In rec.aviation.military wrote:
On 7 Jun 2005 14:15:59 -0700, "Mike" wrote:

Merlin Dorfman wrote:

Has anybody ever presented a credible reason WHY Israel would
deliberately attack an American ship? Or, if the intent was to
sink it and leave no survivors, why they did neither?

The key part being c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e ...

The idea that a nation would make a deliberate attack upon a warship of
the only western power giving it *support* in a regional war against
multiple enemies ..., well, let's just say it doesn't make any sense
whatsoever and for those claiming otherwise, they best come to the
"table" w/ solid and very credible evidence of that supposed "reason."

Isn't this the same nation that employed Johathon Pollard? Does that
give us a clue? Or not?

...which says they would have known everything the US was
learning from the Liberty, so the "damage" it could do was minimal.

LIBERTY was intell ship gathering intel. Somebody on the Israeli side
didn't like that. So they did something about it. You don't have to
sink it and kill the crew to stop it.

If you assume Israel deliberately set out to do a "mission
kill" on the Liberty, i.e., to stop it from collecting intelligence
(which I still find not particularly credible), there was, as you
say, no need to try to sink it and kill the crew. Much less severe
action would have sufficed.

As an ASW type in S2s and P3s I have spent a LOT of time at 100-200
feet rigging ships. It's not hard to do and there was a specific
proceedure taught in the S2 RAG. It's easier to rig a ship in a helo,
harder in "fast mover."

I assume "rigging" a ship has something to do with identifying
it? (Pardon my unfamiliarity with the terminology.)

The idea that the Israeli pilots made a mistake in ID is not credible.
The ship was marked in the standard fashion, including the name on the
stern. The ship was surveyeled by a helo minutes before the attack
began.

It's a whole different ballgame during a hot war. Are you
aware that, during the pursuit of the Bismarck, pilots from the
Ark Royal mistakenly made a torpedo attack on HMS Sheffield--not
even a battleship, but a cruiser--a British cruiser, from THEIR
OWN TASK FORCE which they had seen every day for months. And they
were flying Stringbags which could maybe do 100 mph flat out.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Sheffield was
less than 1/4 the displacement of the Bismarck.
Should there have been recriminations and investigations
almost 40 years later about whether this attack was deliberate?

Even if you can "write off" an intitial "error" to Israeli Army pilots
as being blind, illiterate, and stupid the Israeli Navy took a hand in
the operation. They are professional naval officers. They have
binoculars. They have proper recognition manuals. What's their
excuse?

Hot war.

I don't claim any deep insights, here, only an operators view of SSSC.

Again, pardon my ignorance--what's SSSC?

If the attack was accidental then the Israeli government really
"screwed the pooch" and only the cowardice of the Johnson
Administration saved them. If it was intentional, either as an act of
state or of some rogue faction the cowardice of the Johnson
Adminstration saved them.

Saved them from what?