During the Six-Day War, Israel threatened to attack any unidentified vessel near its coastline. The US did not take a side during the war, but the Sixth Fleet was in the Mediterranean in case of escalation, and the Liberty (a refitted former Liberty ship that supplied the UK during WWII) was monitoring electronic communications 14 miles off the Israeli coast near El Arish. It had no missiles or heavy guns, but just a few deck machine guns for defense. Apparently the US Navy and State Department informed Israel of the Liberty's location and identity prior to the attack, but during a shift change at the Israeli war room, they mistakenly changed the ship's status to "unknown".
Israeli aircraft buzzed the ship EIGHT times, and their pilots should have been close enough to observe the Liberty's hull markings (the ship's unique ID code was "GTR") and ensign (US flag flying high on a mast). The weather was perfectly clear, and Arab ships have Arabic markings on their bows and different colored flags, so they couldn't have confused it for the enemy. But instead, warplanes opened fire with cannons, rockets, and bombs. There were no warning shots. Apparently Yitzhak Rabin (the IDF chief of staff at the time) thought the ship could be Soviet (Egypt's ally) and sought to neutralize it. He dispatched 3 nearby torpedo boats as well. Smoke from the air strike made it difficult for the Liberty and Israeli ships to signal each other by Morse code, so the captain of the Liberty ordered his machine gunners to open fire, as the torpedo boats were assuming an aggressive approach. He quickly canceled the order, but it was too late, as the Israeli sailors concluded it must have been an Egyptian freighter and fired five torpedoes, with one striking the Liberty, creating a 40-foot hole, and causing the majority of the casualties reported. Some American witnesses stated that the Israeli boats strafed the Liberty while rescue crews were trying to save people and extinguish fires, but that claim is in dispute. Amazingly the ship didn't sink, and fled the area under its own power.
Both nations launched inquiries and officially concluded that it was a friendly fire mistake. Israel later paid $7M to the families of the victims, and another $6M to the US government for damage to the ship. Total US aid to Israel in 1967 was $48M, so really they just gave some of it back. The families of the victims, Joint Chiefs chairman, and Secretary of State at the time Dean Rusk all felt that the Israeli explanation and US investigation were inadequate. Rusk said, "I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander."
Israel said that its pilots were exhausted from fighting the Arab nations and were not totally alert, so maybe that's why they failed to ID the vessel. Well Israel started the war and their victory was never in doubt, so it's not like they needed to fly all those sorties and tire themselves out. And they could have radioed the ship, or Washington, to confirm before they attacked, especially because there was no imminent threat from a 30-year-old converted freighter.
Others have alleged that the attack was deliberate - but what would Israel have to gain by attacking its chief benefactor? Several theories exist in books and a BBC documentary on the incident. At the time, Israel was transferring forces from the Sinai to break the ceasefire and invade Syria's Golan Heights. If the US observed this, radioed Washington, and the information was intercepted by the Soviets, they would have notified Egypt that Israel's southwestern border was exposed. In addition, there is some evidence that the Liberty was escorted by a Polaris nuclear submarine, with orders to take out Israel's long-range missile sites if they prepared to attack an Arab capital (since doing so would probably trigger a Soviet counter-attack, and then the end of the world). So the Liberty strike could have been a warning for the US to back off. In a more remote possibility, the attack could have been launched to prevent the US from discovering a nearby mass slaughter of Egyptian POWs by the IDF (the bodies were later discovered in 1995). And lastly, there could have been a secret conspiracy between Washington and Tel Aviv to fake a Tonkin Gulf-like incident. They would blame the Liberty's attack on Egypt, which would give the US justification to enter the war on Israel's side. In fact, carrier-based warplanes from the Sixth Fleet did scramble after the Liberty was hit and assumed a direct course towards Cairo, but they were quickly recalled. But how could they cover up Israeli involvement when the IDF used Dassault Mirages to attack the Liberty (no other state in the region had them), and the torpedo boats were clearly marked as Israeli too? Strangely, the Anti-Defamation League has been one of the primary voices to refute claims of deliberate Israeli attack. That group is dedicated to civil rights and stopping anti-Semitism. How is that related to the Liberty attack?
We may never fully know what happened that day, and even as recently as 2003 and 2007 there were non-governmental inquiries and reporting by major US papers (possibly to commemorate the anniversary, but we were distracted by the War on Terror and presidential elections). The veterans of the attack still want justice, but maybe the cover story is the truth. After all, Israel didn't fully sink the ship to kill all witnesses, and instead immediately sent rescue personnel to help. But maybe the conspirators planned for that contingency too. I'll close with this peculiarity: the Liberty's captain was later issued the Medal of Honor, which is supposed to award bravery in the face of the "enemy". That was the first and only time the medal was given in a supposed friendly fire incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
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