Israel attack on american USS LIBERTY

bboyneko

On June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship off the coast of Gaza, killing 35 men and wounding 171.

I recently found out about this, is anyone who was old enough to remember this willing to give me some feedback on it, was it a big deal, were people outraged, were their conspiracy theories? Is it true this was never investigated and that the amount of dead was grossly underreported as only 10 dead?

moman

A "frendly fire" thing & Israel paid 13 mill+ to the USA.
so they say.

DakotaRed

It happened shortly before I went in the Army in 1969. That I remember, there was not a huge public outcry back her in the US. It was written off as accidental and Israel was sorry. In the last few yeras, evidence has come to light that it might not have been as accidental as first thought, but it was so long ago, not too many care anymore.

The 1968 seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea brought much more outrage throughout the US than the USS LIberty did.

DakotaRed

Here is a link to the Israeli account of what happened;

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty.html

Satanus

There are some americans who are still pissed because of this. They claim it wasn't an accident. They claim that the israelis feared that liberty was gathering information on the israeli massacre of egyptian prisoners near there. So they attempted to sink the ship to destroy evidence and discourage observation. The liberty was flying the american flag at the time, so they claim. I don't personally remember it, having been a fogbound jw at the time.

SS

buffalosrfree

Saint Satan, I personally knew three people who served on the USS Liberty and the BS of massacre of egyptians is one of those urban legends At least thats from their point of view. And they were there. We had many talks about our particular function in the Navy. We even at one time had two guys from the Liberty and and one from the USS Pueblo in the same bs session. Some very interesting points of view were put forth, but absolutely nothing about any massacre.

Satanus

Buff

This is what i like, someone w info close to the source. Could i pose a few questions?

Was the US flag flying on the liberty at the time of the attack?
Was a new one hoisted after the first one fell?
Did the israelis shoot at the life boats?
Was the liberty an intelligence ship with little weaponery?
Was rescue attempted by americans?

Thanks SS

buffalosrfree

Yes of course the US Flag was flying. Don't remember if we ever talked about another being hoisted. Help never arrived which is obvious, after the fact some arrived, Dont remember anything about lifeboats as these people worked internal to the ship and everything they talked about was happending inside there for them. They never mentioned life boats just the casulaties they were taking inside their particular work space. All my conversations with these people happened circa early to mid 1970's. the question of why, was gone over indepth, There guys truly believed that the israelis knew they were US. They wondered if they got to close or what, there was a lot of speculation but no real hard answers. Weaponry was almost noesistant, Liberty was the same kind of ship as the USS PUEBLO you have to read between the lines there. I thin that the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther quickly pused the USS Liberty into the background and quite frankly most people except those involved didn't seem to give a damn. Vietnam was going full bore then, I know I was there in Nam. Didn't join Navy until 1973.

Francois

For complete, exhaustive, factual, and final information on the US Liberty outrage, please see "Body of Secrets, Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret NSA," by James Bamford, Doubleday 2001, ISBN 0-385-49907-8. This book has everything but the combination to the NSA safe.

While I read the 65-page description of this incident, I got more and more angry. I feel sure you will too. The Liberty was flying the US Flag, it broadcast emergency messages on Isreali frequencies, it notified the pentagon it was under attack. But the Isrealis continued its attack with US-built fighter jets and munitions.

Why?

Because the now Prime Minister of Isreal, Ariel Sharon, then a general in the Isreali Army, was busy on the shore opposite the ship killing off an entire POW camp when he was made aware of the Liberty's presence. You can figure out the rest.

If you really want to know the full monty, get this book in the library. The chapter you want is the one called "Blood." Indeed.

Francois

Satanus

Francois

Among the more shocking things Bamford learned is that in 1962, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approved something called Operation Northwoods. Fortunately never implemented, it involved committing random acts of terror on Americans in the United States and then blaming them on Cuba.

Or was operation northwoods implemented 39 yrs later, blaming another group? Interesting book. I don't know if my blood pressure could handle reading it.

SS

Israel attack on american USS LIBERTY

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