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The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Spy Ship
by Jay Cristol http://www.danielpipes.org/488/the-liberty-incident-the-1967-israeli-attack-on-the-us-spy Rarely, if ever, has a single incident of war received the scrutiny given to Israel's attack in the midst of the June 1967 War on the U.S.S. Liberty. This episode, which occurred on June 8, left 34 Americans dead and 171 wounded, was immediately acknowledged by Israeli authorities as a ghastly mistake; a multitude of Israeli and American inquiries then confirmed that an error lay at the heart of the tragedy. But conspiracy theories pointing to a purposeful Israeli attack arose quickly and have persisted through the years, promoted in part by members of the Liberty's crew. On January 2, 2003, Jay Cristol replied to his critics on this site with the following comments: The negative user comments posted in response to the Daniel Pipes review of my book "The Liberty Incident" have one thing in common. They all are from persons who have their minds made up and it appears most are not interested in the facts and have not read the book. If after you read the book and visit my website The U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry convened just days after the event made 52 findings of fact. Three of the most important findings are: 1. Available evidence combines to indicate the attack on Liberty on 8 June was in fact a case of mistaken identity, 2. The calm conditions and slow ship speed may well have made the American flag difficult to identify, and 3. There are no available indications that the attack was intended against a U.S. ship. The 727 page record, including 155 pages of sworn testimony by the commanding officer of the ship, William McGonagle, and other Liberty crew members, may be obtained from the Navy Judge Advocate General. Admiral John McCain, the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Naval Forces Europe (and father of Senator McCain), endorsed the Court of Inquiry:
The Central Intelligence Agency in a letter from its director to a United States Senator dated February 27, 1978 stated the position of the CIA:
Clark Clifford, Chair of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, reported to the President
Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1967 that there was
In 1981, the National Security Agency blamed Israeli miscalculations and American communications failures for the tragedy. Eight U.S. Presidents, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush, have all agreed that the Liberty incident was a tragic case of mistaken identity. My book, "The Liberty Incident," is a collection of all the official investigations plus my own investigation and an analysis of the many contradictory conspiracy theories endorsed by some of the negative commentators. I merely suggest the reasonable approach to reaching a conclusion on this matter is to read the book before making a decision. Related Topics: History, Israel receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL. Reader comments (40) on this item
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All materials written by Daniel Pipes on this site © 1968-2010 Daniel Pipes. Email: MeqMef@aol.com You can help support Daniel Pipes' work by making a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum. |
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