Remember The Liberty Part 2
Remember The Liberty Part 2
Survivors Speak
Source: Chuck Baldwin Live
My Interview With A USS LIBERTY Survivor
June 3, 2021
audio:
Next Tuesday (June 8, 2021) is the 54th anniversary of the unprovoked attack of the USS LIBERTY by the State of Israel that killed 34 American sailors and Marines and wounded 174. To this day, the State of Israel has never been held accountable for this despicable and dastardly attack against the people of the United States. In fact, the U.S. government and the news media have covered up this horrific attack for all of these decades.
I am using today’s column to print my recorded interview with a USS LIBERTY survivor. This man is a friend of mine. His name is Ron Kukal.
Ron was born in 1939. He grew up in Rushville, Nebraska, and now lives in Sheridan, Wyoming. He joined the Navy at the age of 20. He served 8 years in the Navy and had served 7 years when he was assigned to the LIBERTY. He was a first class petty officer and a communications supervisor on board the LIBERTY. Here is my interview with Ron Kukal (edited for space):
[Begin interview]
CB: Ron, why was the USS LIBERTY where it was in the Mediterranean Sea on June 8, 1967?
RK: We were first assigned to sail up and down the coast of Africa. We all know that the USS LIBERTY was an intelligence ship. And in the middle of our tour over there, we got a call that we were needed to go to the Med. And none of us really knew what it was all about.
CB: Obviously, your ship was not designed for combat.
RK: Absolutely not.
CB: And you were not there for the purpose of any aggressive action.
RK: Absolutely not.
CB: So the ship was pretty much by itself? You didn’t have protective ships around you or anything like that?
RK: The only thing we were told [is] that if something would happen to us, the 6th Fleet was only about a half an hour away by jet plane. I believe our captain did request some protection, but it was refused. And they just said, “You keep yourself in international waters, and don’t worry about it. Fly the American flag, and don’t worry about it.”
CB: And that’s what the captain did? You were in international waters, and your ship was clearly identified as a United States vessel flying the U.S. flag very clearly, right?
RK: Yes. All morning long we had reconnaissance planes, which were Israeli, flying around us. The flag was definitely up there, and we were well marked: large lettering on the bow and “USS LIBERTY” on the fantail. Very, very clearly marked.
CB: And, of course, Israel is supposedly a U.S. ally, so I assume that the captain and the officers on the ship did not perceive a threat from the State of Israel before the attack.
RK: At breakfast that morning, some of the guys who were working for me had come to me; they were all excited because of the reconnaissance planes that we were experiencing topside. And I told them, “There’s really nothing to worry about. If they are Israeli, we’re flying the flag, and they’re friendly. So don’t let it bother you. Let’s just go to work, and don’t let it occupy your mind.” And that’s the way everybody felt about the whole thing.
CB: So at what time of day was it when the attack actually began?
RK: The exact time was 14:01. 2:01 in the afternoon.
CB: And how long had you been in those waters where you were?
RK: Oh let’s see. That’s really a good question. I think we’d been there a couple of days. I’m pretty sure that we got there about the third day of the Six-Day War. And I think we were there a day or two before the attack began.
CB: Thank you. Where were you on the ship when the attack began?
RK: I was two decks below the main deck. About right at the water line is about where I was at.
CB: Did anybody on the ship have any reason to believe or suspect that they were going to be or might be attacked?
RK: No. We did have a General Quarters drill that day, which, as you know, gets everyone prepared for attacks which we might experience. We had just finished that General Quarters drill. We were just getting back to our own work spaces when the attack occurred. Pretty good time to attack somebody, I guess you might say. They are just all settled down after having a drill like that. So it was a good time, whoever ordered it. A great time. Everybody was pretty relaxed. There were guys on the top deck that were off duty sunbathing. And one of them, I think, was the executive officer, Philip Armstrong. And no, you wouldn’t say that anybody was expecting anything.
CB: And the drill you described would have been a routine matter, I would assume.
RK: This was probably a little bit more than routine. We did them routinely, but the captain—his words to us on the intercom, I think, were: “We are in a war zone, and we will do these General Quarters drills as much as possible.”
CB: But that would have been precautionary, right? He didn’t have any indication or reason to believe that an attack was imminent.
RK: No. None whatsoever. Yes, precautionary is a good way to put it.
CB: So how many officers and crew were on board the USS LIBERTY when it was attacked?
RK: The total was 294.
CB: How many were killed and wounded?
RK: 34 were killed: 25 down below where I was at and 9 topside. The wounded numbered 174. The ship itself is the most decorated crew for a single action in the United States Navy.
CB: When you first realized that you were under attack, did you realize that it was from the State of Israel?
RK: Oh no. No, we didn’t know that. The planes that attacked us were unmarked.
CB: They were unmarked. What kind of aircraft were attacking you?
RK: They were French Mirage jets.
CB: So when the attack occurred, it was machine gun fire. Were bombs dropped?
RK: When the planes attacked, it was limited to machine gun fire, cannon fire, rocket fire, and they tossed some napalm at us too.
CB: And were the aircraft reinforced with watercraft in the attack?
RK: I think it would be a half an hour to forty-five minutes into the attack [that] the torpedo boats showed up. They fired five torpedoes at us and hit us with one. The USS America was going to send help for us, and they [the U.S. government] turned those pilots around. I believe LBJ did that personally. I guess once he found out who was attacking us [Israel], he turned our help around.
CB: Do you believe that the Israelis fully intended to sink the ship?
RK: I certainly do! Yes. As a matter of fact, one of the Israeli pilots actually radioed back to—I don’t know if it was Ashdod or Tel Aviv or where it was—but said that he would not participate in this attack because it was an American ship. And those transcriptions and that voice has been on TV a couple of times where he literally said that he wouldn’t attack, and he turned back. They told him to turn around [to pursue the attack], but he flew back to their headquarters. He was jailed for several years, and when he got out of jail he came over to this country. And he actually went straight to former Congressman Pete McCloskey, and told him his story: that he would not attack an American ship.
CB: I remember reading somewhere about some of the fellows on the LIBERTY trying to escape—trying to get a lifeboat or something. Walk me through that. Was there actually fire on the men who were trying to get off the ship? Am I remembering that correctly?
RK: You are. It would be Lieutenant Lloyd Peters that could tell that story about as well as anyone. Because he literally was going to testify at the court of inquiry that they fired on our lifeboats, and they literally did not want any lifeboats out there for anybody. They wanted us all dead. And so they had to get rid of those [lifeboats].
The torpedo hit I’m guessing about 30 feet from me, maybe 40. And then you know the story. As soon as I got done with my prayers, an audible voice came to me (maybe it wasn’t audible—maybe just to me). “Get down, and get down now!” is all I remember of it. And then from that point to the point of me being either pushed—or somehow I ended up on the steel deck with my nose right on the steel—and the torpedo exploded, and the shrapnel was flying through the air. It took awhile for the water to get in there. Not very long, but you could hear the shrapnel flying through the air. Killed all the men around me. There was only myself and two or three other guys that escaped from down in that area.
CB: You said 25 men died down in that area?
RK: 25 in that area. That would have been the second deck down, the third deck, and the fourth deck down. That torpedo took—I think the height of that hole was something like 30-some feet. And so it encompassed a lot of decks. And it took all of the security group personnel; that was most of the men that died down there.
CB: So, after the torpedo hit and you were still alive (you and a couple of others), then what happened?
RK: I heard the shrapnel flying through the air, and then the whole compartment became an instant swimming pool. I got up off the deck, and I think the water was probably to my shoulders and still rising. And a battle lantern (which all ships have on them that automatically come on when you lose power) was shining over the hatchway to the ladder that led to the deck above. I knew I had to get through that hatch and get to the ladder and get to the deck above to keep from drowning. And there were a lot of guys trying to get up the same ladder, of course. But several of us got up through there, and the only way we got through the hatchway was—they have what they call a scuttle hole in there. It’s just big enough for a man to slip through; a small hole in the middle of the hatch. And most of the guys who were up on the top deck came down to help out. And they were helping pull us through that hole.
I immediately headed towards the main deck. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible just like everybody else. [I was] slipping and sliding in the passageways. What I was slipping and sliding in was mainly water and blood. And when I got topside, Lieutenant George Golden gave me an order to turn around and go back down below and make sure everybody got out. And so I went back down below and hollered down in that dark hole—you could hear the water sloshing around and stuff like that—trying to get some answers from somebody, and nobody answered.
CB: So I would assume by what you said that many of the men and the captain thought the ship was going to sink.
RK: Yes. And that whole night we were in danger of sinking. The following morning when the sun just came over the horizon, the destroyer USS Davis came over the horizon and came up alongside of us and brought some men over. Those men went down below where the torpedo had hit and shored up those bulkheads to keep us from going to the bottom. According to the officers and the commanders, the captain, everybody else, it was never a question of were we going to sink; the question was “when?” So yes, had the USS Davis not come alongside and sent their men over to help us, we probably wouldn’t be here today.
CB: And that was at dawn the following morning?
RK: Yeah. The sun was coming over the horizon. I suppose it was 6:30 or 7:00.
CB: You said that during the attack that U.S. aircraft were launched to come to your assistance from a U.S. aircraft carrier?
RK: USS America, yeah. That’s the aircraft carrier. I believe also the USS Saratoga launched some, and they were turned around.
CB: So those planes never arrived at your location to help you. Somebody ordered those planes to go back to the ship and to not come to your assistance?
RK: That’s correct. It was either McNamara or Johnson; I’m not sure which one it was.
CB: So either President Lyndon Johnson or Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara?
RK: That’s right.
CB: Do you believe that it was an act of God that the ship stayed afloat?
RK: There’s no question in my mind. If you take into consideration the firepower that they had compared to what we had. I don’t think that we ever fired a shot that I can remember.
CB: Do you believe there was a concerted effort by the White House and members of Congress to cover up that attack?
RK: Yes. Matter of fact, if you were to talk with Phil Turney, he will tell you that he and several others of the LIBERTY crewmen were called into a room and told that if they ever talked about this, they would be imprisoned and fined a huge amount of money.
CB: They were told that by a Naval officer?
RK: Yes. An admiral.
CB: An admiral. So when you say that there was a cover-up, that must have involved a lot of different people. So you are talking about a chain of command starting from the White House and going all the way down the command structure of the Navy?
RK: I guess if I could make it short and concise, I could tell you that Captain Ward Boston (who conducted the Board of Inquiry) before he died left his testimony that he was told to make the outcome of that Board that the attack was an accident. He said he had no choice. That’s written down in black and white. He was forced.
CB: So the official story from Washington—they finally did acknowledge that it was Israel that launched this attack, but then they claimed it was an accident. Was that the official story?
RK: That was the official story. Captain Boston told me, and he wrote some handwritten letters to me about this stuff. And he literally said that he was forced to make the outcome what the administration wanted—I guess what LBJ wanted.
CB: Has there ever been any due recognition for the men of the LIBERTY? You mentioned decorations.
RK: Decorations and medals were given to us, such as the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Navy Cross, and even the Congressional Medal of Honor. The problem is that, as I understand it, medals like we earned are only earned if you are attacked by an enemy state. You don’t get them for friendly fire. They come from being attacked by an enemy. That’s never ever been straightened out. I’ve asked about it a lot of times.
CB: That’s a very good point. What is your feeling about the State of Israel now? Do you consider the State of Israel an ally of the United States?
RK: No, I think that they—I’m talking mainly about the leadership in Israel—are Zionists. Pastor, I’ll be really truthful on this. I’ve been involved with the church for many, many years. I played the piano for a church several times; I was on worship teams several times. And one of my biggest mistakes at a church right here in my hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming, was I told the story about the LIBERTY, and I told it truthfully. And I’ve got to tell you, things got pretty cold there at that church for me.
CB: Amazing. So you perceive that this infatuation that most Christians have with the State of Israel is misplaced?
RK: I certainly do! I really don’t believe that physical Israel has a thing to do with Biblical Israel at all.
CB: I totally agree with you, Ron.
Has there ever been any of the crew that you’ve talked with—survivors of this attack—have you guys ever put your minds together and come up with anything that you could figure why Israel attacked you like they did? We know it was not an accident. We know it was deliberate. We know that it was not only deliberate but they intended to sink the ship and kill the entire crew.
RK: And people have said that in very high positions. The [deputy] director of the National Security Agency back then—I think his name was Louis Tordella—he knew it was no accident. I can quote Dean Rusk who said in his book As I Saw It, “[I] didn't believe the Israelis then, and I don’t believe them now.” That’s in his book. And people in very high places, including Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, said it was no accident. Could not have been.
I believe it was the intent of Israel to sink the LIBERTY [and] blame it on Cairo, which would draw the U.S. into the war.
CB: Ron, your story is a testament to God’s sovereign power and grace in your life and the lives of all of those crew members that survived. But I think it’s also a story that needs to be told in regard to what Israel did, and that there has been no accountability for what they did, which suggests that there is an evil nature in this that transcends politics.
RK: Oh absolutely. I think I’ve said in a couple of interviews that I believe on June 8, 1967, we looked Satan in the eye and lived to tell about it.
CB: I believe that’s true. And I think that the cover-up proves the evil nature of the offenders.
RK: Oh I believe that to the hilt.
CB: Thank you, Ron. I’m sure this interview will help a lot of people.
[End interview]
Ladies and gentlemen, can you imagine what the reaction of the U.S. government would have been if the USS LIBERTY had been attacked by Iraq, Iran, Syria—or any other country, for that matter? Yet the U.S. government not only did nothing to protect the officers and crew of the USS LIBERTY as it was being attacked by the State of Israel but it also ordered the American fighter aircraft that were enroute to protect the LIBERTY to turn around. And then the government lied about the attack and ordered a massive cover-up of the attack so as to cast no blame on the attacking country: Israel. There is not another country in the world that would be given this kind of perverted preference by our government.
And as you heard Ron say, when Christians are confronted with the horrific evil that the State of Israel perpetrated against a virtually defenseless U.S. Navy ship, they react with utter indifference, unbelief or even anger that anyone would dare suggest that Israel is capable of such an atrocity.
The reason is, most Christians have been taught that Rothschild’s Israel created in 1948 is the rebirth of Biblical Israel. They have been brainwashed in the erroneous belief system that the modern Zionist State of Israel is the physical home of “God’s Chosen People.”
(To learn the truth, start with Romans 2:28, 29; Galatians 4:22 - 26; 6:12 - 16; Ephesians 1:3 - 10; Revelation 2:9; 3:9)
Christian Zionists such as John Hagee, Robert Jeffress, David Jeremiah, et al. have told Christians for over 70 years that in order to have God’s blessing, America must “bless” this modern Zionist State of Israel. That is a lie from the pits of Hell. The truth is, America’s massive support for Israel is one of the biggest reasons why God is now judging the United States so severely.
I have a 31-message, 3-Set DVD series that sets the record straight regarding the true Biblical teaching on Israel. The series is entitled The Israel Package.
I urge readers to order this series and share it with your friends and loved ones. Learn how a preacher (me) who believed (and taught) that modern Israel was Biblical Israel for over 30 years came to see the truth that modern Israel is actually a devilish Trojan Horse designed to deceive the Church and destroy America’s Christian heritage and culture—and to serve as a human headquarters for the globalist Deep State.
We also carry the blockbuster book that tells the true story of Israel’s attack against the USS LIBERTY, co-authored by the man quoted in this interview, Ron Kukal. The book is entitled Remember The LIBERTY! Almost Sunk By Treason On The High Seas.
Buy as many of these books as you can. We simply must help Ron and the LIBERTY survivors get the truth out about what happened on that fateful day on June 8, 1967.
© Chuck Baldwin
Source: The Libertarian Institute
3/11/22 Larry Bowen and Joe Meadors Tell Their Story of Surviving the Attack on the USS Liberty
Scott sat down with two of the survivors of the 1967 Israeli attack on the American Navy ship the USS Liberty. They detail their personal experience and fit their story into the broader historical context of the attack. Although the events of that day, almost 55 years ago, still haunt them, they are both fighting to make the public aware of what happened and to pressure Congress to properly acknowledge the attack. They are doing this despite official threats that talking about the attack would lead to prosecution and jail time. At the end, they explain how you can join them in this fight.
Discussed on the show:
Larry Bowers is a survivor of the USS Liberty attack where he was stationed by the NSA. He now serves as the President of the USS Liberty Veterans Association where he works to raise public awareness of the attack
Joe Meadors is a Navy veteran who served as a Signalman on the USS Liberty during the Israeli attack. Today he works as an activist for his shipmates who perished and those who survived and who, like him, have been silenced for 55 years.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio.
audio:
Trunews - Six Day War Massacre - USS Liberty Veterans Reveal Truth About Israeli Attack Part 1
Trunews - Six Day War Massacre - USS Liberty Veterans Reveal Truth About Israeli Attack Part 2
Source: Chuck Baldwin Live
Remembering The USS Liberty: We Must Never Forget!
November 11, 2021
audio:
The USS Liberty is lumbering in international waters. It is flying a brand new 8’x5’ flag, which unmistakably identifies it as a U.S. vessel. The ship’s markings are ten feet high on both sides. It is not a warship. It is an intelligence-gathering ship. For all intents and purposes, it is defenseless against any warship or attack aircraft, having but four .50-calibre Browning machine guns without shrapnel shields as its only offensive weapons. On board are 294 souls.
Suddenly, and without provocation, Israel attacks the ship with unmarked warplanes (using French Mirage jets) and torpedo boats. For over an hour, the helpless ship is riddled with machine-gun fire, rockets and torpedoes.
Much of the ordinance Israel used in the attack on The Liberty was provided by the United States.
Within moments, the ship is completely disabled. As it seems certain that the ship will sink, lifeboats are lowered, but Israel’s attacking torpedo boats immediately riddle the lifeboats with gunfire. Helicopters from Israel carrying Special Forces troops hover over the ship, which is now listing at nine degrees.
Clearly, Israel intends that no one survives.
The ship has no engines, no rudder and no power. As the Special Forces soldiers from the attacking country are being positioned to launch their final assault, The Liberty’s Captain barks, “Standby to repel boarders.” One sailor yells, “They’ve come to finish us off.”
The 67-minute attack would prove to be the bloodiest assault on a U.S. ship since World War II.
When the attack first began, American fighter jets were dispatched to assist the American ship and its crew, but those jets were turned around—BY THE WHITE HOUSE, specifically President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
Thirty-four of the ship’s officers and crew are killed, and a majority of the rest of the crew are wounded. Only a divine miracle and superhuman, Herculean effort from the sailors in the bowels of that steel graveyard keep the ship afloat.
When the attack first began, one Israeli general protested to his commanding officer saying, “This is pure murder.” One Israeli pilot refused to attack the ship because it was American. He was imprisoned by the Israeli government. But many of the Israeli pilots shouted with glee when they saw The Liberty burning.
“Great! Wonderful! She’s burning! She’s burning!” transcripts show one of the Israeli pilots shouting during the attack. Transcripts also proved that Israeli attackers had positively identified the ship as being American a full 26 minutes before launching the torpedo attack.
Now get this: Instead of sending The Liberty to the nearest safe port, which was Crete, only one day’s sail away, Navy commanders ordered that the ship go to Malta, a seven-day journey across the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea—with the ship now listing at fifteen degrees. Obviously, the White House was certain that The Liberty would sink before making it to Malta.
But the ship didn’t sink.
When the White House knew there would be survivors who could tell the truth about what happened, it immediately employed a massive cover-up to conceal the facts of the attack. It began with a psyops public declaration that the attack had been an “accident.” But the attack was never really investigated.
There was no need to investigate; everyone in the upper echelons of the U.S. government knew what had happened. In fact, those at the very top were co-conspirators in the attack.
“The Navy was ordered to hush this up, say nothing, allow the sailors to say nothing,” said Rear Admiral Thomas Brooks, a former Director of Naval Intelligence. “The Navy rolled over and played dead.”
Israeli diplomats tapped influential American Jews, many of whom were close friends with President Johnson, to help with the cover-up.
Documents show that Eugene Rostow, who was third in command of the State Department, repeatedly shared privileged information about U.S. strategy with Israeli diplomats. Others who assisted Israel included Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas and Arthur Goldberg, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Many of these and others who helped the embassy are referred to by code names in Israeli documents. For example, Democratic fund-raiser Abe Feinberg is identified in Israeli records by the codename “Hamlet.”
Israeli diplomats likewise hammered the media to kill critical stories and slant others in favor of Israel. Diplomats hustled, for example, to derail a potential news story about pressure on New York Representative Otis Pike to launch a congressional investigation into the attack. “We have made sure that the journalistic source will refrain from writing about this for now,” cabled embassy spokesman Dan Patir.
Johnson, whose focus largely was on Vietnam, looked for a compromise that would guarantee that American families were compensated but would not risk a clash with Israel’s domestic supporters. He ordered Nicholas Katzenbach, second-in-command at the State Department, to negotiate the deal: If Israel publicly apologized for the attack and paid reparations, the United States would let it go, no more questions asked.
In evaluating the Liberty court of inquiry, it is worth comparing it to the court that examined North Korea’s capture of the Pueblo. The Liberty court lasted just eight days, interviewed only 14 crewmen, and produced a final transcript that was 158 pages. In contrast, the Pueblo court lasted almost four months, interviewed more than 100 witnesses, and produced a final transcript that was nearly 3,400 pages.
Captain Ward Boston, the lawyer for the Liberty court, broke his silence in 2002, stating that investigators were barred from traveling to Israel to interview the attackers, collect Israeli war logs, or review communications. Furthermore, he said Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had ordered the court to endorse Israel’s claim that the attack was an accident, which Boston personally did not believe was the case. “I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were well aware that the ship was American.” (Source)
To this day, the Israeli-controlled mainstream media refuses to say a word about the attack on The USS Liberty. And not one single U.S. president (including Republicans) has given the surviving crew of The Liberty due public recognition—not Nixon, not Bush I, not Reagan, not Bush II and not Donald Trump: All of them gave The Liberty survivors the royal snub.
And when is the last time you heard any Republican House or Senate member say anything about The USS Liberty? No one in Congress will talk, because the vast majority of them—Republicans and Democrats—are bought off by the Israeli lobby. And the ones that aren’t know that their future careers—and maybe even safety—depend on their silence.
The only two members of Congress that I can personally remember who were willing to blow the whistle on the Israeli attack on The USS Liberty were both Democrats: Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and James Traficant from Ohio. And we all know what happened to each of them.
Well, THIS SUNDAY, November 14, 2021, Liberty Fellowship and I will be proud to host several survivors of The USS Liberty at our Sunday service in Kalispell, Montana. These men will be with us on behalf of the Liberty Veterans Association to present fellow crewmember Ron Kukal a very special award.
We at Liberty Fellowship are very honored that we would be asked to host this special ceremony. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for each of us privileged to attend this service.
And if you have not read the book Remember The LIBERTY!, I urge you to get this book today. This book is co-authored by USS Liberty survivors, including Ron Kukal and Phil Tourney, who will also be with us this Sunday. This book tells the true story of the Israeli attack and the cover-up of the attack by the U.S. government and news media.
Order Remember The LIBERTY! here.
We must NEVER forget!
© Chuck Baldwin
Source: Chuck Baldwin Live
Remembering The USS Liberty: Naval Hero And LIBERTY Survivor At LF This Sunday
November 9, 2023
audio:
The USS Liberty is lumbering in international waters. It is flying a brand new 8’x5’ flag, which unmistakably identifies it as a U.S. vessel. The ship’s markings are ten feet high on both sides. It is not a warship. It is an intelligence-gathering ship. For all intents and purposes, it is defenseless against any warship or attack aircraft, having but four .50-calibre Browning machine guns without shrapnel shields as its only offensive weapons. On board are 294 souls.
Suddenly, and without provocation, Israel attacks the ship with unmarked warplanes (using French Mirage jets) and torpedo boats. For over an hour, the helpless ship is riddled with machine-gun fire, rockets and torpedoes.
Much of the ordnance Israel used in the attack on The Liberty was provided by the United States. Just like the jets and bombs that are being used by Netanyahu as an act of genocide against the Palestinian people now are supplied by the United States.
Within moments, the ship is completely disabled. As it seems certain that the ship will sink, lifeboats are lowered, but Israel’s attacking torpedo boats immediately riddle the lifeboats with gunfire. Helicopters from Israel carrying Special Forces troops hover over the ship, which is now listing at nine degrees.
Clearly, Israel intends that no one survives.
The ship has no engines, no rudder and no power. As the Special Forces soldiers from the attacking country are being positioned to launch their final assault, The Liberty’s Captain barks, “Standby to repel boarders.” One sailor yells, “They’ve come to finish us off.”
The 67-minute attack would prove to be the bloodiest assault on a U.S. ship since World War II.
According to the book co-authored by USS Liberty survivors Remember The LIBERTY!:
The Liberty was finally saved only because the clock had run out. By then, the fact that the attackers were Israeli became too obvious to deny; only then did Israel stop the attack and claim that the whole thing was a terrible mistake.
When the attack first began, however, American fighter jets were dispatched to assist the American ship and its crew, but those jets were turned around—BY THE WHITE HOUSE, specifically President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
Thirty-four of the ship’s officers and crew are killed, and a majority of the rest of the crew are wounded. Only a divine miracle and superhuman, Herculean effort from the sailors in the bowels of that steel graveyard keep the ship afloat.
When the attack first began, one Israeli general protested to his commanding officer saying, “This is pure murder.” One Israeli pilot refused to attack the ship because it was American. He was imprisoned by the Israeli government. But many of the Israeli pilots shouted with glee when they saw The Liberty burning.
“Great! Wonderful! She’s burning! She’s burning!” transcripts show one of the Israeli pilots shouting during the attack. Transcripts also proved that Israeli attackers had positively identified the ship as being American a full 26 minutes before launching the torpedo attack.
Now get this: Instead of sending The Liberty to the nearest safe port, which was Crete, only one day’s sail away, Navy commanders ordered that the ship go to Malta, a seven-day journey across the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea—with the ship now listing at fifteen degrees. Obviously, the White House was certain that The Liberty would sink before making it to Malta.
But the ship didn’t sink.
When the White House knew there would be survivors who could tell the truth about what happened, it immediately employed a massive cover-up to conceal the facts of the attack. It began with a psyops public declaration that the attack had been an “accident.” But the attack was never really investigated.
There was no need to investigate; everyone in the upper echelons of the U.S. government knew what had happened. In fact, those at the very top were co-conspirators in the attack.
“The Navy was ordered to hush this up, say nothing, allow the sailors to say nothing,” said Rear Admiral Thomas Brooks, a former Director of Naval Intelligence. “The Navy rolled over and played dead.”
Israeli diplomats tapped influential American Jews, many of whom were close friends with President Johnson, to help with the cover-up.
Documents show that Eugene Rostow, who was third in command of the State Department, repeatedly shared privileged information about U.S. strategy with Israeli diplomats. Others who assisted Israel included Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas and Arthur Goldberg, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Many of these and others who helped the embassy are referred to by code names in Israeli documents. For example, Democratic fund-raiser Abe Feinberg is identified in Israeli records by the codename “Hamlet.”
Israeli diplomats likewise hammered the media to kill critical stories and slant others in favor of Israel. Diplomats hustled, for example, to derail a potential news story about pressure on New York Representative Otis Pike to launch a congressional investigation into the attack. “We have made sure that the journalistic source will refrain from writing about this for now,” cabled embassy spokesman Dan Patir.
Johnson, whose focus largely was on Vietnam, looked for a compromise that would guarantee that American families were compensated but would not risk a clash with Israel’s domestic supporters. He ordered Nicholas Katzenbach, second-in-command at the State Department, to negotiate the deal: If Israel publicly apologized for the attack and paid reparations, the United States would let it go, no more questions asked.
In evaluating the Liberty court of inquiry, it is worth comparing it to the court that examined North Korea’s capture of the Pueblo. The Liberty court lasted just eight days, interviewed only 14 crewmen, and produced a final transcript that was 158 pages. In contrast, the Pueblo court lasted almost four months, interviewed more than 100 witnesses, and produced a final transcript that was nearly 3,400 pages.
Captain Ward Boston, the lawyer for the Liberty court, broke his silence in 2002, stating that investigators were barred from traveling to Israel to interview the attackers, collect Israeli war logs, or review communications. Furthermore, he said Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had ordered the court to endorse Israel’s claim that the attack was an accident, which Boston personally did not believe was the case. “I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were well aware that the ship was American.” (Source)
To this day, the Israeli-controlled mainstream media refuses to say a word about the attack on The USS Liberty. And not one single U.S. president (including Republicans) has given the surviving crew of The Liberty due public recognition—not Nixon, not Bush I, not Reagan, not Bush II and not Donald Trump: All of them gave The Liberty survivors the royal snub.
And when is the last time you heard any Republican House or Senate member say anything about The USS Liberty? No one in Congress will talk, because the vast majority of them—Republicans and Democrats—are bought off by the Israeli lobby. And even the ones that aren’t know that their future careers—and maybe even safety—depend on their silence.
The only two members of Congress that I can personally remember who were willing to blow the whistle on the Israeli attack on The USS Liberty were both Democrats: Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and James Traficant from Ohio. And we all know what happened to each of them.
Well, THIS SUNDAY, November 12, 2023 (Veterans Day Sunday), Liberty Fellowship and I will be proud to host a survivor of the USS LIBERTY attack, our good friend, Chief Ron Kukal.
If you live within driving distance or are able to fly to Kalispell this weekend, we invite you to come and help us honor this genuine American hero.
And if you have not read the book Remember The LIBERTY!, I urge you to get this book today. This book is co-authored by USS Liberty survivors, including Ron Kukal and our friend Phil Tourney. Both of these men are faithful online members of Liberty Fellowship. This book tells the true story of the Israeli attack and the cover-up of the attack by the U.S. government and news media.
Order Remember The LIBERTY! here.
To honor our veterans and ignore the crewmen of the USS Liberty is the height of injustice—and ingratitude. We won’t let that happen at Liberty Fellowship this Sunday.
P.S. We have just released my latest message DVD, which addresses the current war in Palestine. Here is the link to the message, which is entitled Jerusalem Was Ground To Powder Once: Could It Happen Again?
And if you haven’t yet watched the previous two messages dealing with the Israeli war against the Palestinians, I provide the links to these messages below.
Is The Hamas/Israeli War Fulfilling Bible Prophecy?
© Chuck Baldwin
USS Liberty Veterans Association
statement of purpose
IN JUNE 1967 jet aircraft and motor torpedo boats of the Defense Forces of the State of Israel brutally assaulted the American naval intelligence-gathering ship, USS Liberty, while in international waters off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea. The attack was preceded by more than six hours of intense lowlevel surveillance by Israeli photo reconnaissance aircraft, which buzzed the ship as low as 200 feet directly overhead. The carefully orchestrated assault that followed was initiated by high performance jet aircraft. This was followed by slower and more maneuverable jets carrying napalm, and was finally turned over to lethal torpedo boats, which blasted a forty-foot hole in the ship's side. The attack lasted more than two hours, deliberately killing 34 Americans and wounding at least 171 others. Over 821 rocket, cannon and machine gun holes were inflicted. When the Liberty stubbornly remained afloat despite her damage, Israeli forces machine-gunned her life rafts, firefighters, stretcher bearers, and sent troops carrying helicopters to finish the job, no survivors were to be taken.
At this point, with Sixth Fleet rescue aircraft supposedly en route, the government of Israel apologized and the identity of the assailants became known.
Details of the attack were hushed up in both countries. Israel claimed that her forces mistook the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, and our government quietly accepted that excuse despite evidence to the contrary. No ship in our history has ever received such damage and casualties by accident. Then our government downplayed the intensity of the surveillance and the severity of the attack, and imposed a news blackout on the crew to keep the story under control. The official version is that the Liberty was reconnoitered only three times and only from a great distance. The American people were told that the air attack lasted only five minutes and that it was followed by a single torpedo and an immediate apology and offer of assistance. Nothing could be further from the truth. In June 1982, fifteen years after the assault, crewmembers reunited for the first time in Washington, D.C. It was a tearful, joyful reunion in which the men not only released their pent up emotions and decided that the USS Liberty Veterans Association would be formed with the firm goals 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…
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.
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