My last article “The Sack of Annapolis” generated a minor firestorm from respondents. In some instances, the comments—by now over 70—were more interesting and informative than the article itself. Certain comments I agreed with; others I didn’t. Some I understood; others were beyond my comprehension. Please understand, I am not engaged in a crusade to change anybody’s mind. I am simply offering my own point of view, for what it may be worth.

One insight hit home: “Patrick Foy did nothing more than state the obvious. There’s nothing controversial about it.” But stating the obvious can often be a shock—both to those on the inside “in the know” as well as to those on the outside, who are kept in the dark. For the former, stating the obvious can be an affront, a danger, a provocation. To the latter, it is a puzzle, maybe an annoyance. The result is controversy. I pointed out in my book that, “I belabor the obvious because the situation evidently is not always obvious to other people.” That must be true. In addition, please remember that ignorance is good; certain parties benefit enormously from the ignorance of others. Moreover, there is the whole issue of being in denial.

Here are a few housekeeping matters pertaining to the links in “The Sack of Annapolis”…

(a) With respect to the June 8th, 1967 unprovoked daylight attack on the unarmed USS Liberty spy ship off the coast of Gaza, the link for “no Congressional investigation” comes up empty. This was a link to a sidebar (if I am not mistaken) to the important, front-page article in the Chicago Tribune of October 2nd, 2007, entitled “New Revelations in attack on American Spy Ship”, written by Pulitzer Prize winner and Chicago Tribune senior correspondent, John Crewdson. The link to that main article is fine; the link to its sidebar entitled “Congressional Inquiries got Nowhere” does not compute. But it did in early December. I saw it then, but alas did not copy it.

As a replacement, I suggest three items: one in the May-June, 2007 issue of the Washington Report of Middle East Affairs entitled “Four Decades of Twisting Facts About Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty” written by James Ennis, who was an officer on the bridge of the USS Liberty at the time of the assault, which resulted in the deaths of 35 servicemen and the wounding of 171 others.  The second item is from CounterPunch of June 23/24, 2007 entitled “USA Today and the USS Liberty” by that courageous American journalist, Alison Weir, who founded the website “If Americans Knew”, to unravel the conundrum of Zionism. Her own blog or journal is a knockout. Finally, an excerpt from James Bamford’s outstanding 2001 book Body of Secrets.

(b) With respect to the murder of the 23-year-old, unarmed American peace activist Rachel Corrie—who was crushed by an IDF armored bulldozer inside Gaza on Sunday, March 16th, 2003—the link to Rachel’s memorial site is fine, but several of the links at the memorial itself are not functioning. Regarding the incident, please look to “Four eyewitnesses describe the murder of Rachel Corrie”. In the aftermath, see Elizabeth Corrie’s article in CounterPunch “Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie” of March 10, 2004, which marked the one year anniversary. Then there is “Rachel’s War” from the Guardian of March 18th, 2003, which consists of a series of e-mails to her family and friends in the last weeks of her life. Amazing. Finally, listen to the inspirational song by Billy Bragg, entitled “The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie”. As with the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty by the navy and air force of Israel, there has been no interest in the U.S. Congress, then or now, to investigate the 2003 murder of U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie.