not a primary source, but it seems to me probably true.
http://www.ussliberty.org/washrp96.txt
[ QUOTE ]
The Liberty attack was a war crime
The attack on USS Liberty was itself a war crime. US Navy Commander
Walter Jacobsen, a Navy Legal Officer then doing graduate work at George
Washington University, conducted an extensive legal analysis of the
attack.
His conclusion, reported in the Winter, 1986, Naval Law Review, was that
several aspects of the attack violated provisions of the Geneva
Conventions -- war crimes. Specifically, Commander Jacobsen found that
the attack was not legally justified, that it constituted an act of
aggression under the United Nations Charter, that the use of unmarked
aircraft, the wanton destruction of life rafts in the water, the jamming
of international radio distress frequencies, and the failure of the
torpedo boat commanders to render immediate assistance to a disabled and
helpless enemy were all violations of international law.
[/ QUOTE ]