Thread: Israeli Attack on USS Liberty

Originally Posted by sabang

Israeli airplanes first attacked the Liberty with missiles and cannons, disabling it. It was before this that communications were sent to Israeli command identifying the ship as US, but the attack was told to commence. Fifteen minutes later, Israeli navy arrived and finished the job. During this time, US warplanes were scrambled to assist the Liberty, and ordered back to base- that order emanating from the Secretary of Defence, McNamara.

The Liberty was a communications ship- a spy vessel. It was also very close to Egypt, and the scene of several Israeli actions there. To state the obvious, it would have sent several Maydays out while being attacked. Yet the order to specifically not assist it came fromk the Defence Department, and no action was taken to call off the attack from either Israel or the US- in fact the order was given for the attack to continue.

So they must have intercepted something real sensitive methinks, which senior US and Israeli defence, intelligence and government personnel absolutely did not want released. To the point the US was willing to let an ally sink one of it's ships, with corresponding loss of life. I doubt we will ever know what that information was.

What would that be and how would it be kept quiet? The US did not want to escalate an incident and have that incident further escalated in the media. It would show weakness in unity, something the Soviets and their allies might try to exploit. It appears the US went well out of its way not to raise a stink about friendly fire.

Did some senior US politicians consent to the Liberty being sunk, and if so why?

I'm still not sure what you mean. They really couldn't stop it from sinking. There was nothing close enough to stop the Israelis and no one had any idea the Israelis were going to attack.

Officially it wasn't anywhere near where it was, and the bigger question is not why the Israelis attacked it but why it was there in the first place.

The USS Liberty was never sunk, or is that another cover up ? It actually made it to Malta under it's own steam. Just shows you that when someone writes a book in the US, conspiricey theories jump to the fore making it an automatic best seller.

Could be the IDF just wanted to seriously distract the crew from whatever info they were transmitting or gathering. If they wanted it sunk it wouldn't have reached Malta.

It's true that the Liberty was not sunk, it made it to port and was scrapped.
Really though, why would the Secretary of Defence specifically turn back a rescue mission.
Why would the Secretary of Defence even know?

I don't know what the rescue mission was made up of.

In the first instance, jets were scrambled. It all goes hazy after that- it appears the Liberty limped to port alone, but not sure. Surely the dead and wounded were evacuated?

Originally Posted by keda

Officially it wasn't anywhere near where it was, and the bigger question is not why the Israelis attacked it but why it was there in the first place.

Indeed. Accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist, but I believe the attack was deliberate. For whatever reason, the NSA sent the ship where the Defence people & top politicians absolutely did not want it to go, namely off Sinai (international waters notwithstanding).
It will remain theory- stuff at this level does not get released, and information that is released will only tell you what they will let you know.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Some released documents not only indicate the Israelis knew they were attacking an American ship, and the U.S. government covered it up.

New revelations in attack on American spy ship

Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident

By John Crewdson |Tribune senior correspondent October 2, 2007 Article tools

Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for heroism, ordained Baptist minister, is shouting into the phone.

"I'm angry! I'm seething with anger! Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!"

Lockwood was aboard the USS Liberty, a super-secret spy ship on station in the eastern Mediterranean, when four Israeli fighter jets flew out of the afternoon sun to strafe and bomb the virtually defenseless vessel on June 8, 1967, the fourth day of what would become known as the Six-Day War.


Related links

• Congressional inquiries got nowhere
• USS Liberty Photos
• How the Israeli attack unfolded Graphic

For Lockwood and many other survivors, the anger is mixed with incredulity: that Israel would attack an important ally, then attribute the attack to a case of mistaken identity by Israeli pilots who had confused the U.S. Navy's most distinctive ship with an Egyptian horse-cavalry transport that was half its size and had a dissimilar profile. And they're also incredulous that, for years, their own government would reject their calls for a thorough investigation.

"They tried to lie their way out of it!" Lockwood shouts. "I don't believe that for a minute! You just don't shoot at a ship at sea without identifying it, making sure of your target!"

Four decades later, many of the more than two dozen Liberty survivors located and interviewed by the Tribune cannot talk about the attack without shouting or weeping.

Their anger has been stoked by the declassification of government documents and the recollections of former military personnel, including some quoted in this article for the first time, which strengthen doubts about the U.S. National Security Agency's position that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots -- communications, according to those who remember seeing them, that showed the Israelis knew they were attacking an American naval vessel.

....The documents also suggest that the U.S. government, anxious to spare Israel's reputation and preserve its alliance with the U.S., closed the case with what even some of its participants now say was a hasty and seriously flawed investigation.

Link: New revelations in attack on American spy ship -- baltimoresun.com

Milky USS Liberty's one of the so many screw ups.

Does anyone remember or ever heard about Lavon affair where Israeli agents planted bombs, 1954, in American library and some other spots where the chances of Western casualty was high? The aim was to paint Egyptians as terrorists and to fock up the Egyptian relations with the West. The Israelies never denied this!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair

http://www.mideastweb.org/lavon.htm

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lavon.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/lavon.html

Also in early 50s the Israelies played another dirty game when they targeted their own Jews in Iraq in order to get their arse to newly occupied Israel.
http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/ameu_iraqjews.html


The list goes on! I can't be arsed to search info on this matter.

But hey Israelies can't kill anyone.