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Declassified documents show Israel's 1967 attack on USS Liberty was accidental
Israel Insider ^ | 7/10/2003 | Israel Insider

Posted on 07/10/2003 5:16:13 AM PDT by Israel Insider

New documents released this week by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) prove that Israel's 1967 attack on the USS Liberty was accidental. The Israeli attack on the American surveillance ship during the Six Day War, which killed 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded 172, has been a controversial and disputed chapter in Israel's relations with the United States.

Last week, the NSA released additional information relative to the June 8, 1967 attack on the U.S.S. Liberty. The information included three audio recordings, transcripts (in English), three follow-up reports, and a U.S. Cryptologic History Report entitled "Attack on a Sigint Collector, the U.S.S. Liberty."

The documents, originally classified as "top secret," were made public according to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and at the request of Florida Federal Judge Jay Cristol, who has been investigating the Liberty incident for years and published a book on the subject last year, Haaretz reported.

To find out more and read the NSA reports, click here


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bloodlibel; idf; israel; ussliberty

1 posted on 07/10/2003 5:16:13 AM PDT by Israel Insider
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To: Israel Insider
Take this with a grain of salt.
2 posted on 07/10/2003 5:54:39 AM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine (No roses grow on a sailor's grave.)
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3 posted on 07/10/2003 5:56:35 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Israel Insider
If this was an accident, why were the documents classified in the first place?
4 posted on 07/10/2003 6:06:58 AM PDT by Sen Jack S. Fogbound
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To: Sen Jack S. Fogbound
If this was an accident, why were the documents classified in the first place?

Because of how the intercepts were made, and who made them. Regardless of the content, information gathered by particular sources and/or methods will be classified, and only de-classified after rigorous and thorough review by multiple parties. The system may be clunky and slow-moving, but its better than simply handing out state secrets a la Clinton.

5 posted on 07/10/2003 6:11:33 AM PDT by HenryLeeII
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To: Israel Insider
The initial attack MAY have been an accident, BUT, after reading this I can't believe the continued attack could have been an accident.
6 posted on 07/10/2003 6:20:53 AM PDT by renosathug
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To: Israel Insider
A very serious question is why was this information - at least its gist - concealed by the US government for 35 years, through seven presidencies, while the suspicions and accusations against Israel fueled a significant amount of anti-Israel sentiment among many Americans. This concealment put Israel at a serious public relations disadvantage with the Congress and American public.

My guess is that this prolonged silence was deliberate, in order to injure Israel, and its revelation now is the Bush Administration's sop to Israel for pressuring it to make yet more concessions to the PLO.

An interesting question is whether information about these secret tapes was among the info that Jonathan Pollard conveyed to the Israelis.

7 posted on 07/10/2003 6:37:07 AM PDT by DonQ
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To: Israel Insider
BS

read about how the Israelis knew well it was a US ship.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385499086/qid=1057844378/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-0806427-6390232
8 posted on 07/10/2003 6:40:42 AM PDT by finnman69 (!)
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To: renosathug
The initial attack MAY have been an accident, BUT, after reading this I can't believe the continued attack could have been an accident.

It's apparently clear that all the recordings are of pilots and controllers who thought the ship was Egyptian. What's your thesis--that they really knew the ship was American, but they said "Egyptian" on the radio to fool whoever might be listening?

The idea that they wanted to sink the ship to conceal information from us, and then concocted a plan whereby they would lie on the radio and pretend the ship was Egyptian, is just plain ludicrous. The Israelis screwed up and killed some friendlies. We do the same all the time, tragically.

9 posted on 07/10/2003 6:44:47 AM PDT by kezekiel
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To: DonQ
An interesting question is whether information about these secret tapes was among the info that Jonathan Pollard conveyed to the Israelis

From the article:

"According to Haaretz, the release of the tapes by the NSA last week was not the first time that they were made available to the public. The Israeli government presented them to the Thames television network in 1987."

How could they have these tapes?
10 posted on 07/10/2003 6:54:22 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: Israel Insider
There is only one instance in which Congressional Medals of Honor have been awarded in secrecy, and that was to sailors who weathered the attack on the USS Liberty.
11 posted on 07/10/2003 8:22:40 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: Jackson; Yehuda; Nachum; adam_az; LarryM; American in Israel; ReligionofMassDestruction; ...
Ping.
12 posted on 07/10/2003 1:20:09 PM PDT by yonif
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To: AdmSmith
Not the SAME TAPES but tapes of the SAME EVENT recorded most likely at the IDF control tower or command center.
13 posted on 07/10/2003 1:51:29 PM PDT by adam_az
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To: adam_az
In the article they write that it was the tapes from NSA.
14 posted on 07/10/2003 2:17:16 PM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: AdmSmith
It's apparently too much these days to expect that journalists have basic competency in written English!
15 posted on 07/10/2003 2:19:02 PM PDT by adam_az
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To: adam_az
Are you sure it was sloppy journalism?

It has been an official "secret" that the vessel was taken out in order to prevent LBJ from knowing and hence probably stopping the operation in Syria (Golan heights).

If the Israeli government wanted to dispute this they should have released their own tapes ASAP and not in 1987.
16 posted on 07/10/2003 2:32:03 PM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: Israel Insider
BS
17 posted on 07/10/2003 2:49:13 PM PDT by husky ed (FOX NEWS ALERT "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" THIS HAS BEEN A FOX NEWS ALERT)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: Israel Insider
The hardest accusation to believe concerning the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was that the Israelis were too stupid to realize they were attacking their best, and almost only, ally in an extended attack in broad daylight. Sorry, still don't buy it. I support Israel but 36(?) of our men were killed doing their duty in international waters.
19 posted on 02/17/2004 6:06:39 PM PST by luvbach1 (In the know on the border)
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