Following are details on the massacre recounted by the distinguished former U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Paul Findley: The day of the attack began in routine fashion, with the ship first proceeding slowly in an easterly direction in the eastern Mediterranean, later following the contour of the coastline  westerly about fifteen miles off the Sinai Peninsula.

On the mainland, Israeli forces were winning smashing victories in the third Arab-Israeli war  in nineteen years. Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, announcing that the Israelis had taken  the entire Sinai and broken the blockade on the Strait of Tiran declared: “The Egyptians are  defeated.” On the eastern front the Israelis had overcome Jordanian forces and captured  most of the West Bank.

At 6 a.m. an airplane, identified by the Liberty crew as an Israeli Noratlas, circled the ship slowly and departed. This procedure was repeated periodically over an eight-hour period.

At 9.a.m a jet appeared at a distance, then left. At 10 a.m. two rocket-armed jets circled the  ship three times. They were close enough for their pilots to be observed through binoculars. The planes were unmarked. An hour later the Israeli Noratlas returned, flying not more than  200 feet directly above the Liberty, and clearly marked with the Star of David. The ship’s crewmembers and the pilot waved at each other. This plane returned every few minutes until 1 p.m. By then, the ship had changed course and was proceeding  lmost due west.

At 2.00 p.m. all hell broke loose. Three Mirage fighter planes headed straight for the Liberty, their rockets taking out the forward machine guns and wrecking the ship’s antennae. The  mirages were joined by Mystere fighters, which dropped napalm o the bridge and deck  and repeatedly strafed the ship. The attack continued for over 20 minutes. In all, the ship  sustained 821 holes in her sides and decks. Of these, more tan 100 were rocket size.

As the aircraft departed, three torpedo boats took over the attack, firing five torpedoes, one  of which tore a 40-foot hole in the hull, killing 25 sailors. The ship was in flames, dead in the  water, listing precariously, and taking water. The crew was ordered to prepare to abandon  ship. As life rafts were lowered into the water, the torpedo boats moved closer and shot  them to pieces. One plane concentrated machine-gun fire on rafts still on deck as  crewmembers there tried to extinguish the napalm fire. Petty Officer Charles Rowley  declares, “They didn’t want anymore to live.”

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem by Issa Nakhleh