Ralph Nader has taken up the USS Liberty cause, challenging John McCain over the 1967 attack/accident on Israel's part that killed 34 American sailors. I never look into this myself. Because I know what I'd think--Nader says it's a coverup, and Nader's always right about this kind of thing.
Update, from Jack Ross: All the evidence supports the notion that it was a deliberate attack, but I've never found any of the speculated motives to be satisfactory. Thus my conclusion which others I've talked too support that it was a Dr. Strangelove scenario - a mad rogue officer ordered it and once it happened cover-up was in everyone's interest. I also understand that Tom Segev basically supports this case in his book on 1967.
Ralph Nader has been saying all the right things… if I were to vote, I would've voted for him. Obama does not deserve anyone's vote, same as McCain.
As for the USS Liberty, there is substantial proof — an official cover-up notwithstanding — that it was a deliberate attack.
Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present.
Read the Affidavit of the 1967 Chief Attorney Captain Boston:
"I, Ward Boston, Jr. do declare that the following statement is true and complete:
For more than 30 years, I have remained silent on the topic of USS Liberty. I am a military man and when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States, I follow them.
However, recent attempts to rewrite history compel me to share the truth…"
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-boston.html
Let's call the next naval ship "Subjugation"
The McCain cover up shows his willingness to lie to dead servicemen's families today. It informs us about McCain's character. It also reminds Phil that Jewish money and power had corrupted DC as early as 1967.
I propose that the next naval ship be called, not the Liberty, but the Subjugation in honor of the Jewish lobby's occupation of DC.
btw
err Witty : did you mean "affects" in lieu of "effects"?
"Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present."
Should it be ignored? Does it not point to possible corroption within the U.S. that could still be present? Could it show a pattern of Israel NOT being an ally?
Zionism relies on shaky stories from thousands of years ago, and the USS Liberty attack it too far in the past to think about?
"Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present."
Why don't you say that to the face of the victims and family members of the victims of Israeli naked aggression that day?
Typical Zionist treatment of tragedy not affecting their own: "It's in the past, let's move on and concentrate on the present." However, try to engage Richard in substantive debate on the conflict, and he will gladly bring up tragedies from the past, both real and imaginary, which serve to bolster the Zionist agenda.
Richard Witty, speaking to a family member who lost a loved one when Israel attacked the USS Liberty:
"Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present.
By the way, did you know that some family members of mine experienced horrors in WWII? Are you familiar with the genocide of Jewish people during that time period? This is why we have Israel, because something like this could happen again, and Israel represents the culmination of our long-awaited self-assertiveness. Please keep us, and Israel, in your hearts and prayers."
"Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present."
Really? And who decides that it's "long long long past" and therefore best be left to the pages of history? Try telling that to the families who lost loved ones on that ship ? And what if the whole world had never recognized such a thing as the Holocaust as a fact, post-war Germany had not made reparation payments and kept denying the Holocaust with impunity, and everyone had told Jews today that it's long long long past and is of no importance today? Be careful what you wish for and do to others, because it will eventually blow up in your face. Ah, but then, the zionist lobby in the U.S has thrown all its weight behind the denial of another people's Holocaust — no, not talking about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of course, but about the Armenian Holocaust. We have had enough with the racist, arrogant, holier-than-thou, and dismissive tone of zionists when it comes to the tragedies that have struck others. Believe it or not, there are people, and peoples, the world over, who have suffered just as much as, if not more than, Jews.
To: ethnocentric Witty
Admiral Mullen seems to have thought the USS Liberty atack was a relevant point about which to warn your ethnic kin.
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/7655
"Believe it or not, there are people, and peoples, the world over, who have suffered just as much as, if not more than, Jews."
If that be true (and it is), then a whole bunch of Zionists just lost their identity (and reason to live?)
Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present.
Posted by: Richard Witty | November 02, 2008 at 09:41 AM
>>>>>>>>>>
What a hypocritical comment coming from a guy whose entire identity and life is based on his jewish victimhood and the horrors of the holocuast. Oh wait…I forgot, it's only jewish lives that count for jews like witty.
Some day witty everything the jews have done to others in the name of the holocaust and their sick jewish exceptionalism ideology is going to come down on your zionist head like the weight of the world.
USS Liberty: Cover Up
By James Bamford
Mr. Bamford, a former investigative reporter for ABC News, is the author of The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets.
Editor's Note: The following is a selection from Mr. Bamford's newest book, Body of Secrets, which has reignited interest in the story of the USS Liberty.
Early in the morning of Thursday June 8, 1967 the first rays of sun spilled softly over the Sinai's blond waves of sand. A little more than a dozen miles north, in the choppy eastern Mediterranean, the USS Liberty headed eastward. But the calmness was like quicksand – deceptive, inviting and friendly – until it was too late.
As the Liberty passed the desert town of El Arish, it was being closely watched. About 4,000 feet above was an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft. At 6.05am, the observer on the plane reported back to Israeli naval headquarters: "What we could see were the letters written on that ship and we gave these letters to ground control," he said. The letters were "GTR-5" – the Liberty's identification. "GTR" stood for "General Technical Research" – a cover designation for the National Security Agency (NSA)'s fleet of spy ships.
The Liberty was in dangerous waters at a dangerous time. The six-day war, in which Israeli air and ground forces launched a massive attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan, was raging. Fearing involvement in a Middle East war, the US joint chiefs of staff needed rapid intelligence on the ground situation in Egypt. Ships were considered the best option for the job. They could sail relatively close and pick up the most important signals. Also, unlike aircraft, they could remain on station for weeks at a time, eavesdropping, locating transmitters, and analysing the intelligence. And so the Liberty, which was large, fast and had been stationed relatively close on the Ivory Coast, had been ordered in.
Throughout the morning, the ship sailed on, with reconnaissance repeated at approximately 30-minute intervals. At one point, an Israeli air force Noratlas Nord 2501 circled the ship and headed back towards the Sinai. "It had a big Star of David on it and it was flying just a little bit above our mast," recalled crew member Larry Weaver. "I was actually able to wave to the co-pilot. He waved back and actually smiled at me – I could see him that well. There's no question about it. They had seen the ship's markings and the American flag. They could damn near see my rank. The underway flag was definitely flying, especially when you're that close to a war zone."
By 9:50 am, the minaret at El Arish could be seen with the naked eye like a solitary mast in a sea of sand. Although no one on the ship knew it at the time, the Liberty had suddenly trespassed into a private horror. At that very moment, near the minaret, Israeli forces were engaged in a criminal slaughter.
Three days after Israel had launched the six- day war, Egyptian prisoners in the Sinai had become a nuisance. There was no place to house them, not enough Israelis to watch them, and few vehicles to transport them to prison camps. But there was another way to deal with them.
As the Liberty sat within eyeshot of El Arish, eavesdropping on surrounding communications, Israeli soldiers turned the town into a slaughterhouse, systematically butchering their prisoners. An eyewitness recounted how in the shadow of the El Arish mosque, they lined up about 60 unarmed Egyptian prisoners, hands tied behind their backs, and then opened fire with machine guns until the pale desert sand turned red.
This and other war crimes were just some of the secrets Israel had sought to conceal since the start of the conflict. An essential element in the Israeli battle plan seemed to have been to hide much of the war behind a carefully constructed curtain of lies: lies about the Egyptian threat, lies about who started the war, lies to the US president, lies to the UN Security Council, lies to the press, lies to the public. Thus, as the American naval historian Dr Richard K Smith noted, "any instrument which sought to penetrate this smoke screen so carefully thrown around the normal 'fog of war' would have to be frustrated".
Into this sea of deception and slaughter sailed the USS Liberty, an enormous spy factory loaded with the latest eavesdropping gear.
About noon, as the Liberty was again in sight of El Arish, and while the massacres were taking place, an army commander there reported that a ship was shelling them from the sea. But that was impossible. The only ship in the vicinity was the Liberty, and she was eavesdropping, not shooting. As any observer would have recognised, the ship was a tired old Second World War vessel crawling with antennae, and unthreatening to anyone – unless it was their secrets, not their lives, they wanted to protect.
By then the Israeli navy and air force had conducted more than six hours of close surveillance of the Liberty off the Sinai and must have positively identified it as an American electronic spy ship. They knew she was the only military ship in the area. Nevertheless, the order was given to kill her and at 12:05pm, three motor torpedo boats from the port of Ashdod, about 50 miles away, departed. Israeli air force fighters, loaded with 50mm cannon ammunition, rockets and napalm, followed.
Without warning, the Israeli jets – swept-wing Dassault Mirage IIICs – struck. On board Liberty, Lieutenant Painter observed that the aircraft had "absolutely no markings", their identity unclear. He then attempted to reach the men manning the gun mounts, but it was too late. "I was trying to contact these two kids," he recalled, "and I saw them both; well, I didn't exactly see them as such. They were blown apart, but I saw the whole area go up in smoke and scattered metal. At about the same time, the aircraft strafed the bridge area. The quarter-master, Petty Officer Third Class Pollard, was standing right next to me, and he was hit."
The Mirages raked the ship from bow to stern with armour-piercing lead. A bomb exploded near the whaleboat aft of the bridge, and those in the pilothouse and the bridge were thrown from their feet. Commander William L McGonagle grabbed for the engine order annunciator and rang up all ahead flank.
In the communications spaces, radiomen James Halman and Joseph Ward had patched together enough equipment and broken antennae to get a distress call off to the Sixth Fleet, despite intense jamming by the Israelis. "Any station, this is Rockstar," Halman shouted, using the Liberty's voice call sign. "We are under attack by unidentified jet aircraft and require immediate assistance."
"Great, wonderful, she's burning, she's burning," said an Israeli pilot.
At 2:09 pm, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, operating near Crete, acknowledged Liberty's cry for help. "I am standing by for further traffic," it signalled.
After taking out the gun mounts, the Israeli fighter pilots turned their attention to the antennae so the ship could not call for help or pick up any more revealing interceptions. Then the planes attacked the bridge, killing instantly the ship's executive officer. With the Liberty now deaf, blind, and silenced, unable to call for help or move, the Israeli pilots proceeded to kill her. Designed to punch holes in the toughest tanks, their shells tore through the Liberty's steel plating like hot nails through butter, exploding into jagged bits of shrapnel and butchering men deep in their living quarters.
As the slaughter continued, neither the Israelis nor the Liberty crew had any idea that witnesses were present high above. Until now, that is. According to information, interviews and documents obtained, for nearly 35 years the NSA has hidden the fact that one of its planes – a Navy EC-121 ferret – was overhead at the time of the incident, eavesdropping on what was going on below. The interceptions from that plane, which answer some of the key questions about the attack, are among the NSA's deepest secrets.
The ferret had taken off from Athens for its regular patrol of the eastern Mediterranean, and at about the time that the air attack was getting underway, Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin Nowicki heard one of the other Hebrew linguists on the plane excitedly trying to get his attention on the secure intercom. "Hey, chief," he shouted, "I've got really odd activity on UHF. They mentioned an American flag. I don't know what's going on." Nowicki asked the linguist for the frequency and "rolled up to it". "Sure as the devil," said Nowicki, "Israeli aircraft were completing an attack on some object. I alerted the evaluator, giving him sparse details, adding that we had no idea what was taking place."
Deep down in Liberty, Terry McFarland, head encased in earphones, was vaguely aware of flickers of light coming through the bulkhead. He had no idea that they were armour-piercing tracer bullets slicing through the ship's skin. Larry Weaver had run to his general quarters station but it was located on an old helicopter pad that left him exposed and vulnerable. He grabbed a dazed shipmate and pushed him into a safe corner. "I said, 'Fred, stay here, you've just got to because he's coming up the center'," Weaver recalled. "I got in the fetal position," he said, "and before I closed my eyes I looked up and I saw the American flag and that was the last thing I saw before I was hit. I closed my eyes, just waiting for hell's horror to hit me. And I was hit by rocket and cannon fire that blew two and a half feet of my colon out and I received over 100 shrapnel wounds. It blew me up in the air about four and a half, five feet. And just blood everywhere."
Stan White raced through the sick bay for the enclosed NSA spaces. "Torn and mutilated bodies were everywhere," he said. "Horrible sight!"
As soon as the Mirages pulled away, they were replaced by Super Mystere fighters which raked the ship. A later analysis would show 821 separate hits on the hull and superstructure. Now, in addition to rocket, cannon, and machine-gun fire, the Mysteres attacked with 1,000lb bombs and napalm. Deafening explosions tore through the ship and the bridge disappeared in an orange-and-black ball. Lying wounded by shrapnel, his blood draining into his shoe, was Commander McGonagle. Seconds later the fighters were back. Flesh fused with iron as more strafing was followed by more rockets, followed by napalm.
As the last fighter departed, having emptied out its onboard armoury, turning the Liberty's hull into a flaming mass of grey Swiss cheese, sailors lifted mutilated shipmates on to makeshift stretchers of pipe frame and chicken wire. Damage control crews pushed through passageways of suffocating smoke and blistering heat, and the chief petty officer's lounge was converted into a macabre sea of blood-soaked mattresses and shattered bodies.
After landing back at Athens airport, Nowicki and the intercept crew were brought directly to the processing centre. "By the time we arrived at the USA-512J compound," he said, "collateral reports were coming in to the station about the attack on the USS Liberty. The NSA civilians took our tapes and began transcribing. It was pretty clear that Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats attacked a ship in the east Med. Although the attackers never gave a name or a hull number, the ship was identified as flying an American flag. We logically concluded that the ship was the USS Liberty."
At 2.50 pm (Liberty time), 50 minutes after the first shells tore into the ship and as the attack was still going on, the aircraft carrier USS America, cruising near Crete, was ordered to launch four armed A-4 Skyhawks. At the same time, the carrier USS Saratoga was also told to send four armed A-1 attack planes to defend the ship. "Sending aircraft to cover you," the Sixth Fleet told the Liberty at 3:05pm (9:05am in Washington). "Surface units on the way."
At that moment in Washington, President Johnson was at his desk, on the phone, alternately shouting at congressional leaders and coaxing them to support his position on several pieces of pending legislation. But four minutes later he was interrupted by Walt Rostow, national security adviser, on the other line. "The Liberty has been torpedoed in the Mediterranean," Rostow told Johnson excitedly.
The NSA's worst fears had come true. "After considerations of personnel safety," said deputy director Tordella, "one of my immediate concerns, considering the depth of the water and the distance of the ship off shore, had to do with the classified materials on board." Tordella got on the phone to the Joint Reconnaissance Center (JCS) and spoke to the deputy director, a Navy captain named Vineyard. "I expressed my concern that the written material be burned if at all possible, and that the electronic equipment be salvaged if that were possible," he said.
But Tordella was not prepared for what he heard. According to NSA documents – classified top secret – he was told that some senior officials in Washington wanted above all to protect Israel from embarrassment. "Captain Vineyard had mentioned during this conversation," wrote Tordella, "that consideration was then being given by some unnamed Washington authorities to sink[ing] the Liberty in order that newspaper men would be unable to photograph her and thus inflame public opinion against the Israelis. I made an impolite comment about the idea." Almost immediately, Tordella wrote a memorandum for the record, describing the conversation, and then locked it away.
A cover story for the Liberty was then quickly devised. "She was a communications research ship that was diverted from her research assignment," it said, "to provide improved communication-relay links with the several US embassies around the entire Mediterranean during the current troubles."
On the Liberty, black smoke was still escaping through more than 800 holes in the hull, and the effort to hush up the incident had already begun. Within hours of the attack, which left 34 men dead and two-thirds of the rest of the crew wounded, Israel asked President Johnson to quietly bury the incident. "Embassy Tel Aviv," said a highly secret, very limited distribution message to the state department, "urged de-emphasis on publicity since proximity of vessel to scene of conflict was fuel for Arab suspicions that the US was aiding Israel." Shortly thereafter, a total news ban was ordered by the Pentagon. No one in the field was allowed to say anything about the attack. All information was to come only from a few senior Washington officials.
Later that morning, Johnson took the unusual step of ordering the JCS to recall its fighters while the Liberty still lay smouldering, sinking, fearful of another attack and with its decks covered with the dead, dying and wounded. On board the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, Rear Admiral Lawrence R Geis, who commanded the carrier force in the Mediterranean, was angry and puzzled at the recall and protested to the secretary of defense, Robert S. McNamara.
Geis was shocked by what he heard next. "President Lyndon Johnson came on with a comment that he didn't care if the ship sunk, he would not embarrass his allies." Geis told Lieutenant Commander David Lewis, head of the NSA group on the Liberty, about the comment but asked him to keep it secret until after Geis died. It was a promise that Lewis kept.
In the days following the attack, the Israeli government gave the US government a classified report that attempted to justify the claim that the attack was a mistake. On the basis of that same report, an Israeli court of inquiry completely exonerated the government and all those involved. No one was ever court-martialled, reduced in rank or even reprimanded. On the contrary, Israel chose instead to honor motor torpedo boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty. The ship's wheel and bell were placed on prominent display at the naval museum, among the maritime artifacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel had attacked the ship and killed the American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson administration and Congress covered up the entire incident. Johnson was planning to run for president the following year and needed the support of pro-Israel voters.
A mistake or mass murder? It was a question Congress never bothered to address in public hearings at the time. Among those who have long called for an in-depth congressional investigation is Admiral Thomas Moorer, who went on to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. "Congress to this day," he said, "has failed to hold formal hearings for the record on the Liberty affair. This is unprecedented and a national disgrace." Perhaps it is not too late.
Lieutenant General Marshall S. Carter, director of the National Security Agency at the time: "There was no other answer than it was deliberate."
– Dr. Louis Tordella, the deputy director of NSA at the time: "I believed the attack might have been ordered by some senior commander on the Sinai Peninsula [where the massacres were taking place] who wrongly suspected that the Liberty was monitoring his activities." Tordella also scrawled across the top page of the formal Israeli "mistake" report, "A nice whitewash."
– Major General John Morrison, NSA deputy director of Operations at the time: "Nobody believes that explanation. The only conjecture that we ever made that made any near sense is that the Israelis did not want us to intercept their communications at that time."
– Walter Deeley, the senior NSA official who conducted an internal NSA investigation of the incident: "There is no way that they didn't know that the Liberty was American."
– Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "I have to conclude that it was Israel's intent to sink the Liberty and leave as few survivors as possible. Israel knew perfectly well that the ship was American."
– Captain William L. McGonnagle, the Liberty's commander: "After many years I finally believe that the attack was deliberate."
– Phillip F. Tourney, president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association and a survivor of the attack: "The Israelis got by with cold-blooded, premeditated murder of Americans."
– Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence at the time: "Your chapter on the Liberty was exactly right."
– George Christian, press secretary to President Johnson at the time: "I became convinced that an accident of this magnitude was too much to swallow."
– Paul C. Warnke, Under Secretary of the Navy at the time: "I found it hard to believe that it was, in fact, an honest mistake on the part of the Israeli air force units…. I suspect that in the heat of battle they figured that the presence of this American ship was inimical to their interests."
– Dean Rusk, Secretary of State at the time: "The Liberty was flying an American flag. It was not all that difficult to identify, and my judgment was that somewhere along the line some fairly senior Israeli official gave the go-ahead for these attacks."
– David G. Nes, the deputy head of the American mission in Cairo at the time: "I don't think that there's any doubt that it was deliberate…. [It is] one of the great cover-ups of our military history."
– George Ball, Under Secretary of State at the time: "American leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of its citizens."
BTW if you go to Johnson's presidential Library you can read the letters and documents and actual discussions with Johnson from the US officials quoted above.
The people in the Johnson adm who wanted to bury any inguiry into the Liberty kept talking about "domestic considerations"..meaning the jews and the jewish lobby.
So what we have here is US leaders and the US government overlooking the murder of US citizens and sailors because of jewish politics in the US.
So what do American do about it?
NIce take on the USS Liberty, Witty:
"Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present."
Then why don't you say the same thing for the Shoah?
Oh, that was your family involved?
Please go make Israel your permanent residence.
If the Liberty attack is "long long past and effects [sic] nothing in the present," shall Jews say the same of the Holocaust and stop using it as an excuse for their mistreatment of the Palestinians?
The Israeli forces attacked without warning and without attempting to contact us. Thirty four Americans were killed in the attack and another 174 were wounded. The ship, a $40 Million Dollar state of the art signals intelligence platform, was later declared unsalvageable and sold for scrap.
If memory serves, it took Israel at least 13 years to pay a meagre compensation for "the accident."
If anything is revelatory about Richard Witty it is take on the USS LIberty incident. That American young men are dying for Witty's comfort and security is the ultimate travesty and waste.
His kid might join the IDF, but never the US Army. He of course
never served, but has gained a nice life at other's expense, the very ones he despises.
You should also be aware that, after being torpedoed, the Liberty deployed inflatable life rafts in anticipation of needing to abandon ship. These life rafts were machine-gunned by the torpedo boats, apparently with the intent that there would be no survivors. In addition, Captain McGonagle was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in saving the ship, despite his own wounds, but the President stayed away from the unpublicized ceremony, and the award citation fails to mention who attacked. The lack of markings on the Israeli aircraft (a violation of international law), and the jamming efforts to prevent Liberty from sending its distress signals over frequencies known for use by US ships (easily overcome by the "crypto ranger" types manning the ship) are telling evidence of the planning, and the blundering, involved. Johnson and McNamara should be sanctioned by Congress for their betrayal of US interests. The responsible Israelis should also be publicly disgraced. The US-Israeli relationship should be built upon trust and accountability, not on lying to save face. The torpedo boat memorial should be removed.
As I think about this discussion further, I realize that Witty's comment here, more than anything else he's ever said (though it all adds up nicely), convinces me that he has no intellectual integrity whatsoever and, along with Sword of Gideon, is the most blatant example of dual loyalty (or perhaps single loyalty — to Israel) among the regular commenters here. Witty can be counted on to always say whatever seems to him to be "good for Israel" in whatever discussion is underway, even if it isn't true, and even if it contradicts things he's said in other discussions. We shouldn't forget the Holocaust, but oh, let's not talk about the Liberty because it was "a long time ago" — never mind that the Holocaust was more than 20 years earlier.
Witty is a traitor. SOG? He's just a stupid racist.
Doppler, good summary but what is this torpedo boat memorial you mention?
Amazing you are covering this. Rather risque! Next you'll be writing about 9 11 …
"Doppler, good summary but what is this torpedo boat memorial you mention?"
From American's lengthy post above:
"No one was ever court-martialled, reduced in rank or even reprimanded. On the contrary, Israel chose instead to honor motor torpedo boat 203, which fired the deadly torpedo at the Liberty. The ship's wheel and bell were placed on prominent display at the naval museum, among the maritime artifacts of which the Israeli navy was most proud."
If blog spam is allowed, this spurned me on to do my own article (finally) on the USS Liberty Incident.
I would be humbled if you guys would visit and comment on it.
I would especially invite Mr. Weiss.
This is unprecedented for me to do it here (I mostly use DIGG to "shout out" my articles), but the media totally ignoring the Nader questioning McCain on the Liberty Incident and making it an Orwellian un-news (just like the role of the Jewish neocons and AIPAC in the runup to Iraq War 2) really makes my blood boil.
Just click on my username to get to the article or copy and paste:
http://americangoy.blogspot.com
Thank You.
The case against the USS LIberty is the same as Phil's blog against
unAmerican smokescreens put up to smoky-eyed Americans.
McCain is part of the problem.
He helps make the smoke to fog your eyes.
Your sons and daughters have paid, and do pay the price.
Meanwhile, the Wittys and SOGs live well off of you.
No American can feel good about how the USS Liberty was swept under the carpet, and ditto how AIPAC has operated.
Wake up!
The USS Liberty incident, like the NAKBA, and like the comparison of Israel power to Palestinian weakness, is just another gander at the real world Witty ignores because his computer code is so narrow:
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir06232007.html
Why do regular Americans have to support the Wittys?
Want the timeline, even though apparently none of the US sailors on the USS Liberty were Jewish?
OK, I am amazed but here goes:
http://americangoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/uss-liberty-is-not-in-news-again-or-how.html
Witty: "Its long long long past and effects NOTHING in the present."
"…Sounds more like something some twisted anti-semite would write in order to try to demonize Mr. Witty, who sounds rather sane and reasonable…
Posted by: Reader | November 01, 2008 at 11:03 AM"
Some guys read, but never learn.
Anyway, not wishing to be disrespectful, but if you multiply the inaccuracies of the Liberty inquiry by six million… then you get Nuremberg. Maybe if americans were paying the retirement pension of the israeli militaryman who killed the Liberty sailors then you would have some real taste of injustice… oh, in fact americans do pay for it. Well, you know, you have been playing "plus sum games" for too long when in fact you should have played fair justice games.
Maybe Palestine is the place for americans to play fair justice at last and become the country you once dreamed you were.
Wierd.
You think the attack was intentional, on a ship 41 years ago somehow near Israeli waters in wartime and currently significant.
That Nader thinks so too, is actually a further indication of his insignificance.
That Phil would "Nader is always right", is dumb.
Indeed Witty, how can they be so sure it was intentional? It happened in wartime and not a shred of evidence was found it's orders were given by the prime minister. What a fix americans are. Shall they decree how things happened and then spend the next sixty years creating "historical" versions telling how evil israelis were, I mean forty years?
Israel's Attack on the Liberty, Revisited
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
[This is an excerpt from CounterPunch's hot new book, The Politics of Anti-Semitism, just released by AK Press.]
Initial reports on the incident prepared by the CIA, Office of Naval Intelligence and the National Security Agency all reached similar conclusions.
A particularly damning report compiled by a CIA informant suggests that Israeli Defense minister Moshe Dayan personally ordered the attack and wanted it to proceed until the Liberty was sunk and all on board killed. A heavily redacted version of the report was released in 1977. It reads in part:
"[The source] said that Dayan personally ordered the attack on the ship and that one of his generals adamantly opposed the action and said, 'This is pure murder.' One of the admirals who was present also disapproved of the action, and it was he who ordered it stopped and not Dayan."
This amazing document generated little attention from the press and Dayan was never publicly questioned about his role in the attack.
The analyses by the intelligence agencies are collected in a 1967 investigation by the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations. Two and half decades later that report remains classified. Why? A former committee staffer said: "So as not to embarrass Israel."
More proof has recently come to light from the Israeli side. A few years after Attack on the Liberty was originally published, Ennes got a call from Evan Toni, an Israeli pilot. Toni told Ennes that he had just read his book and wanted to tell him his story. Toni said that he was the pilot in the first Israeli Mirage fighter to reach the Liberty. He immediately recognized the ship to be a US Navy vessel. He radioed Israeli air command with this information and asked for instructions. Toni said he was ordered to "attack." He refused and flew back to the air base at Ashdod. When he arrived he was summarily arrested for disobeying orders.
link to counterpunch.org
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The motive for the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was to extend the war by a few days, thereby making sure that they could occupy all of the land.
The Israelis had promised the US a limited campaign. They took away the monitor to be able to continue far beyond that.
Frankly, your description of this alleged "attack" seems over-the-top.
Should we believe at once the tales of these so-called "witnesses" ?
Isn't it time to move on ?
Frankly, your description of this alleged "attack" seems over-the-top.
Should we believe at once the tales of these so-called "witnesses" ?
Isn't it time to move on ?