Massie Introduces Resolution to Honor USS Liberty Crew, Declassify All Records.

America First GOP Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced a resolution today honoring the crew of the USS Liberty, which Israel attacked 59 years ago as the ship patrolled international waters.

The resolution, which condemns the “unprovoked” Israeli attack, names the 34 dead, and calls upon the president to declassify records related to the attack.

It also condemns Israel.

Top U.S. military officials at the time called the attack deliberate, while Israel weakly claimed the attack was a case of “mistaken identity.”

Weeks ago, Massie called for a new investigation into the attack. Those who oppose discussing the Liberty or investigating it often call questions about it “antisemitic.”

The Unprovoked Attack

Sailing in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula on June 8, 1967, the Liberty was collecting signals intelligence related to Israel’s Six-Day War with nearby Arab states, notably Egypt.

The ship flew an American flag and was otherwise clearly marked.

Israeli reconnaissance aircraft surveilled the ship for more than six hours, flying as low as 200 feet, the Liberty Association website explains. Despite that surveillance, Israeli jets attacked the ship relentlessly for almost 25 minutes.

When it was over, 34 Americans were dead and 171 wounded. Captain William McGonagle received the Medal of Honor for heroism in secret. His citation says he received the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. It does not name the country that attacked the Liberty. 

Fighter jets sent to defend the ship from two American aircraft carriers, the USS America and USS Saratoga, were recalled.

Recalling the aircraft, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer wrote for the Houston Chronicle in 2004, “was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career.”

The weather was clear “with unlimited visibility,” he continued:

The Liberty was a clearly marked American ship in international waters, flying an American flag and carrying large U.S. Navy hull letters and numbers on its bow.

The Israel jets could easily identify the ship because it “looked like a large lobster,” Moorer wrote, “and was one of the most easily identifiable ships afloat.”

The Israelis tried to jam the ship’s radios to stop a call for help, and worse still, Moorer continued, “Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned lifeboats at close range that had been lowered to rescue the most seriously wounded.”

At a news conference in 2004, the late Ward Boston, chief counsel for the Navy’s probe of the attack, revealed that President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara ordered the Navy to cover up the truth.

As a career Navy man, Boston said, he had to follow orders, which is why he stayed silent for years.

Investigated Needed, Resolution Introduced

In a U.S. House floor speech on June 8, the attack’s anniversary, Massie demanded an investigation.

Massie recounted the Israeli attack in detail. The congressman met with survivors that day in his office.

The resolution introduced today urges “the declassification of all records relating to the June 8, 1967, attack, and affirming that the lives and safety of United States citizens and servicemembers shall be paramount in the conduct of United States foreign policy.”

Detailing the “unprovoked attack by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats,” and again, the 34 Americans murdered in the attack, the resolution asks for the publication of “all records, documents, reports, memoranda, communications, photographs, recordings, transcripts, intelligence assessments, operational records, after-action reports, investigative files, briefing materials, diplomatic communications, and internal communications of the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and any other department or agency of the United States Government relating to the June 8, 1967, attack on the USS Liberty.”

The resolution says the “lives and safety of United States citizens and servicemembers shall be held paramount in the conduct of the foreign policy of the United States and shall not be subordinated to the interests of any foreign nation.”

And it “condemns Israel for its unprovoked attack.”

Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory

Those who push the official “it-was-an-accident” narrative call those who question it “antisemitic.”

As The New York Times reported in February for a piece that said the issue had split the MAGA movement, that’s what Israel First neoconservative star Ben Shapiro did when a student asked him about the Liberty at Turning Point USA event in December.

“A college student named Nicky Rudd asked Mr. Shapiro about the Liberty before a live audience of thousands,” the Times reported:

Mr. Shapiro, an orthodox Jew, had been asked about the ship before. “I suspect that the vast majority of people who bring this up are doing so in order to suggest that Israel deliberately attacked an American ship because Israel deliberately wants to harm America,” he said. “It is connected generally with a larger point. I wonder if that’s your point.”

At a prior event, when a student similarly inquired of Eric Trump — one of President Trump’s two military-age sons who has not enlisted in the Army or Marine Corps to help fight the war with Iran — Israel First GOP Senator Ted Cruz of Texas called the question “viciously antisemitic.”

Whether Cruz thinks Massie is “viciously antisemitic” is unclear.