re: Qatar denies Tucker’s claim that Israel planted bombs within nation

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The claim is that the Navy was at odds with the CIA for mismanaging the mission, not announcing their presence to the Israelis (because it was a spy mission, but they shouldn't have been spying on an ally, and could have revealed their purpose for being there to Israel) and thus endangering the lives of the crew.

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most universally agreed upon fact of that entire incident was that the NSA was involved

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When you sneak up, spying on a country in the middle of war, what do you think will happen?

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Why were they spying on an ally?

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link?

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That they'll psychotically come and murder you, making pass after pass, long after your ID has been confirmed, in an attempt to kill everyone on board?

WTF is wrong with you?

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Clearly, something set them off, and I don't think we've ever gotten the truth, because both sides just wanted it to go away.

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I guess you'll have to read the reports on the confusion throughout the incident, considering the ship had unusual markings, as a spy vessel.

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The USS Liberty was in international waters, approximately 13 and a half miles off the Sinai Peninsula when we were brutally attacked. Approximately 1400 hours, 2 o’clock local time, by Israeli unmarked aircraft—a violation of international law. Our distress frequencies were jammed by the Israelis. That’s a violation of international law. Our life rafts were “napalmed.” What life rafts, life boats, we had were all napalm destroyed. We had three inflatable life rafts left. Israeli motor torpedo boats, machine gunned those life rafts, took one of them away with them.

We were fired upon by the Israelis for the better share of two hours—aircraft, motor torpedo boats. Eight hundred twenty-six large caliber strikes aboard the ship. There were over 3,100 heavy machine gun caliber strikes on the ship. Five torpedoes were fired at us. One struck the ship just forward of the mid-ships. I was in an enclosed area below the waterline when that torpedo struck. I was less than 10 feet from it looking at it when it blew. It killed 25 men all around me. 34 Americans were killed. 174 were wounded. Actually, there were probably more than that, but there were a total of 208 Purple Hearts awarded. Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. They claimed they had mistaken us for an Egyptian ship, the El Quesir, which was a World War I horse transport.

I suppose you could claim Israeli pilots were colorblind. U.S. ships are painted gray with home markings and English lettering. Egyptian ships are painted black with home markings in Arabic script. Hardly possible to mistake the identity. The American flag was flying. There was a short five-day inquiry made by the U.S. government in Rota, Spain that concluded we accepted Israel’s excuse of mistaken identity and the case was closed. The crew members were ordered not to talk about it under a threat of imprisonment and the whole case was covered up. It has never been investigated by the U.S. Congress as is required by Article 1, Section 8, U.S. Constitution.

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What I've never heard, is anyone try to explain why Israel would want to attack a US vessel, without reason. They never attacked us before or since, and had no prior reason to attack us. Clearly, something set them off,

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Specifics of the Attack

3. According to these reports, however, the sequence of events took place as follows. The ship was attacked at 3:05 p.m. (8:05 a.m.) by [Page 470]unidentified jet fighters, believed to be Israeli, at position 31–35N, 33–29E. Six strafing runs were made by the jets. Twenty minutes later three torpedo boats closed at high speed and two of them launched torpedoes after first circling the Liberty. One torpedo passed astern, and the other struck the starboard side of the ship in the spaces occupied by the SIGINT collectors. One of the boats was later identified as Israeli and the hull number of one unit was noted as 206–T. Some 50 minutes later two Israeli helicopters arrived on the scene.

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Israeli Identification of the Ship
The weather was clear in the area of attack, the Liberty’s hull number (GTR 5) was prominently displayed, and an American flag was flying. The helicopter pilot reported seeing an American flag on the Liberty. In another intercept between an unidentified Israeli controller and the helicopter number 815. 5. A subsequent message from the control tower identified the ship as Egyptian and told the pilot to return home.

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The Ship and Its Orders

9. The USS Liberty is a converted Victory class merchant ship utilized as a SIGINT collector. The unit had moved from its normal station off West Africa to provide additional SIGINT coverage of the Middle East crisis. Official US statements, however, have described the Liberty as an electronics research ship which had been diverted to the crisis area to act as a radio relay station for US embassies.

10. The Liberty sailed from Rota, Spain, on 2 June under orders to patrol no closer than 12.5 miles of the UAR coast and 6.5 miles of the Israeli coast.

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