U.S.S. Liberty

[Iceman]

I don't know if this topic has been discussed elsewhere on this forum but after reading alot of Kaptains latest post I stumbled onto stories about the USS Pubelo and more intrestingly the USS Liberty...the following article and articles so far I have read are pretty trippy and disturbing.

'The USS Liberty': America's Most Shameful Secret
by Eric S. Margolis

NEW YORK – On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army.

'Liberty,' a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennas and electronic 'ears' including TRSSCOMM, a system that delivered real-time intercepts to Washington by bouncing a stream of microwaves off the moon.

'Liberty' had been rushed to Sinai to monitor communications of the belligerents in the Third Arab Israeli War: Israel and her foes, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty,' which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.

At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died.

Israeli gunboats circled the wounded 'Liberty,' firing at crewmen trying to fight the fires. At 1515, the crew were ordered to abandon ship. The Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House.

An hour after the attack, Israeli warships and planes returned. Commander McGonagle gave the order. 'prepare to repel borders.' But the Israelis, probably fearful of intervention by the US Sixth Fleet, departed. 'Liberty' was left shattered but still defiant, her flag flying.

The Israeli attacks killed 34 US seamen and wounded 171 out of a crew of 297, the worst loss of American naval personnel from hostile action since World War II.

Less than an hour after the attack, Israel told Washington its forces had committed a 'tragic error.' Later, Israel claimed it had mistaken 'Liberty' for an ancient Egyptian horse transport. US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink 'Liberty.' So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack.

In contrast to American outrage over North Korea's assault on the intelligence ship 'Pueblo,' Iraq's mistaken missile strike on the USS 'Stark,' last fall's bombing of the USS 'Cole' in Aden, and the recent US-China air incident, the savaging of 'Liberty' was quickly hushed up by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

The White House and Congress immediately accepted Israel's explanation and let the matter drop. Israel later paid a token reparation of US $6 million. There were reports two Israeli pilots who had refused to attack 'Liberty' were jailed for 18 years.

Surviving 'Liberty' crew members would not be silenced. They kept demanding an open inquiry and tried to tell their story of deliberate attack to the media. Israel's government worked behind the scenes to thwart these efforts, going so far as having American pro-Israel groups accuse 'Liberty's' survivors of being 'anti-Semites' and 'Israel-haters.' Major TV networks cancelled interviews with the crew. A book about the 'Liberty' by crewman James Ennes' was dropped from distribution. The Israel lobby branded him 'an Arab propagandist.'

The attack on 'Liberty' was fading into obscurity until last week, when intelligence expert James Bamford came out with Body of Secrets, his latest book about the National Security Agency. In a stunning revelation, Bamford writes that unknown to Israel, a US Navy EC-121 intelligence aircraft was flying high overhead the 'Liberty,' electronically recorded the attack. The US aircraft crew provides evidence that the Israeli pilots knew full well that they were attacking a US Navy ship flying the American flag.

Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally? Most likely because 'Liberty's' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim, made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation. In fact, Israel began the war by a devastating, Pearl-Harbor style surprise attack that caught the Arabs in bed and destroyed their entire air forces.

Israel was also preparing to attack Syria to seize its strategic Golan Heights. Washington warned Israel not to invade Syria, which had remained inactive while Israel fought Egypt. Bamford says Israel's offensive against Syria was abruptly postponed when 'Liberty' appeared off Sinai, then launched once it was knocked out of action. Israel's claim that Syria had attacked it could have been disproved by 'Liberty.'

Most significant, 'Liberty's' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.

Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why?

Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.

Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism – not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. Crew member's graves were inscribed, 'died in the Eastern Mediterranean..' as if they had be killed by disease, rather than hostile action.

A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel, and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberal toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.

Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened.

Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's' dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.

From this web site...http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/margolis12.html

what's intresting to me is the statement about the 2 pilots jailed for 18yrs for not firing...to me if this is true then these men are Hero's to me.

The fact of the whole incident does not surprise me really, and accident or not, although seems highly unlikely, considering the reputation of Isreali pilots being ranked the best in the world...the act of the those pilots refusing to fire is to be commended and rewarded.A damn movie should be made of them if nothing else to let people remember little ugly incidents like this and more to remember the fallen and pay homage to the real Hero's.

18yrs in jail is a damn long time.

Anyway Kaptain...this is what happens when ya keep posting intresting topics.As a person from Isreal, Avon Lady or anyone else I would be curious to learn more about this incident.

[Kapitan]

this most definatly was an attack a stray plane witha few bullets and a bomb would be a mis judgement but fighters and napalm definat attack

mind you long time coming its bound to happen when you poke your nose into forign affairs you end up getting it broken

[Type941]

she did well to stay afloat. I think it's a miracle the ship didn't think. I heard about this in small detail, but nothing like the shooting of lifeboats to smithereens.

[Kapitan]

about the same time a flight of mig 25's were recording speed records over isreal the isrealies claimed mach 3 and above for these fighters.

as for this incident i can do my best to find out but its a US ship isreali jets nothing to do with russia or its forign poloicy so i cant realy help but what i will say is this.

any ship found to be ease dropping off the coast or near coast is a target it doesnt matter if its from another country thats not involed it doesnt matter if its in international waters

if a country wants you to poke your nose out of its busisness then this is the result and it will happen time after time your vessels are all labeld targets to any side even if you are nutrel.

now all i could suggest is that isreal is trying to cover something up in attacking this ship possibly it could help convict them if they loose of war crimes or perhapse they just wanted to be left alone

who knows i will try my best to find out

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Kapitain

mind you long time coming its bound to happen when you poke your nose into forign affairs you end up getting it broken

This sounds like a pretty crappy comment...almost sounds like you are content and smug about the incident, or it's like a comment from the wizard....Yep I predicted it type of nonsense.

[Rockstar]

It's only my opinion but I's say accident. It just doesn't make sense for Israel to knowingly attack the U.S. What would they have gained by it?

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/.../liberty1.html

[Kapitan]

what i was meaning when i said that was not ment to be offencive it was ment to translate something like this:

if you send a ship to spy on a country during a war then it stands to reason one side doesnt want another country knowing what its doing so to stop that country from finding out they do this ^^^^

im not smug about the incident in fact im quite shocked im very surprised that isreal was not taken to an international court over this incident which could have led to a more detailed investigation

the ship shouldnt have been attacked the ship was nutrel it was also in international waters and it was not helping any side this directly violates international law !

no im not smug about it in fact i resent the comment just cause i see one picture of a blown up us ship doesnt mean im all over the moon in fact its rather the opposite i can only but feel for the poor guys on that ship knowing that i could also be in the same situation in years to come.

i am to join the navy very soon i could be in that position i dont celebrate the idea of having any ship blown beneath any person certinaly if its a nutrel and not breaking any laws.

if you want to put it into my words that is exactly what i do and what i say

when some one pokes there nose into my buisness round my way they know about it generaly because i give them a warning and if they continue i make thier life hell i aint a nice person when im taken down to skin and bone i fight alot because others invade my space i dont like that the comment is just my way of saying something its not ment to offend

[bradclark1]

I read the book. They had the U.S. flag flying and clearly visible. They were waving a flag at the gunboats. It was a deliberate attack.
What sucks is that the ships commander when he recieved his instructions warned it was too close and he also tryed to get an escort but was refused.
When word of the attack finaly made it to fleet they launched a strike but it got called back. They had to be ordered twice to return to the carrier because they couldn't believe the recall. The Liberty was left to hang and had to make it back to fleet by itself. I got the impression that the U.S. would have preffered it to have sunk with all hands. The crew was treated like prisoners when Liberty returned to port. They were not even allowed off the ship while repairs were underway.
The blame was unofficialy but on the skipper. The skipper is now dead and died with the Liberty hanging over him.
An instance of a nation turning it's back on it's servicemen.

[Kapitan]

and im accused of being smug

[Iceman]

Following their torpedo attack, the torpedo boats moved up and down the length of the ship (both the port and starboard sides), continuing their attack, raking the ship with cannon and machine gun fire.[21] In Malta, crewmen were later assigned the task of counting all of the holes in the ship that were the size of a man’s hand or larger. They found a total of 861 such holes, in addition to "thousands" of .50 caliber machine gun holes.

Taken from...http://www.ussliberty.org/report/report.htm


I don't care who's Navy it is ,or who Isreal thought they were attacking ,it is/was a shameful act.Even if they were atatcking they're "enimes" have they no concious?
Makes ya take a double take...My own government is most to blame for letting it go unsettled to boot don't get me wrong.I could see how those big 15inch guns too looked ominius too..yea right.

[Iceman]

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


Mistaken Identity? I'll concede that being a civillian but I am not a trained pilot like the guy who comments on this link..Those big numbers on the front of the boat may tell me something though being a noob.

The more I look into this the more I become leary of Isreali intentions....http://www.washington-report.org/arc...5/0508016.html

Not to be onesided either can anyone tell me what they think of some of these links...or this one too plz.
http://www.masada2000.org/

[tycho102]

Yeah, I remember reading about that awhile back. I have no doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing. The American government, at the time, felt discretion was the better part of valour. I don't know exactly why.

Didn't know about them shooting the life rafts. The only thing I can think of is they thought the Americans might have some fairly sensitive information concerning Israeli communications, and if they were taken hostage by Egyptian, Palestinian, or Syrian forces, it could cause some serious problems.



It's a rocky relationship. It's been a rocky relationship.

[Iceman]

Yea I hear ya Tyco...I spent all day reading stuff about both sides..of this incident and between Isreal and Arabs...man..lot of hate on all sides. run Forest run..bummer incident no matter how ya look at it.

[bradclark1]

What really sucked is that there was nowhere on the ship that was safe. 50 cal. rounds were punching through to the center and beyond of the thin skined ship. It didn't matter where you were.

[August]

What strikes me as hard to believe with the intentional attack theory is all the firepower the Israelis are supposed to have used and they still couldn't sink the ship. Machine gunning the lifeboats and they still left enough of the crew alive to work the ship out of the danger zone.

Now i'm no expert, but it seems to me that if they really intended to sink the ship and murder the survivor/witnesses, then the Israelis did a strikingly lousy job of it.

A couple other things i'm wondering about:

A 6 hour timelag between recon and attack. Now a ship can cover a lot of distance in 6 hours, and i wonder, regardless of what the recon had identified her as, how the attacking planes knew it was the same vessel.

The second attack, (third if you want to count the boats seperate) an hour later was apparently called off at the last second because of a threat that if, if the attacks were intentional, had existed for at least 2 and a half hours.

What i do know is that flying a neutral flag is an old deception in naval warfare, nobody in Washington told the Isrealis that the Liberty was going to be there and even today friendly fire incidents are a fact of war.