Events leading to the attack

During the Six-Day War between Israel and several Arab nations, the United States of America maintained a neutral country status.[10] Several days before the war began, the USS Liberty was ordered to proceed to the eastern Mediterranean area to perform a signals intelligence collection mission in international waters near the north coast of Sinai, Egypt.[11] After the war erupted, due to concerns about her safety as she approached her patrol area, several messages were sent to Liberty to increase her allowable closest point of approach (CPA) to Egypt's and Israel's coasts from 12.5 and 6.5nmi (14.4 and 7.5mi; 23.2 and 12.0km), respectively, to 20 and 15nmi (23 and 17mi; 37 and 28km), and then later to 100nmi (120mi; 190km) for both countries.[12] Unfortunately, due to ineffective message handling and routing, the CPA change messages were not received until after the attack.[12]

According to Israeli sources, at the start of the war on 5 June, General Yitzhak Rabin (then IDF Chief of Staff) informed Commander Ernest Carl Castle, the American Naval Attach in Tel Aviv, that Israel would defend its coast with every means at its disposal, including sinking unidentified ships. Also, he asked the U.S. to keep its ships away from Israel's shore or at least inform Israel of their exact position.[13][14]

American sources said that no inquiry about ships in the area was made until after the Liberty attack ended. In a message sent from U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk to U.S. Ambassador Walworth Barbour, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Rusk asked for "urgent confirmation" of Israel's statement. Barbour responded: "No request for info on U.S. ships operating off Sinai was made until after Liberty incident." Further, Barbour stated: "Had Israelis made such an inquiry it would have been forwarded immediately to the chief of naval operations and other high naval commands and repeated to dept [Department of State]."[15]

With the outbreak of war, Captain William L. McGonagle of Liberty immediately asked Vice Admiral William I. Martin at the United States Sixth Fleet headquarters to send a destroyer to accompany Liberty and serve as its armed escort and as an auxiliary communications center. The following day, 6 June, Admiral Martin replied: "Liberty is a clearly marked United States ship in international waters, not a participant in the conflict and not a reasonable subject for attack by any nation. Request denied."[16] He promised, however, that in the unlikely event of an inadvertent attack, jet fighters from the Sixth Fleet would be overhead in ten minutes.

Meanwhile, on 6 June, at the United Nations, in response to United Arab Republic complaints that the United States was supporting Israel in the conflict, U.S. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg said to the Security Council that aircraft of the Sixth Fleet were several hundred miles from the conflict,[12] indicating that elements of the Sixth Fleet itself were far from the conflict. When the statement was made this was the case, since Liberty, now assigned to the Sixth Fleet, was in the central Mediterranean Sea, passing between Libya and Crete;[17] but she would ultimately steam to about 13nmi (15mi; 24km) north of the Sinai Peninsula.[18]

On the night of 7 June Washington time, early morning on 8 June, 01:10Z or 3:10am local time, the Pentagon issued an order to Sixth Fleet headquarters to tell Liberty to come no closer than 100nmi (120mi; 190km) to Israel, Syria, or the Sinai coast (Oren, p.263).[19]:5, 58 (Exhibit N)

According to the Naval Court of Inquiry[20]:23 ff, 111 ff and National Security Agency official history,[21] the order to withdraw was not sent on the radio frequency that Liberty monitored for her orders until 15:25 Zulu, several hours after the attack, due to a long series of administrative and message routing problems. The Navy said a large volume of unrelated high-precedence traffic, including intelligence intercepts related to the conflict, were being handled at the time; and that this combined with a shortage of qualified Radiomen contributed to delayed sending of the withdrawal message.[20]:111 ff

Official testimony combined with Liberty's deck log say that throughout the morning of the attack, 8 June, the ship was overflown, at various times and locations, by Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft.[18] The primary aircraft type was the Nord Noratlas; there were also two unidentified delta-wing jets at about 9:00am Sinai time (GMT+2).[18]Liberty crewmembers say that one of the Noratlas aircraft flew so close to Liberty that noise from its propellers rattled the ship's deck plating, and that the pilots and crewmembers waved to each other.[22] It was later reported, based on information from Israel Defense Forces sources, that the over-flights were coincidental, and that the aircraft were hunting for Egyptian submarines that had been spotted near the coast.[23]

At about 5:45am Sinai time, a ship-sighting report was received at Israeli Central Coastal Command (CCC) about Liberty, identified by an aerial naval observer as "apparently a destroyer, sailing 70 miles [110km] west of Gaza."[24] The vessel's location was marked on a CCC Control Table, using a red marker, indicating an unidentified vessel.[25] At about 6:00am, the aerial naval observer, Major Uri Meretz, reported that the ship appeared like a U.S. Navy supply ship; the red marker was replaced with a green marker to indicate a neutral vessel, at about 9:00am.[25] At that same time, an Israeli jet fighter pilot reported that a ship 20 miles (32km) north of Arish had fired at his aircraft after he tried to identify the vessel.[25] Israeli naval command dispatched two destroyers to investigate, but they were returned to their previous positions at 9:40am after doubts emerged during the pilot's debriefing.[25] After the naval observer's Noratlas landed and he was debriefed, the ship he saw was further identified as the USS Liberty, based on its "GTR-5" hull markings.[26] USS Liberty's marker was removed from CCC's Control Table at 11:00am, due to its positional information being considered stale.[27]

At 11:24am, Israeli Chief of Naval Operations received a report that Arish was being shelled from the sea.[27] An inquiry into the source of the report was ordered to determine its validity.[27] The report came from an Air Support Officer in Arish.[28] Additionally, at 11:27am Israeli Supreme Command Head of Operations received a report stating that a ship had been shelling Arish, but the shells had fallen short.[28] (Investigative journalist James Bamford points out that Liberty had only four .50 caliber machine guns mounted on her decks and, thus, could not have shelled the coast.[29] ) The Head of Operations ordered that the report be verified, and determine whether or not Israeli Navy vessels were off the coast of Arish.[28] At 11:45am, another report arrived at Supreme Command saying two ships were approaching the Arish coast.[28]

The shelling and ships reports were passed from Supreme Command to Fleet Operations Control Center.[28] The Chief of Naval Operations took them seriously, and at 12:05pm torpedo boat Division 914 was ordered to patrol in the direction of Arish.[28]

Division 914, codenamed "Pagoda", was under the command of Commander Moshe Oren.[28] It consisted of three torpedo boats numbered: T-203, T-204 and T-206.[28] At 12:15pm, Division 914 received orders to patrol a position 20 miles (32km) north of Arish.[28] As Commander Oren headed toward Arish, he was informed by Naval Operations of the reported shelling of Arish and told that IAF aircraft would be dispatched to the area after the target had been detected.[28]

Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin was concerned that the supposed Egyptian shelling was the prelude to an amphibious landing that could outflank Israeli forces. Rabin reiterated the standing order to sink any unidentified ships in the area, but advised caution, as Soviet vessels were reportedly operating nearby.[23]

At 1:41pm, the torpedo boats detected an unknown vessel 20 miles northwest of Arish and 14 miles (23km) off the coast of Bardawil.[1][30] The ship's speed was estimated on their radars.[30] The Combat Information Center officer on T-204, Ensign Aharon Yifrah, reported to the boat's captain, Commander Moshe Oren, that the target had been detected at a range of 22 miles (35km), that her speed had been tracked for a few minutes, after which he had determined that the target was moving westward at a speed of 30 knots (56km/h; 35mph). These data were forwarded to the Fleet Operations Control Center.[30]

The speed of the target was significant because it indicated that the target was a combat vessel.[30] Moreover, Israeli forces had standing orders to fire on any unknown vessels sailing in the area at over 20 knots (37km/h; 23mph), a speed which, at the time, could only be attained by warships. The Chief of Naval Operations asked the torpedo boats to double-check their calculations. Yifrah twice recalculated and confirmed his assessment.[23][30] A few minutes later, Commander Oren reported that the target, now 17 miles (27km) from his position, was moving at a speed of 28 knots (52km/h; 32mph) on a different heading.[31] Bamford, however, points out that Liberty's top speed was far below 28 knots. His sources say that at the time of the attack Liberty was following her signal-intercept mission course along the northern Sinai coast, at about 5 knots (9.3km/h; 5.8mph) speed.[29]

The data on the ship's speed, together with its direction, indicated that it was an Egyptian destroyer fleeing toward port after shelling Arish. The torpedo boats gave chase, but did not expect to overtake their target before it reached Egypt. Commander Oren requested that the Israeli Air Force dispatch aircraft to intercept.[23][30] At 1:48pm, the Chief of Naval Operations requested dispatch of fighter aircraft to the ship's location.[32]

The IAF dispatched two Mirage III fighter jets that arrived at Liberty at about 2:00 pm.[33] The formation leader, Captain Iftach Spector, attempted to identify the ship.[33] He communicated via radio to one of the torpedo boats his observation that the ship appeared like a military ship with one smokestack and one mast.[34] Also, he communicated, in effect, that the ship appeared to him like a destroyer or another type of small ship.[34] In a post-attack statement, the pilots said they saw no distinguishable markings or flag on the ship.[34]

At this point, a recorded exchange took place between a command headquarters weapons systems officer, one of the air controllers, and the chief air controller questioning a possible American presence. Immediately after the exchange, at 1:57pm, the chief air controller, Lieutenant-Colonel Shmuel Kislev, cleared the Mirages to attack.[23][35]

After being cleared to attack, the Mirages dove on the ship and attacked with 30-mm cannons and rockets.[36] The attack came a few minutes after the crew completed a chemical attack drill, with Captain McGonagle on the command bridge.[37] The crew was in "stand-down mode", with their helmets and life jackets removed,[23] except battle readiness "modified condition three" was set which meant that the ship's four .50 caliber machine guns were manned and ammunition ready for loading and firing.[38][39] Eight crewmen were either killed immediately or died later, and 75 were wounded.[40] Among the wounded was McGonagle, who was hit in the right thigh and arm.[41] During the attack, antennas were severed, gas drums caught fire, and the ship's flag was knocked down. McGonagle sent an urgent request for help to the Sixth Fleet, "Under attack by unidentified jet aircraft, require immediate assistance."

The Mirages left after expending their ammunition, and were replaced by two Dassault Mysteres armed with napalm bombs, flown by Captain Yossi Zuk and his wingman, Yaakov Hamermish. The Mysteres released their payloads over the ship and strafed it with their cannons. Much of the ship's superstructure caught fire.[23][33] The Mysteres were readying to attack again when the Israeli Navy, alerted by the absence of return fire, warned Kislev that the target could be Israeli. Kislev told the pilots not to attack if there was any doubt about identification, and the Israeli Navy quickly contacted all of its vessels in the area. The Israeli Navy found that none of its vessels were under fire, and the aircraft were cleared to attack. However, Kislev was still disturbed by a lack of return fire, and requested one last attempt to identify the ship. Captain Zuk, made an attempt at identification while strafing the ship. He reported seeing no flag, but saw the ship's GTR-5 marking. Kislev immediately ordered the attack stopped. Kislev guessed that the ship was American.[23]

The fact that the ship had Latin alphabet markings led Chief of Staff Rabin to fear that the ship was Soviet. Though Egyptian warships were known to disguise their identities with Western markings, they usually displayed Arabic letters and numbers only. Rabin ordered the torpedo boats to remain at a safe distance from the ship, and sent in two Hornet (Arospatiale Super Frelon) helicopters to search for survivors. These radio communications were recorded by Israel. The order also was recorded in the torpedo boat's log, although Commander Oren alleged not to have received it. The order to cease fire was given at 2:20pm, twenty-four minutes before the torpedo boats arrived at the Liberty's position.[42] At 2:35pm, Liberty was hit by a torpedo launched from one of the torpedo boats.[43]

During the interval, crewmen aboard Liberty hoisted a large American flag. During the early part of the air attack and before the torpedo boats were sighted, Liberty sent a distress message that was received by Sixth Fleet aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.[40] Aircraft carrier USS America dispatched eight aircraft. The carrier had been in the middle of strategic exercises. Vice-Admiral William I. Martin recalled the aircraft minutes later.[23]

McGonagle testified at the naval court of inquiry that during "the latter moments of the air attack, it was noted that three high speed boats were approaching the ship from the northeast on a relative bearing of approximately 135 [degrees] at a distance of about 15 [nautical] miles. The ship at the time was still on [westward] course 283 [degrees] true, speed unknown, but believed to be in excess of five knots."[20]:38 McGonagle testified that he "believed that the time of initial sighting of the torpedo boats ... was about 14:20", and that the "boats appeared to be in a wedge type formation with the center boat the lead point of the wedge. Estimated speed of the boats was about 27 to 30 knots [50 to 56km/h]," and that it "appeared that they were approaching the ship in a torpedo launch attitude."[20]:38

When the torpedo boats arrived, Commander Oren could see that the ship could not be the destroyer that had supposedly shelled Arish or any ship capable of 30 knots (56km/h) speed. According to Michael Limor, an Israeli naval reservist serving on one of the torpedo boats, they attempted to contact the ship by heliograph and radio, but received no response.[44] At 6,000 meters (20,000ft), T-204 paused and signalled "AA" "identify yourself."[citation needed] Due to damaged equipment, McGonagle could only reply with "AA" using a handheld Aldis lamp.[citation needed] Oren recalled receiving a similar response from the Ibrahim el Awal, an Egyptian destroyer captured by Israel during the Suez Crisis, and was convinced that he was facing an enemy ship.[citation needed]

He consulted an Israeli identification guide to Arab fleets and concluded the ship was the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir, based on observing its deckline, midship bridge and smokestack. The captain of boat T203 reached the same conclusion independently. The boats organized into battle formation, but did not attack.[42][45]

As the torpedo boats rapidly approached, Captain McGonagle ordered a sailor to proceed to machine gun Mount 51 and open fire.[20]:38 However, he noticed that the boats appeared to be flying an Israeli flag, and "realized that there was a possibility of the aircraft having been Israeli and the attack had been conducted in error."[20]:39 Captain McGonagle ordered the man at gun mount 51 to hold fire, but a short burst was fired at the torpedo boats before the man was able to understand the order.[20]:39 McGonagle observed that machine gun Mount 53 began firing at the center torpedo boat at about the same time gun mount 51 fired, and that its fire was "extremely effective and blanketed the area and the center torpedo boat."[20]:39 Machine gun mount 53 was located on the starboard amidships side, behind the pilot house.[20]:16 McGonagle could not see or "get to mount 53 from the starboard wing of the bridge."[20]:39 So, he "sent Mr. Lucas around the port side of the bridge, around to the skylights, to see if he could tell [Seaman] Quintero, whom [he] believed to be the gunner on Machine gun 53, to hold fire."[20]:39

Ensign Lucas "reported back in a few minutes in effect that he saw no one at mount 53."[20]:39 Lucas, who had left the command bridge during the air attack and returned to assist Captain McGonagle immediately before a torpedo hit the ship,[20]:14 believed that the gunfire sound was likely from ammunition cooking off, due to a nearby fire.[20]:16 Prior to this time, after a torpedo hit the ship, Lucas had granted a request from Quintero to fire at the torpedo boats before heat from a nearby fire chased him from gun mount 53.[20]:26,27 (McGonagle later testified, at the Court of Inquiry, that this was likely the "extremely effective" firing event he had observed.[20]:49)

After coming under fire, the torpedo boats returned fire with their cannons, killing Liberty's helmsman.[43] The torpedo boats then launched five torpedoes at the Liberty.[46] At 1235Z (2:35 local time)[43] a torpedo hit Liberty on the starboard side forward of the superstructure, creating a 40ft (12m) wide hole in what had been a former cargo hold converted to the ship's research spaces and killing 25 servicemen, almost all of them from the intelligence section, and wounding dozens.[23][47] It has been said the torpedo hit a major hull frame that absorbed much of the energy; crew members reported that if the torpedo had missed the frame the Liberty would have split in two. The other four torpedoes missed the ship.

The torpedo boats then closed in and strafed the ship's hull with their cannons and machine guns.[citation needed] According to some crewmen, the torpedo boats fired at damage control parties and sailors preparing life rafts for launch. (See disputed details below.) A life raft which floated from the ship was picked up by T-203 and found to bear US Navy markings. T-204 then circled Liberty, and Oren spotted the designation GTR-5, but saw no flag.[citation needed] It took until 3:30pm to establish the ship's identity. Shortly before the Liberty's identity was confirmed, the Saratoga launched eight aircraft armed with conventional weapons towards Liberty. After the ship's identity was confirmed, the General Staff was notified and an apology was sent to naval attach Castle. The aircraft approaching Liberty were recalled to the Saratoga.[23]

According to transcripts of intercepted radio communications, published by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), at about 2:30pm, near the beginning of the torpedo boat attack, two IAF helicopters were dispatched to Liberty's location. The helicopters arrived at about 3:10pm, about 35 minutes after a torpedo hit the ship. After arriving, one of the helicopter pilots was asked, by his ground-based controller, to verify that the ship was flying an American flag. The helicopters conducted a brief search for crew members of the ship who may have fallen overboard during the air attack. No one was found. The helicopters left the ship at about 3:20pm.

At about 4pm, two hours after the attack began, Israel informed the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv that its military forces had mistakenly attacked a U.S. Navy ship. When the ship was "confirmed to be American" the torpedo boats returned at about 4:40pm to offer help;[48] it was refused by the Liberty. Later, Israel provided a helicopter to fly U.S. naval attach Commander Castle to the ship.[49] (pp.32,34)

In Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson had received word from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Liberty had been torpedoed by an unknown vessel at 9:50am eastern time. Johnson assumed that the Soviets were involved, and hotlined Moscow with news of the attack and the dispatch of jets from Saratoga. He chose not to make any public statements and delegated this task to Phil G. Goulding, who was an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs at the time.[50]

Soon afterward, the Israelis said that they had mistakenly attacked the ship. The Johnson administration conveyed "strong dismay" to Israeli ambassador Avraham Harman. Meanwhile, apologies were soon sent by Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Foreign Minister Abba Eban, and charg d'affaires Efraim Evron. Within 48 hours, Israel offered to compensate the victims and their families.[42]

Though Liberty was severely damaged, with a 39ft wide by 24ft high (12 m x 7.3 m) hole and a twisted keel, her crew kept her afloat, and she was able to leave the area under her own power. Liberty was later met by the destroyers USS Davis and USS Massey, and the cruiser USS Little Rock. Medical personnel were transferred to Liberty, and she was escorted to Malta, where she was given interim repairs. After these were completed in July 1967, Liberty returned to the U.S. She was decommissioned in June 1968 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Liberty was transferred to United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) in December 1970 and sold for scrap in 1973.

From the start, the response to Israeli statements of mistaken identity ranged between frank disbelief and unquestioning acceptance within the administration in Washington. A communication to the Israeli Ambassador on 10 June, by Secretary Rusk stated, among other things: "At the time of the attack, the USS Liberty was flying the American flag and its identification was clearly indicated in large white letters and numerals on its hull. ... Experience demonstrates that both the flag and the identification number of the vessel were readily visible from the air.... Accordingly, there is every reason to believe that the USS Liberty was identified, or at least her nationality determined, by Israeli aircraft approximately one hour before the attack. ... The subsequent attack by the torpedo boats, substantially after the vessel was or should have been identified by Israeli military forces, manifests the same reckless disregard for human life."[51][52]

George Lenczowski notes: "It was significant that, in contrast to his secretary of state, President Johnson fully accepted the Israeli version of the tragic incident." He notes that Johnson himself only included one small paragraph about the Liberty in his autobiography,[53] in which he accepted the Israeli explanation of "error", but also minimized the whole affair and distorted the actual number of dead and wounded, by lowering them from 34 to 10 and 171 to 100, respectively. Lenczowski further states: It seems Johnson was more interested in avoiding a possible confrontation with the Soviet Union, ...than in restraining Israel.[54]

McGonagle received the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. medal, for his actions.[55][56] The Medal of Honor is generally presented by the President of the United States in the White House,[56][57] but this time it was awarded at the Washington Navy Yard by the Secretary of the Navy in an unpublicized ceremony, breaking with established tradition.[56]

Other Liberty sailors received decorations for their actions during and after the attack, but most of the award citations omitted mention of Israel as the perpetrator. In 2009, however, a Silver Star awarded to crewmember Terry Halbardier, who braved machine-gun and cannon fire to repair a damaged antenna that restored the ship's communications, in the award citation named Israel as the attacker.[58]

American inquiries, memoranda, records of testimony, and various reports involving or mentioning the Liberty attack include, but are not limited to, the following:

The U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry record contains testimony by fourteen Liberty crew members and five subject matter experts; exhibits of attack damage photographs, various messages and memoranda; and findings of fact. The testimony record reveals "a shallow investigation, plagued by myriad disagreements between the captain and his crew."[59] As to culpability, "It was not the responsibility of the court to rule on the culpability of the attackers, and no evidence was heard from the attacking nation", the court concluded that "available evidence combines to indicate ... (that the attack was) a case of mistaken identity." Additionally, the Court found that "heroism displayed by the Commanding Officer, officers and men of the Liberty was exceptional."

The Joint Chief of Staff's Report contains findings of fact related only to communication system failures associated with the Liberty attack. It was not concerned with matters of culpability, nor does it contain statements thereof.

The CIA Memoranda consist of two documents: one dated June 13, 1967, and the other dated June 21, 1967. The June 13 memorandum is an "account of circumstances of the attack ... compiled from all available sources." The June 21 memorandum is a point-by-point analysis of Israeli inquiry findings of fact. It concludes: "The attack was not made in malice toward the U.S. and was by mistake, but the failure of the IDF Headquarters and the attacking aircraft to identify the Liberty and the subsequent attack by torpedo boats were both incongruous and indicative of gross negligence."

The Clark Clifford Report consists of a review of "all available information on the subject" and "deals with the question of Israeli culpability", according to its transmittal memorandum. The report concludes: "The unprovoked attack on the Liberty constitutes a flagrant act of gross negligence for which the Israeli Government should be held completely responsible, and the Israeli military personnel involved should be punished."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony contains, as an aside matter during hearings concerning a foreign aid authorization bill, questions and statements from several senators and responses from then Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, about the Liberty attack. For the most part, the senators were dismayed about the attack, as expressed by Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper: "From what I have read I can't tolerate for one minute that this [attack] was an accident." Also, there was concern about obtaining more information about the attack, as expressed by Committee chairman J. William Fulbright: "We asked for [the attack investigation report] about two weeks ago and have not received it yet from Secretary Rusk. ... By the time we get to it we will be on some other subject." Secretary McNamara promised fast delivery of the investigation report ("...you will have it in four hours."), and concluded his remarks by saying: "I simply want to emphasize that the investigative report does not show any evidence of a conscious intent to attack a U.S. vessel."[60]

The House Armed Services Committee investigation report is titled, "Review of Department of Defense Worldwide Communications". It was not an investigation focused on the Liberty attack; although, the committee's report contains a section that describes communications flow involved with the Liberty incident.

The NSA History Report is, as its name connotes, a historical report that cited the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry record, various military and government messages and memorandum, and personal interviews for its content. The report ends with a section entitled, "Unanswered Questions", and provides no conclusion regarding culpability.

The Liberty Veterans Association (composed of veterans from the ship) states that U.S. congressional investigations and other U.S. investigations were not actually investigations into the attack, but rather reports using evidence only from the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, or investigations unrelated to culpability that involved issues such as communications. In their view, the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry is the only actual investigation on the incident to date. They say it was hastily conducted, in only 10 days, even though the court's president, Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, said that it would take six months to conduct properly. The inquiry's terms of reference were limited to whether any shortcomings on the part of the Liberty's crew had contributed to the injuries and deaths that resulted from the attack.[61] According to the Navy Court of Inquiry's record of proceedings, four days were spent hearing testimony: two days for fourteen survivors of the attack and several U.S. Navy expert witnesses, and two partial days for two expert U.S. Navy witnesses. No testimony was heard from Israeli personnel involved.

The National Archives in College Park, Maryland includes in its files on casualties from the Liberty copies of the original telegrams the Navy sent out to family members. The telegrams called the attack accidental. The telegrams were sent out June 9, the day before the Navy Court of Inquiry convened.

Two subsequent Israeli inquiry reports and a historical report concluded the attack was conducted because Liberty was confused with an Egyptian vessel and because of failures in communications between Israel and the U.S. The three Israeli reports were:

In the historical report, it was acknowledged that IDF naval headquarters knew at least three hours before the attack that the ship was "an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy" but concluded that this information had simply "gotten lost, never passed along to the ground controllers who directed the air attack nor to the crews of the three Israeli torpedo boats."

The Israeli government said that three crucial errors were made: the refreshing of the status board (removing the ship's classification as American, so that the later shift did not see it identified), the erroneous identification of the ship as an Egyptian vessel, and the lack of notification from the returning aircraft informing Israeli headquarters of markings on the front of the hull (markings that would not be found on an Egyptian ship). As a common root of these problems, Israel blamed the combination of alarm and fatigue experienced by the Israeli forces at that point of the war when pilots were severely overworked.

After conducting his own fact-finding inquiry and reviewing evidence, Judge Yerushalmi's decision was: "I have not discovered any deviation from the standard of reasonable conduct which would justify committal of anyone for trial." In other words, he found no negligence by any IDF member associated with the attack.

Some intelligence and military officials dispute Israel's explanation.[65]

Dean Rusk, U.S. Secretary of State at the time of the incident, wrote:

I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn't believe them then, and I don't believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.[66]

Retired naval Lieutenant Commander James Ennes, a junior officer (and off-going Officer of the Deck) on Liberty's bridge at the time of the attack, authored a book titled Assault on the Liberty describing the incident during the Six Day War in June 1967 and saying, among other things, that the attack was deliberate.[67] Ennes and Joe Meadors, also survivors of the attack, run a website about the incident.[68] Meadors states that the classification of the attack as deliberate is the official policy of the USS Liberty Veterans Association,[69] to which survivors and other former crew members belong. Other survivors run several additional websites. Citing Ennes's book, Lenczowski notes: Liberty's personnel received firm orders not to say anything to anybody about the attack, and the naval inquiry was conducted in such a way as to earn it the name of "coverup".[54]

In 2002, Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, U.S. Navy, senior counsel for the Court of Inquiry, said that the Court of Inquiry's findings were intended to cover up what was a deliberate attack by Israel on a ship that the Israelis knew to be American. In 2004, in response to the publication of A. Jay Cristol's book The Liberty Incident, which Boston said was an "insidious attempt to whitewash the facts", Boston prepared and signed an affidavit in which he said that Admiral Kidd had told him that the government ordered Kidd to falsely report that the attack was a mistake, and that Boston and Kidd both believed the attack was deliberate.[70] On the issue Boston wrote, in part:

The evidence was clear. Both Admiral Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. Each evening, after hearing testimony all day, we often spoke our private thoughts concerning what we had seen and heard. I recall Admiral Kidd repeatedly referring to the Israeli forces responsible for the attack as 'murderous bastards.' It was our shared belief, based on the documentary evidence and testimony we received first hand, that the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate, and could not possibly have been an accident.

Cristol wrote about Boston's professional qualifications and integrity, on page 149 of his book:

Boston brought two special assets in addition to his skill as a Navy lawyer. He had been a naval aviator in World War II and therefore had insight beyond that of one qualified only in the law. Also, Kidd knew him as a man of integrity. On an earlier matter Boston had been willing to bump heads with Kidd when Boston felt it was more important to do the right thing than to curry favor with the senior who would write his fitness report.

Cristol believes that Boston is not telling the truth about Kidd's views and any pressure from the U.S. government.[71] Cristol, who also served as an officer of the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General, suggests that Boston was responsible in part for the original conclusions of the Court of Inquiry and, that by later declaring that they were false, Boston has admitted to "lying under oath." Cristol also notes that Boston's statements about pressure on Kidd were hearsay, and that Kidd was not alive to confirm or deny them. He also notes that Boston did not maintain, prior to his affidavit and comments related to it, that Kidd spoke of such instructions to Boston or to others. Finally, Cristol provides a handwritten 1991 letter from Admiral Kidd[72] that, according to Cristol, "suggest that Ward Boston has either a faulty memory or a vivid imagination".

The Anti-Defamation League supports Cristol's opinion:

... according to his own account, Boston's evidence of a cover-up derives not from his own part in the investigation but solely on alleged conversations with Admiral Kidd, who purportedly told him he was forced to find that the attack was unintentional. Kidd died in 1999 and there is no way to verify Boston's statements. However, Cristol argues that the 'documentary record' strongly indicated that Kidd 'supported the validity of the findings of the Court of Inquiry to his dying day.'[73]

According to James Ennes, however, Admiral Kidd urged Ennes and his group to keep pressing for an open congressional probe.[74]

The following arguments, found in official reports or other sources, were published to support that the attack was due to mistaken identity:

Several books and the BBC documentary USS Liberty: Dead in the Water argued that Liberty was attacked in order to prevent the U.S. from knowing about the forthcoming attack in the Golan Heights, which would violate a cease-fire to which Israel's government had agreed.[77] However, Syria did not accept the cease fire until 9 June, after the attack on Liberty.[78] Russian author Joseph Daichman, in his book History of the Mossad, states Israel was justified in attacking the Liberty.[79] Israel knew that American radio signals were intercepted by the Soviet Union and that the Soviets would certainly inform Egypt of the fact that, by moving troops to the Golan Heights, Israel had left the Egyptian border undefended.[80]

Lenczowski notes that while the Israeli decision to "attack and destroy" the ship "may appear puzzling", the explanation seems to be found in Liberty's nature and its task to monitor communications on both sides in the war zone. He writes, "Israel clearly did not want the U.S. government to know too much about its dispositions for attacking Syria, initially planned for 8 June, but postponed for 24 hours. It should be pointed out that the attack on Liberty occurred on 8 June, whereas on 9 June at 3am, Syria announced its acceptance of the cease-fire. Despite this, at 7am, that is, four hours later, Israel's minister of defense, Moshe Dayan, "gave the order to go into action against Syria."[81] He further writes that timely knowledge of this decision and preparatory moves toward it "might have frustrated Israeli designs for the conquest of Syria's Golan Heights" and, in the sense of Ennes's accusations, provides "a plausible thesis that Israel deliberately decided to incapacitate the signals-collecting American ship and leave no one alive to tell the story of the attack."[82]

U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Barbour, had reported on the day of the Liberty attack that he "would not be surprised" by an Israeli attack on Syria, and the IDF Intelligence chief told a White House aide then in Israel that "there still remained the Syria problem and perhaps it would be necessary to give Syria a blow."[83]

The 1981 book Weapons by Russell Warren Howe says that Liberty was accompanied by the Polaris ballistic missile-armed Lafayette-class submarine USSAndrew Jackson, which filmed the entire episode through its periscope but was unable to provide assistance. According to Howe: "Two hundred feet below the ship, on a parallel course, was its 'shadow'the Polaris strategic submarine Andrew Jackson, whose job was to take out all the Israeli long-range missile sites in the Negev if Tel Aviv decided to attack Cairo, Damascus or Baghdad. This was in order that Moscow would not have to perform this task itself and thus trigger World War Three."[84]

James Bamford, a former ABC News producer, in his 2001 book Body of Secrets,[85] says Israel deliberately attacked Liberty to prevent the discovery of what he described as war crimes, including the killing of Egyptian prisoners of war by the IDF that he alleges was taking place around the same time in the nearby town of El-Arish.[86] However, according to CAMERA, his claim that 400 were executed has been cast into doubt since reporters present in the town claimed that there had in fact been a large battle and this was the main cause of casualties.[87] Bamford also claimed that eyewitness Gabi Bron had claimed he saw 150 people executed by Israeli troops at El-Arish.[85] However, Gabi Bron claimed to have only seen 5 people executed by Israeli troops.[88][89]

The press release for the BBC documentary film Dead in the Water states that new recorded and other evidence suggests the attack was a "daring ploy by Israel to fake an Egyptian attack" to give America a reason to enter the war against Egypt. Convinced that the attack was real, President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson launched allegedly nuclear-armed aircraft targeted against Cairo from a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. The aircraft were recalled only just in time, when it was clear the Liberty had not sunk and that Israel had carried out the attack. An information source for the aircraft being nuclear-armed, James Ennes, later stated:

Although America could not send conventionally armed jets, reports still come in that four jet bombers were catapulted from the carrier America with nuclear bombs aboard. Even today there is no official confirmation of that launch and much high-level denial. A nuclear launch has been strongly denied by Secretary McNamara, Admiral Martin (now deceased), Admiral Geis (deceased), Admiral Moorer, and Americas skipper, Admiral David Engen (deceased) and others. Yet eyewitness reports persist. Clearly no such launch could have been intended for offensive purposes. Surely nuclear weapons would not have been used in defense of the USS Liberty.

It is clear that I was mistaken about the aircraft involved, as F4s do not carry nuclear weapons. Others tell me that the aircraft that were launched carried Bullpup missiles, which might easily be mistaken for nuclear bombs. And we learned much later that the USS America was involved in a nuclear weapons loading drill at the very time the ship learned of the attack on the Liberty and that this drill is one factor that delayed America's response to our call for help. It is also possible that those were the weapons seen by our sources.

Also confusing this issue is an oral history report from the American Embassy in Cairo, now in the LBJ Library, which notes that the Embassy received an urgent message from Washington warning that Cairo was about to be bombed by US forces, presumably in mistaken retaliation for the USS Liberty attack. That strange message was never explained or cancelled.[90]

The video also provides hearsay evidence of a covert alliance of U.S. and Israel intelligence agencies.[91]

Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a critic of the official United States Government version of events, chaired a non-governmental investigation into the attack on the USS Liberty in 2003. The committee, which included former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia James E. Akins, held Israel to be culpable and suggested several theories for Israel's possible motives, including the desire to blame Egypt and bring the U.S. into the Six Day War.[92]

According to John Loftus and Mark Aarons in their book, The Secret War Against the Jews, USS Liberty was attacked because the Israelis knew that Liberty's mission was to monitor radio signals from Israeli troops and pass troop movement information to the Egyptians.[93][unreliable source?]

Within an hour of learning that the Liberty had been torpedoed, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, LTG Marshall S. Carter, sent a message to all intercept sites requesting a special search of all communications that might reflect the attack or reaction. No communications were available. However, one of the airborne platforms, a U.S. Navy EC-121 aircraft that flew near the attacks from 2:30pm to 3:27pm, Sinai time (1230 to 1327 Z), had collected voice conversations between two Israeli helicopter pilots and the control tower at Hatzor Airfield following the attack on the Liberty.[94]

On 2 July 2003, the NSA released copies of the recordings made by the EC-121 and the resultant translations and summaries.[95] These revelations were elicited as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Florida bankruptcy judge and retired naval aviator Jay Cristol. Two linguists who were aboard the EC-121 when the recordings were made, however, said separately that at least two additional tapes were made that have been excluded from the NSA releases up to and including a 8 June 2007, release.[7]

English transcripts of the released tapes indicate that Israel still spoke of hitting an Egyptian supply ship even after the attack had stopped.[96][97] After the attack, the rescue helicopters are heard relaying several urgent requests that the rescuers ask the first survivor pulled out of the water what his nationality is, and discussing whether the survivors from the attacked ship will speak Arabic.[98]

A summary report of the NSA-translated tapes[99] indicates that at 1234Z Hatzor air control began directing two Israeli Air Force helicopters to an Egyptian warship, to rescue its crew: "This ship has now been identified as Egyptian." The helicopters arrived near the ship at about 1303Z: "I see a big vessel, near it are three small vessels..." At 1308Z, Hatzor air control indicated concern about the nationality of the ship's crew: "The first matter to clarify is to find out what their nationality is." At 1310Z, one of the helicopter pilots asked the nearby torpedo boats' Division Commander about the meaning of the ship's hull number: "GTR5 is written on it. Does this mean something?" The response was: "Negative, it doesn't mean anything." At 1312Z, one of the helicopter pilots was asked by air control: "Did you clearly identify an American flag?" No answer appears in the transcript, but the air controller then says: "We request that you make another pass and check once more if this is really an American flag." Again, no response appears in the transcript. At about 1314Z, the helicopters were directed to return home.

The NSA reported that there had been no radio intercepts of the attack made by the Liberty herself, nor had there been any radio intercepts made by the U.S. submarine USSAmberjack.

On 10 October 2003, The Jerusalem Post ran an interview with Yiftah Spector, one of the pilots who participated in the attack,[100] and thought to be the lead pilot of the first wave of aircraft. Spector said the ship was assumed to be Egyptian, stating that: "I circled it twice and it did not fire on me. My assumption was that it was likely to open fire at me and nevertheless I slowed down and I looked and there was positively no flag." The interview also contains the transcripts of the Israeli communications about the Liberty. The journalist who transcribed the tapes for that article, Arieh O'Sullivan, later confirmed that "the Israeli Air Force tapes he listened to contained blank spaces."[7]

The Liberty's survivors contradict Spector. According to subsequently declassified NSA documents: "Every official interview of numerous Liberty crewmen gave consistent evidence that indeed the Liberty was flying an American flagand, further, the weather conditions were ideal to ensure its easy observance and identification."[101]

On 8 June 2005, the USS Liberty Veterans Association filed a "Report of War Crimes Committed Against the U.S. Military, June 8, 1967" with the Department of Defense (DoD). They say Department of Defense Directive 2311.01E requires the Department of Defense to conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations contained in their report. DoD has responded that a new investigation will not be conducted since a Navy Court of Inquiry already investigated the facts and circumstances surrounding the attack.

As of 2006, the NSA has yet to declassify "boxes and boxes" of Liberty documents. Numerous requests under both declassification directives and the Freedom of Information Act are pending in various agencies including the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency, and Defense Intelligence Agency. "On 8 June 2007, the National Security Agency released hundreds of additional declassified documents on the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, a communications interception vessel, on 8 June 1967."[102]

On 2 October 2007, The Chicago Tribune published a special report[7] into the attack, containing numerous previously unreported quotes from former military personnel with first-hand knowledge of the incident. Many of these quotes directly contradict the NSA's position that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots, saying that not only did transcripts of those communications exist, but also that it showed the Israelis knew they were attacking an American naval vessel.

Two diplomatic cables written by Avraham Harman, Israel's ambassador in Washington, to Abba Eban Israel's minister of foreign affairs, have been declassified by Israel and obtained from the Israel State Archive. The first cable, sent five days after the attack, informs Eban that a U.S. informant told him (Harman) that there was "clear proof that from a certain stage the pilot discovered the identity of the ship and continued the attack anyway."[15] The second cable, sent three days later, added that the White House is "very angry" because "the Americans probably have findings showing that our pilots indeed knew that the ship was American."[7]

Documents of the Israeli General Staff meetings, declassified in October 2008, show no discussion of a planned attack on an American ship.[103]

On 30 October 2014, Al Jazeera English broadcast a documentary film containing recent first-hand accounts by several survivors of the incident.[104] The documentary argues that Israel knew the ship was American, and planned to blame its sinking on Egypt in order to draw the US into the war on the Israeli side.

Excerpt from:

USS Liberty incident - Wikipedia

Liberty High Schools softball team couldnt locate the big hit it needed to turn the tide of the game on Thursday.

And, while the Hurricanes searched, Spring-Ford found its knockout punch and ended the Bethlehem schools historic season.

Liberty fell to the Rams, 9-2, in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals at Parkland High School.

Spring-Ford, the third-place team from District 1, advances to Mondays state semifinals, where it will meet the Council Rock North-Hazleton winner.

The Rams jumped out in front during the games second at-bat when Megan Kern launched a home run over the right field fence, a rare occurrence at the South Whitehall Township venue.

Spring-Ford (21-4) led the rest of the way, tacking on an insurance run in the fifth inning, before breaking the contest open with a three-run sixth inning and four-run seventh.

Bridget Sharkey provided the pop in the last three innings, smacking a run-scoring double in each frame and finishing with five RBIs for the Rams.

We knew coming in that they were going to be one of the better teams weve faced, Hurricanes senior center fielder Reyna DeJesus said of Spring-Ford.

Liberty (21-6) put a pair of runners on base during the first, third and fifth innings, but didnt push any across.

We got the girls on base, we just couldnt get them around, Liberty coach Sam Carrodo said. We had first-and-second, second-and-third a few times, we just couldnt get that hit to bring them in. Thats what separates good teams from great teams when it comes to this level. If you want to advance, youve got to get those runners in.

The Hurricanes finally broke onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to RBI singles from Paige Zigmund and Alexa Burger.

I tell you what, they could have given up, Carrodo said. They could have let it go, but they kept fighting and fighting and fighting. You have to be proud of them. Theyre great kids.

Despite Thursdays disappointing conclusion, Liberty has plenty to be happy about at the end of the day. The Hurricanes had the most wins in program history, a District 11 title and the schools first victory in the PIAA tournament.

We had a great group of girls, said DeJesus, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Co-MVP. People doubted us from the beginning. It was just great to show people what we can do.

Liberty will lose seven seniors: DeJesus, Kristin Kaleycik, Cailin Donegan, Skilee Diaz, Keri Appleman, Jess Watts and Miranda Kinney.

They made us proud all four years not only on the field, but off the field and in the classroom, Carrodo said. They were just outstanding young ladies. The hole that theyre going to leave is going to be very, very tough to fill. But, were going to work at it. We had a very good JV team Hopefully, we can fill some holes with some of those kids and continue on, because I think we have a bright future.

DeJesus, who is headed to the University of Delaware, is confident that the younger players will take this years success and run with it.

We have good freshmen coming in every year, she said. We have juniors and sophomores who are very good and are going to fill our positions when the seniors leave. I think theyre going to make a good run next year.

Kyle Craig may be reached atkcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@KyleCraigSports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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Stranded runners leave Liberty softball's season stuck in PIAA quarters - lehighvalleylive.com

Kansas City Star

Detective posing as 13-year-old girl online, leads to charges against Liberty, Mo. attorney fox4kc.com LIBERTY, Mo. -- A Liberty, Missouri attorney faces charges of sexual exploitation of a minor because investigators say he had numerous chats online that were sexual in nature, with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. Jerome M. Patience ... Liberty lawyer accused of online sex crimes with someone he thought was a teen girlKansas City Star all 5 news articles »

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Detective posing as 13-year-old girl online, leads to charges against Liberty, Mo. attorney - fox4kc.com

Five people, four of them less than age 19, were injured in a one-vehicle crash in Liberty Township Saturday, June 3.

According to state police at Mansfield, Drake Schmouder, 18, of Roaring Branch was operating a 1992 Jeep Wrangler northeast on Route 414 in the right lane of travel.

A 2015 Volkswagen Jetta, operated by Danielle L. Page, 40, of Liberty, was traveling southwest on Route 414 in the right lane of travel when she drifted into the opposing lane and hit the Schmouder vehicle head-on, police said.

Page and her three-year-old female passenger were transported to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville with numerous serious injuries.

A 7-year-old passenger in the back seat of the Schmouder vehicle not wearing a seat belt was ejected from the vehicle and was unconscious and unresponsive at the scene, according to police.

The boy also was transported via medical helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center.

Schmouder and a 17-year old female passenger in the his vehicle were wearing seatbelts.

Both were transported to Geisinger Medical Center with serious injuries.

Page was listed in fair condition Wednesday.

Neither Schmouder nor the 7-year-old male were at Geisinger as of Wednesday morning, according to a public relations spokesperson there.

The conditions and whereabouts of the two and the others injured in the crash are unknown.

See the rest here:

Five injured in Liberty crash - The Wellsboro Gazette

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. Speech by Abraham Lincoln in the House of Representatives, January 12, 1848

In December 2016, Washington State Representatives Matt Shea, Bob McCaslin, and David Taylor sponsored House Joint Memorial 4000, which would create the "State of Liberty," the 51st state, out of the portion of Washington State east of the Cascades. Opponents are saying such a move would be unconstitutional.

Sheas bill explains the impetus for the proposed partition: "Since statehood, the lifestyles, culture, and economies of eastern and western Washington have been very distinct and dramatically different, while the urbanization and rapid growth in the western portions of the state has progressively heightened this divergence of cultural and economic values between the western and eastern portions of the state."

Culturally, the area of the propsed State of Liberty, eastern Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are all similar, and have been termed derisively by the Left as the "American Redoubt," a land of ignorant bigots, homesteaders, Bible-thumpers, preppers, gun nuts, and the like. But some residents of this cultural region are proudly adopting the term "Redoubt," noting that liberals have their "redoubts": socialist havens such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, etc.

Conservative journalist Sheri Dovale explained the popularity among constitutionalists of the area that includes the proposed State of Liberty in a May 27 article for redoubtnews.com. Calling the American Redoubt a great place to live and to raise a family, she said, the weather is comfortable, it is not too crowded, and it is not overblown with government regulations. We can share our Conservative views and not be incarcerated for them. We can garden and preserve the fruits of our labors. We can raise livestock and provide meat for our families. We can go to church and share the word of God without fear, she added.

In an exclusive statement to The New American, Representative Shea reveals not only the popularity of the proposal, but the prospect for prosperity such a separation would bring: "Liberty State is hugely popular of over 10,000 people polled there is 74% support in eastern Washington. Seattle continues to disparage us on this side of the state and say we are a bunch of welfare freeloaders because we get more money expenditures than we raise in taxes. If we are such a burden then why not let us go then? This is not going away. Ultimately we will have success in this endeavor and keep pushing until we do."

An article published in Liberty Hangout lays out the plan, highlighting obstacles and opportunities:

If the bill succeeds, this would be an important domino for the secession movement, and help inspire other disaffected communities across the nation to secede. As governments decentralize, power is restored to the individual, and communities can appropriately govern themselves as they see fit, without outside influences. As even our founders recognized, the government which is closest to home is easiest to control.

Should the bill fail, communities ought to learn from their efforts and push forward with their own secession movements anyway. For if their voices are not being heard in the federal and state governments anyway, then what do they have to lose? They only have everything to gain.

Strictly speaking, should a new star be added to the flag of the United States for the State of Liberty, secession from the Union would not be involved (though this would involve secession from the state of Washington). Despite the fact that articles and blog posts by many supporters describe the proposal as act of secession, logically a state cannot leave the Union (secede) and be the 51st state!

In a recording posted to SoundCloud last week, Representative Shea refuted the assertion put forth by some opponents that the division of a state into two or more states is unconstitutional.

Thats simply ridiculous! Shea exclaims, referring to the charge of constitutional violation.

Shea cites Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution which reads, New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

In other words, should lawmakers in the states parts of which would be ceded to form the State of Liberty agree to allow the division and should Congress do likewise, there is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent the proposal from being enacted.

In fact, this precise procedure has been followed a few times in American history: first, with the formation of the state of Kentucky. In 1789, the state legislature of Virginia approved the creation of the state of Kentucky, followed two years later by the constitutionally mandated approval by Congress; second, the state of Maine was formed in a similar fashion having separated from Massachusetts; and in 1861 in a manner much less constitutionally compliant West Virginia separated from Virginia.

Shea believes that separating from the other states and forming one where people share customs, beliefs, and values is the proper way to protect and preserve those beliefs for generations to come.

Classically, of course, the idea of restraining republics to territories wherein the residents share fundamental values was accepted as a given. In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu asserts that the public good is better felt, better known, lies nearer to each citizen. In this, the celebrated Frenchman was advocating a small size and the State of Liberty, should it be formed, is certainly not small.

The spirit of Montesquieus observation is present in the proposal, however. Those who would choose to become citizens of the State of Liberty would be those who, as explained above by Sheri Dovale, share a vision of the proper size and power of government, as well as more fundamental values, including the importance of religion, family, and self-sufficiency in a well-functioning, peaceful society.

As of now, there seems to be little movement on the part of the Washington State Legislature toward approving the separation. After all, proposals to form a new state out of Eastern Washington were put forth in 2015, 2005, 1991, 1985, and even as far back as 1915; none of which, obviously, succeeded.

Such lack of movement for separation is not not true globally, however, as evidenced by Brexit and the efforts by Scotland and Catalan to break away from the larger societies with which they are close geographically, but historically and culturally very distant. Perhaps these events are portents of a zeitgeist supportive of separation and decentralization and that spirit will sweep across the Cascades and across the State of Liberty.

Representative Shea is undeterred, and told me in a text message, "Liberty is not just a proposed state, it's a state of mind and the more we spread liberty the more successful we are."

Go here to read the rest:

Is Proposed "State of Liberty" Constitutional? - The New American

Taking a leap of faith, Bryan Borgstadt, 11, left, and Hezikiah Montgomery, 12, both of Sedalia, dive off the deep end of the Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. With sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, the pool was a busy place Thursday. Sunshine and highs in the 90s will continue through the weekend.

Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Dylon Adair, of Sedalia, splashes into Liberty Pool after riding down the slide Thursday. Dylon was at the pool with his brothers Blayne Nicholson, 8, and Ricky Adair, 12, who were both celebrating their birthday.

Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Blayne Nicholson, 8, takes a leap and dives into Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Blayne, who was celebrating his birthday, was at the pool with his two brothers and mother, Heather Snyder, and father, Rickey Adair.

Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Getting ready to take the plunge, Ricky Adair, of Sedalia, holds his nose before hitting the water at Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Ricky was spending the day at the pool to celebrate his birthday.

Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Taking a leap of faith, Bryan Borgstadt, 11, left, and Hezikiah Montgomery, 12, both of Sedalia, dive off the deep end of the Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. With sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, the pool was a busy place Thursday. Sunshine and highs in the 90s will continue through the weekend.

Dylon Adair, of Sedalia, splashes into Liberty Pool after riding down the slide Thursday. Dylon was at the pool with his brothers Blayne Nicholson, 8, and Ricky Adair, 12, who were both celebrating their birthday.

Blayne Nicholson, 8, takes a leap and dives into Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Blayne, who was celebrating his birthday, was at the pool with his two brothers and mother, Heather Snyder, and father, Rickey Adair.

Getting ready to take the plunge, Ricky Adair, of Sedalia, holds his nose before hitting the water at Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Ricky was spending the day at the pool to celebrate his birthday.

Taking a leap of faith, Bryan Borgstadt, 11, left, and Hezikiah Montgomery, 12, both of Sedalia, dive off the deep end of the Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. With sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, the pool was a busy place Thursday. Sunshine and highs in the 90s will continue through the weekend.

http://sedaliademocrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_TSD060917PoolPhotos-1.jpgTaking a leap of faith, Bryan Borgstadt, 11, left, and Hezikiah Montgomery, 12, both of Sedalia, dive off the deep end of the Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. With sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, the pool was a busy place Thursday. Sunshine and highs in the 90s will continue through the weekend. Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Dylon Adair, of Sedalia, splashes into Liberty Pool after riding down the slide Thursday. Dylon was at the pool with his brothers Blayne Nicholson, 8, and Ricky Adair, 12, who were both celebrating their birthday.

http://sedaliademocrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_TSD060917PoolPhotos-2-.jpgDylon Adair, of Sedalia, splashes into Liberty Pool after riding down the slide Thursday. Dylon was at the pool with his brothers Blayne Nicholson, 8, and Ricky Adair, 12, who were both celebrating their birthday. Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Blayne Nicholson, 8, takes a leap and dives into Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Blayne, who was celebrating his birthday, was at the pool with his two brothers and mother, Heather Snyder, and father, Rickey Adair.

http://sedaliademocrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_TSD060917PoolPhotos-3.jpgBlayne Nicholson, 8, takes a leap and dives into Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Blayne, who was celebrating his birthday, was at the pool with his two brothers and mother, Heather Snyder, and father, Rickey Adair. Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

Getting ready to take the plunge, Ricky Adair, of Sedalia, holds his nose before hitting the water at Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Ricky was spending the day at the pool to celebrate his birthday.

http://sedaliademocrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_TSD060917PoolPhotos-4.jpgGetting ready to take the plunge, Ricky Adair, of Sedalia, holds his nose before hitting the water at Liberty Pool Thursday afternoon. Ricky was spending the day at the pool to celebrate his birthday. Photos by Faith Bemiss | Democrat

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Cooling off at Liberty Pool - Sedalia Democrat

Clay Township veteran Jack Beattie stands in front of a world map depicting all the places he was while in the U.S. Navy on Monday, June 5, 2017. He served on the American spy ship USS Liberty when it was attacked Israeli war planes and ships 50 years ago Thursday, June 8,(Photo: Jackie Smith/Times Herald)Buy Photo

Fifty years ago, Jack Beattie watched unknown pilots flying overhead while he was aboard the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean Sea.

They were close enough to wave to, but they didnt wave back.

Beattie questioned what was happening then. Five decades later, on the anniversary of the attack on his spy ship, hes still seeking answers.

Beattie, 69 ofClay Township,easily recounts the June 8, 1967, attack that took the lives of 34 men on Libertyand wounded 170 more. It's a story he wants Americans to hear and remember 50 years later.

The unprovoked attack by Israeliforces on the ship came during what is now known as the Six-Day War, a clash between Israel and several Arab nations. The U.S. stayedneutral during the conflict.

Beattie said survivors whove sought an investigation into the 1967 attack have often received some pushback that it was anti-Semitic or derogatory of an American ally. On Monday, he said they just wantanswers.

Clay Township Jack Beattie served on the USS Liberty, which was attacked by Israeli forces 50 years ago Thursday. He remembers keeping quiet of the events early on but has made an effort to share his experience since. Jackie Smith/Times Herald

Still, he added its humbling to be in a position to share the experience. It shouldve been done years ago, but it was not, he said. Weve been pushing this for the last 20 years, Id say.

The day of the attack started with aircraft circling overhead.In the hours before the attack, Beattie said they had felt safe onboard, thinking it was clear to whomever they were the Liberty was an American ship and not involved in the conflict.

You could actually wave to the pilots. They never waved back. I (saw) for myself, he said. One time I was on the main deck, and the Israeli transport plane flew over us and went around the ship several times and took off. We were monitored many times. So they knew who we were. The USS Liberty (showed it was the) AGTR-5 on the bow, port and starboard side, in 5-foot letters. On the back of the ship said (it was) the Liberty, and an American flag (flew).

Beattie was in a whaleboat hanging on the side of the ship, helping enginemen, when he saw sailors on the bridge looking at oncoming aircraft moments before rockets hit that day.

Once the rockets hit, he said, they were shocked, andjets came back and forth for about 40 minutes.

They said, Stand by for torpedo attacks, starboard side. Im thinking, Torpedos? Were not even at war. Whats going on? And Im looking at the wall there, and I (knew) thats the starboard side, he said. So I get on the phone; I said, Request permission to leave and they said, Wait one, which is hold on. Im thinking, How much longer are we going to hold on? So I have the phone on, and Im going up the ladder. Id just opened the hatch and was just getting out when the torpedo hit, and all the kids collapsed. There was smoke. It threw me around like a rag doll. And the ship just started rolling over.

The frenzy continued as crews made their way on deck, Beattie said, where they just hunkered down until the machine-gunning of the ship was over. He said hed been banged around but never sought medical treatment.

U.S. Navy veteran Jack Beattie, of Clay Township, shows a picture of himself on Monday, June 5, 2017. While on the USS Liberty, he was an E-3 fireman in the ship's machine shop.(Photo: Jackie Smith/Times Herald)

Beattie called it a harrowing night that left them to sleep in their life jackets for several nights on a ship that ultimately never sank.

In the half-century since the attack, hes made it almost his mission to share his story.

We didnt know it was Israel right away. Nobody knew, Beattie said Monday in his home. John Scott, he was a (damage control) officer with us, down on the deck. (We asked), Mr. Scott, whos shooting? and he said, I dont know. I dont know whos shooting at us. We thought it had to be Egypt. Then we found out.

Beattie, age 19 at the time, said theyd been told not to talk about it and largely kept quiet after the attack something he said probably changed after about 15 years.

Israel would go on to apologize for the attack, citing an error in mistaking the Liberty for an Egyptian ship. However, Beattie said hes among the survivors who believe theres a bigger story there.

When you tell the truth of what happened to you personally, it comes out the same every time, said the veteran, whose naval service ended in 1991.

The Liberty was an American technical research ship or a spy ship. Beattie had been on board two years and was an E-3 fireman, working in the ships machine shop.

Jack Beattie sorts through magazines, photographs and documents regarding the USS Liberty on Monday, June 5, 2017, in the kitchen of his Clay Township home. The U.S. Navy veteran served on the Liberty when it was attacked 50 years ago Thursday.(Photo: Jackie Smith/Times Herald)

In May, Beattie joined the other Vietnam-era veterans who received a special label pin honoring his service from state officials. Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township, and Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kowall shared the honors with Beattie, and Pavlov said 1,000 received the recognition in the capital last year.

Jack was one of the people that reached out, Pavlov said. It was very nice. Hes got a heck of a story if you havent talked to him about it yet. Its unique.

On Tuesday, Beattie was to leave for Washington, D.C., for events and recognition more specific to those who served on the Liberty. That was to include a visit to Arlington National Cemetery to recognize veterans and those killed in the attack and a reunion in Norfolk.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

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Clay Twp. vet recalls 'harrowing night' on USS Liberty 50 years later - Port Huron Times Herald