New evidence for American cover-up of Israeli attack on U.S. warship
Startling
new evidence revealed in a BBC documentary shows that President
Lyndon Johnson had no doubts that the Israeli attack on American
spy ship USS Liberty, which left 34 American servicemen dead and
171 wounded, had been a deliberate attack.
The
incident happened exactly 35 years ago this week, during the Arab-Israeli
Six Day War, and brought the Western world to the brink of a nuclear
exchange. Yet it has been shrouded in mystery ever since.
Dead
In The Water (BBC Four, 9.00pm, Monday 10 June) tells a gripping
and chilling story, with new access to crewmen, senior American
figures including former US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara and
CIA chief Richard Helms, and officers in the US and Israeli intelligence
services, who give their version of events for the first time.
On
8 June 1967, on the fourth day of the Six Day War, unmarked Israeli
planes attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty, a spy ship belonging
to its closest ally, the USA.
Israel
has always claimed that the affair was a tragic accident based on
mistaken identification of the ship. The government of President
Lyndon Johnson publicly accepted this explanation.
In
fact, as Dead In The Water reveals, those at the very top never
believed the Israeli version - and for good reasons.
The
picture that emerges is of a daring ploy by Israel to fake an Egyptian
attack on the American spy ship, and thereby provide America with
a reason to officially enter the war against Egypt.
Intercepts
recorded during the incident reveal how America was convinced the
attack was intentional, and the minutes of a White House meeting
clearly suggest that President Johnson believed the attack had been
deliberate.
For
35 years, the Liberty survivors have continued to argue that the
attack was intentional and that the US government colluded in a
cover-up.
Today,
the veterans are still calling for a full investigation by Congress
into the incident. It remains the only case of an attack on a US
ship without a full Congressional enquiry.
Dead
in the Water puts forward evidence that Israel deliberately attacked
a ship belonging to its ally, intending to sink it as quickly as
possible.
The
film also reveals how the Liberty incident provoked the launch of
nuclear-armed planes targeted against Cairo from a US aircraft carrier
in the Mediterranean.
They
were recalled only just in time, when it was clear the Liberty had
not sunk with all hands, and that Israel was responsible.
The
film also questions why the White House twice ordered the recall
of further planes launched to rescue the Liberty during the attack,
leaving the ship utterly defenceless.
Dead
in the Water offers evidence of a secret collaboration between America
and Israel before and during the war a covert alliance of
intelligence agencies that has always been denied by both sides.
As
former US Ambassador Richard Parker says, if it were known that
America were secretly in the war against Egypt, "it would have
finished our relations with the Arab world for a long time to come."
Dead
in the Water is a Source Films production for BBC FOUR.
Notes
to Editors
More
about the programme and the attack on the BBC
Four website.
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