Worst political crisis in decades but calas signed a symbolic declaration although its unclear at that has any legal status on a home reports from barcelona. He arrived at the Parliament Building bristling with expectation a heavy Police Presence hinted at the weighty announcement to come but carlos the president of catalonia is Regional Government stopped short of a full declaration of independence. As president its my responsibility to declare that catalonia should become an independent state in the shape of a republic. Should become the words greeted with rounds in applause in the chamber before the independent state party was put on hold. We asked the parliament to suspend any effects of the declaration of independence so that we can have dialogue and so that we can find the necessary solution we need to lower tensions and show our will and commitment to meet the demands of the catalan people the reaction in madrid came swiftly and this course not kaito your present day that the speech that the catalan president has made today is a speech by a person who doesnt know where he is where hes going or with whom he wants to go the government cannot accept that the catalan referendum be validated because its been suspended by the constitutional court. Having consistently refused to talk one centrist politician suggested the time may have come for the government to compromise i think the better way they can solve the problem is with that negotiation some kind as i said of mediation. A disappointment perhaps to some staunch secessionists tonight would be their night but sweet relief to many who fear the consequences of an upright declaration of independence after threats from madrid and the flight of Top Companies from catalonia since the referendum on october the first. Baseman you because youre living. Alone or the faithful who gathered to watch the speech on the big screens left deflated but accepted that all was not lost im happy that hes given. In or the for things we really dont understand the situation what does it mean what the president just said so assigned declaration but independence deferred which demands speech stipulated no timeline for talks with madrid the drama of catalonia is independence that is played out in this Parliament Building for nearly one hundred years isnt over yet jonah hill aljazeera barcelona. President to hold a kenyatta says a rerun of the countrys president ial election will go ahead and just over two weeks despite the Opposition Leader vine a pulling out as accusing the Electoral Commission of failing to make the changes necessary for a more credible outcome. Washingtons come out in defense of its ambassador to turkey john bass after the turkish president said his government no longer recognizes the diplomat the u. S. Suspended Visa Services to turkish citizens after turkish authorities arrested a u. S. Embassy employee and stamboul last week turkey responded by suspending Visa Services to u. S. Citizens. Turkish authorities have arrested thirty members of the armed forces of a suspected links to the banned golan a spur of moment a state run News Agency SaysPolice Issued warrants for forty others and the air force navy and army corps says the movement led by u. S. Based cleric fettle golan was behind last years failed coup one of the worlds biggest color immunization campaigns is underway in bangladesh for a hangover a few g. s to prevent a major outbreak nine hundred thousand doses of vaccine have been prepared to protect local communities at least fifteen people are dead in the u. S. State of california as wildfires continue to spread for the third day the fires have scorched states famous one country and forced more than two thousand twenty thousand people from their husbands right those are the headlines on al jazeera produced stay with us the day Israel Attacked america is up next. Early june one thousand nine hundred sixty seven the six 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 two in the afternoon on june the eighth with the wall reaching its climax israeli jets and mo to torpedo boats launched an unprovoked attack on the ship they dropped napalm and strafe its decks with rockets cannon fire and piercing rounds before trying to sink it with talk paedos. We had no way to defend ourselves and it was just were just slaughtered and a shot of 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. 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 three hundred there were thirty four killed in one hundred seventy two injured in there and agree to. Life threatening life debilitating injuries so that was more than two 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. America. For the first 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 have a since. The United StatesNavy Memorial in washington d. C. June the eighth two thousand and fourteen for every year on the anniversary of the attack on the u. S. S. Liberty survivors relatives and supporters gathered together its a remembrance of those who who were killed that day the thirty four. On dave lucas i was in charge of the deck force i was twenty five my first 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. And float. The names of the thirty four killed or 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 one nine hundred sixty seven 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 ten thousand troops would die that year the americans were trapped they couldnt leave and they couldnt 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 first but on the fifth 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. State of the our intelligence gathering vessel of the time and what we did is we listened we were listening ship my name is light 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 spiced 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 and known as conspiring against us and basically was 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 LockwoodUnited States marine corps retired israelis our primary purpose was to intercept communications of the russian spy aircraft as it were at alexandria egypt and it was our job was to find them they 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 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 eighth of june the war had just two 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 and on june eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty seven when what we were trying to monitor find something coming from the direction of egypt but just listen i think they own the skies in their own and everything that i dont think there was anything moving at that time that they didnt know about it was listening to the chatter night before knew it was American Ship that came into the area they knew who we were five fifteen a. M. First light the ships log recorded an israeli photo reconnaissance plane flying over the liberty. It was easily identifiable as a nor atlas or a craft 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 five 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 were right we were in great shape because you know 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 five or ten 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 one fifty three p. M. The pilots asked the base control room about the ship. Right. The u. S. S. Liberty was the only ship of any size in the area. The american six three eight including two aircraft carriers was five hundred miles away oh it was a great day and hello im jim smith damage control man in engineering i mean im twenty 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 it that we had lunch and five 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 two 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 sixth 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 our frequencies would be. Now cut off from the outside world the crew on the liberty was defenseless we had four fifty caliber machine guns on board that were basically there to repel any boarders that might come by you know a pirate situation certainly werent designed to bring down jet aircraft that were hammering at us but you cant shoot a jet going six hundred miles an hour with a fifty caliber machine gun work it was just a surreal scene people whod 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 best into flames the crew rushed to try to put out the fires milers 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 the circle back around we jump back up and keep fighting fire the rocket noise was horrendous when iraq and explodes. You cant escape iraq here where you go. What the crew didnt know was that at three minutes past two the israeli pilots bolted to use a new much deadly a weapon. The biggest problem i guess from from that was the napalm which they dropped from the airplane the napalm had burned scorched almost seen tire from part of the ship the bridge area. The whole tops of the ship and then set on fire and 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 a road because there is no doubt no road up above the Israeli Military argued about what should happen next and who should sink the liberty. Sun who. Was. There. I remember thinking i was in pretty good shape then 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 eleven minutes past two with the israeli jets running out of ammunition the pilots were instructed to fly down and confirm the identity of the ship. And. It was now twelve minutes past two and the israeli control tower knew for certain this was an American Ship the say one its forces had first identified at five fifteen a. M. That morning and then buzzed again during seven additional reconnaissance flights throughout the day. The jets then pulled out but three 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 or to get a hold of anything classified at two thirty five the israeli motorboats fired five torpedoes for missed but one hit. It had been over nine hours since the Israeli Military first identified the liberty israeli planes had flown over it repeatedly and twenty minutes earlier that control tower had confirmed it yet again as an American Ship twenty five americans were about to die in a single moment. This is what it looks like when its repeat of 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 lifes all smoke and haze everywhere i went back to the drinking fountain and filled it with blood reached down to get a drink and black man stared back at me. And when its all back to get right it just kept getting wrong camp sank and sank 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 thirty nine feet by twenty four killing twenty five 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 died 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 left foot i had. Eighty pieces of shop on 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 eight or ten inches of. Space where you could catch a breath. The only way i could go in that direction was drop down and swim underwater for five strokes come back up and then frantically catch a breath and try to find Something Else an old aunt to. Pull through the hatch and on to 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 mail is typewriter and began typing dear eileen you wont believe whats happening to us and just seconds after that the torpedo struck in. Killed both the two moraines killed. My friend Ronnie Campbell and my job was to try to get probably twenty or thirty wounded sailors out to the main deck and to the life raft 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 own ship with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide they took 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 and the Metal Plating just. Peel it out like it was orange peel. I close range the armor 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 penetrated the skin of the ship going through at least one other book and then stopped and in the second book this is part of an armor piercing shell the outer portion or jacket makes the whole of this then goes through and im bullet like this that hit a seam and Francis Brown and and killed him he died on the spot just fell of the floor dead is just barely eighteen. There were enough helmets to go around for everyone it was like sitting in a Cardboard Box and having somebody shoot through it and the bullets were just coming everywhere. Throughout the attack the liberty had been silent to the outside world all its ariels why the smashed or jammed. We had one would band to know which hadnt worked the 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 antenna. And took some shrapnel in the process he got out and made a fire box firefoxs says rock star rock star under attack by unidentified surface and naval air units require immediate assistance. From the american sixth fleet was five hundred 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 u. S. Jets were in the air they summoned the American Naval attack and told him that been a terrible mistake. The american planes were recalled as 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 added 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 canceled. Pretty obvious that there were casual. Parking. Mostly empty. Yana brings international before us the illusion of a thriving metropolis and the many have been in the boehner bill economy chinese dream a witness documentary at this time on aljazeera what are you seeing. There is people of all faiths fell victim to a suicide bomber in manchester but if the bomb was indiscriminate was the placing of blame this is nothing to do with us this is about an individual who psycho you know could do this unless they were completely on how much just as muslims responded to challenging questions in the aftermath of the. People in power Manchester United at this time on aljazeera. And all of the problem and the headlines on our zero question on his leader has stepped back from declaring immediate independence instead calling for talks with madrid to resolve the political crisis a Spanish Government will hold an emergency Cabinet Meeting on wednesday kenyan president hu kenyatta says a rerun of the countrys president ial election will go ahead and just over two weeks despite the opposition and the pulling out of accusing the Electoral Commission of failing to make the changes necessary for a more credible outcome. Washingtons come out in defense of its a best seller to turkey John Bassmaster the turkish president said that his government no longer recognizes the diplomat the us embassy in turkey has suspended Visa Services to citizens after turkish authorities arrested a Us Embassy Employee in istanbul last week turkey responded by suspending a Visa Services to u. S. Citizens. And turkish authorities have arrested thirty members of the armed forces over suspected links to the band called in as movement a state run News Agency SaysPolice Issued warrants for forty others and the air force and navy and army chorus as the movement led by u. S. Based cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind last years failed coup since then authorities have arrested at least fifty thousand people one of the worlds biggest cholera immunization campaigns is underway in bangladesh for a hindu refugees to prevent a major outbreak nine hundred thousand doses of the vaccine have been prepared to protect local communities at least fifteen people are dead in the u. S. State of california as wildfires continue to spread for the third day the fires have scorched the states famous wine country and forced more than twenty thousand people from their homes two thousand buildings have been destroyed to us b. One bombers have flown over the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against north korea they were accompanied by planes from the japanese and south Korean Military it comes amid heightened tensions around north koreas missile and nuclear programs. Togos government has banned all midweek marches as protests gather steam against the fifty year rule of the family protesters are calling for the resignation of president. Who took over from his father in two thousand and five whod been in power for almost two years the day Israel Attacked america continues next thank you for watching. June the eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty seven the height of the six day war the u. S. S. Liberty an american spy ship had just been attacked by israeli jets and two peter boats while in International Waters off egypt badly damaged two 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 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 nanny ms 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 ten 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 next. Was pretty much littered with the wound looks like something out of a horror movie where people standing around or lying wounded and dead and stunned the 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 usual 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. I dont ever see anything like that again. Captain mcgonagle received a pretty bad leg injury lost a lot of blood. He was 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. Seventh 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 gently and. So i sat through the meeting taking notes and in a loud voice secretary west was really demanding some explanation for 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 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 sixty seven tacked on the Liberty Johnson himself briefed Newsweek Magazine off the record that the israelis had attacked and the reason that attacked 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 leaked and this alarmed of course the Israeli Embassy and other 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 imo bobby r m m 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. Might lose support. For his run for reelection in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight israeli tactics were clever they identified johnson soft spot the war in vietnam and gave him two extraordinary gifts neither of which were made public at the time the first was political. 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 moved so he also knew that there was a move back in his favor if he was moderate. Israel. There was a second 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 a surface to air missile sites and now only captures them put took back everything the launchers the missiles from the manufacturing thats manuals harassed them and then he went to the u. S. Embassy there and shane 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 today 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 there say two missile sites so 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 began 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 an opportunity i testified to the machine gunning of life rafs to the captain state of mind and it was that those two issues in particular are totally a matter 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 seal 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 didnt know until many months later that not i had been recorded looking back on it it was a total sham the us court of inquiry reported in just twenty 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 twenty minute gap that followed the liberties 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. The israelis have always been very skillful. Tracking what the Us Government is doing saying thinking and effort to influence and theyre 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 one hundred sixty nine of the two hundred seventy 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 occurred and this was true of the private briefings that official people in the vatican made about the answers 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 in supporting financially. Elections political causes process that does translate into 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 constantly 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 first time. The members of the ring can be named hamlet was a Million Dollar fundraiser for the democrats when he rang johnson took his calls he was able feinberg. 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. With Supreme Court justice abe fortas. Lyndon johnson had dinner with him on the eve of the six day war the strategy worked the u. S. Israeli relationship proved to be stronger than the killing and injuring of more than two hundred americans the 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 wore in tel aviv that the United States had the audiotape which revealed israeli pilots knew it was an American Ship before the attack. The tape was quietly buried. And i think just insertion 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 us now 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 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. They were shipmates still are the navy was more concerned with parts than they were body parts but when i went down i knew that you couldnt separate the two we had to start shoveling up the the the parts one hundred sixty eight bags worth elsewhere the make up artists were getting to work we were in the dry dock about six weeks and three hundred maltese workers are working two shifts a day and i think seven 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 look good in this press and everything with air and we look like basically nothing really happened so its great for the press to downplay what he happened to us. While the survivors met the widows and friends the one hundred sixty eight 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 two. And i see. Captain mcgonagle never heard words like these from 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 four 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 visa 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 admonished threat of 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 four fold 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 rubin. One 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 eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty seven the forces were poised to attack and seize the Golan Heights and invade syria something they wish to keep from the white house until theyve done it. Successive american administrations both republican and democrat have refused to deal with limiting 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 i dont think was answer period the people who were responsible for attacking the Liberty Liberty were you know by and large the military individuals in the war room i dont know how many four eight ten. Those are the people who came up with the plan those are the individuals who are responsible for the attack. The pilots the 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 that attack it wasnt the average jewish person who ordered that attack. We really need to exonerate the average jewish person israeli from the us and goats wards those individuals who are responsible for the attack no one was really willing to take this on not the star 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 laugh 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 crew members suffered a lot but so did the family the hardest part was that the reaction of our own government toward us and we were actually the fingers were pointed to us and they israelis where they were that 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 out. 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. Doesnt go by or 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. I want to remember that connection. As long as i can what we shared what we felt. It took thirteen years of haggling before both sides finally agreed a compensation deal for the ship by nine hundred eighty the bill plus interest was just over seventeen Million Dollars israel offered six the americans accepted then sold the liberty for one hundred thousand 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 bought 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 the 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 twenty five thousand dollars with ten thousand dollars for each of the children over five an American Government lawyer doubted the children under five could sufficiently comprehend the event to suffer shock and grief. The u. S. Proposed they should therefore receive nothing and offered the israelis accepted. Since the attack on the liberty the usa and israel had grown ever closer at the time george ball the us under secretary 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. With hello there were so got some heavy downpours plaguing us in parts of turkey fortunately though the showers do seem to have moved away from the eastern part of the mediterranean that means force in lebanon it is an awful lot drier now and thats the way it should stay as we head through the next few days for beirut were looking at a top temperature on wednesday of around twenty six degrees the showers for the north where theyre actually beginning to disappear even as we head through wednesday and thursday so even in turkey it looks like it should be more or less draw i have a further towards the south and here in doha the winds will be picking up over the next few days they coming down from the northwest so thats a drawing direction bringing in some dry air and it will also be getting things a little bit cooler as well so not so hot were looking at thirty eight there on thursday an even lower as we head into friday as we head down towards the southern parts of africa here theres been some very violent storms recently weve seen some tornadoes around joburg and now that system was largely moved away from joburg but its still just clinging on to the southeast corner and durbans now seen the worst of those storms weve seen a lot of flooding here has caused quite a few problems and the winds have brought a fair few trees down as well now this whole system is moving away and behind it it will be a lot calmer force as we head through wednesday nineteen a maximum there in devon with. Oh is it when theyre on line we were in hurricane winds for almost like thirty six hours these are the things that has to address or if you join us on sect. But. A relationship this is a dialogue tweet us with hostile stream and one of your pitches might make the next show join the global conversation at this time on aljazeera. Where ever you