USS Liberty

[Robert Ryan]

When I first started treatment for PTSD in 1987, there was a crew member from the Liberty in our group. Never knew about the incident until he told us about it.

[darrels joy]

Darrel does NOT support Israel to this day due to this incident.

An advantage/disadvantage of being a "lifer" is that you hear about things when they happen and then, as the real story and rumors get passed through the military community, you learn more than you can ever talk about. He won't talk to me about it to this day.

Joy

[revwardoc]

One "conspiracy theory" I read about the Liberty was that we (the US government) struck a deal with the Israelis to sink the Liberty, then blame the whole thing on the Egyptians so we could actively go to war in support of Israel against the Arab states mustered against it. Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and politicians (or should I say, mice and rats) often go astray, and the Liberty was just too tough to die, thereby thwarting those plans. Personally, I wouldn't put it past LBJ and "Mad Mac" MacNamara to try to pull off something like that.

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by Boats Friendly fire KIA's have been a little too frequent and are very unfortunate.

Boats,

I have to take issue with the characterization of the murderous attack on USS Liberty as "friendly fire." The Israelis had been sending out aircraft to look her over all day. They knew who she was and what she was. The excuses they later offered are so absurd as to be an insult to the intelligence of anyone reading them.

To put this into better perspective, imagine the following hypothetical situation:

A man lives in a neighborhood where he feels that all of his neighbors hate him. He is currently engaged in a highly acrimonious dispute over the boundaries of his land. The dispute has gotten to the point where the neighbors shoot at one another. Not everyone in the neighborhood is involved in this dispute, however. It is limited to just four or five landowners.

First Variation:

One evening, after going to bed, the man hears what he believes to be someone breaking into his house. He gets his gun and goes downstairs to investigate. Just as he arrives downstairs, he sees someone crawling in through his front window. The man shoots the person coming through the window. Later, it turns out that he shot his own son who, having forgotten his house key, was trying to enter the house without waking his father.

This is what we call ?friendly fire.?

Second Variation:

One morning, the same man looks out his window and sees a woman pushing a baby carriage in the public park across the street from his house. She doesn?t appear to be in a hurry and she loiters most of the morning in the park with her child. The man regularly looks out his window and sees her in the park.

The man?s son reports that the neighbors may or may not be shooting at part of his property. There have been similar reports in the past and all have been false. Nonetheless, the man decides to take action. He takes two handguns and a rifle and walks across the street to the park. There, without warning, he begins shooting at the woman and her child. Fortunately he is a bad shot. This first attack only wounds the mother and the child. Because of her wound, the woman cannot get away from the park.

Out of ammunition, the man goes back to his house and sends his son to finish her off.. The son proceeds to the park and begins shooting at the woman and her child. This time the son gets as close as a few feet away from the woman and her baby. His is able to kill the baby and wound the woman to the point where it looks as though she will not survive.

In the distance, he hears police sirens. He returns to his house and his father calls 911 to report that he and the son accidentally shot someone. When the police arrive, they ask the man what happened and he tells them that it was a tragic accident. He assures them that he will investigate himself and let them know the results. They accept his explanation and leave. Later, the police visit the woman in the hospital and admonish her not to speak out about the attack, ever, or she will face criminal prosecution.

The man completes his self-investigation and concludes that he has done nothing wrong. He specifically finds that he was not criminally negligent and that the whole thing was an excusable, tragic accident ? an understandable instance of friendly fire. He finds that he believed that someone was shooting at his property from the park and he mistook the woman with the baby for a group of gang members. He further finds that the woman and her baby are at least equally at fault for being in the area, even though they remained at all times in a public park.

The District Attorney convenes a board to investigate the shootings. He allows some of the witnesses to appear, but disallow most of the eyewitnesses. As to those witnesses who are allowed to testify, the board limits their testimony to issues concerning what the woman did to defend herself, but the board does not allow the witnesses to testify at all about the attackers. Not all of the potential evidence is even available yet, but the board very quickly concludes that ?on the basis of the available evidence? the attack was a tragic accident.

This is what Israel calls "friendly fire."

[reconeil]

First and foremost, and not meaning to come on too whoussey, I'm sure that most all Americans feel great sorrow for the deadly tragedy of The USS Liberty,...as no doubt feeling sorry for any American Servicemens' (women also) lives cut short before their time or wounded. Doesn't matter whether caused by: "Friendly Fire", "The Cloud of War" or hostile enemy action.

Regardless, and when it comes to that: "Cover Up" business, the best I can do is wish everyone Good Luck. After all, if ironically The Most Open Nation on Earth (re. America) has sealed all THE REAL RECORDS of The JFK Assassination FOR 75 YEARS from The American People,...I don't all of a sudden see The U.S. Government being all that open or spilling-the-beans (ALL OF THEM) about The USS Liberty attack. That's just not in the cards.

Still, truly makes one wonder just-whom-the-hell are protecting whom or what,...regarding both JFK and The USS Liberty?
Whatever(?) or whomever(?), one thing is for certain in both cases,...NO ONE seems intent on being very open with The American People and/or Survivors, Families and Friends of The USS Liberty (Ironic ship name, considering.) inclusive.

Besides, and in both cases, what can possibly be more hurtful hearing about by: "We The People",...other than the already heard about AMERICAN DEATHS?

Neil :cd: :cd: :cd:

[82Rigger]

Found this on the web:



Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so 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.

Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.

The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has confirmed this. Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. government had any interest in hearing these first-person accounts.

***

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, launched four armed A-4 Skyhawks. At the same time, the carrier USS Saratoga was also told by Sixth Fleet to send four armed A-1 attack planes to defend the ship. "Sending aircraft to cover you," the Sixth Fleet told the Liberty at 3:05 pm (9.05 am in Washington). "Surface units on the way."

President Johnson ordered that the Sixth Fleet 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 defence, Robert S McNamara.
Geis was shocked by what he heard next. "President Lyndon Johnson came on with a comment that "I will not have our allies embarrassed. I don't give a god damn who gets killed." 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.

[reconeil]

I've always considered most politicians (especially phoney or feigning liberalism for acquiring power & control)) the lowest form of troublesome, parasitic and/or accomplish-nothing low-lifes. But, and given this latest revelation about such: "Sanctimonious Civilian Warlords",...I guess it's more than fair calling such scum: "Lower than whale sh-t".

Whatever, such pompously hypocritical politicos don't even seem like ACTUAL Americans?
Are "They"?

Neil

[John Hrankowski]

If I may refer you all to our web page, http://www.ussliberty.org

Our web sight is very detailed and give you as much information as we have come up with to this day. The web page also gives you books and videos that have been made about the USS Liberty. Thanks you for you input.

John

[reconeil]

Check-check. Very interesting site, even though sad that such would even be necessary here in:

"Land of The Free and Home Of The Brave" .

Regardless, and even though: "Swabbies" or "Anchor-Crankers" (my typical b-bustin and worse for Marines),...I WISH YOU & YOURS WELL (some Final Justice also).

Plus, my salute and "GarryOwen" TO YOU ONE & ALL.

Neil

[locksly]

[The heinous attack of the USS Liberty was NOT an incident of friendly fire, but a deliberate and unprovoked assault on one of our ships] I will agree with that . The ISRALIES are not trusting of any other nation. The navy makes a lot of mistakes they dont guard the noncombat ships at all and ALQUADI know this too. They had better wake up or the terroists will do this to the so called new Navy.