Remember the Liberty - Almost Sunk by Treason on the High Seas

Remember the Liberty - Almost Sunk by Treason on the High
Seas
August 26

In the annals of US military history, there are no doubt many
unsolved and perplexing mysteries, but few could compare to the
fate of the US Navy spy ship that was mercilessly attacked by one
of its closest allies intentionally and without warning. One of the
reasons it is still a mystery is because it is also the only
peacetime attack on a US naval vessel that, to this day, has never
been investigated by the Congress of the United States.
The USS Liberty was a 455-foot, 10,150-ton electronic intercept spy
ship, originally a standard-design Victory Ship--a more evolved
version of the World War II Liberty Ships--which were built as
supply ships, not intended for direct fighting. The Liberty had
been converted to an Auxiliary Technical Research Ship (AGTR),
known colloquially as a "spy ship," first deployed in 1965; its top
speed was only 18 knots.

Yet the Liberty's fate, one of the most enigmatic, unresolved
military mysteries of all time, is, paradoxically at its core,
quite clear-cut and undisputed. The basic facts generally accepted
by all are that, on the fourth day of the Six Day War between
Israel and its Arab neighbors (Egypt, Syria and Jordan), the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) savagely attacked the U.S. spy ship,
the USS Liberty.

On the warm, sunny-bright day of June 8, 1967, starting at about
6:00 a.m., at least twelve, possibly thirteen Israeli aircraft of
different types began surveilling the Liberty, some of which were
only 1,000 feet or less in altitude, apparently to photograph and
"map" her for later targeting purposes. The precision of the later
attack could only have been accomplished through such pre-planning,
specifically identifying the priority targets, starting with the
gun mounts to render the ship defenseless, followed by all of the
forty-five different radio antennae and related transmitting
equipment. . Beginning just before 2:00 p.m., three unmarked
French-built Mirage III-C swept-wing fighter jets, without warning,
settled into a triangular formation, aimed straight at the Liberty
and proceeded to bore down on the ship in a fast low-level attack
that began with rockets targeted at the four gun mounts and
heat-seeking missiles aimed at the communications gear, with their
warmed transmitters. . When the attack was over, thirty-four men
were dead and one hundred seventy-four were injured to varying
degrees, some near death.

Unlike all other books ever written about the tragic attack - none
of which provide a satisfactory explanation of what really caused
it - Remember the Liberty! examines it in complete context of how
it was positioned there by Johnson himself, for the very purpose of
being attacked, and sunk, with every one of the 294 men on board
going to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. His purpose was to
use that event - while blaming Egyptian President Gamal Nasser for
the attack - as a pretext for joining Israel in the war, even at
the risk of igniting World War III with the Soviet Union. This book
provides the only realistic explanation for why Lyndon Johnson did
what he did, and why, in the heat of battle, he intervened with his
Navy officers who were determined to rescue the Liberty and ordered
them to recall the squadrons of fighter jets they had already
dispatched - twice, 90 minutes apart - for that purpose.

When the heroic crew saved the ship from sinking, it stopped
Johnson's plan to join Israel in the war and thereby saved the
world from certain nuclear conflagration. It also prevented his
strategy of entering what he felt would be a "popular war" (unlike
his other one in Vietnam) in order to give him a better chance to
be reelected president the following year. When that failed to
materialize, so did his reelection campaign; ten months later he
was forced to announce his decision to not re-run for the office
that he had always considered his destiny.

book

Become a supporter of this podcast:
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.