Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2012, Pages 53-54
Human Rights
Iowa Veterans For Peace Screen USS Liberty Documentary
Iowa Veterans For Peace (VFP) Chapter 161 sponsored a screening and discussion of "USS Liberty: Dead in the Water," a 2002 documentary produced for the BBC, at the Iowa City Public Library on May 27.
The USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy technical research ship tasked with gathering intelligence by monitoring electronic communications, was attacked by Israeli jet fighter aircraft and torpedo boats while in international waters off the coast of Egypt on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War.
"This event is one of several organized by Iowa veterans to honor the men of the USS Liberty and mark the 45th anniversary of the attack that killed 34 American military and civilian personnel and wounded 171," said VFP Chapter president Ed Flaherty.
Despite a rushed and deeply flawed investigation that provided the basis for a continuing cover-up, the Israeli attack is now widely acknowledged to have been deliberate.
Immediately after the attack, the Navy imposed a news blackout and the officer in charge of the Court of Inquiry, Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, warned the Liberty crew, "You are never, repeat never, to discuss this with anyone, not even your wives. If you do, you will be court-martialed and will end your lives in prison or worse."
After the film, VFP member Terry Philips joined Flaherty at the podium to discuss the attack and answer questions.
"It's frustrating to think that our government kind of abused the people at the time," said Philips, a former Navy communications technician (CT) who was at sea in the Pacific in June of 1967.
"When we signed up we knew that there were a lot of things that we couldn't talk about. We accepted that 45 years ago. We could accept that a lot of things went on that nobody could admit to—that was part of the military; part of war," Philips said. "But when it is so drastic as this, it makes you a little bit ill."
Israel's attack on the USS Liberty is the only major maritime incident involving a U.S. Navy vessel that has not been investigated by Congress, which is widely viewed as being extraordinarily reluctant to offend, if not slavishly subservient to, the state of Israel.
Among the many high-level former U.S. officials and military officers who have publicly stated that the Israeli attack was not accidental are U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, CIA Director Richard Helms, CIA Deputy Director Admiral Rufus Taylor, NSA director and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, NSA/CIA director Bobby Inman, Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, and Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the President Clark Clifford.
The USS Liberty is among the most decorated ships in U.S. history, its crew having been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, 38 Bronze and Silver Stars, 208 Purple Hearts, and a Presidential Unit Citation. In deference to the political power and influence of Israel, President Lyndon Johnson relegated the ceremony at which Liberty Captain William McGonagle was awarded the Medal of Honor from the White House to the Washington Navy Yard, where the secretary of the Navy—rather than the president, as is traditional—presented McGonagle with the nation's highest military decoration. The Medal of Honor citation includes no mention of Israel.
Flaherty invited the audience of about 50 who viewed the documentary to a community observance in honor of the USS Liberty dead and the survivors at the Pentacrest at Old Capitol Building in Iowa City on June 8, the 45th anniversary of the attack. Flaherty noted that former Illinois Rep. Paul Findley (R-IL) had accepted VFP's invitation speak at the observance, along with several Liberty survivors who will be recognized for their service.
Findley, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 22 years, served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant (jg.) from 1943 to 1946. A frequent writer for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, founder of the Council for the National Interest, and a member of the board of If Americans Knew, Findley is the author of several books, including the 1985 bestseller They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby and Silent No More: Confronting America's False Images of Islam (2001), available from the AET Book Store.
Following the June 8 event in Iowa City, VFP members, family and friends of the USS Liberty Veterans Association will meet at Veterans Building on May's Island in Cedar Rapids at 6 p.m., where Findley and others will speak. Afterward, the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids will host a supper for the group and guests.
VFP member Jeff Strottmann manned the literature table for the May 27 event.
—Michael Gillespie
