The Attack on the USS Liberty
[back] False flags

Declaration of Ward Boston, Jr.,Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)

On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy intelligence ship was attacked by Israeli fighter planes and torbedo boats as it floated in intenational waters 12 miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula. 34 US sailors were killed in the attack and 172 were injured. The attack proceeded in broad daylight on clear sunny day as the Liberty displayed the American flag. The attack went on for two hours, according to Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
      On that June day in 1967, the weather was beautiful... Clear and sunny, visibility unlimited... the LIBERTY, an elaborate state-of-the art intelligence gathering platform, was in international waters off the Gaza strip and was flying the Stars and Stripes. Israeli reconnaissance planes flew overhead for hours. Pilots and ship's crew waved to each other. Then, inexplicably, unmarked Israeli aircraft began attacking the ship.
The defenseless LIBERTY radioed for help. Two aircraft carriers in the Med responded by launching fighter aircraft. Unbelievably, they were recalled by the White House. RADM Geis, then commanding the carriers in the Sixth Fleet, called Washington personally to confirm the order. SecDef McNamara came on the line, then President Johnson. Johnson indicated to Geis that the aircraft were to be returned, that he would not have his allies embarrassed, and that he didn't care who was killed or what was done to the ship. Geis, like any good sailor, recalled the aircraft.

The official explanation for the attack is that it was a case of mistaken identity. That explanation is undermined by the following facts:

• The ship was clearly identified with an American flag.
• The three Israeli Mirage figher-bombers that attacked the ship were unmarked.
• The Mirage jets jamed the communication frequencies used by the ship.
• The jets strafed the ship at close range, where the details of the ship would have been cleary visible to the pilots.
• The attack included multiple waves of air assaults.
• The torpedo boats strafed survivors in life boats, an international war crime.
• The two aircraft sent by the US 6th fleet to defend the Liberty were recalled.
• The recall order was confirmed by the White House.

While one theory holds that the attack was perpetrated by Israel acting alone, another theory puts responsibility on the Johnson administration.

Israeli Pilot Claims Attack Was Intentional

Fifteen years after the attack an Israeli Pilot who was ordered to participate in the attack came forward, approaching Liberty survivors and former Congressman Paul N. McCloskey. The pilot relates that he identified the ship as American and informed his superiors, but was told to proceed with the attack. When he refused to do so, he was arrested on returning to base. 1