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Visibility of ensign: The most vehemently debated point is the visibility of the
three American flags that the ship was flying. The survivors uniformly agree that
the Liberty was flying the Stars and Stripes before, during and after the attack,
except for a brief period in which one flag that had been shot down was replaced
with another, larger flag that measured 13 ft (4.0 m) long. The Israeli pilots
claimed they did not see any flag. Survivor testimony to the Court of Inquiry was
that the flags were clearly visible due to a moderate sea breeze. The Court of
Inquiry found that "Flat, calm conditions and the slow five knot patrol speed of
LIBERTY in forenoon when she was being looked over initially may well have
produced insufficient wind for steaming colors enough to be seen by pilots" [sic].
[14] NSA documents declassified on June 8, 2007 state "Every official interview
of numerous Liberty crewmen gave consistent evidence that indeed the Liberty
was flying an American flag and, further, the weather conditions were ideal to
ensure its easy observance and identification."
pilots who were not involved in the attack and who were sent to provide
assistance. These pilots noticed an American flag flying from the ship.[16] and
informed their control tower. See other sources for a link to the NSA website with
complete transcripts. The NSA Website denies that there were any U.S. recordings
of the attack itself although this is disputed by several intelligence specialists who
claim to have read the original transcripts.
Effort for identification: The American crew claims the attacking aircraft did not
make identification runs over Liberty, but rather began to strafe immediately.
Israel claims several identification passes were made. The Naval Court of
Enquiry, based on the Israeli timeline of events, found "One may infer from the
fact that within a period of approximately 15 minutes, the request was transmitted
(for aircraft to be dispatched), received, a command decision made, aircraft
dispatched, and the attack launched, that no significant time was expended in an
effort to identify the ship from the air before the attack was launched."[64]
Speed of the vessel: According to Israeli accounts, the torpedo boat made
(admittedly erroneous) measurements that indicated the ship was steaming at 30
kn (35 mph; 56 km/h). Israeli naval doctrine at the time required that a ship
traveling at that speed must be presumed to be a warship. A second boat
calculated Liberty's speed to be 28 kn (32 mph; 52 km/h). The maximum
sustained speed of Liberty was only 17.5 kn (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h), 21 kn (24
mph; 39 km/h) being attainable by overriding the engine governors. According to
Body of Secrets, by James Bamford, Liberty crewmen (including the Officer-ofthe-Deck) and the Court of Enquiry findings the ship was steaming at 5 kn (5.8
mph; 9.3 km/h) at the time of the attack.