Gaza ships: the passenger list (USS Liberty Vet Joe Meadors on board)

[grassfed]

THE LIST

[pocoloco]

1. Should have known better!

At least they were armed the first time.......


....but not allowed to shoot back?

[madrchsod]

2. no they fought back....till they were torpedoed.

[aquart]

4. Israel sank the ship?

Please, I beg of you, provide a link.

[madrchsod]

6. no.....

the ship was damaged but still afloat when the engagement ended.most of the us causalities occurred when the torpedo blew up inside the ship.

everyone pointed the "blame" but the only thing for certain is us sailors lost their lives.

[sdfernando]

10. There is a whole Wikipeidia article on this.

It will get you good basic understanding of what went on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_Incident

[aquart]

3. ARMED? Who was armed?

Did the "activists" on board know there were guns on their ship?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. USS Liberty was armed.

Try reading for context.

[grassfed]

7. US Navy Veterans Continue to Seek Justice for Israeli Attack TRUTHOUT

The Israeli military has attacked a flotilla of international peace activists, killing as many as 19 innocent civilians while they were carrying ten tons of aid to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. This is not the first time the Israeli military has attacked a nonthreatening entity in international waters.

On June 8, 1967, while sailing in international waters, the US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked by air and naval forces of the state of Israel. Of the Liberty's crew of 294, more than half were killed or wounded. More than 40 years later, survivors are still seeking justice.

The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that the Liberty was an American ship, yet survivors have been forbidden to tell their story under oath to the American public.

Joe Meadors was on the Liberty during the attack.

"I watched some jets pass us then turn left after they passed our ship, then they started strafing us," Meadors told Truthout.

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[grassfed]

8. Attacks that backfired

■ During the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israeli air force and navy attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship, in international waters, killing 34 crew and wounding 171. Israel said the attack was the result of confusion over the vessel's identity. The US accepted the explanation, but some American intelligence officials believe the attack was deliberate.

■ In 1973, Israeli jets killed 108 people when they shot down a Libyan passenger jet that became lost in a sandstorm and strayed over the Sinai Peninsula, occupied by Israel at the time. Israel tried to claim the flight was a spying mission.

■ In 1997, a team of Israeli agents using forged Canadian passports attempted to kill Hamas leader Khalid Meshal in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Israel had signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to provide the medical help that saved Meshal and to release Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, to preserve ties with Israel's Jordanian neighbour.

■ In 2000, on the second day of the second intifada, 12-year-old Palestinian Muhammad al-Dura was caught in a firefight between Israeli and Palestinian forces and killed, cowering in terror with his father against a wall. Pictures of his shooting were broadcast around the world.... MORE

[grassfed]

9. The U.S.S. Liberty and the culture of impunity SALON

The attack on the USS Liberty is one of the great enigmas of US-Israel relations. On June 8, 1967, in the middle of the Six-Day War, Israeli planes attacked an American spy ship, the Liberty, that was in international waters off the coast of Egypt, listening in on secret communications. The attacks appeared to be deliberate, involving numerous passes on a clearly-marked American boat, strafing and napalming. The attack killed 34 Americans and produced very little by way of investigation. It was deemed an accident from the start, although many American officials doubted this conclusion.

The following quotes are from the book, "The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship" (2009, Simon & Schuster), by James Scott, a longtime journalist living in South Carolina, whose father was an officer on the Liberty:

the United States had the capability to intercept and decipher VHF and UHF radio frequencies, common frequencies used for government and military communications...

In the case of the Liberty, the White House, afraid of offending Israel's domestic backers at a time when it needed support for its Vietnam policy, looked the other way....

Hints of disbelief did emerge, often from small newspapers outside the Beltway. Many puzzled over how Israel's exceptional military could make such a blunder...

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