About the Attack on the USS Liberty in 1967

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On June 8, 1967, a foreign nation launched a surprise 75-minute air and sea attack on an American naval ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters. The United States was not at war in the region. Ultimately, 34 men died, and 172 were wounded. The American government opted to bury the assault for diplomatic favor and assuage a foreign nation's vanity following the attack.

The USS Liberty story epitomizes bravery and beating the odds. It is the kind of story Hollywood loves, and Hollywood tried to tell the Liberty's story in the mid-1980s. Interests benefiting from silence threatened participants in the film with blacklisting, effectively shutting it down. One gruesome threat arrived via a decapitated cat thrown on a survivor's front porch. The intimidation of the survivors and producers of the Liberty feature film exemplifies why it is difficult to speak about the attack and why most Americans do not know about it.
THE ATTACK
On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty sailed quietly in the eastern Mediterranean, going about its business monitoring events in the region. It was a perfect late spring day, and the ship was in international waters, well away from the shore.

Preceding the ambush, the crew felt safe, having observed up to nine reconnaissance flights by the Israeli air force, in marked planes, over the ship throughout the morning. Israel was currently in combat with Egypt and Syria, but the Liberty was outside the territorial waters of the combatants. On its mast hung a giant ceremonial American flag (20 by 38 feet, six by 11.5 meters). Israel was and continues to be an ally of the United States; the Israelis were watching out for them, the crew thought. The US was not at war in the region, and the ship, lightly armed, was no threat.

With lunch concluded and the galley cleared, several off-duty crewmen were sunbathing on the main deck. Suddenly, at 14:00 hours, unmarked fighter jets descended upon the ship and attacked. Under fire, the communications room frantically called for help using both military and international civilian maritime frequencies, only to discover their communications were jammed.

Jamming civilian frequencies violates international law, and only an ally might know the Liberty's top-secret military frequencies. Yet, both were jammed. The Liberty found itself alone, without comms, and fighting for its life against an unknown enemy. The nearest American aircraft carrier was 500 miles (805 km) away.

The jets attacking were modern, fast, and agile; the Liberty's crew could see this much. But who was shooting, and why? Was it the USSR or another state actor with an advanced air force? Nobody on the Liberty knew, nor would they know for most of the 75-minute strike. The attacker concealed the identifying markings on their planes, making them ghost planes, unknown. Three military ships, as yet unidentified, were spotted approaching quickly on the horizon.

The crew of the Liberty scrambled to hold the ship together, destroying sensitive documents and attending to the wounded as bullets and napalm engulfed the deck. The ship's armaments were useless, designed to repel boarders, not a sustained air and sea attack. The Liberty was not a warship; it was an intelligence ship. One of the first targets hit in the attack was its primary gun, and both gunnery technicians died instantly.
THE REVEAL
An hour into the assault, the crew discovered their attacker's identity, the air and naval forces of the state of Israel. The markings on the nearest warship became visible. One of the Liberty's officers noted its Star of David as he witnessed it using its deck guns to shoot the crewmen attempting to launch the lifeboats (a war crime). The gunfire rendered the dinghies unusable, trapping the Liberty's crew on the ship. Ultimately, the Israeli navy fired five torpedoes at the American ship. Four missed, but one hit the Liberty mid-ship, punching a 45 ft (13.7 meters) hole in its side and killing at least twenty instantly.

The vessel was taking on water fast. Israeli forces were close to sinking the ship when Israeli command intercepted communications confirming the American Air Force was on its way (the Liberty crew jury-rigged a radio and finally got a call out). The Israeli attack boats and planes retreated. Some minutes later, a helicopter appeared to check on the ship. The note dropped from the aircraft landed in a bundle beside a severed leg on the main deck, and the Liberty's captain picked it up.

"Do you have any casualties?" it asked cheekily.

Reading it, Captain McGonagle paused, looked up, and presented the hovering airship with a pronounced, sustained, and defiantly blatant bird (middle finger). Upon receiving the message, the helicopter slithered back to its base. McGonagle and the crew went to work navigating the severely listing ship to safe harbor, six days away in Malta. The rescue never arrived. On the orders of US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the US government pulled the rescue jets back once they confirmed who was attacking. The attack was over, but the drama was just beginning for the survivors.

Within hours of their arrival in Malta, US intelligence forbade the survivors from telling their stories. Years later, Lt. James Ennes, who was on the bridge of the USS Liberty during the attack, defied the gag order. He authored the first book on the attack, published in 1980, Assault on the Liberty.

The US government's handling of the atrocity—including recalling the rescue planes upon confirmation that Israel was the belligerent—is unprecedented in US military history.
A TRAGIC CASE OF MISIDENTIFICATION...
The state of Israel said it misidentified the USS Liberty, believing it to be a civilian Egyptian freighter. Accepting this premise requires factual gymnastics.

First, aside from no similarity in ship silhouette, civilian ships do not use military grey; it is camouflage.

Second, the ship's oversized standard would need to change to an Egyptian flag, not American. Other than the color red, the flags of Egypt and the United States have nothing in common.

Next, in the first two minutes, the single gun turret and all communications antennas were disabled in precision airstrikes. Some freighters may have deck-mounted machine guns; they do not have a military-grade canon, even a small one, like the Liberty. Nor did 1967-era civilian freighters have dozens of high-tech antennas emanating from the bridge and upper decks.

Finally, if the Israelis believed the ship to be an Egyptian freighter, why jam US military communications channels? To do so required knowledge of its top-secret frequencies, and a civilian freighter, particularly one of a foreign nation, would not know these or use them.

None of these facts mattered. Israel insisted the attack was a massive error, a misjudgment. It was simple incompetence. Israel's version became the accepted narrative.
ONE SHIP, 239 COMMENDATIONS CLANDESTINELY AWARDED
Upon their return to the United States, the Liberty and its captain, William McGonagle, received the Medal of Honor (MoH) for guiding the heavily damaged ship from the eastern Mediterranean to Malta. Typically, as they are so rare, MoH awards are awarded by the President of the United States in a public ceremony. The Department of Defense awarded the Liberty's in a clandestine ceremony. In addition to the MoH, crew members received two Navy Crosses, eleven Silver Stars, twenty Bronze Stars, nine Navy Commendation Medals, two hundred and four Purple Hearts, and the ship received the Presidential Unit Citation. None of these ceremonies occurred publicly. The awards were secret, under threat of court-martial or imprisonment if the recipients disclosed how or why they received their commendations.
EPITAPH
The Israeli pilot transcripts debunk the misidentification lie and several others. American intelligence acquired access to these shortly after the attack. The transcripts prove Israeli command knew it was an American ship when they attacked with gunfire, bombs, torpedos, and napalm. Their mission, confirmed by the pilot transcripts, was to sink the ship. Why continues to be speculation. As a spy ship, the logical conclusion is that Israel was about to engage in something it didn't want to be recorded, even by its closest ally.

After the first few days, the media could not tell this story due to US censorship. More recently, avoidance is due to aggressive activities by the Israel lobby. Lobby activities focus on defamation, slander, and libel of crewmen and journalists who dare report on it. An intensive disinformation campaign via books, videos, and speeches on the attack, is also part of the strategy.

Ironically, one diplomat was horrified by the attack, and he did take action. Officially protesting Israel's assault and the subsequent US whitewash of the event at the time, he implored Tel Aviv to come clean and make amends. Who was this man of character and gravitas? Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Avraham Harman.

Harman tried, and he was one of few who officially did. In 1968, after nine years in his post, he was succeeded as ambassador by Yitzhak Rabin.
In Malta and back in the United States, the USS Liberty underwent 40 million dollars in repairs. Ultimately, the highly decorated ship was beyond repair, and she was stripped, partitioned, and sold for scrap.

Since the attack, the survivors and the families of the USS Liberty have lobbied the US government for full recognition. As of May 2022, despite it being one of the most decorated ships in US history, there is no official US memorial commemorating the survivors or the attack. The US government has not publicly and formally recognized the USS Liberty in totality, removed the gag orders, or publicly celebrated the crew's extreme bravery, endurance, and fortitude on that day. Nor has it defended and protected the crew and their families from defamation by interests associated with the attacking nation. Fifty-five years later, the survivors and the families of the slain continue to fight, hoping the American people will push their government into acknowledging them publicly and end the harassment.
LEARN MORE
A) For more information on the USS Liberty, see the survivor's site at: http://www.gtr5.com.

B) Al Jazeera's (AJ) 2014 fifty-minute documentary is the most recent and concise: The Day Israel Attacked America: https://youtu.be/tx72tAWVcoM on YouTube with commercials.
Or on AJ without commercials: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2014/10/30/the-day-israel-attacked-america

The AJ special report includes the actual Israeli pilot radio calls with control. It is the first to publish these.

C) The 2002 BBC documentary USS Liberty, Dead In the Water is available here: https://youtu.be/kjOH1XMAwZA

The BBC documentary came out before Admiral Thomas Moorer's testimony and the leaking of the Israeli pilot transcripts a few years later. It is also good but not as current or detailed as the AJ special report.