body-of-secrets-anatomy-of-the-ultra-secret-national-security-agency-2002

Black smoke was still escaping through the more than 800 holes inthe Liberty's hull, and the effort to hush up the incident had alreadybegun. Within hours of the attack, Israel asked President Johnson toquietly bury the incident. "Embassy Tel Aviv," said a highly secret, verylimited-distributionmessage to the State Department, "urgeddeemphasis on publicity since proximity of vessel to scene of conflict wasfuel for Arab suspicions that U.S. was aiding Israel." Shortly thereafter, atotal news ban was ordered by the Pentagon. No one in the field wasallowed to say anything about the attack. All information was to comeonly from a few senior Washington officials.At 11:29 A.M. (5:29 P.M. Liberty), Johnson took the unusual step ofordering the JCS to recall the fighters while the Liberty still laysmoldering, sinking, fearful of another attack, without aid, and with itsdecks covered with the dead, the dying, and the wounded. Onboard theflagship of the Sixth Fleet, Rear Admiral Lawrence R. Geis, whocommanded the carrier force in the Mediterranean, was angry andpuzzled at the recall and protested it to Secretary of Defense Robert S.McNamara.Admiral Geis was shocked by what he heard next. According toinformation obtained for Body of Secrets, "President Lyndon Johnsoncame on with a comment that he didn't care if the ship sunk, he wouldnot embarrass his allies." Admiral Geis told Lieutenant CommanderDavid Lewis, the head of the NSA group on the Liberty, about thecomment but asked him to keep it secret until after Geis died. It was apromise that Lewis kept.The hole in the Liberty's twenty-three-year-old skin was nearly wideenough to drive a bus through; the ship had a heavy list to starboard,most of its equipment was destroyed, thirty-two of its crew were dead(two others would later die) and two-thirds of the rest wounded; itsexecutive officer was dead, and its commanding officer was badly hurt.Despite all this, the Liberty was heroically brought back to life and slowlymade her way toward safer waters. To keep the ship from sinking, thehatches to the flooded NSA spaces had been dogged down, sealing thebodies of the twenty-five Sigint specialists inside.Throughout the long night, propped up in a chair on the port wing ofthe bridge, Commander McGonagle continued to conn his ship, using theNorth Star ahead and the long wake behind for direction. Shortly afterdawn, 16½ hours after the attack, help finally arrived. Rendezvousingwith the Liberty, 420 miles east-southeast of Soudha Bay, Crete, werethe American destroyers Davis and Massey.Helicopters soon arrived and began lifting litters containing the mostseriously wounded to the deck of the America, still 138 miles away. There197