" ... However, this was not the case for the 34 American sailors who lost their lives and the 171 injured when their leaders surrendered them on an Israeli altar on June 8, 1967. The sailors were navigating international waters onboard the USS Liberty, a Navy technical research (eavesdropping) ship, when it came under a two-hour attack from Israeli jets and navy boats. The ship’s defences were first pacified by aircraft cannons, rockets and US-made napalm before Israeli torpedo boats moved in for the kill. Israeli spin was swallowed up by the receptive US media, with a story that the ship was mistaken for an out-of-service Egyptian ship El Quseir. American officials accepted the Israeli tale, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. A US National Security Agency report discredited the Israeli claim by pointing out that the Egyptian ship “was approximately one-quarter of the Liberty’s tonnage, about one-half its length and offered a radically different silhouette” ... "
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:06:23 +0000