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State Department finds Israel negligent in 1967 ship attack that killed 34 Americans (USS Liberty)
Bakersfield Californian ^ | 1/12/04 | Barry Schweid - AP

Posted on 01/12/2004 5:25:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (AP) - Reviewing documents covering 36 years, the State Department concluded Monday that Israel's attack on the U.S. spy ship Liberty during the 1967 Six Day War was an act of Israeli negligence.

The United States also was negligent, a State Department official said, for failing to notify Israel that the electronic intelligence-gathering ship was cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast and for failing to withdraw the Liberty from the war zone.

A daylong conference that studied fresh documents as well as the established record failed to produce a consensus for any of three views voiced most often: Israel intentionally attacked what it knew to be a ship of the U.S. Navy, the attack was accidental, or the attack resulted from faulty judgment.

Thirty-four Americans were killed in the June 8, 1967, attack, and more than 170 were wounded.

Israel long has maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation the Johnson administration did not challenge formally. Israel said its forces thought the Liberty was an Egyptian horse carrier, apologized to the United States and paid almost $13 million in compensation, some to victims or their families.

Since the United States did not intercept the order to attack the ship with cannon fire and napalm, precise facts of the attack remain elusive, the State Department official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He called the Israeli attack and the U.S. actions a classic example of Murphy's law: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

David Hatch, a technical director at the National Security Agency, said, "The good news is that information long sought by researchers is now out, and the bad news is that it does not settle it."

The occasion for the State Department conference was the release of historical documents about the 1967 war in which Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other Arab countries in six days.

Charles Smith, a professor at the University of Arizona, said in his presentation that Israel should have known the Liberty was an American ship.

"If they didn't know, they didn't try hard enough to find out," he said.

James Bamford, an investigative journalist who has written about the incident, demanded further investigation "instead of people getting up here and giving their opinions."

"There were cover-ups," Bamford said, citing a signed affidavit by retired Navy Capt. Ward Boston, who was a leader of a military investigation into the incident.

Boston said in the affidavit in October that then-President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had told those heading the Navy's inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

Boston, 80, who did not attend Monday's conference, said the Navy investigators were given only one week but still were able to amass "a vast amount of evidence, including heartbreaking testimony from young survivors."

Accusing Israel of a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and kill its crew, Boston said in a legal declaration in Coronado, Calif., that he was certain the Israeli pilots knew the Liberty, which clearly displayed American flags and had markings in English instead of Arabic, was a U.S. Navy ship.

Additionally, Boston said, "Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned three lifeboats that had been launched in an attempt by the crew to save the most seriously wounded - a war crime."

Jay Cristol, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge who has written about the incident, cited the finding of the Navy's inquiry as proof the attack was a mistake. "There was no indication they had any knowledge they were attacking a U.S. ship," Cristol told the conference.


TOPICS: Egypt; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: 1967; bloodlibel; conegligence; egypt; fogofwar; israel; negligent; shipattack; statedepartment; ussliberty; yiftachspector
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1 posted on 01/12/2004 5:25:30 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
Will the Left yell for reparations?

(sounds of crickets)

2 posted on 01/12/2004 5:28:23 PM PST by Old Sarge (149th Armd' Bde, KyARNG: Bosnia-bound. Remember Them.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it
Ties in with your thread on the Liberty late last year...
3 posted on 01/12/2004 5:30:10 PM PST by HiJinx (Go with Courage, go with Honor, go in God's good Grace. Come home when you're done. We'll be here.)
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To: NormsRevenge
James Bamford, an investigative journalist

James Bamford, a certified idiot.

Bamford was a close friend of Robert Hanssen and claims that he never had any inkling that Hanssen might be a spy.

4 posted on 01/12/2004 5:31:12 PM PST by Inyokern
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To: Old Sarge
Israel long has maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation the Johnson administration did not challenge formally. Israel said its forces thought the Liberty was an Egyptian horse carrier, apologized to the United States and paid almost $13 million in compensation, some to victims or their families.
5 posted on 01/12/2004 5:31:56 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Israel long has maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity

I don't know what else they could possibly claim.

Machine gunning the life rafts was a particularly naughty touch.
6 posted on 01/12/2004 5:46:06 PM PST by mr.pink
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To: mr.pink
True, I was just pointing out that they had paid comp.
7 posted on 01/12/2004 5:49:44 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: HiJinx
Thanks for the ping HiJinx. IMHO, it's still debatable. Too many unanswered questions.
8 posted on 01/12/2004 5:51:08 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
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To: HiJinx; SAMWolf
Thanks Jinxy.

That was a two part series, so many unanswered questions.

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Attack on the USS LIBERTY - Part I (6/8/1967) - Sep. 8th, 2003

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Attack on the USS LIBERTY - Part II (6/8/1967) - Sep. 9th, 2003

9 posted on 01/12/2004 5:59:45 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: mr.pink
Machine gunning the life rafts was a particularly naughty touch.

They must have mistaken them for landing craft. They thought that the Egyptians were landing horses from the "Horse Carrier."

10 posted on 01/12/2004 6:19:14 PM PST by FreePaul
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To: Inyokern
Bamford was a close friend of Robert Hanssen and claims that he never had any inkling that Hanssen might be a spy.

Well, neither did anybody at the FBI. The CIA figured out that the mole was in the FBI, but the FBI would not believe them, and kept turning the Agency upside down.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

11 posted on 01/12/2004 6:39:51 PM PST by Criminal Number 18F
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Bennie from Boca
"Israel had on choice" So you disagree with the claim of the article and claim that it was intentional and justified? That's a comment I've never heard here.
14 posted on 01/12/2004 7:02:29 PM PST by novacation
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To: Bennie from Boca
You don't strafe and use napalm on a SHIP for a premeditated, planned attack, btw.

You do if it's a spur of the moment unplanned decision and use whatever aircraft are avaliable with whatever ordnance they happen to be carrying.

15 posted on 01/12/2004 7:05:33 PM PST by John H K
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To: FreePaul
I was very negligent as I strafed them in the water on the return passes, the Israeli pilot said aimlessly.

Ever know a naval aviator that didn't know what kind of ship he was attacking in clear weather?

We predict this extension of the cover-up will fool very few except those who don't want to see the truth.

16 posted on 01/12/2004 7:09:29 PM PST by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them, or they like us?)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Israel long has maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation the Johnson administration did not challenge formally. Israel said its forces thought the Liberty was an Egyptian horse carrier, apologized to the United States and paid almost $13 million in compensation, some to victims or their families."

BFD!!! We give the Israelis $2 Billion a year and they pay "reparations" of $13 Million, probably from the welfare dollars we give them!

17 posted on 01/12/2004 7:13:28 PM PST by albee
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To: John H K
" You don't strafe and use napalm on a SHIP for a premeditated, planned attack, btw."

The NSA drove this boat smack into the middle of a war while the US was telling the Israelis they had no ships in the area. Yes, they charged too hard, but if the innocent wander through a battle, the fact is they are likely to get creamed, as more than a few Iraqis discovered the hard way this past year.

18 posted on 01/12/2004 7:14:41 PM PST by cookcounty (Howard Dean, mayor of a picturesque small town in New England.)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: Bennie from Boca
I was referring to your comment. You made a claim the the US ship was giving the Arabs information and the attack on it by Israel was justified. Isn't that what you meant?
20 posted on 01/12/2004 7:20:25 PM PST by novacation
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