A. Jay Cristol (born September 25,1929) is a judge,poet,author,pilot,and a lecturer of naval warfare. He served as a Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida from 1959 to 1965 and as a trustee in bankruptcy from 1977 to 1985. He was appointed judge to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida on April 17,1985,and served as the district's Chief Bankruptcy Judge from 1993 to 1999.
Cristol received his B.A. degree from the University of Miami in 1958 and his J.D. degree,cum laude,from the University of Miami School of Law in 1959,where he was research editor of the law review and recipient of other honors. (Cristol returned to the school in the late 1980s,and received his Ph.D from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Miami on May 9,1997.)[7][8]
Navy career
Grumman AF Guardian AF-2W
Cristol made his first flight in a Piper J-3 Cub on Biscayne Bay in 1945. He has personally piloted a Ford Tri-Motor,the Goodyear Blimp,a Soviet MiG-15,a Czech L-39,a Chinese CJ-6,a French Fouga Magister,and many other unique,antique,or historic aircraft.
In November 1951,during the Korean War,Cristol joined the US Navy. After receiving his wings in 1953,he deployed to the western Pacific and flew both day and night missions in the Grumman AF Guardian from the USS Princeton (CVS-37). Upon returning to the US,Cristol left active duty and joined the Naval Reserve.
After completing law school,Cristol became a civil lawyer,and served as special assistant attorney general of Florida.[7] He also returned to school in pursuit of a doctoral degree.
While working on his Ph.D. thesis (from the late 1980s into the 1990s),Cristol analyzed the official investigations of the USS Liberty incident of June 8,1967,[9] in which Israeli forces attacked an American ship,resulting in a significant loss of life.[7] Officially,the Liberty incident had already been investigated by more than a dozen government agencies and government-commissioned groups;it had always been reported to have been a tragic accident. Cristol conducted over 450 interviews. Freedom of Information Act requests were used to obtain declassification of the Clark Clifford Report,22 hot-line messages,22 National Security Agency documents,and 31 National Security Council documents. Cristol was also able to obtain classified Israeli documents. The conclusion of his dissertation confirmed the official investigations and demonstrated that the attack on the USS Liberty was a mistake.[10]
Following completion of course work,Cristol continued to pursue information surrounding the event. He sued the National Security Agency under the Freedom of Information Act. In 2004 the agency released audio tapes which had been collected by an NSA unit aboard a Navy Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star aircraft flying near the scene of the USS Liberty attack. Subsequently,Cristol published his analysis in 2002 as a book about the attack,The Liberty Incident:The 1967 Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship.[11][12] Cristol concluded that the tapes show the attack was an accident,and that the Israelis mistook the ship for an Egyptian warship.[13]
Cristol's second book,The Liberty Incident Revealed:The Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship,was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2013. One of the Naval History and Heritage Command’s webpages pertaining to the USS Liberty incident cites this book as its primary source.[14] Curiously,neither of Cristol’s books contains interviews from any Liberty survivors,despite many still being alive and willing to discuss their experiences at the time the books were being written. Furthermore,many Liberty survivors have claimed that The Liberty Incident (2002) and The Liberty Incident Revealed (2013) contain many errors and omissions.[15]
Cristol has written several online articles challenging the assertions made by James Bamford and Liberty survivors.[19][20][21][22] He dismisses allegations that the attack was deliberate as conspiracy theories and maintains the official “mistaken identity”narrative.
Judge Cristol has presided over many high-profile bankruptcy cases and related proceedings. These include the Chapter 11 reorganization of General Development Corporation (one of the largest reorganizations in U.S. history),Prime Motor Inns,Flannigans,Banco Latino International,Arrow Air,and Pan American Airways.
In 2007,Judge Cristol awarded the rights of O. J. Simpson's book If I Did It to the family of Ronald Goldman to satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson.[23]
Personal Life
Cristol remains an avid aviator. He is a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola,Florida and a founding member of the Wings Over Miami Military and Classic Aircraft Museum in Miami,Florida. Cristol is an Angel Flight volunteer pilot,flying people in need of transportation to and from regional medical centers for treatment. The 2007 May/June issue of Airliners magazine published a story about Judge Cristol;and Dow Jones featured Judge Cristol on January 2,2008 in a three-page article.[24]
Awards and honors
A. Jay Cristol is an Eagle Scout of the Boy Scouts of America,earned on March 6,1944. He was honored as a National Eagle Scout Association Outstanding Eagle Scout in South Florida Council in 2021.
In 1998,Pan Am was sold to Guilford Transportation,in a transaction which removed Pan Am from bankruptcy. Consequently,the company honored Cristol,who presided over the speedy reorganization,by naming one of their 727-225 aircraft[25] the Clipper A. Jay Cristol.[26][27][28] After presiding over the reorganization of Arrow Air,[29][30] he was honored by having an Arrow Air Douglas DC-8-62[31] named the "Judge A. Jay Cristol."[12][32]
1959-1963 - Office of the Attorney General,State of Florida. Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the State of Florida,1959,1961,1963 and 1965 Legislative Sessions
1959-1985 - Cristol,Mishan,Sloto. Senior partner in commercial law firm
1985–Present - United States Bankruptcy Court
April 17,1985 - Appointed Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida
October 1,1993 –September 25,1999 - Appointed Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court
April 17,1999 - Reappointed Judge for second 14-year term through 2013
April 17,2013 - Reappointed Judge for third 14-year term through 2027
Academic assignments
1983 - Honorary Professor of Law,United States Naval Justice School. Lecturer of Law of Naval Warfare at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law,San Remo,Italy
1988 to Present - Adjunct Professor of Law at University of Miami Law School
1994 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Russian Judges for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges,Atlanta
1995 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Judges from Hong Kong,Malaysia,India,Thailand and South Africa for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges,New Orleans
1996 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor of Slovenian Judges for the Judicial Development Program sponsored by the u.S. Department of State,and American Bankruptcy Institute,Slovenia
1996 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Czech Republic Judges for the Judicial Development Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of state,and American Bankruptcy Institute,Czech Republic
Publications
"Theoretical Legal Problems in Converting the Central and Eastern European Military Industrial Complex to a Free Market Economy," 27 Foundation Notes,Naval War College (Spring 1996).
The Liberty Incident (1997),Ph.D. dissertation,University of Miami.
Bankruptcy Alchemy:Conversion of Nothing to Golden Opportunity. St. Thomas Law Review 9(1997):305. (with Ali Sarmiento Walden)
The Liberty Incident:The 1967 Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship. Washington (DC):Brassey's Military,2002. ISBN1-574-88536-7OCLC49249144
"The USS Liberty and the Role of Intelligence". Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. XIX, Dept. Of State (Washington D.C. 2004). Cristol, Castle and Hadden.
The Liberty Incident Revealed: the Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship. Naval Institute Press, 2013. ISBN978-1612513409
Related Research Articles
The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members, wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nautical miles northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.
USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a Belmont-class technical research ship that was attacked by Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. She was originally built and served in World War II as a VC2-S-AP3 type Victory cargo ship named SS Simmons Victory. Her keel was laid down on 23 February 1945, under a Maritime Commission contract at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon.
USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class environmental research ship, placed into service during World War II, then converted to a spy ship in 1967 by the United States Navy. She gathered intelligence and oceanographic information, monitoring electronic and radio signals from North Korea. On 23 January 1968, the ship was attacked and captured by a North Korean vessel, in what became known as the "Pueblo incident", or alternatively, as the "Pueblo crisis".
Isaac Campbell Kidd Jr. was an American admiral in the United States Navy who served as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO's Atlantic Fleet, and also as commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet from 1975 to 1978. He was the son of Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who was killed on the bridge of the battleship Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Paul Robert Ignatius is an American government official who served as Secretary of the Navy between 1967 and 1969 and was the Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Lyndon Johnson Administration.
Thomas Hinman Moorer was an admiral and naval aviator in the United States Navy who served as the chief of naval operations from 1967 to 1970, and as the seventh chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974. He was implicated in a spy ring within the White House during the Nixon administration, but never prosecuted.
William Loren McGonagle was a United States Navy officer who received the Medal of Honor for his actions while in command of the USS Liberty when it was attacked by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War.
David Lamar McDonald was an admiral in the United States Navy, who served as the 17th Chief of Naval Operations from 1 August 1963 to 1 August 1967 during the Vietnam War era.
James Bamford is an American author, journalist and documentary producer noted for his writing about United States intelligence agencies, especially the National Security Agency (NSA). The New York Times has called him "the nation's premier journalist on the subject of the National Security Agency" and The New Yorker named him "the NSA's chief chronicler."
Yeshayahu Yerushalmi, also Isaiah Yerushalmi, was an Israeli judge. Yerushalmi was the presiding judge of the preliminary Israeli inquiry into the USS Liberty incident.
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Naval Board of Inquiry and Naval Court of Inquiry are two types of investigative court proceedings, conducted by the United States Navy in response to an event that adversely affects the performance, or reputation, of the fleet or one of its ships or stations.
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Ernest Carl Castle was a captain in the United States Navy.
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