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“It'd be a terrible crime if the truth about the USS Liberty was never told... a crime to your family and mine. President Trump has said: “let's make America great again.” Okay... I can tell you of a crew who survived the attack who's been trying to make America great again for more than 50 years now.”
Ron Kukal – Former US Navy sailor and survivor of the USS Liberty

There's been a number of important anniversaries these past several weeks. Of course the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square being the two most notable ones. There's also the end of the US Civil War, the South Korean Gwangju Uprising, the Six Day Way (which of course ties in to what this piece is all about) not to mention the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles coming up later this month.

But today in particular, the 8th of June, is also an important anniversary. It's not very well known, certainly not compared the ones I mentioned above but it is nonetheless a very important date, ESPECIALLY for the people of the United States and the people of Israel. On this day, 52 years ago, the State of Israel opened fire on the United States of America.

In late May of 1967 the USS Liberty, a US Naval technical research ship under the command of Captain William McGonagle, was assigned to the Mediterranean. War clouds were on the horizon in the form of tensions between Israel and it's three closest Arab neighbors, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Liberty's mission was to closely monitor the conflict from the sidelines, particularly in regards to Egypt who was a close Soviet ally at the time. For this purpose the ship was equipped with then start of the art computers and radio decryption technology manned by a team of Naval/Marine Corps specialists and civilian linguists. For security reasons, the members of the team were under orders to minimize contact with the rest of their shipmates over the course of the voyage. No small task given that the team made up more than half of the Liberty's compliment. They would inevitably integrated with the regular crew, even helping to keep watch on deck.

Tensions in the Middle East finally boiled over on June 5th when Israel launched their controversial “preemptive” mass offensive against all three of its neighboring countries, kicking off what would come to be known as the 6 Day War. By the time the Liberty reach its destination in the early hours of June 8th, the conflict was mostly over with Egypt on the verge of defeat. Israeli were forces occupying much of the Sinai Peninsula and preparing to storm Syria's Golan Heights.

That morning, the Liberty was sailing in international waters roughly thirteen miles off the coast of the Sinai. She was cruising at a speed of about 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) with her US flag flowing clearly in the breeze. Weather that day was clear and sunny, with visibility for miles in all directions making both her flag and the large US markings on each side of her hull difficult to miss. As a result of being a converted cargo ship, she had no armor and her only means of defense were four deck mounted 50 caliber machine guns and a number of small arms.

Given their close proximity to a war zone, Capt. McGonagle wisely decided to run a battlestations drill on the Liberty that morning. He believed the crew's performance during the drill was subpar and he blatantly told them so, warning that the next time an alarm sounded, it might not be a drill. The choice to do that drill probably helped save a lot of lives.

Not long after, several Israeli aircraft spotted the Liberty and would circle her throughout the early afternoon. At one point a Nord Noratlas transport plane flew low and close enough a for the pilot to wave to the US crewman on deck. Radio transmissions of the Israeli pilots could clearly be heard by the decryption team as they reported the Liberty's presence to their ground control. After a while the planes headed home and there was a period of calm. So calm in fact, that a number of off duty crewman were able to sunbathe on the ship's deck... blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

Then at around 1:57 pm local time, two unmarked Israeli Mirage III fighter jets arrived. They circled the Liberty for a few moments before coming directly at her on an attack vector and opening fire with their rockets and 40 mm cannons. Capt. McGonagle ordered his crew to battle stations. Unfortunately there was only so much they could do to against supersonic aircraft, which their machine guns were practically useless against. The ship's radio frequencies were jammed as well, not only the US Naval freq but also the international distress freq (in direct violation of International Law). The USS Liberty was effectually defenseless.

At some point during the attack the Liberty's radiomen were able to break through the jamming and get out a garbled distress call. About 300 miles away, two US aircraft carriers, the USS Saratoga and USS America under the command of Vice-Admiral William Martin, received the the call. Eight F-4 Phantom fighter jets were dispatched to aid the Liberty but after informing Washington of the situation, Adm. Martin was immediately ordered to recall them. The order came from the highest authority at the Pentagon, possibly even from President Lyndon Johnson himself. No help was coming for the now seemingly doomed US vessel.

For the next twenty or so minutes the Mirages would repeatedly strafe the Liberty with their cannons. Two Israeli Mystere fighter-bombers would also join in the fray, dropping napalm bombs directly on the Liberty's deck. At about 2:20 pm the four aircraft ran out of ammunition and ceased their attack. By this time several US sailors were dead and nearly a hundred wounded, including Capt. McGonagle himself. But it was not over.

Roughly twenty four minutes after the air attacks, a group of three Israeli motor torpedo boats arrived. Despite the damage the Liberty was still moving at an excess of 5 knots as her crew desperately tried to contain the fires. After sighting the boats Capt. McGonagle, remaining at his post despite his wounds, directed his signalman to try and hail them. The Israeli boats however did not respond to hails and preceded to launch five torpedoes at the Liberty. The Captain ordered the helmsman to take evasive action and make the ship zigzag. As a result of the maneuver, they managed to successfully evade four of the torpedoes. Unfortunately, one still managed to hit the Liberty's starboard side, killing over two dozen crewman and putting her in danger of sinking.

The boats would close in and continue to fire at the Liberty with cannons and machine guns, killing and wounding yet more sailors, including the helmsman. Several crewmen attempted to prepare life rafts in case the order to abandon ship was given, only for the rafts to be deliberately targeted by the Israeli gunners (another violation of International Law). It was clear that they were trying to sink the US vessel with all hands.

A number of Israeli helicopters showed up around this time as well though they kept their distance, seemingly only there to observe. Several Liberty crewmen claim that they saw armed troops aboard them, indicating that the Israelis possibly had intentions to board the ship at some point.

The men aboard the Liberty did everything they could to keep their ship afloat and save lives. Sailors and mechanics below deck had to improvise to stop the flooding. Crewmen on deck continued to fight the fires on the superstructure as a result both the napalm and ruptured fuel lines. The ship's one doctor and two corpsmen did their best to treat their now 100+ wounded comrades. The wounded Captain McGonagle continued to direct all of these efforts from his post on the bridge. And all of this went on while the Liberty was STILL taking fire from the Israeli torpedo boats and completely unable to fire back.

Finally, at about 3:30 pm, an hour and a half after the first shots were fired by the Mirage IIIs, the attack was called off and the Israeli boats ended their assault and headed home. The helicopters searched the water for a little while looking any signs of fallen sailors before leaving the area themselves. At 4:00 pm, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv received word from the Israeli government that a “terrible mistake” had been made. The US Naval attache to Israel then traveled to the Liberty by helicopter and dropped a message (written on the back of his business card) in a weighted bag that read: "Do you have casualties?" The bag was drenched in blood as the deck it had landed on was literally bathed in it. After seeing the message, Capt. McGonagle reportedly looked up at the attache who was still hovering the in the helicopter and promptly flipped him the bird.

It would not be until the next morning that actual help would finally arrive to the Liberty in the form of the cruiser USS Little Rock and two destroyers, the USS Davis and USS Massey. The most serious wounded were medevaced by helicopter while most of the rest of the crew were transferred to the USS America where a memorial service was held for the fallen. Captain McGonagle and a select few officers and crew (including a number of surviving tech specialists) stayed to take the ship to port and help with the clean up and repairs. Against all odds the Liberty managed to stay afloat and slowly limb to a US drydock in Malta despite a 39 ft. wide by 24 ft. high hole in her starboard side below the water line and a twisted keel. The improvised damage control techniques used to keep the ship together would be an inspiration to the US Navy for generations to come.

All in all, 31 US sailors, 2 marines and 1 civilian linguist were killed in the attack with 171 wounded. More than half of the men on the Liberty made it onto the casualty list.

“I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink the Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn't believe them then, and I don't believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.”
Dean Rusk – US Secretary of State under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson

For political reasons, the Johnson Administration did everything they could to bury the whole incident quickly. There was a totally media blackout and the official US Navy inquiry was rushed with a sloppy and brief final report that pretty much parroted the Israeli explanation. The Israelis claimed that the presence of the Liberty had been originally noted not long after it arrived in the Mediterranean by their military command but then later taken off the record due to an administrative error.

The torpedo boats detected the Liberty moving at an excess of 28 knots and assumed her to be a enemy warship as they were under orders to attack any unidentified vessel going 20 knots or faster. They radioed fighters to intercept as they were unsure if they could catch up with the ship quickly enough. The Mirage III pilots had reportedly claimed that they saw no identifiable markings on the Liberty and were giving clearance to attack. When the jets had run out of ammo and the boats reached attack range, the boat squadron commander claimed that the Liberty looked like a known Egyptian merchant freighter (that had a slightly similar appearance) and that he tried to signal them but got no answer. It then appeared that one of the Liberty's 50 cal. machine guns opened fire on them, which may have been ammunition cooking off as a result of the fire, and the commander gave the order to engage.

There are a number of serious issues with the Israeli version of events however. For starters, 28 knots is well beyond the Liberty's top speed. As already stated above, the weather was clear with visibility for miles in all directions. The US flag and markings should have been easy to spot for any onlooker, especially by all the aircraft that flew by in the morning before the attack. The Israelis were able to jam a secure US Naval radio frequency, meaning they had to know the specific frequency and that it was used specifically by the US Navy. There was also a declassified but still partially censored CIA document that cites a trusted source inside Israel claiming that then Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan personally ordered the attack.

Most of all, in recent years a number of radio transmissions recorded by the NSA were uncovered that appear to be of the Israeli fighter pilots that attacked the Liberty. They call out the ship's exact markings and identify it as American before receiving orders from the Israeli Air Force Command to attack. The lead pilot calls back to confirm the order multiple times before reluctantly engaging. Later they seem to brag about it. "Is he screwing her?" one pilot calls out. "He's going down on her... low... with napalm!" another replies. If truly authentic, these transmissions prove that the Israeli military knew exactly what they were doing.

But none of that was made public at the time. At the time the wounded US servicemen in hospital beds were under armed guard to make sure they wouldn't talk with any press. Many crewmen were refused a chance to testify before the inquiry board and the testimonies of many who did were omitted from the final report. The Israelis' use of napalm and their shooting of life rafts were both left out for example. Many of the survivors were intimidated and forced to sign gag orders not to talk about the attack under threat of imprisonment. A few even claimed that they were subjected to electric shock treatment.

So, what actually happened? Most people who have really looked into the event believe that it was a false flag attack. Sink the Liberty with all hands and blame it on Egypt, thus drawing the United States into the conflict (personally, I agree with that theory). Another possibility is that the Israelis might have genuinely believed that they were attacking an Egyptian ship... at first. Then, when they realized their mistake they panicked and tried to destroy all evidence of the error, later deciding to give up and only partially come clean. Honestly, I fear that the whole truth may never come to light, much like with the JFK assassination.

The Israeli government paid compensation to the families of the 34 who were killed and later reluctantly agreed to pay for the medical care of the wounded as well. They also secretly handed over a number of Soviet SA-2 surface to air missile batteries (complete with technical manuals) that they'd captured from the Egyptians to the US. This proved valuable for the war effort in Vietnam and although the deal was not made public until many years later it was still enough incentive at the time to get the US government to back off and officially exonerate Israel of any wrongdoing. The incident was ruled to be a tragic case of mistaken identity and closed.

“Before the ceremony in Washington DC, I was talking with the Secretary of the Navy and I told him: “Well, ya know this is my third afloat command and I was just doing my duty as a commanding officer. I knew what those duties were and if I didn't then they shouldn't be sending me to command ships at sea.” I didn't think I should have received the Medal of Honor cause I was just doing what I knew was my responsibility. He said: “Well Bill, I'll tell ya... when you have finished your coffee, you and I are gonna go out there and have this ceremony just like we've planned for some time.” And of course my only response to that... the ONLY response possible was: “Aye aye sir.””
William McGonagle – Former US Naval officer, Captain and survivor of the USS Liberty (1925 - 1999)

Many of the Liberty survivors were discreetly given medals for their actions during the attack, making them the most decorated crew for a single action in the history of the US Navy. Captain McGonagle was awarded the Medal of Honor in a private ceremony far away from the President, who even back then would traditionally present the award to a US serviceman in person. Was this at least partially incentive for them to keep their mouths shut? Perhaps. But I and many others would argue that the medals were still deserved.

Nevertheless, quite a few of the surviving Liberty crewmen were outraged and disheartened by the obvious coverup and the apparent determination by the US government to not hold the Israelis accountable. Only in recent years have they finally begun to speak out publicly about what they went through. After a tearful reunion in 1982, the USS Liberty Veterans Association was formed with the purposes of: “finding all crew members, holding reunions, proper recognition of Captain and crew (in particular those who lost their lives), obtaining a Congressional investigation into the attack, and” perhaps most most importantly… “TO BRING THE TRUE STORY OF THE ATTACK ON THE U.S.S. LIBERTY AND HER HEROIC CREW TO THE AWARENESS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”

I strongly recommend that you check out the Liberty Veterans Association website and Youtube channel. There are interviews with survivors such as LVA President Ernie Gallo, Ron Kukal and Joe Meadors (who is currently part of the Freedom Flotilla attempting to get aid to the Gaza Strip past the Israeli blockade). These are the men who were actually there and can tell you the story FAR better than I ever could. And they're ALL in usison in their belief that that Israeli attack was not a mistake. Now, I leave you to form your own opinion. But whatever that opinion may be, remember the USS Liberty.

Liberty Veterans Association website:
www.usslibertyveterans.org/

Liberty Veterans Association Youtube channel:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhJE…

Archival footage of the damage assessment of the Liberty post-attack:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=187zED…

"The Loss of Liberty" indie documentary on the attack by Tito Howard:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJlgE…

"The Day Israel Attacked America" Al Jazeera produced documentary on the attack:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx72tA…

DISCLAIMER: Neither I nor the artist have had any personal correspondence whatsoever with the Liberty Veterans Association or any of the Liberty survivors. I heard about the attack through third party sources and decided to do this tribute to help raise awareness after doing my own research. I apologize to the men of the Liberty for any errors I may have made in my essay.

Artwork by AdamKop

Description

“It'd be a terrible crime if the truth about the USS Liberty was never told... a crime to your family and mine. President Trump has said: “let's make America great again.” Okay... I can tell you of a crew who survived the attack who's been trying to make America great again for more than 50 years now.”
Ron Kukal – Former US Navy sailor and survivor of the USS Liberty

There's been a number of important anniversaries these past several weeks. Of course the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square being the two most notable ones. There's also the end of the US Civil War, the South Korean Gwangju Uprising, the Six Day Way (which of course ties in to what this piece is all about) not to mention the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles coming up later this month.

But today in particular, the 8th of June, is also an important anniversary. It's not very well known, certainly not compared the ones I mentioned above but it is nonetheless a very important date, ESPECIALLY for the people of the United States and the people of Israel. On this day, 52 years ago, the State of Israel opened fire on the United States of America.

In late May of 1967 the USS Liberty, a US Naval technical research ship under the command of Captain William McGonagle, was assigned to the Mediterranean. War clouds were on the horizon in the form of tensions between Israel and it's three closest Arab neighbors, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Liberty's mission was to closely monitor the conflict from the sidelines, particularly in regards to Egypt who was a close Soviet ally at the time. For this purpose the ship was equipped with then start of the art computers and radio decryption technology manned by a team of Naval/Marine Corps specialists and civilian linguists. For security reasons, the members of the team were under orders to minimize contact with the rest of their shipmates over the course of the voyage. No small task given that the team made up more than half of the Liberty's compliment. They would inevitably integrated with the regular crew, even helping to keep watch on deck.

Tensions in the Middle East finally boiled over on June 5th when Israel launched their controversial “preemptive” mass offensive against all three of its neighboring countries, kicking off what would come to be known as the 6 Day War. By the time the Liberty reach its destination in the early hours of June 8th, the conflict was mostly over with Egypt on the verge of defeat. Israeli were forces occupying much of the Sinai Peninsula and preparing to storm Syria's Golan Heights.

That morning, the Liberty was sailing in international waters roughly thirteen miles off the coast of the Sinai. She was cruising at a speed of about 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) with her US flag flowing clearly in the breeze. Weather that day was clear and sunny, with visibility for miles in all directions making both her flag and the large US markings on each side of her hull difficult to miss. As a result of being a converted cargo ship, she had no armor and her only means of defense were four deck mounted 50 caliber machine guns and a number of small arms.

Given their close proximity to a war zone, Capt. McGonagle wisely decided to run a battlestations drill on the Liberty that morning. He believed the crew's performance during the drill was subpar and he blatantly told them so, warning that the next time an alarm sounded, it might not be a drill. The choice to do that drill probably helped save a lot of lives.

Not long after, several Israeli aircraft spotted the Liberty and would circle her throughout the early afternoon. At one point a Nord Noratlas transport plane flew low and close enough a for the pilot to wave to the US crewman on deck. Radio transmissions of the Israeli pilots could clearly be heard by the decryption team as they reported the Liberty's presence to their ground control. After a while the planes headed home and there was a period of calm. So calm in fact, that a number of off duty crewman were able to sunbathe on the ship's deck... blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

Then at around 1:57 pm local time, two unmarked Israeli Mirage III fighter jets arrived. They circled the Liberty for a few moments before coming directly at her on an attack vector and opening fire with their rockets and 40 mm cannons. Capt. McGonagle ordered his crew to battle stations. Unfortunately there was only so much they could do to against supersonic aircraft, which their machine guns were practically useless against. The ship's radio frequencies were jammed as well, not only the US Naval freq but also the international distress freq (in direct violation of International Law). The USS Liberty was effectually defenseless.

At some point during the attack the Liberty's radiomen were able to break through the jamming and get out a garbled distress call. About 300 miles away, two US aircraft carriers, the USS Saratoga and USS America under the command of Vice-Admiral William Martin, received the the call. Eight F-4 Phantom fighter jets were dispatched to aid the Liberty but after informing Washington of the situation, Adm. Martin was immediately ordered to recall them. The order came from the highest authority at the Pentagon, possibly even from President Lyndon Johnson himself. No help was coming for the now seemingly doomed US vessel.

For the next twenty or so minutes the Mirages would repeatedly strafe the Liberty with their cannons. Two Israeli Mystere fighter-bombers would also join in the fray, dropping napalm bombs directly on the Liberty's deck. At about 2:20 pm the four aircraft ran out of ammunition and ceased their attack. By this time several US sailors were dead and nearly a hundred wounded, including Capt. McGonagle himself. But it was not over.

Roughly twenty four minutes after the air attacks, a group of three Israeli motor torpedo boats arrived. Despite the damage the Liberty was still moving at an excess of 5 knots as her crew desperately tried to contain the fires. After sighting the boats Capt. McGonagle, remaining at his post despite his wounds, directed his signalman to try and hail them. The Israeli boats however did not respond to hails and preceded to launch five torpedoes at the Liberty. The Captain ordered the helmsman to take evasive action and make the ship zigzag. As a result of the maneuver, they managed to successfully evade four of the torpedoes. Unfortunately, one still managed to hit the Liberty's starboard side, killing over two dozen crewman and putting her in danger of sinking.

The boats would close in and continue to fire at the Liberty with cannons and machine guns, killing and wounding yet more sailors, including the helmsman. Several crewmen attempted to prepare life rafts in case the order to abandon ship was given, only for the rafts to be deliberately targeted by the Israeli gunners (another violation of International Law). It was clear that they were trying to sink the US vessel with all hands.

A number of Israeli helicopters showed up around this time as well though they kept their distance, seemingly only there to observe. Several Liberty crewmen claim that they saw armed troops aboard them, indicating that the Israelis possibly had intentions to board the ship at some point.

The men aboard the Liberty did everything they could to keep their ship afloat and save lives. Sailors and mechanics below deck had to improvise to stop the flooding. Crewmen on deck continued to fight the fires on the superstructure as a result both the napalm and ruptured fuel lines. The ship's one doctor and two corpsmen did their best to treat their now 100+ wounded comrades. The wounded Captain McGonagle continued to direct all of these efforts from his post on the bridge. And all of this went on while the Liberty was STILL taking fire from the Israeli torpedo boats and completely unable to fire back.

Finally, at about 3:30 pm, an hour and a half after the first shots were fired by the Mirage IIIs, the attack was called off and the Israeli boats ended their assault and headed home. The helicopters searched the water for a little while looking any signs of fallen sailors before leaving the area themselves. At 4:00 pm, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv received word from the Israeli government that a “terrible mistake” had been made. The US Naval attache to Israel then traveled to the Liberty by helicopter and dropped a message (written on the back of his business card) in a weighted bag that read: "Do you have casualties?" The bag was drenched in blood as the deck it had landed on was literally bathed in it. After seeing the message, Capt. McGonagle reportedly looked up at the attache who was still hovering the in the helicopter and promptly flipped him the bird.

It would not be until the next morning that actual help would finally arrive to the Liberty in the form of the cruiser USS Little Rock and two destroyers, the USS Davis and USS Massey. The most serious wounded were medevaced by helicopter while most of the rest of the crew were transferred to the USS America where a memorial service was held for the fallen. Captain McGonagle and a select few officers and crew (including a number of surviving tech specialists) stayed to take the ship to port and help with the clean up and repairs. Against all odds the Liberty managed to stay afloat and slowly limb to a US drydock in Malta despite a 39 ft. wide by 24 ft. high hole in her starboard side below the water line and a twisted keel. The improvised damage control techniques used to keep the ship together would be an inspiration to the US Navy for generations to come.

All in all, 31 US sailors, 2 marines and 1 civilian linguist were killed in the attack with 171 wounded. More than half of the men on the Liberty made it onto the casualty list.

“I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink the Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn't believe them then, and I don't believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.”
Dean Rusk – US Secretary of State under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson

For political reasons, the Johnson Administration did everything they could to bury the whole incident quickly. There was a totally media blackout and the official US Navy inquiry was rushed with a sloppy and brief final report that pretty much parroted the Israeli explanation. The Israelis claimed that the presence of the Liberty had been originally noted not long after it arrived in the Mediterranean by their military command but then later taken off the record due to an administrative error.

The torpedo boats detected the Liberty moving at an excess of 28 knots and assumed her to be a enemy warship as they were under orders to attack any unidentified vessel going 20 knots or faster. They radioed fighters to intercept as they were unsure if they could catch up with the ship quickly enough. The Mirage III pilots had reportedly claimed that they saw no identifiable markings on the Liberty and were giving clearance to attack. When the jets had run out of ammo and the boats reached attack range, the boat squadron commander claimed that the Liberty looked like a known Egyptian merchant freighter (that had a slightly similar appearance) and that he tried to signal them but got no answer. It then appeared that one of the Liberty's 50 cal. machine guns opened fire on them, which may have been ammunition cooking off as a result of the fire, and the commander gave the order to engage.

There are a number of serious issues with the Israeli version of events however. For starters, 28 knots is well beyond the Liberty's top speed. As already stated above, the weather was clear with visibility for miles in all directions. The US flag and markings should have been easy to spot for any onlooker, especially by all the aircraft that flew by in the morning before the attack. The Israelis were able to jam a secure US Naval radio frequency, meaning they had to know the specific frequency and that it was used specifically by the US Navy. There was also a declassified but still partially censored CIA document that cites a trusted source inside Israel claiming that then Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan personally ordered the attack.

Most of all, in recent years a number of radio transmissions recorded by the NSA were uncovered that appear to be of the Israeli fighter pilots that attacked the Liberty. They call out the ship's exact markings and identify it as American before receiving orders from the Israeli Air Force Command to attack. The lead pilot calls back to confirm the order multiple times before reluctantly engaging. Later they seem to brag about it. "Is he screwing her?" one pilot calls out. "He's going down on her... low... with napalm!" another replies. If truly authentic, these transmissions prove that the Israeli military knew exactly what they were doing.

But none of that was made public at the time. At the time the wounded US servicemen in hospital beds were under armed guard to make sure they wouldn't talk with any press. Many crewmen were refused a chance to testify before the inquiry board and the testimonies of many who did were omitted from the final report. The Israelis' use of napalm and their shooting of life rafts were both left out for example. Many of the survivors were intimidated and forced to sign gag orders not to talk about the attack under threat of imprisonment. A few even claimed that they were subjected to electric shock treatment.

So, what actually happened? Most people who have really looked into the event believe that it was a false flag attack. Sink the Liberty with all hands and blame it on Egypt, thus drawing the United States into the conflict (personally, I agree with that theory). Another possibility is that the Israelis might have genuinely believed that they were attacking an Egyptian ship... at first. Then, when they realized their mistake they panicked and tried to destroy all evidence of the error, later deciding to give up and only partially come clean. Honestly, I fear that the whole truth may never come to light, much like with the JFK assassination.

The Israeli government paid compensation to the families of the 34 who were killed and later reluctantly agreed to pay for the medical care of the wounded as well. They also secretly handed over a number of Soviet SA-2 surface to air missile batteries (complete with technical manuals) that they'd captured from the Egyptians to the US. This proved valuable for the war effort in Vietnam and although the deal was not made public until many years later it was still enough incentive at the time to get the US government to back off and officially exonerate Israel of any wrongdoing. The incident was ruled to be a tragic case of mistaken identity and closed.

“Before the ceremony in Washington DC, I was talking with the Secretary of the Navy and I told him: “Well, ya know this is my third afloat command and I was just doing my duty as a commanding officer. I knew what those duties were and if I didn't then they shouldn't be sending me to command ships at sea.” I didn't think I should have received the Medal of Honor cause I was just doing what I knew was my responsibility. He said: “Well Bill, I'll tell ya... when you have finished your coffee, you and I are gonna go out there and have this ceremony just like we've planned for some time.” And of course my only response to that... the ONLY response possible was: “Aye aye sir.””
William McGonagle – Former US Naval officer, Captain and survivor of the USS Liberty (1925 - 1999)

Many of the Liberty survivors were discreetly given medals for their actions during the attack, making them the most decorated crew for a single action in the history of the US Navy. Captain McGonagle was awarded the Medal of Honor in a private ceremony far away from the President, who even back then would traditionally present the award to a US serviceman in person. Was this at least partially incentive for them to keep their mouths shut? Perhaps. But I and many others would argue that the medals were still deserved.

Nevertheless, quite a few of the surviving Liberty crewmen were outraged and disheartened by the obvious coverup and the apparent determination by the US government to not hold the Israelis accountable. Only in recent years have they finally begun to speak out publicly about what they went through. After a tearful reunion in 1982, the USS Liberty Veterans Association was formed with the purposes of: “finding all crew members, holding reunions, proper recognition of Captain and crew (in particular those who lost their lives), obtaining a Congressional investigation into the attack, and” perhaps most most importantly… “TO BRING THE TRUE STORY OF THE ATTACK ON THE U.S.S. LIBERTY AND HER HEROIC CREW TO THE AWARENESS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”

I strongly recommend that you check out the Liberty Veterans Association website and Youtube channel. There are interviews with survivors such as LVA President Ernie Gallo, Ron Kukal and Joe Meadors (who is currently part of the Freedom Flotilla attempting to get aid to the Gaza Strip past the Israeli blockade). These are the men who were actually there and can tell you the story FAR better than I ever could. And they're ALL in usison in their belief that that Israeli attack was not a mistake. Now, I leave you to form your own opinion. But whatever that opinion may be, remember the USS Liberty.

Liberty Veterans Association website:
www.usslibertyveterans.org/

Liberty Veterans Association Youtube channel:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhJE…

Archival footage of the damage assessment of the Liberty post-attack:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=187zED…

"The Loss of Liberty" indie documentary on the attack by Tito Howard:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJlgE…

"The Day Israel Attacked America" Al Jazeera produced documentary on the attack:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx72tA…

DISCLAIMER: Neither I nor the artist have had any personal correspondence whatsoever with the Liberty Veterans Association or any of the Liberty survivors. I heard about the attack through third party sources and decided to do this tribute to help raise awareness after doing my own research. I apologize to the men of the Liberty for any errors I may have made in my essay.

Artwork by AdamKop