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Of Treachery, Treason, Terror, Truth, and Liberty Forsaken (An American Tale)

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Written in conjunction with three of the remaining survivors, Ernie Gallo, Ron Kukal and Phil Tourney, the book includes harrowing first-hand accounts from these folks. It's perhaps apposite to cite just one account of the numerous disturbing, poignant of those written for the book, this one by Tourney. With his shipmate Rick Aimetti helping him, they,

'.....found some fire hoses and began hosing off the deck with a "suicide nozzle" on it that sprayed water in a very concentrated, high-pressure stream. It took both of us to handle this hose, because it was like a giant python and one man could not do it alone. It was the most gruesome, heartbreaking task we've ever done because every piece of flesh was the remains of one of our fellow sailors, many of whom were friends. As [we] went about this ungodly task, tears streamed down our faces and I prayed to God for forgiveness in how we were forced to treat the remains of these men so sacrilegiously. In the gun-tubs, we found a shoe with a foot still in it, which we put aside for collection. Many of the bloodstains would not come off, even with that special hose, because of the previous day's heat -- not just baking under the sun's heat, but from the rockets and napalm that had be dropped on the ship by the attacking [planes]. We found out the hard way how hot our government's most brutal weapon can burn: It can get as hot as 2,200 degrees(F), which explains why that blood could not be completely cleansed from the steel decks.'

"Remember the Liberty!" places much more focus on the brutality and ruthlessness with which the Johnson administration and the U.S. Navy brass treated the sailors themselves, not only then, but, significantly, continuing even now. It began immediately after the attack but -- because of the threats of prison "or worse" if they ever uttered a word about it, even to their wives or parents -- it festered for decades, while they and their families had to live with the trauma they experienced. This meant internalising their horrific memories for 15-20 years before they felt safe enough to even discuss it with anyone. Their stories recount how they've continued to be marginalized, dismissed -- even ridiculed -- by the MSM and accused of anti-Semitism by Israel's defenders in knee-jerk fashion. In fact, the book contains an entire chapter dedicated to this point.

The most brutally shocking revelation thus far about the events of June 8, 1967 -- one hitherto virtually ignored or neglected, even apparently by some of the survivors themselves, and one likely to induce cognitive dissonance even in those folks who might imagine themselves immune to the discomforts of this most curious psychological malaise -- is the following: After the IDF motor torpedo boats (MTB) had fired four torpedoes and all had missed the target (this may or may not have been deliberate upon the part of the MTB commanders; we can only surmise), the fifth torpedo which did hit the ship was fired, according to one sailor's account, by the Liberty's escort submarine the USS Amberjack, the result of a direct order from President Johnson. (My emphasis).

The grievously wounded sailor who revealed this -- Richard Larry Weaver -- who only relatively recently went public with this part of the story and which has received negligent publicity (he further claimed the Amberjack filmed the assault through its periscope), barely survived. He was only saved by one of his shipmates who came to his rescue and helped him to the medics, the then 21-year-old literally holding his intestines inside his abdomen until his fellow sailor delivered what was left of him to the ship's only doctor. The most severely wounded of all of the remaining survivors, even for those who aren't especially God-fearing would have to concede some kind of miracle occurred that day to save Weaver. But "that day" was remarkable for its many "miracles", and Nelson's narrative is littered with them.

-- A Few Dead Sailors (And then Some) --

When he was finally released from hospital and returned Stateside, Weaver then discovered that his Navy records had been doctored to hide the fact he was even assigned to the Liberty. He was then forced to hire a private investigator to prove it just to get his disability service pension authorised. His investigator reportedly had "high-level Pentagon contacts" who revealed many of the secrets to him, and that's how Weaver found out about that "fifth torpedo" and who had fired it. I'm given to understand that this investigator has since denied he made this revelation, but to this day Weaver -- a man who has undergone more than 35 major operations since that day -- is adamant his account is true. The YouTube video in the link above is a must watch, but folks should prep themselves for a singularly distressing account of his experience. Those who do watch it can then make up their own minds as to whether the man's account is credible. Without the ongoing corroboration of his story by the investigator though, even a few of his former shipmates by all accounts are struggling to accept his story. All in all though, make of this video what you will.

But for those folks who've read Nelson's earlier books on LBJ (see here and here), they'll know such a monumental act of treachery and treason was not beyond this president. By the author's reckoning (and numerous others it needs be said), [LBJ] "wanted that ship sunk!" Johnson -- interestingly, a former, albeit less than distinguished, Navy man himself -- was not prepped to allow a "few dead sailors" to cause "embarrassment" to an important ally like Israel. We might readily assume the president had in mind avoiding same (and more) for himself. The very fact that Johnson -- via Robert McNamara, his then Defense Secretary, a man who was as complicit as his boss in this unmitigated act of treason and the travesty of the cover-up, and who later denied being able to recall anything significant about the Liberty attack -- stopped in their tracks not one but two separate attempts by Sixth Fleet Commanders to come to the ship's rescue, is sufficient to underscore this.

There has been of course no shortage of books written about the attack on the Liberty. Some of those present the case put forth by the U.S. and Israeli governments' "official story" (e.g. Judge AJ Cristol , or self-styled Six-Day War "expert" Michael Oren), concocted to perpetuate the cover-up narrative (not unlike the contrived narrative Israel has clung to about why it went to war in the first instance), hiding the incriminating facts and essentially writing it off as a freak "accident." You know, the "Fog of War" thing!

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Greg Maybury is a Perth (Australia) based freelance writer. His main areas of interest are American history and politics in general, with a special focus on economic, national security, military and geopolitical affairs, and both US domestic and (more...)
 

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