Posted: 1/13/2004 7:21:38 AM EDT
|
Let the games begin... www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/12/us.israel.ussliberty/index.html U.S.: Israel was negligent in 1967 ship attack Survivors not satisfied with review's conclusion From Elise Labott CNN Washington Bureau Monday, January 12, 2004 Posted: 9:21 PM EST (0221 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After reviewing documents dating back 36 years, the State Department has concluded that Israel's attack on a U.S. spy ship in 1967 was an act of gross negligence for which it should be held responsible. The USS Liberty was attacked off the Egyptian coast June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, while gathering electronic intelligence. The attack killed 34 Americans and injured another 171. "In many respects this is kind of a classic bi-national case of Murphy's Law," a State Department official said Monday. "Everything that could possibly go wrong, on either side, did." The official said that though Israel should be held responsible for the attack, the United States was also negligent for failing to notify Israel the Liberty was in international waters and for failing to withdraw the ship from the war zone. "This is a ship that should have been hundreds of miles away from the war zone," the official said. Israel fought the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and other Arab states, emerging victorious after six days. The State Department opened a two-day conference on U.S. foreign policy during the period, with a panel dealing with the USS Liberty attack. The conference was scheduled around the release of historical documents about the war. The Israelis have always said the attack on the Liberty, which was monitoring communications in the war, was a tragic accident. The Johnson administration never formally challenged the Israelis' account. But some survivors and senior U.S. officials at the time have said they believe the attack was a deliberate effort to stop American surveillance of Israeli activities during the conflict. In July the National Security Archive released tapes of Israeli pilots and ground control speaking in Hebrew, along with English transcripts. The recordings were made by a nearby American surveillance aircraft after the attack. (Full story) The NSA released the tapes and transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act in response to a request from Judge Jay Cristol of Miami, Florida. Cristol, who wrote a book about the attack, said the tapes show it was a tragic accident in a time of war -- that the Israelis mistook the ship for an Egyptian one. "There was no indication they had any knowledge they were attacking a U.S. ship," Cristol told participants at the conference. The State Department official said that though some maintain the Israeli military was too good to make such a mistake, "if they were that good and if they were that efficient and they deliberately sought to sink a ship, they damned well would have sunk it." The official noted the Israelis attacked the ship first with cannon fire and then napalm, not specialized air-to-sea weapons. The State Department's analysis, the official said, is "that if it was a deliberate, planned attack, you would think an air force as good as the Israelis' would have served up their best bombers, with their biggest bombs. They would have sunk this ship in 30 seconds flat, no witnesses, no evidence, no fingerprints. That didn't happen." James Bamford, the author of a history of the NSA, believes the released tapes suggest the Israelis may have deliberately attacked the Liberty, perhaps fearing -- for some reason not known -- that it was spying on them. Calling for a formal investigation of the incident, Bamford said, "The Israelis said it was a mistake. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. "There were cover-ups," he added, referring to an affidavit by a retired Navy captain, Ward Boston, who charged that then-President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered a Navy inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary." Phil Tourney, who was injured in the attack and is now president of the USS Liberty Survivors' Association, said the association is not satisfied with the "gross negligence" conclusion. Tourney said the survivors were kept from telling their ordeal. "War crimes were committed by the Israelis that day," Tourney said. "A thorough investigation should be done, and the Israelis should be held accountable." |
| Well, to anyone who's interested, I can e-mail you the chapter concerning the USS Liberty incident from the book [url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385499086?tag=arfcom00-20]Body of Secrets[/URL] by James Bamford, which describes the incident in detail from the NSA's point of view. Intercepts, eye witness accounts, the works. |
|
Quoted: Well, to anyone who's interested, I can e-mail you the chapter concerning the USS Liberty incident from the book [url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385499086?tag=arfcom00-20]Body of Secrets[/URL] by James Bamford, which describes the incident in detail from the NSA's point of view. Intercepts, eye witness accounts, the works. I've read that. Not sure how much of it I take as gospel, however. Kar, you must have a sweat shop in Mexico with small children chained to computers with scanners and text-recognition softwares. You seem to have the LOC in HTML format. [;D] |
|
Quoted: Well, to anyone who's interested, I can e-mail you the chapter concerning the USS Liberty incident from the book [url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385499086?tag=arfcom00-20]Body of Secrets[/URL] by James Bamford, which describes the incident in detail from the NSA's point of view. Intercepts, eye witness accounts, the works. Read it. No big megillah! I also read James Bamford's 1982 book, [b]The Puzzle Palace[/b], on the NSA, as well. You do know that Bamford changed his theory on [u]why[/u] the Israelis may have attacked the USS Liberty between the two books, right? Wonder why? [:D] My own views on this matter are well known. Eric The(Nebbish)Hun[>]:)] |
|
See, for example: [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=211351&w=searchPop[/url] [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=193352&w=searchPop[/url] [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=195192&w=searchPop[/url] [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=195035&w=searchPop[/url] [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=191882&w=searchPop[/url] [url]www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=204346&w=searchPop[/url] [url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=213977&w=searchPop[/url] And the 'granddaddy' of them all, coming in with [b]15 pages[/b], 366 Replies, and 3600+ Reads: [url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=204346&w=searchPop[/url] That last one is contained in a thread that is innocently titled [b]'Israeli combat training offered to American tourists!!!!!!'[/b] Now, that should give idle minds something to read for the next several days, or so. BTW, there has only been [u]one[/u] thread on the Iraqi attack on the [b]USS Stark[/b], in which more American lives were lost on the high sea. I should know - I posted it! [:D] Eric The(ButY'allHaveSoMuchToSayAboutIsrael!)Hun[>]:)] |
|
Quoted: I've read that. Not sure how much of it I take as gospel, however. Nothing should be taken as the gospel truth(unless you're a devout Christian, then you can take the Gospel as gospel, of course ;) Read that chapter (the Isrealis did it, those evil fucks! On purpose! And then it was hushed up for decades!) and read Eric's opinion (The Israelis are our friends! They are saints and can't do anything wrong!) and the truth lies probably somewhere inbetween. Personally, I'll wait for David Irving's take on the story, and take /his/ book at face value ;-) Kar, you must have a sweat shop in Mexico with small children chained to computers with scanners and text-recognition softwares. You seem to have the LOC in HTML format. [;D] A raw scan of a medium-sized book, say about 350 pages, can be done in about 90 minutes. Have the computer OCR the pictures of the pages to "rich text", time depends on your computer's capabilities, and then proof-read it for a first time. The latter takes about a tenth of the time it would take you to actually read the book. Then post the book as version 1.0 or UC, and have other people make corrections. It's a pretty slick process. By the time it reaches version 5.0, you have a 100% proofed e-copy of the book, including the original formatting, illustrations and footnotes. Occasionally of course you luck out and somebody gets his mitts on the file that is sent to the printers. That way you have your e-book months before it actually goes on sale. Other times, a book is so hyped, dozens of people scan different chapters, and it is available 8 hours after it hits the shelves (Harry Potter 5 comes to mind). |