On June 8th, 1967, Israel military officials attacked the USS liberty, killing 34 while injuring 170+ soldiers.

A new documentary on the USS liberty attack, provides the viewer with recently obtained audio footage that we previously have not heard. The recently obtained audio footage proves that Israel officials knew all along that they were attacking an American ship.

In the 2:10 mark of the video, the audio footage shows that, during the assault on the liberty, the Israeli officials knew that they were attacking an American ship.

Pilot: What state does the ship belong to?
Control Tower: American

In addition, the documentary interviews a # of US soldiers who served on the USS liberty. These soldiers seemed quite upset in the interview about how not enough has been done irt the USS Liberty situation. The US soldiers talk about how(around 11:30 mark) Israels were violating international law by jamming distress frequencies and tactical frequencies. The US soldiers talk about how Israel knew about the identity of the ship, yet still attacked. At one point during the USS Liberty attack, the Israelis dropped Napalm on the Liberty.

Its unfortunate that the liberty was merely armed with 50 caliber machine guns, which the US soldiers suggest is not good enough to take on a Jet traveling at 600MPH.


At the end of the video, one of the soldiers suggested that this is not about the average Israeli or the average Jew,

The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme positions taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theorist and other such groups which often seek to identify with us and to usurp our story as their own


http://www.gtr5.com/

rather this is about the folks who were responsible for killing 34 Americans and injuring 170+, and bringing those folks to justice.

In closing,

Every year, on June 8th, and in Washington DC, survivors, relatives, and supporters of the USS liberty attack come together to honor the names of the 34 soldiers killed on June 8th, 1967.

http://www.gtr5.com/


In an ongoing effort to reveal the truth about the attack, the USS Liberty Veterans Association has filed with the Secretary of the Army in the manner prescribed by law a detailed, fully documented Report of War Crimes describing the circumstances of the attack on our ship and evidence that it was a crime under international law.

So what is the point of this post?

Seriously?

Yes? I mean, thanks thekid for the report on why jews are actually bad, was really enlightening and certainly won't lead to any racist discussion because of this clever disclaimer:

The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme positions taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theorist and other such groups which often seek to identify with us and to usurp our story as their own.

That settles it!

Where did thekid say Jews are bad? The documentary is about political and military activity.

C'mon. We ain't existing in a vacuum.

Thekid likes to discuss Middle East issues and criticizes Israel so? I'm looking forward to watching this video now only because thekid posted it.

Why do we want thekid to feel defensive by implying he is anti-Semitic? I thought he was openly for peace in the Middle East?

omg

It's just very whiny to call somebody a Jew hater if they are not Jew haters and whininess is a forum crime. You guys might even get a citation if the whininess about the kid continues.

Anyway this thread topic is exactly the kind of controversial event that unchained was made to cook. Is it a conspiracy theory designed to make Jews look bad or big mistake made by the State of Israel? Probably both, but I am not well informed yet.

gulp

I actually agree with thekid on this one. Israel intentionally attacked the Liberty and Johnson swept the whole thing under the rug because he didn't think he had a choice. It was pretty ****ing awful that this was just accepted by our government at the time.

Seems like it was something terrible, but Israel apologized and paid the victims $7M and $6M to the US for damage to the ship. A terrible terrible thing that happened 47 years ago.

A lot worse mistakes have happened in war. E.g., the British accidentally killed over 10000 concentration camp survivors in one incident.

It wasn't a mistake, though. That's the thing.

I don't mean accident. I don't have time to watch the documentary now, but I'm assuming it wasn't part of a plan or policy of Israel's, but the wrong actions of a few individuals.

Obviously it's horrible and deserved an apology and compensation either way.

I wouldn't say it was accepted if we got compensation. Champ, do you think we should have retaliated militarily?

Reading the wiki article it seems very much like a fog of war incident.

How many Americans have Muslims killed?

No (I don't think that would have gotten us anywhere because they would never have admitted to it and we would just look like we were overreacting), but we should have held Israel accountable for more than just compensation. At the time, there was a fair amount we could have done to punish Israel that didn't involve military retaliation.

Who else could have been in the area? Israel jammed transmissions. They knew it was an American ship that could have been spying on Israel and they knew they could get away with taking it out. I don't buy for one second Israeli command didn't know what was going on.

How is the relevant to thekid posting inflammatory anti-Israel content?

Even assuming all this is true, who the **** cares? Japan wanted to wipe us off the map, but now, you know, PlayStation.

Thekid is just starting this thread to gin up anti-Israel sentiment. Whether that's because he is genuinely an anti-Semite or because he is butthurt that people are mad at Muslims, I don't know. Either way it's terrible, terrible posting.

According to the wiki

The US had ordered ships to stay farther away and the Liberty didn't receive the orders because of technical problems. So, perhaps Israel was unlikely to expect or accept that a ship was American.

Israel says that due in part to fatigue, there were errors.

There was a mistaken report of an Egytian ship.

The Liberty had been marked as a nuetral ship, but at some point the notations were refreshed and the ship wasn't correctly remarked. (Like on the war room board)

A pilot on flyby failed to report the ship's markings.

It was only 3 days into a war, but for the pilots that was probably 3 days with no sleep.

----

The alternate explanation is that Israel attacked the ship on purpose? With who knowing that it was American?

I think I'm going to have to page Gamblor.

Even after the attack Israel thought the ship was Egyptian and radio talk was overheard by the NSA where Israelis talked about sending a ship to rescue survivors and making sure rescuers spoke Arabic.

Why else do you think he posted it?

I know that, but his post is still terrible even if the number of Americans killed by Muslims is zero.

Surprised at champstark for repeating trutherism.

Anyhoo, evidence swings pretty hard to some variation of "mistake" but there is circumstantial evidence otherwise (coming mainly from the American veterans of the incident and the usual suspects), and I can't rule out that it was something else. There was certainly no officer meeting where an attack on an American ship was ever discussed. If i had to guess, I might concede that the pilots suspected it might not be an Egyptian ship, but played it safe and hit it anyway.

In any event, Israel and the US were not allies until after the 6 Day War, and Israel issued a full apology, paid out compensation to the families, and even paid for all repairs to the ship, with interest.

If this is still an issue to you, you probably were personally affected, or really, really hate the Jewish state.

I still have not watched the video, but it seems implausible at face-value that Israel would intentionally target an American ship in that spot. What would be a realistic motivation to do so?