“Every country of note spies on every other country of importance.”
Exactly.
It’s what the USS Liberty was likely doing in June of 1967 when it was attacked by the IDF.
Maybe. It could have been a case of mistaken identity as stated by Israel. I don’t know much about it to be honest. Seems to me that such an attack would have been overkill for spying. If it was intentional, probably part of the fog of war and a disconnect b/w military action and leadership.
Sounds extremely reasonable but the biz is a treacherous one and to every one of the crewmembers that WAS the mission.
Yet the real mission, known only to one but probably to zero was much stranger:
THE MISSION WAS TO GO OUT THERE AND TO BE SUNK.