The 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty+ What’s happening in Kansas City, Missouri, public schools?

This episode of Radio Active Magazine will feature two topics.  The first is an interview with Bryce Lockwood, one of the survivors of the 1967 attack by Israel against the USS Liberty that killed 34 and injured 171 crew members.  Lockwood will discuss this first with Radio Active listeners and again June 22 to the VFW of Lenexa, KS.

The rest of the episode will update listeners about problems with the Kansas City, Missouri, school district and efforts to improve it.

 

USS Liberty

 

Margot Patterson interviewed Bryce Lockwood and Pete McCloskey.  The following is a transcript of the first third of that interview:

Margot: This June marks the 50th anniversary of the 6-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

One of the lesser known and very mysterious incidents in that war was the Israeli attack on a US Naval intelligence ship stationed in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean sea.

Thirty-four Americans lost their lives in the attacks on the USS Liberty, and 171 were injured.

Israeli later said it was a case if mistaken identity, apologized for the attack, and paid compensation to the survivors and the families of the dead.

But there are still many questions about the assault.

Why did Israel attack a ship that was flying the American flag?

Why did the White House twice call back US fighter planes sent to defend the USS Liberty?

Why were so many essential facts about the attack never revealed to the American public?

Here to talk about some of these facts is Bryce Lockwood, a retired Marine Sargent and Russian language expert, who was serving on the USS Liberty when it was attacked 50 years ago, and who will be giving a talk in Kansas City, June 22. Joining him on the line is Retired congressman, Pete McCloskey, US congress from 1967 to 1983.

He got to know one of the Israeli attackers on the USS Liberty several years ago.

Gentlemen, welcome to the program.

Lockwood and McCloskey: Thank you.

Margot: For listeners who are not familiar with the attack on the USS Liberty, could you briefly recap what happened that day.

Lockwood: Margo, the USS Liberty was the finest and most modern intelligence collection ship in the entire world in 1967. It’s cruise was normally up and down the west coast of Africa, listening in on the communications between the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the newly independent colonies.

As war appeared to be eminent between the Israelis and the United Arab Republic, which consisted of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, the Egyptians had massed troops in the Sinai peninsula, away from Israel.   They were no threat to Israel. They were all in defensive positions. Their tanks were dug in. Their troops were dug in.

But there is a school of thought which goes along the lines dating back to the nineteenth century that amassing troops on the border of another country is tantamount to a declaration of war.

Israel actually initiated hostilities I believe on June 5th.  The USS Liberty arrived on station on June 7th.

On the morning of June 8, we were overflown on about 8 different occasions by Israeli aircraft.  The aircraft would circle us very closely.  There were occasions where where off-duty sailors were sunning themselves on the deck. That is anathema to Muslims, sunning themselves. So it was pretty obvious that these were friendly people that were on board the ship.

That was throughout the morning, beginning about 6 o’clock in the morning, for several hours.  We had a drill general quarters about noontime, local time.

Around 2 o’clock PM, suddenly, there was a very loud noise of explosions top side of the ship.  I was in the after berthing compartment. I dropped what I was doing and immediately ran for my GQ station. GQ alarm sounded, and actually it was the wrong alarm.

We didn’t realize who was attacking us.

The Israelis were using unmarked aircraft, which is a violation of international law.  The attack lasted officially for about 75 minutes.  After the initial air raids, the Israelis were using heat seeking missiles, which destroyed all of our transmitting antennas. At least two attacks with napalm on the top side decks.

So the outside area of the ship on the starboard side was engulfed in flames.

We were essentially defenseless. We only had a grand total of four 50-caliber machine guns for defense. So that was the only defense we had.

Margot: When did you realize that it was Israeli planes that were attacking the ship?

Lockwood: Actually, we did not realize who it was, as I mentioned earlier. The Israelis were using unmarked aircraft, which was a violation of international law.

We did not know who was attacking us until three motor torpedo boats arrived on the scene. They were flying the Israeli flag.

One of our officers on the deck was of Israeli ancestry. It’s my understanding that he burst into tears when he saw the Star of David flag flying from the torpedo boats that were attacking us.

The Israelis fired five torpedoes at us. Four of those torpedoes missed. One struck just forward of the bridge below the water line. Most of us communications technicians were below the water line.  The torpedo ripped a 40 foot hole in the starboard side of the ship. There were 25 sailors that killed in the torpedo explosion, in addition to 9 that were killed in the air attacks topside.

The Israelis claimed they mistook us for an Egyptian ship, El Quseir. El Quseir was a World War I horse transport ship.

Her profile was considerable different from ours.  She was considerable less in tonnage and in size.  Egyptian ships are painted black with hall markings in Arabic script in grey.  US ships are painted gray with hall markings highlighted and silhouetted in bright white colors silhouetted with gray and black, so they cannot be mistaken.

The El Quseir was waiting to be cut up for scrap. It had not been to sea for 20 years.

The Israeli claim that they were being shelled from the sea.

Actually, what had happened is they had captured an entire Egyptian brigade somewhere in excess of 850 Egyptian troops.  They were in the process of destroying ammunition stores, which the Egyptians had.  It was actually Israel’s own troops that were destroying the ammunition that was causing the hullabaloo of loud explosions.

Certainly, it was not any ship at sea.  They claim they had been shelled from the sea, and there was only one ship out there, the USS Liberty. So therefore it must have been a warship.

The hallmarks on Liberty were GTR 5. These are huge letters and numbers. The number 5 was over 8 feet tall. GTR stands for General Technical Research, which means Liberty was a noncombattant.

By international agreements, you do not fire at noncombattants. Fire between ships at sea is limited to warships.

Liberty was no warship. She was a noncombattant.

Margot: This is Margot Patterson, and if you’re just tuning in, we’re at KKFI radio, and I’m talking to Bryce Lockwood, a survivor of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 and Representative Pete McCloskey.

Tell us about the US government’s response to Israeli attack, both during the attack, and then afterwards.

Lockwood: The morning of June 9, Bobby Kennedy and Senator Jacob Javits assembled a news conference on the steps of the US Capitol and said we know it was a mistake, because our ally Israel did it. But excuse me, every protocol in international law that was designed to prevent such an attack was violated by the Israelis on June 8.

Margot: I want to get back to the US reaction a little bit later, but I think Congressman McCloskey is on the line. Congressman McCloskey, I know that you got to know one of the Israeli soldiers involved in the attack on the USS Liberty. Could you talk a little bit about the circumstances in which you got to know this man and what you learned from him about the attack.

McCloskey: Yes. I had left the congress in 1982. It was I think about 10 years later I call from Jim Ennes, the guy who put the flag up on the Liberty. He’d written a book called The Assault on the Liberty.

In any event, he had had a call from a young woman in New York City, who was worried about her boyfriend, or at least a man who had been an Israeli pilot, and who wanted to get either federal witness protection or the publicity possibly of an appearance before congress to tell his story of the attack on the Liberty. Well, I was in California, but I had a former Marine who had served under me, wounded in the Korean War. And he and an attorney went to see this fellow in jail to talk to him, because I wanted to get an analysis in their view of whether he was real or a fake just trying to get out of jail. He was under a felony charge for embezzlement that occurred a 5 to 15 year penalty. And they talked to him at length. They concluded that there was about a 90 percent chance that he was real. He was young. He was a vigorous guy in good health. He was a smart guy. And I’ll read to you from their report to me after meeting with him.

He said he was the executive officer on the flight. He circled over the Liberty several times, that he saw both black and white sailors on the deck, so it had to be an American ship. There was a small American flag at first, but they ran up a much bigger American flag. He reported to his base that the ship was American, but was told to attack anyway. He refused to fire and flew back to his base. He went to his home or apartment but was subsequently taken into custody. He mentioned the name Sharon at some time in the discussion. He said he loved his country, Israel, but was afraid to go back.

As a result of that letter, I found that he was later transferred to Ft. Leavenworth, KS, the federal penitentiary there, not a maximum security penitentiary. And so I met with him with the consent of the warden in a room there in Leavenworth. And I found him to be a very intelligent man. And possibly he was absolutely correct in what he had told the lawyer and my marine friend. And he was looking forward to getting out. I believe it was in November of 95 or 96 that he was to get out of his term. But he was terribly worried that when he got out, he might be picked up by the Israeli government and taken back to Israel and tried and executed for treason for telling this story. He was interested in a congressional hearing at that time. In any event, it would give the publicity and perhaps save his life.

He asked me when I left that prison the first time, would I call an Israeli Colonel, who was then going through the War College at Levenworth. He’d met him at a synagog and knew he was an Israeli Colonel going through the War College. Would I call him when I went out of town. I did. I stopped in a phone booth and called this colonel at the number he had given me. A heavy Israeli accent came on the phone. I told him about this guy, Adna (or Adan) Tov, that wanted to see him. Would he call on him? And I left.

A few weeks later, I got an anguished letter from Tov. He was now down at the Springfield, MO, penitentiary. I called a friend, who knew about the Springfield penitentiary and the federal system. He laughed. He said, that’s the ice box. That’s where they put people that they don’t want anybody to find very easily. They’re out of circulation and can’t talk to the press.

Later, I got another letter from Tov. He said, they were putting swastikas on his wall. They knew he was Jewish or Israeli. The prison guards were anti-Israel or at least anti-Jewish. He couldn’t get kosher food, and would I call the B’nai Brith director in St. Louis. And he gave me his name: a man named Anderman. I called Anderman and said, “Could you get some help over to Springfield, and help Adna (or Adan) Tov, against this anti-semitism?” And he said, “Oh, are you that McCloskey?” Because he knew I’d been the attorney for the Liberty crew, which had caused a little consternation in the Jewish community. They always thought that honoring the Liberty would be anti-semitic and bring criticism on Israel. Anyway, then he and the Rabbi or the Rabbi went down there. And Tov later wrote me that things were better, but he was getting out in November, and he was very worried if they transferred him to New York, they’d turn him over to the Israeli government.

Well, I made a note. His release date was November 18. And I made a note to try to contact him or contact the federal authorities. But when I did, there was no record. He disappeared. On the 18th, there’s no record he arrived in the federal custody in New York. Therewas no record that he was given to the Israelis or that he even existed. And I’m afraid that what happened was very possibly that out government in its alliances with Israel did turn him over to the Israelis and that they did transfer him back to Israel and he may very well have been the subject of a secret court martial and executed.

I’ve heard from several former Israelis that that happens with traitors. There’s a secret court martial and their execution. But that’s all I can tell you, except that he wasn’t exactly a likable guy, but he was a very smooth customer. And he was a very competent guy. And his story made sense.

Later on, another Israeli defector named Victor Ostrovsky, who left the Israeli Mossad and had written a book about “Deception”, By Way of Deception, and the Israeli government tried to suppress it. But our courts ruled that it could be printed, and it sold two million copies. And it described the Israeli operations and the Mossad and in particular this man said that of course the Israelis knew that the Liberty was a US ship. They had a big war room and a big picture of the ocean with all the ships of the various navies, the US, the Egyptian, and their fleet, any Russian fleets. And they knew precisely who it was.

And one thing Tobe said to me, it was not ordered by the Israeli government: It was ordered by one man in the Israeli government, and the name Sharon came up as perhaps the man that ordered the attack on the Liberty. But that’s all I can tell you except the Liberty had more casualties than any ship since World War II. It had a crew of 290 or something, 194 killed or wounded, 34 killed, one of whom was Jewish.

But that’s about all I can tell you, except the description of what they did, the machine gunning the lifeboats, it’s clear they intended to wipe out the Liberty and leave no survivors. And that Captain McGonagle was able to limp back to Malta and save the ship. And then the Navy just put a tight security lid. They disbursed the crew, ordered everybody not to talk about it, or they’d be subject to court martial.

I’m not very proud of the Navy in their treatment of the Liberty crew.

Margot: I understand that most of the survivors and many people in our government feel that there was never a full and credible investigation. Why … ?

McCloskey: No, there never was an investigation, although Admiral Tom Moorer, who became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Nixon years, he told me personally that he know that it was a deliberate attack. And there was an American ambassador Laytler (sp), who was listening in on Israeli transmissions, who confirmed that the Israelis knew what they were attacking. And it was believe, I think, by our government that they did so, because they couldn’t afford a radio transmission that would order their final part of the six-day war, the attack on the Golan Heights. And they said, well, we’ll take a chance, we’ll kill, we’ll knock an American ship down rather than give the Arabs any advance knowledge that we’re going to attack the Golan Heights.

But the real reason is that Lyndon Johnson was terribly afraid of his Jewish constituency. This has been true in the Congress. Congressmen never want to vote against Israel if they can help it in any way, because of the power of the Jewish community in the United States, which many of whom believe that they owe Israel a duty of protecting Israel from whatever they can do in the United States to prevent bad word from coming out about it. And of course the word of the Liberty has been, their people have been suppressed. They go to American Legion conventions and nobody will let them discuss their story. It’s a tragedy. And this happened in 1967. What’s that: 50 years ago.

The first president to recognize that they were entitled to respect an honor was my friend, George H. W. Bush, who invited the Liberty crew to the White House. And they had a barbecue for then in the Rose Garden. And I think that was 25 years ago.

Margot: I have just one last question, and this goes to Mr. Bryce: Bryce, you spent 50 years trying to learn more about the attack that you were subject to June 8, 1967. What are some of the key questions that remain mysterious to you, and what keeps you pursuing this investigation?

Lockwood: We believe the attack was deliberate. We believe all the evidence show it was. And here we are, 50 years later. Many of the attackers that were involved have already passed off the scene. Most of the survivors are getting very elderly now, and we’re passing off the scene. At the very least, for historic purposes, the full truth should come out about the attack on the Liberty. There are some of us crewmen that believe there was something much more sinister involved — the possibility that we were set up by our own president to be a sacrificial lamb to get us involved in a conflict with Egypt and the powers of the United Arab Republic back in 1967. The Israelis — if there was such an agreement between the Johnson administration and the Israeli government, that needs to be public.

Margot: Thank you gentlemen so much for joining us. And just a reminder that Bryce Lockwood will be speaking about the attack on the Liberty, June 22, at 7 PM at VFW Post 7397 at 9550 Pflumm Road in Lenexa.

Kansas City, Missouri school district

The rest of the episode will update listeners about problems with the Kansas City, Missouri, school district and efforts to improve it.

Former Kansas legislator Tom Love told KSHB last August 23 that, “We can get 95 percent of the kids reading on grade level if we decide to fix it.”  If we did this, it could cut the prison population almost in half.

Other evidence suggests that youth involved in after-school activities rarely appear in juvenile court and are rarely incarcerated as adults.  Youth Ambassadors-Kansas City reported having had 750 at-risk youth in their program in 2011 through 2016.  Five, not 500 or even 50, had negative experiences with law enforcement, but none had criminal convictions.

If all this is accurate, with early childhood reading and quality after-school programs, we can cut to almost zero the flow of new entrants into the school-to-prison pipeline and cut the prison population by a factor of three.

 

 

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