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  • 'USS Liberty' attacked

    Any opinions folks about why the 'USS Liberty' was allowed to be attacked in 1967 by Iseral.

    Check out the web on the subject-there is as moch information as disinformation on the subject.

    LINK

    On that June day in 1967, the weather was beautiful... Clear and sunny, visibility unlimited... the LIBERTY, an elaborate state-of-the art intelligence gathering platform, was in international waters off the Gaza strip and was flying the Stars and Stripes. Israeli reconnaissance planes flew overhead for hours. Pilots and ship's crew waved to each other. Then, inexplicably, unmarked Israeli aircraft began attacking the ship.

    The defenseless LIBERTY radioed for help. Two aircraft carriers in the Med responded by launching fighter aircraft. Unbelievably, they were recalled by the White House. RADM Geis, then commanding the carriers in the Sixth Fleet, called Washington personally to confirm the order. SecDef McNamara came on the line, then President Johnson. Johnson indicated to Geis that the aircraft were to be returned, that he would not have his allies embarrassed, and that he didn't care who was killed or what was done to the ship. Geis, like any good sailor, recalled the aircraft.

    (If you have RealAudio, and click on the picture of CDR Dave Lewis at the right, you will HEAR Dave tell about his conversation with Admiral Geis.)

    With no help forthcoming, the LIBERTY fell an easy victim to Israel's motor torpedo boat attack. FIVE torpedoes were lobbed at the Liberty, one hit amidships and instantly killed 25 sailors. A total of 34 died in the attack, 172 were injured.

    The torpedo boats came within 50 feet of the ship, couldn't see the American flag on the mast, couldn't see the words "USS LIBERTY" on the stern, couldn't see "GTR-5" in 6 1/2 foot letters on the bow. The boats shot at American sailors on the deck of the Liberty as the sailors tried to help one another. As life rafts were put in the water by Liberty sailors in preparation for abandoning the ship, the boats shot them up. One boat pulled one out of the water and took it on board. Didn't see the words "USS LIBERTY" stenciled on it. The boats left the scene, apparently when they got erroneous word that the carriers had sent fighters to help the Liberty.

    President Johnson went on television and announced to the American people that TEN sailors were killed in the "six minute accidental" attack. Sailors were ordered not to discuss the incident with ANYONE under threat of court-martial. We waited for the investigation... and for the explanations and the answers. Why did Israel attack the ship? Why did the U. S. Government turn its back on the crew members? The answers never came.

    There has NEVER been a congressional investigation. There HAS been a NAVY-controlled white-washed investigation of the crew's actions during the attack, but Israel's participation was NOT covered. Even in this, evidence was changed, and officers and crew who knew the answers were not asked the right questions and were told to shut up when they offered information. And now, in 2002, retired Navy captain Ward Boston, one of the Navy's chief legal counsels reporting to Adm. Kidd, who conducted the Navy's inquiry, now says that the Navy inquiry was a sham and a fraud and both he and Adm. Kidd knew that the attack was not an accident but deliberate.

    At the AFEI conference for Net Centric Operations 2003 on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at Tysons Corner in Vienna, VA, Honorable John Stenbit, Assistant Secretary for Defense C3I, indicated that the Israelis made a very clear threat that if the US did not move the USS Liberty within 24 hours, they would sink it. His exact quote was: "The Israeli's told us 24 hours before that we had a ship called the Liberty, and if we didn't move it they would sink it. Unfortunately, the ship was not moved and by the time the message arrived the ship was taking on water." The agenda for the meeting can be found at http://www.afei.org/brochure/3af3/ .
    We don't yet have the complete text of that presentation, but we DO have the complete text of a presentation Stenbit gave a month earlier, on March 13, 2003, at Harvard University in which he makes the same claim. You can view his remarks at:




    The attack has been a matter of controversy since 1967. Survivors and many key government officials including Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Moorer say the attack was no accident. CLICK HERE to see a long list of notable officials who believe the attack was deliberate. Two Israeli officers have come forward to admit that the attack was no accident. Yet the Israeli government and its supporters insist it was a "tragic case of misidentification" and charge that survivors and their eyewitness supporters are lying.

    (If you have RealAudio, click on Admiral Moorer's picture at the left and hear what he has to say about the attack.) Please read Admiral Moorer's statement on the 30th anniversary of the massacre by CLICKING HERE.


    The ship's crew is bitter. It is bitter because its own country turned its back on them... it is bitter because someone killed 34 Americans and got away with it...what's more, that its own government covered up the truth and HELPED them get away with it!

    "Ahhh," you say. "Anti-Semitism!" No. Many of the ship's crew are Jewish, and we have many Jewish friends. We are NOT anti-Semitic. We ARE anti-Israel. We know that Israel has controlled the American congress for years... to the point where 34 dead sailors can go un-investigated!
    Attached Files

  • #2
    This is one of the most contentious issues ever debated on at least 2 other military discussion boards, not too sure what's going to be gained by having it here.

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    • #3
      That a boy YJ! kill the discussion before it starts!
      Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...

      http://www.iamawesome.com/

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      • #4
        No don't...the Irish have many Israeli issues to deal with themselves.The israelis had blatantly murdered and supporrted the murder of Irish soldiers in south lebanon for many years and the tried to pay of their relations in order to make feeble reparations.

        having seen a documantery about this issue on the history channel recently I was shocked to see how easily the US government backed down.After all it was the Gulf of Tonkin a couple of years previously that had been Americas reasoning behind all out military intervention in Vietnam.

        Lesser events in recent years have brought the US to a war standing.

        Whilst I am not a religous person I do believe that certain religous factions within the US ...ie the Jews have unproportional power......the israelis themselves are bigitous beyond belief as they try to enforce a ghetto system on the palestinians......ring any bells.

        The whole liberty issue is a cover up because the powers that be had not the bollocks to stand up to the financial controllers ..i.e the jews ...who were funding their Vietnamese excursion at the time.

        Hang on am I sounding like the late Adolf Hitler?

        Alot of what he preached was well researched .....the Jews financial conspiracy....Maybe this is indicitave of the power that they actually had.

        I am not openlly anti semetic but I do think that history has some questions that need answers.


        Now close the thread if you want!
        Covid 19 is not over ....it's still very real..Hand Hygiene, Social Distancing and Masks.. keep safe

        Comment


        • #5
          The problem today is that to be anti israel,ie the Jewish state,is also considered to be anti semite.

          YJ,Leaving this run with caution for now. I doubt most here would be aware of the event,and the official website for the ship and crew says much the same as seen here.


          Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

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          • #6
            I think the problem was partially that Israel was pretty much the only bastion of pro-American-ness in the area. It was in the US's interest to maintain some form of foothold, politically, in the mid-east region, given pretty much everywhere else, possible slight exception of Jordan, was pro-Russian. My guess is that Israel took a gamble that the US needed its co-operation more than a desire to take up hostilities with Israel.

            NTM
            Driver, tracks, troops.... Drive and adjust!!

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            • #7
              USS Liberty

              I was on the M.V. Irish Ash in 1967, we called in to the Ethiopian port of Massawa on our way to the Persian Gulf. The ship astern of us was an American Naval vessel which looked like it had a dozen or so up turned 300 Gallon cylinders welded on the deck.The next time I saw some thing resembling it was a photo of ths USS Pablo, the spy ship that the North Koreans sank!
              We had a few beers with the US sailors, they said they were tracking satellites, I do not think they even tryed to keep a straight face when we pointed out they had whip arials and no radar scanners other than the Nav. radar.
              I later read in one of the books on the 6 day war,thatthey were listening to Egyptian and Israely tank radio traffic, what ever, there is no doubt every one knew they were there, so I'm sure they knew the USS liberty was there also and what she was about.

              Comment


              • #8
                Guys this was posted today

                I hope it opens the can of worms that have festered for years

                Link


                U.S.: Israel was negligent in 1967 ship attack
                Survivors not satisfied with review's conclusion
                From Elise Labott
                CNN Washington Bureau
                Monday, January 12, 2004 Posted: 9:21 PM EST (0221 GMT)


                USS LIBERTY
                • 7,725 ton Belmont class technical research ship
                • Built in 1945 as civilian cargo ship Simmons Victory
                • Acquired by U.S. Navy in 1963, commissioned 1964
                • Mission: To collect, process foreign communications
                • Attacked June 8, 1967
                • Escorted to Malta for repairs
                • Decommissioned in June 1968
                • Sold for scrap in 1970
                Source: U.S. Navy


                WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After reviewing documents dating back 36 years, the State Department has concluded that Israel's attack on a U.S. spy ship in 1967 was an act of gross negligence for which it should be held responsible.

                The USS Liberty was attacked off the Egyptian coast June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, while gathering electronic intelligence. The attack killed 34 Americans and injured another 171.

                "In many respects this is kind of a classic bi-national case of Murphy's Law," a State Department official said Monday. "Everything that could possibly go wrong, on either side, did."

                The official said that though Israel should be held responsible for the attack, the United States was also negligent for failing to notify Israel the Liberty was in international waters and for failing to withdraw the ship from the war zone.

                "This is a ship that should have been hundreds of miles away from the war zone," the official said.

                Israel fought the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and other Arab states, emerging victorious after six days.

                The State Department opened a two-day conference on U.S. foreign policy during the period, with a panel dealing with the USS Liberty attack. The conference was scheduled around the release of historical documents about the war.

                The Israelis have always said the attack on the Liberty, which was monitoring communications in the war, was a tragic accident. The Johnson administration never formally challenged the Israelis' account. But some survivors and senior U.S. officials at the time have said they believe the attack was a deliberate effort to stop American surveillance of Israeli activities during the conflict.

                In July the National Security Archive released tapes of Israeli pilots and ground control speaking in Hebrew, along with English transcripts. The recordings were made by a nearby American surveillance aircraft after the attack. (Full story)

                The NSA released the tapes and transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act in response to a request from Judge Jay Cristol of Miami, Florida. Cristol, who wrote a book about the attack, said the tapes show it was a tragic accident in a time of war -- that the Israelis mistook the ship for an Egyptian one.

                "There was no indication they had any knowledge they were attacking a U.S. ship," Cristol told participants at the conference.

                The State Department official said that though some maintain the Israeli military was too good to make such a mistake, "if they were that good and if they were that efficient and they deliberately sought to sink a ship, they damned well would have sunk it."

                The official noted the Israelis attacked the ship first with cannon fire and then napalm, not specialized air-to-sea weapons.

                The State Department's analysis, the official said, is "that if it was a deliberate, planned attack, you would think an air force as good as the Israelis' would have served up their best bombers, with their biggest bombs. They would have sunk this ship in 30 seconds flat, no witnesses, no evidence, no fingerprints. That didn't happen."

                James Bamford, the author of a history of the NSA, believes the released tapes suggest the Israelis may have deliberately attacked the Liberty, perhaps fearing -- for some reason not known -- that it was spying on them.

                Calling for a formal investigation of the incident, Bamford said, "The Israelis said it was a mistake. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't.

                "There were cover-ups," he added, referring to an affidavit by a retired Navy captain, Ward Boston, who charged that then-President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered a Navy inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

                Phil Tourney, who was injured in the attack and is now president of the USS Liberty Survivors' Association, said the association is not satisfied with the "gross negligence" conclusion. Tourney said the survivors were kept from telling their ordeal.

                "War crimes were committed by the Israelis that day," Tourney said. "A thorough investigation should be done, and the Israelis should be held accountable."

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                • #9

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                  • #10
                    xxxxx
                    Last edited by Guest; 22 November 2004, 15:32.

                    "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."


                    Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor (161 to 180 A.D.)

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