->  We have had discussions of the USS Liberty before in Fido. For
->  those who may not know, that was a US Navy Intel ship sailing
->  off the coast of Israel during the 1967 war. It was attacked by
->  Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats, with major damage and the
->  loss of 34 killed and 171 wounded.

I watched it in its' entirety Bob.

->  The BBC did a documentary on that incident, google:
-> 
->  bbc dead in the water
-> 
->  The video can be watched online, or downloaded.
-> 
->  Most of what was in the video I already knew from research, and
->  what was discussed in Fido. However, there were a couple points
->  I was not previously aware of.

Same here.

->  It's long been claimed that the Israeli aircraft misidentified
->  the Liberty as an Egyptian freighter. This in spite of the ship
->  flying a prominent American flag, and having a lot of antennas
->  of various sorts all over the ship. Also the Liberty was much
->  larger than the Egyptian ship.
-> 
->  What I did not previously know was, a US command aircraft
->  monitoring communications in the war had heard and recorded the
->  Israeli pilots calling for confirmation of orders just before
->  they attacked. The lead pilot told their control "this is an
->  American ship". When he was ordered to proceed with the attack
->  he again challenged the order and repeated that it was an
->  American ship. He was ordered to attack anyway.

Yup, that was new to me as well.

->  Also I had not known the captain of the Liberty had asked for an
->  escort, such as a destroyer and was refused.

Same again.

->  The Israeli Mossad, intel, has a memorial to one of the American
->  intel agents involved in the incident.
-> 
->  Most significant of all, IMO, was the response of the fleet. We
->  have long known that the fleet sent off alert aircraft in
->  response to the attack. It is also known the aircraft were
->  recalled to the ship. For a long time that recall has been
->  considered evidence of complicity of some in the US govt in the
->  attack. That the aircraft were called back from going to the
->  assistance of the Liberty, perhaps because the command did not
->  want them to see too much.

Yup, a political incident too difficult to cover up
and putting at risk our only asset in the middle east at the time.

->  The BBC program reported that the aircraft were not sent to
->  relieve the ship. They were launched to attack Cairo. The fleet
->  command assumed it was Egypt that attacked the Liberty. And the
->  alert aircraft were nuclear armed.

Whoa boy, now there was a near mistake of global proportions.

->  Even back in 1967, the year I enlisted in the Air Force, they
->  made a point of telling us all the protections against an
->  accidental launch that were in place. Use of nuclear weapons
->  required approval from the president. Yet the records of the
->  time showed LBJ was caught by surprise by the attack, and was
->  outraged. Which implies he knew nothing of it till a fair amount
->  of time later. How they ever managed to launch a nuclear
->  retaliation without presidential approval I cannot figure out.

Ever watch Dr. Strangelove?

BTW a Soviet doomsday device as depicted in that fictional
dark comedy was actually built, only recently revealled.

Had the electronic monitoring and software malfunctioned
and sent a go signal only a timely response from Soviet officers
aware of the system and of sufficient rank could have stopped a full
scale nuclear attack on the U.S.

There was such a near incident when what appeared to be
an incoming missle track turned out to be moon bounce or some such on
their radar warning system.

A little known, in this country, Soviet officer figuring it was highly
unlikely the U.S. would fire only one
nuclear tipped ICBM in an attack violated his command orders
and shut down the retaliatory strike thus saving the world.

He was honored privately as a hero of the Soviet Union
but only in private due to his violating orders to the benefit of
all humanity.

We've had our share of close calls on launch including a 
industrial spec. op-amp subbed for a mil grade one failing
and indicating a massive Soviet strike on the way.
Retaliation averted by something like 6 - 7 minutes!

->  For a long time it was presumed the attack was to cover up the
->  Israeli plan to attack and capture the Golan Heights. They
->  supposedly did not want a US ship intercepting traffic about
->  that attack. Esp since a truce was developing.
-> 
->  This makes it look like, just maybe, the intent was to provoke
->  the US into attacking Egypt. Esp since the Israeli's were so
->  determined to sink the ship and kill the crew. Merely disabling
->  the recon equipment would have been enough to prevent the
->  interceptions.

Yeah the crew under strafing undertook to erect a long wire antenna
to get the message of the attack out.
Only that heroic action saved what was left of that crew and ship. 

->  Also the fact that the aircraft were unmarked suggests the Egypt
->  scenario even more.

Yuppers.

->  If anyone in the US command were involved still remains
->  unanswered. The Naval inquiry determined that the attack was a
->  mistake, in spite of all the evidence, and LBJ and his advisors
->  firm belief that it was not.

Nor do I buy into that.

->  Now the question is, what do we do about it? There is no
->  statute of limitations on murder.

Nothing will be done I fear.

This world is full of horrible miscarriages of justice
ignored and buried for the short term political
advantages of suppressing such knowledge.
 
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5