USNavy Historian Uses IDF History Dept. Report As Basis For USNavy History of USS Liberty Attack
“It involves the MISTAKEN attack by four Israeli jet fighters and three motor torpedo boats (MTB) on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5). . . .” – “Attack on USS Liberty, 8 June 1967” by RADM Samuel Cox, Director, Naval History and Heritage Command, Published on May 7, 2019. (Emphasis Added)
by Joe Meadors
According to his biography at the NHHC website:
Sam Cox, Director of NHHC, Photo Courtesy of NHHC
Rear Adm. Samuel J. Cox, U.S. Navy (Retired) serves as the director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and Curator of the Navy. He is responsible for the Navy’s museums, art and artifact collections, the research library, 150 million pages of archives, and for collecting and interpreting U.S. Naval history throughout the world.
with the publication of the book, Assault on the Liberty, the American Congress appointed a committee, headed by Adlai Stevenson, for the purpose of investigating the affair and publishing the results of the investigation.
Comparing the Cox article with the IDF report you will notice a definite similarity between the two.
There are many who claim that the attack on the USS Liberty has been investigated many times by the United States government — specifically Congress.
If that is the case, the question is why didn’t RADM Cox find the report of that investigation among the 150,000,000 pages in the archives available to him?
If he couldn’t find it among the 150 million pages in the archives available to him, why didn’t he note in his article that the US Navy’s history of the attack on the USS Liberty is based on a report prepared not by the US government but by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Joe Meadors grew up in Saudi Arabia and spent 22 years living in the Kingdom.
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.
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