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By Eileen Fleming
Forty-eight years after Israel’s attack, survivor and President of the USS LIBERTY Veterans Association, Ernie Gallo is no longer waiting for an act of congress; but is leading others to get Congress to act.
On Monday Gallo’s following Letter was hand-delivered to the Orlando offices of Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio.
On Tuesday Gallo emailed his Representative Ron DeSantis (FL-06), who is also the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security and a Naval Reserve Officer.
Today this reporter begins contacting members of the Senate and House seeking a YES or NO response to:
Will you support the establishment of every June 8 as USS LIBERTY Remembrance Day?
All congressional responses -or lack of- will be published HERE on June 4.
May 18, 2015
To All Members of the Congress of the United States,
I have written a book entitled, “Liberty Injustices – A Survivor’s Account of American Bigotry”. My passion to write this book comes from experiencing the brutal deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, AGTR-5, killing 34 and wounding 174 of my shipmates and events that occurred over the years. The crew of Liberty refuses to join the U.S. and Israeli governments in lying about the events of June 8, 1967 as an accident that happens in the fog of war. News media of both countries have also indicated the attack was deliberate.
As a former Communications Technician Petty Officer, I was chosen for this field supporting NSA because of my honesty. This is also true of all military supporting NSA Security Groups. Therefor, I cannot accept this situation as my government indicates some other truth making me out to be dishonest. But more importantly the government deceit enables Israeli supporters to label us as anti-Semitic and Jew haters. I wish you could feel the frustration we feel because the Liberty crew is very proud of the fact that the USS Liberty is the most decorated Navy ship for single engagement. Two hundred and eight Purple Hearts alone were awarded from a crew of 294. However, the USS Liberty is now classified as very controversial and one must be careful in Pentagon circles. The US Navy cannot name a new ship “USS Liberty” for fear of who it might offend. This madness must stop.
The official document that the US government refers to about the attack is the Navy Court of Inquiry and we now know that effort was bogus and a fraud. The Navy lawyer for the court has provided the crew with a sworn affidavit indicating same. Accordingly, the details in the document do not jive with the facts the crew experienced. The Court was ordered by the White House to come to an accidental attack conclusion. Please remember the crew gave testimony under oath. That is disgraceful especially considering the impact on the crew in later years. The Navy JAG should be ashamed of itself for being involved in this miscarriage of justice. Is this the Navy that stands for justice? Whatever happened to the Code of Military Justice we swore to uphold.
Congress HAS NOT INVESTIGATED the USS Liberty incident.
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 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.”
The esteemed experts expressed 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 called for the establishment of every June 8 to be of known as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY.
Will you support the Liberty Troops and stand up for the most decorated Naval crew?
Thank you for your swift response,
Ernest A. Gallo, President, USS Liberty Veterans Association
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The fault lies with the US for:
1) Putting this ship in harms way, in a war zone were it had no place being
2) AFTER saying publicly, in the UN, that there were no US ships within 350 miles of the war zone
3) Realizing their error, the Navy sent orders to the Liberty to withdraw at least 100 miles from the war zone
4) FAILING, due to Navy communications failure, to deliver orders to withdraw for 36 hours, until after the incident
This is all documented in the Top Secret CIA report of June 1967, and the Top Secret NSA report of 1981, both recently declassified, and available on the internet.
Israel’s pilots had been in the air for 72 hours straight before the incident. The day before, they had bombed one of their own armored columns in error. Tragic errors happen in war, 10% of the casualties in any war are typically from friendly fire.
The Secret reports made no mention of the communications from the Israeli pilot that did identify the ship as American.
http://www.wrmea.org/1993-june/the-assault-on-the-uss-liberty-still-covered-up-after-26-years.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-communications-said-to-prove-iaf-knew-liberty-was-u-s-ship-1.230486
The ship was flying an American flag. The ship raised the larger American flag that is used in port when the attack began. The ship had American hull markings. The sailors on deck had American uniforms. The American sailors waved to the low flying Israeli pilots.
Since when has any pilot been in the air for 72 hours……BS! I see from your comment log that you spent enormous amounts of time defending Israel…..without upvotes…. could it be that you are one of Israels paid cyber defenders?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/14/israel-students-social-media/2651715/
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3744516,00.html
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fa7_1384213143
Forty-eight years waiting for justice on behalf of our most-decorated Navy ship and crew? Truly an outrage which no American should stand for. It is past time for the U.S.-Israeli relationship to change, and for our elected representatives to grow spines that put the lives and interests of American sons & daughters first, and not the interests of Israel or its paid lobbyists in Washington, DC.