USS LIBERTY: GOV’T. BETRAYAL & COVER-UP FINALLY EXPOSED
SURVIVING SAILORS BREAK THEIR SILENCE 40 YEARS AFTER ISRAELI ATTACK ON US NAVY SHIP
By Paul Craig Roberts
June 8, 1967 — the fourth day of the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan — was a beautiful day in the Mediterranean. The USS Liberty was in international waters off the coast of Egypt. Israeli aircraft had flown over the USS Liberty in the morning and had reported that the ship was American. The crew, in close proximity to the war zone, was reassured by the presence of Israeli aircraft. But at 2:00 p.m. sailors sunbathing on the deck saw fighter jets coming at them in attack formation. Red flashes from the wings of the fighters were followed by explosions, blood and death. A beautiful afternoon suddenly became a nightmare. Who was attacking the USS Liberty and why? The attack on the Liberty was an attack on America.
The Liberty was an intelligence ship. Its purpose was to monitor Soviet and Arab communications in order to warn both Israel and Washington should the Soviets enter the war on behalf of its Arab allies. The Liberty was armed only with four machineguns to repel boarders. Its request for a destroyer escort had been denied.
The assault on the Liberty is well documented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets using cannon, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all of the US communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was an American ship.
The air attack failed to sink the Liberty. About 30 minutes into the attack three torpedo boats appeared flying the Star of David. The Israeli boats were not on a rescue mission. They attacked the Liberty with cannon, machineguns and torpedoes. One torpedo struck the Liberty mid-ship, instantly killing 25 Americans while flooding the lower decks. The Israeli torpedo boats destroyed the life rafts the Liberty launched when the crew prepared to abandon ship, sending the message there’d be no survivors.
At approximately 3:15 two French-built Israeli helicopters carrying armed Israeli troops appeared over the Liberty. Phil Tourney could see their faces only 50/60 feet away. He gave them the finger. Surviving crewmembers are convinced the Israelis were sent to board and kill all survivors.
The Israeli jets destroyed the Liberty’s communication antennas. While under attack from the jets, crewmembers strung lines that permitted the ship to send a call for help. The USS Saratoga and the USS America launched fighters to drive off the attacking aircraft, but the rescue mission was aborted by direct orders from Washington.
When the Liberty notified the Sixth Fleet it was again under attack, this time from surface ships, the Fleet commander ordered the carriers America and Saratoga to launch fighters to destroy or drive off the attackers. The order was unencrypted and picked up by Israel, which immediately called off its attack. The torpedo boats and the hovering helicopters sped away. Israel quickly notified Washington that it had mistakenly attacked an American ship, and the US fighters were recalled a second time.
The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. Although the expensive state of the art ship was kept afloat by the heroic crew, it later proved unsalvageable and was sold as scrap.
Why didn’t help come?
No explanation has ever been given by the US government for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s orders for the Sixth Fleet to abort the rescue mission. Lt. Commander David Lewis of the Liberty told colleagues that Admiral L. R. Geis, commander of the Sixth Fleet carrier force, told him that when he challenged McNamara’s order to recall the rescue mission, LBJ came on the line and said he didn’t care if the ship sank, he wasn’t going to embarrass an ally. The communications officer handling the transmission has given the same account.
A BBC documentary on the Israeli raid reports confusion about the attacker’s identity almost resulted in a US assault on Egypt. Richard Parker, US political counsel in Cairo, confirms in the BBC documentary he received official communication an American retaliatory attack on Egypt was on its way.
The US government’s official position on the USS Liberty corresponds with Israel’s: The attack was unintentional and a result of Israeli blunders. This is the official position despite the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Assistant Secretary of State Lucius Battle, and a long list of US Navy officers, government officials and Liberty survivors are on record saying the Israeli attack was intentional.
According to Helms, Battle and the minutes of a White House meeting, President Johnson believed the attack was intentional. Helms says LBJ was furious and complained when The New York Times buried the story on page 29, but that Johnson decided he had to publicly accept Israel’s explanation. “The political pressure was too much,” Helms said.
US communications personnel, intelligence analysts and ambassadors report having read US intercepts of Israeli orders to attack the Liberty. In one intercept an Israeli pilot reports that the Liberty is an American ship and asks for a repeat and clarification of his orders to attack an American ship. One Israeli who identified himself as one of the pilots later came to America and met with US Representative Pete McCloskey and Liberty survivors. The pilot said he had refused to participate in the attack when he saw it was an American ship. He was arrested upon returning to base.
The Liberty flew the US flag. The ship’s markings, GTR-5, measured several feet in height on both sides of the bow. On the stern the ship was clearly marked USS LIBERTY. Mistaking the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as Israel claims to have done, was impossible.
Tattered flags show ferocity of the attacks
The Israelis claim the Liberty flew no flag, but two US flags full of holes from the attack exist. When the first flag was shot down, crewmen replaced it with a flag 7 feet by 13 feet. This flag with its battle scars is on display at NSA headquarters at Ft. Mead, Maryland.
Admiral John S. McCain Jr., the father of the current US senator, ordered Admiral Isaac C. Kidd and Captain Ward Boston to hold a court of inquiry and to complete the investigation in only one week. In a signed affidavit Captain Boston said President Johnson ordered a cover-up and that he and Admiral Kidd were prevented from doing a real investigation. Liberty survivors were ordered never to speak to anyone about the event. Their silence was finally broken when Lt. Commander Jim Ennes published his book, Assault on the Liberty.
It is now established fact that the attack on the Liberty was intentional and was covered up by President Johnson and every administration since. There has never been a congressional investigation, nor has the testimony of the majority of survivors ever been officially taken. Moreover, testimony that conflicted with the cover-up was deleted from the official record.
Disgusted by the US government’s official stance discounting the survivors’ reports, Admiral Tom Moorer, retired Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, organized the Moorer Commission to make public the known facts about the attack and cover-up. The Commission consisted of Admiral Moorer, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy Admiral Merlin Staring, Marine Corps General Raymond G. Davis and former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Akins.
The Commission’s Report concluded:
“That there is compelling evidence that Israel’s attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew.
“That fearing conflict with Israel, the White House deliberately prevented the US Navy from coming to the defense of USS Liberty by recalling Sixth Fleet military rescue support while the ship was under attack.
“That surviving crew members were threatened with ‘court-martial, imprisonment or worse’ if they exposed the truth; and [the survivors] were abandoned by their own government.
“That there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history.
“That a danger to our national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of any foreign nation.”
Why did Israel attack the Liberty? Was something super secret going on that is so damaging it must be protected at all cost?
Some experts believe Tel Aviv decided to sink the Liberty because the ship’s surveillance capability would discover Israel’s impending invasion and capture of Syria’s Golan Heights, an action opposed by Washington. Others believe Israel was concerned the Liberty would discover Israel’s massacre of hundreds of Egyptian POWs, a war crime contemporaneous with the attack on the US ship. Still others believe that Israel intended to blame the attack on Egypt in order to bring America into the war. It is known the US was providing Israel with reconnaissance and that there were joint US-Israeli covert operations against the Arabs that Washington was desperate to keep secret.
Survivors with whom I spoke said the attack was the easy part of the experience. The hard part has been living with 40 years of official cover-up and betrayal by the US government. One survivor said that he was asked to leave his Baptist church when he spoke about the Liberty, because the minister and fellow church-goers felt more loyalty to Israel than to a member of the congregation who had served his country. His church’s position was that if our government believed Israel, the survivors should also.
Survivor Phil Tourney said that “being forced to live with a cover-up is like being raped and no one will believe you.”
Survivor Gary Brummett said he “feels like someone who has been locked up for 40 years on a wrongful conviction.” Until the US government acknowledges the truth of the attack, Brummett says the survivors are forced to live with the anger and dismay of being betrayed by the country they served.
Survivor Bryce Lockwood has been angry for 40 years. The torpedo that killed his shipmates, wrecked his ship and damaged his health was made in the USA.
Survivor Ernie Gallo told me he “has been haunted for four decades” by the knowledge that his commander-in-chief recalled the US fighters that could have prevented most of the Liberty’s casualties.
Every American should be troubled by the fact that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense prevented the US Sixth Fleet from protecting a US Navy ship and its 294-man crew from foreign attack. They should also be troubled that the President ordered the Navy to determine the attack was unintentional.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal and co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
This article is based entirely on documented sources and on interviews with six of the survivors, Capt. Ward Boston, and Bill Knutson, the executive officer of the USS America fighter squadron sent on the first aborted rescue mission. The Moorer Commission report is available online at usslibertyinquiry.com. For the BBC documentary on the USS Liberty, Dead in the Water, go to www.whatreallyhappened.com. See also Army War College document. A detailed account showing that the attacking Israeli pilots were aware that the Liberty was an American ship can be found in the October 2, 2007, Chicago Tribune. See New York Times, Sept. 24, 1995 for Israeli massacre of Egyptian POWs. The USS Liberty site is full of information.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:51 am
What sort of a war are we running here? Sometimes you’ve got to burn the village: MY LIA March, 16 1968. The story of William Calley Jr. the person convicted of these murders? The drugs, and prostitutes of the time… I played for the “D’s” left field, and proudly wore the number 8 swinging a 27 ounce bat? Remembering testimony from the Manson trial, Sharon and Roman rented the Patty Duke’s estate. Anyhow, Isreal’s not a Virgin anylonger!
June 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Sources?
References?
Names?
You need to substantiate this with actual proof.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am
As the documents and declassified records from the USS Liberty incident become more available thanks to the Internet and relentless efforts from journalists, historians and folks like Dr. Roberts (author), I hope and pray that the survivors will find peace and that the rest of us will learn an important lesson from history.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Much (and more) of this is already documented in ‘Body of Secrets’ by James Bamford in Chapter 7 - entitled “Blood”. It is truly a chilling read.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:57 am
According to the presentation given at Leicester England, MEP Rogert Helmer has blown the lid off — all of ‘em, every psychopath and but of course this is the standard operating procedure. Man v Man.
Ugly and beyond evil. Long, however, more than worth the watch since it gives us the deep insight that we need.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3664960863576873594&q=common%2Bpurpose&ei=TclcSLbwNaLejQK3kKmpBA
June 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am
This incident has been public knowledge for years. The Israelis have apologized. Yes, they di attack us and try to keep us from seeing what they were doing. But this is OLD NEWS. If you don’t like war then I suggest you rein in your boys in DC who keep voting for more of it.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:09 am
Sicking, I knew about this. Being betrayed by Israel is no surprise, BUT by your own goverment??? it hurts!!!
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
My heartfelt gratitude to you Mr. Flynt and Paul Craig Roberts.
Ever since I learned of this needless tragedy some six years ago my heart has been heavy with inconsolable grief and outrage at the subsequent silence and inadequate attention and explanation regarding this event.It is a disgrace of the highest magnitude and cries out to be brought into public focus and review.
I extend my condolences to the survivors and family members of the attack.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
Is it not time that the American people woke up to the fact that their Government and their Corporate / Banker Puppet masters are the real Terrorists?
Pearl Harbour was no surprise to the then administration who knew it was coming; Bush connived with our War criminal, Tony Blair, to invade Iraq so the attack on the Liberty is just another example that ordinary people are expendable to these corrupt leaders.
It should also be borne in mind that Saddam Hussein was in power thanks to the CIA, moreover, the ingredients for the chemical weapons he used were also supplied by the CIA. Perhaps if they kept their noses out of other people’s affairs, the world would be a safer place.
All across the world, ordinary people are suffering because of the greed and avarice of the leadership, is it not time people took control of their Government and made sure that they remove much of their powers so that they cannot abuse their position of trust?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 am
In what respect is Israel a friend and ally of the US? - with irony. The biggest danger for the US in covering up that act of war against itself is that has encouraged Israel posing as Islamists to even more blatant and violent acts against the US.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:50 am
Great online video here:
The Loss of Liberty - http://www.zenjoomla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=82
June 25th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Everyone knows the attack was deliberate. This is the government that wants to attack Arab countries. This is the government that won’t tell the world that Israel is the one responsible for all the plane bombings blamed on Israel. If everyone knew the truth about Israel anyone in our government supporting Israel would not get reelected. The president kisses Israel’s arse. Its’ really sickening. Most of them in Israle have killed thousands when they ruled Eastern Europe.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:21 am
what happend to your issue with 911 coverup? you replaced it with censorship at colorado schools.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:06 am
What George Washington said in his final address is relevant to this story:
“Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”
The USS Liberty serves as an example. The example will always be there - in time there will be enough patriots to draw a lesson from it.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Common Purpose. It has infiltrated the US via the green movement. You were 100% correct Larry Flynt and in fact to this day you’re still 100% accurate. Washington DC is not a government - it’s a cult of pedophiles. Brought to us by the EU evil empire builders who roped our dumb herd into trampeding right along with a new world order of mad cows’ disease.
Brian Gerrish is bold enough to stand up to all of England, the UK, and say it. Amazing we’ve been in this state of denial or something other than using our brains in a sane, sensible, logical and common sense fashion - too many years of allowing serious criminal mental illness to reign in a terror of psychopathic hell. Common Purpose is a cult running this country as well as quite a number of countries, obviously. However, the cat is out of the bag and now things are getting very interesting. Dmitry Medvedev and Jose Manuel Barroso just met, and Russia has made it very clear, once again to the EU, that the one world government of sickos is not creating a uni-polar world. The coverage can be found in the eastern news, certainly not here in this globalized America that pretends to be - however, a tragic third-world colony is our mirror reflection.
Best demand our country return its dignity of the Magna Carta, 1215. Reject the Israeli model for a police state and the insatiable lust to return to the time frame of 1214, by mass murdering, serial killing, criminally insane human cannibals who label their cannibalistic behavior as elite, globalization, and other fancy titles such as a common purpose to save the planet. In essence the parasite has convinced the host that the host is the problem of the parasite, and not the other way around. It is not a new phenomenon. Problem is, we should be smarter.
It’s this simple and every government subject in the US is committing treason, sedition and it’s by and through the subversion of the green movement mandated through the royal cultist of pedophiles in England, the EU dictatorship and but of course the lineages long attached here in the US to that same psychopathic mind set.
Subversion to the US Constitution and each State Constitution - study Brian Gerrish.