April/May 1993, Page 46

Other People's Mail

Some letters by or to other people are as informative for our readers as anything we might write ourselves.

To the Senate Leader

To The Hon. George J. Mitchell, United States Senate, Washington, DC, Dec. 4, 1992

Dear Senator Mitchell:

Thank you very much for your prompt reply to my letter concerning the attack on the USS Liberty. The coordination with which the attack on the Liberty was carried out precludes the incident just being a series of unrelated errors.

Initially high-speed aircraft with jamming equipment were sent in to destroy our communications and defensive capabilities, followed by slower jets dropping napalm on us to ensure that the crew remained below decks while the torpedo boats arrived and immediately began launching their torpedos. After that they destroyed the life rafts, then departed the scene and were followed up by helicopter-borne assault troops, which circled the ship, to ensure there were no survivors.

In your letter to me, you express your willingness to help if a relevant committee would undertake an investigation into the attack. Whom would you suggest I and other survivors write to or how do we go about getting this investigation started? Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my letter.

Harold E. Six, Sr., Riverside, CA

Tell It to Pell

To Mr. Harold E. Six, Sr., Jan. 13, 1993 Dear Mr. Six:

Thank you for your most recent letter about the attack on the USS Liberty.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee would be in charge of any Senate investigation of the incident. I suggest that you contact the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Pell, should you wish to pursue this matter.

With best wishes,

Senator George J. Mitchell

And Now to Pell

To The Hon. Senator Pell, Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, Jan. 24, 1993 Dear Senator Pell:

Senator Mitchell recommended that I get in touch with you. A copy of his letter is enclosed. The purpose of this letter is to ask for a congressional investigation into the attack on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) by the Israel Defense Forces on dune 8,1967. This is the only maritime disaster of its kind not to be given a complete congressional investigation.

On June 8, 1967, when the USS Liberty, while in international waters, was attacked by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats, 34 American sailors lost their lives and 171 were wounded. The attack itself was a violation of international law. Use of unmarked aircraft during the attack, and the jamming of our international distress frequencies are also violations of international law.

Violations of the Geneva Conventions (war crimes) were committed by the attacking forces when the torpedo boats fired at and destroyed our life rafts that had been put in the water in case the order to abandon ship was given, and when the torpedo boats failed to offer immediate lifesaving assistance upon cessation of the attack.

Who recalled aircraft from the carriers America and Saratoga, and why were they recalled? According to Adm. Tully, then captain of the USS Saratoga, "Saratoga's first launch of aircraft had barely reached the horizon when they were recalled. " The Saratoga and the America then launched aircraft again 90 minutes later, only to have them recalled as well. Had the first Strike Group been allowed to proceed, they could have reached the USS Liberty before the torpedo boats launched their attack.

As the only survivor to escape the room where the torpedo entered the ship, where 25 of my close shipmates lost their lives, I believe the families and I are due, after 25 years, an explanation as to why naval aircraft sent to the aid of an American naval ship under attack were recalled not only once but twice, and nobody seems to know who recalled them or why.

Are you aware that in 1989, in Grafton, Wisconsin, a library named after the USS Liberty as a monument to the 34 who died was met with newspaper articles stating it was anti-Semitic? Are you also aware that the site was picketed by people who believed it was anti-Israel and anti-Semitic to erect a memorial to 34 American sailors who gave their lives in defense of their country?

The local police had a SWAT team in place the day of the dedication because of threats made by these same people. If for no other reason than to insure that something like that never happens again, a congressional investigation is needed to bring out the truth about the attack and who was responsible for it. This so that the next time those 34 brave men and a gallant naval vessel are honored, that honor isn't degraded by protesters and slanderous newspaper articles.

We, as survivors of the attack on the Liberty, may never know why Israel attacked us. But, I do believe that we are justified in our efforts to obtain a congressional investigation into the attack and the violations of international law and the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. We are long past due an accounting by our government as to who recalled the aircraft that were being sent to assist us, and why.

I am asking that you help the survivors of the USS Liberty to clear away the uncertainties, speculations and unanswered questions surrounding this tragedy.

Very truly yours,

Harold E. Six, Sr., Survivor, USS Liberty (AGTR-5), Riverside, CA

U.S. Middle East Policy

To The Washington Post, Feb. 6, 1993

What's all the confusion about U.S. policy in the Middle East? It is clear that we simply will not accept anything less than partial compliance by Israel with some U.N. resolutions.

Paul S. Larudee, Richmond, CA

Questions for Sen. Leahy

To The Hon. Patrick J. Leahy, U.S. Senate, Feb. 15, 1993

I was extremely surprised to read in the Jerusalem Post of Feb. 9 your statement, "Just speaking as a private American citizen, I can't help being impressed that Israel in its immigration policy has done something that no other state in my lifetime has—opening its doors without restrictions." That is simply not true.

The whole world knows that Palestinians who fled Israel in 1948 and the occupied territories in 1967 are not permitted to return, despite U.N. resolutions urging that these people be allowed to return to their homes in the land of their birth. Further, many non-Jews seeking admission to Israel for purposes of family reunification are being barred. For example, there is an intensive debate going on in Israel about whether to admit Falash Mura Ethiopians, Jews who converted to Christianity, many of whom have relatives in Israel.

In saying the above, I am aware of the possibility that you have been seriously misquoted in the Jerusalem Post. I would therefore appreciate your office sending me the full text of your remarks to the newspaper.

I also wonder whether it is appropriate for the chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee to make statements to Israeli Foreign Minister Peres that he was later able to interpret for the Israeli press as meaning "There will no proposal whatsoever in the coming year for a cut in U.S. aid. " As far as I have been informed, the extent of aid to Israel in FY 1994 is yet to be examined by the U. S. Senate.

Frank Collins, Director, Middle East Data Center, Woodbridge, VA

Islam Doesn't Sanction Rushdie Decree

To The New York Times, March 2, 1993

In "Will Mullahs Rescind Rushdie Death Edict?" (letter, Feb. 19), Sepehr Zabih grants legitimacy to the tyrants ruling Iran, who distort and abuse Islam to justify wholesale crimes against humanity. His letter is an example of the mythmaking in which "experts" on Islam indulge.

I graduated from the same seminaries in Qom, Iran, and Najaf, Iraq, attended by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. There is absolutely no justification in Islamic jurisprudence for Khomeini's 1989 edict authorizing the murder of Salman Rushdie. The decree was simply another of Khomeini's Machiavellian ploys to divert attention from growing crises at home.

The decree does not condemn a specific person, but is a general statement of opinion on a particular matter. As far as Islam is concerned, any punishment must be authorized by the courts and only after due process.

Mr. Zabih's formula on how to rescind the order—a consensus among " remaining grand ayatollahs"—is inherently specious, because (1) only the courts can issue or rescind verdicts, and (2) one does not rescind a decree that was illegitimate in the first place. That said, whoever gave any ayatollah the right to issue a death sentence and rescind it at will?

Regrettably, such sophism lends respectability to criminal, terrorist behavior by the mullahs. The rulers of Iran are not guided by Islamic precepts; they cloak their criminal, tyrannical whims under a veil of Islamic jurisprudence. That is how they have legitimized execution of 100,000 dissidents, including pregnant women, in their 14-year bloody rule.

Mr. Zabih is correct in saying that other Muslim clergymen should have denounced Khomeini's call to murder. As a Muslim jurist, and member of the 150-member National Council of Resistance, striving for democracy in Iran since 1981, the writer did so and continues to do so. Islam does not justify or condone arbitrary death sentences—especially in reprisal for expressing unpopular ideas. Practices such as this belong in the Dark Ages.

(Ayatollah) Jalal Ganjei, Paris, France

Anti-Defamation League Activities

To the Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1993 From my personal experience, I put more credibility in your report "San Francisco Probes Private Spy Network" (Feb. 26) than I do in [ADL Regional Director] David Lehrer's letter (Feb. 28). It is just a few years ago that the Anti-Defamation League campaigned to deny the Templeton Prize to Muhammad Imanuallah Khan of the Muslim World Congress. I have also been involved in interfaith work in which we attempted to bring together Christians, Jews and Muslims and the ADL has intervened to pressure the Jewish community to drop out of the meetings. So I just don't see the ADL as an organization that seeks to "protect the safety and security of individuals of all religious, ethnic, racial and national groups. "

And, I am disturbed when an organization like the ADL writes to you that it compiles the breadth of information that Lehrer discusses, with the huge degree of contacts, and without responsibility to anybody to share the sources. Is the ADL the press, is it a lobby, or is it a police organization? Or is it masquerading under the First Amendment, and, in fact, a pseudo-police organization that tramples the rights of others?

Abdulkader, Director, The Practical Islamic Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Americans Spying On Americans Is an Outrage

To the Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1993 Americans spying on Americans and giving the information to foreign governments: Into what has our country devolved?

As a U.S. citizen, I am outraged by the allegations that the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith would spy upon American citizens and permit that information to be transmitted to foreign governments: Israel and South Africa.

As a former board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, I am incensed that my fellow Americans would think so little of our Constitution that they would spy upon constitutionally protected activities and pass that information to foreign governments.

The Constitution protects the activities of the ADC, and non-governmental organizations that would spy upon constitutionally protected activities jeopardize for all the rights and freedoms that we blithely assume. The ADL's objectives do not give it the prerogative to subvert the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. If the allegations are true, then the people responsible have betrayed our Constitution.

Arch Miller, Los Angeles, CA

Intelligence-Gathering Is Our Right as Americans

To the Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1993 It's unfortunate your Feb.26 headline on intelligence-gathering by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith uses the pejorative words. . . "private spy network. " That we engage in intelligence-gathering on a volunteer and professional basis is a necessity that makes it possible for ADL to fulfill its objectives..."to combat anti-Semitism and secure justice for all Americans. "

At all times we've operated within our rights as Americans and the rule of law. Violations by zealots will not be tolerated. I pledge this as one who has served the league as a volunteer and professional for 56 years, and is a life member of ADL's National Commission.

Over the years ADL, in concert with like-minded Americans, engaged in works of education, public opinion and use of law to secure the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and our Bill of Rights.

After World War II we supported President Harry Truman's call for America "to secure these rights." In time, it led to passage of law that seeks an end to discrimination, and opened the doors to opportunity, equal treatment and justice.

That hate still pervades our society is a crime against humanity. It must be exposed and challenged. And in the process, language plays an important role. Pejoratives in your article were out of place in this case.

Hyman H. Haves, Pacific Palisades, CA