On June 8, 1967 while patrolling in international waters2 in the Eastern Mediterranean
Sea, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification
by air and naval forces of the state of Israel.3
Of a crew of 294 officers and men4 (including three civilians)5, the ship suffered
thirty four (34) killed in action and one hundred seventy three (173) wounded in action.6
The ship itself, a Forty Million ($40,000,000) Dollar state of the art signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, was so badly damaged that it never sailed on an operational mission
again and was sold in 1970 for $101,666.66 as scrap7.
Israel acknowledged the following facts without qualification:
a. USS Liberty was an American ship, hence a neutral vis-à-vis the June
1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.8 b. USS Liberty remained in international waters at all times on June 8, 19679.
c. The attacking Israeli forces never made a positive identification of the nationality of USS Liberty before unleashing deadly force in their attack on
the ship.10 At approximately 0600 hours (all times local) on the morning of June 8, 1967 an Israeli maritime reconnaissance aircraft observer reported seeing “a US Navy cargo type ship,” just outside the coverage of the Israeli coastal radar defense net, bearing the hull
markings “GTR-5”.11 This report, made to Israeli naval HQ, was also forwarded immediately
to the Israeli navy intelligence directorate.12
Throughout the remainder of the day prior to the attack, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft regularly flew out to USS Liberty’s position and orbited the ship before returning to their bases in Israel. A total of no fewer than eight (8) such flights were made.13
At approximately 1050 hours, the naval observer from the early morning reconnaissance flight arrived at Israeli air force HQ and sat down with the air-naval liaison officer there. The two officers consulted Janes’ Fighting Ships and learned that the ship reported earlier in the day was USS Liberty, a United States Navy technical research
ship.14