[ScreamingFist]

There are standard procedures to follow -- you let your warring host know and usually approve of where you are going and when. It keeps mistakes like this from happening.

If I were an "intelligence" gathering agency, I might possibly have a reason to NOT inform the combantants as to why I was sailing in international waters. Hmmm?

[bvw]

And by that you run the dread risk of exactly what did happen. Dead spies and scouts are useless -- worse than not gathering the information in the first place.

If anything the Liberty's mission was like the "I'll never get killed" recklessness of a fresh teenager driver in a fast car. Magical thinking that was deadly. Magical thinking that even an unannounced sneaky visit into a hot war zone is safe on account of the US flag markings. James Deanish -- except the commanders there should have known better.