USS-Liberty vessel

by Infinite-Highway1749

Who was behind the attack of USS liberty Spy ship in the sixties, Israeli or Egyptian forces? knowing that both denied they did.

wotan_weevil

There is absolutely no controversy over who attacked USS Liberty: it was the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Navy. Israel apologised for the attack, and paid compensation.

There is a controversy about the reason for the attack. The official Israeli explanation is that USS Liberty was mistakenly identified as an Egyptian ship. The US Department of Defense investigation

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:DoD_USS_Liberty_Inquiry_Press_Release_28_Jun_1967.djvu

noted that

The Court produced evidence that the Israeli armed forces had ample opportunity to identify LIBERTY correctly.

The three elements of the controversy are:

  1. Was Liberty misidentified as Egyptian, or did the Israelis attack it knowing it to be a US ship?

  2. If they knew it was a US ship, why did they attack it? Explanations that have been suggested include: to stop radio jamming by Liberty; a general unwillingness to allow an electronic intelligence ship to stay so close to the war zone; and to stop Liberty's eavesdropping from discovered some (unknown) secret of great importance.

  3. Did the US investigation cooperate with Israel in whitewashing the incident?

A good example of the last of these points can be seen in the Moorer Report:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Moorer_Report

8. That due to the influence of Israel's powerful supporters in the United States, the White House deliberately covered up the facts of this attack from the American people;

9. That due to continuing pressure by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, this attack remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress; to this day, no surviving crewmember has been permitted to officially and publicly testify about the attack;

10. That there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history; the existence of such a cover-up is now supported by statements of Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, USN (Ret.), former Judge Advocate General of the Navy; and Captain Ward Boston, USN, (Ret.), the chief counsel to the Navy's 1967 Court of Inquiry of Liberty attack;

11. That the truth about Israel's attack and subsequent White House cover-up continues to be officially concealed from the American people to the present day and is a national disgrace;