NEWS
Pearls!
White House Ceremony
Raises Questions
Washington (JTA) — The
Anti-Defamation League
has questioned the motiva-
tion behind a White House
ceremony belatedly honor-
ing surviving crew members
of the USS Liberty, a Naval
intelligence ship bombed by
Israeli aircraft during the
1967 Six- Day War. Thirty-
four American seamen died
in that bombing.
Israel has always insisted
the episode was an accident
and the United States offi-
cially accepted that explana-
tion.
White House Chief of Staff
John Sununu and Brent
Scowcroft, the national
security adviser, spoke to 42
former crew members of the
Liberty in the White House
Rose Garden on June 8, the
24th anniversary of the inci-
dent. President Bush waved
to the group as he returned
from the "Desert Storm"
victory parade.
Later that evening, an
admiral awarded the
crewmen a presidential unit
citation signed by President
Lyndon Johnson in 1968, a
year after the incident. The
citation had never been pre-
sented.
The ADL issued a state-
ment pointing out that
Mr. Sununu, while governor
of New Hampshire, signed a
proclamation in 1988 that
declared the attack on the
Liberty to have been
"vicious and unprovoked"
and the work of "belligerent
aircraft and torpedo boats."
"ADL hopes that the
reason for the White House
reception was simply to
honor the Liberty crew
members, not to give a
stamp of approval to those
seeking to malign Israel,"
the statement said.
It called the Israeli attack
a "tragedy."
Lt. Cmdr. James Ennes
Jr., a retired Naval officer,
told the Washington Post
that because the attack was
carried out by a major U.S.
ally, "just nobody had the
guts to give (the citation) to
us. , '
Lt. Cmdr. Ennes has
written a book that accuses
Israel of deliberately laun-
ching the attack, but the
U.S. Navy has produced no
evidence to corroborate that
charge.
Two former congressmen,
Pete McCloskey Jr., R-Calif.,
and Paul Findley, R-Ill.,
staunch critics of Israel,
helped arrange the White
House reception.
ADL expressed concern
with their involvement "and
the sanction given by the
White House of such rhet-
oric."
Retired Adm. Thomas
Moorer, a former chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
told the Post that the crew
had never before received
recognition because "both
the Israeli and U.S. govern-
ments covered it up."
According to the admiral,
the only plausible reason
why the Israelis attacked
the vessel was to destroy its
listening devices so that the
United States would not
know of a planned Israeli at-
tack on the Golan Heights.
Adm. Moorer rejected
Israel's explanation that it
thought the U.S. ship was
really an enemy ship.
The Liberty was a con-
verted Victory-type freighter
built during World War II.
Although it carried surveil-
lance equipment that
altered its profile, Victory
ships had certain distinctive
hull features.
The Egyptian merchant
marine possessed two Vic-
tory-type freighters at the
time of the Six-Day War, the
Cleopatra and the Moham-
med Ali el-Kebir.
For the month of
June all cultured
and fresh water
pearls are specially
priced at Robert
Alexander Jewelers.
Many of our cultured
pearls are strung with
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Sympathizers
Arrested
New York (JTA) — Argen-
tine authorities have ar-
rested two Nazi sym-
pathizers and charged them
with the desecration in late
April of a Jewish cemetery
on the outskirts of Buenos
Aires, according to reports
from the country.
Horacio Carrondi, 34, an
unemployed resident of
Berazategui, where the van-
dalism took place, was ar-
rested at his home. A self-
professed neo-Nazi, he had
worked in the Argentine
army's intelligence service
until 1986.
Judge Orfeo Maggio, who
has been investigating the
cemetery desecration, told
reporters in Buenos Aires
after the arrest that Carron-
di probably acted with
others. The judge and police
base this assumption on the
extent of damage at the
cemetery, at which 110
graves were smashed.
A second suspect, Luis
Kesseller, was arrested and,
like Mr. Carrondi, charged
with violating the country's
anti-discrimination law.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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