It seems Israeli forces are quite often involved in such incidents:

First relevant timeline entry:

• 1358 1158 0758
  Liberty records single aircraft seen passing down track of ship, 135 degrees relative, five or six
  miles distance, approximate attitude 7,000 feet. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Exhibit 27:
  Chronology of Events.]

Next relevant timeline entry, 2 minutes later:

• 1400 1200 0800
  Air attack commenced. Liberty reported her position as 31-23N, 33-25E [US Naval Court of
  Inquiry/Document 87 of Exhibit 48: DTG 081235Z June 1967, USS Saratoga to
  CINCUSNAVEUR.] The generally accepted time of the initial attack is 1400 Sinai time. It is the
  author’s opinion that the first Mirage IIICJ rolled into its run at about 1357 and began firing
  about 1358. The Liberty handwritten CIC Log indicates attack began at 1358 [US Naval Court
  of Inquiry: Exhibit 14 (incorrectly marked as Liberty Underway Log)] as do copies of her Radio
  Logs [US Naval Court of Inquiry: Exhibits 23 and 24.] IAF audio tapes indicate 1358. IDF
  History indicates 1400. MTB Division 914 War Log records “Target is being hit by aircraft” at
  1400. Liberty reports the time as 1405. [US Naval Court of Inquiry/Document 46 of Exhibit 48:
  DTG 081715Z June 1967.] Follow-on initial releases from the US Government would state 1405
  based on Liberty’s 081715Z message. The 13 June 1967 CIA Report [SC No. 01415/67.]
  indicates 3:05 P.M., which is 1505 local time of the attack. The Washington time of the CIA
  Report states 8:05 A.M.(0805) which is essentially correct. It is presumed that the CIA Report,
  prepared in five days failed to account for the change from seven to six hours of time differential
  between Washington, which was on daylight time, where the report was prepared and times
  received in real-time and the Sinai time which was not on daylight time.
  Fifth standoff Message, 080917Z, from COMSIXTHFLT to Liberty ordering 100 mile pullback
  arrived at Army DCS Relay Station Asmara. This message was sent by mistake to NCS Greece
  instead of NCS Asmara at 1415. [House Armed Services Committee Report, May 10, 1971.]

Sad. Liberty never received the 100 mile pullback order, mentioned much earlier in the timeline:

• 0150 2350 1950
  Secure telephone call from JCS duty officer, Major D. C. Breedlove, to CINCUSNAVEUR duty
  officer, Lieutenant E. L. Galavotti, who verbally ordered Liberty to be withdrawn to no closer
  than 100 miles. Breedlove did not have the DTG for the new instructions, but stated a written
  message would follow. [House Armed Services Committee Report, May 10, 1971.] Captain M.
  J. Hanley, Deputy Chief of Staff, CINCUSNAVEUR, requested issuance of the written message,
  i.e., the DTG. [US Naval Court of Inquiry: Exhibit 47.] If Navy Captain Hanley had taken the
  oral order of a Major, the Liberty tragedy might never have occurred. It must however be noted
  that this phone call order was not in accord with several established procedures. [US Naval Court
  The Liberty Incident Time Line Page 13 of 56
  of Inquiry/Document 52 of Exhibit 48: Statement of Captain Hanley.]

Any/most is the question. LBJ disliked the military, period.
Command from an intel ship to an ammo hauler then to an ROTC isn't exactly a reward. But this is just my opinion. It has no bearing on the incident itself.

Are you being intentionally selective? Since you're listing "such incidents", how about a list of all the blue-on-blue incidents where Israeli forces have fired on their own, inflicting casualties and injured?

I bet those were intentional, too.

Regarding your particular cases that you mentioned, no target was fired on. Both the IDF and the Minister of Defence, Comrade Peretz :smug: denied this.

In the meantime, thanks to the do-nothingness of said German and French forces, Hizballah have full recovered, rearmed and reinfiltrated. Thanks for nothing. Till the next war..........................

The where at least 3 incidents with German Navy by now, I already linked SPIEGEL-article in German.

And then there was the bombed UN post last Summer...

-> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14029827/

Whats also sad is that McGonagle had asked for an escort ship when given the mission but was refused.

Talk about smut!

Investigate a little harder and find out how Hizballah were operating within stone throw distances from UN posts and the UN did nothing to either distance the terrorists or themselves from being part of the target areas.

Quote:

...The UN report says each time the UN contacted Israeli forces, they were assured the firing would stop.

really wicked those Hizballah guys...seems they have lured you in a diplomatic trap, counting on your bad shooting skills...:D

Israel had no choice. The Hizballah was sitting on top of them using the UN as a shield. What the UN should have done is just leave the area.

Within 3 meters is "bad shooting skills?"

Canadian General: UN Observer Post Used By Hizballah

Kofi Annan Could Have Ordered Peacekeepers to Leave

Canada’s PM doubts Israeli bombing of UN outpost deliberate

And it's off till later tonight - to the bookfair we go! :)

Anyone else for tennis? :D

The US Navy doesn't have exclusive use of grey paint Brad. If you'll look around you'll see that just about every country, including Egypt, paints their ships the same flat grey color because that is the best color to use.

Each country has a specific shade(really). I'm not even sure El Quseir was a grey either.

Okay, but those markings seen in the pic you posted - so typical USN and so untypical for a freighter. (A)GTR-5, only the USN uses such abbreviations.

That the jetfighters misidentified this ship is believable - they are just pilots ;).

On the other hand i cannot believe that the torpedo boats were unable to identify it: With all those antennas and this number the ship could be easily recognized with just a look. They had also plenty of time to do this as the Liberty was (almost) unarmed.

The israelis were so close that they could even ask for identification!

I don't think this was necessary to say this but okay, no problem - as we know ourselves (unlike some politicians) that this whole mission is useless and a waste of german taxpayer's money. However there is still no need to provoke our ships as they seem to have enough problems already: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=116569 :oops:

Maybe we should see if we can get some of this tax money back by selling some subs to Iran?
They are probably willing to fully pay for them (unlike Israel).

Many thanks for taking our sub presents ... and for shooting over our (unarmed) reconaissance ships to show us how much you appreciate it ;).

But if it would have been a house full of civilians, would it have been still shelled? Why dont use soldiers to mob up the Hizbollah in situations like this? Or is it acceptable to kill few foreigners to save your own skin? :nope:

So your argument is based on shades of grey? :D

I don't claim to be a naval expert but of the couple hundred USN ship pictures I googled last night before making that post, none of them had small letters before the ship number.

El Qseir
http://palestine1967.site.voila.fr/i...y03elqsair.jpg


Liberty
http://palestine1967.site.voila.fr/i.../liberty04.jpg


note the differences

http://palestine1967.site.voila.fr/i...erty04bis.jpeg

Ah, please don't look for fighting ships but for Auxiliary ships like Replenishment Oilers, Tenders and such:
Here are just a few examples:

http://www.bluejacket.com/usn_ship_image_ad-ah.html

Ammunition ship Mars AFS
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/7...c011gy2.th.jpg

2x Fleet Oiler Kalamazoo AOR
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/3005/aor61ue6.th.jpg http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6937/aor63zt9.th.jpg

Submarine Tender AS
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9...c029ip7.th.jpg

The "A" for Auxiliary is normally left away. The way the number is painted is pretty unique and very consistent in the USN (unlike the Soviet Navy, which pennant numbers look much different and change through the ship's life). Among all navies, USN ships are the easiest to identify - even their submarines wear a big number.

The Liberty wore her number which even included a hint on her mission. She could be easily identified by a short look into a book like Weyer's Handbook of combat fleets.

Which recognition book does the USN use? Jane's?
The israelis use none obviously - or they didn't need one because they knew what they were doing ...

You brought up the question of the grey paint on ships and I answered. I'm not going to repeat everything else again.


Edit: You can also add this:
Jamming: An additional point on which Israel did not comment is the use of radio jamming. In the absence of reliable records, it is only left to speculate whether jamming (of Navy tactical and international maritime distress frequencies) did take place, or whether the deficiency in communications originated in the attack itself (i.e., loss of power and damage of antennas). Both Liberty and USS Saratoga radio operators reported hearing the distinctive buzzing sound usually indicative of radio frequency jamming. According to a book by Russell Warren Howe (see below), Captain McGonagle testified that the jamming of his transmissions had been on American, not Egyptian, frequencies, suggesting that the Israelis were aware of the nationality of the ship. The U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry concluded that Liberty experienced jamming (finding 48).