9 june 2019
Units of the US Sixth Fleet assist the USS Liberty after it was attacked and seriously damaged by the Israeli Air Force off the Sinai Peninsula on June 8, 1967. (US Navy/Public Domain)
by Paul Craig Roberts for The Foreign Policy Journal
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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
by Paul Craig Roberts for The Foreign Policy Journal
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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Craig Roberts
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts attended four of the finest universities, studied under two Nobel Prize-winners in economics, authored 20 peer-reviewed articles in journals of scholarship, and published four academic press peer-reviewed books, including Harvard and Oxford Universities, and seven commercially published books.
His most recent book is The Neoconservative Threat to World Order: Washington’s Perilous War for Hegemony.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts attended four of the finest universities, studied under two Nobel Prize-winners in economics, authored 20 peer-reviewed articles in journals of scholarship, and published four academic press peer-reviewed books, including Harvard and Oxford Universities, and seven commercially published books.
His most recent book is The Neoconservative Threat to World Order: Washington’s Perilous War for Hegemony.
29 july 2018
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Joe Meadors was selected as the delegate from the United States on the final 1,000-mile voyage to Gaza with the 2018 Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
He was on the Al Awda or Return boat that was intercepted by Israeli authorities in international waters on July 29th. The 2018 flotilla took a 75-day voyage from Scandinavia to reach Gaza. https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/news/ports/upcoming-ports Joe was a signalman on the bridge of the USS Liberty during the 1967 Israeli attack on the boat off the coast of Gaza. The Israelis killed 34 U.S. military and wounded 174. Joe and Francis Brown hauled up a second American flag after the steaming colors were shot |
down early in the air attack. That flag can be seen at www.ussliberty.org/g/battleflag.gif. He was on the bridge throughout the Israeli attack and was one of several eyewitnesses to the Israeli machine-gunning of the ship’s life rafts.
Mr. Meadors has been associated with the USS Liberty Veterans Association since it was first founded in 1982 and is a past president of the association.
Joe described the Israeli attack:
“I watched some jets pass us, then turn left after they passed our ship, then they started strafing us. The attack lasted 90 minutes, during which we got a message off to the Sixth Fleet asking for assistance. We learned later that Joe Tully, commanding officer of the USS Saratoga, launched aircraft within minutes of the attack, but he told us later they were recalled before they reached the horizon. We found this out 20 years after the attack.
“The most frustrating thing has been a lack of reaction from the U.S. government. On June 8, 2005, we filed a war crimes report, and they are required to investigate these allegations. They’ve created reports about our mission, but they never did conduct an actual investigation of the attack itself.
“It was an illegal attack. We were on the high seas conducting legal activities. They admitted that they closed the area for military purposes but we tried to find out the boundaries of that area and they wouldn’t tell us.
“The Israelis break international laws with impunity and the U.S. government is not going to hold them accountable, nobody is. There is no doubt that the Israelis were committing piracy on the high seas against the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla and used deadly force against unarmed humanitarians.”
In 2010, Joe was a passenger on the Sfedoni, in the 2010 Gaza FreedomFlotilla. He was in Greece for the 2011 and 2015 Freedom Flotillas. He is from Corpus Christi, Texas.
Follow Al Awda and Freedom on the seahttps://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/
Mr. Meadors has been associated with the USS Liberty Veterans Association since it was first founded in 1982 and is a past president of the association.
Joe described the Israeli attack:
“I watched some jets pass us, then turn left after they passed our ship, then they started strafing us. The attack lasted 90 minutes, during which we got a message off to the Sixth Fleet asking for assistance. We learned later that Joe Tully, commanding officer of the USS Saratoga, launched aircraft within minutes of the attack, but he told us later they were recalled before they reached the horizon. We found this out 20 years after the attack.
“The most frustrating thing has been a lack of reaction from the U.S. government. On June 8, 2005, we filed a war crimes report, and they are required to investigate these allegations. They’ve created reports about our mission, but they never did conduct an actual investigation of the attack itself.
“It was an illegal attack. We were on the high seas conducting legal activities. They admitted that they closed the area for military purposes but we tried to find out the boundaries of that area and they wouldn’t tell us.
“The Israelis break international laws with impunity and the U.S. government is not going to hold them accountable, nobody is. There is no doubt that the Israelis were committing piracy on the high seas against the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla and used deadly force against unarmed humanitarians.”
In 2010, Joe was a passenger on the Sfedoni, in the 2010 Gaza FreedomFlotilla. He was in Greece for the 2011 and 2015 Freedom Flotillas. He is from Corpus Christi, Texas.
Follow Al Awda and Freedom on the seahttps://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/
9 june 2018
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Via If Americans Knew:
While we mourn the latest unarmed demonstrators ruthlessly killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, we also wish to remember others killed by the Israeli military 51 years ago today. On June 8, 1967, Israeli jets and torpedo boats tried to sink the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy technical surveillance ship, with all men aboard. Israel did not succeed in sinking the ship, but did succeed in killing 34 Americans and injuring 175. According to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, “Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government.” The survivors are still awaiting justice. |
Surviving crew members and the families of those killed have called for a complete, honest investigation into the attack, but Israel and its partisans have called them “antisemitic” and worked to suppress their voices.
Further resources, including a poster of the featured photo in this article, can be found here.
Human Interest 06/07/18 Palestinian-American Wins California State Elections
Further resources, including a poster of the featured photo in this article, can be found here.
Human Interest 06/07/18 Palestinian-American Wins California State Elections
8 june 2016
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ON JUNE 8, 1967, while patrolling in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, USS Liberty(AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification by air and naval forces of the state of Israel.
Of a crew of 294 officers and men (including three civilians), the ship suffered thirty four (34) killed in action and one hundred seventy three (173) wounded in action. The ship itself, a Forty Million ($40,000,000) Dollar state of the art signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, was so badly damaged that it never sailed |
on an operational mission again and was sold in 1970 for $101,666.66 as scrap.
At 1400 hours, while approximately about 17 nautical miles off the northern Sinai coast and about 25 nautical miles northwest of El Arish, USS Liberty’s crew observed three surface radar contacts closing with their position at high speed.
A few moments later, the bridge radar crew observed high speed aircraft passing over the surface returns on the same heading. Within a few short moments, and without any warning, Israeli fighter aircraft launched a rocket attack on USS Liberty.
The aircraft made repeated firing passes, attacking USS Liberty with rockets and their internal cannons. After the first flight of fighter aircraft had exhausted their ordnance, subsequent flights of Israeli fighter aircraft continued to prosecute the attack with rockets, cannon fire, and napalm.
During the air attack, USS Liberty’s crew had difficulty contacting Sixth Fleet to request assistance due to intense communications jamming The initial targets on the ship were the command bridge, communications antennas, and the four .50 caliber machine guns, placed on the ship to repel boarders.
After the Israeli fighter aircraft completed their attacks, three Israeli torpedo boats arrived and began a surface attack about 35 minutes after the start of the air attack. The torpedo boats launched a total of five torpedoes, one of which struck the side of USS Liberty, opposite the ship’s research spaces.
Twenty-five Americans, in addition to the nine who had been killed in the earlier air attacks, were killed as a result of this explosion.
At 1400 hours, while approximately about 17 nautical miles off the northern Sinai coast and about 25 nautical miles northwest of El Arish, USS Liberty’s crew observed three surface radar contacts closing with their position at high speed.
A few moments later, the bridge radar crew observed high speed aircraft passing over the surface returns on the same heading. Within a few short moments, and without any warning, Israeli fighter aircraft launched a rocket attack on USS Liberty.
The aircraft made repeated firing passes, attacking USS Liberty with rockets and their internal cannons. After the first flight of fighter aircraft had exhausted their ordnance, subsequent flights of Israeli fighter aircraft continued to prosecute the attack with rockets, cannon fire, and napalm.
During the air attack, USS Liberty’s crew had difficulty contacting Sixth Fleet to request assistance due to intense communications jamming The initial targets on the ship were the command bridge, communications antennas, and the four .50 caliber machine guns, placed on the ship to repel boarders.
After the Israeli fighter aircraft completed their attacks, three Israeli torpedo boats arrived and began a surface attack about 35 minutes after the start of the air attack. The torpedo boats launched a total of five torpedoes, one of which struck the side of USS Liberty, opposite the ship’s research spaces.
Twenty-five Americans, in addition to the nine who had been killed in the earlier air attacks, were killed as a result of this explosion.
19 may 2014
Torpedo damage to Liberty's research compartment (Starboard side)
It has been nearly 50 years since the Israeli military attempted to destroy the American naval vessel USS Liberty on June 8th, 1967.
The Council for the National Interest (CNI) reports that Israeli forces tried to sink the ship with all men aboard, machine gunned stretcher bearers, and shot up life rafts, killing 34 Americans and injuring at least 174.
The captain of the Liberty received the Medal of Honor and, altogether, the officers and crew were awarded two Navy Crosses, 13 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars, nine Navy Commendations, 208 Purple Hearts, 294 Combat Action Ribbons, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Furthermore, according to CNI's statement, another crewman was also a candidate for the Medal of Honor, America’s highest award, but there were too few witnesses left alive to provide the necessary substantiation.
Regardless, American Legion officials have prohibited the crew from holding a booth at the national convention, have refused to publish a paid advertisement in the program by a supporter, in addition to trying to convince the VFW to also prohibit a booth.
The VFW, however, supports the crew and will again have a Liberty booth at its upcoming national convention.
Israeli advocates claim that the attack was a "mistake" and that there have supposedly been "11 US investigations" supporting these claims -- however, the claims have been thoroughly rebutted by numerous authors and the Library of Congress, as well as by relay of an official communication from the US Navy.
Conference call with CNI president Alison Weir with Liberty survivors James Ennes, Joe Meadors and president of the Liberty Veterans Association, Larry Toenjes:
It has been nearly 50 years since the Israeli military attempted to destroy the American naval vessel USS Liberty on June 8th, 1967.
The Council for the National Interest (CNI) reports that Israeli forces tried to sink the ship with all men aboard, machine gunned stretcher bearers, and shot up life rafts, killing 34 Americans and injuring at least 174.
The captain of the Liberty received the Medal of Honor and, altogether, the officers and crew were awarded two Navy Crosses, 13 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars, nine Navy Commendations, 208 Purple Hearts, 294 Combat Action Ribbons, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Furthermore, according to CNI's statement, another crewman was also a candidate for the Medal of Honor, America’s highest award, but there were too few witnesses left alive to provide the necessary substantiation.
Regardless, American Legion officials have prohibited the crew from holding a booth at the national convention, have refused to publish a paid advertisement in the program by a supporter, in addition to trying to convince the VFW to also prohibit a booth.
The VFW, however, supports the crew and will again have a Liberty booth at its upcoming national convention.
Israeli advocates claim that the attack was a "mistake" and that there have supposedly been "11 US investigations" supporting these claims -- however, the claims have been thoroughly rebutted by numerous authors and the Library of Congress, as well as by relay of an official communication from the US Navy.
Conference call with CNI president Alison Weir with Liberty survivors James Ennes, Joe Meadors and president of the Liberty Veterans Association, Larry Toenjes:
CNI reports, furthermore, that the crew has the legal right to a thorough investigation of the attack.
For thoroughly cited information on this topic, please refer to http://honorlibertyvets.org/.
Executive Director of CNI, Philip Giraldi, is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Alison Weir is an American journalist, founder and executive director of If Americans Knew (IAK) and president of the Council for the National Interest.
Alison's article at Honor Liberty Vets: Aid and Comfort to the Enemy: American Legion Honchos Betray Liberty Veterans
For an extensive public analysis on the "US-Israeli Special Relationship", conducted by CNI this year, including further citing on the USS Liberty incident, follow related link
For thoroughly cited information on this topic, please refer to http://honorlibertyvets.org/.
Executive Director of CNI, Philip Giraldi, is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Alison Weir is an American journalist, founder and executive director of If Americans Knew (IAK) and president of the Council for the National Interest.
Alison's article at Honor Liberty Vets: Aid and Comfort to the Enemy: American Legion Honchos Betray Liberty Veterans
For an extensive public analysis on the "US-Israeli Special Relationship", conducted by CNI this year, including further citing on the USS Liberty incident, follow related link
