[B-Man]

There are many versions of what happened that day, Cyrus. Personally, the version you posted doesn't make sense to me for a very important reason--why would the U.S. assist in the coverup? The (very short) version of events I posted makes more sense if you believe (as you must) the U.S. was complicit in the coverup. Below is a more detailed article. I think the most-detailed version can be found in, "The Secret War Against the Jews," which has an entire chapter devoted to the incident. I have this book at home and would re-read that chapter tonite... but the Patriots play the Giants tonite, so my re-read will have to wait until the weekend.

Here is the article:

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Have the United States and Britain Willfully Betrayed Israel?

November 27 , 1998 - D. Maimon

A remarkable book published a few years ago by a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney has been attracting growing attention in some circles. Author John Loftus uses thousands of previously top secret documents and interviews with hundreds of current and former spies, to argue that many Western countries, particularly the United States and Great Britain have willfully spied on Israel over many decades in order to promote favorable relations with the oil-rich Arabs.

Loftus contends that while on the surface the United States and Britain profess to be allies of Israel, they have used their intelligence services to betray Israel's secrets to the Arabs since the earliest years of Israel's statehood.

Western espionage has waged what is tantamount to a secret war against the Jews and Israel, says the Irish-American attorney author.

According to Loftus, "State Department disease"greed and self-interest have since the beginning of Mideast conflict between Jews and Arabs, infected powerful bureaucrats, perverting their sense of right and wrong. The ever present temptation to enrich oneself and one's family through Arab oil-related favors and industry, has turned the political sympathies of countless officials in the state department and CIA away from Israel.

Although the official policy of the U.S; government has always been pro-Israel, senior chiefs of these departments have long promoted a very different policy that has led to covert acts of treachery and betrayal of Israel.

One of the most disturbing examples in Loftus's litany of U.S. betrayals in an incident that took place during the 1967 war, involving an American vessel known as the L15S Liberty.

THE U.S.S. LIBERTY SCANDAL

According to Loftus, in 1967 before hostilities began, Israel notified America of its war plans. The Americans in turn tried to warn Egypt and Syria. As the battles progressed the Americans did everything possible to spy on Israel and provide that information to Israel's enemies. The USS Liberty, a sophisticated CIA surveillance ship, was operating near Egypt when she was suddenly removed from Navy control, placed under the direct control of the NSA (National Security Agency), and told to "ignore all orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to support the Arab war effort against Israel.

The ship sailed close the southern Israeli shore and close to northern Sinai, and began monitoring the transmissions of Israeli tanks and small infantry units in the desert. Those transmissions were then relayed by satellite to British intelligence teams in Cyprus who, using sophisticated voice print matching equipment, could identify and locate every Israeli unit in the war. British intelligence then relayed this vital information to the Egyptian government. (emphasis added)

When the Israelis learned of this treachery, Loftus recounts, they asked the United stares to explain the presence of an American vessel in the area. But the Americans lied, denying that the ship was American.

To save itself, Israel felt it had no choice but to eliminate the ship. They conducted a pinpoint attack by torpedo on the precise compartment housing the intelligence team. An hour later the whole thing was over. Thirty four American soldiers lay dead, with 171 wounded.

Loftus's account is at serious odds with the Israeli version which claims that Israeli intelligence failed to properly identify the ship, mistaking it for an Egyptian vessel, which of course it attacked. Profuse apologies were offered by the Israeli government as well as $13 million in damages to the Liberty's survivors. The American government immediately accepted these terms and despite a furious outcry from the survivors who unanimously insisted the attack was deliberate, the case was officially closed.

Loftus sees in the obvious haste on the American side to close the file on the Liberty, this despite calls for an investigation from dozens of senators and congressmen covert admission that the ship was indeed carrying out operations destructive to Israel, a fact which was to be kept secret at all costs.

(Loftus's contentions are disputed by survivors of the Israeli attack, notably James Ennes, an officer on the USS Liberty. Ennes wrote a book "Attack on the Liberty", where he maintains that the reason the Liberty was stationed so close to Israel's shores in 1967 was for the purpose of monitoring suspicious aircraft sent by the Soviets to Egypt. The planes were supposed to be flown by Arab pilots but the U.S. suspected that these were actually Soviet bombers under Soviet control using Soviet pilots. According to Ennes, the USS Liberty's job had nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict but was solely to determine who controlled those aircraft.)