Technically no "she" didnt However they failed to react as normal simply because of the fact that the xion media would have destroyed the goverment Again it doesnt really mean alot to me i am british, its none of mine
And now for the truth about the incident... The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war in 1967. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake. On June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Six-Day War, the Israeli high command received reports that Israeli troops in El Arish were being fired upon from the sea, presumably by an Egyptian vessel, as they had a day before. The United States had announced that it had no naval forces within hundreds of miles of the battle front on the floor of the United Nations a few days earlier; however, the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship assigned to monitor the fighting, arrived in the area, 14 miles off the Sinai coast, as a result of a series of United States communication failures, whereby messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty. The Israelis mistakenly thought this was the ship doing the shelling and war planes and torpedo boats attacked, killing 34 members of the Liberty's crew and wounding 171. Numerous mistakes were made by both the United States and Israel. For example, the Liberty was first reported â incorrectly, as it turned out â to be cruising at 30 knots (it was later recalculated to be 28 knots). Under Israeli (and U.S.) naval doctrine at the time, a ship proceeding at that speed was presumed to be a warship. The sea was calm and the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry found that the Liberty's flag was very likely drooped and not discernible; moreover, members of the crew, including the Captain, Commander William McGonagle, testified that the flag was knocked down after the first or second assault. According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore. The day fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels. The Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be sent near Sinai. A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors. The Joint Chiefs of Staff investigated the communications failure and noted that the Chief of Naval Operations expressed concern about the prudence of sending the Liberty so close to the area of hostilities and four messages were subsequently sent instructing the ship to move farther away from the area of hostilities. The JCS report said the messages were never received because of âa combination of (1) human error, (2) high volume of communications traffic, and (3) lack of appreciation of sense of urgency regarding the movement of the Liberty.â The report also included a copy of a flash cable sent immediately after the attack, which reported that Israel had âerroneouslyâ attacked the Liberty, that IDF helicopters were in rescue operations, and that Israel had sent âabject apologiesâ and requested information on any other U.S. ships near the war zone. Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting. Once the Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans to fly out to the ship and any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was flown to the Liberty. The Israelis were âobviously shockedâ by the error they made in attacking the ship, according to the U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In fact, according to a secret report on the 1967 war, the immediate concern was that the Arabs might see the proximity of the Liberty to the conflict as evidence of U.S.-Israel collusion. Many of the survivors of the Liberty remain bitter, and are convinced the attack was deliberate as they make clear on their web site. In 1991, columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak trumpeted their discovery of an American who said he had been in the Israeli war room when the decision was made to knowingly attack the American ship. In fact, that individual, Seth Mintz, wrote a letter to the Washington Post on November 9, 1991, in which he said he was misquoted by Evans and Novak and that the attack, was, in fact, a "case of mistaken identity." Moreover, the man who Mintz originally said had been with him, a Gen. Benni Matti, does not exist. Also, contrary to claims that an Israeli pilot identified the ship as American on a radio tape, no one has ever produced this tape. In fact, the official Israeli Air Force tape clearly established that no such identification of the ship was made by the Israeli pilots prior to the attack. Tapes of the radio transmissions made prior, during and after the attack do not contain any statement suggesting the pilots saw a U.S. flag before the attack. During the attack, a pilot specifically says, âthere is no flag on her!â The recordings also indicate that once the pilots became concerned about the identity of the ship, by virtue of reading its hull number, they terminated the attack and they were given an order to leave the area. A transcript of the radio transmissions indicates the entire incident, beginning with the spotting of a mysterious vessel off El Arish and ending with the chief air controller at general headquarters in Tel Aviv telling another controller the ship was âapparently Americanâ took 24 minutes. Critics claimed the Israeli tape was doctored, but the National Security Agency of the United States released formerly top secret transcripts in July 2003 that confirmed the Israeli version. A U.S. spy plane was sent to the area as soon as the NSA learned of the attack on the Liberty and recorded the conversations of two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots, which took place between 2:30 and 3:37 p.m. on June 8. The orders radioed to the pilots by their supervisor at the Hatzor base instructing them to search for Egyptian survivors from the "Egyptian warship" that had just been bombed were also recorded by the NSA. "Pay attention. The ship is now identified as Egyptian," the pilots were informed. Nine minutes later, Hatzor told the pilots the ship was believed to be an Egyptian cargo ship. At 3:07, the pilots were first told the ship might not be Egyptian and were instructed to search for survivors and inform the base immediately the nationality of the first person they rescued. It was not until 3:12 that one of the pilots reported that he saw an American flag flying over the ship at which point he was instructed to verify if it was indeed a U.S. vessel. In October 2003, the first Israeli pilot to reach the ship broke his 36-year silence on the attack. Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Spector, a triple ace, who shot down 15 enemy aircraft and took part in the 1981 raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, said he had been told an Egyptian ship was off the Gaza coast. "This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn't one of ours." The Jerusalem Post obtained a recording of Spector's radio transmission in which he said, "I can't identify it, but in any case it's a military ship." None of Israel's accusers can explain why Israel would deliberately attack an American ship at a time when the United States was Israel's only friend and supporter in the world. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli sides (five messages from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain at least 25 miles â the last four said 100 miles â off the Egyptian coast arrived after the attack was over) is a more probable explanation. Accidents caused by âfriendly fireâ are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by âfriendly fire.â In April 1994, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters with large U.S. flags painted on each side were shot down by U.S. Air Force F-15s on a clear day in the âno flyâ zone of Iraq, killing 26 people. In April 2002, an American F-16 dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns. Retired Admiral, Shlomo Erell, who was Chief of the Navy in Israel in June 1967, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): âNo one would ever have dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that there was no American ship within 100 miles.â Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: âIt was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional.â In 1987, McNamara repeated his belief that the attack was a mistake, telling a caller on the âLarry King Showâ that he had seen nothing in the 20 years since to change his mind that there had been no âcover*up.â ...continued...
In January 2004, the State Department held a conference on the Liberty incident and also released new documents, including CIA memos dated June 13 and June 21, 1967, that say that Israel did not know it was striking an American vessel. The historian for the National Security Agency, David Hatch, said the available evidence "strongly suggested" Israel did not know it was attacking a U.S. ship. Two former U.S. officials, Ernest Castle, the United States Naval Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in June 1967, who received the first report of the attack from Israel, and John Hadden, then CIA Chief of Station in Tel Aviv, also agreed with the assessment that the attack on the Liberty was a mistake. The new documents do not shed any light on the mystery of what the ship was doing in the area or why Israel was not informed about its presence. The evidence suggests the ship was not spying on Israel. Israel apologized for the tragedy and paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on December 17, 1987.
Yes i have read that the americans fired at the 3 boats approcahing which were in attack formation, it was a mistake as the gunmen didnt stop when told to by his captain Oh **** this is all utter **** im off lol
didnt you say 'quite simply yes, the usa is mostly made up of powerful jewish people, of course they will protect them they ARE the country '? make your mind up
"an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel" thats where it falls down. there is no way the two could be mistaken for eachother
no i believe it was an accident and the maericans did not retaiate because they either beleived it was an accident or did not want to ruin there relationship with israel which apart from being a military allie, their country, the usa happened to house the most powerful jews in the world
and I do not beleive at any point i even mentioned as you say, " the usa is made up of mostly powerful jewsih people" I was making the point of they happen to be the most powerful people, they happen to be jewish
Im all for them, they have their religion, personally i think religion is total ****, but they are not as crazy as christians and muslims I admire there sense of stabalisation, their community is strong and has good values, I like them
no? that was a direct quote from you whichever way you look at it an american ship was blown up by jews, according to you jews ARE the country (america) so how can you question that they blew up their own ship?
the word are that i use, has no similarity to the sentence you made up that i said. I did not suggest America is made up of mostly jews, that is ridiculous, as well know hispanics, african americans and rednecks massivelly outweigh them. My point was they basically own the country, they are an intelligent breed of people and have helped establish themselves as media guru's, political allies and general high end buisness owneres, they basically are the country they are running it, they are only a tiny minority of the peole though
Sounds like a terrible accident. Let's face facts here the Yanks are pretty bad when it comes to "Friendly fire" accidents, they coined the term "Blue on Blue" during the ACW it was that common.
Two things. Firstly, what possible motive did Israel have to attack an American ship? Secondly, even with today's computerised technology, GPS positioning systems and integrated FOF identification signals, tragic mistakes still happen. Unless you are suggesting that the British forces killed by American "blue on blue" fire were deliberate?
Wasn't Yank friendly fire was it? You can be damn sure if it was any other nation a simple apology and $13m reparation would not suffice
It was a nearby intelligence/reconnaissance ship, monitoring radios, military channels etc... Israel possibly did not want anyone (even an ally) to hear them whatever they were doing
Bore off you absolute balloon. "I'm a businessman" "I'm looking to rent some commercial property" "I'm an ex-teacher" "I used to travel round Afghanistan" You're nothing but a boring, Walter Mitty. Was Baron Von Munchausen based on you?
"informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested." Does that sound like they didn't know who they were attacking?
