1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,120 The Middle East war of June of 1967 caused major changes to the maps, the people, and 2 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,120 the governments in the Middle East. 3 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:25,080 The early morning of June 5 exploded with the surprise attack of the Israeli Air Force 4 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:27,400 on the Egyptian airplanes on the ground. 5 00:00:27,799 --> 00:00:30,599 80% of the Egyptian Air Force was destroyed. 6 00:00:30,599 --> 00:00:37,200 By June 7, Israel had destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. 7 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:42,200 They had control of the Sinai Peninsula, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. 8 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:50,000 On June 8, the USS Liberty, America's most sophisticated intelligence ship in 1967, 9 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:57,200 was attacked by Israeli air and naval forces in international waters 13 miles off of El... 10 00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:58,200 in Sinai. 11 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:01,200 34 Americans were killed. 12 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,200 172 were wounded. 13 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:09,200 The Israeli and American governments pronounced the attack as a case of mistake... 14 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,200 Issi Rehar was the chief of Israeli naval operations. 15 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,200 He reported a ship had shelled the port city of El Arish. 16 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:29,200 So I think around 12 o'clock I decided to order three MTBs, motor torpedo boats, fro... 17 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:34,200 Are you sure you can't see any kind of an identification? 18 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,200 And all the words came back, no. 19 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,200 If you will be sure that it is a military ship, you can hit it. 20 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,200 The first Mirage pilot radioed oil is spilling out into the water. 21 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,200 Another added, great, wonderful, she's burning, she's burning. 22 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:55,200 And El Arish commander reported, he's hit her a lot, there's an oil slick in the water. 23 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,200 Then headquarters asked, Manakam, is he screwing her? 24 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:05,200 The next wave was Super Mystères with thousand pound bombs and canisters of jell... 25 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:10,199 Someone in Southern Command called, he's going down low with napalm all the time. 26 00:02:10,199 --> 00:02:14,199 The flight leader noted, it would be a blessing if we could have iron bombs, 27 00:02:14,199 --> 00:02:18,199 otherwise our Navy is going to get here and do the sink in. 28 00:02:18,199 --> 00:02:24,199 A pilot interrupted, pay attention, the ship's markings are Charlie, Tango, Romeo 5. 29 00:02:24,199 --> 00:02:26,199 There's no flag on her. 30 00:02:26,199 --> 00:02:30,199 And headquarters ordered, leave her. 31 00:02:30,199 --> 00:02:35,199 The time now is 14.12 and he says, I see CTR 5. 32 00:02:35,199 --> 00:02:40,199 And the minute we hear that, the Air Force stops all operations and says, 33 00:02:40,199 --> 00:02:43,199 all our aircraft, all our attack aircraft, please stop. 34 00:02:43,199 --> 00:02:48,199 I must say that at that point in time, in my mind, it was an American ship. 35 00:02:48,199 --> 00:02:52,199 But that opinion was not shared by the commander of the torpedo boat squadron. 36 00:02:52,199 --> 00:02:56,199 He believed it to be a small Egyptian freighter, the El Qasir. 37 00:02:56,199 --> 00:03:00,199 We told him, there are some doubts about identification. 38 00:03:00,199 --> 00:03:05,199 These doubts incredibly did not reach the commanding officer who ordered the torpedo... 39 00:03:05,199 --> 00:03:10,199 That order did not reach the commanding officer on the bridge where they launched ... 40 00:03:10,199 --> 00:03:16,199 At about the range of a thousand yards, a little bit more than a thousand yards, 41 00:03:16,199 --> 00:03:29,199 I ordered to prepare the torpedoes and ordered that all commanders would take the... 42 00:03:30,199 --> 00:03:37,199 This is the story of the attack on the Liberty told by Israeli and U.S. governmen... 43 00:03:37,199 --> 00:03:41,199 Now we are going to show you what really happened. 44 00:03:41,199 --> 00:03:47,199 The survivors of the 294-man crew of the USS Liberty will tell you their story. 45 00:03:59,199 --> 00:04:03,199 I'm Tito Howard, the producer of The Loss of Liberty. 46 00:04:03,199 --> 00:04:12,199 The host for this program about the attack on the USS Liberty will be Dr. Richard Kiefer... 47 00:04:12,199 --> 00:04:16,199 Dr. Kiefer was the only doctor aboard Liberty. 48 00:04:16,199 --> 00:04:21,199 He had a gunshot wound, he had a burn, he had a broken right kneecap, 49 00:04:21,199 --> 00:04:27,199 and he had 11 pieces of shrapnel in his abdomen which he kept together with a life... 50 00:04:27,199 --> 00:04:35,199 That man stood on those legs for 28 consecutive hours, saving American lives a... 51 00:04:36,199 --> 00:04:40,199 This film should shock decent Americans. 52 00:04:40,199 --> 00:04:45,199 Above all, men and women who served in America's armed forces, 53 00:04:45,199 --> 00:04:54,199 it will shock particularly as it was an attack not by terrorists implacably oppose... 54 00:04:54,199 --> 00:04:57,199 as is the case of the USS Cole. 55 00:04:57,199 --> 00:05:02,199 The Liberty is the most decorated ship in the history of the United States Navy. 56 00:05:02,199 --> 00:05:09,199 840 medals, including the Medal of Honor for her skipper, the Presidential Unit Citatio... 57 00:05:09,199 --> 00:05:16,199 two Navy Crosses, 11 Silver Stars, and 204 Purple Hearts. 58 00:05:16,199 --> 00:05:21,199 The day before, I was topside when Israeli planes came by, 59 00:05:21,199 --> 00:05:27,199 very close where we could wave to the pilots and they were that close where we couldn't... 60 00:05:27,199 --> 00:05:32,199 It was a very clear day, it was a warm day, sunshine was shining brightly out, 61 00:05:32,199 --> 00:05:38,199 nice breeze blowing, and I distinctly remember hearing the flag flapping in the... 62 00:05:38,199 --> 00:05:45,199 There was approximately 13 sorties of our ship from 6 o'clock till 12 o'clock in the... 63 00:05:45,199 --> 00:05:50,199 We had a general quarters drill that lasted 45 minutes or so. 64 00:05:50,199 --> 00:05:56,199 Our captain, like me being an engineer, really believed in watertight integrity 65 00:05:56,199 --> 00:06:02,199 and making sure our people were equipped and knew how to fight fires and repair damage. 66 00:06:02,199 --> 00:06:06,199 I was coming to go back to the Trescon area and I stepped out on deck, 67 00:06:06,199 --> 00:06:09,199 that plane came by and looked right in the cockpit. 68 00:06:09,199 --> 00:06:13,199 Do you wear your driveway? That's how close they were and they knew who they were. 69 00:06:14,199 --> 00:06:17,199 All the recon flights that they had that morning, 70 00:06:17,199 --> 00:06:22,199 looking at our ship for approximately 6 to 7 hours, they had a good idea of what they w... 71 00:06:22,199 --> 00:06:26,199 And they hit us hard and fast with everything they had. 72 00:06:30,199 --> 00:06:34,199 Commander William McGonigal, the ship's captain, although he had been badly wounded, 73 00:06:34,199 --> 00:06:37,199 most of his bridge crew had been killed. 74 00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:41,199 He stayed on the bridge throughout the attack on the long night that followed. 75 00:06:41,199 --> 00:06:47,199 Admired and respected by his crew, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor ... 76 00:06:47,199 --> 00:06:54,199 When the plane struck, it was without provocation and certainly unexpected. 77 00:06:54,199 --> 00:07:01,199 And they seemed to descend on us from all directions at the same time. 78 00:07:01,199 --> 00:07:07,199 Those rockets and machine guns tore the ship. 79 00:07:07,199 --> 00:07:14,199 It killed men on deck and we were defenseless. 80 00:07:14,199 --> 00:07:22,199 I heard this big bang and there was bullet holes all behind the cushions of the couch... 81 00:07:22,199 --> 00:07:25,199 And by the time I got to the door of the ward room, 82 00:07:25,199 --> 00:07:31,199 the skipper was on the PA system that was under attack by unknown forces, Manure Bat... 83 00:07:31,199 --> 00:07:34,199 Then the regular General Porter sound alarm went off. 84 00:07:34,199 --> 00:07:41,199 And right across the hatch from the ward room is where I would go through, down two deck... 85 00:07:41,199 --> 00:07:48,199 When I went through there, there was one rocket that came through and helped me to ... 86 00:07:48,199 --> 00:07:53,199 When I got up off my knees down there, well, we were well under attack. 87 00:07:53,199 --> 00:08:07,199 And the skipper again was on the phone system telling auxiliary radio to get word out to... 88 00:08:07,199 --> 00:08:11,199 Manure Porter Station was radio central. 89 00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:16,199 It was my responsibility to keep up ship to ship for ship to shore communications. 90 00:08:17,199 --> 00:08:23,199 And out and back in radio central, we were taking rounds through the bulkheads. 91 00:08:23,199 --> 00:08:31,199 There was a two fifty five gallon drums of gasoline just outside the bulkhead on the ... 92 00:08:31,199 --> 00:08:38,200 And that was heating that outside bulkhead and peeling the paint off on the inside. 93 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,200 There was a lot of smoke in the compartment. 94 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:47,200 There's holes where we're taking rounds where the sunlight shining through and it was a... 95 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:54,200 I was topside fighting fires and doing other damage control work throughout the duratio... 96 00:08:54,200 --> 00:09:02,200 At the same time, I was able to observe the jets flying overhead and I also observed t... 97 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:05,200 At no time did that flag hang limp from the mast. 98 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:11,200 I was one of the two signalmen on the USS Liberty when the ship was attacked. 99 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:17,200 And my only job during the attack was to make sure that the flag was flying. 100 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:21,200 So every few minutes I would walk up at the signal bridge up at the mast. 101 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:29,200 And fighting what fire we could with what little water I could give the people topsi... 102 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:34,200 On the first pass they knocked out our ability to call for help. 103 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:42,200 The one remaining antenna, which I had shut down because it had some problems in the... 104 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:49,200 I had to jury rig a coaxial cable directly from the transmitter to the antenna. 105 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:55,200 So we were working feverishly to try to get a signal out at that time. 106 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,200 And then finally we were able to get a signal to the sixth fleet. 107 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:06,200 And then I was monitoring that communications and they said that they would be sending... 108 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:12,200 And so at that point we just felt overjoyed knowing that there was going to be aircraf... 109 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:24,200 The initial strike by the planes on the ship commenced at about five minutes after two ... 110 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:30,200 And the attack lasted about 20 minutes. 111 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:38,200 The ship was fired at from port to starboard, starboard to port, stem to stern. 112 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:53,200 And there was not a single compartment above the waterline that did not have one or mor... 113 00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:05,200 At 2.35 pm, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recalled the 12 Navy fighters that had bee... 114 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:10,200 At that time, no one aboard the Liberty had identified the attacking Israelis. 115 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:20,200 It was one and a half hours later that our embassy in Israel first told Washington th... 116 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,200 How then did McNamara know to recall the help sent to defend the Liberty? 117 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:35,200 When the ship came under attack, now here this General Quarters, this is no drill, t... 118 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:41,200 And there were ping pings, we heard a lot of pinging, which were bullets running across... 119 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:49,200 We didn't know what was going on, but of course General Quarters had sounded, so we... 120 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:54,200 We were under attack, we could hear these shells hitting the ship. 121 00:11:54,200 --> 00:12:01,200 The whole ship would ring, it was like you were on the inside of a huge bell and some... 122 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:06,200 The aircraft take pictures as they fire their guns. 123 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:14,200 These are used for analysis of their tactics, and these are used for confirmation of the... 124 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,200 These pictures have never been publicly presented. 125 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:28,200 Lieutenant Ennis was sitting on the deck, and there was blood coming out of his mouth, a... 126 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:41,200 Lieutenant Toth had got blown off, I think the old four level, but I come across him ... 127 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:50,200 My brother, he was sent on the bridge of the ship to find out who the planes were, wher... 128 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,200 They had no markings, that's against the Junior Liberals of War right there. 129 00:12:54,200 --> 00:13:01,200 He received a silver star for his efforts, and he was cut down by the planes. 130 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:13,200 The captain, initially after the attack, sustaining shrapnel wounds in his knee, an... 131 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:17,200 I think about five cups of coffee went down to the captain to keep him going. 132 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:22,200 It was impressive because with all the blood loss and everything, he was going all nigh... 133 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:37,200 A short time after the air attack had been completed, the three torpedo boats approac... 134 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:42,200 The three Israeli torpedo boats fired six torpedoes at the liberty. 135 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,200 Because of Captain McDonald's handing of the ship, five missed. 136 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:52,200 Intelligence base was destroyed. 25 American sailors died almost instantly. 137 00:13:55,200 --> 00:14:05,200 This hole on the side was in excess of 40 feet in diameter. You could put your foot ... 138 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:11,200 We couldn't believe what we saw. You couldn't walk around that part of the deck without... 139 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,200 In fact, the filetorne myself had found a shoe with a foot still in it. 140 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:22,200 I do remember the alarm for standby to abandon ship. I don't believe they were... 141 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:29,200 They were getting, preparing to, and then that was called off because apparently the... 142 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:33,200 So if you went in water, you were on your own. 143 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:40,200 The list on the ship was considerable. You could tell it looked like at first we were... 144 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:47,200 The lights went out and the ship rolled over, and I figured, well, it's the end. 145 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:54,200 The torpedo had hit the side of the ship, of the room I just stepped out of, killed eve... 146 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:00,200 This fellow in first class that I mentioned, he was on the phone at the time just outsi... 147 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,200 It took off the back of his head. 148 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:10,200 It broke my lower left leg, both bones. It collapsed my lung, broke ribs, fractured m... 149 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:16,200 We took the guy down below, and I don't know how many runs I made up, and then, you kno... 150 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:23,200 I saw all the bodies laying there on the tables that Dr. Keefer had been working on. 151 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:28,200 I was told that he was in the officers ward room operating on more people. 152 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:32,200 34 were killed, another 172 were wounded. 153 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:40,200 The care of these people was done by myself with the assistance of two corpsmen. 154 00:15:41,200 --> 00:16:00,200 The corpsmen did many things of minor surgery, and I just had so much to do keep... 155 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:08,200 We were in international waters. It was a beautiful day. You couldn't mistake us, an... 156 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:17,200 They were there to kill us, and it just didn't register. Here they were Israeli... 157 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,200 It was just a very, very appalling situation. 158 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,200 A strange quiet descended on the Liberty crew. 159 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:36,200 After the explosion, the pounding of machine gun bullets slowed and stopped. 160 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:44,200 Fires were put out. The stunned, angry, and exhausted crew caught their collective... 161 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:57,200 Limping at five knots towards Sanctuary several hundred miles to the north, they h... 162 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:06,200 34 were dead, 171 were wounded. All survivors had mental scars. 163 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:12,200 There was not one single life wreck. The wounded were treated. 164 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:18,200 Sailors remember that they were promised help. They expected that help. 165 00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:24,200 That help in the form of Phantom jets from the USS Saratoga was on its way. 166 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:33,200 It never arrived. It would be the next morning, 17 hours after the attack began,... 167 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:41,200 Finally, the USS Davis and later the USS Massey came alongside the Liberty. 168 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:51,200 Many of their sailors wept as they boarded the Liberty, saw open decks stained with... 169 00:17:52,200 --> 00:18:01,200 The helicopters from the USS America arrived several hours later to medevac the most... 170 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:15,200 The air attack by two squadrons of Israeli aircraft, French-built Mirage 3s and... 171 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:20,200 Canisters of napalm had torched the ship. 172 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:26,200 After the ferocious air attack, Liberty was pounded by three Israeli torpedo boats. 173 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:34,200 One of their six torpedoes struck the Liberty, left a gaping hole at the water... 174 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:39,200 There were thousands of holes from armor-piercing machine gun bullets. 175 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:46,200 They sank life rafts, shot at firefighters and stretcher bearers at the bridge and in... 176 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:54,200 Dr. Kuefer and his pharmacist mates performed in heroic fashion. 177 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:58,200 How did all of them cook? 178 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:06,200 About the same time, Israeli land and air forces attacked the Golan Heights in a... 179 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:16,200 The attack, the recall, the jamming, the pounding, the torpedoes, somehow the Liber... 180 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:24,200 And almost immediately, the second part of the outrage, the cover-up by the Israeli a... 181 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:30,200 I had to go to work at midnight, and I'm trying to sleep. 182 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:41,200 You know, just thinking about how we had been so shafted by our government, the Israeli... 183 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,200 And it just, it angered me. It really, really angered me. 184 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:49,200 On the day of the attack, I tried to coordinate communications. 185 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:53,200 The Israelis had taken out all of our transmitting antennas. 186 00:19:53,200 --> 00:20:01,200 My RMs, not knowing any better, during the strafing runs, were stringing long wires s... 187 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:08,200 And thanks to them, the ones that survived, we did get an SOS out to the USS America. 188 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,200 Without George Golan, the ship would have sunk. 189 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:18,200 Had it sunk, I assume when debris washed ashore the next day, it would have been... 190 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,200 There were many, many miracles that day. 191 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,200 I shouldn't be here. 192 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:31,200 After watertight integrity had been established, and the hatch had been sailed... 193 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:36,200 And Buddha Shnell, Bud Shnell, went down and pulled me out. 194 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:40,200 I don't know what you're supposed to be doing. 195 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,200 None of us should be alive today. 196 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:55,200 Much to my dismay, I personally witnessed the machine gunning of life rafts as they floa... 197 00:20:55,200 --> 00:21:08,200 The crew members raked the life rafts thoroughly with machine gun fire, making s... 198 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:18,200 After the Israeli torpedo blew a huge hole in the liberty, the last three life rafts wer... 199 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:24,200 Israeli torpedo boats sank two of those rafts, took the third aboard. 200 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:28,200 We were left with no rafts, nothing that could float. 201 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:33,200 Shooting life rafts on a ship in distress is a war crime. 202 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:37,200 Worst of all is what our government is doing to cover all this whole thing up. 203 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:47,200 When I heard that Johnson, in the heat of the battle, was telling the Admiral Geiss of t... 204 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:56,200 that he didn't give a damn, that every man drowned in the ship sinks, he said, I don'... 205 00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:01,200 I made me sort of wonder, with unmarked planes, how did he know it was our allies? 206 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:08,200 We should have had planes on site 45 minutes into this two-hour attack, and they never... 207 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:19,200 So did Israel apologize and then continue to attack us for an hour and 15 more minutes,... 208 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:34,200 It's the cause of a top secret operation of Liberty, and it being the sensitivity of i... 209 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:39,200 You know, don't discuss this among yourselves, referring to the attack. 210 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:52,200 Don't get over on the beach drinking in the bars and running your mouth, and he says, ... 211 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,200 Well, another light goes off in my mind. 212 00:22:54,200 --> 00:23:03,200 Here's a flag admiral in the middle of the gung-ho 6th Fleet telling enlisted men to ... 213 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:09,200 And he says, you know, so that we won't be singled out and be asked questions about it. 214 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:13,200 And he says, don't discuss the attack among yourselves. 215 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,200 Don't write your friends back home about it. 216 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:20,200 He says, in fact, when you get back home, don't even discuss it with your wife and... 217 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,200 And he said quite sternly, just forget it ever happened. 218 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:39,200 And he says that repercussions for violating these orders to silence could result in yo... 219 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:48,200 I noticed a very large helicopter with Israeli markings hovering very close to us. 220 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:57,200 I looked in the door of the helicopter, which was open, and I could see a member of... 221 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:03,200 They had just heard that the 6th Fleet had finally launched aircraft to come to our... 222 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,200 And so they just left the scene. 223 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:12,200 Helicopter gunships, I'm sure in my mind would have picked off survivors if we'd... 224 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,200 They were sent there to finish us off. 225 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,200 The aircraft were sent to make us incommunicados. 226 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,200 We couldn't send an SOS out. 227 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:27,200 The torpedo boats were sent to sink us, and the helicopters were sent to pick off... 228 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,200 It was a perfectly executed military operation. 229 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:44,200 If you look at the photographs of the Liberty after the attack, on the first strafing ru... 230 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:49,200 In less than two seconds, they had taken out all our communication capability. 231 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:58,200 The attack on the USS Liberty lasted as long as the attack on Pearl Harbor, about two... 232 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:05,200 You've heard the outrageous, implausible Israeli version of the attack on Liberty t... 233 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,200 You've heard what actually happened, told by the valiant Liberty crew. 234 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:13,200 Now, hear what some of America's greatest heroes and leaders have to say. 235 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:20,200 Colonel Mitchell Page was the last Marine standing after repulsing a Japanese regime... 236 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,200 We all know that this was in international waters. 237 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:36,200 It was an unprovoked, intentional attack on a U.S. vessel with one objective, to sink it... 238 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,200 Unprovoked attack. 239 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:42,200 I think it was dastardly. 240 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:47,200 I think it was a betrayal of any friendship that we may have had with that nation. 241 00:25:47,200 --> 00:26:01,200 And I think that it should be exposed to the entire world and all brought out so that t... 242 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,200 And very widely you could see this was an American ship. 243 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:11,200 And not only did the Israelis attack, they did this with their Army, Navy, and Air... 244 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:19,200 Though badly wounded, Navy Master Chief Bob Bush held off a Japanese advance while sav... 245 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:27,200 You know, it's impossible for me to figure out why maybe I would sit here and attack ... 246 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:31,200 I mean, they're getting our money to buy those French airplanes. 247 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,200 And then they turn around and attack our ship when they can see that it's our ship. 248 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,200 That's absolutely uncalled for. 249 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:45,200 Army Colonel Lou Millett led the last bayonet charge against vastly superior Chinese for... 250 00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,200 I was in the World War II. 251 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:54,200 I studied all the different types of aircraft so that when I shot at a plane I made sure... 252 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,200 They know what those ships look like. 253 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,200 And if they don't, I can't conceive that they don't know. 254 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:05,200 I do know there's, it was a criminal act. 255 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:07,200 It was an act of war. 256 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:16,200 It's as bad as Vietnam allowing people who try to save people from tyranny to die for... 257 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:23,200 Admiral Thomas Moorer is the longest serving active four-star admiral in American history. 258 00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:28,200 He is the only American admiral to have commanded both the Atlantic and Pacific... 259 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:37,200 He was head of NATO forces, served as chief of naval operations and chairman of the Jo... 260 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:44,200 The Navy's chief fighter, the F-14 Tomcat, was named after Admiral Tom Moorer. 261 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:55,200 The question is, if the Israelis thought the frequencies they jammed were in fact... 262 00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:02,200 why did they jam the American frequencies? 263 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:09,200 There's no question about the fact that the jamming of the Liberty's frequencies was... 264 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:14,200 and was undoubtedly ordered by high authority. 265 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:24,200 Since a large part of the caches were caused by torpedo boats, 266 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:33,200 could have been prevented from making those attacks by the aircraft that were on their... 267 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:40,200 Admiral Arley Burke was known as Mr. Navy. 268 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:47,200 His long and illustrious career was capped by him becoming the chief of naval operations. 269 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:56,200 The high tech modern American Navy destroyers were named the Arley E. Burke Class of... 270 00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:02,200 I don't know yet why we didn't protect that ship. 271 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:10,200 I don't know why the Israelis would take such terrific chances. 272 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:19,200 It must have been something that was very important to them to decide to attack with... 273 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:29,200 Recuperating from serious throat surgery, the Saratoga skipper Joe Tully spoke about the... 274 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:39,200 I had launch ready at that time, 12 aircraft conventionally armed, and I immediately... 275 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,200 To my surprise, the Americans did not launch. 276 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:54,200 About the same time, a message came from Rear Admiral Larry Geiss, who was the carrier... 277 00:29:54,200 --> 00:30:00,200 and who was not the author in tactical command, but who was senior to me, 278 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:11,200 who had somehow been given tactical command or assumed it, ordering the site as that t... 279 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:21,200 And it was the first time that the hotline, the red line between Washington and Moscow... 280 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:41,200 And the message from the United States to Chairman Kosygin at the time was, advise... 281 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:47,200 I have spent a large part of my life flying over the oceans and identifying ships, 282 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:55,200 and this ship was perhaps the easiest ship to identify that was listed in the United Sta... 283 00:30:55,200 --> 00:31:04,200 Equipped with antenna from bow to stern, pointing in every direction, it reminds on... 284 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:11,200 and a look that made it extremely easy to recognize. 285 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:21,200 And so I will never, never buy the idea that the pilots thought this was some other ship. 286 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:32,200 And it appeared from the ferocity of the attack that the intent of the attackers wa... 287 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:41,200 Maybe they hoped to have no survivors so that they would not be held accountable for the... 288 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:46,200 We didn't know who was attacking us. They didn't know who was attacking us. 289 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:54,200 I don't know how Washington can say, don't go because they're friends of ours. So that's... 290 00:31:55,200 --> 00:32:02,200 I never myself accepted the Israeli reported explanation. 291 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:08,200 Accidents don't occur through repeated attacks by surface vessels and by aircraft. 292 00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:17,200 It obviously was a decision taken pretty high up on the Israeli side because it involved... 293 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:24,200 The ship was flying an American flag, even if it had been unidentified from an Israeli... 294 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:31,200 It was a reckless thing for them to do. Suppose it had been a Soviet ship. Thank G... 295 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:40,200 George Ball, the brilliant and courageous undersecretary of state at the time of the... 296 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:50,200 He said, the ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack was that it had far more effect on... 297 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:58,200 Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the... 298 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:06,200 If America's leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of... 299 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:12,200 it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything. 300 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,200 Fleet tug Papago would be our escort into Malta. 301 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:32,200 The divers rigged a large canvas over the torpedo hull and it was secured in place... 302 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:37,200 Once the canvas was in place, the Liberty could proceed under its own power towards... 303 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:44,200 Once we were in dry dock in Malta, then came the gruesome task of removing the bodies a... 304 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:54,200 I was unfortunate enough to draw the first shift as part of our division, which would... 305 00:33:54,200 --> 00:34:01,200 The first body to come out was almost unrecognizable. Due to being in solar for ... 306 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:06,200 The fingerprint in the body, put it in a body bag, and moved it out of the spaces. 307 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:10,199 This continued through the night and on into the next day. 308 00:34:10,199 --> 00:34:15,199 After 33 days in Malta and the Liberty was repaired, we brought the ship back to... 309 00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:18,199 Now it was open. The Liberty was home. 310 00:34:18,199 --> 00:34:22,199 Over, and will never be over until the truth is known. 311 00:34:24,199 --> 00:34:28,199 The cover-up began with the report of the casualties. 312 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:34,199 The first word that we had out was before the torpedo attack that we had nine dead and 7... 313 00:34:34,199 --> 00:34:55,199 This has been the number that has almost invariably appeared in the newspapers as a... 314 00:34:55,199 --> 00:35:08,199 There was no press campaign to cover this in its entirety for the benefit of the Americ... 315 00:35:08,199 --> 00:35:15,199 As a matter of fact, in many cases the press supported the Israeli campaign. 316 00:35:16,199 --> 00:35:26,199 Future Judge Advocate General of the Navy, Rear Admiral Merlin Starring, was given le... 317 00:35:26,199 --> 00:35:43,199 In the course of my career as a Navy lawyer, I have been called upon to review and take... 318 00:35:43,199 --> 00:36:01,199 This is the only instance in which a record of such an investigation has been withdraw... 319 00:36:01,199 --> 00:36:04,199 As you know, it's a voluminous document. 320 00:36:04,199 --> 00:36:21,199 One of the things that I initially had difficulty with and still do is the fact t... 321 00:36:21,199 --> 00:36:31,199 Available evidence combines to indicate the attack on liberty on 8 June was in fact a... 322 00:36:31,199 --> 00:36:42,199 That is the sort of thing in this record that I found great difficulty in supporting fro... 323 00:36:42,199 --> 00:36:56,199 I'm convinced that it was withdrawn from me in this instance because of my statement t... 324 00:36:56,199 --> 00:37:04,199 The subsequent cover up the Israelis maintained that they thought the Liberty w... 325 00:37:04,199 --> 00:37:06,199 This is not credible. 326 00:37:06,199 --> 00:37:15,199 Not only was the Liberty flying a large American flag, but it was five times as la... 327 00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:20,199 It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the Egyptian ship. 328 00:37:20,199 --> 00:37:24,199 Tordella was the deputy director at the time of the attack. 329 00:37:24,199 --> 00:37:34,199 Tordella, when he received a copy of the Israeli mistake explanation, wrote across ... 330 00:37:34,199 --> 00:37:36,199 He didn't believe it at all. 331 00:37:36,199 --> 00:37:51,199 He later wrote another memorandum for the record indicating that he thought that the... 332 00:37:51,199 --> 00:37:56,199 This is the highest professional at NSA. 333 00:37:56,199 --> 00:38:05,199 In addition, the director of NSA at the time, Marshall Carter, told me that he thought i... 334 00:38:05,199 --> 00:38:14,199 In addition to that, he was very offended, and another memorandum he wrote that it... 335 00:38:14,199 --> 00:38:18,199 They actually wanted to sink the ship so that Israel wouldn't be embarrassed. 336 00:38:18,199 --> 00:38:30,199 Admiral Kidd, when he came aboard our ship to interview the survivors, he got us in smal... 337 00:38:30,199 --> 00:38:42,199 The first thing he did is he took off his stars, laid them on the table and said,... 338 00:38:42,199 --> 00:38:51,199 So we did. We trusted him. We opened up with our hearts. We told him exactly the way we... 339 00:38:51,199 --> 00:39:03,199 And when that was done, he put his stars back on, on his lapel, and he ordered us not to... 340 00:39:03,199 --> 00:39:12,199 If we did, we faced the possibility of a court martial, penitentiary or worse, and... 341 00:39:12,199 --> 00:39:19,199 Actually, he scared the death out of me. I didn't talk about the attack to anyone for... 342 00:39:19,199 --> 00:39:34,199 Not knowing why he did this and not having our government back us then and now, it's ... 343 00:39:34,199 --> 00:39:44,199 I think it's important that we do have an investigation. I would never give up on th... 344 00:39:44,199 --> 00:39:51,199 Pete Guter from the Pueblo said he wouldn't even have gone if he could have known what... 345 00:39:51,199 --> 00:39:55,199 Paul, you knew some fiddly little thing you heard about on the news. 346 00:39:55,199 --> 00:40:16,199 In late 1991, Dwight Porter, who was ambassador to Lebanon during the 1967 war,... 347 00:40:16,199 --> 00:40:23,199 The pilots were given orders to attack the ship, and they replied immediately that it... 348 00:40:23,199 --> 00:40:29,199 The Israeli headquarters responded, you have your orders, attack the ship. 349 00:40:29,199 --> 00:40:34,199 The pilots tried once again, but it's an American ship. We can see its flag. 350 00:40:34,199 --> 00:40:44,199 And headquarters insisted, you have your orders, attack it. And attack it, they did... 351 00:40:44,199 --> 00:40:57,199 One of the things I found out was that it had never been discovered before, was the fact... 352 00:40:57,199 --> 00:41:09,199 It was an EC-121, and during the entire course of the war, the US had eavesdroppin... 353 00:41:10,199 --> 00:41:29,199 And this plane was flying right over the scene of the attack, and I talked to two o... 354 00:41:29,199 --> 00:41:40,199 Now that flies in the face of what the Israeli explanation says. The Israeli... 355 00:41:41,199 --> 00:41:52,199 Evans and Novak got further confirmation of the Israeli attack from an American-born... 356 00:41:52,199 --> 00:42:06,199 He told reporters, quote, everyone felt that it was an American ship and that it was th... 357 00:42:06,199 --> 00:42:17,199 Mintz told Evans and Novak that the Israelis were guilty of an outrage. True. But the... 358 00:42:17,199 --> 00:42:27,199 Well, at the time, the Liberty was off the coast of the Sinai, off the coast of where... 359 00:42:27,199 --> 00:42:49,199 According to Israeli military historians who wrote reports of it at the time and other... 360 00:42:49,199 --> 00:42:59,199 So they wouldn't have to transport the prisoners because they had no place to put... 361 00:42:59,199 --> 00:43:09,199 If the planes dispatched by the Saratoga had continued to the rescue, the Israelis woul... 362 00:43:09,199 --> 00:43:20,199 They said they had recognized their error and they apologized. And the attack had alread... 363 00:43:20,199 --> 00:43:36,199 The attack continued for another hour and 20 minutes, during which 25 more American... 364 00:43:36,199 --> 00:43:48,199 The point was, the attack did take place. There were a lot of reasons that the Israe... 365 00:43:48,199 --> 00:44:01,199 I mean, you're not going to take the word of somebody who was the principal person who... 366 00:44:01,199 --> 00:44:18,199 Every one of the thousand odd clashes between Syria and Israel between 1948 and 1967 was... 367 00:44:18,199 --> 00:44:33,199 A few dozen of the clashes were ambiguous and all of the rest were caused by Israel. Wel... 368 00:44:33,199 --> 00:44:52,199 Still, we no longer have to rely only on the UN documentation. Washington Dian, who... 369 00:44:52,199 --> 00:45:07,199 The interview was kept secret until April 1997 when it was published in an Israeli... 370 00:45:07,199 --> 00:45:22,199 Why did he give the order to invade? Essentially, it was because of pressure fr... 371 00:45:22,199 --> 00:45:41,199 And when asked if that were all there was to it, Dian replied, I can tell you with... 372 00:45:41,199 --> 00:45:58,199 The best one is the one where they wanted to go on the Heist. And Johnson said, that's... 373 00:45:58,199 --> 00:46:05,199 If we could get the truth of liberty out, that it would change history, I think, in... 374 00:46:05,199 --> 00:46:17,199 I cannot, absolutely can't see why our American newspapers and TV people have hel... 375 00:46:17,199 --> 00:46:32,199 The Navy Board of Inquiry would not admit testimony about the jamming, the recall, t... 376 00:46:32,199 --> 00:46:42,199 They put me into a ward with 12 to 13 other patients, and within 30 minutes, they remo... 377 00:46:42,199 --> 00:46:58,199 I noticed that I had a name tag with Smith on, and right after I noticed that, an... 378 00:46:58,199 --> 00:47:02,199 I still have 53 pieces of shrapnel in me today. 379 00:47:02,199 --> 00:47:12,199 Never before has the U.S. Navy ignored eyewitness testimony of American military ... 380 00:47:12,199 --> 00:47:17,199 Certain entries in the ship's log of June 8th have raised serious questions. 381 00:47:17,199 --> 00:47:20,199 Nobody knew who was wounded or how severely. 382 00:47:20,199 --> 00:47:24,199 This had not been established until days after reaching Malta. 383 00:47:24,199 --> 00:47:30,199 The log also minimized the duration of the attack by over an hour and a half,... 384 00:47:30,199 --> 00:47:39,199 It then documented the number of wounded, not as the actual 172, but at the widely... 385 00:47:39,199 --> 00:47:48,199 It should be a congressional committee, both Senate and House, to examine all the data... 386 00:47:48,199 --> 00:47:55,199 And it's getting late to do this because, like McGonagall, God bless his soul is gone. 387 00:47:55,199 --> 00:48:06,199 I know that Bill was on board the USS Liberty, and his ship was off the coast at... 388 00:48:06,199 --> 00:48:19,199 And yet, our government printed, put it in writing, in the United States Senate book,... 389 00:48:19,199 --> 00:48:26,199 To me, that is one of the worst cover-ups in American history. How low can our governme... 390 00:48:26,199 --> 00:48:37,199 And it's something I'd like to see totally investigated at a closure of this issue,... 391 00:48:37,199 --> 00:48:41,199 I think he recalled the people that were to defend his ship. 392 00:48:41,199 --> 00:48:51,199 I have never accepted the Israeli explanation, and so far as I'm concerned, ... 393 00:48:51,199 --> 00:48:57,199 Things like this don't happen. Things are cause to happen. 394 00:48:57,199 --> 00:49:03,199 There must be some reason, some reason, why more is not known. 395 00:49:03,199 --> 00:49:15,199 There must be some reason why we didn't react more deliberately, more directly, more... 396 00:49:16,199 --> 00:49:20,199 As a Marine, I'm proud to say that three members of the Liberty crew were Marines. 397 00:49:20,199 --> 00:49:29,199 Two of them died that day, but Bryce Lockwood was decorated for saving sailors' lives. 398 00:49:29,199 --> 00:49:38,199 And Bill McGonigal, the skipper of the Liberty, was awarded the Medal of Honor fo... 399 00:49:38,199 --> 00:49:55,199 And I firmly believe, after review of the documentation of this film, that an in-dep... 400 00:49:55,199 --> 00:50:02,199 We need to take some very serious efforts to bring out the full story. 401 00:50:02,199 --> 00:50:09,199 And on that basis, I would certainly recommend that we pursue this with diligence. 402 00:50:09,199 --> 00:50:25,199 We go to the Congress and urge them to conduct a formal, complete investigation t... 403 00:50:25,199 --> 00:50:43,199 In the case of the Liberty, this is the first time, to my knowledge, where a United Stat... 404 00:50:43,199 --> 00:50:58,199 I have urged this over and over again, and I still think that the attack on the Liberty... 405 00:50:58,199 --> 00:51:08,199 Those murdered that day must not have died in vain. The plea for justice by the Navy's m... 406 00:51:08,199 --> 00:51:16,199 Americans must never forget this second day of infamy and our own unbalanced foreign... 407 00:52:08,199 --> 00:52:10,199 Thank you.