![]() Request denied." He promised, however, that in the unlikely event of an inadvertent attack, jet fighters from the Sixth Fleet would be overhead in ten minutes. The following day, Admiral Martin replied: " Liberty is a clearly marked United States ship in international waters, not a participant in the conflict and not a reasonable subject for attack by any nation. Martin at the United States Sixth Fleet headquarters to send a destroyer to accompany Liberty and serve as its armed escort and as an auxiliary communications center. McGonagle of Liberty immediately asked Vice Admiral William I. With the outbreak of war, Captain William L. ships operating off Sinai was made until after Liberty incident." Further, Barbour stated: "Had Israelis made such an inquiry it would have been forwarded immediately to the chief of naval operations and other high naval commands and repeated to dept. Barbour responded: "No request for info on U.S. Ambassador Walworth Barbour in Tel Aviv, Israel, Rusk asked for "urgent confirmation" of Israel's statement. Īmerican sources said that no inquiry about ships in the area was made until after the attack on Liberty. to keep its ships away from Israel's shore or at least inform Israel of their exact positions. Īccording to Israeli sources, at the start of the war on 5 June, General Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Air Force (IAF) chief of staff informed Commander Ernest Carl Castle, the American naval attaché in Tel Aviv, that Israel would defend its coast with every means at its disposal, including sinking unidentified ships. Due to ineffective message handling and routing, these messages were not received until after the attack. ![]() After the war erupted, due to concerns about its safety as it approached its patrol area, several messages were sent to Liberty to increase its allowable closest point of approach (CPA) to Egypt's and Israel's coasts from 12.5 and 6.5 nautical miles (14.4 and 7.5 mi 23.2 and 12.0 km), respectively, to 20 and 15 nautical miles (23 and 17 mi 37 and 28 km), and then later to 100 nautical miles (120 mi 190 km) for both countries. Several days before the war began, the USS Liberty was ordered to proceed to the eastern Mediterranean area to perform a signals intelligence collection mission in international waters near the north coast of Sinai, Egypt. ![]() It carried out several further operations during the next two years.Īttack on the Liberty Events leading to the attackĭuring the Six-Day War between Israel and several Arab nations, the United States of America maintained a neutral country status. It began its first deployment in 1965, in waters off the west coast of Africa. It was acquired by the United States Navy and converted to an auxiliary technical research ship (AGTR), a cover name for National Security Agency (NSA) "spy ships" carrying out signals intelligence missions. USS Liberty was originally the 7,725 long tons (7,849 t) (light) civilian cargo vessel Simmons Victory, a mass-produced, standard-design Victory ship, the follow-on series to the famous Liberty ships that supplied the Allies with cargo during World War II. ![]() In December 1980, it agreed to pay $6 million ($21.3 million in 2022) as the final settlement for material damage to the ship plus 13 years of interest. In March 1969, Israel paid a further $3.57 million ($28.5 million in 2022) to the men who had been wounded. government in compensation for the families of the 34 men killed in the attack. In May 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3.32 million (equivalent to US$28 million in 2022) to the U.S. Others, including survivors of the attack, have rejected these conclusions and maintain that the attack was deliberate. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the ship's identity. Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian NSA employee), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship ( spy ship), USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |