- Fraudulent Gun Camera Photos
- Introduction
- In The Liberty Incident <
- In the 1982 IDF History Report
- Where's the Antenna?
- Too Wrong to Be Right
- Smoke and Mirrors
- Missing Parts
- Conclusion
Gun Camera Photo Fraud
Fraud in Cristol's The Liberty Incident
By Ken Halliwell (November 14, 2004)
For years, USS Liberty attack survivors and researchers have sought to understand why Israeli gun camera photographs, presented in a Thames, Ltd., television film and in A. J. Cristol's book about the attack (on the cover and on page 79), appear grossly blurred and highly contrasted. Typically, apart from relatively minor motion blurring, gun camera photos appear reasonably well-focused and properly exposed. So why are these of such poor quality? And what is the large white cloud-like area near the starboard bow? The ship took no large hits in this area; so, it cannot be explained as an explosion.
To answer these questions, the images printed in and on the cover of A. J. Cristol's book were carefully enhanced, studied and analyzed. One analysis involved comparing the gun camera photos with clear and well-exposed photographs of USS Liberty. This analysis paid-off. It showed clearly that the gun camera photos contained many identical and unique features contained in a photograph of USS Liberty docking at a pier in Little Creek, Virginia, in July 1967, upon her return from repairs in Malta, after the attack.
When viewing the comparative analysis, you will see significant and uniquely matching features, in both photographic images, shown within circles and connected with a line between them. As you can see, they are virtually identical. The only difference between them being a minor change in perspective and time, as the photographs were taken. It's clear that the gun camera photo series is based on a docking photograph.
To further show that the gun camera photo is fake, take a look at how high USS Liberty floats in the water. (Click here for an enlarged image showing the antenna bases and waterline.)
When the ship was attacked, it was heavily loaded and floating low in the water. The docking photo shows the ship lightly loaded and floating high, just after completing a crossing of the Mediterranean sea and Atlantic Ocean. The ship's floating level (i.e., draft) in the docking photo and the gun camera photo is identical. This single feature alone demonstrates that the gun camera photo cannot be real.
Finally, take a look at the bow wave in the gun camera photo.
When compared to a real bow wave, taken from a photograph of USS Liberty, you can see clearly that the gun camera bow wave has an extremely poor resemblance, and lacks many of the characteristics of a real bow wave. Click here for a more detailed analysis on the bow waves.
Thus, the gun camera photos mystery is solved: they appear grossly blurred and highly contrasted in an attempt to hide the fact that they are fake.