Remembering the Liberty

(MENAFN- Arab News) The 1967 june war continues to cast its long shadow across the arab world's modern history forty seven years after israel launched its sneak attack against egypt syria and jordan. and each year around this time arabs take to reflecting on that war's legacy and remembering the fallen.

but what is little known and little reported in the media is that there is a not altogether insignificant group of americans who annually commemorate that war as equally passionately and invoke the memory of those americans who at that time were murdered — and for these folks no other word will do here — by israel. if you guessed we're talking here about the uss liberty you would be right.

what happened on that day is well known. its details are already in the history books including the definitive work on the subject body of secrets by the investigative journalist james bamford. still a brief recapitulation may be in order. on that day june 8 1967 the uss liberty a virtually unarmed navy intelligence ship with a small crew was anchored a few miles off the sinai coast town of al-arish tasked with monitoring the goings on of the june war. that's when it stumbled upon a dreadful event effectively a war crime being committed by israeli forces in al-arish: lacking the logistics to house and feed the large number of egyptian prisoners they had captured earlier they opted instead to well butcher them by lining them up against walls with their hands tied behig their backs and calmly shooting them to death execution-style.

since israel did not want anyone snooping on its military operations let alone recording its atrocities it ordered an all-out attack on the liberty initially by fighter jets. during the assault the fighter jets dropped heavy bombs even napalm on it. as sailors scrambled to their rubber rafts three israeli pt boats then proceeded to fire torpedoes at the liberty virtually destroying it then israeli gunners targeted the escaping sailors. it was clear that the israelis' intention was not only to sink the vessel but to kill everyone on board as well. they ended up killing 34 sevrvicemen and injuring 171 some seriously. this represented 80 percent of the small crew. though the ship was clearly american with a large american flag flying from the mast and its name printed in bold type on the side visible even to the naked eye israel claimed that it was all a mistake since they took it to be part of the egyptian navy.

you would imagine that such an incident would've created an uproar in the us with the media investigating congress conducting hearings and the white house demanding detailed reports from the nsa the government agency that the liberty was conducting its surveillance for all in order to get to the bottom of how and why so many americans were so wantonly killed and maimed by a putative ally. none of that happened. despite a near universal consensus that the israeli attack was deliberate and calculated made with prior knowledge that the liberty was indeed a us navy ship the johnson administration swept the whole thing under the rug. it never investigated the incident it never took israel to task and it never sought justice for the victims. instead it actually concealed evidence. out of sight out of mind as it were.

but the survivors along with their families friends and supporters would not have any of that. enraged at the weak-kneed unconsciounable attitude evinced by their government not to mention that government's unbridled attempts to conceal evidence they went on to form the uss liberty veterans association. and year in year out they never give up on demanding justice on remembering the victims and on publicizing the brazen attack. they have held memorial services at arlington cemtery on june 8 of every year where the names of the 34 fallen shipmates are read and after each name is read a bell would ring at the grave site.

at times in recent years in an effort to finally obtain a full and open investigation of what had happened in international waters off the sinai coast these activists would head to the white house with the hope at least of being allowed to meet with the president in order to hand him a gift — a uss liberty jacket with the legend 'remember the liberty" inscribed on it. predictably they would always be turned away told that they could not give gifts directly to the president. so instead they would stand outside wearing their 'remember june 8 1967. uss liberty" shirts and handing out cards inscribed 'if americans knew" to white house staffers going in and out of the presidential mansion. you have got to take your hat off to such persistent folks.

the current president of the uss liberty veterans association joe meadors himself a us navy signalman who survived the israeli attack on the liberty at one time described his exprience on the doomed vessel almost exactly 47 years ago more than hinting at shenanigans from higher-ups: 'the attack lasted 90 minutes during which we sent off a message to the sixth fleet asking for assistance. we learned later that joe tully commanding officer of the uss saratoga launched aircraft [to aid the uss liberty] but he told us later that they were recalled before they reached the horizon. we found this out 20 years after the attack. the most frustrating thing has been a lack of reaction from the us government. on june 6 2005 we filed a war crimes report and they are required to investigate these allegations. they have written reports about our mission but they never did conduct an investigation of the attack itself."

in may 2010 meadors was a passenger on sfedoni one of the six civilian ships in the gaza freedom flotilla against which israel launched a military operation that killed nine activists on board. that would mark the feisty texan as one american who was attacked twice on the high seas by the israeli military and survived to fight on.

fourteen years ago in july 2000 the then president of the association philip tourney put it well when he chose to speak bluntly not unlike other survivors of the liberty are known to do and tell it like it is. 'the israelis got away with cold-blooded premeditated murder" he said. 'there's widespread cynicism that our elected officials will not go up against the powerful israeli lobby out of fear. this coverup must be investigated now."

it has not. but maybe one day a fearless legislator moved by the memory of the 'cold-blooded premeditated murder" of 34 american servicemen and the injury inflicted on 171 others will demand that a congressional committee be convened hearings held and facts finally revealed in order that once and for all the dead servicemen will finally rest in peace and their relatives will get closure.