The Lie that Won’t Die: the USS Liberty Attack Slander, Continued

The Times of Israel Blog via RealClearHistory.com ^ | 02/22/2013 | Robert Werdine

[Kid Shelleen]

Last June, I had written a post here commemorating the 45th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty. The post, in which I argued (in defiance of every conspiracy theory), that the Israeli attack on the American ship was a mistake, has been giving me considerable heartburn as of late. In the last several days, my e-mail and facebook page have been flooded with the harshest condemnations concerning the article, tarring me as being a “hack,” a “traitor,” and nothing less than a running dog for the “Jewish/Zionist/apartheid” lobby. My article, which scored a modest few dozen Facebook recommendations at the time, has now swelled to over 350 in just the last two days. I wish I could say I was pleased.

[Tijeras_Slim]

When I was a n00b, I posted to A+ thinking he was kidding about something, and boy did I get flamed! LOL.

[ansel12]

Surely you can allow Americans to discuss their GIs being attacked and killed without calling them Nazis, Arabs, and trolls.

This is an American forum.

“Our Commanding Officer, Captain William Loren McGonagle, received the Congressional Medal of Honor

Our Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip McCutcheon Armstrong, received the Navy Cross posthumously

Several men received the Silver Star Medal, some posthumously

Several men received the Bronze Star Medal, some posthumously

205 men received the Purple Heart Medal, 34 posthumously

All crewmen received the Combat Action Ribbon

All crewmen share the Presidential Unit Citation”

[ansel12]

What a load of personal nonsense, we Americans and American vets will talk about our combat losses and dead heroes, and you sounding like some foreigner attacking the Americans for doing that and labeling them “Arabs”, is really silly.

“Our Commanding Officer, Captain William Loren McGonagle, received the Congressional Medal of Honor

Our Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip McCutcheon Armstrong, received the Navy Cross posthumously

Several men received the Silver Star Medal, some posthumously

Several men received the Bronze Star Medal, some posthumously

205 men received the Purple Heart Medal, 34 posthumously

All crewmen received the Combat Action Ribbon

All crewmen share the Presidential Unit Citation”

[familyop]

"What a load of personal nonsense, we Americans and American vets will talk about our combat losses and dead heroes,..."

I posted some links above to the facts on the topic, and you've posted only the fallacious appeals to emotional responses followed by he-said-she-said arguments. You've replied only with personal nonsense and are implying that you're an American "vet." Are you or not?

[ansel12]

Man, you are rambling with nonsense, I haven’t even offered an opinion, except to tell you how absurd it is for Americans on an American conservative forum to be called Nazis, and “Arabs” for discussing their men killed in combat.

It must have been an incredibly bloody and hard fought battle, the heroics were extraordinary.

“Our Commanding Officer, Captain William Loren McGonagle, received the Congressional Medal of Honor

Our Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip McCutcheon Armstrong, received the Navy Cross posthumously

Several men received the Silver Star Medal, some posthumously

Several men received the Bronze Star Medal, some posthumously

205 men received the Purple Heart Medal, 34 posthumously

All crewmen received the Combat Action Ribbon

All crewmen share the Presidential Unit Citation”

[Stonewall Jackson]

Very interesting. I’d never heard about a sub being in the area. Sadly, we will probably never learn the whole truth of what happened that day; was it truly a horrific amalgam of errors on the part of both the US and Israel, or was there something more sinister at work? As Churchill once said about Russia, “It is a riddle, wrapped in mystery, inside an enigma.”

[xrmusn]

but I didn’t know there was a submarine involved
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Of course a Submarine was involved.

How else do you think the ‘torpedo’ boats got there?

And if a journalist(???) said it, it must be true.

[Jack Hammer]

Not a historian by any means, but IMO it’s just a little too difficult to believe that this was - oops, sorreee! - an accident.

[familyop]

You've continued to refuse to discuss the facts behind the links I posted. You continued repeating the bandwagon propaganda approach and are even dishonest with that. You're also confused about which nation we're in. Not all of us Americans come from little communities that Benito (or other notorious fascist/commie despots) would have been proud of. Here's where we stand. Israel is our ally, and enemies of Israel are not.

Most Americans Support Right of Jews to Live and Build in Judea-Samaria
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/927783/posts
June 10, 2003
"By a margin of nearly five to one, Americans oppose the Bush administration's demand to halt all further Jewish construction in Judea-Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza . . . The poll, carried out by John McLaughlin & Associates, surveyed a scientific sample of 1,000 American adults on May 21, 2003.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

Here, the page will open in a new window. is a page that discusses Cmdr. Hubal's viewpoint as well as the ship's photographer who claims that perisopce photographs were taken of the attack. Three other crew members also dispute Cmdr. Hubal's viewpoint. However, it should be understood that Cmdr. Hubal was a patriot and would never disclose highly sensitive security information.

[wideawake]

I forgot how easy it is to identify a cloth rectangle a few feet long when you're several thousand feet above it and flying past it at a couple of hundred miles an hour.

You've made an extremely intelligent and helpful point.

[ansel12]

Who knows what sort of mental problems you have, but you aren’t carrying a full deck.

Your posts are just bizarre and freakish and raging.

[rottndog]

Oh, okay then...you acknowledge that the Israeli pilots deliberately attacked a target they had not identified, which is completely contrary to the rules of engagement?

BTW, pilots are trained to ID vessels at sea...AND, to argue that Israeli pilots can’t tell the difference between an Egyptian flag and an American flag, is stupid on its’ face. It is completely preposterous to maintain that the attack was not deliberate.

[Lancey Howard]

[wideawake]

So this is the only incident of friendly fire in all recorded history, then?

[familyop]

"Who knows what sort of mental problems you have,..."

That's all you've got. Looks like feminazi speech.

ansel12 wrote in November:
"Heck, I was a hippie who lived largely as a hitchhiker and drifter, and did not believe in the draft at the time, and after I won a permanent deferment from the draft, I enlisted in the Army almost immediately, went to jump school, and then started trying to bribe my way to Vietnam through the clerks."

ansel12 wrote in November:
"In many ways America moved right under the boomers,..."

ansel12 wrote in November:
"I was a hippie, and I hope that I still am.

I have a different view of the very small, very short lived hippie thing than many here,..."

From draft dodger to permanent deferment to enlistment, eh? Recruits like that were interrogated, dogged and ejected from my MOS early in the 13 weeks of our initial training--all of 'em. You should think twice before tossing lying defamations at others.

[PapaBear3625]

Myths debunked on Israel’s 1967 attack on USS Liberty

Differing opinions do not constitute "debunkings".