[act-ma] 6/9 Radio, 7pm: USS Liberty survivor recounts Israeli assassination of 34 American soldiers / Remembering USS Liberty at 'Sad Little Gathering'

[pf soto]

-------- Original Message --------
Phil Tourney, past President of the USS Liberty Veterans Association is 
the author of the recently published "What I Saw That Day...Israel's 
June 8 1967 Holocaust of US Servicemen Aboard the USS LIBERTY and its 
Aftermath" 
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450715540?ie=UTF8&tag=veteranstoday-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1450715540> 


Those wanting to know why their world is going down in flames these days 
vis-a-vis the interminable, bankrupting wars in the Middle East need to 
know history before they can understand the present, and the first 
lesson that needs explaining in this regard is Israel's deliberate 2 
hour attack upon the American-flag ship USS LIBERTY in June of 1967.

The key to bringing liberty back to the people of America and to the 
world at large is the USS LIBERTY story.


Phil Tourney's 2 hour radio show tonight is at *7 PM Eastern time* (a 
day after the anniversary of the USS Liberty attack); he recounts the 
assassination of 34 unarmed American soldiers.
http://republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=listenlive

Perfect for our friends who know little about this brutal bloody little 
known part of US history.

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  Remembering USS Liberty at 'Sad Little Gathering'

Jun 08, 2012

Military.com| by Bryant Jordan

USS Liberty

On Friday, Patricia Blue-Rousakis plans to be at Arlington National 
Cemetery where she has spent many June 8ths for the past 15 years.

There, she'll join with a handful of survivors of the 1967 attack on the 
surveillance ship USS Liberty, which was struck by Israeli air and naval 
forces. The group will hear a retired chaplain say a prayer, visit with 
those in attendance -- some, like herself, who lost family members on 
the Liberty -- and then go off to lunch in Alexandria, Va.

But even after so many years, and knowing full well that the topic of 
the Liberty is widely viewed as poisonous, the visitors still note the 
absence of political and military officials at the observance.

"We talk about it among ourselves," said Blue-Rousakis, whose first 
husband, Alan Blue, was a National Security Agency linguist on the ship. 
He was among the 34 men killed and 174 wounded in the attack.

"Of the family members and the survivors, *every single one of us at one 
time or another has invited our representative from [the House] and the 
Senate. And no one has ever shown up. No one. *It's a very sad little 
gathering."

It's just not the politicians, she said.

Forty-five years after the attack, no uniformed officers are expected to 
attend the ceremony.

"They won't do it. They absolutely will not do it," she said.

The lightly armed American spy ship was strafed, napalmed and torpedoed 
by Israeli air and naval forces for more than an hour in broad daylight 
during the Six-Day War. But for a crewman gerry-rigging a radio to get a 
message out to the fleet 
<http://www.military.com/news/article/sailor-awarded-silver-star-for-67-actions.html>, 
many Liberty survivors believe they would have been sunk with all hands.

President Lyndon Johnson accepted Israel's apology for the attack, but 
it has remained hotly controversial ever since, a lightning rod for 
conspiracy theorists. Alternative theories about Israel's attack -- 
about it being deliberate; about cover-ups -- have made the topic of the 
Liberty too radioactive for members of Congress or Pentagon leaders.

Journalist and author James Scott, whose father survived the attack, 
wrote in "Attack on the Liberty" that Johnson believed the attack was 
deliberate 
<http://www.military.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/book-review-attack-on-liberty>. 
But he let Israel off the hook because he feared "alienating" American 
Jewish leaders, from whom he was getting "pressure" for escalating the 
war in Vietnam.

Joseph Meadors, a Liberty survivor and the current president of the 
Liberty Veterans Association, said he and his predecessors have been 
inviting members of Congress to Arlington since they began holding the 
observances in the 1980s, he said.

"This year I've invited every member of Congress who represents a 
congressional district where a USS Liberty KIA lived," Meadors said. 
This meant invitations to lawmakers from 21 states. So far three 
lawmakers have said they would send staffers, but as of Wednesday one 
staffer had bailed out, saying there was a scheduling conflict.

This is usually how it works, Meadors said. He said he'd be surprised if 
the other staffers show.

One lawmaker, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, responded to the 
invitation with a brief note to be read at the ceremony. Cornyn offered 
his "deep sympathy to the friends and loved ones of the 34 brave 
Americans who were lost that day.

"Although words are hardly adequate, please know that you and your 
families are in my thoughts and prayers." The note spoke of honoring the 
dead who protect the United States, and of remaining dedicated, "just as 
they were dedicated, to the principles foundational to our Constitution, 
we must willingly defend them whenever necessary."



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