"Sink the QE 2"

It sounded like a farfetched sequel to The Poseidon Adventure: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat asserted last week that Britain's newest and most luxurious passenger liner, the" Queen Elizabeth 2, was nearly torpedoed by an Egyptian submarine as the liner plowed through the Mediterranean with 590 Jewish passengers going to Israel's 25th anniversary celebrations in April 1973. Only his own intervention, Sadat said during an interview telecast over the BBC in London, aborted the attack.

Sadat said that "one of the Arab leaders"--by general agreement among Middle East specialists that could be Sadat's acerbic critic, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya--"had the idea to torpedo the QE2. He tried to use one of my submarines and had issued the order already."

The sub was at sea when Sadat learned what was going on and ordered its captain to return to his base at Alexandria.

Sadat declined to explain how another Arab leader could issue orders to an Egyptian sub. Such an attack probably would have failed anyway, since both British and Israeli air and naval units were screening the liner against possible attack.

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