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Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!hplabs!pesnta!valid!steve
From: steve@valid.UUCP (steve homer)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: the sinking of the USS Liberty
Message-ID: <193@valid.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Mar-86 20:25:00 EST
Article-I.D.: valid.193
Posted: Thu Mar 27 20:25:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 20:56:00 EST
References: <1766@decwrl.DEC.COM> <130@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Valid Logic, San Jose, CA
Lines: 30

> 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......
> 
> 
> 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

The attack on the USS Liberty is rather well documented, and it's pretty clear 
that the Israeli's knew she was a National Security Agency ship with a
satellite uplink and attacked her deliberately to cut off that link.  
Israeli planes had been
buzzing the ship for several hours before the ship was attacked.  
After the planes strafed and napalmed the Liberty, Israeli gunboats
shot up the life rafts when the crew tried to abandon ship.

The book, "The Puzzle Palace," by (I think) James Bamford has a rather
detailed report on the incident, and Bamford footnotes his sources
quite thoroughly.  He says that the attack began as soon as the
Liberty began transmitting to a relay satellite.

	Steve Homer
	{hplabs,amd,pyramid,ihnp4}!pesnta!valid!steve