Navy crew remembers 1967 Israeli attack

(Mike Weeks) wrote:
(Issac Goldberg) wrote:
[snip]
Retired Navy Capt. Ward Boston, the former counsel for the Navy's
Court of Inquiry, released a signed affidavit in October, stating he
was ordered by President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary,
Robert McNamara, to conclude the attack was unintentional, despite
evidence to the contrary.

[snip]

All you have to do is actually quote Boston stating what you posted in "a
signed affidavit in October [2003]"; what's the friggin' problem?

The problem is you, Weeks:

Cover-Up Alleged in Probe of USS Liberty
Ex-Navy Attorney Alleges LBJ Cover-Up in Military Probe of 1967
Israeli Attack on U.S. Spy Ship

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Oct. 22 [2003] — A former Navy attorney who helped lead the
military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty
that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon
Johnson and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara, ordered that the
inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.

In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference,
retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading
the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of
'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy's original 1967 review of
the attack. He said in the sworn statement that he stayed silent for
years because he's a military man, and "when orders come ... I follow
them."

He said he felt compelled to "share the truth" following the
publication of a recent book, "The Liberty Incident," which concluded
the attack was unintentional.

The USS Liberty was an electronic intelligence-gathering ship that was
cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967.
Israeli planes and torpedo boats opened fire on the Liberty at what
became known as the outbreak of the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War.

In addition to the 34 Americans killed, more than 170 were wounded.

Israel has long maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken
identity, an explanation that the Johnson administration did not
formally challenge. Israel claimed its forces thought the ship was an
Egyptian vessel and apologized to the United States.

After the attack, a Navy court of inquiry concluded there was
insufficient information to make a judgment about why Israel attacked
the ship, stopping short of assigning blame or determining whether it
was an accident.

It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said Ret. Adm.
Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a
year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he
formed with other former military officials. The panel also included a
former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.

"Why in the world would our government put Israel's interest ahead of
our own?" Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He
was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.

Moorer, who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, wants
Congress to investigate.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev disputed any notion that Israel
knowingly went after American sailors.

"I can say unequivocally that the Liberty tragedy was a terrible
accident, that the Israeli pilots involved believed they were
attacking an enemy ship," Regev said. "This was in the middle of a
war. This is something that we are not proud of."

Calls to the Navy seeking comment were not immediately returned.

David Lewis of Lemington, Vt., was on the Liberty when it was
attacked. In an interview, he said Israel had to know it was targeting
an American ship. He said a U.S. flag was flying that day and Israel
shot it full of holes. The sailors on the ship, he said, quickly
hoisted another American flag, a much bigger one, to show Israel it
was a U.S. vessel.

"No trained individual could be that inept," said Lewis of the Israeli
forces.

In Capt. Boston's statement, he does not say why Johnson would have
ordered a cover-up. Later in a phone interview from his home in
Coronado, Calif., Boston said Johnson may have worried the inquiry
would hurt him politically with Jewish voters.

Moorer's panel suggested several possible reasons Israel might have
wanted to attack a U.S. ship. Among them: Israel intended to sink the
ship and blame Egypt because it might have brought the United States
into the 1967 war.


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/...1022_2438.html