Recently declassified documents may explain why President Bush was reluctant to meet with a delegation from the USS Liberty (Jarl Carlsson, Voice, July 4). These documents implicate the U.S. in the maiming of our own intelligence-gathering ship. We stationed the Liberty off Israel`s coast to obtain a clear military picture of the foreshadowed battles following Egypt`s implicit declaration of war on Israel. Prior to recent disclosures, no credible reasons were known why, at the start of the Six-Day War, Israel shot down the broadcast towers of the Liberty.
Documents now disclose that Israel had intercepted Arab intelligence about her positions that came from Soviet sources. The Soviets had broken our in-telligence codes and were using U.S.-gathered intelligence from the Liberty against Israel in this case and the U.S. in general. The disclosures further show that Israel made this breach known to the U.S. before the attack.
Israel warned the U.S. that she would need to disable the vessel if the Liberty continued its broadcasts and yet the U.S. State Department chose not to act. I speculate that we felt it better to embarrass Israel than to let on that our intelligence-gathering was so flawed. A good investigative reporter could earn a Pulitzer for uncovering which U.S. bureaucrats are responsible for this Libertygate.
