Former Chief Navy Counsel Alleges Cover-Up by LBJ of 1967 Israeli Attack on U.S. Ship

AP ^

[zchip]

Actually, the Israeli torpedo boats offered assistance once they were told it was an American ship.

No, they did not. Read the the story told by the surviving crew members. It is very chilling indeed and will leave you with no doubt as to the intentions of the Israelis.

[RaceBannon]

Hmmm

Now, THATS an interesting theory!!

[rmlew]

At a time when Arabs had allied themselves tio the Soviets, a questionable attack was less important than the existance of a strong potential ally.
Besides, the administration screwed up big time by lying to Israel adn failing to provid e anaval liason. Everyone benefitted in the short run by keeping the attack quiet.

[yonif]

Excuse me ? So this is reason for "our closest ally in the middle east" to attack Americans ? We should have counter- attacked the ungrateful bastards with our own air strike.

The USS Liberty incident was a mistake. Some of the mistakes were made on the US side, and some on the Israeli side.

[rmlew]

How many hundreds of Liberty ships or similar ships were their out there?
As for a flag, the Egyptian navy had flown a false flag when they sank the Elath. Israeli pilots were told that there would be no American ships in the area.
Should the Israeli pilots have double checked? Yep.
Should there have been a US Naval liason to note that there were American ships their, despite LBJ's promise? Yep.
Welcome to war and government cover ups.

[yonif]

Israel chose to try and sink The Liberty with all hands.

Tell me something. If an Airforce planned on sinking a ship, what kind of weapons would you tell them to use? Iron bombs that go through the ship right?

The fact is the planes which took part in the attack were diverted from operations in the northern part of Israel against Syria. They were EQUIPPED with NAPALM. They were SCRAMBLED to the area. They had no intention on sinking any ships. They simply were responding to a mistaken call an enemy ship was in the area, an area from which fire was coming out of on Israel's IDF troops. The fact is they were told no US Ships were in the area.

[truthandjustice1]

bump

[yonif]

While not exactly independent, the book "Attack on the Liberty" was a very interesting read.

Try "The Liberty Incident" by Judge Cristol.

[yonif]

Because it was flying an American flag. I had friends aboard, I believe what they told me.

Listen. If you were told no US ships were in the area, wouldn't you think a country you were at war with might place such a flag on their ship to make the Israelis think they are not the enemy?

[rmlew]

Oh please. Teh North Koreans captured a similar US intelligence ship in 1968. There was no hell to pay.
Frankly the NSA and US Navy learned NOTHING. At the very least, ensuring that American spy ships have support would have been a lesson. Instead the CYA attitude prevented this.
Had it been an Israeli attack, the Navy adn NSA would have learned this concept. Instead the cover-ups surrounding a fog of war action prevented cleaning house.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

There were persistent rumors that the US had planes on the way from our carriers which were called back. That is what needs to be investigated. There also was difficulties with US planes flying from Italy - I don't recall the details. Either they were not allowed to launch or they launched and were also called back.

If an investigation starts, what we want to see is the message traffic.

[John Beresford Tipton]

" After all, who are the Israelis to tell/ask the United States to do anything?"

Ah, new on this planet?

[yonif]

http://www.thelibertyincident.com/

[rmlew]

Because Soviet intell ships have no radar or telecom equipment either?

[yonif]

Tapes were released revelaing what the Israeli Air Force command was telling their planes. I know hebrew and have listen to them. These people mistakenly thought it was an Egyptian ship. They were told no US SHIPS were in the area.

[quietolong]

You know it can happen to anyone all ships look alike. Right!
The same thing happend to Japan too.
The Sinking of Panay, 12 December 1937

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/dafs/PR/pr5-sinking.html

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/PR/PR-5_Panay.html

http://home.sandiego.edu/~pbugler/

[yonif]

If Israeli intelligence was aware of this then they really had no alternative other than to sink that ship

THE SHIP NEVER SUNK. The Israelis attacked it with weapons that were not designed to go against ships and for sinking ships. THEY WERE scrambled to the area. This was no planned operation.

[rmlew]

Dont they both show misidentification?
Why don't you note that there should have been a Naval liason and the US government should have warned the Israelis?
As I noted before everyone made mistakes and proceeded to cover their behind.