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

AP ^

[Lael]

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

Actually, the first Warship to offer help was a Soviet Destroyer.

It shadowed the Liberty during the night in case the Timbers shoring the bulkheads gave way and the Liberty suddenly sank.

[Recourse]

He may be speaking honestly, but unfactually. The "support" behind the conspiracy theories regarding the Liberty Incident are completely false. The Navy Captain should review the hard facts. First of all, the fact that the interpreters aboard the Liberty only spoke Russian and Arabic reveals the flaws in the conspiracy theorists' argument that the Liberty was there to monitor Israeli communications. How could they be there to mointer Israeli communications if they don't even speak Hebrew?

Why would the IDF would knowingly fire upon a US ship? Historically noted, the US had agreed with the United Nations that no ships would enter the "war zone." Therefore, when a ship that was not visibly marked enterd the war zone, the IDF had no way of knowing it was an ally and justly assumed that it was an enemy ship.

[DUMBGRUNT]

http://ussliberty.org/

[resistmuch]

I have a neighbor who was with Navy intelligence (now retired) and did a lot of liaison with Israeli officers. He said the Israelis he knew never bothered to deny that the attack on the Liberty was deliberate; but they were remorseful about it. They just said that their country was in peril and some decisions were made that, in retrospect, they aren't proud of.

Try to get the Israeli government -- or the U.S. government -- to admit that on the record, though.

If an Arab country had done this to us, there would have been hell to pay.

[zchip]

Either the we were spying on Israel, or this was a huge SNAFU

Since you brought up the subject of SPYING, consider this.

At that time (1967) the US Navy was being severely compromised by the Walker spy ring. All US Naval communications were being read by Moscow as if they were in clear text.

If Israeli intelligence was aware of this then they really had no alternative other than to sink that ship. If the Liberty acquired any information about Israeli movements it would could have resulted in Israel loosing that war. If Liberty had been lost with all hands, then they would simply say that it was a mistake in identity.

The cover-up by LBJ simply means that he was afraid that if the truth of the matter became public, (whatever that truth may have been), it would have been a great embarassment for his administration.

[TBall]

Adm. Thomas Moorer is a man of principal. Not the first time he has had something important to say.

[zchip]

That's utterly asinine. If our "ally" had intelligence that our comms had been compromised they could have passed that intel along to us.

Not asinine at all. If Israel had a mole in a position to know what was going on in Moscow there is NO WAY that they would ever inform anybody. To do so would compromise their mole.

[rmlew]

Because it was flying an American flag. I had friends aboard, I believe what they told me.
Golly, gee. A flag?
We all know that pilots always see those.

An outright lie.
Not according to Israeli reports. I read that the communications between the Israeli boats and teh Liberty were recorded. Those should settle the issue.

Yeah, right. How could a ship like the Liberty hide out on the open sea?
By operating in an area off limits to American ships?
All US flagged ships were supposed to be west of Cyprus.
Here we had an intelligense ship, operating between two warring countries, not only unannounced, but 300 miles out of place.
Of course, if we had given the Israelis a Naval liason, this would not have occured.

[rmlew]

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

[zchip]

All they would have had to do to get the ship moved out would have been to ask.

Who knows? Maybe they did ask. What if LBJ said NO and sent Liberty on station anyway. After all, who are the Israelis to tell/ask the United States to do anything? (Thinking like LBJ and his extremely brilliant administration.)

[RaceBannon]

Oh, Like the facts matter in this...sheesh!

[WackyKat]

"Why would our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own?" Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference

A question that is still resoundingly relevant today.

[RaceBannon]

Ah, but it was flying the Stars and Stripes for the second strafing run, for sure, confirmed.

Also, the class of ship it was, it was an American ship, the Soviets did not have a class similar to it

Tragic, but I have read nothing to prove it to be pre-meditated as an attack on an American target, ust an attack on "some" target.

[yonif]

Ping.

[RaceBannon]

Hmmm

Now, THATS an interesting theory!!