December 26, 2008 "Daily Mail" December 20, 2008 -- Her sinking with the loss of almost 1,200 lives caused such outrage that it propelled the U.S. into the First World War.

But now divers have revealed a dark secret about the cargo carried by the Lusitania on its final journey in May 1915.

Munitions they found in the hold suggest that the Germans had been right all along in claiming the ship was carrying war materials and was a legitimate military target.


Doomed: A contemporary view of the sinking of the Lusitania off Ireland in May 1915

The Cunard vessel, steaming from New York to Liverpool, was sunk eight miles off the Irish coast by a U-boat.

Maintaining that the Lusitania was solely a passenger vessel, the British quickly accused the 'Pirate Hun' of
slaughtering civilians.

The disaster was used to whip up anti-German anger, especially in the U.S., where 128 of the 1,198 victims came from.
A hundred of the dead were children, many of them under two.

Robert Lansing, the U.S. secretary of state, later wrote that the sinking gave him the 'conviction we would ultimately become the ally of Britain'.

Americans were even told, falsely, that German children were given a day off school to celebrate the sinking of the Lusitania.

The disaster inspired a multitude of recruitment posters demanding vengeance for the victims.




One, famously showing a young mother slipping below the waves with her baby, carried the simple slogan 'Enlist'.

Two years later, the Americans joined the Allies as an associated power - a decision that turned the war decisively against Germany.

The diving team estimates that around four million rounds of U.S.-manufactured Remington .303 bullets lie in the Lusitania's hold at a depth of 300ft.

The Germans had insisted the Lusitania - the fastest liner in the North Atlantic - was being used as a weapons ship to break the blockade Berlin had been trying to impose around Britain since the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914.


Winston Churchill, who was first Lord of the Admiralty and has long been suspected of knowing more about the circumstances of the attack than he let on in public, wrote in a confidential letter shortly before the sinking that some German submarine attacks were to be welcomed.


He said: 'It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hope especially of embroiling the U.S. with Germany.

'For our part we want the traffic - the more the better and if some of it gets into trouble, better still.'

Hampton Sides, a writer with Men's Vogue in the U.S., witnessed the divers' discovery.

He said: 'They are bullets that were expressly manufactured to kill Germans in World War I - bullets that British officials in Whitehall, and American officials in Washington, have long denied were aboard the Lusitania.'

The discovery may help explain why the 787ft Lusitania sank within 18 minutes of a single German torpedo slamming into its hull.


Some of the 764 survivors reported a second explosion which might have been munitions going off.

Gregg Bemis, an American businessman who owns the rights to the wreck and is funding its exploration, said: 'Those four million rounds of .303s were not just some private hunter's stash.

'Now that we've found it, the British can't deny any more that there was ammunition on board. That raises the question of what else was on board.

'There were literally tons and tons of stuff stored in unrefrigerated cargo holds that were dubiously marked cheese, butter and oysters.

'I've always felt there were some significant high explosives in the holds - shells, powder, gun cotton - that were set off by the torpedo and the inflow of water. That's what sank the ship.'

Mr Bemis is planning to commission further dives next year in a full-scale forensic examination of the wreck off County Cork.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21530.htm

Does have a familiar ring to it don't it...

Kinda like Dubya's reports of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Nukler" warheads in Iraq...

Its an old game. regular folks have no taste for war and killing. They have to be manipulated and brainwashed.

Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on
a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of
it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people
don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in
Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the
country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Infamous Quote from Hermann Goering

I fully agree!!

History repeats itself...

or..

Know your history or be doomed to repeat it!

Its so pathetic that we know this is how they operate and again and again they do it.

President Wilson, did not want war. History has often beat him up over his long standing neutrality position.

The Lusitania was sunk May 17, 1915.

In 1916, Wilson barely won the election, he did so because he KEPT us out of war.

January of 1917, Wilson was still trying to mediate peace, asking for an end to the hostilities.

In February of 1917, foreign minister Zimmermann sent a message asking Mexico to join Germany, the motivation was that Germany would return the U.S. Southwest to their control. The note intercepted by the British.

This led Wilson to ask congress for greater power but La Follette of Wisconsin led the way and the senate refused to Wilson any power to become involved in an undeclared naval war.

April 2, 1917, Wilson, unable to access the power he wanted, asked Congress for a declaration of war, intoning his now famous words, “The world must be made safe for Democracy.”

In summary, the Lusitania was sunk May 17, 1915. The U.S. did not want war, that’s why Wilson was re-elected in 1916. The only reason Wilson asked for a declaration of war in April of 1917, was because an actual perceived thread to the U.S. was noted.

Just thought I’d clear the air, it was a little thick.

I didnt think it was thick at all. A great deal of propaganda was created by the sinking of the Lusitania. the British government maintained this lie for almost a hundred years.

and wilson was a democrat

ust like i said all along they are both the same. both deems and rep party should be on terrorist watch list

yep nice tin foil hat i been wearing.

interesting

very interesting