Posted on 01/13/2004 6:29:49 AM PST by veronica
The article is still a “live” resource on the Internet, which someone may read 5 years from now, and draw the wrong conclusions. Setting the record straight remains important in my view.
Jon, there is at least 14 different versions of what happened regarding the USS Liberty. If you wish to believe version #6, version #11 or a combination of all of them, it makes no difference to me whatsoever.
You apparently have forgotten what forums are used for and why they exist. For different people to discuss their point of view with others and to debate those varying viewpoints.
Calling me names as if I wrote the articles doesn’t raise my blood pressure nor get met excited, so have at it.
Oh, Happy Fathers Day
Goodnight and Goodbye
Well,if the State Department says it....
None of us on this thread know what happened. However, that Captain did not disobey an order to leave the area. If he had done so, he would have been court martialed and this would have been the end of the controversy.
You should get out from your yacht club into the real world every now and then. THE NAME IS NOT PAINTED ON THE SIDE OF WARSHPS. Furthermore, do ou not understand the concept of warships FAKING their identity in the middle of a war?
First, I stand corrected on the painted name of USS Liberty, it was GTR-5.
Second, no need to yell. I was cordial to you.
Third, I am a United States citizen and I put my military ahead of other foreign militaries.
Fourth, I am not a member of a yacht club nor was in in the Navy. I presume you are and are more aware of tactics. So be it.
Fifth, I am standing with my US government officials and Naval officers vs a foreign power.
I am going to believe Dean Rusk, Admiral Kidd and our CIA and NSA who were all skeptical about the Israeli story.
God bless the 34 dead and 171 wounded.
I don’t claim to be an expert on this incident, but the “flying an American flag” argument for why the Israeli pilots should have held their fire always strikes me as nonsense. If the ship had been Egyptian and spying on Israel in support of the Egyptian side in the war, flying an American flag (”false flag”) would have been an obvious tactic. From the Israeli pilot’s point of view, it was a warship in position to have been a hazard to Israel (i.e. could have been spying), in the middle of a war against Israel. In many such cases things are spelled out in terms of geographic zones. Like, any ship in such and such a sector is considered hostile. Obviously it was a mistake and a tragedy for them to have attacked it. But it’s not impossible to understand, nor does it require a belief in a bad motive to understand. It was a warship, in a combat zone, during a war. Given how easy it would be for a spy ship to buy and fly an American flag, it’s hard to understand the perspective that the American flag should have been some kind of magic shield preventing any and all attacks. If a flag did confer that kind of total immunity, every pirate, spy, and terrorist in the world would just fly one.
>>Bull<<
You think that Israel deliberately attacked the United States when they were already at war with several larger nations?
That does not, on the surface, make any sense.
I believe Israeli pilots know exactly who they are attacking before engaging a warswhip of any nationality.
I believe they did not trust the government of the United States at the time to keep the intellligence gathered to themselves.
I also believe they calculatd the response would be exactly as it turned out with the administration at the time reluctant to reveal the truth.
Interesting. Thank you for the clarification.
1. Was their anything that The Liberty could discover that would make Israel take the action it did? There have been theories on this most were not plausible some were.
2. It was a massive screw up by Israel and the United States.
3. Why in the hell were the fighters from the US fleet called back? Although they did not have cannons on the fighters they did have air to air missiles? Something stinks here on the USA side. We had instant communication with Israel. If the fighters were dispatched and recalled we knew we were being attacked by Israel. This defies all logic.
4. If this were just a massive screw up why were the details of this keep secret for so many many many years?
5. We were supporting Israel in this war. Any Intel this shipped gathered would be shared with Israel. Israel would or should have known where this ship was. Much has been made of the fact that this ship was very close to Israeli waters. This is perfectly logical. If it were gathering Intel for Israel by being close to Israel it would be under the protective air cover of the Israeli Air Force and not in as much risk if closer to the Egyptian forces and air power, what was left of it.
6. I do not think either side is telling the complete story of this incident.
Re#113 I’d like an answer to number.
Your comments in no way diminish or negate my contentions. Signal monitoring was exactly what the Liberty's mission was. Those signals would have proved that US intelligence had been compromised by Israeli agents or sympathizers and would have lead to their arrest and subsequent cessation of classified and secret information. Israel has a long history of such activities (reference Jonathan Pollard).
Lastly, use your common sense. Why, in the midst of a fight for its very existence against overwhelming odds, would Israel commit the number of assets against what they thought was a "freighter"?
Why don’t you tell us the real truth, if it’s Bull?
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