In remembering the dead of 911 also remember the dead killed by Israel June 8, 1967: The USS Liberty was an American intelligence gathering ship. On June 8, 1967, during the fourth day of the third Arab-Israeli War, the Liberty was steaming in international waters in the Mediterranean, 60 miles off the coast of Egypt. It flew the American flag. It had clear, English markings on its hull (GTR-5). It was a bright, sunny day that posed no visibility problems. At 2 p.m., the ship is attacked by air and sea. Out of a crew of 294 officers and men, 34 are killed, 73 are wounded, and the ship sustains $40 million in damages. The ship never sailed again. It was sold as scrap in 1970 for $102,000.
Israel claimed it made a mistake. The Johnson administration officially took Israel at its words, although Dean Rusk, secretary of state at the time, said the attack was "quite literally incomprehensible" given repeated Israeli reconnaissance flights before the attack and said that "at a minimum, the attack must be condemned as an act of military recklessness reflecting wanton disregard for human life." Rusk's words were unheeded, and the USS Liberty's surviving crew members forbidden from discussing the attack publicly. Subsequent research undermines Israeli claims that the attack was an accident. A reconnaissance flights by the Israeli air force at 6 a.m. that morning reported seeing "a US Navy cargo type ship" outside Israeli radar range. "Throughout the remainder of the day prior to the attack," a detailed, well-documented 2005 report to the Secretary of the U.S. Army by Report is filed by the USS Liberty Veterans Association noted, "Israeli reconnaissance aircraft regularly flew out to USS Liberty's position and orbited the ship before returning to their bases in Israel. A total of no fewer than eight such flights were made."
