Since I did in the Army what those guys aboard the Liberty did and was in the military at the same time I have always been interested in the incident. I have probably read everything that has ever been written about it, including Bamford's book.
I was also on duty the day the Israelis attacked the ship and was in the relay loop to DIRNSA. I saw the dispatches from the Liberty as they were happening. However, I don't have any special knowledge of anything that hasn't already been publicly reported.
At this time in history the US with the Cold War going on was trying to stay somewhat even handed in the Middle East lest the Arabs be driven into the Soviet camp. There was no strong alliance with the Israelis like we have today.
The Liberty's job was to provide intelligence on the war to relay to NSA and on to the Pentagon and President.
At the time of the attack the Israelis were making tremendous advances on the Egyptians. The Israelis did not want the US to know how bad the rout was lest we put pressure on them to let the Egyptians save face. The Israelis wanted to totally defeat the Arab forces and the US could hinder that goal.
The attack was deliberate and the Israelis lied about it.
However, the real traitorous act was LBJ allowing the Israelis to get away with it. He covered up for them. The reason he did it was because the pro Israel lobby in the US was a powerful force and a big contributor to the Democrat Party. He wasn't going to upset that gravy train.
From that time on both political parties have supported kissing the ass of the Israelis even when it was against the interest of the US. God only knows how much money we have given the sonofabitches over the decades.
They had a real nice scam going on. They Israelis would offer to buy American military weapon systems like the F-16s or whatever. Then Congress would guarantee the loan to buy the weapons. Later, the AIPAC would throw money to members of Congress and magically an appropriation bill that would have an amendment that the loan be forgiven so the bastards got the weapons for free.