTY
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/FLotillaAttackMirrorsUSSLiberty.htm
By Harmony Grant Daws
17 June 10
Thanks to the internet, Israel’s terrorist attack on the Free Gaza
ship, Mavi Marmara, could hardly be less publicized. Yet on June 8,
1967—43 years ago—Israeli air and sea forces attacked another ship in
international waters. It was the USS Liberty, conspicuously flying its
American flag in clear weather; Israel used bombs, napalm and
torpedoes against it. The attack on the Liberty remains the only
maritime incident involving fatalities in US history which was never
investigated by Congress. The attack occurred in international waters,
and reports by eyewitnesses flatly contradict the Israel-excusing
narrative to which the US agreed.
This article examines stunning parallels between the Liberty attack
and the recent brutal takeover of the Gaza-bound flotilla. Both
attacks occurred in international waters. In both, Israel
heavy-handedly silenced eyewitnesses, discredited survivors,
controlled a biased investigation—after having ordered the attacks to
protect an even greater crime.
Joe Meadors survived both attacks. He was aboard the Liberty in 1967
and also an activist passenger on the flotilla this June. Meadors says
international waters were violated both times. The Israelis, he says,
“ think they can do no wrong. Every time they speak they say they
don’t break any laws, they always abide by international laws. But,
they break them with impunity and the US Government is not going to
hold them accountable, nobody is.”
Is such pessimism warranted? It certainly is.
Forty-three years have passed since 34 servicemen were killed by
Israel in international waters. The truth seems just as sinkable
today.
Silencing Witnesses, Jamming Communication Devices
During the flotilla attack, one journalist was able to broadcast 90
seconds of live coverage to Al Jazeera, and then communication was cut
off, as the Israelis jammed the activists’ communication devices. This
is exactly what happened on board the Liberty. Communication devices
were jammed with what survivors described as a “buzzsaw sound.”
The brief video dispatched to Al Jazeera reports civilian activists
attacked with live fire by the IDF even while waving the white flag of
surrender—dozens injured and several killed in international waters,
while bearing aid to try to break the Gaza blockade. A Brazilian
filmmaker was also able to smuggle out 60 minutes of tape in her
underwear. The rest of the physical evidence—cameras and film—were
seized by Israel and have still not been returned.
As the news about the flotilla attack was first surfacing, Israel
dominated the information flow; the eyewitness survivors were being
“quietly herded to Ashdod without means of communication to the
outside world.”
Similarly, when the wounded were finally being evacuated from the
Liberty, they were commanded not to speak to the press about what had
happened. Thirty-four US soldiers were dead and 174 were wounded—yet
eyewitnesses were not able to tell what they had seen and heard.
Discrediting and Silencing Survivors
After the flotilla event and continuing today, ADL/Israel has focused
on discrediting the flotilla passengers by linking them to
international terrorist groups. New York officials are asking the
State Department to look into the visa applications of flotilla
survivors who want to share their testimony in Brooklyn. Jewish
Senator Chuck Schumer—who recently said Gaza should be economically
strangled until it admits Israel’s right to exist—is forcefully
insinuating that the flotilla activists are linked to Al Qaeda. Thus,
flotilla survivors who raise their heads are threatened with personal
investigations and public slander, pressuring them to keep their
mouths shut.
Survivors of the Liberty who knew Israel had purposefully attacked
their vessel were also silenced. Richard Larry Weaver, a seaman aboard
the Liberty, says he was visited in the hospital by a three-star
admiral. The admiral asked what had happened on the Liberty; and when
Weaver stated his testimony, the admiral said, “ “If you tell anyone
what happened you will be put in prison and we’ll lose the key.”
Investigation by Biased Parties
The investigation of the U.S.S. Liberty was conducted by the US Navy,
which forbade eyewitnesses from reporting their testimony. “Within
three weeks, the Navy put out a 700-page report, exonerating the
Israelis, claiming the attack had been accidental and that the
Israelis had pulled back as soon as they realized their mistake.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara suggested the whole affair should be
forgotten. ‘These errors do occur,’ McNamara concluded.”
The attack on the Liberty remains the only maritime incident in US
history, involving fatalities, which was never investigated by
Congress. The Liberty Veterans Association, composed of survivors,
says the inquiry didn’t even examine Israeli culpability but only
focused on American miscommunications. No Israelis were questioned.
All known survivors agree the attack was deliberate. But then, as
today, the USA colluded with Israel to cover up the attacks and
slaying of American citizens.
A Turkish-American was killed during the raid of the flotilla yet is
receiving no justice from his country -- just the opposite: A senator
has called for the arrest and prosecution of any Americans on board
the vessels! The “inquiry” into the flotilla attack will be as much a
sham as the Navy’s 700-page report on the U.S.S. Liberty. The US has
agreed that an independent Israeli committee should look into the
attack! The Jewish Forward admits there will be no real investigation
of the Israeli military’s attack on the flotilla; only policy
decisions will be examined. There will be a virtual “firewall” between
the inquiry and the military.
“The panel will not be able to investigate firsthand the events on the
ship and will not be able to judge between the two contradicting
narratives — the Israeli storyline that depicts an encounter between
lightly armed commandos and bloodthirsty terrorists, and the Turkish
one that talks of peace activists on their way to a humanitarian
relief mission brutally attacked by the Israeli navy. Furthermore,
preferring an Israeli committee to an international panel means that
investigators would likely have little to no access to the activists
who were on board the ships.”
Violence Protects an Even Greater Crime
It is certain that Israel attacked the Liberty to cover up even more
sinister crimes. In 1995, two shallow mass graves of Egyptian soldiers
were discovered outside the Sinai city of El Arish; they were
prisoners of war slaughtered by the Israeli army. James Bamford, in
his 2001 Body of Secrets, suggests the Liberty, an intelligence ship,
may have been attacked to prevent its discovery of these slaughters,
to which Israeli veterans have admitted. A retired Israeli general
personally admitted to murdering 49 surrendered and unarmed Egyptian
POWs with submachine gunfire during the 1967 war.
George Ball, Undersecretary of State under Johnson and Kennedy,
authored a 1992 book, The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement
with Israel, 1947 to the Present. Ball’s book presents his conviction
that the Liberty was attacked to prevent it from interfering with
Israel’s plan to violate any ceasefire until it had completely seized
the Golan Heights.
Ball reports, “Yet the ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack had far
more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel’s leaders
concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the
point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to
punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed
clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost
anything.”
This has certainly been proven true in 2010. While the world gasps in
horror, the United States stands with Israel’s “right to
self-defense,” regardless of the cost in innocent life and the
violation of international law.
Just as the Liberty was attacked to protect even greater crimes, so
the Gaza-bound flotillas were attacked to prevent their interference
with the continued blockade of Gaza—an atrocity that keeps 1.5 million
people crowded into an open air prison. An Israeli Arab MK has told
the European Parliament that Israeli leaders should be tried at The
Hague for their crimes; in preventing medical supplies and medicine
into Gaza, Israel has caused at least 700 Palestinian deaths at its
border crossings, he said.
Incredibly, pro-Israel America, particularly Christian conservatives,
will not face the truth about these even darker realities.
History has shown that if we ignore dark realities in the present,
darker ones are sure to come
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/FLotillaAttackMirrorsUSSLiberty.htm
By Harmony Grant Daws
17 June 10
Thanks to the internet, Israel’s terrorist attack on the Free Gaza
ship, Mavi Marmara, could hardly be less publicized. Yet on June 8,
1967—43 years ago—Israeli air and sea forces attacked another ship in
international waters. It was the USS Liberty, conspicuously flying its
American flag in clear weather; Israel used bombs, napalm and
torpedoes against it. The attack on the Liberty remains the only
maritime incident involving fatalities in US history which was never
investigated by Congress. The attack occurred in international waters,
and reports by eyewitnesses flatly contradict the Israel-excusing
narrative to which the US agreed.
This article examines stunning parallels between the Liberty attack
and the recent brutal takeover of the Gaza-bound flotilla. Both
attacks occurred in international waters. In both, Israel
heavy-handedly silenced eyewitnesses, discredited survivors,
controlled a biased investigation—after having ordered the attacks to
protect an even greater crime.
Joe Meadors survived both attacks. He was aboard the Liberty in 1967
and also an activist passenger on the flotilla this June. Meadors says
international waters were violated both times. The Israelis, he says,
“ think they can do no wrong. Every time they speak they say they
don’t break any laws, they always abide by international laws. But,
they break them with impunity and the US Government is not going to
hold them accountable, nobody is.”
Is such pessimism warranted? It certainly is.
Forty-three years have passed since 34 servicemen were killed by
Israel in international waters. The truth seems just as sinkable
today.
Silencing Witnesses, Jamming Communication Devices
During the flotilla attack, one journalist was able to broadcast 90
seconds of live coverage to Al Jazeera, and then communication was cut
off, as the Israelis jammed the activists’ communication devices. This
is exactly what happened on board the Liberty. Communication devices
were jammed with what survivors described as a “buzzsaw sound.”
The brief video dispatched to Al Jazeera reports civilian activists
attacked with live fire by the IDF even while waving the white flag of
surrender—dozens injured and several killed in international waters,
while bearing aid to try to break the Gaza blockade. A Brazilian
filmmaker was also able to smuggle out 60 minutes of tape in her
underwear. The rest of the physical evidence—cameras and film—were
seized by Israel and have still not been returned.
As the news about the flotilla attack was first surfacing, Israel
dominated the information flow; the eyewitness survivors were being
“quietly herded to Ashdod without means of communication to the
outside world.”
Similarly, when the wounded were finally being evacuated from the
Liberty, they were commanded not to speak to the press about what had
happened. Thirty-four US soldiers were dead and 174 were wounded—yet
eyewitnesses were not able to tell what they had seen and heard.
Discrediting and Silencing Survivors
After the flotilla event and continuing today, ADL/Israel has focused
on discrediting the flotilla passengers by linking them to
international terrorist groups. New York officials are asking the
State Department to look into the visa applications of flotilla
survivors who want to share their testimony in Brooklyn. Jewish
Senator Chuck Schumer—who recently said Gaza should be economically
strangled until it admits Israel’s right to exist—is forcefully
insinuating that the flotilla activists are linked to Al Qaeda. Thus,
flotilla survivors who raise their heads are threatened with personal
investigations and public slander, pressuring them to keep their
mouths shut.
Survivors of the Liberty who knew Israel had purposefully attacked
their vessel were also silenced. Richard Larry Weaver, a seaman aboard
the Liberty, says he was visited in the hospital by a three-star
admiral. The admiral asked what had happened on the Liberty; and when
Weaver stated his testimony, the admiral said, “ “If you tell anyone
what happened you will be put in prison and we’ll lose the key.”
Investigation by Biased Parties
The investigation of the U.S.S. Liberty was conducted by the US Navy,
which forbade eyewitnesses from reporting their testimony. “Within
three weeks, the Navy put out a 700-page report, exonerating the
Israelis, claiming the attack had been accidental and that the
Israelis had pulled back as soon as they realized their mistake.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara suggested the whole affair should be
forgotten. ‘These errors do occur,’ McNamara concluded.”
The attack on the Liberty remains the only maritime incident in US
history, involving fatalities, which was never investigated by
Congress. The Liberty Veterans Association, composed of survivors,
says the inquiry didn’t even examine Israeli culpability but only
focused on American miscommunications. No Israelis were questioned.
All known survivors agree the attack was deliberate. But then, as
today, the USA colluded with Israel to cover up the attacks and
slaying of American citizens.
A Turkish-American was killed during the raid of the flotilla yet is
receiving no justice from his country -- just the opposite: A senator
has called for the arrest and prosecution of any Americans on board
the vessels! The “inquiry” into the flotilla attack will be as much a
sham as the Navy’s 700-page report on the U.S.S. Liberty. The US has
agreed that an independent Israeli committee should look into the
attack! The Jewish Forward admits there will be no real investigation
of the Israeli military’s attack on the flotilla; only policy
decisions will be examined. There will be a virtual “firewall” between
the inquiry and the military.
“The panel will not be able to investigate firsthand the events on the
ship and will not be able to judge between the two contradicting
narratives — the Israeli storyline that depicts an encounter between
lightly armed commandos and bloodthirsty terrorists, and the Turkish
one that talks of peace activists on their way to a humanitarian
relief mission brutally attacked by the Israeli navy. Furthermore,
preferring an Israeli committee to an international panel means that
investigators would likely have little to no access to the activists
who were on board the ships.”
Violence Protects an Even Greater Crime
It is certain that Israel attacked the Liberty to cover up even more
sinister crimes. In 1995, two shallow mass graves of Egyptian soldiers
were discovered outside the Sinai city of El Arish; they were
prisoners of war slaughtered by the Israeli army. James Bamford, in
his 2001 Body of Secrets, suggests the Liberty, an intelligence ship,
may have been attacked to prevent its discovery of these slaughters,
to which Israeli veterans have admitted. A retired Israeli general
personally admitted to murdering 49 surrendered and unarmed Egyptian
POWs with submachine gunfire during the 1967 war.
George Ball, Undersecretary of State under Johnson and Kennedy,
authored a 1992 book, The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement
with Israel, 1947 to the Present. Ball’s book presents his conviction
that the Liberty was attacked to prevent it from interfering with
Israel’s plan to violate any ceasefire until it had completely seized
the Golan Heights.
Ball reports, “Yet the ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack had far
more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel’s leaders
concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the
point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to
punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed
clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost
anything.”
This has certainly been proven true in 2010. While the world gasps in
horror, the United States stands with Israel’s “right to
self-defense,” regardless of the cost in innocent life and the
violation of international law.
Just as the Liberty was attacked to protect even greater crimes, so
the Gaza-bound flotillas were attacked to prevent their interference
with the continued blockade of Gaza—an atrocity that keeps 1.5 million
people crowded into an open air prison. An Israeli Arab MK has told
the European Parliament that Israeli leaders should be tried at The
Hague for their crimes; in preventing medical supplies and medicine
into Gaza, Israel has caused at least 700 Palestinian deaths at its
border crossings, he said.
Incredibly, pro-Israel America, particularly Christian conservatives,
will not face the truth about these even darker realities.
History has shown that if we ignore dark realities in the present,
darker ones are sure to come