USS Liberty

iceman_2001_ie

Why did the Israelis attack the USS liberty...opinions?

My own suspicion is that they attacked it, in a concerted attempt to sink it, blame it on the Egyptians and bring the U.S. into the war.

This is an official report given to the U.S. government (Secretary of the Army to be specific) regarding the attack, on behalf of the survivors, families and their supporters

It is long, but make for some very troubling reading.

Please note: I am not too enthusiastic about the vast majority of conspiracy theories, but some really catch my imagination (this above any, because it WAS a cover-up, right to the White House), so please, don't use this thread as an opportunity for Jew/Israel bashing or Revisionist rubbish.

This is the quotation that strikes me the most about this attack

"Never before in the history of the United States Navy has a Navy Board of Inquiry ignored the testimony of American military eyewitnesses and taken, on faith, the word of their attackers.

-- Captain Richard F. Kiepfer, Medical Corps, US Navy (retired), USS Liberty Survivor

Kernel

iceman_2001_ie wrote:

Why did the Israelis attack the USS liberty...opinions?

My own suspicion is that they attacked it, in a concerted attempt to sink it, blame it on the Egyptians and bring the U.S. into the war.

Your opinion is probably correct, the US sent bombers with a nuclear payload to drop on Cairo in retaliation for the act against it's spy ship. Israeli pilots had seen the American markings, reported it, and were ordered to ignore and continue the attack. Mossad has a somewhat chequered history, and mission.

iceman_2001_ie

>> the US sent bombers with a nuclear payload to drop on Cairo in retaliation for the act against

>> it's spy ship

I have never heard that before.
While it doesn't surprise me that the U.S. would retaliate , I find it hard to believe that they would use nuclear weapon in this instance.

Kernel

iceman_2001_ie wrote:

I have never heard that before.
While it doesn't surprise me that the U.S. would retaliate , I find it hard to believe that they would use nuclear weapon in this instance.

You have to remember that this happened in the 60s during the height of the cold war, not so long after the Cuban missile crisis (well several years), where the world was almost consumed by a nuclear armageddon.

Undergod

I've heard that before- the nuclear payload was on the way to Cairo but recalled before they released their payload, becasue they realized it was an israeli attack. According to wikipedia, this was suggested in a BBC documentary in 2002. I'm pretty sure I've seen this and it was good- it'd be worth lookngi for.