Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Features
  • Comment
  • Store
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Arab Radio Podcast intro
    • Radio Baladi Detroit
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Subscribe to eNewsletter
  • Toggle search form
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, unveils a series of multi language videos to help property tax owners recover overpayments. This one is in Arabic
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas releases video in Arabic to help recover property tax overpayments American Arabs
  • Amnesty International ... www.Amnesty.org
    Global: Amnesty International calls for universal social protection, as overlapping crises leave hundreds of millions facing disaster American Arabs
  • Anti-Arab anti-peace U.S. Senator Robert Menendez who has led the fight to censor American who criticize the brutality and human rights violations of Israel
    Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League American Arabs
  • property tax info event
    Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi hosts property Tax workshop for Arab community Activism
  • US Border Notice. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    AHRC Holds Another “Meet, Greet & Open Conversation” Forum Hosting the US Border Patrol (CBP): Human Rights
  • Ald. Raymond Lopez and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas receive the American Arab Chamber of Commerce 2021 Action Award from Hassan Nijem for their support of the Arab and Muslim American community,
    County Treasurer Maria Pappas celebrates Arab Heritage Month with business and community leaders Activism
  • Congresswoman Debbie Dingell Wikipedia
    Dingell, Tlaib Introduce Resolution Recognizing Eid al-Fitr Christian & Muslim
  • Ziyad Food item
    Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan  American Arabs
  • Vote Yes campaign button, Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    Low Arab early voting turnout in important Orland Park elections American Arabs
  • Aziz Shihab, long time Arab American journalist and author.
    A memorial to a great Arab American Journalist, Aziz Shihab American Arabs
  • Piotr Hofmanski, president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague
    International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin Civil Rights
  • Orand First Responders candidates Matthew G. Rafferty and William Bonnar Jr.
    Arab Democrats endorse Rafferty and Bonnar in Orland Fire District race American Arabs
  • Paul Vallas addressing the Arab American Democratic Club on Feb. 12, 2023
    AADC releases its endorsements for the April 4, 2023 non-partisan elections American Arabs
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12 American Arabs
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC’s Humanitarian Mission to Lebanon American Arabs
Photo courtesy of Eileen Fleming

Haaretz publishes Israeli Lie Regarding Commander of USS Liberty

Posted on July 14, 2017September 25, 2018 By Eileen Fleming No Comments on Haaretz publishes Israeli Lie Regarding Commander of USS Liberty
SHARE ...
          
 
  

  • Tweet

Loading

The headline at Haaretz announced: “‘But Sir, It’s an American Ship.’ ‘Never Mind, Hit Her!’ When Israel Attacked USS Liberty”

We thank them for that and for reminding me of this reporter’s 2007 interview with the Commander of the USS Liberty which proves the Israeli State document cited is egregiously false

By Eileen Fleming

The Haaretz article that went viral this week, ‘But Sir, It’s an American Ship.’ ‘Never Mind, Hit Her!’ begins noting the book, “Remember the Liberty!: Almost Sunk by Treason on the High Seas” which is co-authored by three USS Liberty veterans.

The Haaretz reporter does not quote any of those eyewitnesses, but writes:

In response to a recent request by historian Adam Raz (“The Battle Over the Bomb,” 2015, Hebrew), the Israel State Archives posted hundreds of documents on its website related to the USS Liberty affair.

Raz perused the material and pulled out several fascinating documents that are likely to add more questions to those already in existence – or, if you will, provide some convincing material for conspiracy theorists…

The papers also contain several “amusing” anecdotes, such as the description of a U.S. Independence Day party that was held at the U.S. Embassy in Israel after the disaster.

“I was presented to the commander of the USS Liberty, which is here for repairs. He spoke freely about what happened and expressed his full confidence that it was a tragic mistake,” according to one of the Foreign Ministry documents.

“When asked in my presence, how long the ship’s trip to the United States would take, he replied with a smile, ‘About two weeks – unless we encounter Israeli planes again.’”

 

 


The USS Liberty was cosmetically repaired in Malta before returning to Norfolk to be scrapped.

In 2007, this American first spoke with USS Liberty’s Commander David Ed Lewis, the officer in charge of 195 men out of the total Liberty crew of 294.

We spoke through email since and finally met in June at the USS Liberty’s 50th Reunion in Norfolk VA.

Commander Lewis is featured in the soon to be released DVD “We Americans and the USS Liberty”

During a November 2007 phone call that lasted over an hour, Commander Lewis informed me:

Rear Admiral Lawrence Geiss was in charge of the USS Saratoga and USS America. He swore me to secrecy until his death, which happened about nineteen years later.

What he told me I kept secret until I learned of his death at the first reunion and twenty year anniversary of the veterans of the USS LIBERTY.

He told me that as soon as he got the word of our distress he launched aircraft and notified D.C. and immediately heard from McNamara to recall the aircraft.

He said he assumed it was because some idiots in Washington thought that he was launching nuclear weaponry.

He reconfigured and then re-launched aircraft without nuclear capabilities. Admiral Geiss notified Washington of this and once again the immediate response that came from McNamara was the order to recall the aircraft.

Admiral Geiss challenged the order and pleaded that people are dying! LBJ was heard to say, “I don’t give a damn! I won’t embarrass an ally.”

McNamara had been talking to Geiss on an unsecured but plain language telephone, the Automatic Digital Network, Autodin.

President Eisenhower had once gotten so upset when it took three days once to receive critical information and he established the CRITICOM system. This enabled all critical intelligence to be delivered to the White House within two minutes and CRITICOM [abbreviation for “Critical Intelligence Communications”] is how Geiss and McNamara exchanged information.

On 4 October 2007, Yossi Melman wrote for Haaretz:

Oliver Kirby, the NSA’s deputy director for operations at the time of the Liberty attack, was quoted by the Chicago Tribune confirming that the Israeli Air Force was well aware the ship was the USS LIBERTY, an intelligence gathering ship and that the “U.S. National Security Agency was able to intercept Israeli Air Force communications according to which, at some stage, the pilots identified the ship as American but were nonetheless instructed to push ahead with the attack. According to the report, some of the transcripts and intelligence information have disappeared, while the rest can be found in U.S. government archives.

Oliver Kirby, the NSA’s deputy director for operations at the time of the Liberty attack, is quoted by the Tribune as confirming the existence of the transcripts, saying he personally read them.

They said, “We’ve got him in the zero,” Kirby was quoted as saying, “whatever that meant – I guess the sights or something. And then one of them said, ‘Can you see the flag?’ They said ‘Yes, it’s U.S, it’s U.S.’ They said it several times, so there wasn’t any doubt in anybody’s mind that they knew it.”

Kirby told the newspaper that the transcripts were “something that’s bothered me all my life. I’m willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew.”

The report also states that then U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara ordered jets that had been dispatched to assist the Liberty turned around.

Commander Lewis concluded our phone call:

Twenty-eight of the thirty-four that were murdered that day worked for me. I also still feel personally responsible for the loss of my Communication Officer and Communication Chief.

Just before the LIBERTY sailed they both brought me their retirement papers. They both had all their time in and I asked if one of them would do me a favor in the interest of continuity and go on one last assignment. They both replied, “For you Commander, we’ll both go!”

Not only did they die, their families also paid a price. One widow went over the edge and the state took her kids away. Some of my men were threatened with being put in a mental institution if they spoke out. None of us had any contact with the other until the first reunion of the LIBERTY twenty years after the attack. Everybody was assigned to different duty stations to keep us apart.

That morning I saw a couple of the Israeli over flights, we waved at each other. We all felt safe, as they were friends. I was back in my general quarter’s station two levels down when I heard the thud-thud-thud of the rockets overhead, but they never penetrated the bowels of the ship.

It was such a well planned accident. They took out just about every antenna we had. All of them were knocked out except for one that never worked right. It was also the first satellite communications in the U.S.A. It leaked hydrolic fluid but when it worked right, it bounced off the moon.

The torpedo explosion happened less than ten feet from where I stood and blew out the bulkhead and covered me with twenty years of navy paint. All the troops within twenty feet of me were killed instantly. The bulkhead [wall] protected me as a shield from the blast.

I shouldn’t have even survived. I was on the second level down and the compartment was sealed. Seamen Shnell broke regulations and saved my life. It’s against regulations to break watertight integrity, but he took the risk of sinking the ship to check for survivors.

I would have loved to have seen the carnage as devastating as it was, but the last thing I heard was the call to stand by for torpedo attacks on the starboard side. The next thing I knew I was sitting on the deck up against a bulkhead. My eyes were seared shut with burnt paint and not until the next morning when I was helicopter lifted out, all wrapped up from head to toe so tightly that a corpsman couldn’t tell my head from my feet and he sat on my head the entire ten minute flight. I was cyanotic when they unwrapped me, I nearly suffocated.

The Dr. stood me up against a wall to lance my eyes open and told me don’t move, just keep your eyes on the scalpel so he didn’t blind me. Then they took me straight away to Rear Admiral General Geiss who had been waiting just for me….

“We Americans and the USS Liberty” DVD featuring Commander Lewis has reached the final editing process!

Learn More HERE

And

HERE

 

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Eileen Fleming
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for TADN at The Arab Daily News
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for The Arab Daily News
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/
Latest posts by Eileen Fleming (see all)
  • Vanunu still has more nuclear secrets to spill, Israeli court declares - December 29, 2021
  • 9/11 and a 20th Reflection of That Day - September 5, 2021
  • Mordechai Vanunu: Final Annual Update and this Writers Next Steps - June 19, 2021

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
          
 
  
 
1
Share
     1    
 
 Tweet 
Arab World, Bloggers, Commentary, Eileen Fleming, Israel, Middle East, Opinion, Palestine & Jordan Tags:Government Coverups, Israel propaganda, media bias, MEDIA FAILURES, politics, USS LIBERTY

Post navigation

Previous Post: Le Rapprochement: An American in Paris
Next Post: Fadi Thabit photo exhibit documents Gaza Life

Related Posts

  • Israeli soldiers abuse civil rights of Palestinians everyday. Photo courtesy of the Good Shepherd Collective
    Good Shepherd Collective needs your help to fight Annexation, Demolitions, and more Arab World
  • Racist Israeli soccer fans in the firing line Arab World
  • Jordanian Supreme Court imprisons journalist for criticizing corruption Ali Younes
  • Podcast: Trump’s Travel Ban and its Effects Activism
  • Israeli report on Children killed at Beach flawed Arab World
  • Refugee child. Photo courtesy of the American Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation, FRRME
    Refugee group expresses concerns for rising need in Syria Arab World

More Related Articles

Hanan Ashrawi & Archbishop Atallah Hanna headline HCEF 16th Annual Conference Activism
Wikipedia Censors Mordechai Vanunu and “The Samson Option” May Provide an Explanation American Arabs
The violence by Israel’s soldiers and settler terrorists Arab World
Americans protest war against Iran. Photo courtesy of the National Nonviolent PeaceForce. Sanders, Khanna announce new legislation to block funding for War with Iran Activism
‘Sultan’ Erdoğan the Magnificent Abdennour Toumi
Qatar’s Policy towards Egypt threatens Arab Gulf alliance Ali Younes

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • Ghassan Rubeiz
    Lebanese parliament afraid to vote for next president
    June 1, 2023
  • Hezbollah billboards in Lebanon celebrate Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah and the righteous war against Israeli extremism and fanaticism. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    Who will choose the next Lebanese President?
    May 12, 2023
  • The term Arab will be meaningless if we don’t stand behind it and choose “MENA” instead
    April 29, 2023
  • IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
    Ending Israel’s occupation might save its democracy
    April 26, 2023
  • 300x300-ZIYAD02.jpg
  • 300x300-ZIYAD01.jpg
  • NEWS
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, unveils a series of multi language videos to help property tax owners recover overpayments. This one is in Arabic
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas releases video in Arabic to help recover property tax overpayments
    May 18, 2023
  • Amnesty International ... www.Amnesty.org
    Global: Amnesty International calls for universal social protection, as overlapping crises leave hundreds of millions facing disaster
    May 10, 2023
  • Anti-Arab anti-peace U.S. Senator Robert Menendez who has led the fight to censor American who criticize the brutality and human rights violations of Israel
    Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League
    May 10, 2023
  • property tax info event
    Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi hosts property Tax workshop for Arab community
    May 5, 2023
  • NEWSWIRE
  • Anti-Arab anti-peace U.S. Senator Robert Menendez who has led the fight to censor American who criticize the brutality and human rights violations of Israel
    Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League
    May 10, 2023
  • US Border Notice. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    AHRC Holds Another “Meet, Greet & Open Conversation” Forum Hosting the US Border Patrol (CBP):
    May 2, 2023
  • Ald. Raymond Lopez and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas receive the American Arab Chamber of Commerce 2021 Action Award from Hassan Nijem for their support of the Arab and Muslim American community,
    County Treasurer Maria Pappas celebrates Arab Heritage Month with business and community leaders
    April 27, 2023
  • Ziyad Food item
    Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan 
    April 4, 2023

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

POPULAR POSTS

  • Who will choose the next Lebanese President? Who will choose the next Lebanese President? By Ghassan Michel Rubeiz Since September of last year the Lebanese parliament has ... posted on May 12, 2023
  • Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi hosts property Tax workshop for Arab community Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi hosts property Tax workshop for Arab community Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi will host a ... posted on May 5, 2023
  • Arab-American influencers Furrha Family share secrets of their success Arab-American influencers Furrha Family share secrets of their success Salem Furrha and his eight children @theFurrhaFamily on TikTok and Instagram represent ... posted on February 6, 2021
  • Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chairman and ... posted on May 10, 2023
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas releases video in Arabic to help recover property tax overpayments Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas releases video in Arabic to help recover property tax overpayments Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas ... posted on May 18, 2023
  • Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan  Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan  Ramadan is an important month-long religious observance for Muslims who observe it by fasting ... posted on April 4, 2023

Recent Posts

  • Lebanese parliament afraid to vote for next president
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas releases video in Arabic to help recover property tax overpayments
  • Who will choose the next Lebanese President?
  • Global: Amnesty International calls for universal social protection, as overlapping crises leave hundreds of millions facing disaster
  • Menendez and Risch condemn Syria’s re-admission to Arab League
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Glory to God int he Lowest by Author Rev. Donald Wagner
    Book Review: Glory to God in the Lowest: journeys to an unholy land
    February 18, 2023
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Ziyad Food item
    Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan 
    April 4, 2023
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast
    December 15, 2022
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    “Ramy” cable series melds Arab world reality with every day American life
    October 22, 2022
  • The Ray Hanania Radio Show Live Wed 5 PM EST in Detroit, Washington DC, Ontario and on Thursday in Chicago. Watch the program live at Facebook.com/ArabNews
    Second Season of “The Ray Hanania Show” Arab American radio launches April 6
    April 4, 2022
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at Gab.com, MeWe.com and IDobbinate.com, the alternatives to Facebook and Twitter Censorship.

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2023 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme