U.S. And Israeli Militaries Discuss Attack On Liberty

Malaysia Sun ^ | July 5, 2008

[Fennie]

Leading defense officials from the United States and Israel, meeting in Israel this week, raised the controversial attack on the U.S. ship USS Liberty, by Israel, in June 1967.

The attack has caused considerable controversy over the years despite both governments being reticent to publicly discuss the affair.

It is rare that defense officials from either side discuss the attack which killed 34 U.S. service personnel, and wounded 171 others. In talks this week however between the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Michael Mullen, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, together with other senior Israeli and American military officials, the subject was well and truly on the table.

According to a Haaretz newspaper report on Friday, quoting a source from the Israeli delegation, the Liberty attack was raised in talks regarding Iran, and U.S. operations in the Middle East. While it was stressed that the parties did not discuss operational coordination, it was agreed by both sides that the United States and Israel would want to avoid any sort of "mistaken confrontation" such as that which occurred when Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty...

[ballplayer]

MISTAKEN confrontation ?? ACCIDENTALLY on purpose you mean

[Little Ray]

Nope.
The Israelis asked the US Ambassador about US vessels in the war zone and were told there were none. So, they attacked a suspicious ship in the war zone. Unfortunately, that ship was the USS Liberty.
Our fault.

[Soliton]

After ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations), there was never any evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the target was a US ship. There is substantial evidence the attack was a tragic mistake caused by blunders of both the US and Israel. Eight US presidents, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (41), Clinton, and Bush (43), have each accepted the conclusion that the attack was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists continue to claim the Israelis knowingly attacked a US ship. By some estimates, there are more conspiracy theories about the Liberty incident than about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

http://www.thelibertyincident.com/

The muzzies are scared we will support Israel bombing Iran. They drag out the Liberty every time. They are simply trying to divide us.

[ballplayer]

BULL....

[spookie]

A pile of BS. The liberty had a TRSS antenna system along with a number of sleeve antennas which completely changed its physical appearance from an ordinary vessel. Typically you strike for the bridge or engineering spaces when possible. For the liberty they struck the forward cargo area repeatedly and never the engineering. Why because that was were their operational equipment was located and operated by CTs.
No other ship had a huge tower with a X-band disk antenna mounted aft of the bridge.

[Slings and Arrows]

General quarters, FRiends - the Tinfoil Hat Brigade is attacking.

[JimRed]

The Israelis asked the US Ambassador about US vessels in the war zone and were told there were none. So, they attacked a suspicious ship in the war zone. Unfortunately, that ship was the USS Liberty.

And of course the Egyptians would not hesitate to false flag a vessel, so the ambassodor's answer sealed the Liberty's fate. It is very likely that the ambassador was not aware of the Liberty's presence.

[Little Ray]

Ummm, what does the antenna system have to do with the fact that the USS Liberty was not supposed to be there? You have a suspicious ship in a war zone - An American flagged ship where no American ship is supposed to be. What do you? Invite the captain for tea? Hell, no; you sink it.

[papertyger]

Steve Carlton, maybe?

[Rider on the Rain]

Wanna buy some ocean front property in Arizona?

[papertyger]

“Tinfoil Hat,” my a$$!

Just ask them what they think a fitting remedy would be, assuming all their accusations were true, and you’ll find out exactly what motivates them.

And it ain’t mental illness...

[meema]

MISTAKEN confrontation ?? ACCIDENTALLY on purpose you mean

Exactly! I'm so tired of hearing our govt using this excuse for the attackers!!! We are supposed to believe that those big AMERICAN FLAGS on this ship couldn't be seen by the great Israeli military? Nonsense.

[wildbill]

The attack was no mistake. The Israelis did it to cloak their operations in the war from their ‘ally’, the U.S.

It was a ruthless decision made by a country that found itself in extremis and decided to act in what it perceived to be its critical tactical interests.

I hope we don’t have this problem again. The U.S. military has enough experience (Pueblo, Liberty) to know they shouldn’t have intel ships operating alone without sufficient covering force.

[Chode]

ok, so lets say we give them a pass on the first pass as they didn't know... unless they took out the radio room and antenna, Liberty would of been burning up the airwaves to higher-higher they were under attack.

[Polybius]

The Israelis asked the US Ambassador about US vessels in the war zone and were told there were none. So, they attacked a suspicious ship in the war zone. Unfortunately, that ship was the USS Liberty.

And of course the Egyptians would not hesitate to false flag a vessel, so the ambassodor's answer sealed the Liberty's fate. It is very likely that the ambassador was not aware of the Liberty's presence.

Fog of War sh!t happens.

Sinking of the submarine USS Dorado by U.S. planes. ..... Likely sinking of the submarine USS Seawolf by U.S. forces. .... Damage to the light cruiser USS Atlanta by the cruiser USS San Francisco. ..... Near damage of the battleship USS Iowa (with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard) by the destroyer USS William D. Porter. This incident led to the “Willie D.” being greeted thereafter with the hail, “Don’t shoot, we’re Republicans!” ...... 1939 - 10 September British submarine HMS Triton sank another British submarine, HMS Oxley, mistaking it for a German U-boat and having received no responses to challenges. Oxley was the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk and also the first vessel to be sunk by a British vessel in the war. .... 1940 - Operation Wikinger: German destroyer sunk by Luftwaffe bombs, another sunk by mines during confusion[9] ..... 1943 – Operation Husky (Allied Invasion of Sicily): 144 C-47 transport planes passed over Allied lines shortly after a German air raid, and were mistakenly fired upon by ground and naval forces, 33 planes were shot down and 37 damaged, resulting in 318 casualties. ..... 1944 British flotilla attacked by RAF Hawker Typhoons, off Cap d'Antifer, Le Havre. HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar sunk. HMS Salamander damaged beyond repair and scrapped. HMS Jason escaped major damage. ... 1968 - USS Boston, USS Edson, USCGC Point Dume, HMAS Hobart and two U.S. Swift Boats, PCF-12 and PCF-19 are attacked by US aircraft on June 17 in the Vietnam War.[11] Several sailors were killed and PCF-19 was sunk. ..... 1974 - Turkish Destroyer Kocatepe was sunk by Turkish aircraft during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. .......... 1991 - American AH-1 Apache attack helicopter fires on US Army Bradley Fighting Vehicles during night operations during Operation Desert Storm killing several US Army soldiers. ..... 1991 - American A-10 during Operation Desert Storm attacks British armoured personnel carriers killing nine British soldiers (the same number as were killed by enemy fire in the whole war). .... 1994 - In the Black Hawk Incident, two U.S. Air Force F-15Cs involved with Operation Provide Comfort shot down two U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawks over northern Iraq, killing 29 military and civilian personnel. ....

[Slings and Arrows]

In almost 10 years on Free Republic this is the first time that I’ve ever called a poster mentally ill and been rebuked for being too nice.

[djf]

Don’t worry. They’ll come up with a nice, tidy answer absolving everybody.

After all the guys who were on that boat are dead.
I mean those who weren’t killed during the attack itself.

[montag813]

"The Malaysian Sun"? I'd like to see a more credible source for this "story". Secondly, Mullen hasn't exactly distinguished himself this week after criticizing his own commander-in-chief for not "talking to Iran" enough.

[Partisan Gunslinger]

Nope. The Israelis asked the US Ambassador about US vessels in the war zone and were told there were none. So, they attacked a suspicious ship in the war zone. Unfortunately, that ship was the USS Liberty. Our fault.

Lyndon Johnson shenanigans...one of our worst presidents.