USS Liberty incident

USS Liberty incident, attack on the USS Liberty, a United States Navy signals intelligence ship, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on June 8, 1967, in the middle of the Six-Day War. In all, 34 people on the ship were killed, and roughly another 170 were wounded. Decades after the event, The Washington Post called it “one of the most bloody and bizarre peacetime encounters in U.S. naval history.” Israel’s government claimed in the aftermath that there had been a communication lapse between its military personnel and that the men carrying out the attack had thought the Liberty was an enemy ship. However, a number of U.S. military and intelligence officials have maintained over the years that the attack was deliberate. The incident remains a source of controversy.

The Liberty began its sailing life as the SS Simmons Victory, an armed merchant steamer that put to sea in the closing months of World War II. After the war, the 455-foot (140-meter) ship had its deck guns removed, and it was contracted out as a civilian cargo carrier until it was retired from active service in 1958. The U.S. Navy acquired the ship in 1963 and renamed it the USS Liberty in June of that year. In late May 1967 the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) requested the ship’s deployment in the eastern Mediterranean. Conflicts between Israel and several Arab countries—mainly Syria, Egypt, and Jordan—were intensifying, and the NSA hoped to gather more intelligence on the situation. The ship was equipped with several dozen antennas, which were designed to pick up radio transmissions. Its mission was to monitor the communications of the Arab countries but not those of Israel.

The Six-Day War began on June 5, 1967, when Israel launched air strikes against the Arab countries. Israel successfully destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground, and for the remainder of the war it controlled the skies. The U.S. did not take a side in the war.

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On June 8 the Liberty was in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula, and that morning several Israeli reconnaissance planes flew overhead. The Liberty was flying the American flag, and the ship’s hull number—GTR-5—was clearly visible at the bow and stern. The attack started at 3:05 pm when two Israeli Mirage fighter-bombers strafed the Liberty with 30-mm cannons. The Liberty’s armament consisted of just four deck-mounted .50-caliber machine guns, and some of the ship’s crew attempted to return fire at the attacking aircraft. These guns, as well as the ship’s communication antennas, were quickly destroyed. A flight of Israeli Super Mystère fighter-bombers soon followed, dropping napalm on the ship and targeting it with cannons. Much of the Liberty caught fire.

About 3:20 pm three Israeli torpedo boats approached the ship. They raked the Liberty with their deck guns and began launching torpedoes. One blast alone reportedly killed 25 men and wounded dozens more. The attack was finally called off about 4:30 pm. Israeli officials have said this was when they realized that the vessel belonged to the United States. Altogether, 34 people on the ship were killed, and another 171 were wounded.

When U.S. Pres. Lyndon Johnson was notified of the attack, he initially assumed that the Soviet Union was responsible. Israel soon told the U.S. that it had attacked the Liberty, thinking it was an enemy ship. An investigation by the Israeli government later found that its naval headquarters had known the ship was American at least three hours before the attack but that this information had not been conveyed to the people who ultimately authorized firing on the Liberty.

The Johnson administration did not publicly contradict Israel’s explanation for the attack. And when Johnson released a memoir four years later, he claimed again to accept the Israeli government’s explanation: “This heartbreaking episode grieved the Israelis deeply,” he wrote, “as it did us.” However, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, he told a Newsweek reporter that he believed the attack had been deliberate. He thought Israel’s motive was to prevent the Liberty from eavesdropping on Israeli transmissions.

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Most senior U.S. administration officials shared these suspicions in private. The NSA’s director, Lieut. Gen. Marshall Carter, said in a 1988 interview that he believed the attacks “couldn’t be anything else but deliberate.” Many survivors and their families were also convinced that Israel knew the ship was American, and over the decades they continued to call for a full congressional investigation, but without success. In 1997, on the 30th anniversary of the attack, Capt. William McGonagle, who had been the Liberty’s commander, said that for years he had wanted to believe the attack was “pure error,” but he couldn’t accept that explanation. He joined the call for an investigation.

Michael Oren, an Israeli politician and scholar who previously served in the IDF and has written extensively on the war, has been a persistent champion of the Israeli government’s position. He wrote an article in 2000 called “The ‘USS Liberty’: Case Closed,” in which he argued that all the official documents that had been declassified made it clear that the attack was a sincere mistake.

Nevertheless, the matter remains in dispute. In 2007 a number of military and intelligence personnel told the Chicago Tribune they had seen communications that showed the Israelis knew they were attacking an American ship. “I’m willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew,” said Oliver Kirby, the NSA’s deputy director for operations at the time of the attack.