The State Department has asked for information concerning Paris reports that Israeli air-force deserters have told American intelligence agents that a number of Americans are serving as pilots on a supply route from Russia to Israel over which considerable quantities of war material have reportedly gone to the Israeli fighting forces.
State Department press officer Michael J. McDermott said today that the Department had absolutely no information on the reports, carried in a United Press story from the French capital, but had asked for the facts in the case “from Paris and from any place we can get it.” He said he did not think the report would come in before Sunday or Monday.
McDermott refused to discuss what possible penalties Americans engaged in such an endeavor would face if the stories are true. That, he said, would have to be determined by the Attorney General. He declined to say whether the embargo which the United States placed on shipments of arms to Middies Eastern countries would have any bearing in such a case.
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