The USS Liberty - The Peace FAQ

The USS Liberty

Frequently Asked Questions:

● What is the USS Liberty?

● Did Israel intentionally bomb a US ship?
● Why was a US ship in a war zone?
● Wasn't the ship clearly identified as a US ship? Wasn't it obvious?
● Why would Israel have attacked a ship belonging to the U.S., a friend
of Israel?

What is the USS Liberty?

● 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

http://www.peacefaq.com/ussliberty.html (1 of 5)8/9/2007 9:50:42 AM

The USS Liberty - The Peace FAQ

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."

Did Israel intentionally bomb a US ship?

● Under Construction

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.

http://www.peacefaq.com/ussliberty.html (2 of 5)8/9/2007 9:50:42 AM

The USS Liberty - The Peace FAQ

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.

http://www.peacefaq.com/ussliberty.html (3 of 5)8/9/2007 9:50:42 AM

The USS Liberty - The Peace FAQ

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."

http://www.peacefaq.com/ussliberty.html (4 of 5)8/9/2007 9:50:42 AM

The USS Liberty - The Peace FAQ

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.

http://www.peacefaq.com/ussliberty.html (5 of 5)8/9/2007 9:50:42 AM