Andrew Hitchcock’s Description
On today’s show I was joined by Dave Gahary and Phil Tourney to mark the 50th Anniversary of Israel’s attack on America, when on June 8th 1967 Israel attacked the USS Liberty.
In preparation for this show I read Dave and Phil’s definitive book on the attack which is entitled, “Erasing The Liberty,” in it’s entirety. During the show I covered 20 pages from 12 sections of the book, then I handed over to both Dave and Phil to offer their comments on each section.
Dave is an accomplished freelance journalist. Phil served on the USS Liberty and miraculously survived the attack in which 34 of his shipmates were killed and 174 were wounded.
Dave and Phil encourage the listeners to support their efforts in making a full length feature film, which will finally write Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty into mainstream history. The details of how you can do this are available by clicking on Dave and Phil’s website below.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:25]
You are listening to TBR radio, brought to you by The Barnes Review. Now the Andrew Carrington Hitchcock Show. Your host, Andrew Carrington Hitchcock.
Andrew: Hello everybody and today is a momentous day. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of Israel’s attack on America. I am, of course, referring to the USS Liberty. And I’ve got back with me two returning guests that did a show with me on the USS Liberty in the past. And that is Dave Gahary and Phil Tourney.
Guys, are you with me?
Dave: I am.
Phil: Yes, I’m here.
Andrew: Excellent! Well, you’ve kindly sent me a copy of this book, which quite honestly, it’s called “Erasing the Liberty”. It came out this year 2017, and this is the go-to book for the USS Liberty. If anyone wants to know about the USS Liberty, this is the only book you need! I’ve read it all the way through. And what we’re going to do today is, we’re going to run through the parts I’ve marked up, I’m going to read the sections. I think I’ve marked up about twelve, or thirteen sections. There’s a lot to read, then I’ll hand over to each of you for comments. And then I’ll go on to the next section. And then at the end of the show, anything that I haven’t raised that you want to raise, you’ll have plenty of time to do that, because I know this is going to run over the hour. And it’s important to me, to honor the victims of this heinous attack in the best way that I can. And that is to get as much information out on a show as I can with you both.
Erasing the Liberty by Phillip Tourney (click image to enlarge).
And just to let the listeners know, Phil Tourney is a survivor of this attack. He was on the ship on that day. And Dave Gahary is a journalist who has put this book together with Phil. This book, called “Erasing the Liberty”, together with Phil, and it is a fantastic book. I read it in two sittings, folks. It took me several hours, but it was a difficult book to put down. So I’m going to start off with some quotes from various people. At the start of the book says:
“They were sent there to finish us off. The aircraft was said to make us incommunicado, so we couldn’t send an SOS out. The torpedo boats were sent to sink us. And the helicopters were sent to pick off survivors so that there’d be no trace. It was a perfectly executed military operation.”
That’s from Lieutenant Commander David E. Lewis.
Next quote:
“There’s nobody that can tell me that was an accident. That it was a case of mistaken identity, what ever you want to call it. When you could shoot every antenna at least one time, some of them more than once. If you think ship is somebody else, how do you hit all them antennas?”
That was from DC3 James Clayton Smith.
Next quote:
“If anybody can look at what took place and the damage, and buy into that it was a mistake, then their view of reality is just totally different than mine.” That’s from CTSN Donald W Pageler.
Next quote:
“Never once was I ever asked to speak!” That’s from ET3 Glenn R. Oliphant.
Next quote:
“All I want out of this, is for the government to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, we screwed that up!’ and have the Israeli government stand up and say, ‘Yeah, we screwed that up!’ But that’ll never happen. Not in my lifetime!” That was from DC3 James Clayton Smith, again.
Next quote:
“To all surviving members of the USS Liberty, I say my love and prayers. You will never be forgotten for the sacrifice you made and my heart goes out to all the families who have lost their loved ones. Your shipmate.” That is Duilio Demori SFM3.
And now I’ve got a little bit about Phil. His dedication at the start of the book.
“This is dedicated to my fallen shipmates and to all patriotic Americans who, when they read this book, come away shocked and dismayed as to how the US government lied to the American people about the cold-blooded murder of Americans on the high seas. A coverup perpetrated not just by them, but by the government of Israel as well. Fifty years is far too long! From LBJ to Barrack Obama, to all the congressmen and women who bow down to Israel first and couldn’t care less about taking care of America, which they took an oath to do. All have become boot-lickers to the zionist state of Israel. I would like to thank all of my family, friends, and supporters of the truth for making this book possible and for pursuing our dream of making it into a full length feature film.” Phillip F. Tourney.
[05:28]
So, I’m going to hand back to Dave, first. Dave is there anything that you want to comment on what I’ve just read there, please?
Dave: Just that, I greatly appreciate the fact that you read the book! And that you have all these notes. That’s very important, because so few people actually read. And the only way that we could learn is if we read. And I really believe that’s the main reason why we’re in the hell hole that we’re in. Especially when it comes to the Liberty. An event that, as you said, happened fifty years ago, today, being June 8th, 2017.
And Phil has been struggling for decades in various ways to simply get the truth out. And like he said, and says all the time, we didn’t try to kill anybody. They tried to kill us. And for some weird reason — I think we know what that is — the survivors on the Liberty are the ones who are shunned! The ones who are scoffed at! The ones who were told that it’s a “conspiracy theory”. All because of the power that this nasty little country has in the Middle East.
Andrew: Thank you Dave, and over to you Phil. Anything that you would like want to say at this point.
Phil: Thank you Andy. And what I’d like to say is that this book is so important, for the simple fact, that time is running out.
We’re all getting older. I’m seventy now, and a lot of the guys aboard the ship are in their eighty’s. So it becomes an urgency to get this feature filmout, “Erasing the Liberty”. And that is our goal. As Dave said, we didn’t fire a shot at anybody. They tried to kill every one of us, 294 souls aboard that ship, and almost got the job done.
We were shunned by our government, then and now. We are still on this trail and always will be, as long as I’m alive. And it’s just imperative for the American people to get the truth, as well as people around the world. In fact, we get many, many, many people from Australia that buy and read this book, and are stunned and they donate to the film. So it’s just very gracious that you have us on the air today to do this show. One other thing is that the survivors have been called everything from, “dirty dogs” to “Nazis” to “jew haters” and every other thing you can call us! All because we stayed alive! We stayed alive to tell the truth! And we get called names for, you know? We didn’t murder anybody, as Dave said, we didn’t hurt anybody. We were in international waters, but they sure hurt a lot of my shipmates. Two thirds of the crew were either dead, or wounded, and it’s insulting, it’s embarrassing and it’s un-American. So that’s just pretty much rounding out my thoughts, at this moment.
Andrew: thank you very much Phil. Right, now on the bottom of page 56 and I’m going to read to the end of page 60. So I’ve got quite a bit to read here folks. And I really want you, this is going to be a show that you’re going to probably want to listen back to. And I encourage people to get the book. And the details of the book and the film will be given at the end of the show.
[09:22]
This is about the attack:
“Dave Lewis speaking on film, added more insight into the attack by the jets. If you look at the photographs of the Liberty after the attack, on the first strafing run they used heat seeking missiles that took out the tuning section of every transmitting antenna on the ship. In less than two seconds they had taken out all our communication capability. Joe recalled where he was when he was hit:
‘I was in the com-center when a rocket hit top side and I felt the concussion. It felt like somebody had blown on my leg. That is, if you’ve ever been at the fireworks and a rocket has gone off, at the Fourth of July and you felt the explosion. It’s like a little puff, a little push. That’s what I felt. But when I looked down at my leg, my dungarees, on my left leg, had a razor cut about six inches along my upper thigh. And the first area of skin was severed in my leg, it looked gross. It didn’t hurt particularly. Fred Walton [CT1 Frederick James Walton (killed in action June 8, 1967, by Israeli forces)] , one of the other supervisors who was standing next to me and said:
‘It must have been shrapnel’.
I looked up at the overhead of there were no holes so I said:
‘Fred, it couldn’t be shrapnel, there’s no holes.’
What Joe and David explained is proof that Israel not only knew they were attacking a US Navy ship, but that they were attacking the USS Liberty. Anyone with any knowledge of air-to-ship attacks, knows that it would be impossible to hit 44 antennae in less than five seconds, without knowing exactly where they were. On top of this the Israelis were jamming all our frequencies, both US Navy tactical and international maritime distress. Naturally they would have had to know our frequencies in order to jam them. Obviously, someone had provided the Israelis with this information. To claim that the attack was a mistake, is not only ludicrous, but a slap in the face to Liberty crew members, the US Navy, and the entire country! This information coupled with the below, turns it from a slap in the face, to a kick in the crotch.
The Attack on the Liberty by James Scott (click image to enlarge).
James Scott in “The Attack on the Liberty” explained in vivid and painful detail, that the Israeli pilots knew they were attacking a US ship, the USS Liberty. The transcript of the radio communication between the pilots and air controllers also revealed that moments before the attack began, Israeli forces questioned whether the ship might be American.approximately two minutes before the pilot’s first strafed the Liberty, a weapon systems officer in General Headquarters, blurted out:
“What is it? American?”
“Where are the Americans” one of the air controllers asked.
The officer didn’t answer. Lieutenant-Colonel Shmuel Kislev the chief air controller at General Headquarters in Tel Aviv, queried his counterpart control central:
“What are you saying?”
“I didn’t say” the other replied.
His tone implied that he didn’t want to know. Despite the doubts about the ship’s identification Kislev seated just a few feet away from the commander of the Israeli Air Force, neither halted the impending assault, nor ordered his fighters to inspect the ship for identifying markings, or flag as the planes zeroed in on the Liberty. His only concern seemed to be whether any anti-aircraft fire targeted his fighters.
“Does he have authorized a should to attack?”, one of the controllers asked.
“He does!” Kislev snapped.
The pilots blasted the Liberty’s bridge, machine guns and antennae, killing and injuring dozens of stunned sailors, firefighters, and stretcher bearers. Fires erupted on deck and blood soaked the bridge.
Kislev ordered a pair of Super Mystère fighters to join the attack with napalm which he deemed more efficient. Napalm developed in ‘42 in a secret laboratory in Harvard University, is a contraction of the ingredients of the incendiary, naphthenic and palmitic acids. It was first used against buildings and later humans, since it sticks to skin with no way to remove it, and causes severe burns when ignited. First used in World War Two in Europe and Japan. It was utilized in the Korean War and Vietnam War, as well. Napalm can impact humans in several ways, burning, asphyxiation, unconsciousness, and death. Napalm fires create an atmosphere of greater than twenty percent carbon monoxide leading to asphyxiation, or suffocation, and fire storms with self-perpetuating winds of up to seventy miles per hour. One napalm bomb dropped from a low flying plane could impact an area of over half an acre [approx. 2,000 sq m] .
One of the pilots instructed the other:
“We will come in from the rear. Watch out for the mast”, the pilot warned.
“I’ll come in from her left, you come in behind me.”
“Authorized to sink her?” asked one of the controllers.
“You can sink her!” Kislev ordered, asking a minute later for a report on the pilots progress in the attack.
“Is he screwing her?”
The Israelis were using sexual innuendoes in their transmissions, as American sailors were being massacred.
“He’s going down on her with napalm all the time!” replied another controller.
Besides the sexual references, they also made light of the unimaginable suffering they were inflicting. A pilot joked during the strafing runs, that hitting the defenseless ship was easier than shooting down MIGs, a reference to Soviet jet fighters often used by Arab militaries. Another quipped, that to sink the Liberty before the torpedo boats arrived, would be a “Mitzvah”. A “Mitzvah” is a Jewish right of passage used in the terms, “Bar and Bat Mitzvah”.
[15:18]
“Oil is spilling out into the water” one pilot explained.
“Great! Wonderful! She’s burning! She’s burning!”
One of the air controllers parroted the pilots:
“She’s burning!” the controller cried out.
“The warship is burning!”
Shortly before planes exhausted all their ammunition, Kislev finally asked the pilots to look for a flag. He then ordered a third pair of fighters to join the attack. One of the pilots buzzed the ship moments later and spotted the Liberty’s hull number. He radioed it to ground control, albeit, one letter off. The air controller ordered him to disengage.
“What country?” asked one of the air controllers.
“Probably American.” replied Kislev.
“What?”
“Probably American.”
More than twenty minutes before the fatal torpedo strike that killed twenty-five sailors, Israel’s chief air controller conclusively identified the Liberty as an American ship. Years later Kislev confessed, that when the pilot radioed in the Liberty’s hull number, any doubts about the ship identity vanished.
“At that point in time, in my mind it was an American ship.” he admitted in a British television documentary.
“I was sure it was an American ship!”
Pilots and air controllers were not the only Israelis aware of the Liberty’s identity. Two naval officers one in the Navy War Room in Haifa, and another senior liaison in the Air Force Command Center in Tel Aviv, testified that before the torpedo attack both suspected the target was the Liberty. Neither officer intervened to halt the attack.”
Now, I’m going to bring Dave back in for any additional comments he’d like to make on that section, please.
Dave: Well what you read is very important Andy, because it shows, as it said conclusively, that Israel knew it was an American ship! Now here’s the issue I was mentioning earlier. This is why it’s so important for people to read. Here are Israelis involved in this mass murder attack of innocent boys in international waters on the high seas.
They are admitting it! But you’ll still get these idiots out there who [will say]:
“Oh! It was a mistake!”
Even that jackass, that jewish judge who is still alive in Miami, Aaron Jay Cristol. A. J. Cristol, who wrote the book “The Liberty Incident”, which many people, even people who should know better, use that as a reference. Forget about these people admitting it! This guy, this Israeli apologist, wrote this book in order to protect Israel. He’s an American. Also, he’s a jewish American, but to many jewish Americans who don’t want this story out, they only care about Israel, because it makes them look bad. That’s the problem. So we have to get beyond all this anti-semitism nonsense and anti-jew nonsense, and we have to look at the facts. The facts are, that here you have Israelis involved in the attack, admitting that they knew it was an American ship!
[Image] Aaron Jay Cristol holding his pro-jewish cover-up book, “The Liberty Incident“.
Andrew: I absolutely agree. And over to you Phil for anything that you’d like to add, please.
Phil: Yes. Just like to add that was a very descriptive passage you read there and it really brought chills down my spine to have to hear somebody else read it to me. As I’ve heard before, Dave read the book to me.
We’ve read together several times, over, and over, to make sure everything is perfect. But this particular part was so chilling, because the aircraft, we had no idea who was attacking us. We had no idea at all. We just assumed it was one of the Arab states, trying to take us out, because the planes were unmarked. Which is another war crime. And so it just unimaginable that they could use sexual innuendoes, [while] killing Americans in international waters with our flag flying. What type of people does it take to make such comments and overtures?
[20:03]
Without the United States of America they would not have a state at this very moment. So it is proof that if that government, Israel, wants anything, it will take it by force, or any other way they can get what they want. And they wanted land and they got their land. Now if the Liberty goes down the footprint in the Middle East would be even be wider with the Star of David all over the Middle East, instead of other flags. So, that was their intention and they partly got it done, but they didn’t sink us, and that’s one of the best things in the whole world.
Andrew: Yes, I agree Phil and thank you for that. Now we’re carrying on, page 61 to 63 here, so virtually covering the entire chapter titled “SOS”.
The Israelis, using their unmarked jet aircraft to knockout means of communication must have believed they completed their mission. And they would have been right, if not one lone 24 foot whip antenna that escaped targeting and one brave Liberty sailor, who risked life and limb to do his job. In fact, if not for the brave actions of this young man I would not be writing this and the fate of my ship and it’s history, as well as well world history, would be much different today.
Incredibly for over forty years this story of heroism in the face of fire was not known to most of the Liberty crewmen. Dave Lewis explained why that was. Both Jim Ennis and myself were medivaced off the ship the following day. It was only a few years back, but Jim found out that his sailor, Terry Halbardier was a hero. And he called me and asked me if I would endorse a recommendation for the Silver Star, and I thought it was great. We would all be dead if it weren’t for him. Texas native James Terry Halbardier, a twenty-one year old third class ET, explained in various interviews what happened that day.
On the first pass the jets knocked out our ability to call for help. The one remaining antenna, which I had shut down, because it had some problems in the tuner, which is probably why it didn’t get hit, I had to jury rig a coaxial cable directly from the transmitter to the antenna. Since the antenna was shut down it wasn’t generating any heat. A coaxial cable is a type of cable that has an inner conductor surrounded by insulating layer, like the cable lines that most of us have in our homes. With the jets still strafing the Liberty, Terry ran to anyone out there.
Dave Lewis summed up Terry’s actions nicely: He hooked the one antenna operational to the one receiver that was operational. He got hit with shrapnel three times while he was carrying the coaxial. To me, that’s a hero. Almost forty-two years passed before Terry got his Silver Star, presented by the US representative, Devin Gerald Nunes, Republican of California, at his district office. The text of which appears below.
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to electronics technician third class, James Terry Halbardier, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving on board the USS Liberty AGT-5 on 8th of June, 1967. The USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, on the fourth day of the Six Day War. Petty Officer Halbardier, without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, fearlessly and repeatedly, exposed himself to overwhelming rocket and machine gun fire to repair a damaged antenna in an open deck area, during heavy aerial attacks. Aware that all of the ship’s transmitting antennas had been destroyed and that communication with higher authority depended upon antenna repair, Petty Officer Halbardier risked his life to run connecting coaxial cable across open decks from the antenna to the main transmitter room.
His efforts allowed the ship to establish communications with distant elements of the Sixth Fleet and call for assistance. Despite being wounded Petty Officer Halbardier ignored his injuries until the antenna have been repaired and the call for help had been received and acknowledged. His courageous actions were critical in alerting distant Navy commanders to the ship’s need for assistance and were instrumental in saving the ship and hundreds of lives. Petty Officer Halbardier’s outstanding display of decisive leadership, unrelenting perseverance, and loyal devotion to duty, reflected great credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
[25:27]
The wording of Terry’s award reads differently than all the others given. One Medal of Honor, 2 Navy Crosses, 11 Silver Stars, 20 Bronze Stars, 9 Navy Commendation Medals, 208 Purple Hearts, 294 Combat Action Ribbons, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the National Security Agency Exceptional Service Civilian Award to brave Liberty crew members. It identifies Israel as the attacker! Many Liberty crew members believe the SOS that was made possible due to Terry’s brave actions caused the quick chain of events to occur, that forced Israel to back off, when the attackers heard that help was on the way!
Now, I’m going to bring Dave back in first, and then Phil. And one thing if you could do for me guys, if I’ve pronounced any of the names of people wrong, can you please correct them when you speak. So Dave, over to you first, please.
Dave:Yeah, you did really good on the names. This fellow you talked about, Terry, he stayed with Phil for a while. So Phil knows exactly how to pronounce his name. Go ahead Phil.
Phil: It’s Terry Halbardier.
Andrew: Halbardier [Hal-bar-dee-ay] . Excellent. Thank you for that Phil. Anything else that you want to say about that?
Dave: Yes! Absolutely! Absolutely! I just want to say that as far as this chapter, there is some controversy about this chapter. And some controversy within the crew, within the Liberty crew. On whether, or not it unfolded the way that it had.
I don’t want to get into the details of it, because it’s just too long, but, of course I don’t know, Phil doesn’t know. I mean, these boys are being slaughtered, literally slaughtered as you as you read, as Phil knows, he was there. And so, a lot of the timeline is just not accurate. But, however it happened, they were able to get a signal, an SOS, “save our ship” out, a Mayday out to the Sixth Fleet. And the first SOS was intercepted by the USS Saratoga, which was an aircraft carrier. Along with the USS America, they were doing maneuvers off the coast of Crete at the time. So, if they were allowed to do their job things would have unfolded differently. But as far as the — and I don’t want to get ahead of this, because I know you’re doing this in an order and that makes sense and I know I appreciate I know filled us to the way that, you know, the attention to detail you’re paying to it and how carefully you have studied it.
[Image] USS Saratoga (click image to enlarge).
As far as the SOS chapter, definitively they were able to get a an SOS off. How it happened, there is disagreement among the crew, but it did happen. So thank goodness it did, because if they weren’t able to get that signal off, then of course, the last leg of the Israeli attack, merciless attack on the Liberty, would have been completed. But as you read, because of that SOS, it changed things entirely.
Andrew: Thank you Dave. And Phil, do you have anything to add to what Dave said, or any comments of your own, please?
Phil: Yes I do. I would just like to add that this message was received within minutes, fifteen minutes. As Dave mentioned the USS Saratoga, commanded by Captain Tolley, a World War Two fighter pilot ace, and Captain Engen of the USS America. Both are since deceased. But the crux of the message was:
“Rock star, rock star, we’re under attack by unknown jet aircraft, rock star, rock star, we need help, SOS”.
And that is basically the way it worked.
[30:18]
Now, Captain Tolley did launch from Saratoga. The airplanes were recalled by McNamara.
Again Captain Tolley launched.
This time the jets were recalled by none other than LBJ, the snake in the grass. The President of the United States said:
“Get those god-damned planes back on the deck now! And I mean, now! That’s a direct order from the President of the United States!
Saying:
“I do not want to embarrass our ally Israel! And I could care less, if every sailor aboard that ship dies! You’re not going to embarrass my ally, Israel!”
Now, if we didn’t know who was attacking us, how in the hell did LBJ know, who was attacking us? I hope I get didn’t get too far ahead, but that’s always been a kind of a lump in my throat. And, you know, we didn’t know who was attacking us until the torpedo boats got there. Then we could tell everybody in the world it was the Israelis! And that’s what happened, that’s what happened, Andy.
Andrew: Thank you Phil.
And I now move on to page 144. As the listeners will appreciate, this is a 268 page book and I’m not going to be able to get everything in. So, it’s a question of looking through and trying to give you a different take, as well trying to give you information that you wouldn’t have had in the past. And also include it with important information that people who study the Liberty will be aware of, just so it gives a good overall view of the event.
So, on page 144 to 145, it’s only about one page total this. This is about the rescue:
Larry J. Boyles senior, a member of the rescue damage control and repair team aboard the Davis who boarded Liberty, has vivid memories of that day.
“I could still see all the dead, wounded, dying, mangled crew members and smell the death! When we open sealed compartments we found many drowned fellow shipmates. I also vividly recall seeing the mess deck full of wounded and disfigured bodies, and pans and pots full of flesh, and pieces of bodies lying on the decks in several places. And all the green bags with bodies and pieces of body remains placed in the reefers.”
Phil Tourney was one of the crew that was put in the forward hull to help shore the ballooned bulkhead that had cracks and leaks. Davis’s engineer gave us the order to shore the bulkhead, or sink, before we got underway to dry dock. The Davis crew and a couple of Liberty crew men worked all night shoring that bulkhead, with no escape route should the bulkhead give why. Our team shored up that bulkhead and came out of the hull the next morning at the light of day, after the all night shoring job was completed. Several of us thanked God for keeping us safe as we performed our duties. Believe me, we were especially glad just to breathe fresh air.
Just for the record. There are a few of the Liberty crew that continue, at their own expense, to bring justice and honor to the Liberty and her crew. They do deserve to be recognized for their unselfish efforts and undying attempts to bring honor and justice to the Liberty and crew, who regardless of any anger and animosity directed against them. These few are greatly admired and respected! They honor their fellowship mates in all of their undertakings to bring justice and honor to all aboard the Liberty, for their sacrifice, service, pride and honor which they provided while serving their country during times of war and peace. There are many heroes from the attack on the Liberty. These fellow shipmates are among those heroes and always will be, and deserve to be!
So Dave, I’m going to bring you in now. Is there anything that you’d like to add to that piece there?
[34:41]
Dave: Yes. Larry Boyles, I had the great honor of meeting Larry in April. And Larry and Phil have been very close for a long time. And Larry has never forgotten the Liberty, and the ship that he was on the USS Daviswas the first to arrive to assist the Liberty, almost 18 hours after the vicious assault and mass murder. Now put that in perspective, I like to use the example of somebody being robbed, or a home invasion, or attacked, and calling 9/11 and telling the police that you’re being attacked, please send out somebody here. I mean, that’s what they’re there for, and they send off a squad car. And if the squad car is nearby the police chief gets on the radio and calls the car back! And let’s you sit there for almost a full day, for almost 18 hours. So imagine that. Here are these boys —mostly, as you know, Andy, because you read and talked about their ages — here these boys mostly signing up to serve their country, being attacked by these, I can’t even call them people for what they did, and what they continue to do by covering it up, and being forced to wait 18 hours for somebody to get there.
Now, Phil can tell you all about the reaction of the Davis crew members when they saw the carnage aboard. But I can say that I had the great pleasure and honor of meeting Larry. Larry has been ceaseless in his attempts to bring attention to the Liberty. He laid out about three to four thousand dollars, out of his own pocket, to put a bench dedicated to the USS Liberty — the fallen, the thirty-four who were who were viciously murdered by the state of Israel. He paid for this bench out of his own pocket. It’s in the Savannah Veterans Memorial Park in Savannah, Tennessee. And I went out there, Phil went out there, and some other survivors went out there for the dedication ceremony. You don’t meet very many people like Larry Jay Boyles Snr. And Larry will never forget what happened to these boys on the Liberty [or] what happened to him. The way that he was forced to stay in the hull of that ship not knowing if it was going to just pop open. That’s how damaged it was. So yes, Larry is a great American.
Andrew: Thank you Dave. And over to you Phil for anything that you would like to comment on that.
Phil: Yes I would.
Yes I would. What I’d like to comment on first is what has stayed with me with. I’ve had nightmares about it, many times about the reaction of the Davis crew and how they felt. And their complete utter sadness of seeing what had happened to our ship.
The crewmen that came aboard Liberty were literally in tears. Seeing what happened to us. And they had a great sense of guilt, which a lot of sailors and Marines do, that are very, very angry that they nobody came to help us and they knew that could have been them just as easy as us.
They did a fabulous job the Davis crew, and I was only down with the repair party for all approximately, maybe two and half, or three hours, maybe less. And I was called to go on to other duties, because I knew the ship back and forth, I knew it like the back of my hand. So I did leave the area, resealed up the compartment and Larry’s recollections is very true. If the bulkheads explode — and they were breathing, the bulkheads like breathing with the water hitting them, and there were cracks in the bulkheads. Sea water coming in. It was very, very tedious and heartbreaking job, but they did with great honor and great skill of being damage-control men, or working as damage-control men, electricians, everything they could give us, they helped.
[40:17]
So I owe much of being alive today, to the crew of the USS Davis and their sincerity and especially Larry Boyles. As Dave mentioned: Quite a guy! Quite a human being and a beautiful, beautiful park in Savannah Tennessee. The Veterans Memorial Park with some of the most outstanding, beautiful artwork in remembrance of fallen heroes throughout the wars. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s not very big, but it’s very, very impressive! And I surely thank Larry and the town fathers for allowing this to happen, for forever. And again I thank Larry for that, and he’s a dear friend and always will be. That’s about it.
Andrew: Thank you very much Phil. And now I’m moving on to page 154 to 55 and we’re talking about George E Sockall [sp] who was serving aboard the USS America as a nineteen-year-old third class aircraft structural mechanic, hydraulics, conducting maintenance and repairs on the aircraft and it’s squadron. And that was his role. So this is his recollection from when the USS America pulled up to the Liberty:
What George saw on board America when a wounded Liberty crewman was transferred aboard, illustrates how intent our own government was, and still is, on covering up what happened to my ship. This kid there, a Liberty crew member who just got off a helicopter, he’s got a battle dressing around his head and about two inches behind his right ear. There’s a circle about the size of the old real silver dollars, and there was gray matter coming through it. I’m not sure if the guy was totally conscious. This other guy was kneeling next to him screaming at this kid, loud enough so I could hear it. And he goes:
“You don’t talk to your shipmates! You don’t talk to your family! You don’t talk to your friends! You don’t talk to the guys in the bar about what happened! If you do you’ll be court-martialed or worst!”
George still remembers many details of the guy who was screaming, believing he was a civilian from either NSA, or the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was about five foot six, or five foot seven, kind of stocky, and wearing khaki pants with brown loafers with a fringe and tassels. He had a cream-colored shirt with a pinstriped aqua-check pattern on it, and he had sandy brown or light brown hair. I could still see his face to this day. When he got through screaming at this kid he looked at me and said:
“Did you hear that?”
I answered in the affirmative. Then he said:
“Stay away from the press!”
And there’s more coming up like that, that I’ve got, with an Admiral, I believe. But, just on that bit on it’s own, I’m going to hand back to Dave and ask Dave if he’s got anything to add, any comments, please?
Dave:Yes, thanks Andy. That’s George Sokall [sp] another great supporter of the Liberty. George has an event every Memorial Day where he lives in Maricopa, Arizona, which is outside of Phoenix. And Phil and I, and other Liberty survivors attended the one last year. And George again, lays money out of his own pocket, just to get this story out.
I think one of the overriding feelings of the boys who came to the rescue of the Liberty, is the feeling of guilt and responsibility! Believe it, or not, that sounds crazy, but this is from speaking with them, about what happened. They just feel they should have done something, they should have been able to do something, and they weren’t, that they failed the boys on the Liberty.
And this story that George told, which has never been told before in any book on the Liberty — and there’s a lot of stuff in this book that has never been told before — but this story that he told was particularly disturbing for me. Not just, because the wounded boy had his gray matter leaking out of his head, but, because this piece of garbage, civilian, was obviously much more concerned with keeping the truth about what happened, covered up, than taking care of this boy who was mercilessly attacked!
[45:19]
That’s like, that’s like having somebody abuse a child so bad that they hit the child in the head, that they crack that child’s skull open and the child’s brains are seeping out of it’s head, and then the husband, or parent, or friend, or whatever of the person who did it, goes to the child and screams to the child:
“Don’t ever talk about who did this to you!”
This is exactly what happened! It’s disgusting then, and it’s disgusting now! Maybe more disgusting now, because it’s been half a century.
Andrew: I agree Dave. And Phil can I hand it over to you for any comments that you would like to make on that passage.
Phil: Yes. The fact that this — as Dave said — piece of garbage, human being, could do this to a sailor, that all he wants to do is live, and give him that type of tongue lashing is not forgivable! It is unforgivable to do something like that.
Well, it’s not surprising though. I know you’re going to do some more reading, but this brings up the point — and I think you’re going to cover it here in a second, Andy — but the gig was up, and the cover up was complete, and we all knew it! And I don’t want to go any further than that, because I’m not going to step on your toes, because I think I know what you’re going to read. But yeah, what happened to him, and I think that I know the sailor that it happened to, but I’m not going to say, because I can’t one hundred percent say so. But I do remember a sailor lying on the mess deck table with the wound described by Larry, almost exactly. And also his thumb was missing. And he was very lucid to me on the table, and he wasn’t, I don’t see how the guy was talking, but he was. And he raised up his hand — I think it was his right hand — and his thumb was gone. And he says:
“Hey Tourney! You think you can find my thumb for me? So I can have the doc sew it on.”
That’s all he was scared about, you know, his thumb. Anyway, that’s all I better say on that right now, Andy.
Andrew: Thank you Phil. I’m going to read two sections now, because I want to get to this section that you just referred to. The first one is page 159 to 60. It’s the start the chapter, “Geis”:
[Image] Rear Admiral Geis (click image to enlarge).
Dave Lewis was aboard America, having the been medivaced off the Liberty the day after the attack. His company was requested by Rear Admiral Geis who was a charge of the carrier group consisting of America and Sarotoga. They met for about thirty minutes and discussed one thing.
I was in sick bay, I’ve been there a couple of days until they decided to lance my eyelids and see if I could still see. I was still covered with paint. It wasn’t until the next day that the doctor called me in and said:
“You’ve got to stare straight at the scalpel and don’t flinch. I’m cutting the paint off your eyeballs!”
When I could see, I found out that he [Geis] had left word that I was to report to his cabin. His orderly came and picked me up and took me there. It was either the eleventh, or twelfth of June. He started off the conversation by saying that he’s going to have to swear me to secrecy, that he couldn’t die without somebody knowing what had happened. He said the reason he requested me specifically was, because I was the senior representative from the Liberty on board the America. He said that as soon as they got the SOS he launched aircraft. Apparently the ones that he launched were the ones from the Sarotoga. At the time of the attack the US was having a nuclear weapons drill, throughout the military. And that’s probably why he didn’t launch any from the deck of the America. He said he launched aircraft and almost instantly McNamara came on the line and said:
“Recall the aircraft!”
So he reconfigured the flight of aircraft from the America with aircraft that were incapable of carrying nukes and re-launched them. And McNamara again ordered them recalled. And he the challenged the order. He said:
“People are dying out there!”
And that’s when Lyndon Johnson came on and he said:
“He didn’t give a damn if the ship sunk! He would not embarrass his ally.”
Phil has already referred to that, so I’m going to move on to this section here, because I’ve still got a few sections to get through. And this is a longer section pages, 170 to 173. And this is what we’ve just been talking about, with regard to this Admiral.
[50:34]
The next day, Monday afternoon. I was summoned to sick bay. I reported as ordered and saw that four, or five other sailors were there already. My first thought was that maybe we had done something wrong and had gotten the call to report to the proverbial principal’s office.
Ten minutes later the door swung open and in marched Admiral Kidd, a medium-sized man with a double chin. A voice called out, “officer on deck!” We stiffened up and stood to attention, as was routine. Kidd shut the door behind him and spoke in a kind fatherly voice:
“Relax fellas, you have no reason to fear me. In fact, I going to take off my stars. He took them off and tossed them on the metal table, resulting in a high metallic ping sound. As soon as his stars were off, he was, officially speaking, not an officer anymore. Continuing in his fatherly demeanor towards us, he spoke humbly:
“Gentlemen. I’m trying to piece together what happened and I can’t do it without you. I know you know, I’m a Flag Admiral, but right now I’m here to congratulate you and to let you know, that your testimony is very, very important to me and my staff. I know that since the attack you fellows have had a lot of time to reflect about what happened and this is what I want to dig out of you. I’m not an Admiral anymore. I’m just like you, a third class petty officer, or a seaman recruit. Feel free to speak up with anything you think is important. Also this is off the record, so I want you to speak freely.”
With great relief we all started to breathe normally now, feeling that the weight of the world to just been taken off our shoulders. A Flag Admiral talking like this and treating you as an equal, was nothing I have experienced before. He asked if any of us were in damage control, and I raised my hand. He informed me that I would be the last to be questioned. He dealt with each of us individually. In his hand was a pen as he wrote things down on a yellow legal pad, like lawyers use.
His first question was whether, or not we had seen any markings on the recon aircraft surveiling us the morning of the attack. All answered in the affirmative. Then he questioned each of my shipmates, one at a time.
“What about the attacking aircraft? Were their markings? Did you see the MTBs? [Motorized Torpedo Boats] Did you see the MTBs machine gunning life rafts? Are you sure the US flag was flying?”
They all answered that there were no markings on the planes. The MTBs was flying the Star of David, and that they machine-gunned the life rafts. And that, yes, they were all sure the US flag was flying. I started to get excited, because he was asking all the questions that a cop would ask right before he went after the bad guys.
[Image] The three Israeli MTBs that attacked the USS Liberty (click image to enlarge). The three torpedo boats numbered, T-203, T-204 and T-206were from Division 914 (code-named “Pagoda“) and under the command of Commander Moshe Oren.
Then Kidd came to me. Seeing how well he had treated the other guys encouraged me, and made me feel I should tell it all. Which I did! I told him exactly everything that I had seen, which was a lot, considering my duties in sound and security and damage control. I described everything I witnessed; the surveillance flights, the attacks, the fires, the wounded, the life rafts being shot up, the US flag flying, and everything. Throughout my description he never interrupted me once. When I had finished the feeling was great! We all had opened up our hearts and souls to this man, who for all intents and purposes was like a father to us at that moment. How proud we were that we could confide in him, just as sons feel who know that their dad is there looking out for them.
Then, without warning, his face changed. It went from pale to red, almost as if he had an instant sunburn. And his attitude changed as well. And he asked us one last question.:
“Is there anything else anyone wants to say?”
Buoyed on by the fatherly way he had treated us and letting my sense of trust in him guide me, I raised my hand with a single question:
“Sir! Why didn’t we get any help?”
I saw immediately that this did not sit well with him at all. Without answering my question, he walked over to the stainless steel table on to which he had tossed his stars, an hour, or more earlier, and put them back on his collars. The pins slipped easily into the same holes from which they had come, indicating he had done this many times before. As soon as the stars were in place, perfectly, just as they had been when he entered the room, he spoke directly, and I would say threateningly.
[55:12]
Dr Jekyll had now become Mr Hyde:
“Okay, fellas, now I’m an Admiral again and I want each and every one of you to understand something! We’re talking about national security here! Not your personal feelings, not what you did, or did not do. I could really give a shit about any of that. You listen to me once, because this is the only time you’re ever going to hear it.
You are never to repeat what you just told me to anyone! Not your mother, your father, your wife, anyone, including your shipmates! You are not to discuss this with anyone and especially, especially not with the media! Or you will end up in my little prison, or worse! ”
As he said the word, “worse” he scowled. His face turned into a mask of hatred and rage. He presented it to each of us personally one at a time.
On June the 8th, 1967, I had come face to face with the devil over the course of two hours and now I was looking into the eyes of the devil yet again, in the person of Admiral Isaac Kidd! Who else, but Satan himself could have moved the man to do what he had just done, not just to us, but to America?
So, I now want to hand over to Dave for any comments, he would like to make. Dave?
Dave: Yeah that’s pretty powerful what you have just read. And the first section that you read from the Geis chapter. I just want to make a comment on that.
Thank goodness that Dave Lewis was able to let us hear about this story, because if you think about what he said. That here is this Rear-Admiral Geis and he’s telling the senior officer on the Liberty, at least the one who was, … He wasn’t the senior officer, but he was the one who was the senior officer aboard the America. He’s telling him that the planes were recalled! Yet, like I said, you’ll have these idiots out there who say:
“No they weren’t recalled! What are you talking about? Are you crazy?”
A lot of it is that it’s so hard for people to believe that this happened. This is the “Greatest Story Never Told”. We hear that saying, “Oh the Greatest Story Ever Told!” You know, I don’t know, maybe that’s about Jesus, or whatever it might be, but this is “The Greatest Story Never Told”! But every year you’re guaranteed to get another “Holocaust” movie. So yes, this really did happen! It really did happen where the planes are recalled! I mean, think about it, what would it hurt for the planes to go there, to help out an American ship? I mean, I’ll let the listeners and readers think about that.
Fascinating story that Dave Lewis told and then you jumped ahead to this real piece of garbage! This Kidd. And I don’t want to talk too much about it simply because I wasn’t there, and these words are coming from Phil. He was in the room with this guy. But I will say that afterwards, and I mention this Aaron Jay Cristol, this jewish American apologist for Israel, when he came out with his book, “The Liberty Incident”. That pissed off, not just Kidd, but one of the other lawyers involved in the investigation of what happened — which was a farce. But this fellow came out and admitted that they knew that Israel had attacked the Liberty on purpose. That it was disgusting that this guy Cristol was covering up for Israel. And he had to come forward when that happened — and this was I think 2003, obviously many decades after it happened — so he had kept this bottled up this whole time. When he came forward in 2003 he admitted that Admiral Isaac Kidd admitted to him. That:
“Yeah, of course, it was on purpose, it was a deliberate attack.”
So Kidd was following orders obviously. And telling the sailors on board and the personnel on board, because there are not just sailors, there were civilians and Marines and, of course, officers, telling them exactly what you read. But Phil was actually in the room with this dirtbag! So I want to pass it over to him.
[60:00]
Andrew: Go ahead, please Phil.
Phil: Yes thank you.
You know Dave, what he said is absolutely correct. There was a lot of dirtbags in this story. But you are also correct about Dave Lewis. He was one of the most senior officers aboard the Liberty because, all the communication technicians aboard that ship — and that was most of the ship — over two hundred spies aboard that ship, and he was in charge of all of them. Including the radioman and ETs and things like that. So, he did have quite a job on his hands. And he was very respected, a great wonderful officer and man. And Davis, a very, very gracious and courteous person to talk to and with a lot of love in his heart. And he is very, very lucky to be alive today. He should have died during the torpedo attack, because the torpedo wrapped the steel bulkhead around him. And how he got through that, God only knows.
But regarding Admiral Kidd, yeah that was a very stark and emotional moment in my life and it is awful to even think about somebody that would do that. I mean, there’s other ways to do things and that certainly wasn’t the way to do it, but they did it. And, you know, he came aboard our ship and he, I think about two days, maybe two and a half days later, while we were still at sea. And so, the cover up was so intense and so blatant, that they sent a flag admiral, Admiral Kidd, and a captain, his assistant, that they just talked about. I’m not going to mention his name, because Dave didn’t. But yeah, he did recant, the captain did, in very stern language I might say.
But the Admiral, I got to be friends with him over the years! And I would call him every Christmas, every Christmas Day I called him until he died. And I would always ask him:
“Hey Captain, I mean, Admiral, it’s time for you to fess up! Come on now! You know, Admiral Moore, your boss at one time, you know, he knows all about it and his supports the truth and not the cover up.”
And he says:
“Phil, I’ve got to stick by what I was told. And I’m not going to change my mind, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful to you. I’m glad you call me every year.”
And that’s the kind of conversation we had. But he would never ever, ever, come clean. So yes, I think the fear of God was put into all these fellows, but that one person, this captain, that fear of God, with Cristol’s book, he came out of his closet — and it was a sealed iron closet, I can guarantee you that — and told the truth. And it is one of the most refreshing things that has come out of this whole story. And it’s in the book, his recantment of what happened.
But, it’s very, very powerful what you just read, Andy. And yes I was there, and yes I remember very vividly. And what a scary thing to go through. I mean, all I cared about was breathing, you know, getting my next breath. And I get up every morning and look at the wonderful things that I have in life, just going outside and breathing fresh air! [becoming emotional] I mean, it’s a lot to me.
Anyway, back to Dave, I guess, … Andy, sorry.
Andrew: Absolutely Phil! And thank you so much for that. I know it’s very difficult to go over.
And there’s another section on that same subject that I’m going to read. Then I’m going to move on to the next section. And this is page 174 to 75.
[65:00]
“And in that instant”, … This is going back to the Admiral Kidd scenario we just discussed.
“And in that instant I lost all respect for authority, I lost my respect for the US Navy, I would never trust them again, ever! From then on, although I would salute as required. What I would be thinking within the confines of my own mind would be, ‘Kiss my ass, Sir!’ ”
As far as I was concerned they were, all of them, accomplices to cold-blooded murder. And the worse part was they knew it. This is not the mark of a leader, it is the mark of a coward and a traitor!
It was not just Admiral Kidd, but also his boss Admiral McCain and his bosses, Secretary of Defense, Robert Strange McNamara and President of the United States, Lyndon Banes Johnson! May they burn in hell for allowing themselves to become nothing more than puppets for Israel, just as every, yes, every elected American official is today!
My ship-mate Glenn Oliphant recounted his time with Admiral Kidd, something that has never been released publicly.
It was either late morning or early afternoon on the 12th that we had this muster. I would have to say that 90 percent of us were still in shock, but we mustered on the deck of the ship. They kept saying over the IMC:
“Everyone on the ship, muster on the forecastle of the aft deck”.
Officer George Golden [sp] was doing a head count, trying to make sure that everyone who was still alive on the ship was going to hear this address from Admiral Kidd. They said the admiral was going to speak to everybody, but we had to make sure we had everybody on the ship. After twenty minutes they finally decided they had everybody who could walk, on the ship. The Admiral approached us and he spoke:
“I’m going to yell real loud so that everybody can hear me”
Then he took his stars off his collar and continued:
“I’m going to tell you guys that I don’t ever want to hear anyone talking about this, because if you guys talk about this, I’ll make sure you’re court-martialed and if you’re in civilian life, I’ll make sure you’re imprisoned! You should never, ever, talk about this to anyone.”
It took less than five minutes, I didn’t see him again until we got to Malta, where I saw him walking around on the ship several times. It was on that day when realizing that my country was gone and had been taken over by a foreign hostile force, that my heart broke and marked the beginning of my own trail of tears which has lasted to this day.
And now I’m going to read the next section that I’ve marked up. The start of the chapter called “Lipstick”. It’s page 197 through 198, and here we go:
We were now tasked with patching our ship up and hiding what had been done to her so that no one in America would be any the wiser when we got home. In effect we were forced to participate against our will in the cover up of the deliberate murderous attack on our ship. To see the beating the Liberty took was beyond belief. The order came down from high up and we were told to stop counting the rocket holes after we reached 850, over 5,000 armor-piecing shells had pierced the skin of my ship. Some holes running clear through her. Repairing the ship basically meant cutting her into pieces. Something that did not make any of us happy. Of course, we knew the torpedo hole needed to be fixed, that was a matter of life and death, but as far as we were concerned the rest of the holes needed to stay.
Our feeling was that these holes were sacred words that needed to remain as a testimony to what was done. Erasing them was just another slap in the face to us and what we had endured. If we had our way we would have sailed the ship with all her battle wounds as the Cole did into Pascagoula, Mississippi, into the harbor of the most populated city in America with TV cameras as far as the eye could see, so that everyone would know what happened.
It was and still is vitally important for every American to know what Israel was and is — not the kind of friend that anyone, anywhere needs. Deservedly so, the Cole got a memorial a year after she was attacked. We, the crew of the USS Liberty, are still waiting for our memorial after nearly fifty years!
We tried protesting as much as we could without crossing any lines, but the mood from above was:
“Shut up! Quit complaining! Patch the holes, do your job. Captain says we’re taking the ship home clean and mean!”
And so, in the end like gangsters working frantically to erase any evidence of their evil deeds, by cleaning up the scene of a crime, we put the ship through an extreme make-over of sorts. The boys up-stairs wanted to make damn sure that when the Liberty came sailing into our home port in Norfolk, the world’s largest naval station, Israel’s fingerprints had been wiped clean from the body.
And now I’m going to bring David in for anything that he would like to add here.
[70:02]
Dave: Yeah. Thanks Andy. The first part that you read about Phil, his reaction to Kidd, I’ll just say that the part where he said:
“May they burn in hell for allowing themselves to become nothing more than puppets for Israel, just as every, yes, every elected American official is today!”
Phil and I spoke about that. And well, we spoke about everything in great detail for the book, but we spoke about this I remember. And the reason it’s in there, is because it’s true!
Which, there will be a lot of uneducated people, who don’t read, who think that a statement like this is BS. But it’s true! I remember one of the Liberty survivors, who I won’t name, who I interviewed for the book. He had read it and he had made his little, you know, corrections and everything, or comments. And we had spent a lot of time going over every last one of his corrections and comments. And he was very good. But he mentioned this and he’s thought that was a little bit over the top and I said:
“Can you do me a favor please? It’s hard not to say his name. Can you can do me a favor? Can you tell me one American elected official who isn’t a puppet for Israel? And we’ll take that out.”
And he couldn’t, because there isn’t! They’re all puppets for Israel! And again, and if someone is educated, which unfortunately most people are not, then they would know this. The stuff that Phil has been saying for years, way before I came on this mission, way before I got educated, decades before I got educated, the stuff he’s been saying for years is true! This is absolutely true! You can not find one, any person in Congress, in the House, or the Senate that is not a tool for Israel. You find one! I know Phil has written thousands and thousands and thousands of letters to these criminals, these traitorous criminals in DC. And not one has given him the respect, the courtesy of saying:
“Yes you’re right. And I’m going to fight for you.”
There were a few who did it in the past. Of course they were attacked by AIPAC and the Israel lobby. And they were dislodged from representing Americans the way that they should. But at this point in time, there is not one elected official, or appointed official, that will go to bat for these Liberty people, because Israel has them in their pockets! They have them under their yarmulkes. They’re tools, their slaves for Israel! That’s absolutely true! Sadly.
Then you brought up Glenn Oliphant. That was those very nice, because again that has never been in any book about the Liberty and it just confirms what Phil said about what Kidd did. And other people actually have had experienced the same thing.
And then you brought up “Lipstick” where — of course, all of these chapters have one word.
I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s pretty cool like that, but “Lipstick” is something that again, I’m going to if I may, pass this on to Phil, because he was the one there on the deck, attempting to wash off the remains of the carnage that was deposited on the deck. And I think it makes sense for him to talk about it Andy.
Andrew: Phil, can I hand it over to you for any comments that you’d like to make?
[74:49]
Phil: Yes, absolutely.
Early in the morning, just as the sun was about ready to come up, just about up, and we were ordered by the captain to wash the ship down. Get it as clean as you can. And it was almost an impossibility trying to wash blood, dried blood in almost over 110 [F] heat for over a day. Close to a day. But it was so hot, the day of the attack and then, of course, into the evening everything was still hot. But that blood and everything was baked into the ship, the skin of the ship. You couldn’t wash it off. We used the suicide nozzle, which is a very high pressure nozzle to try to clean the ship up.
And in the forward gun mount, two of my shipmates, that’s where they lost their lives, were completely blown to bits! I mean, nothing, but bone and pieces of flesh and bone. That’s all that was left.
We did wash that over the side, regrettably. I still hate to this day, but we did find a shoe with a foot still in it. And we bagged that up and I assume they took it to the reefers and put it there.
The ship didn’t look any different, I thought, than when we tried to clean it up as the captain wanted. He wanted the blood off, he wanted all the xxxoff, and it was absolutely impossible. And we’ve got pictures to prove it, and you could still see the blood draining down the side of the bulkheads and in the gun tubs and everywhere. It was just a terrible, terrible thing to do, is to wash your shipmates off that he’s got to talking to, minutes before their life ended.
It was heart wrenching enough and then to have to dispose of them in the way that we did, is ungodly and unholy. And it’s something I, you know, I don’t take any pride in. I was ordered to do it. I did well exactly what I was told. I was a young twenty year old kid and, you know, I just, I admired the Captain and everything for staying on the bridge, and he was wounded pretty badly. But he kept the ship afloat.
There’s a lot of things that I wish the captain would have done that did not happen. But I won’t go into that. But that’s basically what we did. And here comes the Davis alongside and the rest we’ve already gone through. The whole ship was just one great big cesspool of body parts and blood. It was just something in that smell of death that got stronger as we went into Malta. I mean, from the night on into the 14th, with over one hundred degree days, I can still smell that odor right now. It’s an odor that will never leave me. That’s why we want to get the story out there. It is the truth!
And this fellow that Dave was talking about, that he says you name one person in Congress —and this is a pretty smart guy we’re talking about here, he’s no dummy, and he’s pretty long-winded too, he’s got a lot to say. But when Dave queried him about that, he had it forgotten the part, anything about Kidd, or anything else, because he knows it is the truth. That everyone in Congress is bought and paid for by the Zionist state for around $100,000 apiece. That’s what they get bought off by, money! Around $100,000 apiece, keeps them quiet. And, you know, all of our money goes to Israel when we need it here in the United States.
And I just believe that this country has got to change in some direction other than the passionate attachment we have for the Zionist State of Israel, and what’s going on in the Middle East right now, and around the world. Look at these bombings were having in England, and France, and Germany, and in America, and everywhere else! And there’s a reason behind that. And I personally, I’m not going to speak for anybody else, but I personally blame it on our support and our undying love for the Zionist State of Israel. Protecting them from their apartheid actions toward the Palestinians, and little did we know that in 1967, their lives would be changed forever. And if our ship would have went to the bottom as they intended it to, there probably wouldn’t be a Palestinian left in that area. So with that I’ll just go ahead and be quiet, Andy.
[80:35]
Andrew: Thank you very much Phil. I’ve got three sections left, they’re not that long so I’m going to read all three because I want there to be enough time for both Dave and Phil to, you know, mention anything that I haven’t gone through in this show. So this is from page 213:
According to the June 15th edition of the local newspaper, “The North Vernon Plain Dealer”, Jerry Lee Goss’s parents got the news informing them that their son was one of the thirty-four victims of Israel’s murderous rampage. Goss who just turned twenty-six years old a week before he was murdered was a Third Class CT at his GQ in the research spaces with the twenty-four other young men who lost their lives when Israel’s torpedo blew a forty foot hole in the side of my ship.
The officer told Mr and Mrs Harry Goss that their son had drowned in a flooded compartment, or his body was washed out to sea — basically he had no idea what happened to one of their five children. He told them that final information would be available after the Liberty docked in Malta.
A few weeks later they received the promised telegram from the man responsible for covering up their son’s murder, Lyndon Johnson. The telegram stamped June 29th, 1967, was brief and incredibly insulting to those who knew the truth:
“Dear Mr and Mrs Goss I was deeply grieved to learn of the death of your son Petty Officer Jerry Lee Goss at sea. Words are inadequate to express my heartache in this tragedy. I want you to know that all our people share my pride in your son’s service. His dedication contributed directly to maintaining the freedom our nation supports throughout the world. May God in His infinite wisdom bring comfort to you and your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Lyndon B. Johnson.”
This form letter, without even knowing or caring about the Goss family’s loss, incredibly had the gall to insert: “God’s infinite wisdom”.
LBJ was the cause of their son’s murder and cover-up, along with his other buddies McNamara and Admiral McCain.
I’m now jumping forward to the chapter entitled “Billboards” and we’re doing page 259 to 260.
A recent event that occurred in the early part of 2016 painfully illustrates how difficult it has been for USS Liberty survivors and supporters to get our story out to the American people, or anyone else in the world for that matter.
It also shows how groups of individuals whose money or the threat of withholding it, to pressure business to comply with their wishes. One sole billboard was taken out by the group “Friends of The Liberty” which refers to itself as a bi-partisan Association of Friends, Supporters and USS Liberty Family Members, including Senator Adlai Stevenson III; Senator James A—? ? Of Apperest? ? ; Congressman, Pete McCloskey; retired Brigadier General James J. David, and former high-level CIA officer Raymond McGovern.
And the billboard in question? – What did it say to offend American jews and Israeli partisans in this country?
Eight words that speak the truth, and that no-one can deny:
“HELP THE USS LIBERTY SURVIVORS”
And below those words:
“ATTACKED BY ISRAEL”
Apparently it’s OK to ask the public to help all members of the US Armed Forces, except those who were attacked by Israel!
And why might that be? Well, because it’s anti-Israel, anti-jewish and anti-semitic according to those whose desire is to keep the true story of the attack on the USS Liberty under wraps.
“The billboard in West Haven Connecticut on Interstate 95 is sparking outrage from a local lawyer and criticism from the anti-Defamation League, the ADL, for what they say as it’s anti-Israel message” reported the “New Haven Register”, on March 25th, 2016.
“Inoffensive to southbound drivers, but highly offensive for northbound drivers!”
Said Max Buxbaum an attorney who lives and works in New York, but grew up in New Haven and has a home in East Haven.
“It’s one of those conspiracy theories that are kept alive by the same sort of people who say that jews are responsible for everything from Pearl Harbor to 9/11!” he wrote in an email to the newspaper.
[85:09]
“Considering that my father’s entire family was wiped out in the ‘Holocaust’, it was particularly troubling to me on a personal level”.
– OK Max, so what happened to me and my shipmates on June 8th 1967 is a conspiracy theory? You mean, Israel attacking our ship, really didn’t happen?
[Image] the Defamation League welcomes Steve Ginsberg as their new Connecticut regional director.
Steve Ginsberg the regional director of the ADL Connecticut, said:
“While the words themselves are not anti-semitic, the misleading ad [advertisement] targets Israel, and that can have an anti-semitic impact. It is clearly anti-semitic in it’s conspiracy theory against Israel, but it has been proven wrong” he said.
–Proven wrong, Steve? The current owner of the billboard company said he received a phone call about the billboard and sent his sales-staff to check it out, and he personally went to the website and clicked the links to determine whether there was “hateful language” against Israel by the group or it’s supporters.
“I have found nothing that appears to be anti-semitic”, Bruce Barratt said.
It got so bad that fourteen Pennsylvania House of Representatives family members from south central Pennsylvania wrote a letter to Friends of the Liberty demanding the billboards’ removal. Forget the First Amendment, especially where Israel is concerned.
Friends of The Liberty placed a few billboards across the country, and well, you can guess what happened. Several of them were taken down because they were offensive to American jews who are uncomfortable with the fact that a foreign country, a country that limits citizenship to race, Israel, attacked a US ship, and would prefer that this fact was erased from history.
Sorry Charlie, it ain’t gonna happen!
The final chapter, “Fallout”. No, sorry. I’m not doing that one, I’m doing the final chapter is actually, “Movie”. And I’m there now.
The USS Liberty has been called the most decorated United States naval ship for a single action, but if this is true why have so few Americans ever heard of the Liberty? The reasons are many, but have everything to do with who attacked the Liberty and who covered up the attack and ongoing and disgraceful cover-up for nearly fifty years.
Though attempts have been, and continue to be made to bring the truth about the attack on the Liberty to a wider audience, those responsible for the attack and the cover-up have many resources available to keep this national tragedy buried. But the most shocking part of this story is that the country who attempted to sink the Liberty with all those aboard: Israel, on that beautiful sunny day in the eastern Mediterranean in June 1967, not only continues to erase the true history of what happened, but our own country, the United States of America and those public officials sworn to uphold and defend the United States Constitution initiated the cover-up and continue to this very second to dishonor those thirty-four men viciously slaughtered; and the hundred and seventy-four wounded, who are forced to live knowing their own country abandoned them on the altar of political expediency.
The cover-up has been so thorough that this is the only maritime attack in US history not afforded a congressional investigation. Based on the new book by Liberty survivor Phillip F. Tourney, “Erasing The Liberty: My Battle To Keep Alive The Memory of Israel’s Attack on The USS Liberty” some of the ships survivors and supporters decided the most effective way to bring the story of the Liberty to the widest possible audience was through a full length feature film.
Liberty survivors are dying off and need to have their story told. They of the American people deserve no less. Help us make this dream a reality! Donate to the USS Liberty film project today. Visit www dot USS Liberty Movie dot com today and donate, or send your check, or money order to:
Erasing The Liberty LLC
6256 Bullet Drive,
Crestview,
Florida 32536.
Phil and Dave can be reached at:
Phil@erasingtheliberty.com.
Dave@erasingtheliberty.com.
Now, we got through all the parts I marked up and so I now want to hand back to Dave first, for anything that he would like to mention, any information that he wants to get out to the listeners that I’ve not covered. Dave.
[90:02]
Dave: Thanks Andy. Yes, I’ll start with Goss on page 213, with that telegram which I was able to access. I believe I got that from the Johnson Library, they sent it to me. And [it’s] pretty disgusting! This guy Johnson, … I used some words like, “piece of garbage” and “dirtbag”. Those wouldn’t work here for this guy. Incredible evil, evil guy, who I’m sure had a hand in the broad daylight massacre of President Kennedy. If he could do that, then what are a bunch of nameless and faceless sailors on a ship that really nobody knew about, because it was a spy ship?
So this guy, … wow, I’m just, … When you think about it, when you wrap your mind around somebody like this, having somebody like this as the President for almost two terms. An evil organism like this, it’s mind blowing! And there are people who believe that not only did Johnson know that Israel — this horrible little country of Israel — attacked a US ship in international waters, an unarmed US ship in international waters, but that he wanted to make sure that the Liberty was there to get attacked. I would not put anything past this piece of garbage! I just wanted to say that.
Then you went over to, I believe you went over to “Billboards”, and huh, again here it is, this is exactly what I was saying about uneducated people.
They’re calling it a “conspiracy theory“! That this happened! How could this be a conspiracy theory when it happened?
The problem is that these American jews, and again not all American jews, obviously, but when they use that excuse, which they tried to do on Phil and I, when we went on tour last year — and will be going on tour this year as well — but there were American jews in the audience and they didn’t like that we said “American jews”, but that’s the fact of the matter is that if you look at one hundred percent of the people who are covering up the Liberty story, ninety-nine percent of them are American jews. Does that mean one hundred percent of American jews are covering up the Liberty story? No, not at all! But this is how they confuse the issue and try to paint you into a corner.
And for the record, some of our biggest movie supporters are American jews! So we don’t have anything against American jews, or jews in general. Because they want this story out as much, and sometimes more than, non-jews do, because they’re disgusted by what happened. So this isn’t about jews! But it’s about these jews, who say the things that they say:
“Inoffensive to southbound drivers, but highly offensive to northbound drivers! It’s one of those conspiracy theories that are kept alive!”
So they’re saying that not only is it a “conspiracy theory”, which is a slap in the face to Phil and his shipmates, but it’s not only that, but he’s comparing it to the people who say that jews did Pearl Harbor and 9/11. So he’s confusing the issue, which they’re very good at!
And then the other clown, this Ginsburg, with this criminal organization ADL, is saying:
“It’s not anti-semitic really, but it, it’s misleading, it’s a misleading ad! Eight words that tell the truth, are misleading, and it targets Israel, and that can have an anti-semitic impact!”
Not, you A-hole:
“I’m personally sorry that Israel attacked these people in international waters! I’m sorry! I wish they didn’t! No! But I’m going to be a complete jerk and say what I’m going to say to defend Israel!”
So this is what pisses me off! And this is what pisses off a lot of people! That these A-holes in this country — and they just happen to be American jews — can insult and disgrace the memory of those boys who were slaughtered, by putting Israel before America and their memory! And we’re not going to put up with it! And that’s why we’re doing this movie. That’s the main reason, because we’re so disgusted that this has happened, and it’s allowed to happen. And then all these people are ignorant to the fact that it happened! And, as you mentioned in the “Movie” chapter, I’m not going to repeat it, but all people have to do, and I know Phil’s going to get to this is well, so I’ll be brief, but all people have to do is go to USS Liberty Movie dot com.
[95:06]
Read what’s up there and if this is something that you’re passionate about, like we are, then donate! Because the only way we’re going to make this movie is with money! And the money that we collect is just sitting there. It’s waiting to be used. The only thing we use the money for is buying books and for going on the road to promote the movie. That’s it! We need the money to make the movie.
If you’re interested in this, go to USS Liberty Movie dot com Watch the trailer that we filmed aboard a ship in Tampa Florida. Read what’s up there and make a donation. For $25 we’ll send you the book, for $50 we’ll send you an autographed copy of the book. A $100 we’ll send you an inscribed version of the book — just tell us what you want Phil to write in there. And it goes up from there.
There are many people who donate money and leave a note, saying:
“Keep the book. Make the movie! We want you to make the movie! ”
I just want to say one last thing. I got an e-mail from somebody, this is similar to what many of the supporters of the movie are saying:
“Good luck! ” the fellow says.
“Best to you. Thanks for your work. I’ll be promoting it for you. Watch your asses out there! God bless! ”
There are a lot of good people, and as Phil mentioned, not just Americans. We have a lot of supporters in Australia, and the UK, and other countries overseas, Canada. A lot of supporters! They want this story out! The only way we’re going to do it is by getting money. You need to donate if you want to see this thing done!
Andrew: Thank you very much Dave. And now over to you Phil for your final thoughts and anything you’d like to comment on. Anything you’d like to add that I haven’t mentioned, or as I said, comment on anything that I just read, or Dave just said. Over to you Phil.
Phil: Yes, thank you Andy. First of all, I want to thank you so much for giving myself and Dave the opportunity to spread the word. The gospel if you may, it is the truth. There’s too many documents, too many eye-witnesses and, you know, Israel made the attack on our ship. They never did admit that it was flying an American flag; they never did admit anything, other than to say:
“Oops! It was mistaken identity! Dog darn it! How did we screw this one up?”
And that was it! End of story!
Like they say:
“One day we were on the front page. The next day, we were on the back page. The third day, we were gone! No mention of the USS Liberty.”
When they brought us back, … Well I brought the ship back from Malta, … And we had a skeleton crew. And we’re all thinking, you know:
“Wow, … This is going to be great to get home and see our loved ones, and I bet there’s going to be a great big navy band out there, and all the pomp and circumstance that you would get for what we just gone through, and the sacrifices, the sacrifices of young men giving up their lives. Giving up their lives for America.”
No, I’m sorry to say, they didn’t! They were, they were murdered by a so-called ally, in cold blood! Murdered! And our government covers it up for them! And they’ve been covering it up for fifty years, and if we don’t get this film made, it will stay covered up.
There’s been documentaries made. Good ones too. Al-Jazeera did one, Tito Howard did one, which I was a co-producer on, “Loss of Liberty”, “Dead in the Water”, and a few others. But they’re all documentaries, they’re here, then there gone. They go nowhere.
So, a full-length feature film — and that’s what we’re going to do. If we have to end up doing it, with Netflix, or however we’re going to do it, we are going to get it filmed!
Published on May 10, 2016
This is the official donation reel for a full-length feature film on the June 8, 1967 Israeli attack of the USS Liberty, the only major maritime attack not investigated by the U.S. Congress.
With your help, after 50 years of near-obscurity, the true story of the attack on the USS Liberty and its aftermath can be told, where 34 U.S. servicemen were viciously murdered and 174 wounded, an over 70% fatality and casualty rate.
The main question you should be asking yourself about the Liberty is this: why has this story remained buried for almost half a century and who is behind the plot to keep it under wraps.
Visit the official website of the film, http://usslibertymovie.com, and donate today.
But as Dave said it takes money. And you people heard how to get there. Go to USS Liberty Movie dot com [usslibertymovie.com] and hit that button and join in on the rights of American citizens to know the real truth. And even when the film comes out you’re going to get a lot of nay sayers, But I’ll tell you, it’s going to change a lot of minds in this country, and a lot of politicians are going to be getting a lot of letters.
[100:15]
And they’ve got a lot of explaining to do, a lot of “splaining” as Ricky Ricardo used to tell his wife.
So yeah, I want them to explain.
Well, they’re going to come out and say:
“Well, we were told it was mistaken identity”
Well you see, they never took the time to see why their fellow Americans were murdered and slaughtered!
When they were told by George Ball, and Richard Helms, and Admiral Moore, and so many other higher-ups, … Ray McGovern, that this was no mistaken identity; it was cold-blooded, premeditated murder, period! But they gave them a free pass! So, if you cross Israel folks, I’ll tell you what, you are in deep trouble!
But, I’ve been threatened, I’m sure Dave has had his share of threats in his line of work, doing books and writing for a newspaper, and especially all he’s done for this book. Without Dave this, … We wouldn’t be on the air right now. I give all the credit to him and always will.
I may be on the book as the author, but the real steam behind this engine is Dave Gahary, and I’m deeply indebted to him, … And always will be for his hard work.
So folks, let’s not let this hard work all go down in vain!
And I thank all the survivors, that gave their time to be interviewed and testify, and all the emotions they had to go through to do it! And others, that have never been heard about that you’ve read about in the book, Andy.
So, with that being said, you know, this is a great country. I don’t want to, … I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but it’s also a country that doesn’t quite tell the truth and that isn’t the way this country was founded on. And our forefathers would roll over in their graves, as I’m sure they’re doing now, by listening to this radio show, knowing about this show and knowing what happened to the USS Liberty. That isn’t what America was built on, not deception, or stabbing your own fellow Americans in the back is, more than cruel, it’s inhumane, unthinkable, and unspeakable acts of treason for your own countrymen, to hide the truth.
With that being said I think that, you know, again I was glad to do this, along with Dave. And thank you Andy very, very much for your time, and you reading the book, and explaining it so well. This is the first show we’ve done like this, and I can’t tell you that I’ve ever been on a better show than this one. So I thank you very deeply for your hospitality, and what you’re doing for the crew, and what you’re doing for the United States of America, and the people around the world. Thank you!
Andrew: Thank you so much Phil! Thank you so much Dave! It was wonderful having you both on, and we did it a real comprehensive study of this story, and I encourage the listeners to support this “Liberty Project” and help get the film made!
I want to thank everybody for listening, I’ll be back with you all soon. And, bye, for now.
You have been listening to the Andrew Carrington Hitchcock show on TBR Radio. Brought to you by the Barnes Review. Andrew’s book, “The Synagogue of Satan” is now available on his website, Andrew Carrington Hitchcock dot com in an updated, expanded and uncensored edition.
