Originally posted by Zerbst
Originally posted by mrmonsoon
You are clearly Anti-Isreali/Jewish.
Your favorite sources are Iran's (their biggest emeny) state run propaganda machine.
Lets just say, for the sake of discussion, you are correct.
Time to grow up and get over it, seriously.
Let me give you some examples of getting over it:
1)Japan bombed Perl Harbor sinking many ships and killing many thousands of sailors.
Japan was responsible for cruel death marches from it's prisioners of war.
Japan has the rape of nanking(sp?)
Japan took wemon from other countries and made them sex slaves.
For that matter, the US dropped two nukes on Japan
Both Japan and the US have gotton over it.
Germany invaded/ concored and took over France in WW2, they are now both members of NATO
and so on, the list goes on and on.
The thing is, the West moves on from these things, your refusal to let it go shows a M.E. mentality of never forgive, never peace, just kill,kill,
kill. (like the Iranian propaganda you preach from Presstv.ir.
By your mentaility, Israel shoul;d just completly distroy egypt, Jordan,Saudi Arabia,Iran....who have all attacked Israel a number of times.
(granted, they got their collective arses kicked, but still)
We have forgiven Japan and they are an allie.
[edit on 6/9/2009 by mrmonsoon]
You are delusional. Japan was our enemy. Do you understand that? They were also forced into attacking the US, by the US. The American government
illegally cut off Japan's lifeline and forced their hand. Their only means for desperately needed oil was to cripple the Pacific fleet leaving them
unable to stop Japan's quest for oil down there. The US created and let this happen. They did this purposely to gain public favor as a means to enter
the war. America refused to have any part of it until the tragedy at Pearl Harbor. Afterward over a million men volunteered to fight in the war.
What the US did was wrong to both Japan and it's own citizens. I'm an American, but I cannot deny or defend these actions taken by my country. Do
you see the difference between denial and admission of wrong doing? You think Jews can do no wrong because you're a Jew. I think wrong is wrong no
matter what and I'm strong enough to admit it.
You can never compare the cowardly Israeli army to the US or Japan. Unlike them, Israel attacked a defenseless American allied ship? They killed and
wounded those they called their allies in hopes the US would fight their war with Egypt for them. Another cowardly act by a delusional, despicable
country. That's what you are defending and nothing you say can change the past.
Why not get a better understanding of reality? What you have been told is obviously not the truth. Even the part that makes you think you are better
than everyone else. This is why Jews have so much hate against them. Open your eyes to your culture. Though you may not like what you see?
Well said, good to see someone who knows what he is talking about. 
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OLD NEWS:
The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a
full-scale war in 1967. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack
was a tragic mistake.
On June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Six-Day War, the Israeli high command received reports that Israeli troops in El Arish were being fired upon
from the sea, presumably by an Egyptian vessel, as they had a day before. The United States had announced that it had no naval forces within hundreds
of miles of the battle front on the floor of the United Nations a few days earlier; however, the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship assigned
to monitor the fighting, arrived in the area, 14 miles off the Sinai coast, as a result of a series of United States communication failures, whereby
messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty. The Israelis mistakenly thought this was the ship doing
the shelling and war planes and torpedo boats attacked, killing 34 members of the Liberty's crew and wounding 171.
Numerous mistakes were made by both the United States and Israel. For example, the Liberty was first reported — incorrectly, as it turned out — to
be cruising at 30 knots (it was later recalculated to be 28 knots). Under Israeli (and U.S.) naval doctrine at the time, a ship proceeding at that
speed was presumed to be a warship. The sea was calm and the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry found that the Liberty's flag was very likely drooped and not
discernible; moreover, members of the crew, including the Captain, Commander William McGonagle, testified that the flag was knocked down after the
first or second assault.
According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore.28 The day
fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels.29 The
Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be
sent near Sinai.
A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir.
After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they
responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff investigated the communications failure and noted that the Chief of Naval Operations expressed concern about the prudence of
sending the Liberty so close to the area of hostilities and four messages were subsequently sent instructing the ship to move farther away from the
area of hostilities. The JCS report said the messages were never received because of “a combination of (1) human error, (2) high volume of
communications traffic, and (3) lack of appreciation of sense of urgency regarding the movement of the Liberty.” The report also included a copy of
a flash cable sent immediately after the attack, which reported that Israel had “erroneously” attacked the Liberty, that IDF helicopters were in
rescue operations, and that Israel had sent “abject apologies” and requested information on any other U.S. ships near the war zone.
Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting.30 Once the
Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans
to fly out to the ship and any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was
flown to the Liberty.
The Israelis were “obviously shocked” by the error they made in attacking the ship, according to the U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In fact,
according to a secret report on the 1967 war, the immediate concern was that the Arabs might see the proximity of the Liberty to the conflict as
evidence of U.S.-Israel collusion.30a
Many of the survivors of the Liberty remain bitter, and are convinced the attack was deliberate as they make clear on their web site. In 1991,
columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak trumpeted their discovery of an American who said he had been in the Israeli war room when the decision was
made to knowingly attack the American ship.31 In fact, that individual, Seth Mintz, wrote a letter to the Washington Post on November 9, 1991, in
which he said he was misquoted by Evans and Novak and that the attack, was, in fact, a "case of mistaken identity." Moreover, the man who Mintz
originally said had been with him, a Gen. Benni Matti, does not exist.
Also, contrary to claims that an Israeli pilot identified the ship as American on a radio tape, no one has ever produced this tape. In fact, the
official Israeli Air Force tape clearly established that no such identification of the ship was made by the Israeli pilots prior to the attack. Tapes
of the radio transmissions made prior, during and after the attack do not contain any statement suggesting the pilots saw a U.S. flag before the
attack. During the attack, a pilot specifically says, “there is no flag on her!” The recordings also indicate that once the pilots became
concerned about the identity of the ship, by virtue of reading its hull number, they terminated the attack and they were given an order to leave the
area. A transcript of the radio transmissions indicates the entire incident, beginning with the spotting of a mysterious vessel off El Arish and
ending with the chief air controller at general headquarters in Tel Aviv telling another controller the ship was “apparently American” took 24
minutes.32 Critics claimed the Israeli tape was doctored, but the National Security Agency of the United States released formerly top secret
transcripts in July 2003 that confirmed the Israeli version.
A U.S. spy plane was sent to the area as soon as the NSA learned of the attack on the Liberty and recorded the conversations of two Israeli Air Force
helicopter pilots, which took place between 2:30 and 3:37 p.m. on June 8. The orders radioed to the pilots by their supervisor at the Hatzor base
instructing them to search for Egyptian survivors from the "Egyptian warship" that had just been bombed were also recorded by the NSA. "Pay
attention. The ship is now identified as Egyptian," the pilots were informed. Nine minutes later, Hatzor told the pilots the ship was believed to be
an Egyptian cargo ship. At 3:07, the pilots were first told the ship might not be Egyptian and were instructed to search for survivors and inform the
base immediately the nationality of the first person they rescued. It was not until 3:12 that one of the pilots reported that he saw an American flag
flying over the ship at which point he was instructed to verify if it was indeed a U.S. vessel.33
In October 2003, the first Israeli pilot to reach the ship broke his 36-year silence on the attack. Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Spector, a triple ace, who shot
down 15 enemy aircraft and took part in the 1981 raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, said he had been told an Egyptian ship was off the Gaza coast.
"This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the
symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn't one of ours." The Jerusalem Post obtained a
recording of Spector's radio transmission in which he said, "I can't identify it, but in any case it's a military ship."34
None of Israel's accusers can explain why Israel would deliberately attack an American ship at a time when the United States was Israel's only
friend and supporter in the world. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli
sides (five messages from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain at least 25 miles — the last four said 100 miles — off the Egyptian
coast arrived after the attack was over) is a more probable explanation.
Accidents caused by “friendly fire” are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290
civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by “friendly fire.” In April 1994, two U.S. Black Hawk
helicopters with large U.S. flags painted on each side were shot down by U.S. Air Force F-15s on a clear day in the “no fly” zone of Iraq, killing
26 people. In April 2002, an American F-16 dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, the day before the Liberty was
attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns.35
Retired Admiral, Shlomo Erell, who was Chief of the Navy in Israel in June 1967, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): “No one would ever have
dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that
there was no American ship within 100 miles.”
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: “It was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the
Navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional.”
In 1987, McNamara repeated his belief that the attack was a mistake, telling a caller on the “Larry King Show” that he had seen nothing in the 20
years since to change his mind that there had been no “coverup.”36
In January 2004, the State Department held a conference on the Liberty incident and also released new documents, including CIA memos dated June 13 and
June 21, 1967, that say that Israel did not know it was striking an American vessel. The historian for the National Security Agency, David Hatch, said
the available evidence "strongly suggested" Israel did not know it was attacking a U.S. ship. Two former U.S. officials, Ernest Castle, the United
States Naval Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in June 1967, who received the first report of the attack from Israel, and John Hadden, then CIA
Chief of Station in Tel Aviv, also agreed with the assessment that the attack on the Liberty was a mistake.37
The new documents do not shed any light on the mystery of what the ship was doing in the area or why Israel was not informed about its presence. The
evidence suggests the ship was not spying on Israel.
Israel apologized for the tragedy and paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in
amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on
December 17, 1987.
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... it may open you mind 
. 
