As noted by Ralph Lopez at Digital Journal



The attack, which commenced on June 8th, 1967 at 1:58 p.m. local time with strafing runs by Israeli Mirage jet fighters, lasted for approximately two hours (emphasis added), after seven to nine reconnaissance flights over the Liberty by slow-moving Israeli patrol planes beginning at 5:30 a.m. Liberty survivors are unanimous in their conviction that the attackers knew the ship was American, and that they were trying hard to sink it. Expended over the course of the attack were over 800 rounds of 30mm cannon, air-to-surface rockets, heat-seeking missiles, napalm bombs, and five torpedoes.

In the documentary, during the course of the attack, at 2:14 p.m., 16 minutes after the first strafing run begins, voices of Israeli military controllers are heard to say, as the timeline is counted in the background: "To what state does she belong?" (Answer): "American" Supporting the authenticity of the tape, in 2004 the Jerusalem Post published (from Jerusalem Post archives) what it said was a transcript of Israeli military transmissions directing the attack on the USS Liberty. In that transcript, at precisely the same time, 2:14pm, the exchange translated from Hebrew to English is reported: "Kislev, what country?" (Answer): "Apparently American."

... the attack continued for another hour and a half. Twenty minutes after the indication of positive identification, an Israeli torpedo boat approaches and fires five torpedoes, one of which hits the starboard bow and nearly sinks the ship.

After the torpedo hits, torpedo boats circle, machine-gunning the ship with armor-piercing projectiles for another 40 minutes. At 3:15 p.m., as lifeboats are lowered into the water, the Israelis pull up at close range and proceed to machine-gun the lifeboats. This is a full hour after confirmation has been given that the ship is American.

If that caught you by surprise, you read it right. The Israelis dropped napalm on the USS Liberty.That is where the Jerusalem Post stops the transcript. But that wasn't the end of the attack. Not by a long shot. As the documentary shows, and Lopez notes,That's terrible, but it gets worse...Over the years, Americans from Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Admiral Bobby Inman, former Director of the NSA, have said they never believed the Israeli claim that this was an accident. The survivors of the attack certainly never believed it. Yet, the official finding has always been "it was a tragic accident."

If we reject the official explanation of this attack as nothing more than a tragic accident, then we have to answer an obvious question: "Why would Israel do something like this?"

One possible explanation offered in the documentary is that Israel, poised to take the Golan Heights, didn't want Washington to know until it was too late to stop Israel. That is important because Israel had explicitly promised Washington the war would not be a land grab. That clearly was not true. As a result of that war, Israel grabbed the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, and large parts of the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. The 1967 war dramatically redrew the map of Israel in ways that persist to this day.

However, even if you accept that rationale for the attack, disabling the ship was all Israel needed to do to achieve that goal. They didn't need to sink it and kill sailors struggling to get into life rafts. But sinking the ship and killing all her crew was clearly the Israeli intention. The only reason they stopped their attack was one of the radiomen jury rigged an antenna and successfully broadcast a distress call.



The American Sixth Fleet picked up the radio signal. So did the Israeli Armed Forces. The attack stopped shortly afterwards... once the Israelis knew the US jets were in the air, they summoned the American naval attache and told him there had been 'a terrible mistake.' The American planes were recalled.

Israel intended to sink the ship and blame Egypt because it might have brought the United States into the 1967 war.

An independent investigation -- chaired by Admiral Thomas Moorer, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested a more disturbing motive: The suggestion by Moorer's panel reminded me of another persistent claim I previously dismissed out of hand as ludicrous. This is the claim that the bombing of the USS Cole was not carried out by Al Qaeda, but by Israel. Sadly, in light of the Liberty revelations, and knowing what we know now about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the suggestion that the Cole was hit in an attempt to drag the US into a war doesn't sound as ridiculous as it used to. In fact, similar claims made by credible people like Ray McGovern -- that Israel seeks opportunities to drag the US into a war for Israel's benefit -- is starting to look less ludicrous and more like a recurring theme.

The claim of Israeli involvement in the USS Cole attack has rarely been mentioned in "legitimate" media channels. When it is, it is mentioned only to be ridiculed. However, one thing is certain, the lead investigator for the Cole attack, John O'Neil, resigned his position as Deputy Director of the FBI after being prevented from continuing his investigation by US Ambassador, Barbara Bodine. Her explanation for why she stopped his investigation has always been suspect. The video I link to of her explaining herself does nothing to allay those concerns.

The reason I focus on the USS Cole is the surprising decision by the Obama administration to halt prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the presumed mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole. I thought that was odd, especially when you consider that Obama has been pretty consistent in pursuing terrorists without quarter. Unfortunately, I am now inclined to suspect the reason behind this decision may be more disturbing than previously imagined.

I expect apologists for Israel will seek to deride the concern noted here as nothing more than groundless conspiracy theory that calls into question the good character of a staunch ally. Such shrill denunciations carry little weight with me as they are mything the point. Once you are caught in a bold faced lie, you lose the right to complain when people question your credibility. If anything, the party caught lying is obliged to actively demonstrate their credibility indefinitely. That may not always be possible, and may not even be fair, but that is why lying is always a bad choice. When you become a victim of your own bad choices, no one is going to be sympathetic to your kvetching.

Faced with the prospect of a renewed escalation of our involvement in Iraq and the region, and knowing what we know now about the lengths Israel has gone to draw the US into wars for Israel's benefit, I think we have to pause and ask a serious question. Exactly why are we going back and who are we really fighting to protect? Faced with this question, it is worth recalling the observation made by Under Secretary of State, George Ball, after the whitewashing of the Liberty attack.



“It seemed clear to the Israelis, as the American leaders did not have the courage to punish them [the Israelis] for the blatant murder of American citizens, they would let them [the Israelis] get away with anything.”

One day, perhaps, even in brainwashed America the questions may begin

That point is openly acknowledged in Israeli media. A few years ago, when Israel was actively advocating for a war with Iran, there was an opinion piece by Gideon Levy published in Ha'aretz, titled, It's just a matter of time before U.S. tires of Israel: Israel doesn't know when to stop, and it could pay dearly as a result. No one would dare publish such an article in the US, lest they be accused of Antisemitism. Even if they did publish the article, they certainly wouldn't include the following line of thought:Now that we know the Israeli government ordered the slaughter of American servicemen with full knowledge of who they were killing, I can think of no better time to turn our backs on those who would brainwash us for their benefit and to contemplate what this means for our future.

What makes today different from all other days? Today is Veterans Day. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we pause and reflect on the sacrifices they made to safeguard our future.

When duty called, they made the necessary sacrifices and did the hard work demanded. If we truly honor their memory and service, the least we can do is demand honest answers to hard questions before we are conned into sacrificing any more of our citizens in the future.

The original video account was deleted after I published this, so here is another copy of the documentary.