[okiedog]

Otherwise they might have had to investigate why the NSA ordered a defenseless ship into a war zone after the US promised to withdraw all ships and after the administration refsued Israel's request of the Naval liason.

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.

[BrooklynGOP]

Investigations of the Liberty Tragedy

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The tragic Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, has provoked a great deal of controversy and longstanding anger among surviving members of the crew. Though residual anger and suspicions remain, the incident was the subject of ten U.S. investigations and three more by Israel. In the American case, the full weight of the U.S. government was behind the investigations, which had access to all the relevant information. Though some accusations have been made suggesting the reports sough to hide facts or protect Israel, no credible evidence for these charges has been produced. Moreover, if the investigatory bodies had a bias, it was far more likely to be against Israel. Here is a summary of the investigations and their conclusions:

Investigation	Date	Conclusion
U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry	June 10-18, 1967	The attack was a case of mistaken identity. Calm conditions and slow ship speed may have made American flag difficult to identify. No indication the attack was intended against U.S. ship.
CIA Report	June 13, 1967	The attack was not made in malice and was a mistake.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Fact Finding Team (Russ Report)	June 9-20, 1967	Outlined "findings of fact," bud did not make any findings about the actual attack.
Clifford Report	July 18, 1967	No premeditation, but "inexcusable failures" by Israeli forces constituing "gross negligence."
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations	1967	Secretary of Defense McNamara testified he supported conclusion that the attack was not intentional.
Senate Armed Services Committee	Feb. 1, 1968	No conclusion. Secretary McNamara makes comparison of attack on Liberty to that on Pueblo with regard to uncertainty about what was happening at the time of the incident.
House Appropriations Committee	April-May 1968	Navy communications "foulup" and no conclusion regarding Israeli actions. Much of report remains classified.
House Armed Services Committee	May 10, 1971	Critical of Navy communications, no conclusion regarding Israeli actions.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence	1979	Responding to critical book by Liberty crewman James Ennes, Senate investigation found no merit to his claim attack was intentional.
National Security Agency	1981	Liberty was mistaken for an Egyptian ship as a result of miscalculations and egregious errors.
House Armed Services Committee	June 1991	Responding to request from Liberty Veterans Association, Subcommitte on Investigations launched probe that concluded there was no evidence to support allegations made by the Association and no reason for further investigation.

Israeli Investigations

Investigation	Date	Conclusion
Ram Ron Commission	June 12, 1967	The attack was made "neither maliciously nor in gross negligence, but as the result of a bona fide mistake. Also notes that the Liberty made a mistake as well by carelessly approaching a war area.
Preliminary Inquiry	July 1967	There was no malicious intent and no deviation from the standard of reasonable conduct that would justify a court-martial.
IDF History	1982	The attack was a result of an "innocent error."

 

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Source: A.J. Cristol, "The Liberty Incident," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Miami, 1997, pp. 86-113.

[rmlew]

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.
Why should the Israelis have thought it to be an American ship?
The ship was hailed but refused to identify itself. It was patrolling a warzone, near Soviet spy ships?
Why didn't our administration, Navy, or State Department inform Israel that there would be American ships covertly operating in a region we had promised Israel we would not be?
Why didn't we provide a Naval liason?

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

[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.

[yonif]

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.

The USS Liberty incident was a mistake. Some of the mistakes were made on the US side, and some on the Israeli side.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

There were persistent rumors that the US had planes on the way from our carriers which were called back. That is what needs to be investigated. There also was difficulties with US planes flying from Italy - I don't recall the details. Either they were not allowed to launch or they launched and were also called back.

If an investigation starts, what we want to see is the message traffic.