Thirty-Six Anniversary
Part II
“I don’t Care What the Facts are, I will Apologize to No-One”, the immortal words of our president George H. Bush. The disgrace that he caused the nation, can never be wiped out from the pages of history.
In this section, I shall discuss the dishonor brought us by the lies and deceit of our government from the president down to the members of our military, “the admirals.”
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C- Cover-up and the Investigation:
A joint investigative report of the accident through ABC News Agency and Newsweek was carried out to get the facts and try to make sense of what has happened on that fateful day. Reporting the findings was Mr. Ted Koppel, a seasoned reporter and commentator of ABC Network. He started the session with these introductory remarks:
“The Government lies. They do it all the time… The United States Government is no exception….Still, unlike most countries in the world, when our Government lies to us, there tends to be consequences: Congressional hearing, Special Prosecutor, and Investigative reports…”[1]
All those points are well said and well taken, but they are useless and yield to nothing of value. Our Government lies to the people, to Congress, and to the news media, and in turn, Congress and the press reciprocate in the same way.
In Washington and at the Pentagon, Admiral William Crowe, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, informed the reporters of the tragedy in the Persian Gulf. He emphasized that the plane was outside of the commercial corridor, did not respond to multiple warnings by Vincennes, was descending and gaining speed, and that Captain Rogers had no choice but to act as he did to protect his ship. Admiral Crowe drew reporters’ attention to a giant map of the Persian Gulf, pointing out the position of Vincennes well inside the international water. Shamelessly and in every respect, this great soldier lied to the press and the country. He also indicated that the preliminary report showed the plane was an F-14.
Admiral William J. Crawe
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
He lied to the president and the people of our country
Later, in the Nightline program, it was proven that the Admiral lied on every accounts. The facts were, “The airliner was slightly off the median line in the 25-mile commercial corridor, not descending but ascending to its allowed altitude of 14000 feet. Its speed was not 450 miles, as reported by Rogers, but 359 miles. The airline was in its IFF mode III and was picked up by other American navy ships within 30-40 miles near Vincennes. Captain Carlson of the USS Frigate Sides reported that his radar had picked up the IFF of the plane as a commercial mode three, all, contrary to Admiral Crowe’s report to the President and Congress. Most importantly Admiral Crow lied about where Vincennes was[2]. As he pointed out on his map, the ship was over three miles inside Iranian territorial waters, not in international waters.”
The critical questions discussed by investigators in the Newsweek-ABC were
- Where was the Vincennes during the shooting down, and most importantly,
- What was the cruiser doing there?
Neither the Navy, the White House, nor the State Department would give a straight answer to these questions. As Ted Koppel said, “The official response to these questions has been a tissue of lies, fabrications, half-truths, and omissions.[3]“
Washington first denied Iranians’ claim that the USS Vincennes had shot down a passenger airliner and insisted the plane was an Iranian F-14[4]. Iran brought up the incident to the Security Council of the United Nations and compared it with the downing of the Korean airliner by the Soviets in 1983. The emergence of concerns by the media caused the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff to have an independent inquiry. He appointed Rear Admiral William Fogarty, a senior officer on the staff of the Central Command, as the investigator.
Rear Admiral William Fogarty
As an special investigator!
Fogarty’s investigation was a disastrous cover-up, attempting to whitewash the whole event. It was incomplete, one-sided, and irresponsible. He interviewed the individuals who he felt would support the Government’s position. He did not get any information from those knowledgeable about the event, like the officers of the Forestall Carrier, nor did he check with Captain McKenna, who disagreed with Rogers. The tape of McKenna’s conversations with Rogers was sent to Fogarty, but the Admiral never evaluated its content. Fogarty, when briefing Congress, changed the map to show the location of Vincennes well within the international water. He told Congress that at the time of the shooting, carrier Forestell’s Jets were 250 miles away, his chart indicated the planes to be only 75 miles away. This information raises the legitimate question of why Rogers did not ask those fighters to check on the incoming plane, was his ultimate goal to shoot down the plane?
Captain William Rodgers of the Vinecennes
At the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Fogarty told the senators that Vincennes was rushing to help a Liberian tanker, Stoval, under attack by Iranian gunboats. Fogarty informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that on the morning of July 3, a Pakistani merchant vessel issued a distress signal of being harassed by the Iranians. Shortly after, an explosion was heard near the Liberian vessel, Stoval. Also, several Iranian gunboats were seen in the vicinity.
According to the investigative reports by Newsweek reporter, John Berry, Admiral Fogarty, in his official report to the Navy, indicated, “There was no distress call that day. None.” Also, John Berry interviewed the Pakistani Captain, who denied that he ever issued a distress call. As for the ship Stoval, its registry was not substantiated anywhere. The Liberian registry did not show a boat by that name. Checking the International Shipping Record did not show any vessel by that name. As it was discovered later, the ship was an invention for the sole purpose of legitimizing their action of downing the Iranian passenger airline. Like Admiral Crowe, Fogarty lied to Congress, to the press, and, most importantly, to the American people, THE GREAT SOLDIERS of FORTUNE.
In the Senate’s Committee’s hearing, Fogarty was asked, “Was there other means of verification?” His response was yes, to send other planes for verification; but, no aircrafts were nearby. Rear Admiral Kelly[5] responded, “Our planes were 250 miles away.” The information given by the Admiral was another lie to Congress. The planes from Forestall were only 75 miles away and can verify the incoming aircraft within 5-6 minutes.
Roger Charles[6] In his interview with Ted Koppel said, ” What we know, beyond any doubts, is that there was a provocation. That the U.S. forces enticed and entrapped the Iranian gunboats into a situation where we can then say they had taken a hostile action.” He concluded that, based on all available evidence, Vincennes had attacked the gunboats.
On July 4, 1988, President Reagan notified the Speaker of the House, Jim Wright. He placed the blame on Iranians and stated, “The action of U.S. Forces in response to being attacked by Iranian small boats were taken by our inherent right of self-defense, as recognized in Article 51 of United Nations’ Chapter…”
Article 51 of the United Nations Chapter reads as follows:
Nothing in the present Charter, shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to keep international peace and security. Members’ measures to exercise this right of self-defense shall be at once reported to the Security Council. They shall not affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary to keep or restore international peace and security.
The President’s assumption was totally wrong, NO ONE HAD ATTACKED THE U.S. TheSo, the text of Article 51 was not be applicable to the matter at hand.
A few days after downing the Iranian flight and when it was cleared that the plane was not a F-14, a reporter, Helen Thomas, addressed Mr. Reagan: “Mr. President, are you ready to retract the statement that you made when we downed the Iranian airliner, according to reports today, that the crew panicked and did what has been done?”
Mr. Reagan responded: “Well, Helen, I’ve read and seen and heard what is being said about the report and assigning the blame to people in the radar room who were interpreting the radar signals and all, but I can’t comment because neither the military nor my office has received the report yet. And, as soon we get it and can go over it and study it ourselves, we can comment, but….” Mr. Reagan never corrected his statement, even after the finish evaluation. He was showing signs of established dementia, the condition which was clearly recognizable.
Iran complained to the United Nations Security Council, and the President appointed George H. Bush, his Vice President, to represent the United States at the Council. From the Department of State, Richard Williamson, Assistant Secretary for International Organization, was given the task of helping Mr. Bush. Williamson notified the Vice President’s chief of staff that he was receiving no cooperation from the Pentagon and Admiral Crowe’s office. He suggested that the Vice President be cautious and prudent of what he will say. The hearing was for July 14, 1988, and by then, the Pentagon had all the information in hand.
Despite Williamson’s caution, the Vice President gave a never-ending lecture at the Security Council. His talk was anything but the truth. He omitted some major points and, at the end, concluded that Vincennes was right about the action that it took.
D- The Aftermath:
There is little doubt that the United States was an active participant in the Iraq-Iran war. Shooting down a commercial airliner falls outside of any logic. Regardless of how we view it, it was a criminal act performed by the United States in that conflict. It is hard to believe that a cruiser equipped with 400,000,000.00-dollar of the most advanced technical instruments can not distinguish a passenger plane from an F-14. Either the action was committed on purpose to shoot down the plane or an inexcusable ignorance on the part of Vincennes’s crew. There were no survivors; all 290 aboard were dead. Out of this number, only 170 bodies were recovered. Among those retrieved, forty were not identified [7].
Christopher Dickey, the chief of the Newsweek Bureau in Paris, was at the burial ceremony. He wrote what he had saw: “On the makeshift shrouds of those bodies had been identified was pinned names and addresses, and the slogan: Death to America: Of course, many bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. In some cases, entire families were wiped out.”
He gave a gloomy picture of what he saw: “A few seemed oddly at peace. Leila Behbahani, three years old, was still dressed in her tidy blue dress, black shoes, white socks, and a little gold bangle on her wrist. Twenty-five-year-old Fatima F. had been found in water three hours after the crash, still clutching her baby.”
Dickey remained in Tehran for three days and reported that during his time there: “The people treated me and the other reporters with impeccable courtesy. Even as I worked my way through the crowd at the funeral for 76 of the flight’s victims, no one displayed any hostility toward me. Ritualistically, on mass and cue, they shouted, Death to America:” Dickey posed this question, which I feel why every American shouldn’t know; he asked, “Think how an American crowd would have reacted if an Iranian reporter had been walking around in its midst after 290 civilians, more than 60 of them children, had been blown out of the air by an Iranian warship? Would the American people differentiate between that Iranian and their Government?”
The most noteworthy thought of Dickey is when he asks: “After nine long years.[8] Of agony, Americans had to come to see all Iranians as something not quite human but something capable of the most atrocious, inhuman act. Just before I went to Iran, I was called in Dubai by a radio talk show host from States wanting to know if the Iranians had set up this whole thing and then just dumped all those naked corpses of women and children in the water. I did not know what to say.” We have heard this statement in the United States many times.
E- Conclusion:
After evaluating what had transpired on this occasion, one will sink into a sobering moment, pondering whether the story was an actual incident or a fable. Now that I have completed this short review of what happened some thirty-six years ago, I am struck with the thought, “Was it the Government of the United States that sponsored such an elaborate scheme to cover what it has done that was not supposed to do? Did the country of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Lincoln, and all those great men who, with their utmost sacrifice, created a nation which became the envy of the world dropped so low to commit crimes like what we saw.
All our military leaders lied to Americans; why and what were they hiding? Our Vice President lied in the Security Council; he mentioned the U.N. resolution of 508 while not fully aware of its content and miscoding it. The U.N resolution says:
“Calls upon all other States to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any act which leads to further escalation and widening of the conflict and thus to help the implementation of the show resolution”
The U.S. did not see the article and was an active participant in that warfare, thus inflaming the situation. America was overtly engaged in that war. According to the existing law, military and diplomatic actions involved conspiracy and criminal activities, as explained in Title 18, part I, Chapter 47 #1001. Under heading (a), it clearly explains:
“Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter with the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully- 1- falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; 2- makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement; or 3- makes or uses only false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years.”
As we know, all those involved in the illegal action of shooting have been awarded medals!
On the other hand, we must consider the illegal action of the U.S. government does not negate the unjustified action of the Iranian Government by mining the waterway and periling the safety of ships navigating the area, but was committed by the Iranian government and they were not considered a civilized entity.
With the greatest sadness, we must accept that the U.S. government has long proved its inability to lead the world and has shown it all along; suffice to see the wars all around us: Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon, etc.
We can’t keep a high position solely because of our military strength. It is not the logical and the preferred way. In our ignorance in the international world, we have lost all respect. How long can we lean on our military? It can’t be an everlasting commodity. ” La Raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure.”[9] The reason he is the strongest is always the best of the reasons and will not last forever!
[1] – Ted Koppel: ABC/Newsweek Investigation, July 1, 1992.
[2] – Three years after the incident, Admiral Crowe admitted on the American television show Nightline that Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles,[37] contradicting earlier Navy statements. The International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO) report of December 1988 placed Vincennes well inside Iran’s territorial waters.[63]
[3] – Nightline/ABC News, July 1, 1992.
[4] – George C. Watson; Washington Post, July 4, 1988, p. A.01
[5] – Vice Director for Operation of Joint Chief of Staff.
[6] Roger Charles, a retired former U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel, was investigating the matter on his own. He was also a consultant to ABC Nightline.
[7] – Christopher Dickey: Expats “Travel through Arabia, From Tripoli to Tehran; 1990, p. 203
[8] – The nine years are up since he wrote his book in 1990.
[9] Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) Was a wealthy writer, poet, and philosopher of the seventeenth century during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. He was famous for his Fables, known “as Les Fables de La Fontaine.” In one, he recounts the story of a wolf and a lamb, how the latter was convicted, killed, and eaten based on the wolf’s reasoning without other due process.
Guils of Guilan 