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News from Aleppo – the human story of war
Updated on 10 March 2016
Above: Remembering International Women’s Day – images of women in Syria.
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Below is a message from a local in Aleppo, Syria. It begins with a reference to a recent article in the Boston Review.
Message from Aleppo
“The best thing outside powers can do in the interest of peace is to include civil society groups in future negotiations, listen to what they have to say, and refrain from imposing top-down solutions that ignore the Syrian people”.
The above paragraph mentioned at the end of an article on Boston Review , called “Syria after the Ceasefire”, by Stephen Zunes:
https://bostonreview.net/world/syria-ceasefire-stephen-zunes
However, if the Syrian people dared to say that they want Assad, the western powers will either punish the Syrian people more and more till they are all well tamed; or the western media will explain what is happening as “Syrian people are not free, they are terrified from regime repression and punishment. They are forced to vote for Assad”. Therefore, let’s go and free those people by killing their leader and destroying their army! …. Superman is coming to rescue the Syrians!
Although the article is talking about how complex the Syrian crisis became, but they are mentioning all the stereotypes and clichés, as tiding themselves with ropes and asking stupidly: “what a mess! What shall we do now?”…
Imposing democracy on countries and societies that have different ruling types, is like imposing Apple Macintosh operating system upon a Microsoft Windows one: We’ll have a failed and damaged PC. The usual next argument that comes after that mess would be: “Now that we have a damaged PC, what shall we do to clean the mess?”. The PC could be useful only for junk markets, where people can buy its dismantled contents by piece. Dismantling war-torn countries and societies have the same result and future.
After years of 24/7 brainwashing of the world with tons of lies, on all type of media, in focusing on spreading democracy by force on other nations, or changing regimes that don’t obey them, and after all these evil strategies were in vain; perhaps they could solve the problem by removing the “democracy glasses” they forced the globe to wear in the first place. Let alone that no one believe that they really wanted to spread real democracy and freedom in the world. It’s all phony and fake versions of democracy that destroy nations.
Syrians were living peacefully for decades, happily and independent. We had corruption? And who doesn’t have? We needed some reforms on politics? Many reforms actually took place between 2000-2010, and the old corrupted figures left Syria before 2005 to live in abroad with their stolen fortunes (who later became supporters to the so-called rebels). Yes, new layer of corrupted figures started to pop up, and it’s just a continuous work, just like cleaning and vacuuming houses, there will be new dust covering the surface every week, you deal with new dust by vacuuming it again, not by burning the house and bring it down upon the heads of it’s inhabitants.
I always asked normal people over here, such as taxi drivers, how were their lives before the crisis. They always say that they were so happy. Everything was cheap. The poor and rich were working and happy. On weekends you would see the poor ones parking their mini pickup vehicles or bicycles on the highway outside Aleppo in front a green zone (we call that area al-Mohallaq), gathering with families in a picnic and BBQ activities, smoking Sheesha, and eating corn in summers. Those were the poor ones’ weekly entertainment, where they might stay from midday till midnight. It was peaceful. Today, it’s the other way around.
What I always used to say is that before the crisis, Syria had almost 80-95% of what any nation seek to have (75-80% legal and straightforward progress, 15-20% corruption in its best, where the progress is possible after paying bribes, something no one is proud of but we can’t do much about it unfortunately), we only missed 3-5% of political reforms and freedom. This whole crisis, destruction, cleansing, uprooting people from their homes, poverty, refugees problem, infrastructure systematic destruction, raping women, beheading innocents, looting, erasing priceless heritage and historical and sacred buildings and architecture, creating all zombie-like trash criminals that invaded us from all over the world….. All that and a lot more, had been made in the name of gaining those missing 3% of rights. As result, Syrians lost 80% of what they had before, and didn’t gain the 3% they were promised to have! Today we might still have 20% of our origin rights and order, however corruption is controlling more than 75% of it. In the past, bribes were somehow like taxes in the west, we pay it to one party (corrupted employee) and guarantee that our problem going to be solved, or the paperwork going to be submitted. Today, people might pay hundreds and thousands – if not million -folds, as bribes, ransoms, taxes, looting and theft; the paying is for too many parties; and there is no guarantee whatsoever that we will survive!
Still, the same lame mentality, of searching for solutions, by concentrating on their first big fat lie of toppling leaders and replacing them with puppets, in the name of freedom and democracy. Some misleaded Syrians still running after those rosy lies, like thirsty travelers in the desert running after mirage. They just don’t want or can’t wake up and smell the coffee.
Updates:
The road to Aleppo is still under daily attacks, and the SAA is protecting it. Sometimes the terrorists are occupying little part of the road for couple of hours before defeated or fleeing the scene. People are traveling on it safely, yet it’s still a worrying subject for every traveler.
As for the city, and as I mentioned in my last email, the terrorists of al-Nusra in Aleppo city are targeting the Kurds sector of the city so badly. The SAA is defending them from time to time by airstrikes and artillery; but it’s coming on the mainstream media as if the SAA is violating the ceasefire, which is not. Civilians are dying in dozens in the Kurdish sector (Sheikh Maqsoud) after heavy mortar shelling, yet writers are saying that they can’t trust the ‘regime’ in holding the ceasefire! I’m attaching photos that came on the media from over there.
Syria became another Palestine, where the blames always goes on Palestinians reactions, never on Israelis provocations. That is the Israeli flavor in conflicts. Everything so far they blamed the Syrian government of doing it in the last 5 years, they did it themselves. They used chemical weapons against civilians. They besieged villages and towns and cut all food and water supply of reaching them, the hunger strategy in wars. They forced people to leave their homes and to become refugees. They forced people to vote for them and didn’t give them their freedom. They kidnapped cities and tortured masses of people because they don’t share the same religion, sect, or political opinion. They brought multinational fighters (from 80+ different nationalities) to fight with them, years before Syria asks the help of Hezbollah, Iran, Russia (3 nationalities). They did all kinds of atrocities and yet dare to blame it on the Syrian government. That is typical the Israeli flavor in wars. Who targeted hospitals, schools, and markets in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Afghanistan; claiming that the enemy is launching rockets from them? Yet they dare to talk about Russian or Syrian jets attacking terrorist hospitals!
Going back to what the Syrian people want, I’m afraid there won’t be much of them left anymore in the next presidential elections. The refugees in Europe and other countries can’t vote. They had been replaced with multinational fighters. They are the new Syrians now, and they could change the voting results to their sake. Maybe that is one of the reasons of emptying the country of its real people and scattering them in the world as refugees.
9 March 2016
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Above: Rose, a former lion tamer now Syrian soldier: “As for my motivation, what brought me here is the homeland, love of the homeland, love of the family, love of the people, love of friends, love of peace, love of the secure life we used to live.”
Above: Images of Rose’s beloved Syria.
Below is a message sent on 2 March 2016 by another local in Aleppo.
– Ceasefire agreement: Aleppo city is much more calmer since the beginning of the agreement, beside some violations took place the first hours of the agreement, and yesterday at 21:50, when 2 mortars shelled on the government held area, followed by ambulance sirens around 22:00. In general, so far, Aleppo city is so calmer than before. No shells, no jets in the sky, no clashes. 80% better than before.
– Situation in Aleppo province didn’t change much, according to news. The terrorists attacked the liberated villages of Nobbol & az-Zahraa with rockets, but there were no casualties. In other areas of the province, fighting is still on going: SAA vs. Nusra & Da’esh; Kurds vs. Turks from the borders; Kurds vs. Terrorists; terrorists vs. other terrorists… Violations of the ceasefire are from the terrorist groups and Turkey.
– Russians recorded 15 violations in Syria in the last 24 hours. Russia said as well that Nusra terrorists were shelling mortars in Latakya province from the Turkish borders (from Turkey). The Turks are targeting the Kurds in Tell Abyad border town, claiming fighting Da’esh on the media!
– Aleppo road had been finally liberated, but needs a lot of repairing. It had damaged so badly. Aleppo was isolated for almost a week of tough fighting to take it back. There were snipers and a lot of mines.
– Prices, obviously, started to jump up because nothing was coming in to the city. Goods and fuel became expensive, part because of the road battles, and part because of the dollar rising price. The crisis traders and merchants were the happiest group of the situation! Prices will take some time till it goes down, when goods and fuel start to enter the city, after repairing the road.
– There are news or gossips about treasons that happened in 3 checkpoints on the road to Aleppo that caused the setback and the loss of hundreds of lives among the Syrian soldiers. The morals are down regarding such news. While Hezbollah brave fighters and Syrian special forces paid high price to liberate the long road, others are bribed because they are corrupted rotten members in the body. The war had exposed the worst things in us, but it had motivated others to do the best they could do. From one side you see the traitors, opportunists, and corrupted ones, on the other side there are the brave heroes and martyrs who are defending millions like myself.
– The thermal station of Aleppo that had been liberated lately by the SAA, needs billions of dollars to start working again. Before leaving it, the terrorists made sure to loot everything they can, and sabotage the rest. Even its fuel, they loot as much as they could, and burn the rest. Aleppo is without power (electricity) for 5 months now, and without water for more than 1 month. Repairing that station will needs a miracle.
That’s all for now. Take care!
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In October 2012, not long before he was abducted, US freelance journalist James Foley wrote about the disenchantment of people in Aleppo with the ‘revolution’,
Syria: Rebels losing support among civilians in Aleppo
Giving Regard to Syrians, their Secular Society and a Search for the Truth
Images by author: Syria and Syrians before the war
The Targeting of a ‘Pariah State’
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there was cause for Syrians to be concerned that their country would one day be targeted by the United States. Though not officially in what George Bush termed the “Axis of Evil”, Syria was attaining pariah status: it was not a member of any western club.
Covert and overt interference in Syria by western governments was nothing new. For example, the first military coup in Syria was orchestrated by the CIA. This happened just a couple of years after the country achieved independence from France, a country that had destroyed part of the old city of Damascus to quell a rebellion in the 1920s and which twenty years later bombed Damascus, killing around 500 people in a matter of days, as it sought to quash Syrian efforts for independence.
(The Syrian Crisis of 1957: A Lesson for the 21st Century)
However, despite its history and position in the world, for those living in Syria in 2003, it was difficult to conceive that this stable, peaceful country would be rocked by a catastrophic war in less than a decade.
The Targeting of a Modern, Ecumenical Syria
Damascus and Aleppo, the two oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, were tolerant, vibrant cities. They were modernizing at a great pace. There was a buzz in the air. Sometimes the signs of change were miniscule but significant. For example, by 2009, it was not unusual to see young unmarried couples holding hands in public. At the same time, solid faith traditions were maintained: one December when Christmas and Eid al-Adha celebrations almost coincided, decorations for both festivals were sold together in the souq.
Image: Eid al-Adha and Christmas decorations in the Souq, Damascus, 6 Dec 2008
But since then, in other capitals, a new Syria has been configured. It is a notion of Syria that has at its core the conviction that “a brutal Alawite dictator is oppressing a Sunni majority”. It is a narrative that is never substantiated; like so many other claims related to Syria today, it passes unscrutinised. But this is dangerous as it can bolster beliefs that contradict basic tenets of our society in that it can confer a degree of legitimacy to hatred, intolerance and anti-state violence.
Hatred and Lies to Inflict Terror
Clarity is needed on Syria. Before the ‘Arab Spring’, women’s rights and freedom of religion as well as the provision of free education were integral to modern Syria. There was talk of evolution, not revolution. To overthrow the Syrian government by violent means, terror had to be inflicted on local populations; fear engendered; hatred stirred up; and lies told. A doctrine that exhorted people to murder their fellow human beings had to be imported into Syria.
Images: Host on Al-Jazeera program proposes the killing of Alawite women and children
A blue-print for the overthrow of a government is not new. Strategists and war rooms have always existed. However, playing with the human heart and mind in war and expecting a clean outcome is like rolling one hundred dices and expecting 6 to turn up on them all.
Images: Survivors from the occupation of Adra recount their stories
In Syria today, mortars are fired at random into cities; car bombs explode in suburban streets; people are abducted; public servants are assassinated; women are paraded naked in streets; children are thrown off buildings to stop the army’s advance; mothers become demented as they watch strangers play with the heads of their children; bodies are cut up and bagged and put on a family’s doorstep. On our watch, one’s worst possible nightmares are being played out in Syria.
“Psy-Ops” and High Stakes
In June 2012, Jon Williams, a BBC editor who had reported from Damascus, wrote the following on a blog post.
Given the difficulties of reporting inside Syria, video filed by the opposition on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube may provide some insight into the story on the ground. But stories are never black and white – often shades of grey. Those opposed to President Assad have an agenda. One senior Western official went as far as to describe their YouTube communications strategy as “brilliant”. But he also likened it to so-called “psy-ops”, brainwashing techniques used by the US and other military to convince people of things that may not necessarily be true.
A healthy scepticism is one of the essential qualities of any journalist – never more so than in reporting conflict. The stakes are high – all may not always be as it seems.
Crossing the Red Line
One example of the muddying of the Syrian story is the oft-repeated claim presented as fact that ‘Assad crossed Obama’s red line when he used chemical weapons against his own people’ in August 2013.
Yet, the United Nations has not attributed blame for that alleged sarin attack. Furthermore, a report by MIT Professor Ted Postol and former UN weapons inspector Richard Lloyd points the finger at ‘rebels’ being most likely responsible for firing the munitions. And that suspicion mounts. Turkish opposition MPs recently accused authorities in Turkey of providing sarin to insurgents for the attack, presumably a false flag meant to provoke U.S., U.K. and French military strikes on Damascus.
Sunnis against Sunnis
Image: Sheik Mohamed Al-Bouti, killed in a suicide bomb in Damascus
In an interview on Al-Jazeera, Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar and described as the unofficial spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, condoned the targeting of civilians and religious scholars who support the Syrian regime. Just weeks after this ‘fatwa’, Sheik Mohamed Al-Bouti, the highly regarded 84 year-old Islamic scholar and imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, was killed in a suicide bomb along with more than 40 of his students, including a grandson. They were Sunni Muslims killed by a Sunni Muslim.
Dividing the Muslim World – the two ‘evils’
Images: Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, explaining that the Sunnis are the ‘lesser evil’
There were many acts of terror in Syria before the invention of ISIS. However, the terrorist acts committed by ISIS have appeared more theatrical and on a much larger-scale. In June 2014, purportedly over one long weekend, Islamic State massacred 1,700 young Iraqi soldiers. Not long after, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren referenced this bloody orgy, but he declared that the “lesser evil is the Sunnis over the Shites”. He contended that “the math” determined who the lesser evil was. “From Israel’s perspective”, he went on, “if there is going to be an evil that prevails, let the Sunni evil prevail”. But Mr Oren didn’t explain who had drawn up the math and who had independently audited it.
The discourse which insists that the violence is between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims obscures the reality. If the war in Syria can be described as a religious conflict, it is one between a relatively young school of Islam meshed with the ruling elites of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and a more ancient Islam, the Islam that embraced me, a person of no particular faith, when I lived in Syria.
Latakia Massacre, August 2013
Image: Women and children abducted by armed groups in Latakia, August 2013. Screenshots from this video.
In the first week of August 2013 (two or so weeks before the alleged sarin attack in Damascus), around 200 or more civilians, mostly women and children, were massacred in and around their homes in Latakia. About the same number were abducted. Some scholars observe with concern the close connections high profile NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have with the U.S. State Department. However, despite its generally biased stand on Syria, Human Rights Watch did present a well-documented account of the Latakia massacres (You can still see the blood). To co-ordinate and carry out the murders and kidnappings, up to 20 armed groups cooperated; the Islamic State was just one Takfirist group involved. The killings were vicious, but the level of cruelty was not new in the Syrian ‘Arab Spring’.
A retired American pharmacologist, Dr Denis O’Brien, who scrutinized the video footage of the victims of the alleged sarin attack in Damascus, contends that some victims may have been children abducted in Latakia. He noted the stage managed quality to the display of children’s bodies, and anomalies, such as the appearance of the same body in different locations and clear signs that established the victims didn’t die from a sarin attack, as alleged. But the west was expected to respond with bombs to the bodies of the children; no questions were meant to be asked.
Syria on a Hit-List; ‘Rebels’ a Tool
It is often claimed that the crisis in Syria began after the arrest and torture of children who wrote up anti-government graffiti in Daraa, a city near the border with Jordan. I have heard different versions of this story: children had their fingernails pulled out; children were killed; children were neither tortured nor killed. Chinese whispers and hearsay are being used to determine narratives on Syria instead of clear-sighted investigations searching for the truth.
But the war in Syria began before any graffiti writing. Soon after 9/11, a Pentagon insider told General Wesley Clark that Syria was on a hit-list. And before the ‘Arab Spring’ reached Syria, former French Foreign Affairs Minister Roland Dumas learnt that Britain was “organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria”.
“Assad” – the Monster
Video: Cartoonist Bruce Petty asks Dr Jeremy Salt: Has Bashar al-Assad killed more people than ISIS? and similar questions (For transcript of interview, go to this site.)
Like the former Israeli ambassador to America, some in Australia claim ‘Assad’ has killed many more people than IS. (See Tim Costello on QandA and Waleed Aly in The Age.) It is as if Assad is a mythological monster, and the protagonists on the battlefields in Syria are ISIS (the bad rebels), the non-ISIS rebels (the good rebels) and Assad (the monster).
Such crude attempts to present ‘Assad’ as the personification of evil omit mention of the tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers who have been killed by various armed groups waving various flags since the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ in Syria. And they omit reference to the millions of Syrians who seek a safe haven in government controlled towns and cities. The truth is the Syrian people are caught in a monster of a war. Their secular state could collapse around them, and millions could be killed or forced to flee while people a long way from the theatre of war speak with certainty and power, but with little reference to them.
Checking on the ‘Arab Spring’ in Damascus, April 2011
Image above: Screenshot from video with interviews of killers of Nidal Jannoud, a Banyas farmer killed in the street on 10 April 2011.
One month after the start of the so-called Arab Spring in Syria, I returned to Damascus. On Saturday 23 April 2011, I met a young man who had just come from an opposition rally in an outlying suburb of the capital. Some demonstrators at the protest rally had been shot, two of them killed. There were armed police present, but no one saw them draw their weapons, he explained. Who had killed them and why they had been killed was a mystery. In the first stirrings of violence and terror, there were many mysteries and many rumours.
The birth of the Syrian ‘Arab Spring’ was not as it was depicted in Australia. That April in a hotel room in Damascus, I saw the funerals of soldiers and police on Syrian TV. Bereft widows pleaded for an end to the killings.
The High Stakes
In presenting the story of Syria, a skewed narrative may support another U.S. led war, but it can also engender divisions, intolerance and hatreds within our own communities. We can lose what Australia holds dear: peace, harmony, and integrity. The stakes are high indeed.
Susan Dirgham
National Coordinator of “Australians for Mussalaha (Reconciliation) in Syria” – AMRIS
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Below: Syrians – images taken from Syrian TV since start of crisis
Image below: Screenshot from a video showing interviews with former rebels and their supporters in Babbila, after they had reached a reconciliation agreement with the army
Images below: Damascus University students hold a vigil after a mortar attack kills 15 students in a University cafe, March 2013
Statement: An Alternative Response to the Syrian Crisis
Statement: An Alternative Response to the Syrian Crisis
- While the war in Syria has led to a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions, we support retired ADF General Peter Gration’s view that Australia should not participate with the U.S. and its allies in bombing raids in Syria.
- Like retired General Gration, we are aware of the civilian casualties that almost inevitably occur when action is taken to disarm terrorists, such as ISIS insurgents, who terrorize communities.
- We support a settlement of the conflict in Syria based on UNSC resolutions.
- We abhor the sowing of hatred between people of different faiths. Such hatred contributes to the killing fields in Syria.
- We call for non-partisan, balanced reporting on the Syrian conflict by journalists and NGOs which includes rigorous investigation of all claims of torture, massacres or atrocities.
- We are concerned that unverified claims could incite extremist ideological responses and some young Australians may embrace a violent response to the war in Syria which could impact on our own communities for years to come.
- We note a scientific report by MIT Professor Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd (a former UN weapons inspector) casts serious doubt on oft-repeated claims that the Syrian government was responsible for an alleged chemical weapons attack on 21 August 2013. We urge all concerned Australians to seek well-researched reports on the war and to challenge partisan reports that may prolong the war and terror.
- We call for a robust and fearless discussion in the Australian Parliament and in our mainstream media which focuses on a search for the truth, on peace and reconciliation efforts, and on an end to foreign interference in the war in Syria. We urge everyone to respect the capacity of Syrians to end the conflict themselves.
- We urge Australians to listen to the voices of Syrians who believe in peaceful political change, as Australian citizens do, and we note and celebrate the freedoms Syrian women and people of all faiths have enjoyed in Syria.
- We strongly support a humanitarian response to the Syrian refugee crisis concurrent with actions that can lead to the end of the conflict so Syrians can return to their communities to rebuild their lives.
FORTY YEARS ON: THERE IS STILL MUCH TO LEARN ABOUT THE USS LIBERTY SAGA, by Tim Fischer
The article below was printed in 2007: Middle East Magazine.
Note: On 27 May 2007, the AGE newspaper printed a shorter article by Tim Fischer, former Deputy PM of Australia, on the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
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FORTY YEARS ON: THERE IS STILL MUCH TO LEARN ABOUT THE USS LIBERTY SAGA
-Tim Fischer, former Deputy PM of Australia and former Army Officer 1 / 6 / 2007
Forty years ago in a quiet corner of the Mediterranean off the Sinai Desert, an incredible attack was launched by Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats on the USS Liberty.
It was the fourth day of the Six Day War, it was in international waters and it was clearly marked as the USS Liberty, a large intelligence gathering ship proudly flying the United States Flag. Conditions were calm and clear but by days end thirty-four American sailors were killed and one hundred and seventy two injured.
The USS Liberty limped back to Malta with several gaping holes visible and with a US Navy Court of Inquiry team on board making some investigations of what happened. President of this Court of Inquiry was Admiral Isaac C Kidd, and Captain Ward Boston, JR, was Counsel assisting, but under Pentagon orders the Court was not permitted to travel to Israel to complete its investigations.
There is an emotional and fierce debate to this day over the question of whether the attack by Israeli forces was deliberate, which was allegedly mounted to disrupt US intelligence gathering and provide cover for the day five invasion of Syria and capture of the Golan Heights. Against this chilling accusation, there is the book by retired USA Bankruptcy Judge Jay Cristol that contends the attack was undertaken by Israeli jet fighters and Israeli torpedo boats, but it was a dreadful mistake, an accidental attack.
As Donald Rumsfield say ‘Stuff happens in war’ and as Shimon Peres said recently about the cluster bombs into Southern Lebanon last year, ‘Mistakes occur in war’.
However as a reaction to the Cristol book, many key US Intelligence Officials and Ward Boston Jr himself have broken their strict orders under the Official Secrets Act to speak up and detail the chilling truth.
Ward Boston, JR, signed an Affidavit and I quote
“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. 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”.
The Affidavit is readily available through google, along with key statements debunking some official transcripts released to fudge the truth, somewhat retro fitted transcripts involving Israeli helicopter pilots who arrived on the scene well after the first fierce hour of attacks.
This statement by Stephen Forslund (US Air Force intelligence analyst) is clear enough and in anticipation of attack on the transcripts aspect, I quote:
“The transcripts made specific reference to the efforts to direct the jets to the target which was identified as American numerous times by the ground controller. The ground control began asking about the status of the target and whether it was sinking. They stressed that the target must be sunk and leave no trace.”
The reader can research the subject and reach a conclusion on deliberate or accidental, what is accepted by all is that it was an Israeli attack and 34 US sailors were killed. For my part, I now believe the evidence all points to it being a deliberate attack by Israel.
The two key issues arising continue to this day, if Israel did deliberately attack the most powerful nation on earth, it knows it can do so and get away with murder. Worst still, US military personnel now know that if it is politically inconvenient, they and their legacy are expendable.
The White House and Pentagon of the day, more so the US Congress, needed to bring the truth out and these key institutions today still need to get to the bottom of this saga, once and for all.
Why is this important forty years on? Because Israel needs to know that it will be exposed and held accountable for its actions and incidents, likewise Syria and the Palestinians, the Palestinians who might contend the Liberty saga was one factor in delaying the creation of the Nation State of Palestine. This type of action by Israel firstly must never be allowed to happen again and secondly must never be covered up.
In 1956, during the Suez crisis, Israel learnt that it could not rely on so-called Allied Nations when the chips were down. In 1967, with the Six Day War, it learnt that accidentally or otherwise it could attack the most powerful nation on earth and that the President of the day, Lyndon B Johnson, would order a monumental cover-up, effectively letting them off the hook.
We now know it is from this period that Israel cheerfully commenced building its own atomic bomb and cheerfully will push over the edge whenever it suits, because recent history shows that it that it can get away with such adventures. Remember the thousand of cluster bomblets that went into Southern Lebanon last August, after the cease-fire had been agreed, but before its actual commencement.
However I say again, it is the US that has most to answer for not honestly dealing with the attack on the USS Liberty, in turning its back on the families of the 34 killed and the families of the 172 survivors. Further in a very curious move, a Medal of Honour was awarded to the Liberty Commander, William L McGonagle, fair enough, but the actual ceremony was a secret, private ceremony.
The Pentagon has ugly spin form, just ask the family of Pat Tillman killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan but initially reported otherwise. In relation to the 34 sailors killed by the Israeli Forces, it is corrosive in the extreme that the Pentagon did not fiercely fight to bring the truth out, if not initially for operational reasons then surely after 30 years, if not 40 years.
To the thousands of US and Allied Forces this is the really ugly part, the cause of their death will be air brushed out if it is politically inconvenient for it to be revealed, for a period of at least 40 years, or more. You will fight for your country, you may die in battle for your country, but now you can have an expectation that the truth associated with your death will be tampered with, if it is politically inconvenient, by your own HQ.
There are further allegations that US Defence Secretary of the time, Robert McNamara, and President Lyndon Johnson ordered US fighters, launched from a nearby US Aircraft Carrier, to turn back and not go to the defence of the USS Liberty. Again, because of all of the ramifications arising, the world is entitled to know whether this is true of not.
It is a sad fact that on the 8th June 1967, the USS Liberty was definitely attacked by Israeli jet fighters and Israeli torpedo boats, it is a sad and confirmed fact that 34 US sailors were killed in the attack. It is true that Israel has paid some reparations to the families involved, and full marks to Israel in this regard.
It remains for the real truth to come out, particularly from the USA, the country Australia fought alongside in two World Wars, two Gulf Wars, Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan and still counting.
A former Attorney General of Israel, M Ben Y Air, once made a famous observation, and I quote exactly : “The Six Day War was forced upon us, the seventh day continues to this day and is our choice.”
To all of this I would observe the seventh day of ongoing conflict can be brought to an end with peace and tourism ushered in, and this will be greatly helped by bringing the truth out officially in relation to the incredible fourth day of the Six Day War, a war which was momentous for not only the Middle East but for the world and deadly for 34 USS Liberty sailors.
ENDS
australiansforreconciliationinsyria.org 