June 8th, 1967: The USS Liberty was plying the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, monitoring signals from Israel and Egypt, then fighting the Six Day War. Suddenly, they were under attack — by Israeli jets, shortly followed by Israeli torpedo boats. In the end, the attack left 34 crewmen dead and another 170 or so wounded.
Many of those killed and injured were Communications Technicians (now called Cryptologic Technicians), performing the intelligence collection efforts aboard the Liberty. Had I been old enough, and joined the Navy ten years earlier, I could well have been among their number. Their legacy has continued through the years in the Naval Security Group, especially among those of us whose primary focus was the Middle East.
As you might expect, Israel has maintained throughout the intervening years that it was all a tragic mistake, and paid the US Government and the victims and their families a total of $13 million in reparations. Many are convinced, though, that the attack was deliberate: the Israelis knew the Liberty was American and not Egyptian, contrary to their claims; that the Liberty was clearly flying the US flag; and despite being told by pilots and gunboats that the target was American, their controllers insisted they press the attack.
Many people who are much more knowledgeable than I am have written extensively on this subject. David C. Walsh has recently written an article for The San Diego Tribune, reprinted by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: Attack on the Liberty: Lifting the "Fog of War". WRMEA appears to be very pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel, but Mr Walsh's article is reasonably written.
Dr. John Borne wrote an historical study of the incident for his PhD dissertation at New York University, and has many articles on the Liberty attack on his web site. This is how he introduces them:
On June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship off the coast of Gaza, killing 35 men and wounding 171. Israel apologized and called the attack an accident. The U.S. government accepted the apology and did not openly challenge the explanation For almost three decades the crewmen of the Liberty have waged a campaign to have the attack investigated. Indeed, they claim that not only was the attack was intentional, but also that Johnson recalled the Sixth Fleet rescue flights to avoid a clash between the U.S. and Israel.
I can't post on the Liberty without mentioning the USS Liberty Memorial web site, created by Jim Ennes and Joe Meadors, survivors of the attack. There they have exhaustive resources on the history and evidence of the attack, as well as a sister site, USS Liberty Court of Inquiry. These guys were there, Israelis were trying to kill them, so they hold a strong conviction that the attack was deliberate, and have a lot of evidence to support their conclusion. It's worth a visit. Or two.
Regardless of the truths in this tragic event, whether it was deliberate as claimed by Jim, Joe and many others, or it was the tragic accident described by the Israeli government, I wanted to take the opportunity to honor my fallen shipmates from the USS Liberty, as well as all of those who had to suffer through this attack. Sometimes we forget that even "skimmer sailors," even spooks like us, can sometimes be at the pointy end of the spear.
Update: Submitted to the Beltway Traffic Jam.
