In June 1967, in international waters, an American ship, the USS Liberty, came under attack by airplanes and torpedo boats from the state of Israel.

In an attack lasting more than two hours, the intelligence gathering ship was bombed, rocketed, strafed, napalmed and torpedoed. As valiant crewmen fought the flames and rushing sea water, their life rafts and lifeboats were deliberately destroyed by Israeli gunfire. On that day, 34 Americans were killed, and 171 were wounded.

But that's only the opening page of a mystery that reads like a Tom Clancy novel when you follow the events.

When the survivors of the Liberty finished their service in the Navy and were thus free to talk, they became targets of a campaign of vilification and have been called drunks, anti-Semites, and incompetents.