Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 5/1967 Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, United Kingdom - Partial meltdown - Graphite debris partially blocked a fuel channel causing a fuel element to melt and catch fire at the Chapelcross nuclear power station. Contamination was confined to the reactor core. The core was repaired and restarted in 1969, operating until the plant's shutdown in 2004.
  
• 5/1967 Joachim Joesten: "The way Jackie snubbed the President at the launching of the carrier "John F. Kennedy" at Newport News in May 1967 speaks volumes and if the American Press failed to assess this performance correctly, foreign reporters keenly sensed its implications."
  
• 5/1967 The US military tests the "effectiveness of artillery shells using sarin in the jungle." The tests, code-named "Red Oak, Phase 1," are conducted in the Upper Waiakae Forest Reserve on Hawaii and near Fort Sherman in the Panama Canal Zone. According to reports released in late October 2002, there was "no indication of harm to troops or civilians." [Reuters, 11/1/02]
  
• 5/1967 Professor Monroe Freedman wrote in the Georgetown Law Journal: "From the day that James Hoffa told Robert Kennedy that he was nothing but a rich man's kid who never had to earn a nickel in his life, Hoffa was a marked man...satisfying this grudge became the public policy of the United States, and Hoffa, along with Roy Cohn and perhaps other enemies from Kennedy's past, was singled out for special attention..."
  
• 5/1967 Ralph Lazarus, president of the Federated Department stores and a member of the Business Council, held a press conference to criticize LBJ's budget for underestimating the cost of the war. Abe Fortas called Lazarus and told him to keep quiet, though Lazarus' numbers turned out to be right. (Best and the Brightest 739)
  
• 5/1967 William Wood joins the Jim Garrison investigation.
  
• 5/1/1967 New Orleans Asst D.A.s James Alcock, Andrew Sciambra and Richard Burnes filed exceptions to a petition by Shaw's lawyers requesting the appearance of James Phelan as a material witness.
  
• 5/2/1967 USS Liberty (AGTR-5), a high-tech spy ship, departs Norfolk, VA for a scheduled four-month "technical research operations" deployment to the west African region. [Naval Historical Center file - USS Liberty 1967 Command History Report.]
  
• 5/2/1967 Melvin Belli was quoted as saying that he thought the Garrison probe "is unfair. I believe the Warren Commission was right." But then he stated that he thought there would be convictions "on peripheral charges."
  
• 5/2/1967 McNamara advised LBJ to reject the JCS' desire to expand the bombing. He also advocated pulling back on the bombing, limiting it to the area below the twentieth parallel. Vance, Katzenbach, Richard Helms, Rostow, Bill Bundy and the CIA agreed with McNamara. (In Retrospect 265)
  
• 5/3/1967 Black students seize the finance building at Northwestern University and demand that African American oriented curriculum and campus reforms be implemented.
  
• 5/3/1967 Fragmentation bomb explodes inside the car of Cuban ambassador in Mexico.
  
• 5/5/1967 "UFOs sighted in Indonesia are identical with those sighted in other countries. Sometimes they pose a problem for our air defense and once we were obliged to open fire on them." Air Marshall Roesmin Nurjadin, Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Air Force, future Minister of Communications, in a letter to Yusuke J. Matsumura dated May 5, 1967.
  
• 5/6/1967 James Phelan publishes an article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled: "Rush to Judgment in New Orleans." The article is a one-sided attack on almost every aspect of Jim Garrison's probe. He questioned whether Perry Russo's testimony may have been influenced by his being hypnotized. Phelan did not mention that he had talked with Russo himself, and Russo told him that he and Sciambra had talked of the conspiracy plot during their initial interview.
  
• 5/6/1967 Four hundred students seize the administration building at Cheyney State College.
  
• 5/71967 The New York Times reported Syria had shelled the Israeli village of Ein Gev.
  
• 5/7/1967 NY Times reported that Soviet youth openly defied police recently when they danced the Twist in Red Square during May Day celebrations.
  
• 5/81/967 Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in the U.S. Army.
  
• 5/9/1967 Garrison accused the CIA of concealing evidence (NY Times 5/10)
  
• 5/10/1967 After an anti-war vigil that lasted longer than 29 hours, 18 young men and women are carried by government policemen from the inside of the Pentagon building. The protestors were singing "We Shall Overcome" as they were arrested for violating regulations that ban "unwarranted loitering" and "unwarranted sleeping or assembly" in a government building.
  
• 5/10/1967 Max Holland: In early May Richard Helms requested a private meeting with Johnson in order to present the results of an investigation conducted by the CIA's inspector general. The meeting, on May 10, began at 5:55 P.M. and lasted close to an hour. The gist of what Helms disclosed would become known only eight years later, when he testified before a Senate committee. In that meeting, long before the fact became public knowledge, the President learned that CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro dated back to August of 1960to the Eisenhower Administration, when plans for what became the Bay of Pigs invasion were reaching their final stage. In fact, Castro was supposed to be dead before the exiles landed. At the time, the idea of using members of the Cosa Nostra, which had its own interests in Cuba to protect, must have seemed clever. The more interesting part, at least to Johnson, was what Helms told him next. After the Bay of Pigs debacle, rather than draw back, the Kennedy Administration redoubled its efforts. The injunction to the CIA was simple: get rid of Castro and his regime by any means possible, short of another invasion. The alliance with the Cosa Nostra persisted until 1962, and came to an end only because the mob bosses were never able to deliver. Efforts to remove Castro continued well into 1963. One of them was coming to a head at the time Kennedy was assassinated. It is not known whether Johnson asked Helms under whose direction the CIA had acted. If he did, Helms presumably said that Robert Kennedy "personally managed the operation on the assassination of Castro." (This quotation is taken from what Helms told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1975, after allegations of CIA wrongdoing began to surface in the press.) Then again, Johnson may not have bothered to ask. Edward Morgan had already told Drew Pearson about the former Attorney General's central role; in addition, it was common knowledge within the Administration that after the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy had made his brother the driving force behind the effort to overthrow Castro. Knowing the President's conspiratorial turn of mind, Helms probably hastened to reassure Johnson that the CIA, the FBI, and the Warren Commission had all looked long and hard for a connection between Oswald and Cuba but had come up empty-handed. Persuading Johnson of that now, however, was a futile exercise (as later testimony by Helms suggests). The President was utterly convinced that something other than Oswald was behind Kennedy's assassination, and that that something involved Cuba. One tantalizing but unanswerable question is what effect, if any, Johnson's knowledge had on Robert Kennedy's Hamlet-like indecisiveness in 1967 and early 1968 over whether to challenge Johnson for the Democratic nomination. Kennedy probably considered the March 3 column a shot across his bow, because Pearson was known to be on very friendly terms with the President. For all Kennedy knew, Johnson was the source of the story, and the column was a harbinger of things to come should Kennedy decide to challenge him. (Kennedy finally did enter the race, in March of 1968.) Kennedy's response to the column, insofar as it is known, was to hurriedly search his files for any pertinent information. He also arranged to have lunch on March 4 with Richard Helms, who probably told him that the President hadn't yet asked anything about it. Still, the threat of disclosure loomedand perhaps it motivated Kennedy's seemingly premature announcement that he fully intended to back Johnson's presumed bid for re-election. On March 2, in a dramatic address on the Senate floor, Kennedy had made his break with the Administration's policy on Vietnam official. Anderson's column appeared the next day. Two weeks later Kennedy pledged to support Johnson in 1968, calling him "an outstanding President."
  
• 5/11/1967 Fifteen anti-war demonstrators who were camping outside the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon are arrested.
  
• 5/11/1967 Nine caravans of poor people arrived in Washington for first phase of Poor People's Campaign. Caravans started from different sections of country on May 2 and picked up demonstrators along the way. In Washington, demonstrators erected camp called Resurrection City on sixteen-acre site near Lincoln Monument.
  
• 5/11/1967 UN Secretary General U Thant speaks of the grave situation in the Middle East as a result of the cross-border raids coming from Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Eshkol and other Israeli officials warn of possible drastic actions if the raids don't cease. [Yost, "The Arab-Israeli War: How It Began," Foreign Affairs, January 1968.] Israeli military intelligence briefed foreign military attache's in Tel Aviv. [Eban, My Country, p.199.]
  
• 5/12/1967 Twenty-three young protestors are arrested after they attempt to force their way into the War Room inside the Pentagon.
  
• 5/12/1967 The Councilor, a right-wing Shreveport, Louisiana publication, published two photos of Clay Shaw and Dave Ferrie at a party together (their purpose in aiding Garrison was to "make America safe from political assassination and that Hale Boggs and other left-wing imposters on the Warren Commission can be exposed as the liars they are.") Researcher Edgar Tatro first saw the photos in the parking lot outside the Criminal Courts Building during a recess in the Shaw trial. "We all assumed Garrison has seen them too," he remarked, but Garrison hadn't. (JFK: Book of the Film p81)
  
• 5/12/1967 H. Rap Brown replaces Stokely Carmichael as chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
  
• 5/13/1967 The Soviet ambassador told Nasser that the Israelis were planning to attack Syria on May 17, and had concentrated brigades on the Syrian frontier for this purpose. The Soviets wanted to lure Egypt into siding with Syria against Israel. Nasser, who badly wanted to restore his prestige in the Arab world, put his armed forces on a maximum alert MAY 15. Combat troops began to pour into the Sinai, toward the Israeli border. (O'Brien) The Soviets pass inaccurate information, for reasons still not clear, to the Egyptians regarding a massing of some 11 to 13 Israeli brigades for an invasion of Syria. [Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation, pp. 3-35.]
  
• 5/13/1967 Lady Bird: "Many months ago I set March 1968 in my own mind as the time when Lyndon can make a statement that he will not be a candidate for reelection." (White House Diary)
  
• 5/13/1967 70,000 demonstrators supporting the troops in Vietnam marched in NYC.
  
• 5/14/1967 Egyptian armed forces put on full alert. Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk states the forces were mobilized and moved into the Sinai on the 14th. [Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 384; Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation, p. 43.] Nasser sent 80,000 troops to the Sinai desert; he had been told by the Soviets that the Israelis had massed 11 to 13 brigades on the border with Syria and were planning to invade. The Israelis denied this, and Nasser too had his doubts, but he decided to build-up anyway. The Israeli government debated what to do; Yitzhak Rabin was advised by the general staff to attack Egypt, but old David Ben-Gurion urged him not to.
  
• 5/15/1967 Egyptian armed forces begin moving en mass into the Sinai. 30,000 troops, 200 tanks. [Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem, p. 63.] Israel celebrates Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut). [Eban, My Country, p. 195.]
  
• 5/15/1967 CIA Record 104-10013-10143 Record Series: JFK Agency File Number: 201-289248 News Clipping on Louisiana v. Clay Shaw (Conspiracy Case): Source: "World News" (this is the only title I can find on my xerox of the clipping) SOLON CALLS GARRISON'S EVIDENCE 'IMPORTANT' WASHINGTON, May 14. (UPI). -- Sen. Russel B. Long, D-La., said today that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison had turned up "some very important evidence" which might prove President Kennedy was murdered by conspirators. Long, acknowledging he had encouraged Garrison's controversial investigation into the Kennedy assassination, said if Garrison can verify that Jack Ruby's telephone number was written down in code in the papers of Lee Harvey Oswald and Clay Shaw, it would "prove that there definitely was a conspiracy." Garrison contends that Oswald, who was killed by Ruby after he shot Kennedy [Ed. Note: I wonder how UPI knew that. J.B.], and Shaw a New Orleans businessman, were part of an assassination conspiracy. Long said he had "started up" Garrison's interest in the assassination. "I don't think he's violated anybody's civil rights," Long told a television interviewer (Face the Nation--CBS). "He's done what a district attorney should do if he has reason to think that a very heinous crime has been committed in his jurisdiction."
  
• 5/15/1967 Supreme Court expanded protection of juvenile suspects' civil rights.
  
• 5/15/1967 Newsweek publishes "JFK Conspiracy" by Hugh Aynesworth, the most violent attack on Jim Garrison's investigation thus far. Garrison claimed that Havana had sent an assassin to kill him, and began talking in code over the phone. (Aynesworth, Newsweek; Rogers, Look magazine) Aynesworth commented, "Jim Garrison is right. There has been a conspiracy in New Orleans - but it is a plot of Garrison's own making. It is a scheme to concoct a fantastic 'solution' to the death of John F. Kennedy and to make it stick..." Aynesworth accused Garrison of offering money and a job with an airline to Alan Beauboeuf to testify that he had overheard the planning of the assassination. "I also know that when the D.A.'s office learned this entire bribery attempt had been tape-recorded, two of Garrison's men returned to the 'witness', and he says, threatened him with physical harm. Another man who spent many hours with the District Attorney in a vain attempt to dissuade him from his assassination-conspiracy theory had twice been threatened - once by the D.A.'s own 'witnesses,' the second time by Garrison himself." Aynesworth claimed that Russo had been hypnotized "just hours before he testified."
  
• 5/16/1967 Egypt declared a state of emergency, and accused Israel of threatening Syria. Nasser pledged to come to Syria's aid. (Dupuy) General Rikhye, UNEF commanding general at Gaza, receives a note from the Egyptian Chief of Staff, requesting immediate withdrawal of the UNEF from Sinai. [Eban, Ibid., p. 201.]
  
• 5/17/1967 The New York Times reported that the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by Arafat, pledged to "keep sending commandos" into Israel. Egypt and Syria announced "combat readiness," and Jordan announced mobilization. (Dupuy) Egyptian forces reach the UNEF posts at El Sabha and El Kuntilla, located near the Sinai/Israeli armistice line. [UN Office of Public Information, Yearbook of the United Nations 1967, p. 163.] Egyptian UN representative is informed by UNSG U Thant, in writing, that there is no indications of any recent buildup of Israeli armed forces. [Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xviii.]
  
• 5/18/1967 Jim Garrison labeled Ruby and Oswald as CIA employees (Times-Picayune).
  
• 5/18/1967 Egypt demanded removal of UN peace-keeping forces from border with Israel. Egypt notified U Thant that it wanted the UN peacekeeping force removed from the Sinai and Gaza. U Thant quickly complied. Syria and Egypt placed troops on maximum alert; Iraq and Kuwait announced mobilization. (Dupuy) "Egypt requests complete withdrawal of the UNEF. [Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xviii.] Iraq announced mobilization. (Harper Enc.)
  
• 5/18/1967 British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes(R-12) departs Aden for Singapore. [Howe, Multicrises, p.149.]
  
• 5/19/1967 NYT reported Egypt had deployed its forces along the Israeli border.
  
• 5/19/1967 US planes bomb power plant in Hanoi.
  
• 5/19/1967 Robert S. McNamara proposes a politico-military strategy to LBJ that raises the possibility of compromise in Vietnam: restricting the bombing to interdiction of the infiltration "funnel" below the twentieth parallel; limiting additional deployments to 30,000, after which a firm ceiling would be imposed; and adopting a more flexible bargaining position while actively seeking a political settlement. McNamara tells LBJ: "the war in Vietnam is acquiring a momentum of its own that must be stopped." McNamara wrote a memo to LBJ saying that he might benefit politically by replacing himself and Dean Rusk. He noted that Hanoi would probably wait until the 1968 elections to see if the US public still supported the war. He noted that China was now mostly preoccupied with its own internal problems. Any move to escalate the war would only further inflame public and congressional opinion on both sides; hawks would push to keep expand the fighting (including nuclear and bio-chemical weapons at some point), while doves would see it as a sign that the war would never end. "There may be a limit beyond which many Americans and much of the world will not permit the United States to go. The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one...the war in Vietnam is acquiring a momentum of its own that must be stopped." He worried that the doves "will get out of hand massive refusals to serve, or to fight, or to cooperate, or worse?" This memo set off a furious debate within the government, and a sharp reaction from the JCS.
  
• 5/19/1967 A UPI story in The New York Times stated: "An analysis by one of the nation's top photographic laboratories has demolished a widely circulated theory that a second gunman was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. The Itek Corporation disclosed today that a months-long study of an amateur movie [Nix film] of the shooting had disproved the existence of a rifleman pointing a weapon from the grassy knoll at the Kennedy car in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Itek made the study as a public service."
  
• 5/19/1967 The Los Angeles Times reported Egypt stood accused of using poison gas in Yemen.
  
• 5/19/1967 UNEF ordered withdrawn. Israel advised. Israel orders large-scale mobilization. [Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem, pp. 72-73.] UN Emergency Force (UNEF) withdrew from the Sinai. (Harper Enc of Military History) "(May 18th in Washington) U Thant cables Cairo. UNEF will be withdrawn. [Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem, p.71., Rusk, As I Saw It, p.384.] Rusk states the withdrawal was on May 18, 1967 which is correct from his perspective in Washington. It was already May 19 in the Sinai when U Thant ordered the withdrawal."
  
• 5/20/1967 Israel completed partial mobilization. (Dupuy) The NYT reported Egypt forced U.N. peacekeeping troops to leave the Sinai Desert in anticipation of its attack on Israel.
  
• 5/20/1967 Fourteen out of the twenty Vietnam War demonstrators arrested at the Pentagon are found guilty of loitering and sentenced to six months probation in addition to a suspended sentence of thirty days in jail.
  
• 5/20/1967 Syrian Defense Minister, Hafez Assad speaks of "a disciplinary blow to Israel." [Neff, Ibid., p. 88.] US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) issues orders restricting the movements of the US Sixth Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Martin, in the Mediterranean. [LBJ Library: NSC "Middle East Chronology Guide, May 12-June 20", Appendix H, DTG 201910Z May 1967, JCS to USCINCEUR.]
  
• 5/20/1967 The JCS told McNamara in a memo that they felt invasions of Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam might be necessary, plus deployment of troops in Thailand, and possibly even the use of nuclear weapons in southern China.
  
• 5/20/1967 William "Bill" Waters dies today of what police describe as a "drug overdose" (Demerol). No autopsy is performed. His mother says that LHO and Hank Killam came to her house prior to the assassination and her son attempted to talk Oswald and Killam out of being involved. Waters called FBI agents following the assassination. The FBI told him he knew too much and to keep his mouth shut. He was subsequently arrested and kept in Memphis in a county jail for eight months on a misdemeanor charge.
  
• 5/20/1967 Researcher Shirley Martin of Oklahoma letter to Jim Garrison.
  

Dear Mr. Garrison:
I am so sorry that Newsweek chose Hugh Aynesworth to use in its rebuttal of you. In the summer of '64, I had a long talk with Mr. Aynesworth, introducing myself to him as a friend of a relative to General Clyde Watts, ex-Major General Edwin A. Walker's close friend and attorney (Oxford). Mr. Aynesworth mistakenly assumed that I was a political conservative and immediately deluged me with disgusting anti-Kennedy stories. ("Kennedy needed a trip to Dallas like a hole in the head," etc.) At the same time Mr. Aynesworth heaped what seemed to me to be inordinate praise on the city of Dallas, the Dallas police (Lt. George Butler, Captain Fritz, Chief Curry, etc.), and the Dallas Morning News (for which newspaper Aynesworth was working at the time). He confided, too, that Tom Buchanan (Paris)
was a "fairy" and detailed for me a number of extremely slanderous alleged incidents in the life of Mark Lane. In addition, Mr. Aynesworth definitively labeiled Mr. Lane a "communist."
Aynesworth was extremely bitter that Merriman Smith had won the Pulitzer for his coverage of the assassination. Aynesworth sarcastically remarked that Smith "did nothing and saw less" on the day in question, whereas he, Aynisworth was "...the only reporter in America to make all four big scenes."
In addition, Aynesworth boasted that a Commission attorney had already confided to him (in July) what the Commission verdict was to be (in September). Oswald would be named, but according to Aynesworth it was in reality "...a communist plot. Warren will do a cover-up for Moscow."
Aynesworth insisted that Marina had had an affair with him after the assassination, and that during this period she had revealed to him that she and Ruth Paine had shared a Lesbian relationship prior to November 22, 1963. Aynesworth also declared that he had been on 10th Street "looking down on he Tippit murder scene at 1:05pm, not later than 1:10..." on November 22nd. Needless to say, the "only reporter in America"to be in on all four "big scenes" was NOT called to testify before the Warren Commission, which did, however, call Thayer Waldo, Fort Worth reporter, because he had been in the police basement when Ruby shot Oswald. Finally, I have the statement by an employee of the Dallas Morning News that Aynesworth was deliberately and ILLEGALLY given the allegedly stolen Oswald diary story by a Commission attorney who was in Dallas on business at that time. Earl Warren later put the FBI on the trail of this illegal "leak", but as was to be expected no discoveries were made. This, then, is the man chosen by Newsweek to rebut you. What a pity Newsweek's taste is so concentrated in its tail."

• 5/21/1967 An anonymous NYT review of Newsweek White House correspondent Charles Roberts' The Truth About the Assassination', which supports the Warren Commission: "Publish 10,400,000 words of research and what do you get? In the case of the Warren Commission and the book business, you get a fabulously successful spin-off called the assassination industry, whose products would never stand the scrutiny of Consumers Union. Consumers buy it as they buy most trash: the packaging promises satisfaction but the innards are mostly distortions, unsupported theories and gaping omissions" that are "neatly debunked by Charles Roberts...By selecting the incredible and the contradictory, scavengers like Mark Lane sowed confusion. By writing an honest guide for the perplexed, Roberts performs a public service." In fact, Roberts' book was extremely superficial, its text consuming a mere 118 pages. It glossed over the crucial evidence, substituting personal invective against the critics for answers to their criticisms.
  
• 5/21/1967 In an interview on WWL-TV, New Orleans, Garrison claimed that the CIA knew the names of the other assassins, but "we can't find out [their names] with the CIA keeping its vaults locked...If the director of the CIA and the top officials of the CIA were in the jurisdiction of Louisiana, I would charge them without hesitation." That day he also stated that the CIA knew "the name of every man involved and the name of the individuals who pulled the triggers" (NY Times 5/23)
  
• 5/21/1967 Yitzhak Rabin meets with former PM David Ben-Gurion, who fears that Israel is being forced into war.
  
• 5/21/1967 The New York Times reported Egyptian soldiers were massing in the Sinai.
  
• 5/21/1967 Egypt occupies Sharem El Sheik and announces total mobilization. Iraq offers to send troops. [Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem, p. 88.] Israeli Chief of Staff General Rabin informs the cabinet that the Egyptian troop buildup is now at 70,000. Israeli internal crisis relating to a lack of confidence in the Eshkol government surfaces. [Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 113-114.]
  
• 5/22/1967 Nasser announced the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping: "They, the Jews, threaten war; we tell them: welcome. We are ready for war." (O'Brien)
  
• 5/22/1967 Richard Helms returns his copy of the report on the anti-Castro plots to the Inspector General after showing it to LBJ.
  
• 5/22/1967 Levi Eshkol disclaimed any aggressive intentions on Israel's part and called for withdrawal of both countries' armies to their previous positions. (O'Brien) Nasser announced the blockade of the Strait of Tiran, effectively closing the Israeli port of Eilat. (Dupuy) The New York Times reported that the PLO would be stepping up its attacks in Israel, that Cairo was calling up 10,000 reserves and that Iraq would be sending aid to battle Israel.
  
• 5/22/1967 USS Liberty arrived Abidjan, Ivory Coast for a planned four-day port call. [Naval Historical Center: USS Liberty 1967 Command History Report.] Egypt declared the Gulf of Aqaba closed to Israeli shipping. [Churchill and Churchill, The Six Day War, p. 38] Nasser accepts an offer of Iraqi forces. Prime Minister Eshkol proposes a withdrawal of both Israeli and Egyptian forces from the border area. [O'Ballance, The Third Arab-Israeli War, p.27.]
  
• 5/23/1967 While Westmoreland reported that the enemy's troop strength had peaked, the CIA concluded that the Communists were continuing to expand their forces.
  
• 5/23/1967 Egypt began blockade of Strait of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba. As war pressure built up, Chief of Israeli Defense Forces Yitzhak Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown. At a governmental meeting, it was decided that efforts would be made to get America's support before going to war. Abba Eban visited France (no longer sympathetic to Israel), Britain (sympathetic but non-commital) and the US (supportive).
  
• 5/23-6/4/1967 The period of waiting ("Hamtana") as the mood of the Israeli people came close to despair; fears of a new Holocaust were widespread. Eshkol's government wanted to wait until the US signaled that it would support Israel's attack so that they did not end up isolated as had happened after the Suez Crisis. (O'Brien)
  
• 5/23/1967 Saudi Arabian forces prepare to participate in war against Israel. (Dupuy)
  
• 5/23/1967 "National Security Agency (NSA) requests of the JCS diversion of the Liberty to a position off Port Said, Egypt due to the mid-east crisis. [NSA: "USS Liberty, Chronology of Events", 23 May-8 June 1967: DTG 231729Z May 1967, DIRNSA to JCS/JRC.] PM Eshkol states before the Israeli Knesset (parliament) that interference with Israeli shipping would be regarded as an act of war. President Johnson declares the Egyptian blockade of an international waterway as an illegal act. US and British nationals are advised to evacuate. [Churchill and Churchill, The Six Day War, p. 38; O'Ballance, The Third Arab-Israeli War, p. 28.]"
  
• 5/24/1967 Jim Garrison quoted by the Times-Picayune as saying that the CIA knew the killers' present whereabouts.
  
• 5/24/1967 Jordanian mobilization completed. (Dupuy)
  
• 5/24/1967 Newspapers reported that the U.S. declared Egypt's military blockade of the gulf "illegal."
  
• 5/24/1967 The USS Liberty was in the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, when she received orders to get under way immediately to Rota, Spain, whence she was to proceed to the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt. The rest of her African cruise was cancelled. USS Liberty departs Abidjan under orders to make "best speed" for the 3,000 nautical mile trip to Rota, Spain. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 109 of Exhibit 48: DTG 241732Z May 1967, USS Liberty to COMSERVRON EIGHT.]
  
• 5/24/1967 Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, leaves for Paris. Meets with President de Gaulle. Goes on to London. Meets with Prime Minister Wilson. [Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem, p. 120-121.]
  
• 5/24/1967 UNSG U Thant, UNEF commander General Rikhye and President Nasser meet in Cairo. [Ibid., p. 124.]
  
• 5/24/1967 Egyptian Minister of War, Shams Badran, leaves for Moscow. [Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xviii.]
  
• 5/24/1967 UN Security Council convenes in emergency session in New York at the request of Canada and Denmark.
  
• 5/24/1967 British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious(R-38), homeward bound, is ordered to standby at Malta.
  
• 5/24/1967 Jordan announces that Iraqi and Saudi forces have been given permission to enter the country. [Churchill and Churchill, The Six Day War, pp. 43-44.]
  
• 5/25/1967 The New York Times reported that Jordan would admit Saudi and Iraqi forces into its country to do battle with Israel.
  
• 5/25/1967 Iraqi troops arrive in Syria. [Eban, My Country, p. 211.] Cairo Radio announces: "The Arab people is firmly resolved to wipe Israel off the map." [From Eban's speech on June 19, 1967 to the UNGA.] "Egyptian Minister of War Badran meets with Soviet leaders in Moscow. [Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xviii.] JCS orders the Sixth Fleet Marines amphibious forces to continue towards Malta for a scheduled port call. [LBJ Library: NSC "Middle East Chronology Guide May 12-June 20"", Appendix H, DTG 251524Z May 1967.] USNS Private Jose F. Valdez(T-AG-169), a civilian-crewed US Naval Ship configured as a signal intelligence-gathering ship returning to New York, docks for three hours at the US Naval Base, Rota, Spain. She unloads "all available ME tech support" material collected the previous month while she had been in the eastern Mediterranean. [NSA: "USS Liberty, Chronology of Events, 23 May-8 June 1967"": DTG 231729Z May 1967, DIRNSA to JCS/JRC; USNS Private Jose F. Valdez Deck Log, 25 May 1967.] Hermes is ordered to return to Aden. [Howe, Multicrises, p.84.]"
  
• 5/25-26/1967 Lyndon Johnson warned Israel not to take pre-emptive action, and said Israel would not be alone "unless it decides to go alone."
  
• 5/26/1967 FM Eban meets President Johnson at the White House. [Eban, My Country, p. 210.] France proposes four-power action to end crisis. [Marshall, Swift Sword.]
  
• 5/27/1967 Newpapers around the world reported Egypt's fiery threats to destroy Israel.
  
• 5/27/1967 Sixth Fleet operating area is further defined in the eastern Mediterranean. No air operations are to take place within 100 miles of the UAR. [JCS Fact Finding Team Report, June 1967: DTG 271052Z May 1967, CINCUSNAVEUR to COMSIXTHFLT.]
  
• 5/28/1967 On "Issues and Answers," (ABC-TV) Garrison said, "Of course the Central Intelligence Agency had no role in the planning or intending the assassination of President Kennedy. I think that would be a ridiculous position for anyone to take." Edward J. Epstein: "He has, however, taken precisely that position on several occasions." (Counterplot 116)
  
• 5/28/1967 Egypt warned that it might close the Suez Canal. The Israeli cabinet split over a decision to go to war. Eshkol went on the radio and gave a badly-delivered speech. It is said that Israeli soldiers, listen to it, broke their transistors and wept. (O'Brien)
  
• 5/28/1967 Sudan mobilized its military. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 5/28/1967 Secretary Rusk advises Israel that the US and Britain were working on a naval escort plan and Holland and Canada have promised to join.
  
• 5/28/1967 Israeli cabinet votes in favor of a further short wait. PM Eshkol makes "stumbling" speech to the nation. [Eban, My Country, pp. 212-213.] Radio Damascus announces: "The elimination of Israel is the imperative goal." [Soustelle, Long March of Israel, p. 241.] Syria and Iraqi sign a military assistance pact. [New York Times, May 30, 1967, p. 2.]
  
• 5/29/1967 The New York Times reported new Syrian attacks on Israel.
  
• 5/29/1967 Nasser, sure the Jews would not fight, confidentally told the National Assembly that he was fighting for the rights of Palestinians. The Arab world responded to Nasser's call; Hussein put his troops under Egyptian command and radio stations began focusing their ire on Israel instead of each other.
  
• 5/29/1967 Harris poll showed that 66% of the American public believed there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination.
  
• 5/29/1967 The Washington Post reported that Israel was still reluctant to have a showdown with its enemies. In Israel, pressures for immediate war were mounting; public anger was growing at Eshkol's seeming reluctance to go to war. (O'Brien)
  
• 5/29/1967 Algerian units moved to Egypt to take part in the attack on Israel. (Dupuy)
  
• 5/29/1967 The New York Times reported the Egyptian buildup of military forces in the Sinai was continuing.
  
• 5/29/1967 JCS instructs Commander in Chief, Atlantic (Admiral Moorer) to pass operational control of Liberty to US Commander in Chief, Europe (General Lemnitzer) when she reaches Rota, Spain. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 104 of Exhibit 48: DTG 291602Z May 1967, JCS to CINCLANT and USCINCEUR.] NSA transmits to Liberty's intelligence-gathering detachment interim collection tasking instructions for her transit to the eastern Mediterranean. [NSA: "USS Liberty, Chronology of Events, 23 May-8 June 1967": DTG 292201Z May 1967, DIRNSA to USN-855 (sanitized).]
  
• 5/29/1967 President Nasser tells the National Assembly he has a promise of support from the Soviet Union. [Eban, My Country, p. 232; Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xix.] UN Security Council convenes in emergency session. The session lasts four and a half hours. [UN document S/PV.1343: 1343rd UNSC meeting.]
  
• 5/30/1967 Capital Times quoted from a Memorial Day speech by Brig. Gen. Robert L. Hughes, USAR, in Wisconsin: "We are prosecuting an immoral war in support of a government that is a dictatorship by design....morally corrupt leaders who adhere to a warlord philosophy. This is one hell of a war to be fighting. We must disengage from this tragic war. It is the only one in which we have committed troops without first being aggressed against."
  
• 5/30/1967 Jordan's King Hussein flew to Cairo and signed a defense pact with Nasser. Hussein knew that his people could not be held back if a war broke out. Egypt sent Gen. Abdul Moneim Riadh to take command of allied Arab forces on the Jordan front. (Dupuy)
  
• 5/30/1967 USCINCEUR instructs Commander in Chief, US Naval Forces, Europe (Admiral McCain) to take operational control of Liberty when she reaches Rota, Spain. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 101 of Exhibit 48: DTG 300932Z May 1967, USCINCEUR to CINCUSNAVEUR.] US Defense Department issues repeat instructions that there are to be no public comments on US military activities or the delicate ME crisis without clearance from Washington. [NARA: DTG 302008Z May 1967, SECDEF to USCINCEUR.]
  
• 5/30/1967 President Nasser declares, "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel." King Hussein of Jordan flies to Cairo. Egypt and Jordan sign a mutual defense pact. Jordanian troops are placed under Egyptian command. [Soustelle, Long March of Israel, p. 241; Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 154.] PM Eshkol assured President Johnson that Israel would wait as much as two weeks for international action to open the Gulf of Aqaba. [Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 386.] Mossad chief, Meir Amir, travels to Washington to seek further clarification of the US position. He returns to Israel on 3 June. [Parker, The Six-Day War: A Retrospective, p. xix.] USSR announces augmentation of her Mediterranean fleet. [Howe, Multicrises, p. 149.] UN Security Council convenes in emergency session. The session lasts two and a half hours. [UN document S/PV.1344: 1344th UNSC meeting.]
  
• 5/31/1967 Dean Rusk told a Congressional committee that the US would not be involved in multinational efforts to reopen the Straits of Tiran. Rusk also told a reporter that, "I don't think it is our business to restrain anyone."
  
• 5/31/1967 Iraqi troops began moving into Jordan. Israel had earlier announced it would go to war under any of the following conditions: closing of the Strait of Tiran, sending Iraqi troops to Jordan, an Egyptian-Jordanian defense pact; withdrawal of UNEF forces. All those conditions now existed. (Dupuy)
  
• 5/31/1967 Abba Eban informed Chief of Staff Rabin that the waiting period had ended, and Israel could now strike. (O'Brien)
  
• 5/31/1967 President Nasser announced that his Vice President, Zakarya Mohieddin would visit Washington on June 7, 1967. [Rusk, As I Saw It, p. 386.] Soviets are reported to be sending additional naval units to the Mediterranean. [Washington Post, June 1, 1967; Howe, Multicrises, p. 71.] CINCUSNAVEUR transmits Movement Orders (MOVORD) 7-67 to Liberty. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 111 of Exhibit 48: DTG 311752Z May 1967, CINCUSNAVEUR to USS Liberty.] UN Security Council convenes in emergency session. The session lasts three hours. [UN document S/PV.1345: 1345th UNSC meeting.]
  
• 5-6/1967 The Warren Commission and the Legal Process By Richard M. Mosk Case and Comment, MayJune 1967
  
• 6/1967 For the fiscal year ending this month, the war bill has been $21 billion. (World Almanac of Vietnam War)
  
• 6/1967 This month, Fatah's intelligence chief, Abu Iyad, Arafat, Ali Hassan, Kamal Adwan, and Mahmoud Hamshari meet in Damascus. Following the humiliating defeat of the Six-Day War, Fatah is in disarray and its leadership split. Hamshari proposes that the Palestinians "kill a high-profile American on American soil" in order to make Washington "think twice about backing the Jews." The group does not embrace his plan. Later, David Karr indicates that he wishes to arrange a meeting between Hamshari and Aristotle Onassis. (Nemesis)
  
• 6/11967 One set of Sirhan Sirhan's writings, most probably done in June of 1967, contain a well written "Declaration of war against American humanity", in revenge for its inhuman actions against him. He planned to begin the war when he had raised sufficient money and acquired firearms. The writings discuss acting against the president and other senior leaders of the United States and he believed that there were others who supported such thoughts. Specifically, he wished to be recorded by history as the man who triggered the last war. (Kaiser, RFK Must Die)
  
• 6/1967 J. Edgar Hoover had a meeting with fellow gambler, close friend, and Texas oil billionaire, H. L. Hunt in Chicago. Hunt was very concerned that the activities of King might unseat Lyndon B. Johnson. This could be an expensive defeat as Johnson doing a good job protecting the oil depletion allowance. According to William Pepper: " Hoover said he thought a final solution was necessary. Only that action would stop King."
  
• 6/1/1967 Moshe Dayan took the Minister of Defense post (previously held by PM Eshkol), and Menachem Begin was brought into the government. (O'Brien) A national unity government is formed in Israel. Moshe Dayan is appointed Minister of Defense, with M. Begin and Y. Saphir joining as ministers-without-portfolio. [Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 158; Eban, My Country, p. 213.]
  
• 6/1/1967 The US and British propose a maritime nations declaration on freedom of shipping which omits any backing for Israeli-flag ships in the Gulf of Aqaba. [Washington Post, June 2, 1967.] The often-heard plan of an international naval escort fleet to open the Gulf of Aqaba is no more.
  
• 6/1/1967 "USS Liberty reaches Rota, Spain at which time she CHOPS from CINCLANT to USCINCEUR then immediately to CINCUSNAVEUR. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 97 of Exhibit 48: DTG 010712Z June 1967, USS Liberty to COMSERVRON EIGHT.] She receives Change One to MOVORD 7-67. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 95 of Exhibit 48: DTG 011305Z June 1967, CINCUSNAVEUR to USS Liberty.] Aircraft carrier USS Intrepid(CVS-11), having been held off the western end of Egypt for several days, passes through the Suez Canal on her way to Vietnam. [Washington Post, June 2, 1967, p. A19; Howe, Multicrises, p. 70-71.]"
  
• 6/1/1967 Richard Helms told McNamara that his analysts didn't see any way to militarily stop the infiltration from the North or deter Hanoi from prosecuting the war.
  
• 6/1/1967 CIA memo says that then-NBC correspondent Walter Sheridan was "coaching [witness] Gordon Novel to get maximum publicity before picturing him on a TV program intended to destroy Garrison's act." (Oliver Stone, 12/1991, NY Times)
  
• 6/2/1967 "Following refueling, some temporary repairs and taking aboard additional personnel, Liberty departs Rota "at best speed" for operations in the eastern Mediterranean; scheduled to arrive on station 080300Z June. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 92 of Exhibit 48: DTG 022108Z June 1967, USS Liberty to CINCUSNAVEUR.] NSA transmits further tasking instructions to Liberty's intelligence-gathering detachment for her up-coming period in the Mediterranean. [NSA: "USS Liberty, Chronology of Events, 23 May-8 June 1967"": DTGs 022333Z and 022335Z June 1967, DIRNSA to USN-855 (sanitized).]" France suspends shipment of arms to the Middle East. [Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 162.]
  
• 6/2/1967 US attack against the Russian freighter Turkestan in the North Vietnamese harbor of Cam Pha. According to the Soviet Captain of the vessel: "We were bearing all the markings of the Soviet government, a Soviet flag was flying from the stern mast. The stack was painted with a red stripe and a hammer and sickle... The visibility was excellent. There is no possibility of talking about an accidental attack ...( Cristol, p 158) Secretary of Defense McNamara mentioned this incident in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1967: Secretary McNamara: ...In the case of the attack on the Liberty, it was the conclusion of the investigatory body headed by an Admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence that the attack was not intentional. I read the record of the investigation, and support that conclusion, ....It was not a conscious decision on the part of either the Government of Israel...And an inexcusable error of professional tactics. I would simply point out to you that, at the same time, I was denying that we had struck a Russian ship in Haiphong Harbor [sic] and I proved to be in error. These errors do occur. We had no more intention of attacking a Russian ship than Israel apparently did of attacking an American ship. (Cristol, p 95-96)
  
• 6/2/1967 Sirhan Sirhan, sitting in his room, wrote in his diary: "A declaration of war against American Humanity when in the course of human events it has become necessary for me to equalize and seek revenge for all the inhuman treatments committed against me by the American people. The manifestation of this Declaration will be executed by its supporter(s) as soon as he is able to command a sum of money ($2000) and to acquire some firearms the specifications of which have not been established yet. The victims of the party in favor of this declaration will be or are now the President, vice, etc. down the ladder. The time will be chosen by the author at the convience of the accused…The conflict and violence in the world subsequent to the enforcement of the decree, shall not be considered lightly by the author of this memoranda, rather he hopes that the initiatory military steps for WWIII the author expresses his wishes very bluntly that he wants to be recorded by historians as the man who triggered off the last war life is ambivalence life is a struggle life is wicked if life is in anyway otherwise, I have honestly never seen it I always seem to be on the losing end, always the one exploited to the fullest."
  
• 6/2/1967 The Liberty left the US Navy Base at Rota, Spain and headed toward Israel. Washington suspected that Israel was preparing for a preemptive strike. UK PM Harold Wilson met with LBJ; the main topic of discussion was the CIA's prediction of a looming war between Israel and Egypt. Everyone in the meeting agreed that Israel would win the war in a very short period of time. (In Retrospect 278)
  
• 6/3-4/1967 The Iraelis made a show of moving four landing craft by road to Eilat; they sent then back by night to repeat the movement the next day. The Egyptians assumed the Israelis were planning operations in the Gulf of Aqaba, and responded by moving several vessels from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea during the night of June 4/5. (Dupuy)
  
• 6/3/1967 The New York Times reported that Britain declared the Egyptian blockade could lead to war. It also reported that four Syrian commandos were intercepted in Israel.
  
• 6/3/1967 Soviet Ambassador in Cairo tells President Nasser that Israel's non-resistance is assured. Iraqi armored division enters Jordan. [Eban, My Country, pp. 215, 232, 239; Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 163.] UN Security Council convenes in emergency session. The session lasts almost four and a half hours. The Israeli representative declares "Israel is determined to make its stand on the Gulf of Aqaba." [UN document S/PV.1346: 1346th UNSC meeting.]
  
• 6/4/1967 Iraq joined the Egypt-Jordan-Syria Defense Pact. Moshe Dayan talked peace while planning a massive premptive invasion. Meanwhile, the Israeli cabinet voted to go to war.
  
• 6/4-6/1967 in a radio conversation monitored by the Israelis, Jordan's King Hussein agreed with Nasser to accuse the US of collaborating with Israel, but quickly stopped the accusations after Israel released the taped conversation publicly. Most Arab nations, except for Jordan, broke diplomatic relations with the US. (Dupuy)
  
• 6/4/1967 Israeli Cabinet votes unanimously to go to war. Iraqi delegation signs mutual defense pact with Egypt in Cairo and with Jordan in Amman. Iraqi troops placed under Egyptian command. Two Egyptian commando battalions flown to Jordan [Eban, My Country, p. 211.]
  
• 6/5/1967 7am PM Kosygin called on the 'hot line,' the first time it was used for real since it was installed. During the course of the Six-Day War, Kosygin and LBJ kept in touch on the hot line; at one point, as Syrian forces were reeling from Israeli attacks, Kosygin said, "If you want war, you will get war." (In Retrospect p279-80) 7:30am Six Day War began as Israel launched preemptive air strikes. PM Eshkol, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin decided that war was inevitable. Early in the morning the Israeli planes flew west over the Mediterranean, then south into Egypt. They hit nearly every Egyptian airfield, wiping out nearly their entire air force on the ground. Later in the day airstrikes took out the air forces of Jordan and Syria, and struck Iraqi air units in the Mosul area. (Harper Enc. of Military History) The Liberty informed Washington of the Israeli planes in flight before they reached their targets. The Israeli northern command, under Maj. Gen. David Elazar, contained roughly 2.5 divisions. Elazar was ordered to seize Jenin and Nablus. (Harper Enc of Military History)
  
• 6/5/1967 Lady Bird: "This day began with that most dread and frightening sound that can happen in this house - the sudden ringing of the telephone in the middle of the night. It can never be good news." Lyndon answered the phone, then told her, "We have a war on our hands - in the Middle East." (White House Diary)
  
• 6/5/1967 The Liberty was steaming off the south coast of Sicily this morning. Sporadic firing by Jordanian troops led the Israelis to attack Jerusalem. Brig. Gen. Uzi Narkiss led the offensive with 3 brigades, and a parachute brigade under Col. Mordechai Gur. Jerusalem's garrison consisted of one brigade commanded by Jordanian Brigadier Ata Ali. (Harper Enc. of Military History) Israeli forces comprised a reinforced mechanized brigade under Col. Yehuda Resheff, a mechanized division under Maj. Gen. Israel Tal, an armored division led by Maj. Gen. Avraham Yoffe, a mechanized division under Maj. Gen. Ariel Sharon; other smaller units were deployed along the frontier down to Eilat. Tal's division started the offensive by driving into the Khan Yunis-Rafah-El Arish area. Resheff's brigade drove into the Gaza Strip, while Sharon's division hit the fortifications in the Abu Ageila-Kusseima area. Later in the day Yoffe struck south into the heart of the Sinai to cut off the Egyptian retreat. (Dupuy) An Israeli destroyer and several torpedo boats approached Port Said after dark; they were met by two Egyptian missile boats. After an inconclusive exchange of fire, the Egyptians withdrew into the harbor. Israeli frogmen also entered the harbors of Port Said and Alexandria. Some damage was done to Egyptian vessels in Alexandria, but all of the frogmen there were captured. (Harper Enc of Military History)
  
• 6/5/1967 Six Day War began as Israel launched preemptive air strikes. Later in the day airstrikes took out the air forces of Jordan and Syria, and struck Iraqi air units in the Mosul area. (Harper Enc. of Military History) At an Arab League meeting in Baghdad, representatives of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Algeria, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon agreed to stop the flow of oil to all nations they believed had attacked any Arab states. Only Kuwait, Iraq and Algeria took any serious measures to carry out this embargo. (Harper Enc)
  
• 6/5/1967 The Liberty hears news of the outbreak of fighting in the Middle East. the ship's captain Commander William L. McGonagle requests of Vice Admiral William I. Martin, commander of the Sixth Fleet, a destroyer escort that could both protect the Liberty and serve as an auxiliary communications station. Martins' reply: "Liberty is a clearly marked United States ship in international waters, not a participant in the conflict and not a reasonable subject for attack by any nation." In the unlikely event of an attack he promised to launch jets that could be over the Liberty in 10 minutes. He denied the request. The Liberty had been ordered to patrol within 12 1/2 nautical miles of Egypt and within 6 1/2 miles of Israel-- a half mile out from the distances each country claimed for its territorial waters. Several attempts were made by the Navy to move her station further out to sea but these messages mysteriously never reached the Liberty.
  
• 6/5/1967 Ambassador Michael Hadow in a telegram to the British Foreign Office: "It looks as if the Israelis started it. We have been led up the garden path…"
  
• 6/5-8-/1967 the Golan Heights, held by 6 Syrian brigades (and 6 in reserve), were pounded by Elazar's artillery. The Syrians showed no desire to seize the initiative. (Dupuy)
  
• 6/5/1967 In a broadcast on KZSU, Stanford, California, WC staffer Wesley Liebeler stated that the staff lawyers had "almost unlimited power" both "in directing the FBI, for example, and conducting the investigation." He also explained Officer Weitzman's misidentification of the Carcano as a Mauser by saying that he had only glanced at it, "And, of course, Mr. Weitzman is Jewish." He reasoned that since "the Germans have been picking" on the Jewish people "for the last 50 years," he "got one back at them." Liebeler referred to the Report as "a good second draft." He was asked about the Moorman photo that might have shown the sixth-floor of the Depository. Liebeler replied that Lane had seen the photograph and he knew it was irrelevant; "And Mr. Lane also knows that, because he was down in Dallas and interviewed Mrs. Moorman about this. And, she said that all he was interested in was the possibility that she had been detained or - or kept - uh - under wraps by some secret - uh - mysterious agency of the government that's - uh - going around thwarting this investigation. Well, the photograph, the reason, the reason the photograph isn't - isn't in the Report or the 26 volumes is that it doesn't even show the sixth floor of the School Book Depository Building. It shows about the bottom two floors." But Lane had never talked to Moorman, and, he later wrote, "Liebeler's fanciful and detailed description...replete with allusions to a 'secret mysterious agency,' must raise questions regarding his credibility." Liebeler also claimed that the WC "didn't really pay any attention to the President's head movement [in the Zapruder film.]" "I don't know whether two-thirds of the witnesses said that they thought that the shots came from that area [grassy knoll.] I know Mr. Lane says that, but I haven't taken the trouble to check that out." He felt there was no value to that testimony because of the "echo chamber effect" in the Plaza. When asked why they didn't conduct acoustics tests in the Plaza, he replied, "...we just didn't think it was worth our time to do it." He stated that "The men who did the bulk of the work in drafting the Report and in conducting the investigation were fellows who were five or six years out of law school, like myself."
  
• 6/6/1967 Converging Israeli columns took Jenin in hard fighting. (Harper Enc of Military History)
  
• 6/6/1967 Gaza surrendered to Resheff in the afternoon. General Tal, having secured Rafah and El Arish, sent a task force down the El Arish-Romani road toward the Suez Canal, turned inland with the rest of his division and joined Yoffe. Sharon, having quickly captured Abu Ageila, sent part of his force to assist in the mopping up of Rafah and El Arish; with the remainder he struck southward toward Nakhl and Mitla Pass. Yoffe, after a brief engagement east of Bir Lahfan, hit the main Egyptian force in central Sinai at Jebel Libni in a night assault. Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer, the Egyptian commander in chief, had already ordered all the Sinai units to withdraw behind the Sinai Canal; this turned a defeat into a disastrous rout. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/6/1967 The Israeli advance against the Old City of Jerusalem slowed down in the face of stubborn resistance. Other units tightened a wider ring around the city. The ridge to the east was seized, and attempts to relieve the Jordanian forces were smashed. Elements of a tank brigade seized Ramallah to the north, while another brigade captured Latrun. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/6-7/1967 Three Egyptian subs briefly shelled the Egyptian coast near Ashdod, and north and south of Haifa. They withdrew when the Israelis attacked by air and sea. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/6/1967 Due to Israeli air attacks and the threat of General Tal's advance along the northern Sinai coast, the Egyptians moved all their vessels from Port Said to Alexandria. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/6/1967 The litigation of Jack Ruby's wills begins.
  
• 6/7/1967 Despite repeated Jordanian counterattacks, the Israelis pressed on to Nablus. They seized the city just before dark. The mauled Jordanian forces managed an orderly withdrawal across the Jordan River. (Harper Enc of Military History)
  
• 6/7/1967 A task force of three Israeli torpedo boats seized the Egyptian fortifications at Sharm el-Sheikh. After Israeli paratroops arrived, the naval vessels proceeded through the Strait of Tiran to the Red Sea without interference. (Harper Enc of Military History)
  
• 6/7/1967 Tal's main body approached Bir Gifgafa; his northern task force moved past Romani. Yoffe's leading brigade reached the eastern end of the Mitla Pass, out of fuel and low on ammo, and was quickly surrounded by withdrawing Egyptian units. Yoffe's other brigade was en route to relieve this unit. Sharon approached Nakhl. Other units cleared the north-eastern Sinai, and airborne and amphibious forces seized Sharm el-Sheikh. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/7/1967 Col. Gur stormed into the Old City of Jerusalem as the Jordanian garrison withdrew. Bethlehem was taken early in the afternoon, Hebron and Etzion soon afterward. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/7/1967 The Jordanians and Israelis accept a UN Security Council call for a ceasefire on the Jordanian front.
  
• 6/8/1967 Egyptian armored units from Ismailia tried to cover the Egyptian retreat but were easily repulsed by Gen. Tal, who then pressed on to the Suez Canal between Kantara and Ismailia. Yoffe's division reached the Canal opposite Port Suez. After a grueling march through the desert Sharon's division took Nakhl, then followed Yoffe through the Mitla Pass. (Harper Enc. of Military History)
  
• 6/8/1967 Historian Gabby Bron later wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on this morning in the Sinai town of El Arish. The prisoners were forced to dig their own graves.
  
• 6/8/1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty fourteen miles north of El Arish. Jet aircraft and motor torpedo boats attacked the intelligence ship for 75 minutes in international waters in the Mediterranean. 35 Americans died and 171 were wounded; the ship was so badly damaged it had to be scrapped. Controversy continues to rage over the reasons for the attack. The Israelis claimed it was an accident, a misidentification of the ship as an Egyptian vessel.
  
• 6/8/1967 Syria accepted a UN cease-fire on the morning of June 8, but began shelling northern Israel again five hours later. Radio Damascus then announced that it was not bound by any cease-fire. Israel responded by attacking Syrian gun positions in the Golan Heights on the morning of June 9, and soon overran the Syrian positions (Arab-Israeli Wars, A. J. Barker).
  
• 6/9/1967 The UN Security Council reached a ceasefire which provided for Israeli control of the Sinai east of the Suez. Israel accepted immediately, Egypt later the next day. (Dupuy) 0320 0120 2120 The Syrian Government, over Radio Damascus, announced it accepted a cease-fire, contingent on Israel's observation of the truce. [State Department Liberty file: Arab-Israel Situation Report, 2400, June 8, 1967.] The record is not clear if Syrian artillery continued to shell northern Israel following this announcement. Given the decision by DM Dayan at 0700, it is probably a moot point. [Oren, Six Days of War, p. 278; Brecher and Geist, Decisions in Crisis, pp.279-281; Bregman and El Tahri, The Fifty Year' War, pp.110-112.] "Inconceivable that it was an accident 3 strafing passes, 3 torpedo boats. Set forth facts. Punish Israelis responsible" -- Clark Clifford in Minutes of NSC Special Committee Meeting, 9 June 1967 The UN passed another cease-fire resolution on June 9 (UNSC Resolution 235), which was accepted by Israel and later by Syria; the cease-fire went into effect on June 10 at 1630 GMT, at which point the Six Day War ended.
  
• 6/9/1967 Chip Bohlen, ambassador to Paris, was the target of an assassination attempt in France.
  
• 6/10/1967 By now, all parties have accepted the Security Council cease-fire.
  
• 6/10/1967 FBI memo: "Garrison believes that organized crime was responsible for the assassination."
  
• 6/11/1967 Communications Technician Seaman Kenneth P. Ecker, 18, a wounded Liberty crewman, answered questions and described his experience to embarked members of the national press during an interview aboard America. Of interest is the following passage: "After a torpedo struck the ship, Liberty's crew prepared to abandon ship. Coming above decks to report to his abandon ship station, Ecker observed three torpedo boats steaming approximately 100 yards off the Liberty's stern. He could not recognize the nationality of the craft. They were too far off. They were real small and you couldn't make out any marks on them or anything,' he said." [American Spirit, July 1967, V.3 N.6, p. 8. (USS America(CVA-66) newsletter.)] (Ecker's story regarding being saved by wearing his helmet was carried by a UPI dispatch in the Washington Post of June 13, 1967.)"
  
• 6/12/1967 Supreme Court's case Curtis Publishing Co. vs Butts gave the press greater protection from libel suits.
  
• 6/12/1967 The Court also ruled today unanimously in Loving v. Virginia that states cannot ban interracial marriages; this case was based on the 1958 marriage of a white man and a woman was part black, part Indian. Virginia's law against this had been on the books since 1691, and the couple was ordered to leave the state for 25 years. They appealed to then-Atty General Robert Kennedy for help, who got the ACLU to provide counsel for the couple
  
• 6/12/1967 LBJ named Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.
  
• 6/12/1967 General Rabin orders an Inquiry Commission of one individual to investigate the IDF attack on the USS Liberty. Colonel Ram Ron is appointed. [IDF Inquiry Commission Report (AKA "Ram The Liberty Incident Time Line Page 47 of 56 Ron Report"); Naval Historical Center: DTG 131335Z June 1967, USDAO Tel Aviv 0886.] Via Diplomatic Note Israel strongly rejected the charges in the 10 June US Note and again offered to make amends. [State Department Liberty file.]
  
• 6/12-13/1967 McNamara and Cyrus Vance warned Johnson again of the dangers of greatly escalating the Vietnam war; LBJ agreed.
  
• 6/13/1967 CIA Intelligence Memorandum SC No. 01415/67, "The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty" is prepared at the request of President Johnson. On p. 2 it states that Liberty, despite the size difference, could be mistaken for the smaller El Quseir by an overzealous pilot.(See 13 August 1977, 27 February 1978 and 12 January 2004.) [Foreign Relations, 1964-1968: Vol. XIX, Document 284.] DIA memo to the JCS Chairman states, in part: "[T]he best interpretation we can make of the available facts is that Israeli command and control in this instance was defective." [Foreign Relations, 1964-1968: Vol. XIX, Document 317/FN 2]
  
• 6/13/1967 A CIA report by Winston Scott, chief of station, Mexico City dated today states: "Headquarters attention is called to paragraphs 3 through 5 of report dated 26 May. The fact that Silvia Duran had sexual intercourse with Lee Harvey Oswald on several occasions when the latter was in Mexico City is probably new, but adds little to the Oswald case. The Mexican police did not report the extend of the Duran-Oswald relationship to this Station."
  
• 6/14/1967 Liberty and her escorts arrive in Malta. The US Naval Court of Inquiry reconvenes aboard Liberty. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Record of Proceedings, p. 12.] Defense Department announces that a naval court of inquiry is in session at Malta. [Naval Historical Center: DTG 141747Z June 1967, SECDEF to multiple commands.]
  
• 6/14/1967 "There've been a lot of attacks on J. Edgar Hoover, but we have to concede this: He's been the finest director the Bureau has ever had." Attributed to Jim Garrison by Mark Lane, speech at UCLA to Citizens Committee of Inquiry.
  
• 6/15/1967 "Israel expresses regret over deaths and wounding of Indian UNEF troops on 5 June 1967 by the IDF and offers humanitarian compensation. [UN Documents S/7957, 8 June 1967 and S/7989, 15 June 1967.]
  
• 6/15/1967 US Naval Court of Inquiry adjourns in Malta after taking two days of testimony from nine officers and five enlisted men of the Liberty. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Record of Proceedings, p. 138.]"
  
• 6/15/1967 Former Ruby lawyer Joe Tonahill was indicted for income tax evasion. (New Orleans States-Item)
  
• 6/16/1967 "US Naval Court of Inquiry reconvened in London at CINCUSNAVEUR HQ for the final set of witnesses. Testimony ended