Something To Keep In Mind As The Israeli 60th Anniversary Love Fest Commences
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
"It all started on a beautiful bright, sunny day 40 years ago. Our ship, the USS LIBERTY, was sailing off the coast of Sinai, doing 5 knots. The LIBERTY was the most sophisticated intelligence gathering platform in the world at that time. We were in international waters gathering intelligence, plucking it from the air, which we had every right to do. We were doing what our government ordered us to do.
Early in the morning we began to see Israeli aircraft coming very close to our ship, some so close we could see the pilots waving at us. As we waved back we could clearly see the Star of David on the aircraft. This went on for many hours. Our flag was flying (as always) GTR-5 was painted on both sides of her bow and “USS LIBERTY” was clearly painted on her stern. There could be no mistake as to who we were. Israel knew we were American and we knew we had been identified as American and friendly as the Israelis themselves have since admitted. They plotted us on their war table and made positive ID of our ship as the LIBERTY. The crew all knew the war was still ongoing and we all took comfort in the fact that our Israeli ‘friends’ had come to visit us. It made all of us feel safer, just in case one of the Arab combatants got spunky and came after us as we all knew Israel would be there to protect their American friends and allies.
We had been on station for approximately 7 to 8 hours. Suddenly, at 2:00 all hell broke loose. We were being attacked by jet aircraft. On their first pass they took out our 4 fifty-caliber machine guns, all of our antennae and our moon dish. Everything we had to communicate with was destroyed. They continued their air assault for about 30 minutes using rockets, canons and napalm which they dropped on the bridge to try and burn us alive. Fifteen minutes into their vicious attack Terry Halbadier got an antenna to work and we began broadcasting “under attack, under attack by unknown jet aircraft.” The jets were unmarked, hiding the identity of our attackers. The USS SARATOGA, commanded by Captain Tully, sent aircraft to our aid only to have them recalled by voice from Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara. Again, Captain Tully ordered rescue aircraft to come to our aid. Then, President Lyndon Johnson got on the phone and ordered the recall himself, saying “I don’t give a God damn if every man on board that ship dies, I will not embarrass our ally, Israel.”
When the jets got through with us they sent the torpedo boats, three of them. Then and only then did we become aware of who was attacking us. We could see their flags on their boats with the Star of David on them. We were horrified that our so-called ‘ally’ was doing this to us. The word went out we were under attack by Israeli torpedo boats. This was picked up as far away as Vietnam and many other listening posts around the world. Still no help from our government. We were on our own."
"It all started on a beautiful bright, sunny day 40 years ago. Our ship, the USS LIBERTY, was sailing off the coast of Sinai, doing 5 knots. The LIBERTY was the most sophisticated intelligence gathering platform in the world at that time. We were in international waters gathering intelligence, plucking it from the air, which we had every right to do. We were doing what our government ordered us to do.
Early in the morning we began to see Israeli aircraft coming very close to our ship, some so close we could see the pilots waving at us. As we waved back we could clearly see the Star of David on the aircraft. This went on for many hours. Our flag was flying (as always) GTR-5 was painted on both sides of her bow and “USS LIBERTY” was clearly painted on her stern. There could be no mistake as to who we were. Israel knew we were American and we knew we had been identified as American and friendly as the Israelis themselves have since admitted. They plotted us on their war table and made positive ID of our ship as the LIBERTY. The crew all knew the war was still ongoing and we all took comfort in the fact that our Israeli ‘friends’ had come to visit us. It made all of us feel safer, just in case one of the Arab combatants got spunky and came after us as we all knew Israel would be there to protect their American friends and allies.
We had been on station for approximately 7 to 8 hours. Suddenly, at 2:00 all hell broke loose. We were being attacked by jet aircraft. On their first pass they took out our 4 fifty-caliber machine guns, all of our antennae and our moon dish. Everything we had to communicate with was destroyed. They continued their air assault for about 30 minutes using rockets, canons and napalm which they dropped on the bridge to try and burn us alive. Fifteen minutes into their vicious attack Terry Halbadier got an antenna to work and we began broadcasting “under attack, under attack by unknown jet aircraft.” The jets were unmarked, hiding the identity of our attackers. The USS SARATOGA, commanded by Captain Tully, sent aircraft to our aid only to have them recalled by voice from Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara. Again, Captain Tully ordered rescue aircraft to come to our aid. Then, President Lyndon Johnson got on the phone and ordered the recall himself, saying “I don’t give a God damn if every man on board that ship dies, I will not embarrass our ally, Israel.”
When the jets got through with us they sent the torpedo boats, three of them. Then and only then did we become aware of who was attacking us. We could see their flags on their boats with the Star of David on them. We were horrified that our so-called ‘ally’ was doing this to us. The word went out we were under attack by Israeli torpedo boats. This was picked up as far away as Vietnam and many other listening posts around the world. Still no help from our government. We were on our own."
posted by nolocontendere at 6:25 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the very brave writer .. wish that this open letter will find its way to the American people to know what kind of an ally we're having without being afraid to embarrass this ally who attacked Liberty and killed our heroes aboard that ship .. Thanks God that some of our men and woman survived the ally deadly attack to say the truth , as the writer did , and to open the closed eyes ..
Thanks God again that this ally did not hear president Johnson who was ready and willing to sacrify every man aboard that ship just for not to embarrass the ally .
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