Video about the USS Liberty

[Magda Hassan]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...1367&hl=en

[Mark Stapleton]

Thanks for posting that Magda. Great stuff.

There's no doubt remaining now that it was deliberate and a war crime.

The most common reasons cited seem to be that it was designed to divert attention from the massacre of Egyptian POW's or to place the blame for the attack on the Egyptians and thus provoke American retaliation. The latter seems unlikely as the forces opposing Israel had been destroyed by June 8.

In my opinion the attack was prompted by the State Department's announcement on June 5, at the outbreak of hostilities, that the US ïs "neutral in thought, word and deed". As childish as it seems, this statement caused great resentment to the hardcore supporters of Israel in both countries. In Robert Dallek's "Flawed Giant"(1998, pp428-429), the author recalls outrage from Jewish groups including the statement from the wife of close LBJ confidante and fundraiser Arthur Krim that Jewish groups could not easily forgive the "neutrality" statement.

Could such an outrageous war crime have been punishment for the neutrality statement from the State Department? Yep. That was their mentality, sadly. And of course, LBJ knew he owed his Presidency to them, and they knew he knew.

[R.K. Locke]

Don't know if this has been posted already, but...


http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world...cle/412229

[Peter Lemkin]

The most amazing aspect of the event is the USA not reacting/retaliating - then or afterwards...... very suspicious, indeed.

[Magda Hassan]

The most amazing aspect of the event is the USA not reacting/retaliating - then or afterwards...... very suspicious, indeed.

One just has to imagine if it were Iraq or Iran or Libya who (accidentally) did it and what the reaction would be....

[Tracy Riddle]

Don't know if this has been posted already, but...


http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world...cle/412229

Thanks for posting that, R.K.

[Albert Doyle]

It's pretty clear that the reason Johnson and the American media covered it up is because they knew if they pushed it too hard Israel could inform the world that CIA had gone to its Mossad and instructed them to do it as a false flag pretext to bring America in on the side of the Israeli's. CIA was high on its power after getting away with the Kennedy assassination so easily. In this context the only reason you are hearing these classified NSA tapes is because they are being used as a limited hang-out in order to distract from the real deeper cause. You can imagine what the response would be if this real background and history to the Liberty incident were ever truthfully told to the American public on mainstream media network news or CNN.

[Tracy Riddle]

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-moorer.html

A fair probe would attack Liberty misinformation

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[TD]Adm. Thomas Moorer was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974 and once was 7th Fleet commander. He was joined in the Independent Commission of Inquiry by Rear Adm. Merlin Staring, former judge advocate general of the Navy; and Ambassador James Akins, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Gen. Ray Davis, former assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, was a member of the commission at the time of his death in September. He passed away only a few weeks after the publication of this article on February 5, 2004.
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By Admiral Thomas Moorer
Stars and Stripes
January 16, 2004
Download Original Article
BETHESDA, Md.While state department officials and historians converge on Washington this week to discuss the 1967 war in the Middle East, I am compelled to speak out about one of U.S. history's most shocking cover-ups.
On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked our proud naval ship the USS Liberty killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government.
U.S. military rescue aircraft were recalled not once, but twice through direct intervention by the Johnson administration. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's cancellation of the Navy's attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career.
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PHOTO: Courtesy of U.S. Navy The USS Liberty is shown under way in the Chesapeake Bay on July 29, 1967, seven weeks after she was damaged by Israeli air and surface forces while operating off the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War. Before leaving the Mediterranean Ocean, she was repaired at Malta.
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To add insult to injury, Congress, to this day, has failed to hold formal hearings on Israel's attack on this American ship. No official investigation of the attack has ever permitted the testimony of the surviving crewmembers.
A 1967 investigation by the Navy, upon which all other reports are based, has now been fully discredited as a cover-up by its senior attorney. Capt. Ward Boston, in a sworn affidavit, recently revealed that the court was ordered by the White House to cover up the incident and find that Israel's attack was "a case of mistaken identity."
Some distinguished colleagues and I formed an independent commission to investigate the attack on the USS Liberty. After an exhaustive review of previous reports, naval and other military records, including eyewitness testimony from survivors, we recently presented our findings on Capitol Hill. They include:

• Israeli reconnaissance aircraft closely studied the Liberty during an eight-hour period prior to the attack, one flying within 200 feet of the ship. Weather reports confirm the day was clear with unlimited visibility. The Liberty was a clearly marked American ship in international waters, flying an American flag and carrying large U.S. Navy hull letters and numbers on its bow.
  
• Despite claims by Israeli intelligence that they confused the Liberty with a small Egyptian transport, the Liberty was conspicuously different from any vessel in the Egyptian navy. It was the most sophisticated intelligence ship in the world in 1967. With its massive radio antennae, including a large satellite dish, it looked like a large lobster and was one of the most easily identifiable ships afloat.
  
• Israel attempted to prevent the Liberty's radio operators from sending a call for help by jamming American emergency radio channels.
  
• Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned lifeboats at close range that had been lowered to rescue the most-seriously wounded. As a result, our commission concluded that:
  
• There is compelling evidence that Israel's attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew.
  
• In attacking the USS Liberty, Israel committed acts of murder against U.S. servicemen and an act of war against the United States.
  
• The White House knowingly covered up the facts of this attack from the American people.
  
• The truth continues to be concealed to the present day in what can only be termed a national disgrace.
  

What was Israel's motive in launching this attack? Congress must address this question with full cooperation from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the military intelligence services.
The men of the USS Liberty represented the United States. They were attacked for two hours, causing 70 percent American casualties and the eventual loss of our best intelligence ship.
These sailors and Marines were entitled to our best defense. We gave them no defense. Did our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own? If so, why? Does our government continue to subordinate American interests to Israeli interests? These are important questions that should be investigated by an independent, fully empowered commission of the American government.
The American people deserve to know the truth about this attack. We must finally shed some light on one of the blackest pages in American naval history. It is a duty we owe not only to the brave men of the USS Liberty, but to every man and woman who is asked to wear the uniform of the United States.

[Michael Barwell]

Al Jazeera has a good docu on this.

[Albert Doyle]

I don't think the Israeli soldiers attacked the American ship with full enthusiasm. Another torpedo hit probably would have sunk the ship but four out of five missed. They probably were not fully into the idea of killing American sailors which is why the attack was so prolonged.

What Admiral Moorer probably can't conceive of is the reason no investigation can ever go forward is because it will reveal CIA was behind it in a false flag attack.