State Department finds Israel negligent in 1967 ship attack that killed 34 Americans (USS Liberty)

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 1/12/04 | Barry Schweid - AP

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The occasion for the State Department conference was the release of historical documents about the 1967 war in which Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other Arab countries in six days.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

[Senator Pardek]

Exposing a "mental fumble" is not allowed here. NO soup for you!

[Thumper1960]

"Negligent" my a$$!

[Thumper1960]

"This incident is closed!! "

This incident is not closed, no matter how much you'll bluster and 'demand' it be so. It will also, never be forgotten.

Count on it. Memories are long and revenge is a dish best served cold.

[novacation]

I was just going out for soup. Damn!

[nkycincinnatikid]

In a further finding by the state department, had the Pacific Fleet been at Myrtle Beach instead of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 a tragic misunderstanding might have been prevented. Specific American regrets to the Chrysanthemum Throne are not however anticipated at this time.

[Inyokern]

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

You: "Well, neither did anybody at the FBI. "

Be that as it may, it does not enhance Bamford's credibility as an "investigative journalist."

[John Beresford Tipton]

"It does not enhance Bamford's credibility as an "investigative journalist."

Perhaps, you would like to provide us with a list of all investigative journalists who ever uncovered a US spy ring?

[Inyokern]

Perhaps, you would like to provide us with a list of all investigative journalists who ever uncovered a US spy ring?

Perhaps you would provide a list of investigative journalists who were close friends with spies.

[John H K]

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

EXACTLY the above happened literally dozens and dozens of times in World War II.

Total misidentifications were routine by reconnaissance aircraft; destroyers as battleships, cargo vessels as aircraft carriers.

And on multiple occasions there aircraft attacked their own countries' ships.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

How much were we giving in 1967?

[Oztrich Boy]

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

EXACTLY the above happened literally dozens and dozens of times in World War II.
Total misidentifications were routine by reconnaissance aircraft; destroyers as battleships, cargo vessels as aircraft carriers.

And those misidentifications were made by actual experienced naval aviators, unlike Israel where shipping attack was low on the priority list of the IAF in 1967.

[Benjo]

The first sentence of this story by AP reporter Barry Schweid says that the state department "concluded" after its conference on Monday that the Liberty attack was due to "Israeli negligence."

The third sentence of his story says the conference "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."

So which was it? It sounds from this story that the State Department didn't conclude anything. An earlier version of this same story called the facts "elusive" and said the particpants argued "heatedly".

Despite what Schweib says in his lead, the rest of the story seems to suggest that the conference didn't reach any conclusions at all. Schweib ought to reread his stories for internal consistancy before sending them off around the world. (To be fair to Schweib, a ham-handed editor--or one with an agenda--may have rewritten his lead after Schweib filed his story, turned off his cell phone and went out for beer.)

[mr.pink]

According to Jim Ennis who is a Class One anti semite. I wouldn't believe a word that guy said.

And Jay Cristol is a class one pro-semite. I wouldn't believe a word that guy said (on this particular issue).

Again, machine gunning life rafts is a major no-no.

[mr.pink]

This incident is closed!!

Huh?...you may need new reading glasses.

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:

So despite your ham handed attempt to halt debate and label the matter "closed"....it none the less reamins wide open for debate and analysis.

[CIBGUY]

If you were aware of the facts that there was an American AWACS plane in the air recording the Israeli pilots comments, you'd see that they knew exactly who they were killing, and that they were having a good time at it. I don't trust the Israeli's. this country will do anything to make life easy for the Israeli's, even to letting them get away with murder. We're still doing it! "A "mistake", yeah, the "mistake" we make with those people has so far cost Americans thousands of American lives, all because of our inability to acknowledge the truth.

[CIBGUY]

Try reading the sworn testimony of the people who were on the ship!

[CIBGUY]

It's very simple. The Jews intended to sink this ship with no survivors in an effort to blame the Ababs, which they thought would bring the U.S. into the war against the Arabs.

[nkycincinnatikid]

"Israel is America's greatest ally." "What the hell is 34 Americans" Nuff said..