Statement by Secretary of State Dean Rusk during interview by talkshow
host Don Brook, Wisconsin radio station WOJB, February 12, 1990:

Secretary Rusk:  The attack on the Liberty came as a shock and a
surprise at the time.  We did not know who had conducted the attack and
were concerned about it.

I must confess that I never did accept the official Israeli explanation
as being adequate and that remains my opinion today.  I can't really
speak to the motives of those who gave the command to attack, but they
were to me wholly unsatisfactoryu.  If the Israelis thought they were
attacking an unidentified ship that in itself was reckless, but I cannot
believe they did not identify this as an American ship.  It was flying
an American flag and so I think that the attack was deliberate on
somebody's part.