USS Liberty Revisionism: It Started With a Lie
In June 1997 (the 30th anniversary of the attack), retired US Navy JAG officer A. Jay Cristol submitted his dissertation, The Liberty Incident, to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Coral Gables, Florida. In his dissertation, Jay Cristol lied.
by Joe Meadors
With the publication of his dissertation, The Liberty Incident, Jay Cristol became the Father of USS Liberty Revisionism.
In his abstract he claims:
All thirteen official investigations of the Liberty incident . . . were compiled and analyzed.
And
The dissertation demonstrates that the Liberty incident was no more than a tragic mistake.
A version of that claim has made its way into virtually every discussion of the attack on the USS Liberty.
Members of Congress use it in boilerplate responses sent to constituents who inquire about the USS Liberty.
There’s only one thing wrong with it.
It’s a lie.
Not Congress nor any other branch of the US government has investigated the June 8, 1967, Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
Cristol claims:
Four Hundred and fifty-eight interviews of two hundred and twenty-two persons were conducted.
Of the 458 Cristol claims he interviewed, only 4 are USS Liberty survivors.
There’s only one thing wrong with that claim.
It’s a lie.
The four USS Liberty survivors he claims to have interviewed are Jim Ennes, George Golden, Lloyd Painter, and Steve Richard.
All have denied being interviewed by Cristol.
We need your help in educating Members of Congress that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty is the only attack on a US Navy ship since the end of WWII NOT investigated by the US government.
Email your Congressional Delegation and have them send you a copy of Congressional Investigation of the attack.
Have Congressional Delegation ask the Congressional Research Service to send you a copy of the US government investigation of the attack.
Ask Congressional Historians for a copy of Congressional Investigation of Attack.
They cannot send you any because there are none. Which is the point.
We urge everyone to ask for a copy of those investigations to educate your Congressional Delegation that the US government has never investigated the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
He was aboard the USS Liberty when the ship was attacked by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1967 and has been in the forefront of the effort to ensure the US government finally investigates the attack.He also participated in Freedom Flotilla I in 2010 whose goal was to break the blockade of Gaza only to be brutally attacked by the IDF who killed 9 human rights activists on the MV Mavi Marmara.
The death of one American citizen on the Mavi Marmara elicited nary a peep of outrage or condemnation from the State Department.This follows the outrageous precedent the State Department initiated when 34 Americans were killed on the USS Liberty which was followed by silence from the State Department.Meadors is an eye-witness to and a victim of this policy.
Meadors has also participated in Freedom Flotillas II, III and IV in the effort to break the immoral blockade of Gaza.
His background gives him a unique perspective as an American citizen when it comes to issues involving the Middle East.
He will be sharing that perspective in his articles for The Arab Daily News.
He can be reached at joe@ussliberty.com.
- The USS Liberty Document Archive Is Now Up and Running - March 16, 2020
- The Attack on the USS Liberty is NOT a “Conspiracy Theory” - November 20, 2019
- USS Liberty: Why Investigate the Attack on a US Navy Ship? - November 5, 2019
