topic by
The Ghost of Liberty.
8/27/2002 (9:39) |
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james ennes tells his story in Tehran
Jim Ennes was interviewed by Ali Jafari of the
Iranian newspaper Jame Jam. The interview
appeared in the July 27, 2002 edition of the
paper.
Interview with James Ennes
THE FORGOTTEN CRISIS
Israeli attack on US ship was no accident
On June 8,1967, in the midst of what became known
as six day war, Israeli aircraft and motor boats
brutally attacked an American naval vessel, the
USSLiberty, in the international waters off the
Sinai peninsula in the Mediterranean sea. The
attack lasted more than two hours, killing 34
American sailors and wounding 171 others. Ever
since then, with the survivors of the Liberty
insisting that the attack on Liberty was
deliberate and premeditated, and the Israelis
claiming that it was unintentional, the issue has
become a recurring source of tension between
Israel and United States.
Jame Jam newspaper which published the statements
of chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral
Thomas Moorer on October 21, 2001 has had the
opportunity to interview James Ennes who was an
lieutenant aboard the USSLiberty on the day of
attack.
Greeting Mr Ennes, We at Jame Jam newspaper thank
you for giving us this great opportunity to
present your side of the story of USSLiberty.
Q: When did you join the USS Liberty and what
position did you serve on June 8, 1967?
A. I joined the ship in April, 1967. I was a
lieutenant and was assigned to be the ship's
Electronic Materiel Officer, responsible for the
maintenance and repair of all of the ship's
electronic equipment. I also stood watches on the
bridge as Officer of the Deck.
Q: There have been many cases of 'friendly fire'
and misidentification in wartime. unlike other
cases, attack on USS Liberty has lingered for 35
years and still remains unresolved.
Israelis claim that attack on Liberty, was also a
case of mistaken identity and that they
misidentified Liberty for an Egyptian horse
carrier EL Quseir. One of the reasons that they
present for their argument, is that, the attacking
jets circled the ship three times looking for a
flag, but no flag was flown. Do you agree with
that statement?
A: 'Friendly fire' is a brief, accidental attack.
This was a prolonged, carefully coordinated
attack. It has been called the most carefully
planned 'accident' in the history of warfare. The
Israeli account of the attack is untrue. We flew
a flag at all times, and it stood out clearly
displayed in a good breeze. Israeli jets circled
us thirteen times during the several hours before
the attack, and during that period we heard their
pilots informing their headquarters by radio that
we were American. When the attack started, the
attacking jets passed high overhead once, then
turned 180 degrees and came down the centerline
firing without any attempt to identify us. Long
after the attack I was contacted by an Israeli
pilot who told me that on his first flight over
the ship he saw our American flag and informed
his headquarters that we were American but was
told to ignore the flag and attack anyway. He
refused to do so and returned to base where he
was arrested. I was told by an Israeli in the war
room that they knew we were American. I have
been told by several American intelligence
analysts who read or in some cases heard the
messages between the pilots and their
headquarters that these messages make it very
clear that the pilots and their headquarters knew
we were American.
Q: You have written a book titled 'Assault on
Liberty'. What are some of the most convincing
reasons or evidences that you have presented in
that book, which proves the Israelis knowingly
attacked Liberty?
A: Among other things, the extensive
reconnaissance, the fact that the attack
continued for 75 minutes and the fact that they
compiled a totally false account of what
happened. After the torpedo explosion the torpedo
boats examined our name in English on the stern
and our American flag on the mast from less than
fifty feet away, and continued to fire from close
range for another 40 minutes. As US Secretary of
State Dean Rusk said later, an accident may occur
for a few minutes; there is no way our very
distinctive-looking ship could have been fired
upon for 75 minutes from close range without it
being recognized as American.
In the hours after the attack a 'consensus report'
was written reflecting the view of all American
intelligence agencies that the attack was
deliberate. This report was circulated, but was
withdrawn and cancelled and all copies destroyed
because it was too embarrassing politically to be
allowed to stand.
Q: Being small in size and population, Israelis
have always relied on spying to get intelligence
information. They have spied on many Arab and
non-Arab countries including the U.S .In October
1954 quite a few of the Israeli spies were
arrested and two of them were executed in Egypt.
Elias Cohen, was the Israeli spy who was caught in
1965 and later executed in Syria and I am sure
you know about Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy
whose spying activities cost the lives of
America's most loyal and best agents in the
communist world. Generally speaking, how could
the Israelis not have known that EL-Quesir was
not even there?
A:They could not have made such a mistake. Israeli
naval officer have told me they are embarrassed
by the claim that they could been so incompetent
as to make such a mistake.
Q: It has been reported that after the Liberty
radioed for help, two aircraft carriers in the
Mediterranean responded by launching fighter
aircraft, but they were recalled before reaching
their destination to help Liberty. Can you tell us
who gave the orders and why they were recalled?
A: Secretary Robert McNamara ordered the recall of
rescue aircraft. He has refused to discuss the
matter. The recall order was confirmed by
President Lyndon Johnson. President Johnson later
said that he would not risk shooting down Israeli
aircraft, even if Americans died as a result.
Q: Quite often the American Government is referred
to as a 'Government of the people, for the people,
by the people.' In 1967 your responsible officials
by recalling the launched aircraft, left you
practically unprotected and since then, your
Government not only blocked every effort to
launch an investigation but in fact did everything
it could, in order to cover it up for thirty-five
years. Is there any doubt in your mind that the
very government that you put your life on the line
to protect, betrayed you and your shipmates?
A: Someone in our government certainly failed to
protect us after promising that we would be
protected.
Q: There are certain motives behind any crime that
is committed, if indeed as you believe, the
Israeli attack on Liberty was premeditated, what
was their motive for attacking the Liberty?
A: The USS Liberty was an intelligence ship.
Clearly someone in Israel feared that we would
learn something that Israel did not want the US to
know. Some American intelligence experts have said
that they believe this was the pending invasion of
Syria to capture the Golan Heights.
Q: In recent years an impressive number of
American officials including Admiral Thomas
Moorer, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff (JCS) at the time of Liberty incident, have
gone on record insisting that the Israeli action
was, in fact deliberate. Are you optimistic that
after 35 years of cover up, the truth may finally
come out?
A: No. I fear that Israel has so many friends in
the Congress and the White House that no effective
investigation is ever likely to be conducted. But
we can continue to report the facts so that the
world may learn the truth. In 1956 President
Eisenhower forced the Israelis to cease their
advance toward Suez. This was still a bitter
memory in Israel in 1967. The Israelis did not
want to risk having to withdraw from the Golan
Heights as they had from Suez, so they disabled
the USS Liberty in the hope that the US could be
kept in the dark until the Heights were in Israeli
hands.
This week a Navy Times survey of its readers
showed that about 90% support a call for a new
investigation of the attack. Yet few members of
Congress are likely to support an inquiry as it
would certainly prove embarrassing to Israel.
Q: Generally speaking, in an incident like
Liberty, one would feel that the most valuable,
viable and valid sources of information would be
people such as yourself who were present on the
battlefield on June 8, 1967. A. Jay Cristol a
pro-Israeli Federal Judge and one of the most
outspoken critics of the Liberty story, is the
author of a book titled 'The Liberty Incident.'
He supposedly has done 'extensive research' and
has interviewed many of the survivors. It has been
reported that you refused to cooperate with him.
was there any particular reason that caused you
not to cooperate ?
A: After a brief telephone conversation, I did not
trust him to treat the subject fairly or
objectively. His dissertation and his later book
proved that judgment to be valid in that he has
distorted many of the facts.
For instance, his book makes much of what he
claims is the visual acuity of fighter pilots, yet
experienced pilots tell me that pilots can see
much more than Cristol claims and could easily
have seen our flag. Cristol discounts as untrue
the unanimous eyewitness reports of American
survivors but accepts as true virtually every
false claim by the Israelis. He relies upon the
Court of Inquiry which is itself false and has
been discredited by its own legal counsel. He
claims Liberty's radio intercept range was only 25
miles, which is dead wrong. He claims the Liberty
had no radio telephone contact with Washington,
which is untrue. He claims only a few survivors
regard the attack as deliberate, yet the truth is
that survivors are unanimous in calling the attack
deliberate. He claims our radios were not jammed,
when even the corrupt Court of Inquiry says they
were. He claims he came to Seattle to interview
me and that I broke a promise to see him, which is
untrue. In fact, he had asked onl y to talk to me
by telephone during a layover in Seattle, and I
chose not to take the call because I realized that
his intent was to try to discredit us, not to
report our story objectively.
In fact, Cristol claims to have made numerous
trips to Israel and to have interviewed over 200
people for his book, but his research is very
unbalanced, drawing primarily from Israeli sources
while ignoring or discounting most eyewitness
reports. He has interviewed few survivors, and
those only very briefly. He brands Liberty's
senior intercept officer a liar, yet made no
attempt to interview him. His research appears to
be aimed entirely at attempting to discredit
survivors, not to investigate the attack
objectively. He claims to be the world's foremost
expert on the attack, but I have never heard from
a survivor who believes he can be taken seriously.
Q: Upon returning to the U.S., the Liberty crew
were ordered and in fact threatened to be silent.
Who gave the order and why?
A: Survivors were visited in hospitals all over
the US by many different officers and warned to be
quiet. Aboard the ship, Admiral Kidd called men
together in groups and warned them never to talk
about the attack with any, not even their wives
and mothers, or risk being sent to prison.
Q: In November of 1979 the Iranian students in
protest to the U.S Government policy of letting
the former Shah of Iran in the U.S for medical
treatment, stormed the U.S embassy in Tehran and
held 52 American hostage for 444 days. ABC news
almost immediately launched a new program by the
name of Nightline with correspondence Ted Koppel
reporting on the condition of the hostages as well
as the developments of the story itself night by
night. The title of the nightly report was: 'The
Iran crisis, America held hostage.' As I am sure
you know, the hostages finally came home safe and
sound and were given a hero's welcome, and
nightline has continued its special report on
important events including many interviews with
former hostages . By comparison, the brutal and
tragic Israeli attack on USS Liberty in which 34
innocent young Americans were killed and 171
others were badly wounded, is something that most
Americans who are well-informed about President
Bill Clinton`s affair with Monica Lewinsky, may
not even be aware that it ever took place. You
know, Mr. Ennes, one wonders why there wasn't a
similar program like Nightline launched for
Liberty and her survivors? What would have been
wrong if ABC news had a nightly report with a
title such as 'The Middle East Crisis: Israeli
Attack on USSLiberty?' It seems as if the
mainstream mass media had a tacit agreement with
the U.S Government to keep the public in dark
about Liberty and the plight of its survivors.
Don't you feel that they have acted very
selectively and in fact unfairly in regards to
Liberty incident?
A: There is much opposition in this country to
this story being told. Ted Koppel is an
interesting case. In 1982 Ted Koppel invited
several survivors to his studios in Washington,
DC, where we filmed a full report on the attack.
It was edited and scheduled for broadcast, and
then on the very day it was to be broadcast Israel
invaded Lebanon and that bigger story replaced the
Liberty story. Later, when broadcasters planned
to present the Liberty show, the films had
mysteriously vanished from the file room, never to
be found.
Q: Jean-Paul Sartre the famous French philosopher
has said and I quote 'Man is a product of time
and place.' By reading chapter six of your book,
one can see that on June 8, 1967, you experienced
perhaps the worst day of your life. The political
officials who were supposed to help you, betrayed
you . The president and military officials who
were supposed to rescue your and your shipmates,
recalled the aircraft and left you unprotected
against the attacking Israeli jets. The mass media
which was supposed to give Liberty and plight of
its survivors, extensive coverage, has acted with
deafening silence, and finally, taking your
experience with A. Jay Cristol into consideration,
one could say that the pen that should have
elicited the facts and told the truth, has
distorted it. Can you please tell us how the
Liberty incident has affected your life?
A: I published the first edition of this book in
1980, expecting to go on to other things. To my
surprise, the story lives on. Twenty-two years
later I continue to get daily mail and phone
calls. I have created the web site at
http://www.ussliberty.com to help answer the many
questions that still arise.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to
say regarding the Liberty or in general.
A: My shipmates and I have tried for 35 years to
tell the truth about the attack to the American
public and to the world. We appreciate the
opportunity you have given us to tell the story to
the Iranian people. We wish you peace.
http://ussliberty.org/jamejam.txt
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