Ward Boston

Ward Boston, Jr. (d. 12 June, 2008 at 84 in Coronado, California) was an attorney and a retired United States Navy Captain.cite news |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070608/news_lz1e8boston.html |title=Time for the truth about the Liberty
author=Ward Boston, Jr. |work=San Diego Union-Tribune |date=2007-06-08
quote="Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II."] cite web |source=IfAmericansKnew.org
url=http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-boston.html |title=Affidavit of Captain Ward Boston, USN, JAG (Ret.)] He served in World War II as a Navy fighter pilot and worked as a special agent for the FBI. He gained notoriety due to his service in the Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, where, as chief counsel to the Naval Board of Inquiry investigating the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 crewmen and injured 172, he personally concluded that the attack was most likely deliberate.cite book |title=The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship |first=A. Jay |last=Cristol
pages=149 |year=2002 |publisher=Brassey's |isbn=1574885367] cite news |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080619/news_1m19boston.html
title=Ward Boston Jr.; helped investigate '67 Liberty attack] - Obituary |author=Blanca Gonzalez, staff writer
work=San Diego Union-Tribune |date=2008-06-19] The court was ordered by superiors to ascribe the attack to an accident, rather than to deliberate hostility.

In 2002 Boston told the "Navy Times" that the naval court was a politicized sham with conclusions preordained to exonerate Israel. [cite news | url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040328/news_mz1e29libert.html | title=Attack on the Liberty | author=David C. Walsh | publisher=San Diego Union Tribune | date=2004-03-28] In a signed affidavit he stated that U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had ordered the President of the Court, Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., that the assault be ruled an accident, and to reach the conclusion "that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity'" despite "overwhelming evidence to the contrary." He said he felt compelled to make this information public following the publication of the book "The Liberty Incident" by bankruptcy judge A. Jay Cristol, which concluded the attack was unintentional, while Boston found that the attack was most likely deliberate.cite news |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-obit-boston,0,2710367.story
title=Navy attorney in USS Liberty investigation dies |first=Chelsea J. |last=Carter
work=Chicago Tribune "via" the Associated Press |date=2008-06-18] In early 2004, Boston repeated the revelation before a State Department conference about the Six-Day War. [cite news | url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040217-9999-1n17liberty.html | title=Ex-officer alleges cover-up in probe of spy ship attack | author=James W. Crawley | date=17-02-2004 | publisher=San Diego Union Tribune]

In 2007, Cristol suggested that another individual helped Boston with his initial affidavit and declaration, and very likely wrote or assisted in the preparation of a June 8, 2007 article; he claimed this was part of a much broader propaganda effort emanating from "a small but well-funded and very vocal group of people and organizations principally supported by Saudi Arabian money". [cite web | url=http://hnn.us/articles/39936.html | title=Why You Shouldn't Pay Attention to the Claims that Israel Attacked the USS Liberty Deliberately | author=A. Jay Cristol | date=2007-06-08 | publisher=History News Network]

Death

Boston, a Coronado, California resident, died June 12, 2008 of complications from pneumonia at a San Diego hospital. He was 84.

References

External link

* [http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-boston.html] - Affidavit of Captain Ward Boston, USN, JAG (Ret.)
* [http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070608/news_lz1e8boston.html Time for the truth about the Liberty] ] | The San Diego Union-Tribune Ward Boston, Jr. June 8, 2007. "Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II."