Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!ll-xn!mit-amt!mit-eddie!mit-trillian!martillo
From: martillo@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Yakim Martillo)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: the sinking of the USS Liberty
Message-ID: <130@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
Date: Sun, 23-Mar-86 09:54:55 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-tril.130
Posted: Sun Mar 23 09:54:55 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 09:27:52 EST
References: <1766@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: martillo@trillian.UUCP (Yakim Martillo)
Organization: MIT, Project Athena, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 24

In article <1766@decwrl.DEC.COM> bottom_david@mtblue.DEC (DAVE BOTTOM ASO/4AC 271-6935) writes:
>I find it difficult to believe that the most combat ready/experienced 
>airforce in the world would mistake a US ship (complete with flag) for 
>an Egyptian one less that half the size......

>Believe me, our aircrews spend a great deal of time on "recognition" 
>training so that they can tell a Kresta II from a California class 
>cruiser etc. I cannot believe the Israeli airforce does not.....

>I do not insist that this attack was deliberate.....I do, however, 
>wonder why *our* government was so convinced that they would 
>attack....all we didn't attemp to call the Liberty back until after we 
>confronted the Isreali's with the fact that we knew they were not 
>telling our State Department the truth about their gains in this 
>war. 

The U.S.S. Liberty was a spy ship.  Spy ships work on concealing their
identity.  During the war the Israeli air force fired on Israelis.
During the Vietnam War, the American air force accidentally fired on
Americans.  Accidentally firing on a non-combatant spy ship probably
concealing its identity hardly seems improbable.


Joachim Carlo Santos Martillo