Why does the US mainstream media continue to participate in the government's cover up of Israel's attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967?
The US downing of an Iranian commercial airliner in 1988, killing 290 civilians, is not the only story that our mainstream media have chosen to forget. In his recent FPJ piece (“The ‘Forgotten’ US Shootdown of Iranian Airline Flight 655”), publisher and editor Jeremy R.Hammond notes that “in the rare instances when the media do mention it, to this day they tend to maintain official US government falsehoods about what occurred and otherwise omit relevant details that would inform Americans about what really happened.”
The same can be said of the media’s treatment of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 174 more. A search of the New York Times archive reveals only two brief entries for the topic “USS Liberty.”
A June 14, 1967 report of an LBJ press conference [six days after the attack] includes the following Q & A:
“Do you have any more facts you can release on the attack on the USS Liberty? A. “No, I think you know about as much about it as we do.”
Another article on June 5, 1982 refers to the attack and Israel’s apology, adding only that some survivors refuse to accept the official explanation of “mistake.”
What could have inspired the virtual press boycott of such a major story involving American casualties?
Believing that the 50th anniversary of the attack deserved appropriate remembrance, I emailed the following letter to editors of the New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian, US on June 5-6:
“To the Editor,
June 8th marks the 50th anniversary of the brazen and deliberate attack by Israel on the USS Liberty, a lightly armed intelligence-gathering ship in international waters off the coast of Egypt.
On that afternoon during the Six Day War in 1967 waves of Israeli jets attacked the Liberty without warning. A subsequent barrage from three torpedo boats nearly sank the ship, while the two attacks killed 34 American sailors and injured 174 others.
According to Paul Craig Roberts of the Institute for Political Economy, who interviewed survivors and government officials, President Lyndon B. Johnson not only aborted an American rescue mission, but also ordered a cover-up of the whole affair. He reportedly said he “wasn’t going to embarrass an ally.”
Notwithstanding the damning conclusions of the Moorer Commission in 2003, no subsequent US administration has dared break an apparent vow of silence.
It’s time to honor both Liberty’s victims and remaining survivors. It’s time to tell the American people what happened on that day and why.”
None of those leading US journals included my letter above in their pages. In a June 27 email to Times Middle East correspondent Ben Hubbard, I noted that the 50th anniversary of the Israeli attacks on the USS Liberty had passed without recognition and “wondered why there was then and continuing to now no coverage by the major media.” I never received a response.
Just as the Hammond piece broke the web of silence around the downing of the Iranian airliner, the regional Cape Cod Times newspaper fearlessly published my letter quoted above. A few days later the CCT included my second letter inviting readers who still regard the attack as an innocent mistake to view the online videos and survivor interviews.
However, the purpose of this article is not to recount details of the attack or the differing interpretations it has generated. Interested readers can find examples of both in the more than a dozen books on the subject available on Amazon and in survivor-narrated videos available on the Internet.
Rather, our purpose is to ask why the mainstream media continues to participate in a continuing official cover-up.
While the New York Times and other American newspapers slept through the Liberty’s 50th anniversary and survivor events, the Israeli journal Haaretz on July11 cited a CIA document, still partly censored, that relates a conversation between an Israeli pilot and the Israeli Defense Force war room prior to the attack. The material language appears in article’s title: “‘But Sir, It’s an American Ship.’ Never Mind, Hit Her! When Israel Attacked USS Liberty.” That Haaretz published this story a week ago shows that the topic remains current fifty years on.
The above cited FPJ article observes that “the lack of mention of the [Iranian shootdown] …illustrates an institutionalized bias in the media.” By failing to report on the Liberty affair and subsequent investigations, the New York Times and other mainstream journals have committed a similar sin of omission.
It is patently obvious now that US mainstream media re controlled by the government. The only free press still available are publications like this one, ConsortiumNews, CounterPunch, to name a few. Unfortunately those are not widely read, or even known of because of the limited financial resources against the huge incomes of the MSM garbage.
There are also those like me who labor in love for FREE because we believe we can END 50 yrs. USA Govt. CoverUp and Obstruction of justice case against the USS Liberty survivors who were ordered to “Shut Up” about their experiences under threat of “court martial or worse.”
Please check out the Screenplay “We Americans and the USS Liberty: A Documentary” at AmazonStudios, it’s only 39 pages [video in process!] READ, vote and comment:
https://studios.amazon.com/projects/164647?ref_tag=fb_share
The same can be said of the media’s treatment of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 174 more. A search of the New York Times archive reveals only two brief entries for the topic “USS Liberty.”
True. And talking about 1967: the MSM obediently regurgitated Israel’s narrative that the 6-day war was “preventive” because Israel was under imminent threat of an attack from Egypt. That is total rubbish (to put it politely), as Jeremy R. Hammond has pointed out: Yitzhak Rabin, who would later become Prime Minister, told the French newspaper Le Monde in 1968, “I do not think Nasser wanted war. Te two divisions which he sent to the Sinai, on May 14, would not have been sufficient to start an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it.”
And former PM Menachem Begin said in a speech in 1982 “The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”
We Americans and the USS Liberty is a grassroots movement dedicated to ending the 50 yr. USA Govt. CoverUp and Obstruction of Justice case against the USS Liberty survivors who were ordered to “Shut Up” about their experiences under threat of “court martial or worse.”
Please check out the Screenplay “We Americans and the USS Liberty: A Documentary” which is PUBLIC at AmazonStudios for anyone to download the 39 pages, READ, vote and comment:
https://studios.amazon.com/projects/164647?ref_tag=fb_share
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ffaab3aa2c0c704f20ac637fba6df1794404a0da2527b6fc9e3d255ff3b9d9d.jpg
PETITION CALLING ON U.S. CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE THE 8 JUNE 1967 ISRAELI ATTACK ON THE USS LIBERTY AND TO PROCLAIM JUNE 8TH AS ‘USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY’
The crew of the USS Liberty is the most decorated crew since World War II and among the most decorated for a single engagement in the entire history of the United States Navy. Virtually unarmed, the American navy ship was attacked by Israeli planes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967 leaving 34 US Sailors and Marines dead and 174 more wounded. Yet, the attack has never received a full investigation, as required by law.
In October of 2003, an Independent Commission of Inquiry convened including Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, United States Navy, (Ret.), Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Raymond G. Davis, United States Marine Corps, (MOH), Former Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps; Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, United States Navy, (Ret.), Former Judge Advocate General of the Navy; and Ambassador James Akins, (Ret.), Former United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
The Independent Commission of Inquiry, having undertaken an independent investigation of Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty, including eyewitness testimony from surviving crewmembers a review of naval and other official records, an examination of official statements by the Israeli and American governments, a study of the conclusions of all previous official inquiries, and a consideration of important new evidence and recent statements from individuals having direct knowledge of the attack or the cover up, concluded that there was compelling evidence that Israel’s attack was deliberate and ‘Israel committed acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States.’
WHEREUPON, we, the undersigned, in order to fulfill our duty to the brave crew of the USS Liberty and to all Americans who are asked to serve in our Armed Forces, hereby call upon the Department of the Navy, the Congress of the United States and the American people to immediately take the following actions:
FIRST: That a new Court of Inquiry be convened by the Department of the Navy, operating with Congressional oversight, to take public testimony from surviving crewmembers; and to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the attack on the USS Liberty, with full cooperation from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the military intelligence services, and to determine Israel’s possible motive in launching said attack on a U.S. naval vessel;
SECOND: That every appropriate committee of the Congress of the United States investigate the actions of the White House and Defense Department that prevented the rescue of the USS Liberty, thereafter threatened her surviving officers and men if they exposed the truth, and covered up the true circumstances of the attack from the American people; and
THIRD: That the eighth day of June of every year be proclaimed to be hereafter known as “USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY, in order to commemorate the Liberty’s heroic crew and to educate the American people of the danger to our national security inherent in any passionate attachment of our elected officials for any foreign nation.”
Sign:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/end-usa-govt-coverup-honor-uss-liberty/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=button
P. Tournay’s book ‘What I saw that day’ gives a detailed account on the assault and it’s cover-up.
I don’t know why the press didn’t cover the anniversary, but the BBC long ago got hold of files on the attack and exposed LBJ’s plot to drop an atomic bomb on Cairo. There may have been American pilots on some of the planes attacking the Liberty as well. we were illegally aiding the Israeli pilots according to the BBC. Because the Intel ship did not sink and transmitted the attack on all wire lines the plane carrying the atomic bomb was called back by the White House. You can discover the true story here; https://youtu.be/kjOH1XMAwZA My feeling is as we have learned the last 100 some days, that the press will always cover up Democratic Party blunders and stupidity. Had LBJ been able to blame Egypt for the attack and drop the bomb Russia would have become involved, the war would not have been over in 6 days. As it is, the Egyptian press still claims the war ended because Israel threatened to bomb their dams. That is why they have never tried again. The story isn’t about Israel, it is about the Democratic Party and LBJ.
But most in the US likely accept the BS lie about a “mistake” when the US Navy shot down a civilian Iranian passenger jet, killing several hundred people
Yes, about that…
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2017/07/03/the-forgotten-us-shootdown-of-iranian-airliner-flight-655%C2%AD/