Our closest Ally in the Mid East

[planosteve]

The U.S. Government Wouldn't Cover Up a Foreign Government's Murder of Our Military Men ... Would It?

On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked the American naval vessel USS Liberty in international waters, and tried to sink it.

After checking the Liberty out for 8 hours – and making 9 overflights with Israeli jets, within 200 feet … close enough for the pilots and the sunbathing Liberty sailors on deck to waive at each other.

Yet the Israelis attacked it with Mirage fighter jets, torpedoes and napalm. The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded.

The Israeli attack spanned two hours … as long as the attack on Pearl Harbor. The air attack alone lasted approximately 25 minutes: consisting of more than 30 sorties by approximately 12 separate planes using napalm, cannon, and rockets which left 821 holes in the ship. The Israelis fired 30mm cannons and rockets into the boat.

Following the attack by fighter jets, three Israeli motor torpedo boats torpedoed the ship, causing a 40 x 40 foot wide hole in her hull, and machine-gunning firefighters and stretcher-bearers attempting to save their ship and crew. More than 3,000 machine-gun bullet holes were later counted on the Liberty’s hull.

After the attack was thought to have ended, three life rafts were lowered into the water to rescue the most seriously wounded. The Israeli torpedo boats returned and machine-gunned these life rafts at close range. This was followed by the approach of two large Israeli Army assault helicopters filled with armed commandos carrying what appeared to be explosive satchels (they departed after hovering over the ship for several minutes, making no attempt to communicate).

The Israelis clearly knew it was an American ship, tried to sink it, and tried to frame the Egyptians for the attack, as shown by the following evidence:

(1) The Liberty was flying a huge, brand new American flag. The flag was 5-by-8 feet. The weather conditions were ideal to ensure the flag’s easy observance and identification, because it was clear and sunny, with a wind-speed which make for a constant ripple in the flag. After the flag was shot up by the jets, the Liberty’s crew replaced it with a 7-by-13 foot American flag, which flew during the entire duration of the attack.

(2) The Liberty had a unique profile and didn’t look like any other boat, since it had more and bigger antennas – including large, high-tech dishes and giant towers – than any other boat in the world (it was an NSA spy ship).

(3) The Liberty was marked with uniquely American numbering and colors in front.

(4) The Israeli pilots shot out the Liberty’s communications equipment first, and specifically jammed the ship’s emergency radio signal … unique to American naval vessels in the 6th Fleet. The ships from other fleets and other nations used different frequencies, which the Israelis did not jam.

(5) The Israelis used unmarked fighter jets and unmarked torpedo boats during the attack.

(6) Recently-declassified radio transcripts between the Israeli attack forces and ground control show that – at least 3 times – an Israeli fighter jet pilot identified the craft as American, and asked whether ground control was sure he should attack. Ground control repeatedly said, yes, attack the vessel.

(7) The Israeli torpedo boats methodically destroyed all of the Liberty’s liferafts one by one (which is a war crime).

(8) The only reason the Israelis did not successfully sink the Liberty and kill all of its crewmen was that one sailor duck-taped together antennae – and took many bullet wounds in the process – which enabled an emergency SOS to get out from the Liberty to American 6th Fleet.

(9) The Israelis later claimed that they mistook the Liberty for an Egyptian vessel. But the Egyptian ship – the El Quseir – was an unarmed 1920s-era horse carrier out of service in Alexandria, four times smaller than the Liberty, which bore virtually no resemblance to the Liberty.

(10) President Lyndon Johnson believed the attack was intentional and he leaked his opinion to Newsweek.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-12/us-government-wouldnt-cover-foreign-governments-murder-our-military-men-would-it

[Red Oak]

Kinda been covered before hasn't it ?

[planosteve]

Kinda been covered before hasn't it ?

Everything but "why". That's still open. Zerohedge has an interesting theory.

[Red Oak]

Fog of War perhaps ?

Who benefited besides anti-israeli whack jobs ?

[GRANDPA]

I have always questioned that incident ever since it happened. I have never believed it was "just a case of mistaken identity". Why was the entire surviving crew sworn to silence? Why was the ship hastily patched up & repainted?

[planosteve]

Scouring the Liberty records in the LBJ Library in Texas, Ennes [an officer on the bridge of the Liberty] stumbled upon a smoking gun – a one-page memo of the minutes of the 303 Committee [the U.S. National Security Council group that reviewed sensitive intelligence operations] held in advance of the war in April 1967. The Committee consisted of a handful of top level intelligence and government officials who examined black operations and devised plausible deniability for the executive branch in the event of public discovery of an attack. The memo relates to a clandestine joint US-Israeli effort to blame Egypt for the sinking of the Liberty.

We haven’t yet located a copy of the alleged memo, and so we’re not sure we believe this explosive claim. But – given that Israel (1) used unmarked jets and ships, (2) destroyed the Liberty’s communication equipment and then jammed the Liberty’s emergency distress channel, and (3) destroyed all liferafts – the logical inference is that Israel intended to frame Egypt for the attack, and didn’t want the Liberty’s crew to be able to tell the world what really happened.

[Red Oak]

The British Navy shelled US Army troops training on a beach once, killing over 300 hundred of them.......do the Jews control Britain also ?

[planosteve]

The British Navy shelled US Army troops training on a beach once, killing over 300 hundred of them.......do the Jews control Britain also ?

I don't know how many Israeli dual citizenship officials there are in the British govt. The Bush administration was full of them.

[Red Oak]

Let me put it this way, why would a small country at war with several countries surrounding it knowingly attack a ship of their strongest ally ??

[GFB]

Let me put it this way, why would a small country at war with several countries surrounding it knowingly attack a ship of their strongest ally ??

You're confused.

The Marine barracks in Beirut was the mistake.

This was on purpose.

[planosteve]

Funny thing about the Liberty incident. I've have never heard it mentioned on TV or talk radio. Not once that I can recall. It's like it's a taboo subject. In fact it was not until years later that I ever heard about it.

[Red Oak]

I have heard and read a out it often, but being it was nearly Fifty Years ago it isn't at the top of the stack.

[planosteve]

Funny thing about the Liberty incident. I've have never heard it mentioned on TV or talk radio. Not once that I can recall. It's like it's a taboo subject. In fact it was not until years later that I ever heard about it.

I'm talking about back then. It was years before I ever heard about it. And I was in the military at the time.

[Kiamichi]

Funny thing about the Liberty incident. I've have never heard it mentioned on TV or talk radio. Not once that I can recall. It's like it's a taboo subject. In fact it was not until years later that I ever heard about it.

I remember either a full special on it or a very large segment on some program like 60 Minutes, and certainly I have seen many references to it down through the years.

eta: You can buy this DVD of a CBS special on it from Amazon, for instance. One reviewer mentions in passing that the History Channel has broadcast it at least fifty times.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Cover-Up- ... merReviews

[BigTex]

It was very definitely in the news when it happened.

[planosteve]

It was very definitely in the news when it happened.

The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. How did they get away with that inaccurate a news article?

[Kiamichi]

It was very definitely in the news when it happened.

The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. How did they get away with that inaccurate a news article?

It was the first report. What makes you think they "got away with it" and did not report the full number when it was known? You seem to think that this incident has been kept secret until now. It was publicly known from the first that the Israelis did it, the only question has been why.

[grouchy]

Funny thing about the Liberty incident. I've have never heard it mentioned on TV or talk radio. Not once that I can recall. It's like it's a taboo subject. In fact it was not until years later that I ever heard about it.

I'm talking about back then. It was years before I ever heard about it. And I was in the military at the time.

I was in the Navy in 1967. It was a big story.

[BigTex]

If you go into the archives of the NY Times, Wash Post, Dallas Morning News, or whatever, you can see how it was reported.

Like any other news story that involves multiple deaths, the numbers can change after the initial report.

How long did it take them to get the final body count on the Costa Concordia?

[planosteve]

If you go into the archives of the NY Times, Wash Post, Dallas Morning News, or whatever, you can see how it was reported.

Like any other news story that involves multiple deaths, the numbers can change after the initial report.

How long did it take them to get the final body count on the Costa Concordia?

Let me put it this way. Since the only source of the information was the Navy, how did they get by with giving the press such an inaccurate report? They would have known initially that the death toll was more than 4. Or was their information "massaged"?