The USS Liberty was an American spy ship while outside Sinai coast during six day war that was strafed by Israeli fighters and torpedo boats. The Israelis claim that it was an accident. However there is a lot of evidence that contradicts it. This includes testimony from Liberty crewmen who pointed out that the Israeli claimed to misidentify liberty with same ship as an Egyptian horse cavalry transport half it's same. Liberty crewmen have also stated that American flag was clearly visible to Israeli aircraft that attacked them. Americans at National Security Agency have reported seeing intercepted Israeli transmissions the attacking pilots knew that the ship they were attacking was American and continued attacking regardless . The naval court of inquiry after attack was described by former judge advocate general and rear admiral Merlin Sternling who was asked to asses American inquiry report before sent to Washington as "a hasty, superficial,incomplete, and totally inadequate inquiry." The inquiry was completed in a week. Retired navy commander Ward Boston counsel for inquiry estimated a through inquiry would take six months. The inquiry also ignored testimony from Liberty crewmen testifying that Israeli torpedo boat methodically shot at life boats for the ship. Except for Robert McNamara most officials for Johnson administration blamed for the Israelis with secretary of state Dean Rusk agreed with Johnson's intelligence adviser Clark Cliffard that it was "inconceivable that the attack had been a case of mistaken identity." NSA director at the time Lt. Marshall Carter said that the attack "couldn't be anything but deliberate". Former deputy NSA director Benson Buffham said "I don't think you will find many people at NSA who believe it was accidental in an interview. One of the reasons given for the attack by some was at that time Israeli army on Moshe Dayan's orders were preparing to take the Golan Heights from Syria before American pressure would be used to impose a ceasefire(USS Liberty would be able to detect Israeli army preparing to attack Golan Heights through transmissions). According to journalist Alan Hart the order was given by Dayan to sink Liberty( ship didn't sink, luckily an open S.O.S was transmitted despite radio being jammed with attack ending afterwards) with some generals in government opposing decision with one unnamed general(Hart thinks it was Rabin) calling the order "pure murder". Of early Israeli leaders after Sharon, Moshe Dayan did seem the most ruthless. USS Liberty if he did order attack which evidence does seem to indicate was one of his examples of doing immoral actions if he believed it improved the state with earlier ones including supporting free fire zones after 48 war while head of southern command, supporting attacks on Bedouin in Negev including strafing runs on Bedouin during 1950's, one of the prominent supporters of reprisal raid ( for example he called Meir Har Tzion who was known for leading these reprisal raids as the "greatest Jewish warrior since Bar Kochba,") during 1950's even though they focused on civilians until outcry due to Qibya massacre and ordered 1956 artillery bombardment on Gaza city in response to artillery bombardment on neighboring Israeli border settlements. 58 civilians were killed by bombardment in Gaza city center. http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-liberty_tuesoct02-story.html#page=5 http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/06/07/alan-hart-israels-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-the-full-story/
Every single survivor of Israel's attack on Liberty believes the assault was deliberate, and they have good justification for their beliefs: "After the Israeli fighter aircraft completed their attacks, three Israeli torpedo boats arrived and began a surface attack about 35 minutes after the start of the air attack. The torpedo boats launched a total of five torpedoes, one of which struck the side of USS Liberty, opposite the ship's research spaces. [20] Twenty-six Americans in addition to the eight who had been killed in the earlier air attacks, were killed as a result of this explosion. "Following their torpedo attack, the torpedo boats moved up and down the length of the ship (both the port and starboard sides), continuing their attack, raking the ship with cannon and machine gun fire.[21] In Malta, crewmen were later assigned the task of counting all of the holes in the ship that were the size of a man's hand or larger. They found a total of 861 such holes, in addition to 'thousands' of .50 caliber machine gun holes. "Survivors report that the torpedo boat crews swept the decks of USS Liberty with continuous machine gun fire, targeting communications equipment and any crew members who ventured above decks.[22] "Damage control firefighters, who had already risked their lives merely by appearing on deck, had to abandon their efforts because their fire hoses had been shredded by machine gun fire.[23] "Survivors also report that the torpedo boat crews fired on the inflated life boats launched by the crew after the captain gave the order 'prepare to abandon ship.'[24] This order had to be rescinded because the crew was unable to stand on the main deck without being fired upon and the life rafts were destroyed as they were launched." http://www.gtr5.com/summary_of_events.htm
