Aletho News

The Raw Story treats readers like “jerks” over Israel’s attack on USS Liberty

By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | May 29, 2012

In its tendentious report on the heckling of Sen. John McCain during a Memorial Day speech in San Diego, The Raw Story smears patriotic Americans who know the facts about Israel’s deliberate June 8, 1967 attack on the USS Liberty as “conspiracy theorists.” In order to discredit James Morris’ very public raising of the McCain family’s subsequent involvement in the incident, David Edwards explains:

Conspiracy theorists have long accused McCain and his father, Admiral John S. McCain Jr., of participating in a cover up regarding the USS Liberty.

A little research, however, would have shown that on January 9, 2004, Captain Ward Boston, Jr., USN (Ret.), Senior Counsel to the USS Liberty Court of Inquiry, made the following sworn affidavit:

The evidence was clear. Both Admiral Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. Each evening, after hearing testimony all day, we often spoke our private thoughts concerning what we had seen and heard. I recall Admiral Kidd repeatedly referring to the Israeli forces responsible for the attack as “murderous bastards.” It was our shared belief, based on the documentary evidence and testimony we received first hand, that the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate, and could not possibly have been an accident.

I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors, who had ordered the attack, were well aware that the ship was American.

I saw the flag, which had visibly identified the ship as American, riddled with bullet holes, and heard testimony that made it clear that the Israelis intended there be no survivors. Not only did the Israelis attack the ship with napalm, gunfire, and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned three lifeboats that had been launched in an attempt by the crew to save the most seriously wounded — a war crime.

Admiral Kidd and I both felt it necessary to travel to Israel to interview the Israelis who took part in the attack. Admiral Kidd telephoned Admiral McCain to discuss making arrangements. Admiral Kidd later told me that Admiral McCain was adamant that we were not to travel to Israel or contact the Israelis concerning this matter.

Explaining why he had waited for more than 30 years to speak out, Capt. Boston stated:

I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of “mistaken identity.”

In particular, the recent publication of Jay Cristol’s book, The Liberty Incident, twists the facts and misrepresents the views of those of us who investigated the attack.

It is Cristol’s insidious attempt to whitewash the facts that has pushed me to speak out.

Nevertheless, Sen. McCain offered this endorsement for Cristol’s whitewashing of Israel’s attack:

“After years of research for this book, Judge A. Jay Cristol has reached a similar conclusion to one my father reached in his June 18, 1967, endorsement of the findings of the court of inquiry. I commend Judge Cristol for his thoroughness and fairness, and I commend this work.”

As Capt. Ward Boston concluded in his affidavit:

Contrary to the misinformation presented by Cristol and others, it is important for the American people to know that it is clear that Israel is responsible for deliberately attacking an American ship and murdering American sailors, whose bereaved shipmates have lived with this egregious conclusion for many years.

They will never know, however, if they keep reading so-called “alternative” media like The Raw Story — notwithstanding its claim to be “a progressive news site that focuses on stories often ignored in the mainstream media.”

Related articles

• ‘Jerk!’: McCain rips Memorial Day heckler (rawstory.com)
• McCain set to launch international think tank for interventionists (alethonews.wordpress.com)

May 29, 2012 - Posted by aletho | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular | Israel, John McCain, Raw Story, USS Liberty, Ward Boston