June 8th, 1967 was a clear, sunny day with unlimited visibility. It was such a nice day that as the U.S.S. Liberty floated in international waters 14 miles north of the Sinai Peninsula, sailors were sunbathing on the spy ship’s deck.

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But all wasn’t as tranquil as the sunny day would convey, for June 8th also marked the 4th day of the 6-Day War, which involved Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

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Monitoring this situation was the U.S.S. Liberty, a World War II freighter that had been converted into a spy vessel by the NSA – the National Security Agency. In fact, the Liberty was the most sophisticated and identifiable intelligence ship in the world at the time with dozens of large antennae, state of the art electronic intercept equipment, moon bounce satellite dishes, massive aerials, plus a TRSSCOM system that sent real-time messages to the Pentagon. The Liberty also flew a large 5x8 foot American flag, was freshly painted with large white numbers and letters on its bow and hull, and contained no offensive weaponry except for four 50 caliber machine guns for defensive purposes.

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These details are important to keep in mind, because at 8:00 am, as the Liberty floated in international waters at less than 5 knots – with a 5x8 foot American flag furling in the wind – a squadron of Israeli jets circled the ship at least a dozen times. These reconnaissance planes flew at such low levels – as close as 200 feet – that the sailors aboard the Liberty actually waved to the Israeli pilots. And, as we will show later in this documentary, those commanding these Israeli jets not only I.D.’d this ship as being of American origin, they also positively I.D.’d it as being the U.S.S. Liberty.

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Part Two – The Attack

Despite being fully aware of its status, at 2:00 in the afternoon, three unmarked Israeli Mystere and Mirage III fighter jets pummeled the Liberty with rockets and cannon fire. These bombers initially went after the ship’s antennae and electronics dishes, in the process filling the American flag full of holes. As sailors fled for cover, Liberty crewmen hoisted a new, even larger 7x13 foot flag into the air. But this new, even larger flag didn’t stop the Israeli onslaught as they sprayed the Liberty with napalm – the highly incendiary substance burning the sailor’s flesh.

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While this unprovoked act of war was taking place, radio operators aboard the Liberty tried to signal for help. But their SOS distress messages were not heard because the Israeli’s had deliberately jammed all five of the Liberty’s emergency radio channels – a phenomenon that shows quite clearly that the interfering party was aware of their target beforehand and had previously zeroed in on it, for to jam a stranger’s radio in such a rapid manner is virtually impossible.

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Unable to get help, the U.S.S. Liberty, with eight sailors already dead and 100 wounded, including Commander William McGonagle, was a sitting duck for the Israeli’s who, at 2:24 pm, sent in three torpedo boats loaded with thousands of pounds of explosives. With their target already in flames, the Israeli’s bombed the Liberty with shells, quickly killing 25 more men.

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As firefighters and medical personnel tried to put out fires and save their ship and crew, they were repeatedly machine gunned by Israeli aircraft. By 3:15 pm, after it was apparent that the Israeli’s didn’t want to leave a single man alive, the crew abandoned ship. But as the surviving crewmen fled for their lives, Israeli warships, at close range, sprayed those rafts aboard the ship with gunfire, along with those carrying the wounded that had already been lowered into the water. It was a sickening display of brutality and savage inhumanity – a total lack of regard for human life. The Israeli’s wanted NO survivors.

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When word eventually reached the White House, President Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed that it was the Egyptians attacking our ship, so he immediately dispatched air support which would have reached the Liberty in 40 minutes. But then, when LBJ discovered that it was, in fact, the Israeli’s who were attacking our vessel, he immediately called off the rescue.

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In other words, Phantom jets already en route from the Sixth Fleet were ordered to turn around and return to their point of origin. Try to let the seriousness of this situation sink in for a moment. Navy fighters launched from the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Saratoga and U.S.S. America were recalled by the White House!

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But the blame doesn’t stop there. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Advisor Walt Rostow at first ordered instantaneous retaliation, but upon discovering that the attack originated from Israel’s Haifa Base, McNamara called off the exercise. In fact, it was reported later that Robert McNamara was so irate when discovering that Liberty radio men contacted the U.S.S. America that he barked, “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately.” Due to this traitorous behavior, the U.S.S. Liberty had to wait 16 hours after the attacks stopped before they were rescued by our military forces. It is the ONLY instance in American naval history that a rescue mission was aborted while an American ship was under attack.

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In all, the Israeli attack on America’s U.S.S. Liberty – a ship that sat almost motionless in the water with NO offensive weaponry while sailors sunbathed on its deck – lasted for two full hours, equaling the length of Japan’s infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. 821 holes were found in the ship resulting from aircraft rockets, cannon fire, and torpedo blasts, while over 3,000 holes from Israel’s machine gun fire were also counted.

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Far more tragically, the Israeli’s killed 34 Americans that fateful day, wounded 171 more, and instigated the worst U.S. naval losses since World War II. And even though U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer called this attack deliberate, to this day not one guilty party in Israel or the U.S. has been brought to justice.

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Part Three – Israeli Lies

Let us make one thing perfectly clear before we proceed. What occurred on June 8th, 1967 was an unmitigated WAR CRIME perpetrated by the nation of Israel against the United States. To make this event even more appalling, Israel continues to lie about it to this day; and even has the audacity to place the impetus of blame on us. A case in point is Brigadier General Yiftah Spector, who flew a Mirage III fighter jet code named “Kursa” and was the first pilot to reach the U.S.S. Liberty. He said, and these are his exact words, “As far as I know, the mistake was of the U.S.S. Liberty for being there in the first place.”

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But this is only the first of many cowardly lies told by the Israelis to cover their tracks, for now, many years later it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that radio operators in Spain, Lebanon, and Germany heard the Israeli pilots report that they were indeed witnessing an American ship. This revelation was confirmed by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Porter, who had access to radio monitors at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

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The evidence is even more damning when we learn that Israel had been monitoring the Liberty for a full six month before the attack, while a CIA observer at the Tel Aviv U.S. Embassy revealed that Israeli leaders had already decided on June 7th – a day before the attacks – to sink the U.S.S. Liberty if it came into what they considered “the war zone” – i.e. international waters.

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If you find all of this hard to swallow, then consider what Major Seth Mintz, who was in the Tel Aviv war room during the attacks, said. “Every person in that room knew without a doubt that it was an American ship and that it was the U.S.S. Liberty. There were many comments about the markings, about the extra large U.S. flag. There was never any discussion about the ship not being American. But General Dayan ordered the attack anyway. We Israelis were guilty of an outrage.” (Source – Jim Taylor in the American Free Press, August 4, 2003)

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We will get to Moshe Dayan’s role in this sordid affair a little later, but first let’s weigh in with what senior Israeli pilot Evan Toni told Congressman Pete McCloskey. He said that while on air patrol that day, he immediately recognized the U.S.S. Liberty, informed headquarters of its status, and was told to ignore the American flag and attack. When he refused and returned to base, he was arrested on the spot for refusing to follow orders. Another pilot confirmed this report, stating that orders came directly from IDF – the Israeli Defense Force – to attack the Liberty, and when he said that he saw an American flag, they once again told him to “attack it.”

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But the Israeli’s continued to tell lie after lie following the attacks, the first being that there had been only ONE aircraft involved in the attack, and that the Liberty was sailing at high speed. But please remember that the Liberty was floating at only 5 knots and that when it was dragged into port at Valleta, Malta it was filled with 821 rocket and cannon fire holes, plus over 3,000 machine gun blasts.

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The Israeli’s also lied by saying that they mistook the Liberty for an Egyptian ship – the El Quseir. But let’s examine this obviously fabricated tale. First of all, there were no Egyptian naval exercises that day. Secondly, the Liberty was twice the El Quseir’s length, four-times its weight, and had a totally different appearance. Thirdly, Egyptian ships have their numbers painted in black and in Arabic, while U.S. ships paint their letters in white and in the English language. Finally, our life rafts clearly had U.S. Navy written on them. Any member of the Israeli Defense Force would be familiar with such distinctions, and to say otherwise is a bald-faced lie.

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But the evidence doesn’t end there. Unbeknownst to the Israeli’s, on June 8th, 1967 the U.S. Navy had a top-secret EC-121 intelligence aircraft flying overhead the U.S.S. Liberty that recorded the entire affair. When the IDF discovered the whereabouts of this surveillance plane, they gave orders to shoot it from the sky! Think about the completely savage disregard for American lives displayed by the Israeli’s. Luckily the EC-121 evaded the Israeli missiles or we would have had even more casualties that day.

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With all of this information in mind, the most obvious question is: who ordered these attacks on the Liberty? The answer, quite simply, is Israeli Defense Minister General Moshe Dayan, who served under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. This explosive news has been confirmed by many different sources, including a CIA report which states uncategorically: “Dayan personally ordered the attack on the ship, and that one of his generals adamantly opposed the action, saying, ‘This is pure murder’.” But Moshe Dayan, in addition to being a cold-blooded murderer, was also a liar, for he said that he commanded the Israeli Air Force to cease and desist as soon as they saw U.S. lettering on the Liberty. But the fact of the matter is quite different: they kept firing well beyond that point, and only quit when hearing that American aircraft were on their way to rescue the ship. Moshe Dayan is, ladies and gentlemen, a truly despicable human being, and should go down in the annals of history as a war criminal on par with any Nazi butcher.

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Part Four – U.S. Government Cover-up

In the aftermath of Israel’s lies and heinous behavior, Senator Barry Goldwater and Adlai Stevenson both called for full investigations, while a secret 1976 Naval Board of Inquiry report concluded that Israel’s attack upon the Liberty had been deliberate. In addition, a recent Independent Commission of Inquiry declared that Israel had committed “an act of war” against the U.S. Captain Ward Boston, in a signed affidavit, even went so far as to say that Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara told those heading a Navy inquiry to “conclude that the attack was a case of mistaken identity despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

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Yet to this day, similar to the terrorist attacks on 9-11, no one has been held accountable, no one has stood up to take responsibility, and none of the guilty parties have been brought to justice. Why? What were LBJ and Robert McNamara trying to cover-up?

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By law, Lyndon Johnson knew that he had to order an investigation of this attack. But he was mortally afraid that the public would learn about his orders NOT save the Liberty by calling back aircraft that were already en route to rescue our ship. Johnson’s actions were so unforgivable that he actually uttered at one point, “I don’t care how many Americans are attacked; I will not attack our friend and ally, Israel.” You know the old saying: with friends like that, who needs enemies?

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Anyone who has read Michael Collins Piper’s Final Judgment already knows what a lackey and subservient boot-licker LBJ was to the nation of Israel; while a report in the Spotlight newspaper on November 21, 1977 pointed out that CIA counter-intelligence chief James J. Angleton also helped Israel in orchestrating this attack. In the end, LBJ brought in the ultimate Washington D.C. fixer – and later BCCI bank fraud criminal – Clark Clifford to help smooth over this mess, then pawned-off the investigation to a spineless Navy Admiral named John S. McCain Jr., father of current Arizona senator and one-time presidential candidate John McCain.

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Part Five – The McCain Hearings

Since the U.S.S. Liberty was attacked by Israel on June 8th, 1967 there have been 13 quote-unquote “official” hearings into this matter, but not once has a surviving Liberty crewman been allowed to testify. Not only that, the first hearing presided over by John McCain Jr. was held in secret, the press was barred from attendance, and every soldier and NSA agent aboard the ship was told they would be court-martialed if they ever testified before any commission. The government’s cover-up was so heavy-handed that military officers even imprisoned certain sailors against their will in psychiatric wards, drugged them, and threatened them with electroshock to keep them from speaking.

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As mentioned earlier, the first U.S.S. Liberty hearings were overseen by Admiral John S. McCain Jr., who was the European Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, and were subsequently carried out by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas Moorer. Despite the seriousness of these attacks, Admiral McCain only gave his investigators one week to gather evidence.

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But Admiral McCain’s loathsome behavior didn’t end there, for he is quoted as telling those sailors who went against the official party line, “Shut up; we don’t want to hear that. If you ever tell the truth you’ll be court-martialed and spend the rest of your life in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth.”

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Even more peculiar, it was later discovered that on June 6th, 1967 – two days before the Liberty’s attack – the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent Admiral McCain an urgent message telling him to move the Liberty at least a 100 miles off the Gaza Coast. John McCain Jr. never forwarded this message. Why?

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To implicate himself even further, Admiral McCain’s instructions to Rear Admiral Kidd before the hearings were twofold: limit their damage to the Pentagon, and – get this – protect Israel’s reputation! As an aside, I have to ask one question: whatever happened to bringing the guilty parties to justice? With these ground rules firmly in place, even though Admirals Moorer and Kidd believed with certainty that Israel’s attack on the Liberty was deliberate – and that the Israeli pilots involved, as well as their superiors, knew it was an American ship – they still ruled it a case of mistaken identity.

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Admiral McCain ultimately approved these conclusions even though Captain Merlin Staring, a Navy legal officer, said the 700-page report was flawed, incomplete, and contrary to the evidence. Worse, when Newsweek magazine ran an expose’ on the Liberty, Admiral McCain was enraged; so much so that he placed every surviving crewman under a gag order.

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Years later, Arizona Senator John McCain penned a biography entitled Faith of My Fathers. On the book jacket it said, “John McCain learned about life and honor from his grandfather and father, both four-star admirals in the U.S. Navy. This is a memoir about their lives, their heroism, and the ways that sons are shaped and enriched by their fathers.” Senator McCain, I ask you now, what kind of honor is found in betraying your country? What kind of honor is found in selling-out the lives of those sailors who died aboard the U.S.S. Liberty? And Senator McCain, what kind of heroism is shaped from covering-up this matter for over 35 years? I think the only kind of honor and heroism that you – an influential U.S. Senator - can display right now is by immediately re-opening this investigation and shining the bright light of justice on those guilty parties who acted so reprehensibly and were responsible for this tragic, sickening event.

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Part Six – Israel’s Motives

At this point, the utmost question on everyone’s mind should be: what were Israel’s motives in attacking the U.S.S. Liberty? We will provide those answers in a moment, but first, please remember that the Israeli leaders at that time only “admitted their mistake” after Lyndon Johnson made a half-hearted threat to cut off their undeniable lifeblood – U.S. financial aid. Only then did they come up with their cock-n-bull story that the attacks were due to “mistaken identity.”

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So, what were Israel’s motives? First and foremost, Israel attacked the U.S.S. Liberty in a blatant Pearl Harbor fashion; then absolutely tried to leave NO SURVIVORS and no trace of responsibility because they wanted to blame it on the Egyptians, thus drawing America into the Six Day War on Israel’s side. By turning U.S. sentiment against the Arab world, we would thus feel justified in invading the Middle East. Such a scenario is pertinent even today, especially in light of the many Israeli ties to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, our perpetual war in the Gulf, and the fact that Israel’s primary objective has been, and always will be, the primacy of the Jewish state.

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Secondly, Israeli Ambassador Avraham Harmon assured President Lyndon Johnson that Israel would not attack Syria during their Six Day War. But the Israeli’s had already amassed troops along the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and were primed for further invasions. But with the U.S.S. Liberty positioned off the Sinai Peninsula, it would be readily able to send back reports that Israel had indeed lied and violated their agreement. Thus, similar to their Pearl Harbor-style attack on the Egyptians (who still had their fighter jets parked on the runway) to begin the Six Day War, the Israeli’s could only engage in a similar attack on Syria after they Pearl Harbored the U.S.S. Liberty and removed it from the picture.

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Lastly, on the very day that the Liberty was sunk, the Israeli Defense Force, specifically Ariel “Bulldozer” Sharon, who was the commander of an armored division, was in the process of slaughtering and executing at least a thousand Egyptian and Palestinian prisoners of war, then burying them beneath the sands of the Sinai Desert. Israeli army officers admitted to this massacre years later – a clear and undeniable example of another war crime committed by the nation of Israel. Tragically, Ariel Sharon’s inhumane behavior hasn’t changed much since then, as can be seen from the way America’s Rachel Corrie was BULLDOZED to death by the Israeli military in 2003.

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Part Seven – Conclusion

In the end, we must ask ourselves: why does the nation of Israel hold such a diabolical, hypnotic sway over the United States? After bombing the U.S.S. Liberty on June 8th, 1967, were the Israeli leaders apologetic for their heinous actions? No. Instead, they called the sailors who tried to reveal the truth anti-Semitic Israel haters.

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Even worse, why is our own government acting in the same way? If ANY other country in the world would have acted in a similar fashion and committed this act of war, we would have retaliated with a vengeance. This can be seen from Lyndon Johnson’s initial reaction when he thought Egyptian forces had attacked the Liberty. He immediately dispatched fighter planes to bomb the hell out of them and rescue our ship. But upon discovering that in fact Israel was the guilty party, he called back our jets and allowed the Liberty to be further pummeled.

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Ladies and gentlemen, this was an indisputable act of treason committed by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, and the subsequent kangaroo court cover-up hearings conducted by John McCain Jr. were clearly an obstruction of justice to the utmost degree. With that in mind, we need to ask ourselves another question: why is the U.S. government more concerned with covering for the Israelis, especially after they had been caught red-handed bombing the U.S.S. Liberty, than they are in getting justice for the families of those who were brutally killed? Plus, why weren’t the guilty Israeli’s brought to trial and convicted of war crimes? Finally, why hasn’t the Israeli government been publicly told in no uncertain terms to never ever again kill an American citizen?

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Even more sickening is the case of a Wisconsin town that wanted to re-name its public library in honor of the U.S.S. Liberty. But instead of applauding this patriotic effort, pro-Israeli action groups campaigned to label this town anti-Semitic, while the U.S. government demanded that no Navy personnel was allowed to attend the ceremony. What truly despicable behavior.

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Another point we would like to discuss is: after Israel blatantly betrayed America by attacking the Liberty, how much financial aid did we cut off to them? The answer: none. Not a red cent. Also, did you know that even though Israel is the world’s 16th wealthiest nation, and even though it only accounts for one-tenth of one-percent of the world’s total population, they still receive over 1/3 of all U.S. foreign aid? In fact, in 1997 alone, the total amount of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel, plus the interest costs associated with these payments, came to a whopping 8.7 billion dollars! That means we’re giving them nearly $24 million a day – every day.

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And when we say give, we mean precisely that, for our U.S. Congress has forgiven every single loan ever made to Israel and laid the entire cost of the principal and the interest in the laps of the American taxpayer. Worse, in 2002, a year of great economic peril in the U.S. where millions of our workers were losing jobs and the deficit was soaring through the roof, Israel had the audacity to ask for another $14 billion in annual aid. That comes to us giving them over $38 million a day. Folks, something is seriously wrong with this picture, and we need to start taking action to correct it.

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In our opinion, the first step in regard to the U.S.S. Liberty is to expose the following men for their part in the attack and cover-up: Moshe Dayan, Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, John S. McCain Jr., and Ariel Sharon. These individuals are war criminals, traitors, and are guilty of either betrayal or treason. The pages of history should remember and recount their barbaric behavior.

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The first step in bringing closure to this situation would be for current Arizona Senator John McCain to hold public, full-disclosure hearings to set the record straight instead of sidling up to the Israeli government and covering up these sordid actions. Senator McCain, as an influential U.S. Senator, you have the resources to accomplish this feat, and until you right the numerous wrongs committed against the Liberty on June 8, 1967, we feel you are one-in-the-same as the above-mentioned men.

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To begin this process, we are reminded of some very powerful words spoken by Admiral Thomas Moorer, who said that to get at the truth, Congress must first overcome its fear of the pro-Israeli lobby. We can’t think of any truer words.