When JAHVE SAYS KILL
The Israelis obay and they don't care if Big Bother has a differentopinion.

If Americnas doisturb the Israelis they are targets.

Are there Any Americans missing?

In 1967 Israel launched its third war and seized still more Palestinian (and other Arab) land. Israel also attacked a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty,

'Loss of Liberty' dramatically proves, beyond any doubt, that the attack by Israel on June 8, 1967 against the US naval intelligence gathering ship USS Liberty, in which 34 Americans were killed and 171 wounded, was deliberate. The video first lets Israeli officers make their totally unconvincing case that the attack was a 'tragic accident' when the Israelis mistook the much larger and differently configured USS Liberty for the totally unlike Egyptian ship El Quseir. This filmed testimony by dozens of USS Liberty survivors demolishes Israel’s 'tragic accident' claim. Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer are representative of the honored high-ranking Americans supporting the condemnation of deliberate aggression against the United States by 'ally' Israel. 'Loss of Liberty' makes clear that then-President Lyndon Johnson conspired with Israel and its Israel-First supporters inside the US government to support the 'tragic accident' scheme. Johnson was bogged down at the time in the Vietnam war, and thought he needed Israel Lobby support. Still, Johnson’s behaviour is as unforgivable now as it was then. 

Peter and friends!

Israel has their God on their side and we have ours. THE FIST HAND TRUTH TRUTH.

Peter What you can not get legal you take it with force. Check that video by clicking on The US LIBERTY or clcik here.

Here is an American statement.

Comments: Actually, on that raid against The USS Liberty in 67, the Israeli military hit us from the Jets and from (I believe) 2 attacks by boat. The interesting thing about that was:
A: We were in international waters.
B: The Liberty was a communication ship and the 6 day war was going on.
C: Our vessel was clearly identifiable as American.

The fact is they didn't want us snooping around the gulf with our excellent electronics and communication capability. Kinda seems like a guilty conscience, does it not?

Source 1: Assault on the Liberty: James M. Ennes Jr. 1979

Hello Peter, Georgios and Friends,

What we have here is the same issues that have plaqued this unrest from day one.  Everyone wants to rehash history and go back 40, 60 or a 100 years and start there.  Well that ain't freaking gonna happen!  Arguing about the past does not build a future. 

My personal opinions are well known and I stand by them.  I am looking for solutions to the arguments and a peaceful existance with all peoples. 

What I wil NOT do is give up any rights and freedoms afforded me by my United States of America US Constitution, and I will honor any persons rights given by that same document. 

That is my pre-condition. 

Now without giving up my beliefs, your beliefs, without total conversion of one over the other.

  How do we resolve the discord?  

There will definitely have to be some honest discussion and agreements based on going forward.  Not based on retributions for past disgression by any participant.

Now lets move forward.... next

Thank You,

Jim Allen III

Hello Georgios,

I am preparing an initial reply to your recent posts (in your threads) and will continue to reply after a bit of research.

What is the objective of your latest post here? Israel accepted the UN Plan and it was the Arabs that weren't interested and as a result the fighting started by the Mufti Of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al Hussenni. They were killing Jews all over Israel. After the Declaration of Independence the first War started again by the Arabs of Trana Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt (Saudia Arabia also took part in it). And of course the local Arabs in Israel. They lost fortunately.

Now the maps you pasted in are correct. Need I remind you that in 1967 the Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese and Egyptians started what is calle the 6 Day War and once again they lost! The dark areas look so big but let's remember that Israel is a very small country geographically and the areas look very big but in fact aren't. Read your history and you'll find that the areas the British gave to Abdullah and crowned him King of Trans Jordan was land that was supposed to be part of Israel. When the 6 Day War was over Jerusalem was reunited (it was split prior to that) hence the difference in the Jerusalem area. And Yes the Egyptians also lost areas as did the Syrians. Or don't you remember how the Syrians were bombing the Galilee and area surrounding the Kineret. So the Golan Heights were also in our hands after bloody battles there especially in the area of Kuneitra.

You know all this so why the irrelevant post?

Shalom,

Peter

Georgios,

You still hang with the conspiracy folks I see allow me to show the other side of the REAL TRUTH according to US history not a conspiracy theory.

The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war in 1967. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake.

On June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Six-Day War, the Israeli high command received reports that Israeli troops in El Arish were being fired upon from the sea, presumably by an Egyptian vessel, as they had a day before. The United States had announced that it had no naval forces within hundreds of miles of the battle front on the floor of the United Nations a few days earlier; however, the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship under the dual control of the Defense Intelligence Agency/Central Intelligence Agency and the Sixth Fleet, was assigned to monitor the fighting. As a result of a series of United States communication failures, whereby messages directing the ship not to approach within 100 miles were not received by the Liberty, the ship sailed to within 14 miles off the Sinai coast. The Israelis mistakenly thought this was the ship shelling its soldiers and war planes and torpedo boats attacked, killing 34 members of the Liberty's crew and wounding 171. Ships from the Sixth Fleet were directed to launch four attack aircraft with fighter cover to defend the Liberty, but the planes were recalled after a message was received at the White House that the Israelis had admitted they had attacked the ship.

Numerous mistakes were made by both the United States and Israel. For example, the Liberty was first reported — incorrectly, as it turned out — to be cruising at 30 knots (it was later recalculated to be 28 knots). Under Israeli (and U.S.) naval doctrine at the time, a ship proceeding at that speed was presumed to be a warship. The sea was calm and the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry found that the Liberty's flag was very likely drooped and not discernible; moreover, members of the crew, including the Captain, Commander William McGonagle, testified that the flag was knocked down after the first or second assault.

According to Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, there were standing orders to attack any unidentified vessel near the shore.¹ The day fighting began, Israel had asked that American ships be removed from its coast or that it be notified of the precise location of U.S. vessels.² The Sixth Fleet was moved because President Johnson feared being drawn into a confrontation with the Soviet Union. He also ordered that no aircraft be sent near Sinai.

A CIA report on the incident issued June 13, 1967, also found that an overzealous pilot could mistake the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, the El Quseir. After the air raid, Israeli torpedo boats identified the Liberty as an Egyptian naval vessel. When the Liberty began shooting at the Israelis, they responded with the torpedo attack, which killed 28 of the sailors. In 1981, the National Security Agency noted that accounts by members of the Liberty crew and others did not have access to the relevant signal intelligence reports or the confidential explanation provided by Israel to the United States, which were used in the CIA investigation. The NSA concluded: “While these [signal intelligence of Israeli communications] reports revealed some confusion on the part of the pilots concerning the nationality of the ship, they tended to rule out any thesis that the Israeli Navy and Air Force deliberately attacked a ship they knew to be American.”^2a

The Joint Chiefs of Staff investigated the communications failure and noted that the Chief of Naval Operations expressed concern about the prudence of sending the Liberty so close to the area of hostilities and four messages were subsequently sent instructing the ship to move farther away from the area of hostilities. The JCS report said the messages were never received because of “a combination of (1) human error, (2) high volume of communications traffic, and (3) lack of appreciation of sense of urgency regarding the movement of the Liberty.” The report also included a copy of a flash cable sent immediately after the attack, which reported that Israel had “erroneously” attacked the Liberty, that IDF helicopters were in rescue operations, and that Israel had sent “abject apologies” and requested information on any other U.S. ships near the war zone.

Initially, the Israelis were terrified that they had attacked a Soviet ship and might have provoked the Soviets to join the fighting.³ Once the Israelis were sure what had happened, they reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and offered to provide a helicopter for the Americans to fly out to the ship and any help they required to evacuate the injured and salvage the ship. The offer was accepted and a U.S. naval attaché was flown to the Liberty.

The Israelis were “obviously shocked” by the error they made in attacking the ship, according to the U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv. In fact, according to a secret report on the 1967 war, the immediate concern was that the Arabs might see the proximity of the Liberty to the conflict as evidence of U.S.-Israel collusion.^3a A second secret report concluded, “While the attack showed a degree of impetuosity and recklessness, it was also clear that the presence of a U.S. naval vessel, unannounced, that close to belligerent shores at a time when we had made much of the fact that no U.S. military forces were moving near the area of hostilities was inviting disaster.”^3b

Many of the survivors of the Liberty remain bitter, and are convinced the attack was deliberate as they make clear on their web site. In 1991, columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak trumpeted their discovery of an American who said he had been in the Israeli war room when the decision was made to knowingly attack the American ship.⁴ In fact, that individual, Seth Mintz, wrote a letter to the Washington Post on November 9, 1991, in which he said he was misquoted by Evans and Novak and that the attack, was, in fact, a “case of mistaken identity.” Moreover, the man who Mintz originally said had been with him, a Gen. Benni Matti, does not exist.

Also, contrary to claims that an Israeli pilot identified the ship as American on a radio tape, no one has ever produced this tape. In fact, the official Israeli Air Force tape clearly established that no such identification of the ship was made by the Israeli pilots prior to the attack. Tapes of the radio transmissions made prior, during and after the attack do not contain any statement suggesting the pilots saw a U.S. flag before the attack. During the attack, a pilot specifically says, “there is no flag on her!” The recordings also indicate that once the pilots became concerned about the identity of the ship, by virtue of reading its hull number, they terminated the attack and they were given an order to leave the area. A transcript of the radio transmissions indicates the entire incident, beginning with the spotting of a mysterious vessel off El Arish and ending with the chief air controller at general headquarters in Tel Aviv telling another controller the ship was “apparently American” took 24 minutes.⁵ Critics claimed the Israeli tape was doctored, but the National Security Agency of the United States released formerly top secret transcripts in July 2003 that confirmed the Israeli version.

A U.S. spy plane was sent to the area as soon as the NSA learned of the attack on the Liberty and recorded the conversations of two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots, which took place between 2:30 and 3:37 p.m. on June 8. The orders radioed to the pilots by their supervisor at the Hatzor base instructing them to search for Egyptian survivors from the “Egyptian warship” that had just been bombed were also recorded by the NSA. “Pay attention. The ship is now identified as Egyptian,” the pilots were informed. Nine minutes later, Hatzor told the pilots the ship was believed to be an Egyptian cargo ship. At 3:07, the pilots were first told the ship might not be Egyptian and were instructed to search for survivors and inform the base immediately the nationality of the first person they rescued. It was not until 3:12 that one of the pilots reported that he saw an American flag flying over the ship at which point he was instructed to verify if it was indeed a U.S. vessel.⁶

In October 2003, the first Israeli pilot to reach the ship broke his 36-year silence on the attack. Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Spector, a triple ace, who shot down 15 enemy aircraft and took part in the 1981 raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, said he had been told an Egyptian ship was off the Gaza coast. “This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn't one of ours.” The Jerusalem Post obtained a recording of Spector's radio transmission in which he said, “I can't identify it, but in any case it's a military ship.”⁷

Spector's plane was not armed with bombs or, he said, he would have sunk the Liberty. Instead he fired 30mm armor piercing rounds that led the American survivors to believe they had been under rocket attack. His first pass ignited a fire, which caused the ship to billow black smoke that Spector thought was a ruse to conceal the ship. Spector acknowledged in the Post interview that he made a mistake, and said he admitted it when called to testify in an inquiry by a U.S. senator. “I'm sorry for the mistake,” he said. “Years later my mates dropped flowers on the site where the ship was attacked.”

None of Israel's accusers can explain why Israel would deliberately attack an American ship at a time when the United States was Israel's only friend and supporter in the world. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli sides (five messages from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain at least 25 miles — the last four said 100 miles — off the Egyptian coast arrived after the attack was over) is a more probable explanation.

Accidents caused by “friendly fire” are common in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by “friendly fire.” In April 1994, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters with large U.S. flags painted on each side were shot down by U.S. Air Force F-15s on a clear day in the “no fly” zone of Iraq, killing 26 people. In April 2002, an American F-16 dropped a bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns.⁸

Retired Admiral, Shlomo Erell, who was Chief of the Navy in Israel in June 1967, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): “No one would ever have dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that there was no American ship within 100 miles.”

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told Congress on July 26, 1967: “It was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the Navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional.”

In 1987, McNamara repeated his belief that the attack was a mistake, telling a caller on the “Larry King Show” that he had seen nothing in the 20 years since to change his mind that there had been no “cover­up.”⁹

In January 2004, the State Department held a conference on the Liberty incident and also released new documents, including CIA memos dated June 13 and June 21, 1967, that say that Israel did not know it was striking an American vessel. The historian for the National Security Agency, David Hatch, said the available evidence “strongly suggested” Israel did not know it was attacking a U.S. ship. Two former U.S. officials, Ernest Castle, the United States Naval Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in June 1967, who received the first report of the attack from Israel, and John Hadden, then CIA Chief of Station in Tel Aviv, also agreed with the assessment that the attack on the Liberty was a mistake.¹⁰

The new documents do not shed any light on the mystery of what the ship was doing in the area or why Israel was not informed about its presence. The evidence suggests the ship was not spying on Israel.

Israel apologized for the tragedy immediately and offered on June 9 to compensate the victims. Israel ultimately paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on December 17, 1987.

Notes

¹For the most comprehensive analysis, see A. Jay Cristol, The Liberty Incident. (Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Inc., 2002); Yitzhak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, (CA: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 108-109.

²Rabin, p. 110.

^2aAttack on a SIGINT Collector, the U.S.S. Liberty.

³Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin, (NY: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 224-227; Rabin, p. 108-109.

^3a“United States Policy and Diplmacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967,” declassified secret document, Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library, pp. 143-144.

^3bL. Wainstain, “Some Aspects of the U.S. Involvement in the Middle East Crisis, May-June 1967,” Institute for Defense Analysis, (February 1968).

⁴Washington Post, (November 6, 1991).

⁵Hirsh Goodman, “Messrs. Errors and No Facts,” Jerusalem Report (November 21, 1991); Arieh O' Sullivan, “Exclusive: Liberty attack tapes revelead,” Jerusalem Post, (June 3, 2004) .

⁶Nathan Guttman, “Memos show Liberty attack was an error,” Ha'aretz, (July 9, 2003).

⁷“Pilot who bombed 'Liberty' talks to 'Post,“ Jerusalem Post (October 10, 2003).

⁸Hirsh Goodman and Ze'ev Schiff, “The Attack on the Liberty,” Atlantic Monthly, (September 1984).

⁹“The Larry King Show” (radio), (February 5, 1987).

¹⁰Jerusalem Post, (January 13, 2004); Washington Times, (January 13, 2004).

• One often hears complaints about Israel's mistaken attack on the USS Liberty during the 6-day war, apparently thinking there was some sort of "Zionist Conspiracy" to kill some US soldiers. During the Gulf War a British armored division was attacked by US aircraft. Should we suspect some sort of American Conspiracy to kill British soldiers? Mistakes happen in the heat of battle. This is not evidence of conspiracy. During the Gulf war U.S. armored vehicles where attacked by U.S aircraft. Does this mean there was an American Conspiracy to kill Americans???

The attack on the USS Liberty was tragic, but the Liberty was mistakenly identified as an Egyptian supply vessel.

• The following is a description of the event as published in THE BOATS OF CHERBOURG (pg 68-69) 1988, by Abraham Rabinovich, a senior feature writer for the JERUSALEM POST, and a foreign correspondent:

"Unknown to the Israelis, the vessel had sailed into the war zone on June 8, the fourth day of the war, to monitor battlefield communications. On that day, naval headquarters in Haifa ordered three torpedo boats to sail from Ashdod harbor to check reports that El Arish, captured by the army three days before was being shelled from the sea. The explosions and smoke in El Arish had in fact been caused by an Egyptian ammunition dump that detonated. However, as the torpedo boats approached the area, their radar picked up a target to the west, moving away from El Arish. Presuming it to be an Egyptian warship, naval headquarters called for an air strike to slow up the seemingly fleeing vessel."

"Two Mirages were directed the the area, and the lead pilot reported "seeing no flag". The ship had two guns on the forecastle and was clearly not Israeli. Liberty crewmen would firmly maintain afterward that the American flag was being flown, but the Mirage pilot's report was taken at navy headquarters as confirmation that the ship was an Egyptian vessel trying to reach Port Said. Ordered to attack, the planes set the vessel afire with strafing runs. The smoke thickened when another plane dispatched to the scene dropped a napalm bomb on the Liberty's deck."

 

Why was a US ship in a war zone?

• "there are many open questions: Why a message from the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS message 072230Z) directing the ship to remain at least 20 miles off the Egyptian coast was delayed for 14 hours and why, when it was finally transmitted, it was sent in error to the Naval Communication Center in the Philippines. Why a second crucial message from the Joint Chiefs drafted at 2.00 a.m. on the morning of June 8, exactly 12 hours before the ship was attacked, ordering the Liberty to steam at least 100 miles from the coast was lost as well... [had the message 080917] been received, there would have been no Liberty incident."

- Hirsh Goodman, THE JERUSALEM REPORT, November 1991

Exerpt from Israeli Attack on U.S. Ship Reveals Failure 

• of C3 by James M. Ennes, Jr, the crypto specialist and Deck Officer of the USS Liberty, in Electronics Defense Mag. in 1981

"The United States made several serious, almost frantic attempts to move the ship. As the Liberty approached Gaza, the Joint Chiefs of Staff first sent a priority message ordering the ship to move 20 miles from the coast; the message was swamped by higher precedence traffic and was not processed until long after the crisis had ended. Hours later, a JCS duty officer phoned naval headquarters in London to relay an urgent JCS order to move the ship 100 miles from the coast; the telephone call was ignored, and Liberty's copy of the confirming message was misrouted to the Philipines before being returned to the Pentagon, where it was again misrouted, this time to Fort Meade in Maryland, where it was lost."

"Eventually, at least six critical messages were lost, delayed, or otherwise mishandled. Any one of those messages might have saved Liberty. None reached the ship."

 

Wasn't the ship clearly identified as a US ship? Wasn't it obvious?

• "Yes, there was doubt as to the identify of the ship. One of the pilots identified it as a Russian vessel during the course of the attack, bringing the cabinet into emergency session. This fear was quickly dispelled. And yes, there still remains controversy about whether or not there was an American flag visible at the time of the attack. But while some mystery remains, the truth is now basically known: The incident was a tragic mistake marked by serious errors of judgement on both sides, complicated by the fog and urgency of war and compounded by an almost childish rivalry between the air force and the navy as to who would grab the prize: sinking what was genuinely thought to be an Egyptian ship shelling Israeli forces at El Arish from the sea."

"...Mistakes are not uncommon in war. The day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli warplanes bombed and strafed an Israeli armored column near Jenin in the West Bank. During the Lebanese war, in June 1982, over 20 Israeli servicemen were killed when a Phantom jet pilot mistakenly identified Israeli tanks as Syrian. In May 1987, in the Gulf, the USS Stark was accidentally hit by Iraqi warplanes, killing 37 servicemen. An Iranian civilian airliner was shot down by an over-anxious American battleship crew in May 1988, killing all 290 passengers on board. So it was with the Liberty, an American spy ship, that should not have been where it was, when it was."

- by Hirsh Goodman, in THE JERUSALEM REPORT, November 1991

• "The son of Amiral Erell, Udi was an ensign aboard one of the torpedo boats. He could see the smoke from a long distance as the boats raced at top speed toward the scene. As the vessel came into view, Erell's skipper scanned an identification book containing pictures of the ships in the Arab fleets and consulted with the commanders on the other boats. The squadron commander concluded that the ship was the Egyptian supply vessel EL QUSEIR. Ensign Erell, looking over his skipper's shoulder at the picture and glancing up at the burning vessel, fully agreed, even though he would later recall that the mast in the picture was not positioned identically with the mast of the target vessel...."

"Nevertheless, the squadron commander sought to confirm the vessel's identity before attacking. When the Israeli signalman flashed the message "What ship?" Udi Erell saw the response flickering through the smoke four miles away---"AAA", the signal meaning "Identify yourself first." The same signal had been flashed, the Israelis were aware, by the Egyptian destroyer challenged off Haifa during the Sinai Campaign in 1956. Americans on the bridge of the Liberty would later state that the signals flashed were the ship's name and its international call sign, not what the Israelis believed they saw. Even with binoculars, Erell could make out "no flag". The sqaudron commander ordered his boats to commence torpedo attacks. The vessels peeled off to make their runs and fired five torpedos. Only one hit home. The boats raked the burning ship, now dead in the water, with their guns."

"Fire was halted when one of the officers reported seeing the identification markings CTR-5 on the ship's hull, markings that were not those of an Arab vessel. Notified of this, Haifa ordered the sqaudron commander to pick up survivors and definitely establish the ship's identity......Drawing closer to the burning vessel, they were able to make out a flag. It was not opened by a breeze and could not immediately be identified, but it was clearly not Egyptian...."

"Udi saw a splash of red on the flag and heard a report being sent back to Haifa that the vessel might be Russian. The report caused shock and consternation when passed on to General Staff headquarters. The shock was not abated when the torpedo-spadron commander reported half an hour later that he had identified the vessel as American."

Abraham Rabinovich, a senior feature writer for the JERUSALEM POST, in THE BOATS OF CHERBOURG (pg 68-69) 1988

 

Why would Israel have attacked a ship belonging to the U.S., a friend of Israel?

• "None of Israel's accusers has been able to explain adequately why Israel would have deliberately attacked an American ship. Confusion in a long line of communications, which occurred in a tense atmosphere on both the American and Israeli sides (a message from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the ship to remain at least 20 miles off the Egyptian coast never arrived) is a more probable explanation."

They write: "Accidents caused by "friendly fire" are not uncommon in wartime. In 1988, the U.S. Navy mistakenly downed an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians. During the Gulf War, 35 of the 148 Americans who died in battle were killed by "friendly fire." In fact, only the day before the Liberty was attacked, Israeli pilots accidentally bombed one of their own armored columns south of Jenin on the West Bank."

As a former high-ranking Israeli naval officer, Shlomo Erell, told the Associated Press (June 5, 1977): "No one would ever have dreamt that an American ship would be there. Even the United States didn't know where its ship was. We were advised by the proper authorities that there was no American ship within 100 miles."

- Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelbarb in "MYTHS AND FACTS: A Concise Record of the Arab-Israeli Conflict"

• "It was the conclusion of the investigatory body, headed by an admiral of the navy in whom we have great confidence, that the attack was not intentional."

- Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, to Congress on July 26, 1967:

• Israel did apologize for the tragedy and paid millions of dollars in reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims.

 

What happened to the USS Liberty during the Six Day War?

Early in the afternoon of June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli jets and missile boats opened fire on the USS Liberty, an American intelligence ship operating off the coast of Gaza. Israeli torpedo boats quickly converged to join the attack, then abruptly ceased fire and offered assistance to the USS Liberty crew. Struck by rockets, cannons and torpedoes, the vessel suffered extensive damage and over 200 casualties: 34 Americans dead, and 171 injured.

The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake. Israel compensated the injured sailors and the families of those killed. Over time, newly declassified documents have all supported the Israeli explanation. All investigations have concluded the same thing: the attack was an accident caused by miscommunication and command blunders in both the American and Israeli military.

The accidental attack, though tragic, is one of many common in war. In 1967 alone, "friendly fire" killed 5,373 Americans fighting in Vietnam. Unfortunately, this incident has attracted conspiracy theorists who have generated a series of "exposes", but in the end all of the exposers have been themselves exposed as hoaxes. Most tragic of all, some of the surviving crew have taken up the issue claiming a deliberate attack, contradicting their own sworn testimony during the investigations immediately after the event. A documentary on the History Channel, broadcast August 9, 2001 was very poorly researched and gave further distribution to some of these long debunked claims. Despite those who want to keep this incident alive as a "cover up", the fact is that all available evidence is fully consistent with the original explanations: the attack was an accident of war.