I read the same book Steve and my impression then as now is that Israel had every intention of sinking the Liberty and there were to be no survivors to tell the tale. Obviously, things didn?t turn out that way so one must presume that there was a motivation for trying to silence what the Liberty found out or was thought to have found out. Being one of the preeminent snoop ships of the time, the Liberty had all kinds of capability and must have come across something Israel didn?t want let out or discovered at any cost.
We?ll never know what is was that Israel was so desperate to keep silent and /or undiscovered but in my opinion, only the dullest knife in the drawer would believe it was all a case of mistaken identity, ta dot ta da. By all that is right, there should have been a massive, thunderous and reciprocal case of ?mistaken identity? sent against the Israeli forces that perpetrated the strike. In cases like the assault on the Liberty, it is, in my opinion, a grave mistake to allow, ?lessons learned?, to be unilateral in nature for it only invites more problems like ongoing and continual, aggressive, Israeli espionage against the US. Of course, we don?t talk about that situation either, right?
Scamp