[samtheman]

It’s a sickening story of betrayal, if the Israelis did this on purpose. And I say that as an otherwise strong supporter of Isreal.

Questions:

Did the US claim at the time that it had apprised Isreal of the ship’s position?

Was it incumbent on the US, in a situation like this, to apprise its ally of the existence and location of such a ship?

[inthaihill]

The Israeli pilots were (for the most part) trained in the US and spoke English. They identified the USS Liberty with the Stars and Stripes bolding waving in the Med sun as an American ship. They knew she was the American spy ship.

After several strafing runs on the ship (can’t remember exactly how many) a group of special forces type Israelis came out with the intention of sinking the ship.

The US has no obligation to apprise or get permission from anyone for any US vessel as long as the ship is in international waters and the USS Liberty was in international waters.

In God we trust, everybody else we monitor.

[FreeAtlanta]

It was a sad and horrible incident, but it is war. Mistakes get made. Israeli awareness of our assets were probably not great at the time and there is a ship on the horizon during a life and death struggle with an enemy they are outnumbered 20 or 30 to 1.

I think anytime you are in visual range of a war zone, you are in dire straits.