By Eileen Fleming
Ernest A. Gallo ‘retired’ from the CIA to Florida and became an activist and author of LIBERTY INJUSTICES: A Survivor’s Account of American Bigotry
Since 2002 Gallo has served as the Chairman and Liberty Foundation President of the USS liberty Veterans Association and travels extensively to ignite fires in his listeners bellies:
Lovingly reared in North Philly’s little Italy in 1967, Petty Officer Gallo was one of 100 Communication Technicians called “spooks” aboard the USS Liberty: America’s most decorated ship for a single engagement.
On 8 June 1967, without any warning the Israeli Defense Force’s aircraft and torpedo boats deliberately attacked and brutally killed 34 unarmed Americans: 31 sailors, 2 marines, 1 NSA civilian.
Israel’s wonton attack also wounded 174 U.S.A. troops who were then ordered to shut up about their experiences on that day in infamy when President LBJ recalled rescue aircraft and ignored the Israeli War Crime of machine-gunning all the life rafts on the unarmed vessel.
Gallo writes with intention and challenges every American who claims to support the troops—to do something to prove that support in deeds!
Gallo writes:
As a result of the public relations campaign undertaken on behalf of Israel, the USS LIBERTY survivors have been vilified for their assertions that the attack was deliberate and for their ongoing quest for justice….
[LIBERTY survivors want] nothing more than an honest, open investigation of the attack on their ship and themselves.
In 2003, an independent commission of experts convened including Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN, Ret. Former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, General of Marines Raymond G. Davis, Rear Admiral Merlin Starling and Ambassador James Adkins.
They looked into the matter and concluded there was compelling evidence that Israel’s attack was deliberate and “Israel committed acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States.”
Among the many issues the experts noted was AIPAC’s influence and “that due to continuing pressure by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, this attack remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress; [and] no surviving crew-member has been permitted to officially and publicly testify about the attack.
“That the truth about Israel’s attacks and subsequent White House cover-up continues to be officially concealed from the American people to the present day is a national disgrace.”
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, General of Marines Raymond G. Davis, Rear Admiral Merlin Starling and Ambassador James Adkins concluded that in order to fulfill their “duty to the brave crew of USS LIBERTY and all Americans who are asked to serve in our Armed Forces, hereby call upon the Department of the Navy, the Congress of the United States and the American people to immediately take the following actions”:
The first called for a new and true Court of Inquiry to be convened.
The second for “every appropriate committee of the Congress of the United States to investigate the actions of the White House and Defense Department that prevented the rescue of the USS LIBERTY” including the NSA, CIA and military intelligence.
The third is the call to we the people:
“That the eighth day of June of every year be proclaimed to be hereafter known as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY”
In July 2009, I finally received a response from Senator Bill Nelson to my many letters regarding the USS Liberty Vets ongoing request for an open congressional investigation of Israel’s attack because our government crucified the truth for “an ally” and gagged all the survivors.
Assuming I was an idiot, in his third paragraph Senator Bill Nelson wrote:
There have been numerous investigations of the USS liberty case by both the executive and legislative branches of the government. Immediately following the incident, the U.S. Navy and Deportment of Defense conducted their own separate investigations of the incident. In its oversight role, Congress also investigated. Both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Investigations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee conducted separate investigations, which were completed to the satisfaction of the Congress.
In 2012, I attended a private meeting among thirty voters with Senators Mike Lee [R-UT], Jim DeMint [R-SC] and Rand Paul [R-KY].
I asked the three Senators if they would support establishing every June 8th as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY:
Senator Lee maintained silence.
Senator DeMint admitted he was stumped and couldn’t respond.
Senator Paul recommended I not focus on old news!
I dissent because the “old news” about the USS LIBERTY is what changed America’s balanced Middle East policy to blind allegiance to Zionist policies which endanger this homeland!
Many years after the attack, Lieutenant Colonel Shmuel Kislev, the chief air controller at general headquarters in Tel Aviv, confessed that he knew the U.S.S. LIBERTY was an American ship as soon as an Israeli pilot radioed in its hull numbers.
Two months before the sailor’s mass burial at Arlington Cemetery, Navy analysis also uncovered that the Israeli torpedo boat gunners had targeted the spy ship with 40-mm tracer rounds made in the United States.
In 1967, the Republican representative from Iowa, H.R. Gross stood up in the House and asked:
“Is this Government now, directly or indirectly, subsidizing Israel in the payment of full compensation for the lives that were destroyed, the suffering of the wounded, and the damage from this wanton attack? It can well be asked whether these Americans were the victims of bombs, machine gun bullets and torpedoes manufactured in the United States and dished out as military assistance under foreign aid.” [THE ATTACK ON THE LIBERTY: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship by James Scott. Pages 271-272]
By November 1967, lawmakers were willing to spend six million USA tax dollars to build schools in Israel but Representative Gross introduced an amendment that “not one dollar of U.S. credit or aid of any kind should go to Israel until there is a firm settlement with regard to the attack and full reparations have been made [and Israel] provides full and complete reparations for the killing and wounding of more than 100 United States citizens in the wanton, unprovoked attack…I wonder how you would feel if you were the father of one of the boys who was killed in that connection-or perhaps you do not have any feelings with respect to these young men who were killed, wounded and maimed, or their families.” [Page 272-273]
Gross’s amendment failed, justice remains delayed and American tax payers continue to support the Ethnocratic State of Israel.
On May 28, 1993 Ariel Sharon explained:
The terms ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic’ are totally absent from the Declaration of Independence. This is not an accident. The intention of Zionism was not to bring democracy, needless to say. It was solely motivated by the creation in Eretz-Isrel of a Jewish state belonging to all the Jewish people and to the Jewish people alone. This is why any Jew of the Diaspora has the right to immigrate to Israel and to become a citizen of Israel.
In An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Professor Jeff Halper, American Israeli wrote:
An ethnocracy is the opposite of a democracy, although it might incorporate some elements of democracy such as universal citizenship and elections.
It arises when one particular group-the Jews in Israel, the Russians in Russia, the Protestants in pre-1972 Northern Ireland, the whites in apartheid South Africa, the Shi’ite Muslims in Iran, the Malay in Malaysia and, if they had their way, the white Christian fundamentalists in the US-seize control of the government and armed forces in order to enforce a regime of exclusive privilege over other groups in what is in fact a multi-ethnic or multi-religious society.
Ethnocracy, or ethno-nationalism, privileges ethnos over demos, whereby one’s ethnic affiliation, be it defined by race, descent, religion, language or national origin, takes precedence over citizenship in determining to whom a county actually ‘belongs.’”-Page 74.
Gallo’s LIBERTY INJUSTICES has reignited the fire in my belly over USA government and media failures and being an activist reporter I will be hand-delivering copies of Gallo’s public service book to the local offices of my congressional reps with my letter as their constituent and the Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for USA’s The Arab Daily News requesting a YES or NO response to this question every American candidate needs to be on the record about:
Will you support the establishment of the eighth day of June of every year to be known as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY?
This story TBC
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international law. Newly released tapes have lead IAF aviator ID American flag.He was ordered to proceed with attack, and much
more that
implicate Israel in wanton MURDER. The culprit who is believed to have given the order, is Israel DM, Moshe Dayan.
The Israeli war Criminal went to his Grave unpunished.
1) These “spooks” had no business in a war zone, a war in which America was not involved
2) The US publicly told the world (primarily to reassure Arab countries) that the US had no ships within 350 miles of the war zone.
3) The Navy realized their error, and issued orders to the Liberty to withdraw from the war zone. But due to Naval communications errors, these orders were not received by the Liberty for 36 hours, until after the incident was over
4) US recordings of exchanges between the Israeli pilots and their control tower show the Israelis were unaware the ship was American even after the incident was over
5) The Israeli pilots, aware that the US claimed no ships within 350 miles of the war zone, and being in the air at that point for 72 hours, did not realize it was an American ship. It was a tragic friendly fire incident, as happens in every conflict. Just the day before, the Israelis had bombed one of their own armored columns in error
6) All of this is detailed in the 1967 CIA top secret report, and the 1980 NSA top secret report, both of which were declassified and placed on the internet in recent year.
7) None of these allegations explain why Israel would bomb a ship belonging to its best ally, at a point in time when the hostilities were basically over. This is the final pin prick in the absurd conspiracy theories.
8) Admiral Moore is looking for a scapegoat, since the Liberty being where it didn’t belong was a Navy screw up. no doubt he wants the finger pointed somewhere else.
9) There’s a well known anti-Israel bias in the CIA, they refused to acknowledge Israeli warnings of a large scale impending terrorist attack prior to 9/11. You can find the article from mid September 2001 detailing this if you google “mossad warning 9/11 telegraph” – despite this, the CIA correctly fixed the blame for the USS Liberty incident on US screw ups.
Nonsense. Israel used unmarked planes to attack the American ship. A War Crime. Israel is also accused of executing 300 unarmed Egyptian POW’s in newly occupied northern coastal town of El Arish, A War Crime, The IDF Shaked Commando
Recon. group has been identified as the executioners. Benyamin “Fouad” Ben Eliezar was officer in charge of the slaughter, a Lt Colonel at the time. Newly released Classified tapes from US spy plane flying high above attack,have lead IAF aviator Identifying American flag flying off of Liberty. He is ordered by control to proceed with attack. Liberty was surveilled for hours by Israel, Unique USN radio frequencies were being jammed by attacking Israelis, and I could go on…
Nonsense. Israel used unmarked planes to attack the American ship. A War Crime. Israel is also accused of having executed 300 unarmed Egyptian POW’s in newly occupied northern coastal town of El Arish, A War Crime. This is purported to have happed just before the attack on Liberty.The IDF Shaked Commando Recon. group has been identified as the executioners. Benyamin “Fouad” Ben Eliezar was officer in charge of the slaughter, a Lt Colonel at the time. Newly released Classified tapes from US spy plane flying high above attack with Hebrew linguists,have lead IAF aviator Identifying American flag flying off of Liberty. He is ordered by command control to proceed with attack. Liberty was surveilled for hours by Israel before the attack….. Unique USN radio frequencies were being jammed by attacking Israelis, and I could go on…
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