Irseal Attacking the U.S.S Liberty

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Introduction
All times used throughout this paper will be in Israel local time unless otherwise indicated. The U.S.S. Liberty was a United States Navy ship converted for use by the National Security Agency.1 It was attacked in broad daylight by Israel on the afternoon of June 8th 1967.2 At the time of the attack the Liberty was approximately 12-14 NM off the coast of land that the Israeli military was in control of.3 Israel was on day four of their six day war.4 The mission of the Liberty, as told to the public in a Department of Defense press release on the day of the attack, was “to ensure communications between U.S. Government posts in the Middle East, and to assist in relaying information concerning the evacuation of American dependents, and other American citizens from the countries of the Middle East.”5 Truthfully the Liberty was there to conduct Sigint collection focused on Egypt, as directed by the NSA.6 To put it as plainly as possible, the Liberty was spying on other countries in the furtherance of American interests. In this case study I will examine the information available and come to my own conclusions about why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening in the future, based on my experiences in the military thus far.

History
The Liberty was originally a cargo ship commissioned in May of 1945 during World War Two.7 She was put into storage in 1958, and recommissioned in December of 1964, after being modified for use as an intelligence platform.8 Israel began what is commonly referred to as the “Six Day War” on June 5th 1967, after the Strait of Tiran was blockaded on May 23rd by Egypt.9 Israel had made its position clear numerous times that blockading the straight would be met with force.10 The serious ...

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... pick up survivors, and whomever they are talking to about the nationality of the ship. The transcripts only show the conversation, who is transmitting is blanked out. These are the only audio transcripts available on the NSA website. The Liberty also produced three recordings that are said to be of Israeli air traffic.47 Where are these recordings? How is it that exactly three recordings were made by both the EC-121, and the Liberty, yet only three were released 36 years later? If air traffic from helicopters could be captured and recorded, what about all of the other aircraft flying that day? These questions may never be answered because the NSA has stated that all material related to the attack has been released to the public. My personal opinion about whether or not there has been a cover up will develop after I have more time to study additional information.

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