in July of 2000 a team of historians and political scientists sat down to interview Bob Gates for the George Herbert Walker Bush oral history project Gates was CIA director during Bush's tenure these were eventful years and so the men spoke of the Soviet Union Yugoslavia Somalia German reunification a fascinating Insider perspective into the first Bush White House amid the interview historian H William Brans asks the old spy Chief a question many were doubtless curious to know was there anybody that George Bush actively disliked Shamir Gates of course is referring to yitzak Shamir the Israeli Prime Minister at the time but I will say this every president I worked for at some point in his presidency would get so pissed off at the Israelis that he couldn't speak it didn't matter whether it was Jimmy Carter or Jerry Ford or Ronald Reagan or George Bush something would happen and they would just absolutely go screw themselves right into the ceiling they were so angry and they'd sort of rant and Rave around the Oval Office I think it was their frustration about knowing that there was so little they could do about it because of domestic politics and everything else that was so frustrating to them but he did not I think care very much for Shamir I'm trying to think about others but I can't think of any others no doubt two decades before Bush was even sworn in as president lynen Baines Johnson was feeling just as angry and ineffectual it was the morning of June 8th 1967 Navy ensen John Diedrich Scott turned 24 years old his birthday was business as usual his crew was stationed in the Mediterranean after having traveled all the way from West Africa it was an early morning just before 4:00 a. m. he'd get to work deck watch at about the exact same time a Nord nor Atlas took to the sky to begin an air reconnaissance Patrol the plane belonging to the Israeli Air Force was patrolling along the Mediterranean Coast to detect ships Beyond radar range there was only one it was Navy ends in Scott ship on the bridge Scott spotted the plane he grabbed his binoculars to get a better view a flying box car with a double fuselage and twin engines just 15 minutes before Scott had watched the ship's American flag being pulled by the wind up in the cockpit of the nor Atlas an Israeli naval officer scan below serving as an aerial Observer at 5:45 the plane began reporting that the ship was a destroyer less than 20 minutes later though according to an official Israeli history the plane reported that it was in fact a US Navy Supply ship The Observer had even spotted the ship's H markings gtr5 and the plane's crew radioed the information to Ground Control upon Landing The Observer was debriefed by a lieutenant commander pinassi of Air Command after which according to an official Israeli inquiry the identification of the ship was determined to be the US Navy ship Liberty hi my name is gdf and you can probably tell by the direction that this video is going in that I'm not very Advertiser friendly for that reason I Rely completely on my patrons subscribers and donations hours before the attack Israel knew not only that an American ship sailed nearby but that it was the Spy ship Liberty aboard the USS Liberty was a signals intelligence and cryptology command called the naval Security Group an organization which reported to the National Security Agency the NSA outfitted with 45 towering antennas and a satellite dish on the ship's Stern which bounced messages off the moon to Washington the ship's true mission was a poorly kept secret ugliest ship in the Navy and uh the most unusual and therefore the easiest of all uh ships to recognize the ship's Captain William mcgonagal would later testify that the configuration of the ship with unusual masted antenna arrangements had resulted in some surveillance from the southwest African countries during its first two deployments its usual stomping grounds African art and masks decorated the ship's walls summer 1967 was supposed to entail steaming off to Angola Liberia and abon from the port of Aban however the ship received new marching orders late spring saw things heat up rapidly in the Middle East Egypt and Israel appeared ever closer to war the ship was now to sail towards Spain and finally off of the Sinai Peninsula it was here that the Liberty was to listen in on Communications flying between the Waring parties of the ensuing six- day war each day beginning with Israel's preemptive attack on Egypt the Liberty was sending a steady stream of updates back to Washington about Israel's capturing the SI and the West Bank including the old city of Jerusalem in just the first 3 days the ship was very much not a battleship and as we shall see almost completely defenseless the Liberty carried no cannons and was armed with four Browning 50 caliber machine guns the ship's four-page Gunnery Doctrine declared the mounted guns primary function was to repel borders not shoot down Fighters the ship's infirmary was in turn not outfitted for war zones out of a crew of almost 300 the main Ward could accommodate just four patients on a previous Cruise a sailor had to be evacuated to a hospital in senagal for appendicitis the examination room with its lone surgical table carried sutures in local anesthetic however the sailors did not have much Reon reason to believe they'd be targeted for Attack by anyone its flag flying on its Mast its freshly painted hole markings its configuration size and speed coupled with the clear weather and lack of surrounding ships made an attack all the less likely after all no Nation had ever attacked a spy ship so the worries were not overt particularly because the Liberty sailed in international waters Navy anden Scott still had on the plane and even shot four photos with a 35mm camera the plane circled around several times then took off in a true Direction toward Tel Aviv a single jet aircraft circled the ship at 850 two more Jets circled three times at 10:30 11:00 a.
m. another plane circled more planes came at 11:30 11:45 12:20 and 12:45 the weather log on the Liberty showed clear skies calm seas and excellent visibility north of the Sinai on June 8th 1967 the calm preceded a vicious storm just before 2: p. m.
Captain mcgonagle peered through binoculars from the starboard Wing he spotted a fighter jet anden Patrick om Ali studied the radar on the screen were three blips we've got three unidentified vessels steady bearing decreasing range coming right at us as a captain I've never seen anything approach the ship this fast mgle turned to Lieutenant Junior grade Lloyd painter I think they're going to attack French made Mirage Jets strafed the Liberty the bridge was first rockets and 30 mm Cannon rounds pummeled The Vessel shrapnel flew everywhere and I could see orange flashes just uh dancing down the down the deck men in the forward gun mounts uh both both forward gun mounts were literally blown into the air and end over end the Liberty never stood a chance from just the first burst of bombs and bullets the ship's machine guns were destroyed antenna were smashed basketball-sized craters littered the deck and Bridge McGonigle alerted the crew to increase speed to maximum power but the Jets had blown out one of the ship's two boilers the Liberty's Max Speed would be just about 13 mph Jets tag teamed the ship and attacked it in a crisscross formation the Fighters first strafed the libert from bow to stern targeting the bridge machine guns and antenna with those destroyed or on fire the attackers crisscrossed the Spy ship to Target the engine room the Liberty's heart the attacks Came In Waves about every minute radioing for help proved increasingly impossible as the Jets targeted each of the ship's 45 antenna 6 minutes into the attack the Radioman switched transmitters hoping to get a message out but the receiver blared feedback noise thinking this was just a Mal function the men were horrified to find the same noise on every frequency leading the radien to conclude that the attackers had jammed the Liberty's Communications since only between the attacks could The Operators receive signals The Mirage Fighters were just the beginning the second phase of the attack saw the fighters replaced by m bombers armed with Napal burning at 3000° the explosion sent smoke barreling through the bridge bits of Flaming Jelly charred walls and blistered paint fuel barrels caught fire and sent more smoke in the air after unloading their payloads the bombers too vanished there was now another calm in the skies though not aboard the Liberty whose deck was strewn with dead and dying but still the worst was Yet to Come As those three blips on the radar screen still hadn't arrived yet the torpedo boats that that happened to been the three uh blips that I had seen on the radar scope had reached us and we now firing armor piercing bullets through the ship mcgonagal again pulled up his binoculars and saw some 15 Mi off the starboard side three torpedo boats coming straight toward him the skipper ordered new men to replace the dead ones at the 50 Cals and a new American flag race to replace the one knocked down by the Jets they grabbed the largest one they had 7 by 13 ft and pulled it up the mast at 2:26 p. m. up until now the ships crew had no idea who was even attacking them Egyptians Soviets I saw what appeared to me to be an Israeli flag on one of the boats no doubt mcgonagle was stunned to find as the torpedo boats approached some 2,000 yard away a blue and white flag with a star of David in the center the boats then opened fire along with 50 cows of their own the ships also possessed 20 and 40 mm cannons these weapons of course were designed to create a distraction as their Gunners manually aimed Torpedoes at the Liberty nearly 300 Sailors now prepared for the unthinkable not since the waning days of World War II and before many of the Liberty crew members were even born had another Nation torpedoed an American ship at 2:34 p.
m. mcgonagle watched a torpedo gliding underneath the water which flew past the Liberty Stern by 25 yards but the Israeli boats had fired five at 2:35 p. m.
the Liberty was lifted out of the water and sloshed back down the power was out all the generators and even the steering had failed a single torpedo had slammed directly into the ship's starboard side blasting a hole 39 ft wide and 24 ft tall water cascaded into the ship oil classified documents key cards and bodies poured out into the sea 25 sailors were killed by the explosion if not during the eight reconnaissance flights over the Liberty then certainly amid the attack from the fighter jets and bombers the Liberty was identified for what it was according to Lieutenant Colonel schu kislev then Israel's Chief air controller at General headquarters in Tel Aviv the Air Force stops all operations and says all our aircraft all our attch aircraft please stop I must say that at that point in time in my mind it was an American ship you thought it was quite certain it was an American ship more than 20 minutes before the Fatal torpedo strike that killed 25 Sailors Israel's Chief air controller conclusively identified the Liberty as an American ship Navy ensen John Scott preempting another torpedo blast instructed his men to grab life preservers and prepare to abandon ship the men dropped several life rafts overboard but lieutenant payner watched in horror as one of the torpedo boats zoomed past and machine guned the rubber rafts the torpedo boats continued to range shells and armor-piercing 50 caliber rounds at the ship finally the firing stopped one of the torpedo boats approached to about 500 yd away from the Liberty at this point the Liberty's crew were using a lamp to Signal us naval ship bizarrely the torpedo boat signaled back do you need help no they replied replied do you want us to stand by no thank you they replied followed by the last communication from the Israeli vessel good luck it was still morning in Washington at 11:04 a. m.
