Question: In [a] recent article, you said that the USS Liberty was picking up Israeli military ...

August 1, 2005

TBC Staff

Question: In your recent article, you said that the USS Liberty was picking up Israeli military communications during the Six-Day War in 1967, relaying them to Britain’s giant computer installation on Cyprus, from which complete maps were generated and sent to the Arab armed forces, giving them information of Israeli troop positions and movements that could have prolonged the war at great cost of lives or even caused an Israeli defeat. I asked about this from someone who has a USS Liberty website. He replied, “The account you mention is baloney...originally written by Anthony Pearson in his soundly discredited book, Conspiracy of Silence….Pearson’s version was picked up and repeated by Loftus and Aarons in a travesty called The Secret War Against the Jews”….

Answer: Thank you for your letter. I am always open to valid correction, which this is not. There is one glaring error, however, which neither you nor anyone else has pointed out: I said that the USS Liberty was sunk by the Israelis; in fact it was only put out of commission.

It is not true that “Pearson’s version was picked up and repeated by Loftus and Aarons in…The Secret War Against the Jews.” Out of 91 footnotes, only 3 refer to Pearson’s book in the 26 pages they devote to this incident—and this was the basis of their report?! Ridiculous!

The author of an article on the website to which you refer states, “John Loftus and Mark Aarons boast a long list of ‘investigative’ reports, mostly about Nazis, Jews, and plots against Jews. The Secret War is one more effort in this growing genre…over 500 pages of print and more than 120 pages of source notes and bibliography to ‘expose’ a long list of mostly unprovable crimes against the Jewish people and the Jewish state told confidentially by anonymous and unidentifiable ‘old spies.’”

The scornful reference to “this growing genre” betrays a strong anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias and resentment that anyone should even mention plots and crimes against Jews—yet they have suffered more than any other people in history! Does he even accept the Holocaust? Anti-Semitism is further confirmed by his response to Aarons’ and Loftus’s statement that the ship was off the Israeli coast. He scoffs: “The only ‘Israeli coast’ in sight was land the Israelis had captured just before we arrived.”

In fact, the Gaza Strip was part of the “Promised Land” given to Israel by the “God of Israel”¹4,000 years earlier. Egypt captured it during the 1948 War,and Israel had finally taken it back. During he 19 years that Egypt held this area, and Jordan held East Jerusalem and the West Bank, no one mentioned a “Palestinian State,” which could have been formed. Instead, the Arabs themselves put the “Palestinians” in refugee camps, deliberately nourished their hatred of Israel, and turned them into terrorists murdering innocent Israeli civilians.

The Liberty incident is shrouded in secrecy. No one can prove anything. We can, however, use simple logic, starting from what all agree upon. For example, all agree that Israel knew the Liberty to be an American ship, yet deliberately attacked and put it out of commission. That makes no sense if its mission were friendly or neutral. What would be Israel’s motive?

Some suggest that Israel wanted to draw the U.S. into the war by claiming that the Egyptians or Syrians sank the ship. For this unlikely ploy to work, the Liberty would have had to be sunk quickly in a surprise attack, leaving no surviving witnesses. Yet the contrary is clearly the case, as both sides agree. Nine reconnaissance flights over the course of the morning, giving the ship plenty of time to report them, hardly constitutes a surprise attack! The only sensible explanation is that Israel was making certain of the Liberty’s clandestine mission.

Furthermore, it is clear that Israel did not intend to sink the ship when it finally attacked at 2:00 PM, but only to destroy its intelligence capability. The Israeli Air Force is among the best in the world. It could have sunk the Liberty swiftly in one strike. Instead, the Israeli pilots strafed and napalmed the deck to wipe out the communication antennas, and sent a torpedo into that part of the hold housing the electronic intelligence center.

No logical reason has been given by the critics why this American ship that Admiral Thomas Moorer described as “the most sophisticated intelligence ship in the world in 1967” was off the coast of Israel four days into a war between Israel and the Arabs surrounding her! The Israelis must have had urgent security reasons for attacking this American ship and incurring the wrath of their only ally and chief supporter—and the White House, caught betraying Israel, had good reason not to defend it. Aarons and Loftus offer the only sensible explanation, and it is supported by testimony of both Israeli and American former intelligence personnel.

The website you quote pooh-poohs “anonymous and unidentifiable ‘old spies’” as a source. So these highly regarded and long-established authors have simply been lying for years, citing from fictitious sources invented details not only about the Liberty incident but dozens of other
intriguing stories as well? Absurd! Remaining “anonymous and unidentifiable” is the nature of spies, active or retired.

Critics of Aarons and Loftus provide no rational explanation for the deliberate Israeli attack on a known American ship, or for the established cover-up originating at the highest levels of the Israeli and U.S. governments. The mystery dissolves with the knowledge that American fighter planes from two aircraft carriers already on their way to the rescue were called back by direct order from the White House—and the fact that the U.S. went along with Israel’s phony excuse that they mistook the Liberty for an Egyptian ship.

This statement by Admiral Thomas Moorer is revealing:

U.S. military rescue aircraft were recalled —not once, but twice—through direct intervention by the Johnson administration. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s cancellation of the Navy’s attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career. ²

Or was the real disgrace a U.S. betrayal of Israel to curry Arab favor, and that was the reason for a cover-up? There is no other rational explanation. Web pages abound pressing for Congressional investigation, many by survivors of the Liberty attack, criticizing the government for not telling the truth and accusing the U.S. of a cover-up at the highest level. Top Naval officers, such as Admiral Moorer, have demanded an investigation—to no avail. Why do these legitimate demands meet only silence? Moorer calls the Liberty incident “one of U.S. history’s most shocking cover-ups.”³ These facts support what Aarons and Loftus were told by “the old spies.” There is no other explanation.

All of the information put forth by eyewitnesses confirms that the attack was deliberate on a ship that the Israelis knew was American. That undeniable fact, together with the conniving insistence of both the U.S. and Israelis that it was all a case of mistaken identity, has aroused the anger of survivors, as it well might. It has also added fuel to a hatred of Israel that was already simmering. One group of survivors declares: “We are NOT anti-Semitic. We ARE anti-Israel. We know that Israel has controlled the American congress for years...to the point where 34 dead sailors can go un-investigated!”

An unwillingness to face the truth forces the critics into such absurdities. So the White House and Congress are, after all, mere pawns in the hands of the Israelis? Anyone who believes that is obviously blinded, if not by anti-Semitism then by anti-Israelism, which is simply the former by another name.

The web page from which you quote cites James M. Ennes, Jr., a naval lieutenant aboard the Liberty. Did Ennes know the Liberty’s secret mission? Would he tell the truth about it if he knew? Clearly, most of the crew had no idea why Israel attacked. To them it was deliberate murder. Far from avoiding Ennes’s eyewitness account, Aarons and Loftus cite it in support.

Q&A Endnotes: