REMEMBERING THE 1967 ATTACK ON THE USS LIBERTY
©Wendell Griffen, 2023
Each
year US media outlets usually publish something about the Six-Day
War of 1967. Because of that reporting, many Americans believe that the Six-Day
War was begun by Arab nations who were defeated by the Israeli military.
It is not likely that you read, heard, or know that the 1967 Six-Day war was an offensive by the Israeli military against neighboring Arab states. Israel was the aggressor, not the Arab nations. The Israeli offensive resulted in Israel seizing the Golan Heights overlooking Syria, and expanding its military occupation over Palestine (the West Bank).
This year, as in the past, there will be no media coverage or ceremonies marking the June 8, 1967, attack on the USS Liberty by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats. If things go as they have for the past 56 years, there will be little news coverage – if any – about the USS Liberty attack on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, PBS, or any of the other major news outlets.
US news outlets will not remind Americans that on June 8, 1967, unmarked jets from Israel attacked the 455-foot USS Liberty, a surveillance vessel, as the ship’s crew monitored signals communications while stationed in international waters twelve miles off the Egyptian coastline.
Americans will not be reminded that the Israeli jets fired 30 mm aircraft cannon, rockets, and dropped napalm on the USS Liberty during that attack.
Americans will not be reminded that three Israeli torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty with 20 mm cannons, 50-caliber machine guns, and torpedoes. One torpedo blew a 39-foot hole in what had originally been a cargo hold of the vessel, but had been refurbished to provide research facilities for an intelligence team. That torpedo blast killed 25 Americans.
Americans will not be reminded that Israeli torpedo boats fired on firefighters and stretcher-bearers, that Israeli machine gunners strafed fire hoses and destroyed life rafts on the Liberty at close range while survivors were trying to douse fires and evacuate people who had been critically wounded.
Americans will not be reminded that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty killed 34 and wounded 174 members of the 294-person crew, a 70% casualty rate.
Americans will not be reminded that when the US Sixth Fleet launched support aircraft in response to an SOS call from the attacked Liberty for help, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara recalled the rescue aircraft – twice, on direct orders from US President Lyndon Johnson.
Americans will not be reminded that Admiral John S. McCain (senior US naval officer for Europe and the Mediterranean and father of former Senator John McCain) covered up the attack, ordered that the investigation into it be completed in one week – yes, seven days – and that surviving crew members of the USS Liberty were threatened with court martial if they spoke about the attack.
And Americans will not be reminded about the report issued about the USS Liberty attack and coverup on October 22, 2003, known as the Moorer Report, and titled, Findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, The Recall of Military Support Aircraft While the Ship Was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Coverup by the United States Government. The members of that independent commission were:
· Admiral Thomas H.
Moore, US Navy (retired), former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
· General Raymond G.
Davis, US Marine Corps (Medal of Honor recipient), former Assistant Commandant
of the Marine Corps
· Rear Admiral Merlin
Staring, US Navy (retired), former Judge Advocate General of the Navy
· Ambassador James Akins
(retired), former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Their report contained the following findings and calls for action.
We, the undersigned, having undertaken an independent
investigation of Israel's attack on 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, hereby find
the following:
1. That on June 8, 1967, after eight hours of aerial
surveillance, Israel launched a two-hour air and naval attack against USS Liberty,
the world's most sophisticated intelligence ship, inflicting 34 dead and 173
wounded American servicemen (a casualty rate of seventy percent, in a crew of
294);
2. That the Israeli air attack lasted approximately 25 minutes,
during which time unmarked Israeli aircraft dropped napalm canisters on
USS Liberty's bridge, and fired 30mm cannons and rockets into our
ship, causing 821 holes, more than 100 of which were rocket-size; survivors
estimate 30 or more sorties were flown over the ship by a minimum of 12
attacking Israeli planes which were jamming all five American emergency radio
channels;
3. That the torpedo boat attack involved not only the firing of
torpedoes, but the machine-gunning of Liberty's firefighters and
stretcher-bearers as they struggled to save their ship and crew; the Israeli
torpedo boats later returned to machine-gun at close range three of the Liberty's
life rafts that had been lowered into the water by survivors to rescue the most
seriously wounded;
4. That there is compelling evidence that Israel's attack was a
deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew;
evidence of such intent is supported by statements from Secretary of State Dean
Rusk, Undersecretary of State George Ball, former CIA director Richard Helms,
former NSA directors Lieutenant General William Odom, USA (Ret.), Admiral Bobby
Ray Inman, USN (Ret.), and Marshal Carter; former NSA deputy directors Oliver
Kirby and Major General John Morrison, USAF (Ret.); and former Ambassador
Dwight Porter, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon in 1967;
5. That in attacking USS Liberty, Israel committed
acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United
States;
6. That fearing conflict with Israel, the White House
deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of USS Liberty by
recalling Sixth Fleet military rescue support while the ship was under attack;
evidence of the recall of rescue aircraft is supported by statements of Captain
Joe Tully, Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, and Rear
Admiral Lawrence Geis, the Sixth Fleet carrier division commander, at the time
of the attack; never before in American naval history has a rescue mission been
cancelled when an American ship was under attack;
7. That although Liberty was saved from almost
certain destruction through the heroic efforts of the ship's Captain, William
L. McGonagle (MOH), and his brave crew, surviving crewmembers were later
threatened with "court-martial, imprisonment or worse" if they
exposed the truth; and were abandoned by their own government;
8. 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;
9. 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;
10. 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;
11. 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;
12. 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.
WHEREUPON, we, the undersigned, in order to fulfill our duty to
the brave crew of 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 USS 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.
I
invite you to read and download the fourteen-page report from this hyperlink:
file:///C:/Users/wende/Dropbox/PC/Downloads/The_Moorer_Report.pdf
This article from the Foreign Policy Journal was published in 2019 – four years ago – on the 52d anniversary of the Israelis attack on the USS Liberty.
To this date, there has been no official Congressional inquiry about the attack on the USS Liberty and the ensuing coverup.
To this date, there is no official day of remembrance for the personnel who were killed and wounded while serving aboard the USS Liberty.
There has been no detectable condemnation about that attack in US media.
There have been no prophetic voices who denounced the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and the coverup that followed it.
Religious leaders who clamor so much about truth have said nothing about the deceit by US and Israeli leaders surrounding the attack on the USS Liberty.
Journalists and politicians have not commented about the injustice inflicted on survivors of the USS Liberty and their families.
The nonchalant US reaction to the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty should concern people who profess to care about truth, justice, and accountability (moral, political, and otherwise). When that attack is understood within the overall context of US complicity in the injustices Israel inflicted against Palestinians before and since the Six-Day War – and is determined to commit against Palestinians for the foreseeable future – one is struck by the disgusting prophetic silence.
The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a deliberate military operation to prevent the world – including people in the US – from knowing that Israel launched an offensive to disable Arab military aircraft so Israel would have air superiority for an invasion aimed at stealing Arab land on which Palestinians have lived for millennia.
It is a bitter irony that Palestinians may have more empathy than any others and solidarity with the family members of the 34 Americans killed, and the survivors of the 173 Americans wounded by the Israeli attack on the Liberty. Like the family members of the killed Americans and the survivors of the attack, Palestinians have pleaded for decades to be heard by US politicians, journalists, faith leaders, and the general public.
Palestinians, whose land has been taken by Israeli settlers protected by the Israeli government and US perfidy, realized decades ago that US politicians, religious leaders, military leaders, and business leaders are complicit in Zionist racism, militarism, genocide, and disinformation. Now, the family members and surviving veterans from the USS Liberty know the same sense of betrayal that Palestinians experienced long before June 8, 1967.
Like Palestinians, the family members and surviving veterans of the USS Liberty deserve much more from us. They deserve justice. They deserve to be remembered. Their sacrifices deserve to be honored. The dismal future they face and will suffer shows that the cancer of pro-Zionist nationalism, racism, and genocide has spread to the highest levels of US policymaking, religion, journalism, and public discourse.
The family members and surviving veterans of the USS Liberty share a bitter kinship to the Palestinian victims of Israeli settler encroachments into Palestine, Israeli settler attacks on unarmed Palestinians and pillaging of their olive orchards, Israeli displacement and disturbance of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and the ongoing Israeli military strikes on Gaza that kill hundreds of men, women, and children.
Remember the USS Liberty and Palestinians if you want to know the truth about US-Israeli disregard for truth, justice, and peace. There will be a moral, multi-national, painful, and transgenerational reckoning for those cancerous and ongoing injustices.
How long, O God? How long?
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