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- Feb 6, 2010
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DoD Offers 'Error' Headline for Disputed AttackA Pentagon display honoring the sacrifices of civilian employees includes a newspaper headline referring to the 1967 Israeli attack on a U.S. Navy ship as an error, though the U.S. never officially accepted the Israeli claim it was a mistake.
Thirty-one Sailors, two Marines and a civilian analyst died when Israeli air and naval forces strafed, napalmed and torpedoed the USS Liberty on the afternoon of June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War. The attack remains controversial because of the failure of U.S. forces to defend the ship and the reluctance of a succession of administrations and congresses to investigate it.
A Pentagon spokesman says there are no plans to remove or change the reproduced New York Times headline of June 9, 1967, which reads: Israel, in error, attacks Navy ship. Lt. Col. Robert Ditchey II said the display, which includes 15 reproduced newspaper headlines from different eras, is intended to honor career civil servants who died in the line of duty over the last two centuries.
There is absolutely nothing in this display that should be misconstrued as a political statement, Ditchey said in an email.
But Liberty survivors and their supporters argue that the error narrative is itself political.
For public purposes, the U.S. accepted Israels account in the interest of maintaining relations and, more importantly for [President] Johnson, not inflaming Israels domestic supporters at a time, said James Scott, son of a Liberty survivor and author of Attack on the Liberty.