Israel blamed for USS Liberty attack

Washington Times ^ | 1/13/04 | Nicholas Kralev

[kattracks]

The U.S. government has not reached a definitive conclusion on whether Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty in 1967, but it appears that the Jewish state is guilty of "gross negligence," a State Department official said yesterday.

The United States was negligent, too, the official noted, for failing to inform Israel that the Navy spy ship was in international waters off the Egyptian coast and for keeping the vessel in the region, even though the six-day Arab-Israeli war had just broken out.

[GunRunner]

This was like the second or third thread on the conservative forum.

This whole site is a conservative forum; notice there's no "liberal forum" link on the homepage.

As for my "disproportionate interest", I've defended Israel on this site for years, whereas in the first 15 minutes of joining FR, you've suggested that Israel and the US weren't really allies until 1973, that Israel practices South African style apartheid, and that Israeli shysters taking "Uncle Sucker" for a ride is responsible for 3,000 dead Americans on 9/11.

The whole thing makes you sound like a DU troll.

Welcome to FR by the way.

[BigSkyFreeper]

...Osama bin-Laden listed three reasons Al-Qaeda's vendetta against the United States...

They're his excuses for justifying his actions against the United States.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Then why is the burden of proof on our government to explain the actions of a justifiably freaked out Israeli military? Makes no sense.

[risk]

Third, our aid to and general alliance with Israel

He thinks we actually care why bin Laden wants to kill us. He really has no clue about American resolve. I doubt if this character is even an American citizen. If he is, he's a modern day Neville Chamberlain or worse. Chamberlain almost caused the downfall of western civilization. "Peace in our time" in a pig's eye.

America has a significant strategic interest in the mideast, and if anyone -- and I mean anyone -- comes in between us and our interests, they're going to have a Texas sized problem on their hands.

Maybe this guy is from Canada?

[Benjo]

"The attack happend at night, but I keep reading that they knew what kind of boat it was, that the flag could be clearly seen on the boat. But I read the same evidence they're reading and I keep seeing that this happend in the dead of night, and I've concluded that one cannot see squat on a clear dark night especially zipping through the air in a JET."

The attack on the Liberty was on a calm bright sunny afternoon. The Liberty's crew were sunning themselves on deck and waving to the pilots of the Israeli reconissance aircraft which had been tracking the ship earlier in the day.

As for the jets flying too fast to identify the ship, Yiftah Spector, the pilot of one strafing aircraft subsequently testified before the U.S. Congress that he had slowed his plane in an effort to see the flag and read the hull numbers (he still got them wrong unfortunately). Still, he said, he got plenty close to confirm that the ship was a military ship of some kind (and not some Egyptian horse transport).

[GunRunner]

Is it possible that the Israelis were not privy to this kind of tactical info during the height of the Cold War?

Were the Israelis aware of the entire seagoing capabilities of the Russian Navy?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Sooner rather than later, he'll realize we are safer without Saddam in power.

[risk]

No, clearly that was a Jewish plot to embroil America on its behalf. I've heard it all before.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Ditto

[risk]

What is amazing is how many self-acclaimed Jewish people believe the anti-semitic propaganda, bought and sold by Saudi money and spewed all over the Internet. Jews are so well connected electronically and evidently many of their news sources are corrupted by the Euro-Islamist influence that they can't seem to see that the world is inching toward another holocaust.

[risk]

When you're the most powerful nation on Earth, people are going to resent it.

Especially people who fear freedom the most.

[GunRunner]

"Just wanting to take over the world doesn't make one a threat."

[risk]

Here we go.

[Benjo]

"Not to mention the lack of a motive for the Israelis to attack an American ship."

We don't know what the Israeli motive was but apparently Israel felt strongly enough about the matter that it warned the U.S. government the day before the attack that if we didn't get the Liberty out of there Israel would sink it. This information comes from John P. Stenbit, assistant secretary of defense for command,control, communications, and intelligence who gave a presentation at Harvard on March 13 of last year in which he said:

"The Israelis called us up one day and said, 'If you don't get that ship, the LIBERTY, out of this place we're going to sink it in twenty-four hours.'"

Unfortunately, said Stenbit, it took longer than 24 hours for that threat to be passed on to appropriate authorities and by that time 34 Americans had already died.

[Atlantic Friend]

As the old Murphy's rule puts it : friendly fire, isn't. The attack was clearly a deadly mistake, of which military History has a large supply.