On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the intelligence ship USS Liberty was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armoured forces were racing deep into the Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army. Liberty, a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennae and electronic "ears" including TRSSCOMM, which delivered real time interecepts to Washington. It was to monitor communications of the belligerents in the third Arab-Israeli war: Israel and her foes, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. BrassCheckTV: If Americans knew... [Video]
