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Miami Judge A. Jay Cristol received transcripts of transmissions from two Israeli helicopter pilots, sent to check for survivors after the attack. The pilots referred to the ship as Egyptian and were surprised to discover it was flying an American flag.

The recordings, in Hebrew, were made by a U.S. spy plane hovering over the site.

Cristol told The Associated Press he received the transcripts after submitting a Freedom of Information request to the U.S. National Security Agency, which had kept the recordings secret for 37 years. After his request was denied, Cristol filed suit in federal court and forced their release.

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Cristol, who has written a book about the case, said, the tapes "show both the helicopter pilots and their controller ... believed the Israeli air force had targeted an Egyptian ship."

A National Security Agency summary of the incident says the Israelis were confused over the stricken ship's identity more than an hour after the attack.

Cristol provided the summary and full transcripts of the pilot and tower recordings to The Associated Press.

Israel has long maintained the attack was the result of a tragic mistake during the heat of battle. Israel was at war with Egypt, Syria and Jordan at the time.

An Israeli commission of inquiry concluded the Israeli air force believed the targeted ship was an Egyptian cargo vessel ferrying supplies to Egyptian troops fighting Israeli forces.

However, some of the Liberty's survivors and some officials in the U.S. defense establishment have rejected this view, contending Israel deliberately targeted the ship to keep the United States from learning that Israel was planning to attack Syria as part of its strategy during the war.

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A National Security Agency summary of the incident says the Israelis were confused over the stricken ship's identity more than an hour after the attack.

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Melvin Smith, senior enlisted intercept chief, reassured Ennes when he overheard the pilots several times identify the flag as U.S. and the ship for what she was. At that time, of course, Israel was a friend. Later, despite jamming of the ship's distress frequencies, and before all her transmitters were shot away, the Liberty's radio operators managed again to hear the attackers make a positive identification in the clear

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Ennes, who maintained logs about such details, disagrees. He says that even at the Liberty's slowest steaming speed of 5 knots, the wind put 12 knots across Old Glory and kept it waving. Since the ship was near a combat zone, the crew also was ordered to keep "head's-up" by then-Commander William McGonagle, the ship's captain. Ensuring unfurled colors was a given. And after the normal flag was shot down early on, McGonagle ordered signalmen to hoist the bright new holiday ensign, measuring 7-by-13 feet.

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Principally, the El Quseir lacked the U.S. ship's unique add-ons, which included, both topside, an 18-foot-wide satellite dish nearly as tall as the smokestack and a wading pool-sized microwave dish. The ship bristled, as well, with video capture antennae and other exotica found on no other vessel in the world, much less decrepit Arab transport ships. Ancillary reasons the "deliberate school" rejects Judge Cristol's El Quseir defense are as follows: The Egyptian craft:

* Flew colors markedly dissimilar to the U.S. flag

* Was one-quarter of the Liberty's tonnage and just nearly half her length

* Had been out of service for many months
& was waiting to be scrapped in Alexandria

*Was illustrated—along with the Liberty—in Jane's Fighting Ships, to which Israel had access

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If the AP puts out an analysis of the transcrips that ends up agreeing with Cristol's, you'll consider them liars as well?

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I trust people who were THERE:

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That would be quite a reversal of our Standard Operating Procedures...

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Originally posted by Malnurtured Snay:

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That would be quite a reversal of our Standard Operating Procedures...

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I'd believe the Israelis involved, but they seem to be lying about it, so I can't exactly trust them, can I?

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Golly, Jeff, if I get any more on my plate I'm going to have to be catheterized. I'll pass that URL along to my shipmates for attention, but here is some information you might find useful if you feel up to responding on the subject.

This is what I am sending to people who ask for information:

The NSA intercepts prove only that the helicopter pilots were not aware of the ship's identity until they arrived. Intercept of the attack itself, not released and said not to exist but which has been seen by senior NSA sources we have identified, show that in fact they did know they were attacking an American ship.

The plain truth is that, despite the arguments sent by spokesmen for Israel, most people who look carefully at this attack agree that it was deliberate. Moreover, the top minds in the American intelligence community agree that solid evidence is overwhelming that it was deliberate! I've attached a file listing some of those names. One really must look carefully when such leading lights as Dean Rusk, Marshall Carter, Richard Helms, Lou Tordella, Tom Moorer, Rufus Taylor, William Odom, Bobby Ray Inman, John Morrison, George Ball, Clark Clifford, Lucius Battle, William Odom, Merlin Staring and others including even LBJs own press secretary George Christian all say almost with one voice that it was deliberate and that the evidence says so. Four former NSA directors agree that deliberateness of the attack was not a debatable issue; it was agreed fact. None of these men are the sort to adopt wild or irresponsible positions.

We survivors say the attack was deliberate because what we saw argues that it was: Prolonged, low-level pre-attack reconnaissance in which the recon pilots were heard telling their HQ that we were American; an extended close air attack with large colors flying throughout; selective jamming of the very frequencies we needed to call for help; torpedo boats that examined the ship and flag from 50 feet away and CONTINUED to fire from close range for another 40 minutes; machinegunning of our liferafts in the water. Then they lied about everything and claimed that they recognized us as American even while the torpedoes were in the water and never fired again. Nonsense. They claim falsely that the boats called in the air attack because they miscalculated our speed from 32 miles away when in fact their maximum radar range was 16 miles and that they judged our speed at 30 knots when we were moving five knots. Nonsense. They claim we flew no flag. Nonsense. If it was a mistake, at least they could tell the truth. If they didn't know we were American, why did they jam American radio frequencies?

Yet the evidence goes far beyond those things; it is virtually absolute. Recently I called Oliver Kirby, a former NSA Ops boss who was called back to NSA in 1967 to look into the circumstances of the attack. He has never before discussed this with anyone outside the confines of the NSA complex, but the first words out of his mouth were, "I can tell you for an absolute certainty that they knew they were attacking an American ship." How did he know? He saw transcripts of Israeli communications during the attack. There was a Navy EC121 overhead (reported recently by Jim Bamford) and an Air Force C130 a few miles away. Both were recording communications. The Navy intake was merely recorded; the Air Force product was sent securely in real time via the CRITICOMM system to Air Force intelligence centers worldwide where it was seen by hundreds of people. Now many of those people are coming forward to describe what they saw. These are the same intercepts that were seen by Oliver Kirby and other top analysts and officials at the National Security Agency. These transcripts are the reason so many top intelligence officials are certain that this attack was no accident.

NSA now denies there were airplanes overhead during the attack or that the attack was intercepted or recorded. Those denials are contradicted by very credible people who were there, including the navigator of the EC121 who is talking to us.

NSA can deny that such intercepts exist because shortly after the attack all such evidence of a deliberate attack was ordered destroyed. But fortunately for the historical record a great many people saw those things before they went into the burn bag, and many of those people are now speaking out.

People are just learning that the Court of Inquiry was falsified. The Court's own legal counsel, Captain Ward Boston, now says publicly in Navy Times and elsewhere that the court actually believed that the attack was deliberate but reported otherwise falsely because it was so ordered by Washington.

Why would Israel bite the American hand? We may never know. As Dean Rusk once said, it must have been ordered by someone fairly high up to be able to coordinate all the different forces involved. Richard Helms and Admiral Moorer have supposed that it was done to delay American knowledge of the pending Golan invasion. General Morrison agrees that it could have been to assure that we didn't learn of the executing of POWs then underway at El Arish. We may never know the real reason, but anyone who wonders about this should look carefully at the circumstances before allowing the improbability of such an attack to weigh against the very solid evidence that the attack was deliberate.

A recent article in Naval Institute Proceedings discusses these things in some depth. You will find this at http://www.usni.org/proceedings/Articles03/PROwalsh06.htm.
This conservative and trusted publication, known as the voice of the US Navy officer corps, does not bite carelessly on weak positions.

Attached is a list of well known individuals who agree. The file is sent both in PDF for and, for those who may not be able to read PDF files, in plain text.

More can be found at http://www.ussliberty.com.

Jim

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James Ennes, one of the leading conspiracy proponents among the former Liberty crewmen, who was interviewed extensively by the History Channel, has made extreme statements that border on the anti-semitic in e-mail discussions on Prodigy. For example, in a message dated June 8, 1992 referring to Israeli Jews, Mr. Ennes stated:

... Consider their dilemma: For generations they wanted their own country as a haven from racists. Finally they got it. Gradually they learned that their �leaders� obtained the new country by murdering and frightening away the original owners. Gradually they learned that the new leaders were actually the worst kind of self- centered, amoralistic murderers - worse than the people they sought to flee from.

This was too much of a moral dilemma for many of them. Some drew silent. Others turned against the people who betrayed them and now led their new country. Others pretended that all was well and that the new country was surrounded by extremists and that this condition justified every kind of brutal excess.[sic] And over the years they have instilled this narrow view in their children who now accept it as religious dogma. It is a very sad situation indeed.

Of course, the people that Jews fled from were first and foremost the Nazis, so Mr. Ennes is saying that Israel�s leaders are �amoralistic murderers� who are �worse� than the Nazis.

In another message dated July 22, 1992, Mr. Ennes stated:

... the fact is Israel would have no enemies if they did not constantly raid their neighbors, steal their land, take their water and kill their children.

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Ennes states Israeli offers of help are baloney. The program fails to mention that Ennes at the time was wounded and below decks on the Liberty and that the commanding officer, Commander McGonagle, who was commanding the ship from the bridge, read into the record a chronology of events, which he prepared with consultation with the crew:

1503 One MTB returned to ship and signaled (�Do you need help� in English C.O. signaled �Negative�. (U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, Testimony of Commander McGonagle, P. 131)

And the Liberty�s log of Thursday, 8 June 1967, reflects:

1503 One MTB returned to ship and signaled [sic], �Do you need help.�

Commanding officer directed that, �Negative� be sent in reply.

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Ennes further claims no one in the Court of Inquiry talked to the crew about what happened. The program neglects to report that the following crew members were called by the Court of Inquiry and testified for the number of pages indicated (In fact, of the 19 witnesses called by the Court, 14 were Liberty crew members.):

Page No.

Ensign D.G. Lucas, USNR, First Lieutenant & Gunnery Officer 12 USS Liberty (AGTR-5)

CDR W.L. McGonagle, USN, Commanding Officer, USS Liberty 31 (AGTR-5)

LTJG L.C. Painter, USNR, Officer of the Deck, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 55

Ensign J.D. Scott, USNR, Manager Control Assistant, USS Liberty 59 (AGTR-5)

LT G.H. Golden, USN, Engineering Officer, US Liberty (AGTR-5) 63

Page No.

Ensign M.P. O�Malley, USN, Assistant Operations Officer, USS Liberty 68 (AGTR-5)

LTJG M. M. Watson, USNR, Main Propulsion Assistant, USS Liberty 72 (AGTR-5)

LT R.F. Kiepefer, USNR (MC), Medical Officer, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 74

CTC H.J. Thompson, USN USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 87

CTC C.F. Lamkin, USN, Repair Party Three, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 91

RMC W.L. Smith, USN, Radio Central, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 94

CT2 J.P. Carpenter, USN, Communications Division, USS Liberty105
(AGTR-5)

LT. M.H. Bennet, USN, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) 114

CT2 T.L. Long, USN, Communications Division, USS Liberty (AGTR-5)117

CDR W.L. McGonagle, USN, Commanding Officer, USS Liberty 124(AGTR-5)

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Originally posted by Sol System:
Oh boy, I can't wait until Flare becomes a hotspot for bitter people with axes to grind.

I mean, more so.

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I know....it'd be like bashing B&B or Voyager: unthinkable.

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Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering.
-Aeschylus, Agamemnon