American Legion Joins VFW Call for Congressional Investigation of Israel Attack on USS Liberty

The USS Liberty was absolutely the most sophisticated intelligence gathering ship in the world & had the ability to eavesdrop on any country anywhere in the region.

There's no way that the USS Liberty could not have heard of the Israeli massacres of Egyptian POWs only 12 miles away and since the Liberty was designed to intercept all radio traffic there's no way it could not have discovered this Israeli massacre.



(1) "Four Decades of Twisting Facts About Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty"
By James Ennes

https://www.wrmea.org/007-may-june/...-about-israels-attack-on-the-uss-liberty.html
EXCERPT "More than a decade ago we wrote in these pages that Israeli forces shot and killed 150 or more Egyptian prisoners of war at the town of El Arish while the USS Liberty passed just 12 miles off shore (see “Did Israel’s Armed Forces Commit One War Crime to Hide Another?” in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1996 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, p. 2.

The story of the massacre originally came from Israeli eyewitnesses, was reported in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot and again, recently, by Israeli journalist Ran Adelist on Israeli television. Yet, then and now, it has largely been ignored in the American press and by the American government, despite the fact that this massacre was a serious war crime and could well have been the reason for the attack on the Liberty."CONTINUED


(2) "Historians: Israeli Troops Killed Hundreds Of Egyptian POWs"
https://www.apnews.com/25ac46caafc811c70c9367f04ef136fb

EXCERPT "Military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israeli troops carried out several mass killings in 1967 in which some 1,000 Egyptian prisoners were killed in the Sinai.
Yitzhaki, who worked in the army’s history department after the war, said he and other officers collected testimony from dozens of soldiers who admitted killing POWs.
In one incident, on June 9-10, 1967, some 400 Egyptian and Palestinian prisoners were killed in the sand dunes of El Arish, Yitzhaki said." CONTINUED

 

Who is trying to "...terminate your existence as a person and a nation"?

 

Do you have actual evidence any radio transmissions were made by the Israelis about massacres of Egyptian POWs (assuming they occurred)?

That doesn't sound like the sort of thing that any military personnel would put out over the airwaves.

Once again you're searching for a motive to explain an attack which you've already decided was deliberate and premeditated.

 

No one is trying to terminate my existence. However, several of the Arab nations have declared as a national objective to wipe Israel of the face of the earth. With that objective in mind, Israel tends to operate with a very short fuse as would most nations.

 

The Egyptians would certainly have broadcast that Israelis were massacring Egyptians as would any Red Cross personnel or news agencies operating in the area. Dissenting Israelis like those who confessed to the massacres, too, would have broadcast their disagreement with the practice.

There's no question that IDF members massacred hundreds of Egyptian POWs as even former IDF members confessed to the war crimes.

As I've noted earlier, the "why" is not as important as the "who":

- Who in the Israeli government ordered the deliberate attack on the Liberty & "...leave no survivors"?

- Who caused LBJ to recall US fighters & why was he willing to sacrifice the lives of 294 Americans to appease powerful Israeli lobbies.

- Who are the traitors in US Government that were & remain complicit in the cover up and fighting a full Congressional investigation.

- Who was the courageous & ethical Israeli pilot who refused to participate in mass murder of American G.I.s (1)

There are multiple motives for the deliberate attempt by an "ally" to murder 294 Americans and any loyal American with an ounce of common sense can figure out that after 8 hours of close Israeli reconnaissance, the Israelis knew that they were attacking a clearly marked ship and proceeded to kill as many Americans as possible.



(1) "Israeli Pilot Speaks Up"
https://www.wrmea.org/1993-june/the-assault-on-the-uss-liberty-still-covered-up-after-26-years.html

EXCERPT "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."CONTINUED

 

The answer to your question is quite simple.

The Israelis assumed that by jamming all 5 emergency channels which only the Israelis & Americans knew, the Liberty would not be able to broadcast the nationality of their attackers.

To be sure, the initial Israeli attack was done with unmarked planes to further destroy the Liberty's ability to communicate.
After both measures, the Israelis assumed that all the Liberty's communication ability was destroyed and they could use Israeli marked planes & torpedo boats.

Additionally, since the Israelis planned to massacre the entire crew ( "...leave no survivors."), they didn't need to hide their identity since "dead men tell no tales"

Finally, no sane Israeli pilot would be out flying an Egyptian marked MiG during those hostilities.

 

If what you claim is true then it is utterly ridiculous to claim that Israel planned to blame the Egyptians for the attack.

 

This is very well known Grau.

Due to the confrontation with the Soviet Navy in the Mediterranean, the carrier crews were involved in a nuclear weapons handling exercise at the time the call from the Liberty arrived. So several of the aircraft spotted on the decks were armed with nuclear weapons (spawning the ridiculous claim that U.S. aircraft were being sent to launch a nuclear strike on Cairo). This meant that a number of the aircraft launched (including all the ground attack ones) had nuclear weapons attached. It was decided that just maybe it was a bad idea to send U.S. aircraft carrying nuclear weapons (even unarmed ones) into a potential war zone so they were recalled.

 

Is there any evidence any such transmissions were ever made? You saying "would certainly have broadcast" and "as would any" is not in itself evidence of transmissions being made at that time.

 

Yes the single most decorated action by a ship is not remembered, I wonder why?

We have been through this twice on both occasions you simply said you do not care.

 

Because if you think very carefully the answers are obvious, if I point them out to you, you will just say, I do not care Israel can do what it wants!

 

I don't. But whether I care or not has no bearing on whether they are lies or not.

A lie is much more than a simple statement of falsehoods. Motives and other factors go into determining that.

 

I am sorry you are no longer making sense, now you want to redefine lie? Why are you defending a country that killed 34 of your sailors and wounded 170 in an attack on a ship clearly displaying the US flag and identified earlier that day by the Israelis in international waters? Why?

 

I have never seen actual evidence beyond the claims of some (not all) crew of the Liberty that the ship was displaying the U.S. flag. Obviously it was initially but that flag was shot away in the initial strafing attack (even all the ships crew agrees with that). The Liberty crew hoisted a larger U.S. flag but if the fires aboard were burning as fiercely as almost everyone on both sides agree, then I can see it quite possible that smoke obscured that flag.

Yeah, Israel did identify the Liberty as a U.S. ship in international waters. But from what I've read, that identification was HOURS earlier and that after the shift change at the Israeli headquarters the identification icon for the Liberty was removed (as the information was at that point considered out of date).

To the Israeli officers who were on duty when the attack occurred, it appeared that the Liberty had sailed away (as it was ordered to by the U.S. fleet) and the ship observed as off the coast of the Sinai was an unidentified, possibly a warship.

I'm defending a nation that has been an ally of the U.S. for more than 50 years. A nation that helped the U.S. develop anti fighter techniques for use in the Vietnam War which certainly saved the lives of numerous (possibly hundreds of) American pilots and aircrew. This at a time that many of America's European "allies" were bitching and moaning about our war in Vietnam.

An ally that thanks to their unique position in the Middle East has offered the U.S. an excellent opportunity to test its weapons and tactics against those of the Soviets.

All in all, the U.S. has gotten a lot out of supporting Israel.

 

Incredible utterly incredible!

 

Do you have some kind of belief that soldiers/sailors never make mistakes? Surely if I advanced such a notion I would be called guilty of nationalistic boorishness

 

I am sorry to be frank you sicken me. You apparently do not understand that by attacking a ship in international waters the Israelis were committing a war crime, it is incredible, anything to support them against your own side. I am done talking to you.

On June 8, 1967 the USS Liberty was cruising in the Mediterranean in International waters ordered to monitor the Israeli-Arab war. In the morning the ship was circled a dozen times by low flying Nord propeller "boxcars" at mast height with Israeli designation. The planes flew at mast height; the men on the ship could see the teeth of the pilots as they smiled. They waved at them. The ship was flying a 4’ x 7’ American flag; it stood straight out on a clear, breezy day. The ship had large letter designation on the bow GTR-5. The attack by unmarked Israeli planes (Israel says the attack was an accident – the ship was an Egyptian horse carrier – less than 1/2 the size of the USS Liberty) commenced in the afternoon in International waters. After the attack with cannon, rockets, napalm and torpedo fire; the torpedo boats came back and machine gunned the life rafts as they were thrown overboard (a war crime according to International Law). 34 men were killed and 171wounded (out of a crew of 291) this day by the Israelis. The men on board the ship call it murder. Captain Ward Boston was given one week to conduct an investigation of the attack. Before he died Ward Boston signed an affidavit stating that the attack on the USS Liberty was deliberate.
Many American intelligence servicemen have come forward stating they overheard the Israelis identifying the ship as American. I do not believe the Israeli government – I believe it is lying.

https://www.usslibertyveterans.org/letter_to_bibi.html

 

There is nothing there that makes the accounts of crewman aboard the U.S.S. Liberty any more credible than they should be.

And attacking a ship in international waters is an act of war. Not a war crime. Obviously you do not know the difference.

And just because the attack was "deliberate" in no way means it was not a legitimate mistake on the part of Israel.

And size plays little role in proper identification.

 

So you take the word of the Israelis over what you say are your own countries sailors, incredible!
Now what evidence do you have that the Liberty was not flying the US flag?

So we can agree the Israelis committed an act of war against your country?

Again you simple wish to redefine words to get your beloved Israel off the hook!

Oh do tell what is!
Again you take the stories of proven liars over your own countrymen, serving their country for YOU.

 

In order of your question marks.

1) I have no evidence either way. So I'm not assuming incriminating evidence.
2) Of course.
3) What makes you think I "love" Israel? I've never been to Israel. Don't know any residents of Israel personally. And to my knowledge have never even conversed with an Israeli citizen.
4) As far as I know none of the Israelis involved in the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty ever lied to me or the United States.

I have a question for you:

IIRC you are British. Why aren't you constantly up in arms about the U.S. destroying what was it two British Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles in Operation: Desert Storm by two U.S. A-10s launching Maverick missiles? I can look it up but I'm pretty sure more than a dozen British soldiers were killed.

 

What makes you think I have not?

 

Yes you do, you have the evidence given by your own ****ing sailors!

The Israeli government was lying to the White House and lying to the UN and lying to the world, yet you still deny it!

 

I heard about the USS Liberty while in the US Army. The last unit to which I was assigned was an Airborne Rapid Deployment Unit to defend Israel. I was told the truth about the Liberty & not to trust our Israeli ally all of which seemed rotten at that time. (early 1970s).

What is almost as chilling as this cold blooded Israeli betrayal is the extent of the US Government & MSM complicity in the cover up & number of professionally deceived "Liberty Deniers" to this day.

I've read accounts of how outrageously insulted the IDF and other Israeli officials were to have to claim that they couldn't identify a ship they had closely watched for 8 hours.

As you already know, visibility was perfect that day, the Israelis observed the ship at sunrise which was clearly flagged and marked until they attacked 8 hours later for almost 2 hours.

It's no wonder so few people have heard the truth about the Liberty as the crew members have been silenced by their government, ignored & shunned by America's MSM they've even been threatened at home:


"50 years later, truth still matters to USS Liberty crewman who survived attack by Israelis"
https://www.modbee.com/news/local/n...f-jardine/article153082569.html#storylink=cpy

EXCERPT "In 1982, after the first reunion of the USS Liberty Veterans Association, Ron Grantski returned to his Modesto home and flipped on the phone’s message recorder.

Several played, and then this one: “You’d better stop talking about the USS Liberty and Israel,” Grantski recalls the voice saying. “Something will happen to you.”

Nothing’s happened. Grantski is still here at 70 years old. He believes the best way he can honor 34 shipmates killed when unmarked Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats attacked the super-secret spy ship on June 8, 1967, in the Mediterranean Sea is to speak his mind about the attack and the coverup that followed. Memorial Day, he said, is as good as any to do so after being told for decades to shut up.

Grantski and others believe the attack was intentional, that Israel did not as it claimed mistake the USS Liberty for another ship when it tried to sink it on the fourth day of the Six Days War.

And Moorer questioned why U.S. air support for the ship never arrived.

“In the Liberty case, fighters were put in the air not once, but twice. They were ordered to stand down by Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Johnson for reasons the American public deserves to know,” Thomas wrote. “The captain and crew of the Liberty, rather than being widely acclaimed as the heroes they most certainly are, have been silenced, ignored, honored belatedly and away from the cameras, and denied a history that accurately reflects their ordeal.”CONTINUED

 

\

eyewitness accounts are considered by far the least reliable forms of evidence

 

I've explained that to you more than once. You simply choose to ignore it.