Remembering the U.S.S. Liberty
No justice 59 years later
by Donald Jeffries
On June 8, 1967, the U.S.S. Liberty was attacked in the eastern Mediterranean, by Israeli military forces. The ship was in international waters, her nationality clearly marked. And yet our “greatest ally” struck it with enough force to kill 34 Liberty crew members and wound 173. The incident didn’t have any effect on U.S.-Israeli relations.
In fact, the subject could not be openly discussed in this country for decades. Less than fours years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy- the only president who has ever challenged Zionism- the attack on the Liberty was quickly forgotten by the mainstream media and politicians of both parties. In 2003, retired Navy Capt. Ward Boston, an attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the Liberty incident, made a shocking allegation. Boston charged that President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara, had ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident. His sworn affidavit was released at a Capitol Hill news conference. Boston charged that Johnson and McNamara instructed those heading the inquiry to “conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” Boston said he’d maintained his silence for 36 years because as an officer, “when orders come...I follow them.”
The attack on the Liberty was buried for a very long time. I only learned about it by reading stories in the Spotlight weekly newspaper, where survivors were also interviewed, which appeared in the 1980s and 1990s. The Spotlight, and it parent company Liberty Lobby were smeared as “anti-Semitic.” At some point, things opened up to where the topic could be discussed without fear of immediate “cancellation.” My late friend Joan Mellen, also a JFK assassination researcher and proudly Jewish, even wrote a critical book about it. As with JFK, 9/11 and other important issues, it is the citizen researcher/journalist who has stepped into the void created by the absence of a truly free press. These are the heroes we should recognize, for their dogged determination in filing endless FOIA requests, in talking to the witnesses professional “journalists” won’t. The ones who are still alive, that is. And haven’t been scared into hiding. I know firsthand how difficult it is to get some of them to talk.
Fortunately, the men who survived the attack on the Liberty are willing to talk. And we are the only ones listening to them. Thanks to the work of these unheralded citizen journalists, the subject is no longer forbidden in polite society. But there were voices from the beginning which boldly disagreed with the narrative that the attack had been accidental. In August 1967, after the conclusion of the Navy Court of Inquiry, the American Legion had adopted Resolution 508 (rescinded in 1984 without being first reviewed) charging that the published report of the Navy Court of Inquiry “fails to provide the American public with a satisfactory answer as to the reason for the attack” and stating that “The American Legion denounces and condemns Israel’s irresponsible attack” and demanding “a complete and thorough investigation of the incident.” Gurney Williams III would write in the July, 1997 issue of The American Legion Magazine (“Death Strikes the Liberty“, that Congress has never investigated the Israeli attack on the Liberty. By 1967, both U.S. political parties were already dominated by Zionists.
The American Legion went on to approve a resolution in 2017, which called upon “the 115th United States Congress to publicly, impartially, and thoroughly investigate the attack on the USS Liberty and its aftermath and to commence its investigation before the end of 2017, the 50th anniversary year of the attack.” The American Legion wasn’t alone. Former Director of the NSA (1965-1969) Lieutenant General Marshall S. Carter, in a 1988 NSA interview, recalled how he had stated at a Congressional hearing in 1967 that the attack on the Liberty “couldn’t be anything else but deliberate. There’s just no way you could have a series of circumstances that would justify it being an accident.” In 2013, the Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted Resolution 423 calling “upon Congress to immediately investigate the attack on the USS Liberty by the armed forces of Israel on June 8, 1967, in order to determine the truth behind the attack, and to bring closure to the families and crew.”
The military itself recognized the heroic efforts of military personnel during and after the Israeli attack on the Liberty. Liberty crew members were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, 2 Navy Crosses, 12 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars, more than 200 Purple Hearts, and the ship’s captain, Navy Commander William. L. McGonagle, was awarded the Medal of Honor. But the June 28, 1967 public summary of proceedings of the Navy Court of Inquiry would still report, “It was not the responsibility of the Court to rule on the culpability of the attackers and no evidence was heard from the attacking nation.” Israel was just as uncooperative and belligerent then as they are now. CIA information reports from June and October, 1967 quoted sources in Tel Aviv as saying “Israel’s forces knew exactly what flag the LIBERTY was flying” and that Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan “personally ordered the attack” on the Liberty over the objections of senior uniformed military personnel, one of whom characterized the attack as “pure murder.” CIA Director Richard Helms stated, in a 1984 interview, that “everything possible was done to keep from the American public really the enormity of this attack on an American naval vessel” and “since this is for the Agency’s record, I don’t think there can be any doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing.…any statement to the effect that they didn’t know that it was an American ship .…is nonsense.”
Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Nixon, stated, "Israel attempted to prevent the Liberty's radio operators from sending a call for help by jamming American emergency radio channels. Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned lifeboats at close range that had been lowered to rescue the most-seriously wounded." He went on to ask whether "our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own? If so, Why? Does our government continue to subordinate American interests to Israeli interests?" In a 1983 interview, Moorer said, "I've never seen a President – I don't care who he is – stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles your mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens don't have any idea what goes on."
Moorer stated, in 1991, “To suggest that they couldn't identify the ship is…ridiculous… Anybody who could not identify the Liberty could not tell the difference between the White House and the Washington Monument...I think Congress should investigate the incident, even now.” Moorer reiterated in 1997: "Israel knew perfectly well that the ship was American.” Moorer personally intervened to reverse a U.S. Naval Academy decision to not include the names of two Liberty crew members who were killed in action on a memorial wall at Bancroft Hall. "I intervened and was able to reverse the apparent idea that dying in a cowardly, one-sided attack by a supposed ally is somehow not the same as being killed by an avowed enemy.” Moorer said. President George W. Bush failed to attend a 1991 White House ceremony to celebrate Liberty survivors in a rare but unsurprising breach of protocol. Moorer would lead the 2003 Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on the USS Liberty.
In 2017, Liberty survivor Bryce Lockwood met personally with President Trump. He informed him of the nature of the attack and how it had never been properly investigated. There are no records of public comments from Trump about the attack on the Liberty, but given his subservience to Israel, it’s impossible to imagine him seeking the truth. He has streets named after him in Israel, after all. In the fall of 2015, a college student questioned presidential son Eric Trump about the Liberty at a TPUSA event, and he dodged it entirely, managing to segue into criticizing Iran. According to Thomas Moorer, the survivors were threatened with court martial, life imprisonment, or “worse,” if they ever spoke of the attack. Survivor Ernie Gallo, president of the USS Liberty Veterans’ Association, invited then Rep. Ron DeSantis to the Tomb of the Men of the USS Liberty in 2017, but Naval veteran DeSantis refused to attend. This is hardly surprising, given DeSantis’s track record as a loyal Zionist.
This Monday, June 8, will mark the 20th anniversary of USS Liberty Remembrance Day, held annually in DeLand, Florida. We are Change Florida has been trying to bring awareness to Volusia County, and the rest of the country, about an event that has been covered up at the highest levels of the U.S. government. It is organized jointly by the USS Liberty Veterans Association and the Dr. Bob Bowman Memorial Chapter of We Are Change Central Florida. USS Liberty survivor Dr. Richard Kiepfer has noted, “Never before in the history of the United States Navy has a Navy Board of Inquiry ignored the testimony of American military eyewitnesses and taken, on faith, the word of their attackers.” They would like to make June 8 USS Liberty Remembrance Day. Sure, it’s no Juneteenth, but recognition is certainly warranted. U.S. military personnel don’t volunteer to wind up militarily attacked by a supposed friendly nation. One we give more U.S. taxpayer money to than any other.
A few brave souls have dared to state the truth about this. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III told UPI, in 1980, “Those sailors who were wounded, who were eyewitnesses, have not been heard from by the American public. . . [Their story] leaves no doubt but what this was a premeditated, carefully reconnoitered attack by Israeli aircraft against our ship.” In his 1985 book They Dare to Speak Out, Rep. Paul Findley stated, “Certain facts are clear. The attack was no accident. The Liberty was assaulted in broad daylight by Israeli forces who knew the ship's identity. ...The President of the United States led a cover-up so thorough that years after he left office, the episode was still largely unknown to the public -- and the men who suffered and died have gone largely unhonored."Findley was run out of Congress by the Israeli lobby. His book focused on the power of AIPAC, which just spent $32 million to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie. The Spotlight was bankrupted by the ADL, another foreign, unregistered arm of Israel.
Another U.S. representative whose career was cut short by Zionists was Sen. James Abourezk, who noted, “The shame of the U.S.S. Liberty incident is that our sailors were treated as though they were enemies, rather than the patriots and heroes that they were. There is no other incident--beyond Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty--that shows the power of the Israeli Lobby by being able to silence successive American governments. Allowing the lies told by the Israelis and their minions in the U.S. is disheartening to all of us who are proud of our servicemen." The despicable Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, said, “We saw no need to inform Israel or any other party to the hostilities of the Liberty’s location since the ship was on a peaceful mission and was in international waters. I have seen a report alleging that the Israeli Government has asked us about the presence of the ship prior to the attack, but that report is not true.” This was the man who created the Warren Commission.
This issue also reflects the false nature of the Left-Right paradigm. The few who have spoken out about the Liberty coverup cannot be marginalized as right-wing ideologues. Candace Owens, no longer any kind of conservative, has interviewed a Liberty survivor. Tucker Carlson isn’t afraid to talk about the subject. The fact that any of us have to be hesitant, let alone fear talking about any subject tells us everything we need to know about the state of our “free” country. If we can’t address the fact that a foreign nation attacked and killed U.S. sailors, without our government even acknowledging it, let alone retaliating, what does that say about us? Could you talk about such a thing in Iran? In China? For a long time, you couldn’t talk about the attack on the USS Liberty in this country. We’re talking about it now. It’s crucial to fight Zionism while we still can. Before they illegalize articles like this. Before they put Thought Criminals like us in the FEMA camps.
Also on Monday, June 8, Rep. Thomas Massie will deliver an address on the subject from the floor of Congress, which he has called “an unprovoked attack by Israel.” Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene met with Liberty survivor with Phil Tourney this past April, but there have been precious few public officials willing to broach the subject. Massie is planning to have twenty Liberty survivors on hand for the speech, making it truly historic. Here’s hoping that there isn’t a breach of security. Massie tried to introduce legislation to expose dual citizenship in our government. 75 other nations, including ironically Israel, forbid government officials being dual citizens. Most sources say the number of Israeli dual citizens in our Congress is unknown, but Prepare for Change lists 89 dual citizens who ostensibly “represent” American voters. Predictably, Massie’s Dual Loyalty Disclosure Act went nowhere. He also tried to get AIPAC to register as a foreign agent. The last ones who tried that were JFK and RFK.
The attack on the USS Liberty ultimately becomes lost in a massive, shameful history of similar crimes and coverups. Which the same corrupt officials, and the same kept press, lied and continue to lie about. They desperately seek to lie about all their transgressions, because they know the truth will set the American people free. This issue has never been more relevant, given the total dominance Zionists wield in America 2.0. This is reflected in the present pointless bloodletting in Iran, and the increased demands for some kind of legislation to criminalize criticism of Israel. The survivors of the USS Liberty provide a dark testimonial to our capitulation to another nation. If any other country had launched that attack in 1967, we would have gone to war against them.
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