I went looking for information on the USS Liberty. One of the Americans on the Mavi Marmara was from the USS Liberty. I'd never heard of this business going back to the 1967 Egypt v. Israel war. After I went through some of the material, I realized I did remmeber this incident, very, very dimly. The Israelis attacked a US Navy intelligence ship and said the attack was a case of mistaken identity. Here is an essay on the incident:
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair1126.html
Here is a link to long video of documentary of attack:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7384200507117357203#
One of the interviewed said that it turned out to be a test. If Israel could attack a US Navy vessel without protest or reaction from the US, then Israel could do anything without worrying about reprisal. Another interviewer said, the Israelis didn't want the US to have information on what was going on in the Sinai and Gaza. He said the Israelis were shooting their Egyptian and Palestinian prisoners. Chomski's theory was the attack was motivated by concern the US might detect the plan to take the Golan. Here's a wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident#Ongoing_controversy_and_unresolved_questions
The USS Liberty is an interesting event to think about. It involves the US and Israel in war crimes, cover-ups, intelligence, and high drama with the Russians. The Russians were supporting Egypt and Syria. The US and UK were supporting Israel, although in theory the Israelis were on their own.
The other interesting feature is the controversy over why hit a US ship is still running on with no answer, just more obfuscation and disbutes. So a perfect fog descends.