On the USS Liberty....
lewrockwell.com
Excerpt:
Most significant, 'Liberty's' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.
Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why?
Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.
Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism - not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. Crew member's graves were inscribed, 'died in the Eastern Mediterranean..' as if they had be killed by disease, rather than hostile action.
A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel, and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberal toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.
Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened.
Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's' dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.
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I've read the whole Blood chapter of Bamford's book (each chapter is named after a body part) and I was shocked when Bamford referred to some confidential report quoting Pres. Lyndon Johnson blurting that he didn't give a monkey's about the Liberty! I believe the whole Liberty mess was a HIGH TREASON conspiracy involving Johnson himself (who already compromised himself in the aftermath of the JFK assassination). Since Johnson and his jingoistic Pentagon knew that the 1967 war was started by ISRAEL, they devised a Plan B in case Israel failed to win over Egypt and other Arab/Soviet forces. So, if Israel was losing ground in its deliberate attack against its Arab neighbors then Johnson would have put the blame for the "Liberty incident" on Egypt and offered US public opinion a pretext to engage the US alongside Israel in the conflict.
After all, Johnson didn't enjoy the legitimacy of JFK --he ended up in the big chair because his former boss got slugged. Such a pretext war has been tried again and again: the Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam, the Pueblo fiasco off North Korea, etc. etc.
Gus |
