Was the Israili attack on the Liberty deliberate or mistaken?

[TCO]

Makes sense. They were having a hard time keeping the status board up to date. And they are brave little soldiers, but not as skilled in campaign warfare as a major US staff.

But, go buy some people drinks...just on the off chance that Meier was up to shenanigans....I'll break the story here on Apolyton and it will make the site famous.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by TCO
So, how come you did not take a job with the FBI/CIA helping them penetrate Pakistan?

This would require me to go to Pakistan more often than a wedding for a relative of mine (and even then, if its too close to the last time, forget it)

[TCO]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


This would require me to go to Pakistan more often than a wedding for a relative of mine (and even then, if its too close to the last time, forget it)

Still think you should have. Would have been brave, noble, exciting, patriotic, etc.

[TCO]

Good use of your law degree and language background and help appease Gods for hiding your Christian gf from your allowance-paying father.

[Docfeelgood]

Johnson wanted it to look like the Egyptions did the attacking.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by TCO
Good use of your law degree and language background and help appease Gods for hiding your Christian gf from your allowance-paying father.

You slay me. I thank God for you. You make me look good by comparison.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by TCO
Still think you should have. Would have been brave, noble, exciting, patriotic, etc.

I am none of those things... well, maybe except for exciting sometimes. Depending on the company and their relative exciting-ness.

[SlowwHand]

That's fairly blanket denial of a set of given attributes.

[Theben]

With all the trips back and forth the State Dept would've thunk he was supporting the Taliban.

[TCO]

waah waah.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Theben looks out for me .

We commies gotta stick together

[Darius871]

Slaughtermeyer in 3...2.....1........

[Guardian]

I really don't know what to believe here.

I do find it hard to believe the official Israeli explanation that they mistook the Liberty for an aging Egyptian horse carrier - which she really did not resemble much and which wasn't even out of port at the time.

On the other hand, I also find it hard to believe that they'd deliberately attack their main ally. It really does not make much sense.

Some sources have claimed that Israel secretly contacted the US a day or two before the attack and first asked politely, later insisted to have the Liberty withdrawn from the area - and that the US simply ignored this. To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence to support these claims - at least not available to the public. But on the other hand, when dealing with clandestine operations and secret communications, the fact that the public does not know it happened doesn't prove that it didn't.

Like I said, I don't know what to think.

Siro does have a point with the "fog of war" thing though. I have no experience with neither US or Israeli military C3 (Command, Control and Communications), but in general, my impression of such things is that the decision makers very often are not nearly as informed and in control as we'd like to think.

Bottom line: We may never know what really happened and why.
And even if we do get answers, there will always be some who refuse to accept them and will go to great lengths to discredit them.

So, I really don't know what to believe here.

[Patroklos]

I can give the Irsealis the benefit of the doubt as far as the initial attack goes. They were in the middle of a shooting war and the Liberty, though in international water at the time, had not declared themselves to the belligerents before hand. It is not hard to believe that the commanders at HQ misidentified the vessel initially.

Once the attack started, however, it would have been very hard for the units involved after the initial volley to not have realized what the target actaually was. Even if it was ambiguous, they still should have errored on the side of caution.

[Guardian]

Actually, the Liberty herself recorded radio communications where an Israeli pilot identified the target ship as American, but was ordered to ignore the flag and continue his attack.

The man supposedly spent time in jail for refusing to do so.