USS Liberty (AGTR-5)
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The USS Liberty was formally a reconnaissance ship of the United States Navy , which, however, was actually under the command of the internationally operating US secret service National Security Agency (NSA). It was used for electronic warfare and military intelligence . The Liberty, which was highly modern at the time, looked largely like a cargo ship , but had additional antennas . During the Six Day War, the neutral ship was attacked by the Israeli forces for almost 3 hours and was badly damaged. The Israelis killed 34 people.
history
Construction and Uses
The ship was built towards the end of the Second World War as the Victory Ship SS Simmons Victory and was used as an ammunition transporter in the final phase of the Pacific War and the Korean War. After that, it was used as a civilian freighter for some time, but then converted into a Belmont-class spy ship and put into service by the US Navy on April 1, 1964. After the conversion, the ship was given the task of performing passive electromagnetic monitoring , i.e. recording radio messages and radar signals for later evaluation. After various missions, it was ordered to the eastern Mediterranean in mid-1967 to be available for the escalation that was looming and ultimately culminating in the Six Day War .
Damage in the Six Day War
Course of the incident
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On June 8, 1967, at 9 a.m. , Commander William McGonagle's spy ship was attacked in international waters 14 miles off the coast of Israel. Israeli warplanes (including the Super Mystère and Mirage III ) shot at and bombed it. 1,000 pound bombs and napalm were also used. Israeli torpedo boats also shot at the Liberty . A total of 34 crew members were killed and 172 injured.
The official statements by the US and Israeli, which speak of an error, have already been questioned in many ways immediately after the incident and until today; it is largely believed that Israel knew it was a US ship.
There are different theses about possible motives of the Israelis, for example that American wiretapping operations should be prevented or that Arab states should be held responsible in order to offer the USA a pretext for entering the war.
In both countries there have been multiple investigations which depict the process as a chain of unfortunate circumstances; Nevertheless, testimonies, circumstances and backgrounds of the attack feed doubts about these representations to this day.
What is certain is that the US announced a few days before the incident that it had not stationed a single ship in this region of the Mediterranean (which was true at the time). Both sides confirmed statements about eight Israeli anti-submarine aircraft that had flown the Liberty a total of twelve times a few hours earlier , after which it was marked with a green magnet as a neutral ship on the maps of Israel's air surveillance. However, this marker was removed after six hours because the Liberty had disappeared from the Israeli radar; it was believed that she went out to sea to meet with the US 6th Fleet .
Processing of the incident
In May 1968 the incident was settled diplomatically , with Israel paying US $ 3,323,500 (2020 purchasing power: US $ 24,371,521) in compensation.
In March 1969, Israel paid an additional $ 3,566,457 in compensation to the wounded men. On December 18, 1980, Israel agreed to pay $ 6 million (the US put the property damage to the Liberty, including 13 years of interest, at $ 17,132,709). The surviving former crew members of the Liberty insist that confusion was impossible and that the attack on the ship was deliberate.
The BBC published the documentary "Dead in the water" about the incident in May 2003.
The British journalist Peter Hounam claimed in a book published in 2003 that after the attack on the Liberty, two A4 fighter-bombers were launched from the US aircraft carrier America destined for Cairo , but were recalled. The book's subtitle claimed that the bombing of the USS Liberty almost caused a third world war.
According to a January 12, 2004 report in the Financial Times , a former member of the US Naval Investigative Tribunal testified under oath that then- US President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had ordered the incident to be kept confidential.
On October 2, 2007, the Chicago Tribune newspaper published an article by Pulitzer Prize-winning John M. Crewdson based on recently released State Department documents and recent witness interviews. These documents, in particular testimony to radio messages from the Israeli pilots, support the survivors' statements that the attack was targeted.
Whereabouts
Badly damaged, the Liberty was brought to the port of Valletta in Malta and at least made seaworthy there again. It returned to the US shortly thereafter, but was not fully repaired, but decommissioned in 1968. In 1973 it was sold for demolition.
Awards
Commanding officer William McGonagle was honored with the Medal of Honor , the highest honor in the US armed forces . Lieutenant Commander Philip Armstrong and Quartermaster Third Class Francis Brown received the Navy's highest distinction, the Navy Cross .
In addition, 11 Silver Stars , 20 Bronze Stars , 9 Navy Commendation Medals and 204 Purple Hearts were awarded. The ship itself received the Presidential Unit Citation .
literature
- James M. Ennes: Assault on the liberty. The true story of the Israeli attack on an American intelligence ship. Random House, New York 1979, ISBN 0-394-50512-3 .
- James Scott: The attack on the Liberty. The untold story of Israel's deadly 1967 assault on a US spy ship. Simon & Schuster, New York et al. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4165-5482-0 .
Documentation
- Richard Belfield: The Day Israel Attacked America. Al Jazeera English, 2014
Individual evidence
- ^ USS Liberty Memorial
- ^ The Assault on the USS Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years.
- ^ A military family member's opinion.
- ↑ Crypto City does not miss anything.
- ^ Cover-Up Alleged in Probe of USS Liberty.
- ^ William D. Gerhard, Henry W. Millington (1981): Attack on a SIGINT Collector, the USS Liberty. ( Memento from October 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.realnews247.com/dead_in_the_water.htm
- ^ Peter Hounam : Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War Three. 2003, ISBN 978-1904132196 .
- ^ New revelations in attack on American spy ship. Chicago Tribune, October 2, 2007.
Web links
- USS Liberty Memorial Site
- Jeffrey St. Clair : Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty: A Half Century Later, Still No Justice CounterPunch , June 8, 2018.
- John Crewdson: New revelations in attack on American spy ship Chicago Tribune , October 2, 2007.
- James Bamford : The Coverup The Guardian , August 8, 2001.