USS Liberty
 

I would like to enlist the aid of other vets on this board to help seek justice for the survivors of the attack on USS Liberty. For those of you who are not aware of the facts, USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli air and naval forces on June 8, 1967.

Israeli aircraft first spotted and identified Liberty shortly after dawn on the day of the attack. From that first contact until the attack eight hours later, seven more flights of Israeli reconnaissance aircraft flew out to Liberty?s position and orbited her position at regular intervals. While the actual limits of the Israeli costal radar net are not know, it is a safe assumption that Liberty was well inside it by mid-morning.

At all times, USS Liberty remained well out in international waters. From approximately 0900 until the attack five hours later, the ship?s speed was set for five knots, barely sufficient to make way against the tide and current.

Shortly before 1400 (local time), Liberty was approximately 16 NM from the position where she had been initially identified eight hours earlier. The ship was securing from a general quarters drill when the officer of the deck saw fast moving radar returns coming straight at the ship. This was followed shortly by another set of returns. These radar contacts were the Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats on their way to attack the ship.

A few minutes later, the aircraft launched their rocket and cannon attack on the ship. After the attack, surviving crewmembers counted the holes in the ship. The found that there were 861 holes that were the size of a man?s hand or larger. They did not include what they described as ?thousands? of .50 caliber machine gun holes in the ship.

The crew attempted to call for help, but they were unable to do so at first due to damage to the radios and antennas. About six minutes into the attack, Liberty was finally able to send a distress call. After the equipment was repaired, the crew found that their communications frequencies were being jammed.

The closest help was USS America and USS Saratoga, both about forty-five minutes flying time away. Saratoga immediately launched aircraft to defend Liberty. Unfortunately, Washington ordered these aircraft recalled.

About twenty or twenty five minutes after the attack began, the air attacks ceased. Israeli torpedo boats were then seen approaching the ship. At a distance of about 2,000 yards, they launched five torpedoes, four of which missed. The fifth struck the ship on the starboard side, just forward of the superstructure.

As a result of these attacks, our of a crew of 290, 34 Americans were killed and another 172 were wounded (a casualty rate of 70%).

After the torpedo struck the ship, the three torpedo boats began to strafe the ship with 20 and 40 mm cannon fire and .50 caliber machine gun fire. Subsequent forensic analysis established that the torpedo boats came as close as between twenty and thirty feet from the side of the ship. This aspect of the attack continued for more than half an hour.

During this final phase of the attack, the Israeli torpedo boat crews swept Liberty?s deck with unremitting fire. They shot at anyone who came out to rescue wounded shipmates, as well as the damage control parties. Several firefighters reported that their fire hoses became ineffective because the lost pressure due to all of the machine gun holes in the hoses. Liberty crewmen reported seeing the Israeli torpedo boat crews shooting the life rafts that had been put over the side in preparation to abandon ship.

Finally, the attack was broken off. The Israeli torpedo boat crews claimed that they suddenly realized that the ship was American. They then asked if Liberty required assistance ? a request the captain refused with a one fingered gesture.

Even before rescuers arrived at Liberty?s position, the Navy ordered a court of inquiry. One week later, the court of inquiry delivered its final report. To say that there were irregularities with the court?s report is putting it mildly. The court?s own JAG officer has since given a sworn statement, attesting to the fact that recorded testimony was altered and certain evidence had gone missing. In his statement, this same officer affirms, under oath, that the president of the court told him that when he took the court record to Washington, it was ordered rewritten and he was ordered to keep everyone quiet.

There has never been a formal US government investigation of the attack that has dealt with responsibility and culpability. Israeli collaborators in this county like to repeat the big lie that there have been ?ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations).? This is a demonstrable lie repeated by so-called Americans who have given their allegiance to the Israeli cause. These people refuse to deal with the facts of the case, insisting on repeating the big lie about the purported investigations instead. Even though it has been shown conclusively that no such investigations were undertaken, the Israeli collaborators continue to assert the same lie.

The surviving members of the Liberty crew have fought for years to have Congress undertake an investigation. Those who owe their primary allegiance to Israel have brought all possible pressure to bear on Congress to leave this issue alone. As such, it remains the only attack on a United States Navy ship with significant loss of life that has never been investigated by Congress.

The Israeli collaborators vigorously defend the Israeli explanation that this hour and a half long, combined air and sea attack was just an ?innocent mistake.? When defending their position, their primary tactic is to accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being an anti-Semite. Their next line of defense is to nitpick. For example, rather than dealing with all of the holes in the ship, they will try to focus the debate on whether there were 821 or 861 large holes.

If you agree that this injustice needs to be remedied, please make common cause with the Liberty survivors to insist on an honest Congressional investigation.

For more information, please see the web sites found at:

http://ussliberty.org

http://www.usslibertyinquiry.com/

http://www.usslibertyinquiry.com/

http://www.logogo.net/00opening.htm

http://home.cfl.rr.com/gidusko/liberty/

http://www.geocities.com/countdownlist/USSLiberty.html

Sir, Just what is it that you would like us to do? I too have been outraged by this act of war by Israel.
I don't ever expect Israel to admit to killing shipmates and then trying to cover it up. Our Government is to blame as well, kneeling to Israel and not fully seeking justice.
Israel can do pretty much what ever the hell it feels like doing. When the Germans built a wall the world screamed, when Israel built a wall it was overlooked by the world.
The weak kneed in our Government will continue to support and arm Israel.
I'm not a fan of Israel, they stepped on to the sands of Lebanon and left us holding the bag. No, to many good man died for nothing in that rotting shit pit of sand, I'll not soon forget.

It seems to be commonplace for the U.S. government to quell such incidents. The government has no problem sending the military wherever it sees fit. After all is done the military is covered up. We stand to protect our own from the acts of war and establish peace, but where is the protection when the smoke clears? The military gets the proverbial "pat on the back" and a handshake "job well done boys, now be on your way."

The fact that the U.S. has such a vested interest in Israel, will shadow any wrongdoings of both parties. (Isreal and U.S.) One hand seems to have washed the other but not in return.

Here's a site that might light your fire. Talk about vested interest!
http://www.thepaper.org.au/issues/02...on_us_aid.html

What kind of help do you need?

Steve

I noticed in some of the accounts that survivors said the American flag was easily seen flying on the ship. Of course the incident was excused due to misidentification but in the pictures taken the next day the American flag is clearly visible.

You can help by keeping the issue alive. Talk to your friends and co-workers. Write to your senators and congressmen. Let people know that this isn't going to go away until there is a full accounting. There is a good chance that nothing will come of any of this, but at least we can say that we tried.

Your comments are great. I havent see this amount of support in years. As a Survivor of the Liberty , I would ask if you would not forget us. We need to have this investigated even in this late date. My fellow shipmates died in vain. For no reason, Israel gor away with Murder. Please take time to ask your elected officicals in DC to repoen the case . There are plenty of us still alive and willing to tell the world what reall happened June 8 1967 1400 hrs. Thanks you .

What I find most distressing about the whole incident is the duplicity of the US government -- particularly the US Navy -- in the cover-up.

Testimony regarding the deliberate machine gunning of USS Liberty's life rafts in the water has been removed from the US Navy Court of Inquiry Report prior to its being released to the public.

And the legal advisor to the US Navy Court of Inquiry signed a deposition stating that the findings of the Court were predetermined.

What all need to remember is -- this can happen again. This can happen to you. This can happen to your kids.

Did it not already with the USS Stump, USS Cole?

This can happen to anyone at any time. Friendly fire KIA's have been a little too frequent and are very unfortunate. You know the old motto bad data in bad data out.

I feel more of this will result because of the high tech issues. Poor training and poor management can lead to these types of actions. Rogue personnel are alway present not counting those with frontal lobe disorder's, manic depressants and those who are out just for revenge.

The loss of any soldier, sailor or airmen are tragic in any case. Let's hope we can learn from these mistakes and reduce these types of occurrences.

Friendly fire? NOT!
 

The heinous attack of the USS Liberty was NOT an incident of friendly fire, but a deliberate and unprovoked assault on one of our ships. I can't with certainty state the reason for the Isrealis attack, but I'm sure it had to do with us not finding out what they were doing vs. what they were telling us they were doing. They had been caught in another lie, with their reported troop disposition in the Sinai, and when confronted with satellite imagery that proved their lie, they changed their tune.

Too much has been covered up, for too long, and the real, true story needs to get out. If the truth burns the Israelis, so be it; if certain US Navy and other US governmental people get scalded, so be it. We the people have been fed too many lies, too many 'Commission' reports, and too much spin that the time has come for honesty to prevail. We are great enough as a people, to handle the truth, if we were honestly told what happened in Dallas, 1963, for example. Even before this unwarranted attack on the USS Liberty, I've felt that the Israelis had been using us, and their attitude hasn't changed to this day.

One way to get this back on the front burner is to have Bill O'Reilly take a stand on it; his urging for reform helped turn the heat on the American Red Cross during the 9-11 fund brouhaha, and favorable results happened.

When I first started treatment for PTSD in 1987, there was a crew member from the Liberty in our group. Never knew about the incident until he told us about it.

Darrel does NOT support Israel to this day due to this incident.

An advantage/disadvantage of being a "lifer" is that you hear about things when they happen and then, as the real story and rumors get passed through the military community, you learn more than you can ever talk about. He won't talk to me about it to this day.

Joy

One "conspiracy theory" I read about the Liberty was that we (the US government) struck a deal with the Israelis to sink the Liberty, then blame the whole thing on the Egyptians so we could actively go to war in support of Israel against the Arab states mustered against it. Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and politicians (or should I say, mice and rats) often go astray, and the Liberty was just too tough to die, thereby thwarting those plans. Personally, I wouldn't put it past LBJ and "Mad Mac" MacNamara to try to pull off something like that.

Boats,

I have to take issue with the characterization of the murderous attack on USS Liberty as "friendly fire." The Israelis had been sending out aircraft to look her over all day. They knew who she was and what she was. The excuses they later offered are so absurd as to be an insult to the intelligence of anyone reading them.

To put this into better perspective, imagine the following hypothetical situation:

A man lives in a neighborhood where he feels that all of his neighbors hate him. He is currently engaged in a highly acrimonious dispute over the boundaries of his land. The dispute has gotten to the point where the neighbors shoot at one another. Not everyone in the neighborhood is involved in this dispute, however. It is limited to just four or five landowners.

First Variation:

One evening, after going to bed, the man hears what he believes to be someone breaking into his house. He gets his gun and goes downstairs to investigate. Just as he arrives downstairs, he sees someone crawling in through his front window. The man shoots the person coming through the window. Later, it turns out that he shot his own son who, having forgotten his house key, was trying to enter the house without waking his father.

This is what we call ?friendly fire.?

Second Variation:

One morning, the same man looks out his window and sees a woman pushing a baby carriage in the public park across the street from his house. She doesn?t appear to be in a hurry and she loiters most of the morning in the park with her child. The man regularly looks out his window and sees her in the park.

The man?s son reports that the neighbors may or may not be shooting at part of his property. There have been similar reports in the past and all have been false. Nonetheless, the man decides to take action. He takes two handguns and a rifle and walks across the street to the park. There, without warning, he begins shooting at the woman and her child. Fortunately he is a bad shot. This first attack only wounds the mother and the child. Because of her wound, the woman cannot get away from the park.

Out of ammunition, the man goes back to his house and sends his son to finish her off.. The son proceeds to the park and begins shooting at the woman and her child. This time the son gets as close as a few feet away from the woman and her baby. His is able to kill the baby and wound the woman to the point where it looks as though she will not survive.

In the distance, he hears police sirens. He returns to his house and his father calls 911 to report that he and the son accidentally shot someone. When the police arrive, they ask the man what happened and he tells them that it was a tragic accident. He assures them that he will investigate himself and let them know the results. They accept his explanation and leave. Later, the police visit the woman in the hospital and admonish her not to speak out about the attack, ever, or she will face criminal prosecution.

The man completes his self-investigation and concludes that he has done nothing wrong. He specifically finds that he was not criminally negligent and that the whole thing was an excusable, tragic accident ? an understandable instance of friendly fire. He finds that he believed that someone was shooting at his property from the park and he mistook the woman with the baby for a group of gang members. He further finds that the woman and her baby are at least equally at fault for being in the area, even though they remained at all times in a public park.

The District Attorney convenes a board to investigate the shootings. He allows some of the witnesses to appear, but disallow most of the eyewitnesses. As to those witnesses who are allowed to testify, the board limits their testimony to issues concerning what the woman did to defend herself, but the board does not allow the witnesses to testify at all about the attackers. Not all of the potential evidence is even available yet, but the board very quickly concludes that ?on the basis of the available evidence? the attack was a tragic accident.

This is what Israel calls "friendly fire."

Friends & Fellow Patriots...
 

First and foremost, and not meaning to come on too whoussey, I'm sure that most all Americans feel great sorrow for the deadly tragedy of The USS Liberty,...as no doubt feeling sorry for any American Servicemens' (women also) lives cut short before their time or wounded. Doesn't matter whether caused by: "Friendly Fire", "The Cloud of War" or hostile enemy action.

Regardless, and when it comes to that: "Cover Up" business, the best I can do is wish everyone Good Luck. After all, if ironically The Most Open Nation on Earth (re. America) has sealed all THE REAL RECORDS of The JFK Assassination FOR 75 YEARS from The American People,...I don't all of a sudden see The U.S. Government being all that open or spilling-the-beans (ALL OF THEM) about The USS Liberty attack. That's just not in the cards.

Still, truly makes one wonder just-whom-the-hell are protecting whom or what,...regarding both JFK and The USS Liberty?
Whatever(?) or whomever(?), one thing is for certain in both cases,...NO ONE seems intent on being very open with The American People and/or Survivors, Families and Friends of The USS Liberty (Ironic ship name, considering.) inclusive.

Besides, and in both cases, what can possibly be more hurtful hearing about by: "We The People",...other than the already heard about AMERICAN DEATHS?

Neil :cd: :cd: :cd:

Found this on the web:



Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.

Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.

The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has confirmed this. Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. government had any interest in hearing these first-person accounts.

***

At 2.50 pm (Liberty time), 50 minutes after the first shells tore into the ship and as the attack was still going on, the aircraft carrier USS America, cruising near Crete, launched four armed A-4 Skyhawks. At the same time, the carrier USS Saratoga was also told by Sixth Fleet to send four armed A-1 attack planes to defend the ship. "Sending aircraft to cover you," the Sixth Fleet told the Liberty at 3:05 pm (9.05 am in Washington). "Surface units on the way."

President Johnson ordered that the Sixth Fleet recall its fighters while the Liberty still lay smouldering, sinking, fearful of another attack and with its decks covered with the dead, dying and wounded. On board the flagship of the Sixth Fleet, Rear Admiral Lawrence R Geis, who commanded the carrier force in the Mediterranean, was angry and puzzled at the recall and protested to the secretary of defence, Robert S McNamara.
Geis was shocked by what he heard next. "President Lyndon Johnson came on with a comment that "I will not have our allies embarrassed. I don't give a god damn who gets killed." Geis told Lieutenant Commander David Lewis, head of the NSA group on the Liberty, about the comment but asked him to keep it secret until after Geis died. It was a promise that Lewis kept.

Rigger...
 

I've always considered most politicians (especially phoney or feigning liberalism for acquiring power & control)) the lowest form of troublesome, parasitic and/or accomplish-nothing low-lifes. But, and given this latest revelation about such: "Sanctimonious Civilian Warlords",...I guess it's more than fair calling such scum: "Lower than whale sh-t".

Whatever, such pompously hypocritical politicos don't even seem like ACTUAL Americans?
Are "They"?

Neil :d: :d: :d:

If I may refer you all to our web page, http://www.ussliberty.org

Our web sight is very detailed and give you as much information as we have come up with to this day. The web page also gives you books and videos that have been made about the USS Liberty. Thanks you for you input.

John

John...
 

Check-check. Very interesting site, even though sad that such would even be necessary here in:

"Land of The Free and Home Of The Brave" .

Regardless, and even though: "Swabbies" or "Anchor-Crankers" :D :D (my typical b-bustin and worse for Marines),...I WISH YOU & YOURS WELL (some Final Justice also).

Plus, my salute and "GarryOwen" TO YOU ONE & ALL.

Neil

[The heinous attack of the USS Liberty was NOT an incident of friendly fire, but a deliberate and unprovoked assault on one of our ships] I will agree with that . The ISRALIES are not trusting of any other nation. The navy makes a lot of mistakes they dont guard the noncombat ships at all and ALQUADI know this too. They had better wake up or the terroists will do this to the so called new Navy. :md:

This will give you an idea of what the Liberty survivors have had to put up with. On June 3, 2004 the Jersusalem Post published an interview they did with the lead pilot of the first flight of aircraft to attack Liberty. Here is part of what he had to say:

Just imagine, this murdering sack of shit who attacked a defenseless ship and murdered Americans doesn't want to claim any "compensation" from his victims. What a generous guy!

What is particularly galling is that while the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has its budget cut, year after year, his country sees its US aid package go up every year. We send more money to Israel than we spend on our own vets.

I bookmarked ussliberty.org. Good site. A lot to absorb. This happened about a month before I went to basic. I remember it well. I've always felt the Israelis knew what they were doing. Its a shame.

Bill

I think I'll jump in here.
I was the radioman on the rescue crew the day after the attack.
I'v been following this since 1967 after I and every man on my ship were told to forget we ever heard about the USS Liberty.
The cover up started during the attack and not a short while after.
When I got discharged a month after it happened I was told I couldn't visit any forign counties for 20 years without permission from the Navy as well as being told that I couldn't ever speak to anyone about the action.
Fortunately years later some of the survivors got together and tried to right a wrong by asking for a Congressional investigation.
Thats been stonewalled since before it started.
I personally thank all of you for keeping this going and talk about it as often as you can with your friends,
relatives whatever.
I hope to see justice someday for those men who have been dumped on by our Navy and government for so long.
Thanks,
GerryRM3

For those of us who witnessed the attack, and have been frustrated for years with the lies and stonewalling by our government and the apologists, all we can hope for is to keep the memory alive. As we who know the truth first hand get older, I am sure the apologists are hoping we will eventually die off and the memory of the USS Liberty will die with us.

For those of you who are not familiar with the attack on the USS Liberty by Israel, please go to the USS Liberty home page and read the statements and sworn affidavits by those who, with nothng to gain and no prejudices or "axes to grind", have come forward to tell the truth.

Our hope is that the outrage will live on after we are gone and that people will understand that what they hear from their government and media is not necessarily the truth. This can happen again.

Thanks,

Steve

It is refreshing to see all these supportive remarks from fellow vets.

I was OOD on the bridge for several hours just before the attack and was just relieved as the attacking aircraft approached. I was hit by fragments from the first rockets and spent the next year in the hospital and/or restricted medical status.

I am also author of ASSAULT ON THE LIBERTY, which has sold over 110,000 copies, and am webmaster of www.ussliberty.org which, along with our sister site at www.usslibertyinquiry.com, tells the story.

As most people understand, there is no way this attack could be dismissed as "friendly fire". The Israelis have used that excuse for 37 years, but it doesn't hold water.

They reconnoittered us at low level for at least nine hours before attacking, and were heard during that peirod telling their HQ that we were an American ship. But even more incriminating, American intercept operators heard the Israeli controllers telling the pilots to quickly sink the AMERICAN ship. The pilots positively identified us as AMERICAN, and were told to sink us quickly and get away. They wanted to be out of the area before the Sixth Fleet jets showed up. Sworn affidavits can be found at www.ussliberty.org/smoking.htm.

That in no way could be dismissed as "friendly fire".

The shame is that the press has given it little attention, and the Congress has given it no attention at all.

Jim Ennes
USS Liberty survivor

Folks,

I read Mr Ennes's book ASSAULT ON THE LIBERTY awhile back.

It's a practically minute by minute account of the incident and its aftermath.

An EXCELLENT read!

I wish I could do more but I just wrote my congressmen. Makes you physically ill to hear of the ways our government handled the "incident"

I read the same book Steve and my impression then as now is that Israel had every intention of sinking the Liberty and there were to be no survivors to tell the tale. Obviously, things didn?t turn out that way so one must presume that there was a motivation for trying to silence what the Liberty found out or was thought to have found out. Being one of the preeminent snoop ships of the time, the Liberty had all kinds of capability and must have come across something Israel didn?t want let out or discovered at any cost.

We?ll never know what is was that Israel was so desperate to keep silent and /or undiscovered but in my opinion, only the dullest knife in the drawer would believe it was all a case of mistaken identity, ta dot ta da. By all that is right, there should have been a massive, thunderous and reciprocal case of ?mistaken identity? sent against the Israeli forces that perpetrated the strike. In cases like the assault on the Liberty, it is, in my opinion, a grave mistake to allow, ?lessons learned?, to be unilateral in nature for it only invites more problems like ongoing and continual, aggressive, Israeli espionage against the US. Of course, we don?t talk about that situation either, right? :zzz:

Scamp

To one and all:
 

Just sent an email to Bill O'Reilly at oreilly@foxnews.com, asking him to investigate this attack, and strongly urge all to do the same. I consider the attack and subsequent cover-up as the most egregious insult to and assault on our Navy. If we flood O'Reilly's site with our requests for action, he just might get the message. This could be the blockbuster news story of 2005. Simultaneously, our congressfolks need to be prodded as well.
Brice
Scouts Out!!

Good Idea Brice
I'm doing it now
Bob K

Ditto, done. I also have the thoughts to c.c. a letter to the Israeli and U.S. government officials. Sound good? The worst thing that could happen is that they take my birthday away.

To all
 

Pardon my senior moment, but I also meant to suggest that we ask all on our respective addressee lists to do the same. The more pressure, applied within a realtively short time, will have a positive effect. "Battery 6, fire for effect!"

Thanks for all of the great input in support of my shipmates. This crew should have been used as a standard for damage control and saving one's shipmates and ship. These guys stood tall under tremendous odds and an overpowering assault by Israeli planes and torpedo boats. The Captain stood amid horrendous, withering machinegun and cannon fire with people being killed and mamed all around him and wounded himself, his crew did everything by the book, and the USS LIBERTY sailed away under it's own power. These men have been my heroes since June 8, 1967, they are some of the best this country has to offer, and in return, treated like dirt and with no respect!

I would appreciate anything you all can do, to further educate the citizens of the USA and the world. My shipmates deserve so much more for their efforts. The families of those killed were essentially left in the dark and their sons,husbands, fathers or siblings were just written off and each letter or award for them had to be OK'd by Israel before sending the letter or presenting the award.

A long time ago I made a promise to myself that I would do everything possible to make this right, but I believe I'm not going to have enough time, so every person that continues on with this mission, has my very deepest gratitude!

Stan White (Survivor of the attack on the USS LIBERTY)

Let me take a minute to echo Stan's comments regarding our reception here in the Patriot Files.

A warm welcome for USS Liberty survivors in an on-line forum is the exception rather than the norm.

For those who would like to write their Congressional Delegation, etc. a free program that I have used in the past is GovernMail which can be found at <http://www.governmail.com/>.

There is no cost for the program but it does have sponsors banners displayed. What with all the interest in Internet security that may be a concern to some.

For those who don't know, Stan is one of the Founding Fathers of the USS Liberty Veterans Association. Without him and the other co-founder Jim Ennes (author, Assault on the Liberty) I doubt we would be in the position we are today. We owe a tremendous debt to both Stan and Jim.

Joe Meadors
USS Liberty Survivor

You are more than welcome here. I just wish the military was half as loyal to their men.

ditto-ditto 1Cav.....
 

...on both counts.

Plus, wish Administration Leaders and Congress and/or all politicians were: "Half as loyal to their men",...ALSO!!!

Neil