Transcripts For ALJAZ The Day Israel Attacked America 20240712

The german garments will be able to locate in our members. John psaropoulos is at the camp he says theres nothing left for the people there to salvage. We are still seeing some people hanging around this area trying to find the belongings that were destroyed by several fires over a 3 day period the most recent of them yesterday we were filming as they were being lit and we witnessed several fires starting up these houses that have been set up around the main camp outside the perimeter of the official camp are also now mostly destroyed so this entire area is basically uninhabitable the government says that it has managed to provide them with water and with food and we have seen people have struggled back here carting bottles of fresh water away but the next step is to get them to shelter one ship a passenger ferry has been chartered and has arrived we are told by coast guard authorities here on the island it is more loss in the main harbor of me to leave it on the other side of the island because of lack of space. And people are meant to be taken there as soon as possible especially families but they havent arrived yet the 2nd thing thats being done today is that tents which arrived yesterday afternoon are going to be set up in the municipal refugee camp called got out there and we expect to see and film that resettlement of people in that camp in those tents today but thats still probably leaves many thousands in the hills the olive groves around us here india and china have agreed to deescalate tensions the 5 point agreement comes days after shots were fired across their disputed border for the 1st time in 45 years. Water Borne Diseases are a growing threat in sudan after catastrophic flooding the worst flooding in a century killed at least 100 sudanese and destroyed or damaged 100000 homes the one. Since the starting to recede after the nile rose to its highest level since records began. In colombia the death toll from protests against the police has risen to 10 people were outraged after a father of 2 was repeatedly tasered whilst being arrested he later died. Indias reporting at another record daily increase in corona virus infections the announcement of more than 95000. 00 new cases raises the total above 4 and a half 1000000 india has the worlds Fastest Growing infection rates and is the 2nd worst affected country after the us france is reporting a new record daily high almost 10000 new infections in the past 24 hours ministers and Health Experts are meeting to discuss increased restrictions the number of patients in intensive care units has also gone up half a 1000000 people have been forced from their homes in the states of oregon in the us as around 100 wildfires burn across the west coast at least 15 people have been killed britain has signed a trade deal with japan its 1st since leaving the e. U. In january the Free Trade Agreement is worth nearly 20000000000. 00 u. K. Government ministers saying 1009 percent of exports to japan will be terrified for a. C. E. O. And 2 other Senior Executives of a Mining Company that destroyed ancient caves in Western Australia are stepping down rio tinto has been widely criticized for blowing up 46000 year old rock shelters in may to expand an iron ore mine those are your headlines up next the day Israel Attacked america. 30 june 1967 the 6 day war in the middle east between israel egypt jordan and syria is underway a spy ship very lightly armed but bristling with antenna steams into the mediterranean to eavesdrop on the conflict it is patrolling in International Waters off the egyptian curves. At 2 in the afternoon on june the 8th with the wall reaching its climax israeli jets and moto pito boats launched an unprovoked attack on the ship they dropped napalm and strafe its decks with rockets kind in fire and armor piercing rounds before trying to sink it 2 with talk paedos. We had no way to defend ourselves and it was just were just slaughtered and a shot of the life rafts. That were put into the water and they shot i want to were still on more of a ship. Full of holes shell holes everywhere blood the focsle the front part of the ship was just red with blood. Throughout the attack the ship flies the stars and stripes the flag of israels closest ally the United States of america its name the u. S. S. Liberty is freshly painted on its stern and the bow carries the distinctive numbers of an American Naval vessel out of a crew of just under 300. 00 there were 34. 00 killed and 172. 00 injured in marion agrees to. Life threatening life debilitating injuries so that was more than 2 thirds of the crew. This audiotape which has never been broadcast before was recorded in real time by the Israeli Military during the assault the womans voice in the background is counting down the seconds it proves that israeli commandos knew all along that they were attacking an American Ship. And i am a guide. For the 1st time this and other evidence allows us to reveal the true story of what happened that day and what came after when a deadly assault by one ally and another was covered up and an american president was manipulated by the secret agents of a foreign power events that have shaped us israeli relations ever since. The United States Navy Memorial in washington d. C. June the 8th 2014 for every year on the anniversary of the attack on the u. S. S. Liberty survivors relatives and supporters gather together its a remembrance of those who who were killed that day the 34. On dave lucas i was in charge of the deck force i was 25. 00 my 1st child was born when i was one day out on that cruise so as long as there are survivors and and maybe children of survivors i think this will probably be an annual event. Antelope. The names of the 34. 00 killed are read out all. Right. Punctuated by the tolling of a navy bow. And the playing of taps the traditional military funeral lament. Its important to. Not forget what happened and to continue to try to find out why it happened and who made it happen. In the summer of 1967 america was in turmoil an incendiary mixture of Racial Discrimination and extreme poverty exploded into a summer over rioting in cities across the country. But one issue dominated. The vietnam war you know 10000. 00 troops would die that year the americans were trapped they couldnt leave and they could win. In the middle east to war looked inevitable there was growing tension between israel and its arab neighbors armies were mobilizing israel promised the white house they would not attack 1st but on the 5th of june they jammed radar sense of the u. S. Embassy in tel aviv so the americans couldnt detect their jets taking off to launch a surprise assault on egypt. Meanwhile the u. S. S. Liberty was sailing across the mediterranean into the war zone liberty was. The state of the our intelligence gathering vessel of the time and what we did is we listened we were listening ship my name is lloyd painter i was a Research Officer we could sent we could receive any signal that was out there low band high band anything intercepting it recording it and we did have on board some translators who could have an immediate translation of whats going on with actually bad things off the moon back to n. S. A. We were were spice im Jim Cavanaugh was a communication technician aboard the u. S. S. Liberty and i intercepted morse code were spice i mean intercepting messages from embassies military bases Police Anything and everything that we could get to ensure that the United States was comfortable what was going on in the world unknowns conspiring against us and basically goes to protect our interests. This was the cold war american president Lyndon Johnson knew that the russians already had substantial military influence in egypt he needed to find out what they were going to do next to make sure that a local conflict did not become a world war with the usa backing israel and russia siding with the arab cause i was assigned as a russian linguist aboard the ship im Bryce Lockwood United States marine corps retired israelis our primary purpose was to intercept communications of the russian spy or craft as it were at alexandria egypt and it was our job was to find them and we were not targeted against israelis life was very relaxing and one of the nice things about the liberty is we had air conditioning because we had Communications Equipment so we were cool in the hot days it was a very laid back very clean ship it was spotless the morale was pretty high i mean very high. By the time the liberty arrived off the coast of egypt on the 8th of june the war had just 2 days left to run israel had seized the old city of jerusalem the west bank and the gaza strip Jordanian Forces were beaten and egypt was conceding defeat only syria held out. The airwaves were dead the only voices we did get while those of israeli or hebrew were what we were hearing my name is bob wilson i worked for n. S. A. On june 8th 1967 when what we were trying to monitor find something coming from the direction of of egypt there just wasnt i think they own the skies and in our own and everything that. I dont think there was anything moving at that time that i didnt know about listening to the chatter night before knew it was American Ship that came into the area they knew who we were 5 15 am 1st light the ships log recorded an israeli photo reconnaissance plane flying over the liberty that was easily identifiable as a nor atlas aircraft and those are photo Reconnaissance Aircraft israeli records obtained by aljazeera show that they recognizance plane reported that they body as an american spy ship number g t 5 well i was on the bridge im john scott i was the damage control officer. Circled the ship kind of a broad circle and headed back towards israel israeli planes then continued to fly over the liberty all morning. And they would do half moon passes over us and we saw that they were israeli they were slowly lumbering over our ship and we were waving at them they were waving at us they were sophisticated almost as sophisticated as we were as far as surveillance and technology they had everything we supplied it with all the technology to this day. And i felt that we werent we were in great shape because they knew we were there our friends we felt safe actually was a secure feeling to see them there was one other thing which made the crew feel safe we had an American Flag flying the standard and then we put up the holiday colors which is a huge American Flag and it was a bright sunny day with the wind blowing i dont 5 or 10 knots the flag was unfurled you could see it for miles meanwhile Israeli Military jets were on their way on the real time audio tape obtained by aljazeera at 1 53 pm the pilots asked the base control about the ship. The u. S. S. Liberty was the only ship of any size in the area. The american 6th street including 2 aircraft carriers was 500 miles away oh it was a great day hello im jim smith damage control man in engineering i mean im 20 years old its a time i come from a small town you store hay bales and in a summer time for blocking our sun was shining blue sky clouds nice people sunbathing on a deck we had lunch and 5 minutes later maybe here came the jets and when nobody really knew what was happening then we started a fire. Captain said to me alert the forward gun math were under attack and i tried to raise the the 2 sailors in the forward gun mats i looked at and they were they were blown to pieces by the rocket when the attack started. And we realized that we needed help we tried to communicate with the 6th fleet they were jamming both our distress frequencies and our tactical frequencies the tactical frequencies is all right but the International Distress frequency is a violation of International Law to jam them and the israelis were jamming and we could not get a single rose heres a question i have to ask who would know the frequencies other than an ally and who is the ally in the war who was in egypt it was israel they would know and only they would know in this conflict what are frequencies would be. Now cut off from the outside world the crew on the liberty was defenseless we had for 50 caliber machine guns on board that were basically there to repel any boarders that might come by a pirate situation certainly werent designed to bring down jet aircraft that were hammering at us but you cant shoot a jet going 600 miles an hour with a 50 caliber machine gun work it was just a surreal scene people who had been standing there earlier joking and laughing were now dead dying and with the walking dead and wounded it was just unreal gasoline barrels stored on the deck of the ship burst into flames the crew rushed to try to put out the fires ma was watching the aircraft as they circled around and when they got to coming back towards the ship i just holler at him down then fire circle back around we jump back up and keep fighting fire the rocket noise was horrendous when iraq it explodes. You cant escape iraq here where you go. What the crew didnt know was that at 3 minutes past 2 days really pilots voted to use a new much deadly weapon. Debate his problem i guess from from that was the napalm which they dropped from the airplane the napalm and burn scorched almost seen tar from part of the ship the bridge area the whole tops of the ship and the fire and it was all charred it was no longer a navy grey you have to stop the fire stop the flooding to keep the ship afloat thats your home youve got nowhere else to go you cant pack up and go down the road because there is no not no road up above the Israeli Military argued about what should happen next and who should sink the liberty. Yeah. I remember thinking i was in pretty good shape and i said i think i can swim to the shore. And i thought sharks and i thought a lot of things ill call quickly you know. At 11 minutes past 2 with the israeli jets running out of ammunition the pilots were instructed to fly down and confirm the identity of the ship. It was now 12 minutes past 2 and the israeli control tower knew for certain this was an American Ship the same one its forces had 1st identified at 5 15 am that morning and then buzzed again during 7 additional reconnaissance flights throughout the day. The jets then pulled out but 3 israeli navy motor torpedo boats were already on their way. The u. S. S. Liberty was a spy ship in the event of an attack it was standard procedure for the spies on board to destroy everything just in case it fell into enemy hands everyone was destroying material everyone was. Stripping information off of computers ripping computers open pulling information out thats something you just dont want to hear aboard ship youve done all this work. Collected this intelligence and processed it and now you have to destroy it you just didnt want the enemy on to get a hold of anything classified at 235 the israeli motorboats fired 5 torpedoes for missed but one hit remember remember and remember. My mother remember. It had been over 9 hours since the Israeli Military 1st identified the liberty israeli planes had flown over it repeatedly and 20 minutes earlier the control tower had confirmed it yet again as an American Ship 25 americans were about to die in a single moment. This is what it looks like when it took paedo hits the ship the size of the liberty. The torpedo through a step in the air like a roller coaster felt like one coming down dead silence like salo smoking haze everywhere i went back to the drinking fountain and filled it with blood. Reached down to get a drink black man stared back at me. And when it fell back to get right he just kept getting wrong camp sank and sank and sank. We just waited all of us waited thinking that this was it were going down. And i figured that was the end of life for me. The top paedo had blown a huge hole in the hollow 39 feet by 24. 00 killing 25. 00 americans in a single hit the top you know hit the room that i was in and it was just luck this guy died this one live that guy that it was how much shrapnel was coming in your direction you know the Old Fashioned typewriters i had the letter h. Sticking out of my foot i had. 80 pieces of shrapnel in my lower extremities and the place filled up with water that. Totally black totally filled with. Powder. And oil it was like. Gagging and you only had about 8 or 10 inches of. Space where you could catch a breath. Only way to go in that direction most drop down and swim underwater for 5 strokes come back up and then frantically catch a breath and try to find Something Else and hold on to. I got pulled through the hatch and onto the deck others were not so lucky my friend Ronnie Campbell had a desk right there. And i remember ronnie saying you fellows can do what you want to so im going to write a letter home and he stuck a piece of paper in his mills typewriter and began typing dear eileen you wont believe whats happening to us and just seconds after that the torpedo struck and killed both the 2 moraines killed. My friend Ronny Campbell and my job was to try to get probably 20 or 30 wounded sailors out to the main deck and to the life rafts so i went up and looked at myself before i try to get a went out and thats when i observed a motor torpedo boat is really plainly marked with a star of david. Machine gunning our life raft. The crew of the liberty were now trapped on board the ship with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide the torpedo boats came and closer and began to machine gun the ship using armor piercing projectiles the armor piercing the shells that they were using were leaving holes about that big around in the Metal Plating just. Peel it out like it was orange peel. I close range the arm a piercing rounds ripped through the steel hull of the ship no way i was safe this bullet was retrieved from one of the navigational books at the rear portion of the bridge to penetrated the skin of the ship going through at least one other book and then stopped and in the 2nd book this is part of an armor piercing shell the outer portion or jacket makes the hole at this then goes through and im bullet like this that hit a seam and Francis Brown and and killed him he died around the spot this fellow the floor dead is just barely 18. There werent enough helmets to go around for want it was like sitting in a Cardboard Box and having somebody shoot through it had the balls for discovering everywhere. Throughout the attack the liberty had been silent to the outside world all its aerials why the smashed or jammed. We had one would band to know which had were an entire cruise and it had a bullet hole in it one of the radio minutes taken a reel of coax cable and ran it from one of the transmitters back there to that with band 10. And took some shrapnel in the process he got out and made a fire fox firefox this is rock star rock star under attack by i doubt id serve as a neighbor units require immediate assistance. From the american 6th fleet was 500 miles away and picked up the signal so did the Israeli Armed forces the attack stopped shortly afterwards the american aircraft carriers were in the middle of a Nuclear Weapons drill and had to rearm with conventional bombs before they could take off. Once the israelis knew the us jets were in the air they summoned the American Naval attack and told him that had been a terrible mistake. The american planes were recalled and they returned israeli helicopters flew out to the liberty this one had some personnel from. The Israeli Government and the u. S. Naval attache dropped a brown paper sack on the deck and for part of the ship. Weighted down with an orange at a Business Card in it. It landed right next to the severed leg of. One of the deck personnel. And the note said. Do you have cancelled. Pretty obvious that there were casualties. I mean theyre still body parts. And blood streaming down the bulkheads. So his message do you have casualties was kind of. Out of place. One of the sailors carried that sack back to the captain and the captain took out the no and read it looked up at the helicopter and bought the social thing or added. Corruption it is that invisible behind a wall of silence. Against russia corruption is not something to be told that it. Is not going to. Go country his. Lets destroy this war. In 2020 the 5th face award encourages the heroes who are fighting against corruption this helps whole communities to save the resources that we need in order to address the burning problems that affect us all. To shine a light on your Anti Corruption hero. Nominate now. When counting the cost of debt crisis and insurgent uprising mozambiques troubled road becoming the worlds biggest gas exporter an epic battle the challenges apples grip on its not a store and the rising prospect of a currency war its a Mighty Dollar sink counting the cost on aljazeera. Logan peter will be here in doha you top stories 10 e. U. Countries have agreed to take in 400. 00 unaccompanied minors after 5 years gussied europes biggest refugee camp in greece thousands of refugees and migrants spent a 3rd night without shelter and food on the island of less boss John Psaropoulos is at that camp he says people who already had very little have now lost everything we are still seeing some people hanging around this area trying to find the belongings that werent destroyed by several fires over a 3 day period the most recent of them yesterday we were filming as they were being lit and we witnessed several fires starting up these houses that have been set up around the main camp outside the perimeter of the official camp are also now mostly destroyed so this entire area is basically uninhabitable the government says that it has managed to provide them with water and with food and we have seen people who have struggled back here carting bottles of fresh water away but the next step is to get them to shelter india and china have agreed to deescalate tensions the 5 points agreement comes days after shots were fired across their disputed border for the 1st time in 45 years. Water Borne Diseases are a growing threat in sudan after catastrophic flooding the worst flooding in a century killed at least 100. 00 people in colombia the death toll from protests against the police is now risen to 10 people were outraged after a father of 2 was repeatedly tasered while she was being arrested he later died india is reporting yet another record daily increase of more than 95000 cases of cope with 1000 in the coronavirus it has the worlds Fastest Growing infection rate and is the 2nd worst affected country after the United States half a 1000000 people have been forced from their homes in the u. S. State of oregon as around 100 wildfires burn across the west coast at least 15 people have been killed. The c. E. O. Of the worlds biggest iron ore miner destroyed ancient caves in australia is stepping down rio tinto has been widely criticized for blowing up 46000 year old rock shelters in may to expand a mine those are your headlines up next the day Israel Attacked america news hour and 30 minutes. June the 8th 1967 the height of the 6 day war the u. S. S. Liberty an american spy ship had just been attacked by israeli jets and 2 peter boats while in International Waters off egypt badly damaged 2 thirds of its crew were dead or wounded. As soon as the news reached washington the attack on the liberty instantly triggered a domestic political crisis 2 according to documents released under the freedom of information act one solution suggested in American Government circles was to sink the liberty so journalists could not photograph it and inflame Public Opinion against the israelis the n. S. A. Rejected this idea with an impolite comment handling the media became the top priority and i was taken to my home and why dont maryland man name is sap patricia blue or shock us and my husband was killed on the liberty. And by the time i got there there were any number of people from the National Security agency they are they were there to make sure that i didnt speak to anyone from the press and i didnt they stay night and day back in the mediterranean the liberty was now listing at 10 degrees a massive hole in the hull above and below the water line. The planes that they said they were sending to us never arrived what i was afraid of and i think most of us was that we were going to sink the mess decks was was pretty much littered with the wound looks like something out of a horror movie with people standing around or lying wounded and dead and stunned heads missing parts of their bodies the liberty had only one doctor on board with very limited medical resources there was not a table that wasnt being used with the body on or wounded body and the doctor fixed compound fractures and treated but it entrap the wounds while blood transfusions were given to. It was. It was real bad and the doctor said to him you want me to operate he says youre probably going to die if i do and youll certainly die if i dont and he said go ahead doctor and so when the doctor operated. We held in this tight as we could as horrible pain im sure for him and all of a sudden he went he went limp and he died right there. Other wont ever see anything like that again. Captain mcgonagle received a pretty bad leg injury lost a lot of blood. Even navigating by the stars we had it a little bit of power and tons of water in our belly which meant the ship waved back and forth all night long and the next day American Ships arrived to take the injured in the dead off the liberty the American Government now made sure that no journalists could get anywhere near the crew when i took the severely wounded to various parts and i actually posted guards on their room so that no one could be interviewed by the press the told press blackout was in effect. Back in washington the government ensured there was Little Information for the press while politics went on behind closed doors. I was told to go up personally to the. 7th floor. Oh my name is bill lloyd i was in charge of the arab israel desk sit in because the secretary of state himself dean rusk had summoned. The master harman of israel to come in or julie and. So i sat through the meeting taking notes and in a loud voice secretary west was really demanding some explanation for a why and what had happened the ambassador himself. Seemed to be ignorant of the incident she immediately said i cant believe what youre telling me its it would be impossible it would be unheard of it was especially tough for Lyndon Johnson to date the most pro israeli american president in history johnson was and a very tough mood. Im tom he was director in the state Department Director of intelligence and research at the time of the liberty incident and 67. 00 tacked on the Liberty Johnson himself briefed Newsweek Magazine off the record that the israelis had attacked and the reason they detect was that they thought this was an intelligence ship that was intercepted perhaps israeli as well as Egyptian Communications but then everything changed the fact that johnson of self was the leaker and briefer of newsweek was soon leaked and this alarmed of course the Israeli Embassy and their leading friends in the jewish organizations the Israeli Embassy regarded this as a major problem. And that. What johnson told newsweek practically amounts of blood libel declassified israeli documents show they were going to threaten president johnson with blood libel gross anti semitism and that would end his political career blackmail. This is what i know bob they are among Us Navy Retired former director of the National Security agency. But they know if he is thinking about running again hes going to need money for his campaign. So alleging that hes blood libeling is gonna rouse the jewish donors the Israeli Government hired teams of lawyers some of whom were Close Friends of Lyndon Johnson and began an all out offensive they lent on the media to kill critical stories and slanted others in favor of israel. There was a campaign mounted to see if what could be done about returning johnson to his normal. Predictable pro israeli position at the time johnson was still undecided as to whether to run for president the following year efforts were to be made to remind the president of the delicacy of his own position that he personally would lose support. For his run for reelection in 1968 israeli tactics were clever they identified johnsons soft spot the war in vietnam and gave him 2 extraordinary gifts neither of which were made public at the time the 1st was political but one of johnsons complaints about israel was that many of the jewish organizations and the heads of. Leaders in the Jewish Community were opposing him. And there were several becoming more silent as the liberty crisis moves so he also knew that there was a move back and his favor if he was moderate. His room there was a 2nd gift much more secret but vital to the american president the dreadful death toll in vietnam was dominating the domestic news agenda the North Vietnamese had russian surface to air missiles which were bringing down american aircraft on a daily basis. The American Military attacks in israel got a surprise visit from a senior Israeli Intelligence officer took some helicopters and one across the north red sea to the surface to air missile sites and helicopters and put took back everything the launchers the missiles from the manual thats manuals for us them and then he went to the us embassy so there and she and said i think i have something you might be interested in and of course those were the same missiles that our aircraft flying over North Vietnam were encountering they day and countermeasures was a huge issue. So grateful was the American Government they gave israel to gifts in return they were supplied them with the weapons they had just lost in the war and the liberty inquiry run by the department of defense the d. O. D. Was watered down. All its influence by what have we benefited from from the capture of this aide to missile sites soon johnson did respond and took a much more lenient lie and wish that the whole incident could be put behind as soon as possible johnson softer approach to israel was immediately reflected in the American Navy inquiry which was now underway on board the liberty we begin to realize that a cover up was was this was descending upon us a lot of people that were in a key position to offer testimony were not given that opportunity i testified to the machine gunning of life rafs to the captain state of mind and it was that those 2 issues in particular totally admitted lloyd painter was not the only officer to have his testimony ignored i saw what looked like unburned vaseline and i scraped a little bit of it off and put it in the jar and sealed the cap on and i presented to the court of inquiry and thats the last i saw that jar there was no mention of napalm and im sure thats what it was they want to hear any of that i didnt know that at the time i did not tell many months later that night i had been recorded looking back on it it was a total sham the u. S. Court of inquiry reported in just 20 days it was a rush job full of spelling mistakes much key evidence ignored no israelis interviewed and it exonerated them from blame. I read the court of inquiry and realized that my statements have been stricken from the record and never recorded so i knew then for certain that the cover up was this massive the israelis then rushed out their own report which concluded that the whole affair was a series of mistakes and that no one was to blame the only dissenting voice was that of the israeli ambassador in washington he sent a secret telegram back home arguing that israel was clearly guilty he cited the audiotape of the attack the existence of which was known to top israeli officials and mentioned the crucial 20 minute gap that followed the libertys identification and the launch of the torpedoes against him he said they should own up to what they had done and put the guilty on trial his advice was ignored the focus now was to repair the damage to american israeli relations and the israelis have always been very skillful. Tracking what the u. S. Government is doing saying thinking and after 10 flights and they are by no means the only country that does it many do they are just more effective than it must have a great advantage they have as compared to other countries is their influence in the congress around the time of the attack the Washington Post had noted that the jewish lobby could help determine the outcome of 169 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the white house the big emotive words about the attack disappeared from press releases at the pentagon much more bland neutral. Sounding. Discourse incurred and this was true of the private briefings that official people in the vatican made about the ends but whatever was said to journalists every Us Intelligence had believed the attack was intentional one of them wrote a nice whitewash for a group of ignorant stupid and inept x x x. Jewish community has always been more generous than many of their other counterparts and supporting financially. Actions political causes process that does translate and they influence many of johnsons closest friends and advisers were pro israeli and they reported back to tel aviv on his every move the israeli story comes to be shifted to counter whatever new intelligence the white house received so sensitive with these communications that the israelis used code names to protect the identity of their white house agents but for the 1st time the members of the ring can be named hamlet was a 1000000. 00 fundraiser for the democrats when he rang johnson took his calls he was a find. Was Arthur Goldberg the u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations was David Ginsburg a high profile washington lawyer who also represented the Israeli Embassy. Was Supreme Court justice abe fortas. Lyndon johnson had dinner with him on the eve of the 6 day war. The strategy where the u. S. Israeli relationship proved to be stronger than the killing and injuring of more than 200. 00 americans american israeli relationship was very much at stake. Was brought back from the precipice the crucial intelligence came from the u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations after goldberg he wont tell a v. That the United States had the audiotape which revealed israeli pilots knew it was an American Ship before attacked. The tape was quietly buried. And i think theyre caught just incision was my to sweep it under the rug to put it behind my reading is that the Us Government had made the decision to accept the apology and reject the other rationale but dont push it further with the politics sorted the only remaining issue was the fate of the u. S. S. Liberty badly damaged and now in malta for extensive repairs the torpedo hole was massive and was revealed to be much bigger once they got the ship into dry dock and drained it of water the sealed compartment was a water filled too full of bodies body parts and top secret equipment. You could smell death and you could smell the oil thats what i remember and soon as the air hit the bodies it began to deteriorate rapidly you knew what you have to do there were you shipmates still are the navy was more concerned with part than they were body parts but when i went down i knew that you can separate the 2 we had to start shoveling up the the but the parts 168 bags worth. Elsewhere the make up artists were getting to work we were in the dry dock about 6 weeks and 300 maltese workers are working 2 shifts a day and i think 7 days a week to try they were cutting out the shell holes welding plates over that. And fabricating metal to cover the torpedo hole and then in one day they painted the entire ship we looked like nothing ever happened we took it across the atlantic it was like being in a cemetery but when we pulled into port we looked goodness press and everything with air and we looked like basically nothing really happened so its great for the press to downplay what really happened to us while the survivors met the widows and friends the 168. 00 bags of body parts and top secret equipment were quietly taken to an incinerator and. A year later and the liberty captain William Mcgonagle was given the medal of honor americas highest award for gallantry the tradition has always been that it is presented by the president in the white house. I look at these 2. And i see. Captain mcgonagle never heard words like these me his commander in chief there was no Television Coverage for him as he was sieved his medal in a quiet ceremony in the navy yard president johnson was just 4 miles away at the time he stayed in the white house to hand out diplomas to schoolchildren. The reason was revealed in this internal memo which advised president johnson the due to the nature and sensitivity of these awards they should be given by the department of defense not by him the advice was clear no press release regarding them should be made. When i received my purple heart and in a secret ceremony in the captains office i was in monish to thread a Court Martial dont ever tell anyone where you got this dont ever tell anyone how you got this medal. The following Year American aid to israel increased fourfold and president johnson agreed a treaty classified above top secret with israel for the Mutual Exchange of intelligence and arrangement which is still in place today code named stone ruby. 2 1 of the things about this me is there wasnt a nice explanation of what went on no one wants to talk about the why. The big secret the israelis wants to protect was their next move they had told the americans that this was to be a limited war and not a land grab but on june 8th 1967 the forces were poised to attack and seize the Golan Heights and invade syria something they wish to keep from the white house until theyd done it. Successive american administrations both republican and democrat had refused to deal with the liberty even the issue of war crimes against unarmed americans has never been addressed there was a war crimes report filed by the Liberty Veterans Association to address the issues of such war crimes as firing on life rafts that was never answered properly and only was answered period the people who are responsible for attacking the Liberty Liberty were you know by and large the military individuals in the war room i dont know how many 4810. Those are the people who came up with the plan those are the individuals who are responsible for the attack. The pilots the moderates of peterborough personnel they were ordered you know you dont follow orders go to go to jail so they have to follow through it wasnt the israeli people who ordered the attack it wasnt the average jewish person who ordered that attack we really need to exonerate the average jewish person israeli from this and go to wards those individuals who are responsible for the attack no one was really willing to take this on not to start state department the white house not the congress its in everybodys best interest to just let this go and thats exactly what they did but by doing that they laughed a lot of pain for the survivors and for their families because there was a lot of broken families broken marriages alcoholism depression. Posttraumatic stress disorder. So those those crewmembers suffered a lot but so did the families the hardest part was the reaction of our own government toward us and we were actually the fingers were pointed us and they israelis were they were there they were never questioned as to why they did it they only questioned us. The families still want answers from their government which remains silent for many some memories never fade we had a wonderful time just being together i met our. At a party and we spent a lot of time talking throughout the evening and at the end of the evening he said to me. Are you busy tomorrow afternoon and i said well no and he said do you think we could get married then i was told that he was among the dead it was absolutely the worst moment of my life is that there are those who go by i dont think about those guys i mean i went through hell but. They left the earth. When im walking up to the mass grave i still feel a connection with those people. Hard to explain but its still there still. I want to remember that connection. As long as i can what we shared what we felt. It took 13 years of haggling before both sides finally agreed a compensation deal for the ship by 980. 00 the bill plus interest was just over 17000000. 00 israel offered 6 the americans accepted then sold the liberty 4100000 dollars scrap. The settlement for the victims was quicker but many are still unhappy with the today. Not feel it was a fair settlement i would have thought it. But i was so sad and broken. I just didnt have the energy to take on that fight and it wasnt a fight that i thought i could when the state department. Were very eager for the survivors to make that settlement they sent a check for their the amount and that that was that the American Government came up with a formula for the israelis to compensate the widows and children for their loss this included the payment for shock and mental anguish the widows got 25000. 00 with 10000. 00 for each of the children over 5 an American Government lawyer doubted that children under 5 could sufficiently comprehend the event to suffer shock and grief. The u. S. Proposed they should therefore receive nothing and offer the israelis accepted. Since the attack on the liberty the usa and israel had grown ever closer at the time george ball the u. S. Undersecretary of state noted that it seemed clear to the israelis that as american leaders did not have the courage to punish them for the blatant murder of american citizens they would let them get away with anything. The fence of ok skies across much of brazil some are so much as well above the average into rare summer does a being in the thirtys for the last few days will continue that way people out there in joining the weather it should be in the mid twentys this time of year so that is how much will it actually is well that will mean what is a continue through friday on into saturday that range of kids of the north but it does mean more heavy rain into the fall southeast of brazil than we had up into Central America plenty of activity here were actually watching a disturbance was just sitting here of the coast of florida impacting the bahamas this is actually for calls to head across into florida throughout the weekend and then possibly push into the eastern and well eastern side of the gulf of mexico it could then become a Tropical Storm keep an eye on that plenty of rain as you can see here across Central Regions and extending across into much of mexico meanwhile up into the night to states its really about the west it is hot and dry and of course the files continue to the ag quality is hazardous now across so many cities up the west coast this particular fog just 6 percent contained and this of course is the story and his look hundreds of homes destroyed from the fires in oregon weather will stay dry itll stay hot the winds notes as strong as they have been but the rain is heavy but not that its across Central Regions. An image can change the way we see the womb if we had not seen this week well be talking about it it can spark mass action or serve the interests of the powerful he created longing for a fellow opportunity that can obscure the truth this is a legitimate news story like this play and the talking points were pretty intense before it can forge narratives or rewrite through the listening post gives you the full picture. This is aljazeera. I dont welcome im peter w. Watching the news out live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes thousands of refugees left homeless after a fire has destroyed their camp on a greek island demanding they be allowed to leave from mainland europe. The u. S. Marks 19 years since the september 11th attacks. Fears grow of water Borne Disease following 6 sudans were