1. The U.S.S. Liberty was flying the United States "Holiday" Flag which was much larger than a standard flag.
2. The U.S.S. Liberty requested an escort, but was denied.
3. The Israeli Air Force knew the frequencies which to jam in order ...to prevent any S.O.S. communication. They would have had to been given these frequencies and it would have positively identified the ship as AMERICAN!
4. The U.S.S. Liberty was the most sophisticated spy ship the United States owned and could monitor all communications, but were instructed not to listen to any communication in Hebrew.
5. The U.S.S. Liberty had an 18 foot [in diameter] satellite dish which was 30 feet above the stern deck. which could not possibly be mistaken for an Egyptian "horse hauler", especially in 1967.
6. A stiff wind that day had unfurled the over-sized "Holiday" flag, making it completely extended and visible to anyone.
7. Three Israeli fighter jets made passes that morning and positively identified the ship as the U.S.S. Liberty. Later in the attack, two of three fighters attacked while the third jet pilot, who was a dual-citizen with the United States, refused to attack as he knew it was the U.S.S. Liberty. He broke radio silence and positively identified the ship as the U.S.S. Liberty. Years later, after eight years in prison for not firing on the U.S.S. Liberty, he came to the United States and contacted the survivors of the attack, but before they could debrief and record him, he disappeared and was never heard from again.
8. The Israeli fighter planes were not marked and carried "non-standard" battle packs which were designed to destroy all communication capabilities of the ship. This requires pre-planning. If you gauge the responses to the fighter jet squadrons that were launched initially in defense of the attack upon the U.S.S. Liberty, they were ready to engage any and all enemies...except our TRUE ENEMY.
9. The initial attack by the Israeli Air Force concentrated on the communication equipment and used Napalm on the deck to prevent anyone from stringing a wire by hand for communication purposes.
10. A young 19 year old Seaman named Terry Halbardier, who now lives in Maui, managed to avoid these attempts and got a wire up long enough to send out an S.O.S. This was picked up by the Air Craft Carrier U.S.S. Saratoga, commanded by Admiral Lawrence Geiss, who was also sailing in the Mediterranean.
11. Bombers were dispatched from the Air Craft Carrier with Cairo as their coordinates, but were recalled after the S.O.S. was received from the U.S.S. Liberty. We were already aiding Israel in Operation Sinai, and obviously needed some incident to convince the American people of the justness of this cause. Israel had already falsely claimed that Egypt had struck first.
12. The Israeli Navy then attacked the U.S.S. Liberty with fast moving torpedo boats. Any strike from one of these torpedoes would have cut the ship in half. Captain McGonagle managed to avoid four of these with precision sailing, but the fifth hit the U.S.S. Liberty dead center of a major beam, which is the only reason that the ship was not totally destroyed.
13. Captain McGonagle then ordered the men to scuttle the ship and man life rafts. Then the Israeli Navy began shooting at the life boats and destroyed them to prevent any survivors. George Golden did not carry out the order to scuttle the ship, but instead ordered ballast shifted to the opposite side of the ship to counterbalance the two million gallons of water the ship had taken on in an attempt to keep the ship afloat. This allowed time for a Russian ship to sail upon the encounter and ended the Israeli attack - due to additional witnesses. This is important, because this now began a new phase of the operation which was "Cover-Up" of the attack.
14. After the S.O.S. was received by the Carrier, Admiral Geiss then dispatched fighter jets without immediate permission from Washington, in defense of the U.S.S. Liberty. When this was discovered in Washington, Council on Foreign Relations member, Robert McNamara, sent orders to Admiral Geiss to recall the fighters. They were then recalled.
15. Admiral Geiss assumed that the reason the fighters were recalled was that they carried nuclear arms. He then ordered other planes without nuclear capability to defend the U.S.S. Liberty. This time, President Johnson got on the phone personally with Admiral Geiss and said he didn't care if the ship went to the bottom, he did not want to embarrass our "allies". The fighters were once again recalled.
16. After the ship was repaired in Malta and returned to the United States, the surviving crew members were split up and individually rewarded for their silence which was agreed upon to last for 25 years. This certainly would not have been necessary in a "Friendly Fire" incident.
17. The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Captain McGonagle, but this ceremony was not done at the White House by the President, but rather in secret by the Secretary of the Navy in an obscure Naval Yard in Washington only after the Israeli Government had given assurances that it had no objections.
18. This was the only time in United States history that United States Servicemen were murdered on a Navy ship that NO Congressional investigation or any other kind of investigation was conducted.
19. Israel now possesses and displays proudly one of the shot up life boats of the U.S.S. Liberty in one of their museums in Tel Aviv for all Israeli citizens to see.
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