what is the general consensus on the attack of the U.S.S Liberty among sailors? ...?

Question

...and more importantly - it's virtual cover-up?

Answer 1

"The surviving Liberty crewmen . . . believed the attack was premeditated and deliberate." source: Mission Memorial: Remembering the USS Liberty from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Magazine, June/July 2005.
(see: http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.magDtl&dtl=3&mid=2639)

"Virtually all of the survivors of Liberty, some U.S. government officials and some U.S. military officers have asserted that the attack was premeditated. Jim Ennes, a junior officer (and off-going Officer of the Deck) on Liberty's bridge at the time of the attack, has published a book titled Assault on the Liberty. Like virtually all accounts of the "Liberty" incident, it has come under heavy criticism by those disagreeing with its point of view.

Ennes and Joe Meadors, another survivor of the attack, run a web site that was built "with support and encouragement from the USS Liberty Veterans Association." Meadors states that the classification of the attack as deliberate is the official policy of the association, to which all known survivors belong. Other survivors run several additional websites.

Several books and the BBC documentary USS Liberty: Dead in the Water tried to prove Liberty was attacked on purpose. They claim that the ship was attacked to prevent the U.S. from knowing about the forthcoming attack in the Golan Heights, which apparently would violate a cease-fire to which Israel's government had agreed.[8] They are backed in this position by some representatives of the U.S. intelligence community. Critics claim many of the books and documentaries include incorrect assumptions and use fuzzy reasoning. For example, critics note that a document declassified in 1997 indicated that the U.S. Ambassador at the time had reported on the day of the Liberty attack that he "would not be surprised" by an Israeli attack on Syria, and that the IDF Intelligence chief had told a White House aide then in Israel that "there still remained the Syria problem and perhaps it would be necessary to give Syria a blow,"[7] which, the critics argue, indicate that Israel was not trying to conceal the planned invasion of Syria from the U.S." (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident)

Sources which claim the attack was a mistake and sources which claim the attack was deliberate can be viewed by going to the wikipedia site above and clicking on them individually.

Answer 2

I don't particularly buy the idea that attack was a mistake. First of all, Israel had planes that were doing reconnaissance and flyovers of the ship. How could they possibly think that a US Navy ship in international waters was a hostile Egyptian target? Makes no sense. Also, the plethora of excuses that the Israeli government provided for why they attacked the liberty makes it look like they're protesting a bit too much. Israel attacked the ship to prevent it from reporting intelligence of Israel's violation of the cease-fire. I suppose in the end, politically, you can't really blame them...we probably would've done the same. Did a pretty crappy job of covering it up though.

But it doesn't change the fact that 34 sailors were killed. And their deaths were unanswered. Israel coughed up some money, but who gives a **** ? Attacking a ship in international waters is act of war. There's no breathing room there. It's plain and simple. Yet our government bargained away the lives of our sailors for some cheap politics and 50 bucks on the nightstand. Just another in a series of betrayals by US politicians on our military.

Answer 3

It was a deliberate attack by Israeli forces. It was convered up at the behest of the Jewish-Israeli lobby. People complain in this country about the Saudi-Oil lobby. Well they do not hold a candle to the Israel lobby. But if you point this out your a nazi, an anti-semite.

Answer 4

It inspired another event ..The USS PUEBLO..part of Operation Clickbeetle.

The enemy is in Washington DC..it is a bunch of paranoid idiots that continue to put our military in harms's way as they stumble into WAR after WAR.

The USA is a pathetic Dangerous MESS

I was in San Diego in 1968...I saw the crewmembers of the PUEBLO...they were not smiling. Their whole mission was a GD FIASCO

Answer 5

It was an overt act of war upon the USA by Isreal, obviously it was covered up, for some odd reason (money) we are still their friends, and assist them in their genocide of a native people