Len Mansky’s decision to revert to personal attacks only reflects poorly on him and does nothing to dissuade us from trying to persuade the U.S. government that an attack on a U.S. Navy ship warrants Congressional scrutiny evermore so when the survivors of that attack are alleging war crimes and capital violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice were committed during the attack.
I understand that treason is the only crime that is defined in the US Constitution.
Article 3, Section 3 tells us in part, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”
Among the awards won by the officers and crew of the USS Liberty are the Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, 11 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars, nine Navy Commendations, 208 Purple Hearts, 294 Combat Action Ribbons and the Presidential Unit Citation, which makes the USS Liberty among the most decorated ships for a single action in U.S. Navy history.
One of the requirements that must be met before any of the aforementioned medals or ribbons are awarded is that they be awarded as a result of combat action against an enemy of the United States.
That requirement must be met even in the case of friendly fire.
As a result, for June 8-9, 1967 (the qualifying dates for USS Liberty medals and ribbons) Israel was officially an enemy of the United States and anyone giving them aid and comfort for their actions during this period is guilty of treason.
I am well aware of former Israeli AMB Oren’s bona fides.
His bona fides do not render him an unbiased observer of the attack. Remember, he wasn’t there and cannot speak of the attack in the first person but has to rely upon sources he has contacted during his research.
Unfortunately he only found it appropriate to contact Israelis to get their version of events – a tactic used by Jay Cristol during the research that resulted in his apologia about the USS Liberty.
Neither can be accused of being unbiased given their refusal to interview USS Liberty survivors.
It is not a question of our being objective. It is a question of our being allowed to testify at the U.S. government’s investigation of the attack.
An eyewitness isn’t asked to be objective. He is asked to present his evidence as succinctly as possible.
It is those who review and analyze that evidence who must be objective in their review of that evidence.
Why doesn’t the U.S. government want to conduct an investigation of the attack on our ship?
Perhaps the answer is contained in the documents we have accumulated at http://www.usslibertyveterans.org/files/docs.pdf.
I encourage anyone interested in the USS Liberty to include a reading of these documents in their research.
Read Lloyd Painter’s statement. He witnessed the machine gunning of our life rafts in the water and testified to that fact during his testimony before the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry only to find out later that his statement was removed from the Report of the Court.
In that document you can also read Glenn Oliphant’s statement where he tells of his witnessing the barbaric act as well. Included in the files linked in the “docs” file is the War Crimes Report we filed on June 8, 2005 which was ignored by the U.S. government as well as a statement by USS Liberty Commanding Officer William McGonagle that it is his opinion that the attack was not a mistake.
The “docs” file also contains the documented facts about the attack that Mr. Ellis is soliciting in his letter of December 4, 2014.
Mr. Mansky is correct when I dispute his allegation that the attack on the USS Liberty was the subject of an investigation by numerous U.S. government investigations for the simple reason that it was not.
Note that I am not disputing his claim that numerous U.S. government reports have included the finding that the attack was not deliberate. If I were to be given the task of eliciting a statement out of as many members of official Washington, D.C. that the attack was a mistake the line would circle the Beltway a number of times.
The question they would not be able to answer – and that Mr. Mansky is afraid to ask — is why they believe as they do.
What evidence and testimony did these “honest closed-door inquiries” base their finding about the deliberateness of the attack upon?
Since they didn’t elicit nor accept any evidence and testimony about the actions of either USS Liberty crewmen or Israelis who conducted the attack it couldn’t be that.
If Mr. Mansky were to do more than the cursory review of the reports it would become clear to him that there is no foundation for the finding that the attack was not deliberate. That finding is simply made out of whole cloth.
At the end of Mr. Mansky’s drivel is his offer to discuss other investigations.
Let me take him up on that offer and ask him to discuss specifically the House Armed Services Committee investigation of 1991/1992. While the report of that “investigation” is included in Jay Cristol’s “Myth of the 13 US government investigations” it doesn’t exist.
Joe Meadors
USS Liberty Survivor
Director of Operations, USS Liberty Veterans Association
