It was 52 years ago today that Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 American sailors and wounding 174, yet the US government coverup persists.
Two days ago, the US celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day with accolades to the armed forces and thanks to surviving veterans. The country stood strongly with the military. But today two days later is the 52 anniversary of a day of shame when Washington turned its back on the US Navy. It was June 8, 1967 when the USS Liberty, a surveillance ship stationed off the coast of Egypt, was attacked by Israeli fighter aircraft and torpedo boats. The Israelis were unable to sink the Liberty, but managed to kill 34 American sailors and wound 174. Seventy percent of the crew were casualties of the Israeli attack.
The White House, fearing the Israel Lobby, prevented the US Navy from going to the defense of the Liberty, thus sacrificing American lives, and further dishonored the US Navy by ordering Admiral McCain, father of the former US Senator John McCain, to orchestrate a cover-up. The surviving crew were threatened with court-martial and imprisonment if they spoke about the event. It was 20 years before one of the surviving officers wrote a book about the greatest act of shame the US government ever inflicted on the US military.
In 2003, 36 years after the Israeli attack on the Liberty, Admiral Tom Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, convened the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the Liberty was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States Government. The Commission consisted of Adm. Moorer, Gen. Raymond Davis, former Assistant Commandant of the US Marine Corps, Rear Adm. Merlin Staring, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy, and Amb. James Akins, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
You can read the report online, here for example.
The report is devastating. Among the report’s conclusions, these stand out:
“That due to the influence of Israel’s powerful supporters in the United States, the White House deliberately covered up the facts of this attack from the American people;
“That due to continuing pressure by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, this attack remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress; to this day, no surviving crewmember has been permitted to officially and publicly testify about the attack;
“That there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history; the existence of such a cover-up is now supported by statements of Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, USN (Ret.), former Judge Advocate General of the Navy; and Captain Ward Boston, USN, (Ret.), the chief counsel to the Navy’s 1967 Court of Inquiry of Liberty attack;
“That the truth about Israel’s attack and subsequent White House cover-up continues to be officially concealed from the American people to the present day and is a national disgrace;
“That a danger to our national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of any foreign nation, and specifically are unwilling to challenge Israel’s interests when they conflict with American interests; this policy, evidenced by the failure to defend USS Liberty and the subsequent official cover-up of the Israeli attack, endangers the safety of Americans and the security of the United States.”
After interviewing many of the survivors, Captain Ward Boston, who was assigned to cover up the attack and afterward repudiated the cover-up, and Bill Knutson, the executive officer of the USS America fighter squadron that was called back on orders from the White House, and lengthy discussions with Adm. Moorer, my former colleague at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, I have written about the Israeli attack on the Liberty a number of times. Some of them are available in the archive on this website, for example.
All who discount the influence of Israel on the US government are ignorant fools.
Donald Pageler, a USS Liberty survivor of the Six Day War co-wrote the screenplay “USS Liberty LOVE Story” which is published as a FREE Download here:
https://filmfreeway.com/USSLibertyLoveStory
Included in the script are Commander David Ed Lewis, LVA President Ernie Gallo, Marine Sgt. Bryce Lockwood, Don Pageler, and other USS Liberty survivors of The Six Day War excerpted from “We Americans and the USS Liberty”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mahZ2IOXAeo
A tragedy for sure, but a case of mistaken identity by Israeli pilots. The ship was 10 miles from the war zone, unidentified, and presumed by Israel to be Egyptian. After the attack began, attempts to identify the ship continued. At the first sign that Israel learned that the ship was not Egyptian, the attack immediately ended. The first rescue ships to rush to the Liberty were Israeli.
In fact, the ship had been identified by the Israelis as American.
Not mistaken identity. The attack was sustained over a long period, with repeated waves, and came from the sea as well as the air; boats lowered from the ship were strafed in a clear attempt to eliminate survivors. The ship was clearly flying the American flag.
Wow! You are so ignortant or so full of shit. It was clear day, visibility unlimited, US flag prominently displayed. Moreover the attack took place in waves as the criminal regime in Tel Aviv sought to sink the evidence. One Israeli pilot refused to attack or to continue the attack and was sanctioned as is so typical when morally decent people confront evil.
Here is a link to a Haartez article that goes both ways regarding this outrage: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/but-sir-its-an-american-ship-never-mind-hit-her-1.5492908 Since they got off scott free on this one (except for civil damages), there was little inhibition to go to on bigger and better false flag outrages. Although those that claim that the Mossad were behind 9-11 commit an injustice, that time they had lots of help from traitors at all levels in the USGov.
I wonder if this guy is on some kind of Zionist payroll,
This is another situation where it is difficult to make a quick judgement. Why would Israel attack the ship if it thought it was American to begin with? Did it wave an American flag or not? A cover-up though is telling evidence. What were the families told? Mistakes happen-
Spy vessels of this type operating unannounced in a WAR ZONE don’t fly flags.
Why is no one mentioning the AWAC that actually recorded the Israelie pilots identifying the ship as American, but being ordered to attack & sink it?
Israel wanted to move in on another country that the U.S. would not allow, in fear of our extremely distinct ship intercepting mission plans they decided to sink the ship, and continue their mission.
Documents and audio recordings from that day have been discovered that prove that not only did the Israeli air force know is was United States vessels, but that the order to attack US ships was ordered from the highest ranks in the Israeli military. Israel immediately blamed arab forces hoping that the USA would join the way against the arab nations.
Israel attacked us and killed out men during a false flag attack in hopes that they could LIE to us and get us to defend them.
Sure. That totally (doesn’t) explain why the Israeli’s immediately blamed the arab coalition and asked the USA to join the war (in defense of Israel).
The ship was identified as American by the Israeli jet pilots.
https://www.altcensored.com/watch?v=bFcHJzUYE-o
The Attempted Sinking of the USS Liberty (in 1967)
(YouTube Limited/Hidden/Censored THEN Deleted Video)
altCensored.com is an Unbiased Community Catalog of Limited YouTube content – including deleted videos and channels: “we show what they hide”
The area was never declared to be a war zone.
We were flying the American flag at the time the attack began.
At the brief lull between the air and torpedo boat attacks I noticed that the flag flying from our gaff had been shot down so Frank Brown (QM3, KIA) and I hoisted our largest American flag on our number 4 port halyard.
Thank you for the opportunity to clear up your misconception.
With apologies, you are sorely uninformed about the USS Liberty attack and continuing US government coverup of that attack.
I strongly suggest you spend some time reading the documents contained at http://usslibertyveterans.org/files/docs.pdf as well as reading the contents of our blog at http://usslibertyveteransblog.com
Yeah. I’m not buying that. I think the real cover-up wasn’t that the Israelis attacked the ship, but why. If the truth came out about that, then that would open up a huge can of worms for both American and British intelligence. It was a ship designed to monitor the entire war, and relay that information to… our base in Britain. The Israelis didn’t want any information to leak out to their enemies.
You sir are amazing. I can only imagine what that time was like. I had the pleasure of serving with Dave Page aboard the USS Texas (CGN-39) 1983-1986. Occasionally, we could get him to talk about that day if only briefly and only during a mid watch when no zero’s were around. He told us about the torpedo attack, the strafing, the bravery and horror. His facial expressions spoke volumes and ones that I clearly remember all these years later. I can only hope that justice will be served. God Bless you. Dave Willinger CTRC (SW/NAC) ret
I have yet to hear a reason for the attack. Very few people have experienced what the people in Israel have experienced since 1948, (a constant barrage of attack against their very survival) almost on a daily basis, and very few can know for sure what they would do in a similar situation. One where your entire existence as a nation might be just minutes long. Israel was attacked on all four sides; split-second decisions and instantaneous strategy was the constant mode of operation during those days. They didn’t have the luxury of debating or calculating the cause and effect of every action. Israel survived three such wars; they must have done something right and they must have had Someone watching out for them.
With that said; I’m sorry for the loss of American lives in what seems; in hindsight, through the scratched lens of history, a senseless tragedy. But so far the explanations, like this article, leave much unanswered. And we won’t get any closer to the truth until, as with all government cloistered investigations, all the facts are known.
In the official court transcript, one of the officers said the Egyptians had before disguised their ships to look either Russian or American. Just saying, everything during war isn’t like in a movie and follows the script. The Liberty was an NSA spy ship, and like someone below said; Israel’s very survival might depend on stopping leaked intelligence. I don’t know for sure which story is true; I just try and weigh the evidence.
was on the USS J P Kennedy Jr DD850 During the Attack in the Red Sea Are Radiomen heard it as it was happening G Ginapp GMG3
We’re very interested in contacting your RM’s who were listening. Can you put us in touch with them?
Joe Meadors
USS Liberty Survivor
Director of Operations, USS Liberty Veterans Association
https://usslibertyveterans.org
https://usslibertyveterans.blog
Email: joe@ussliberty.com
What “official court transcript” are you talking about? The US Navy Court of Inquiry is the only inquiry following the attack that has accepted testimony from USS Liberty survivors and the report of that inquiry does not include the testimony you claim.
No other US government investigation of the attack includes testimony from USS Liberty simply because the US government has never conducted an investigation of the attack.
But don’t take my word for it, contact your Congressional Delegation and ask them to send you a copy of the Congressional investigation of the attack on the USS Liberty.
https://www.usslibertyveterans.blog/ask-for-copy-of-attack-investigation/
Joe Meadors
USS Liberty Survivor
Email: joe@ussliberty.com
Your stupidity is unbelievable. The israelis have admitted they knew the Liberty was American.
The evidence, which is utterly irrefutable to any thinking person, is that israyhell attacked a U.S. ship, knowing what it was. It then went on to commit war crimes { machine gunning life boats}.