I wrote the following little essay for the Amateur Radio Forum to commemorate USS Liberty

I wrote the following little essay for the Amateur Radio Forum to commemorate USS Liberty Memorial Day on June 8. Unfortunately, the U S Congress decided to declare June 8, Snow White Day, so the word only got out through personal efforts of survivors and Populist newspapers like the Spotlight. REMEMBER THE LIBERTY On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, with the Stars n' Stripes flying from the masthead, was straffed and bombed by a foreign airforce. In a most unusual move for naval warfare, napalm was dropped on the crippled ship with the obvious intent to make sure that there would be no survivors to identify the aggressor. In a further barbarous act which violated all rules of civilized behavior, even in war, gunboats machine gunned survivors as they lowered and entered lifeboats to escape the raging inferno. 34 American sailors were killed and many more wounded and burned in this brutal attack on a virtually unarmed communications ship. Who were the victims? Why the lack of interest in the Liberty by the media? Why are they forgotten on Memorial Day, year after year? Why the outrage when Grafton, Wis. wanted to name their new library, the USS Liberty Memorial Library? Why was the Medal of Honor given to the captain of the Liberty in a private ceremony at a shipyard instead of on the White House lawn, as has always been the custom? Who were the attackers? A not so subtle clue comes from the words of then President Lyndon Johnson. The Liberty's SOS was received by the Sixth Fleet and aircraft were sent to defend the ship but they were called back by orders of the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. Admiral Larry Geis, commander of the Fleet went over McNamara's head and ended up with the president on the phone. Johnson's outrageous response was: "I don't care if the ship sinks and every man on board drowns; we are not going to fight with our allies". With allies like Israel, who needs enemies. ....................... If you have had it with the "best congress money can buy", e-mail to arf and I will send you info on how to do something about it. DO IT NOW! ***************************** ARFNET: A Network of concerned Americans utilizing computer and ham radio communication links. Unix: arf@lopez Amateur Radio Forum (ARF) NR9Q Thurs 09:PM CST 3950 KHZ Jack Schmidling for County Commissioner NEVER VOTE FOR THE INCUMBENT! VOTE SOLIDARITY ================================================================================ CNI/arfnet To: Netreader Fm: Jack Schmidling Subj: Council for the National Interest (CNI) Because of your expressed views on the Mideast, I am taking the liberty sending you this information on the only solutions I see for the on-going conflict. If you would prefer to support a Jewish organization with the same goals, I will be happy to provide information on the Jewish Committee on the Mideast. Just ask for JCOME info. Following this preliminary introduction, is a summary of Paul Findley's letter announcing the Council for the National Interest. .................. It is the intent of ARF (Amateur Radio Forum) to support the CNI with a network of activists utilizing computer and ham radio communication links. This is extremely important because of the lack of access to the "establishment media" that plagues our issue. The objectives of the Network are simple: generate letters of protest to legislators who put re-election ahead of America's best interest and to inform the public of congressional action contrary to America's interest. Activists will be expected to send an occasional letter to their Senators and Representative. If you don't know who they are, your first assignment is to find out their names. Activists will also be expected to spread the word among associates, encouraging them to do the same. Material for letters can be taken from ARF postings on usenet or from action letters which I will be mailing to the net or from any other appropriate source. If you would like to participate as an activist or just want to be kept informed, please indicate so in your response along with your real name if it is not obvious from you signature. I would also appreciate your U.S. Mail address for backup or special mailings. REMEMBER: If you don't get involved, YOU are part of the problem. ............................... GOLIATH....... MEET DAVID! or Pro-Israel Lobby.... meet CNI! Former representative Paul Findley has just announced the formation of the Council for the National Interest (CNI). The objective of the CNI is to provide a Pro-American balance to Mideast issues. Up to this time, the Pro-Israel lobby has dictated American Mideast foreign policy based on what is best for Israel. Israel is indeed a friend and ally but it is naive and dangerous to assume that what is good for Israel is always good for America. I need only point out the recently leaked collaboration between Israel and South Africa to develop nuclear ballistic missiles. If spreading the nuclear horror isn't bad enough, they did it using secrets stolen from the U.S. The Pro-Israel lobby is making bigots out of Americans by preventing our representatives in Congress from speaking out on the human rights violations being committed against Palestinians in the occupied territories. Any representative who criticizes Israel for anything is immediately labeled an anti-Semite and targeted for defeat in the next election. Well, we now have the weapon to counter this destructive influence on our American government. The Council for the American Interest will support candidates who put America First. The CNI will support issues that are in the best interests of America. The board of directors includes former U.S. Ambassadors Marshall Wiley, Talcott Seelye and Andrew Killgore. Others include former hostage, Jerry Levin, former diplomat Richard Curtiss and three former U.S. Congressmen, Pete McCloskey, David Bowen and Paul Findley. "CNI is NOT, in any sense, anti-Israel. It is neither for nor against any foreign country. It is pro-American. In reality, it is "America's lobby," consisting of citizens who will help create understanding and support at the community level. CNI is working to bring them together." The Council needs your support in this endeavor for our country's national interest. CNI is a major, vital undertaking and needs thoughtful concerned citizens in all Congressional districts. The Council also needs volunteers for grass roots support to organize, write letters and help spread the word. Just remember, a single phone call to the pro-Israel lobby can generate over 100,000 letters, telegrams and phone calls to Congress. CNI can NOT succeed unless it does BETTER. For more information and your support: COUNCIL FOR THE NATIONAL INTEREST BOX 53048 WASHINGTON, DC 20009 (202) 265 4530 We now have a slick brochure describing the organization, its founders and objectives for distribution. I will be happy to send you one or as many as you want. But don't forget to send me your postal address. Don't be part of the problem, GET INVOLVED! arf I have your address and I will send you the brochure. ================================================================================ LIBERTYGATE 3 It has been twenty-two years since the military forces of the State of Israel attacked the U.S.S. Liberty. It has been 43 years since Hitler's atrocities. If Congress can spend our money chasing senile Nazis, after all these years, it's about time they spend a little money investigating the Liberty coverup. The only way it will ever happen is if YOU write your representatives and insist on a full investigation. ------------------------------------------------------------ The following letter appeared in the November 1981 *Defense Electronics*. ------------------------------------------------------------ Liberty Attack Like Panay Incident As a long-time observer, I was struck with the startling parallels between the events of June 8, 1967 (DE, Oct. 81, p.61) and the Panay incident of 1937, especially the apparent attempt to ensure that no witnesses remained. Admiral Dan Gallery's comments a few months later at the time of the seizing of the U.S.S. Pueblo bear repeating. He stated that the Pueblo incident showed the extent which "dry rot" had invaded our services, as evidenced by the failure to render assistance to a U.S. ship that was under attack. CAPT. F.W. Cosgriff, USNR (Ret.) Johnson City, New York ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ************************************************************************ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following letter appeared in the January 1982 *Defense Electronics*. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Cover-Up Congradulations on publishing James M. Ennes's personal account of Israel's determined efforts to sink the USS Liberty (October 1981). Further details and documentation of this tragedy may be found in Ennes's book, *Assault on the Liberty*, Random House, 1980, which is now in its forth printing. Although I refer to other sordid aspects of this incident in my book, *Ropes of Sand: America's Failure in the Middle East*, I can attest to the manner in which official U.S. government cover-up was employed for 15 years to obscure the failure of our Navy to come to the Liberty's rescue and to avoid the disclosure of Israel's deliberate attack on a warship of its most important ally. As I wrote of this incident, massive outpourings of sympathy for 52 hostages, alive and well in Iran, flooded this country. What about the 34 killed and 171 wounded on the Liberty, and what of their families? Whether AWACS radar surveillance aircraft are provided to Saudi Arabia or if they remain there operated by USAF personnel, the U.S. government has the right to demand assurances from Israel that the sophisticated equipment we have given that country will never be used offensively against the AWACS aircraft. Have we forgotten that American-manufactured E-2C Hawkeye radar aircraft enabled Israel to invade the airspace of Jordan and Saudi Arabia to bomb Iraq, and that they have dominated the skies of Lebanon and Syria since 1979? These acts have done nothing for Middle East peace! Wilber Crane Eveland 22301 Larkellen Lane Los Altos, CA 94022 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following article appeared in the *Wall Street Journal* in 1987. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stark Reminder of USS Liberty By Ronald Fraser The Iraqi missile attack on the USS Stark stirred some memories for the nation, the U.S. Navy and members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association. The recent attack occurred as the Liberty vets were gearing up for their weekend of the 20th anniversary of the Israeli attack on their intelligence ship. While most of the nation has forgotten the June 8, 1967, incident, which occurred as the Americans were eavesdropping on the Six Day War, the former Liberty sailors remain bitter. Like the Vietnam vets, they think they were used and tossed overboard by their service, their government and their country. And, two decades after the attack in which 34 Americans died, loose ends remain. Both the Navy and the Congress have been reluctant to tie these ends once and for all. Both the U.S. and Israel officially claim the attack was just an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Israeli torpedo men and airmen thought they were attacking an Egyption ship. Apologies had been rendered and accepted. The angry survivors, on the other hand, say the attack was deliberate. Further, retired Capt. Joseph Tully, skipper of an aircraft carrier positioned to respond to Liberty's call for help, maintains that before his Navy jet fighters could reach the beleagured ship, they were recalled on orders from Washington. A hasty Navy Court of Inquiry held in Malta the week after the attack focused on the conduct of the men aboard the ship itself and didn't go into the broader bilateral questions at hand. It concluded, "The court had insufficient information before it to make a judgement on the reasons for the decision by the Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats to attack." Only through a thorough, impartial and open investigation can the facts be known. The inquiry ought to center not just on the Israeli relationship, but on matters internal to the U.S. military command. Someone in the Navy's top brass may have failed to care for the well-being of this ship. Or civilian policy actors may have prevented the protection of the vessel during the critical minutes between the initial air strike and the final, more destructive torpedo attack more than a half-hour later. The person and persons involved must be held accountable. The Israelis were uncooperative following the incident and the U.S. government has been barely more forthcoming since, denying the survivors access to records under the Freedom of Information Act. Those survivors, and the families of the dead, need and deserve the muscle of an official investigation. In fact, as the USS Stark's misfortune reminds us, every American has a stake in settling the similar sorry affair that preceeded it. The Liberty's bell tolls for more than just those who died 20 years ago. --------------------------------------------------- Mr. Fraser is a regular commentator in *Navy Times*. to be continued.............. If you have had it with the "best congress money can buy", e-mail to arf and I will send you info on how to do something about it. DO IT NOW! ***************************** ARFNET: A Network of concerned Americans utilizing computer and ham radio communication links. Unix: arf@lopez Amateur Radio Forum (ARF) NR9Q Thurs 09:PM CST 3950 KHZ Jack Schmidling for County Commissioner NEVER VOTE FOR THE INCUMBENT! VOTE SOLIDARITY