On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS
Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high
seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of
Israel. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that
this was an American ship and lied about it. Survivors have
been forbidden for 40 years to tell their story under oath to
the American public. This USS Liberty Memorial web site
tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34
brave men who died.
The Attack
After surveilling USS Liberty for more than nine
hours with almost hourly aircraft over flights and radar
tracking, the air and naval forces of Israel attacked our ship
in international waters without warning. USS Liberty
was identified as a US naval ship nine hours before the
attack by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft and continuously
tracked by Israeli radar and aircraft thereafter. Sailing in
international waters at less than five knots, with no
offensive armament, our ship was not a military threat to
anyone.
The Israeli forces attacked without warning and without
attempting to contact us. Thirty four Americans were killed in
the attack and another 174 were wounded. The ship, a
$40 Million Dollar state of the art signals intelligence
platform, was later declared unsalvageable and sold for
scrap.
The Cover Up
Despite a near-universal consensus
that the Israeli attack was made with full knowledge that USS
Liberty was a US Navy ship, the Johnson administration
began an immediate cover-up of this fact. Though
administration officers continued individually to characterize
the attack as deliberate, the Johnson administration never
sought the prosecution of the guilty parties or otherwise
attempted to seek justice for the victims. They concealed and
altered evidence in their effort to downplay the
attack. Though they never formally accepted the Israeli
explanation that it was an accident, they never pressed for a
full investigation either. They simply allowed those
responsible literally to get away with murder.
Anti-Semitism and the Anti-American
Apologists
The USS
Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme
positions taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy
theorist and other such groups which often seek to identify
with us and to usurp our story as their own. We have no
connection with and do not support or encourage support from
any of these groups including National Alliance, National
Vanguard, The New Order, National Socialists, The French
Connection, Liberty
Lobby, American Free Press, Republic Broadcasting, AFP's
Liberty Radio Hour, or other such groups. We wish harm to
no one and encourage social justice and equality for everyone;
we seek only accountability for the criminal acts perpetrated
against us and can do that without help from hate-mongers.
On the Israeli side, the group of pro-Israel,
anti-American critics of our story, while small, persists in
launching loud, vicious ad hominem attacks on anyone who
attempts to discuss the deliberateness of the attack. These
anti-American apologists refuse to discuss the facts of the
case. Instead, they rely on propaganda and
charge anyone who questions the Israeli position with being antiSemitic.
For
detailed and authoritative accounts of the power and influence
of the pro-Israel lobby, please see The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
by Mearsheimer and Walt and The Pro-Israel Lobby by Edward
Herman.
The Betrayal of American Veterans
.
Americans who volunteer for
military service effectively write a blank check, payable to
the United States of America for an amount "up to and
including my life." The United States, in turn, promises to
spend these checks responsibly. That bargain implicitly
includes a promise by the United States to protect them and to
seek retribution against anyone who harms them. In the case of
USS Liberty, the United States has failed to keep its
promise.
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** To
visit the original USS Liberty memorial web site and
database, please CLICK HERE.
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