Dear Gene-Thomas,

In regard to justice for the crew of USS LIBERTY, unless you can get the courts involved, I see no hope. Congress, especially now, has a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil’ attitude toward Israel.

Dick

Dear Dick,

I think you are absolutely right about the fact that Senators and Representatives, for political reasons, lack the honor, courage and commitment to support the servicemen who served and died on board USS Liberty.

Senator Adlai Stevenson III, while he was a United States Senator from Illinois, called a news conference in 1980 during which he announced that he was convinced that the attack on the USS Liberty was deliberate and that the survivors deserved an investigation. Almost immediately, the government of Israel contacted the White House and offered to settle the outstanding $40 million damage claims for $6 million. The White House agreed to that offer and the Department of State followed immediately with a press release announcing, "The book is now closed on the USS Liberty." The settlement, directly related to Senator Stevenson's announced plan to hold an inquiry, was engineered to block forever any inquiry on the part of Congress. Even though Israel did pay $6 million, the payments were meaningless in so far as Congress merely increased the annual Israeli allotment by that amount.

When Adlai Stevenson later ran for Governor of Illinois, he was strongly opposed by Israeli and Jewish interests. He lost. Many feel it was his support for the Liberty that cost him the election. Many also feel it was Stevenson's experience with the Liberty that has intimidated other members of Congress who might otherwise support the survivors.

Our system of government has worked quite well because of the relationship between the executive, legislative and judiciary branches. Given the fact that members of our executive and legislative branches fear lobbying groups more than they honor the lives of service men and women who, generally speaking, do not come from wealthy and influential families, I believe you are right about the courts being the Liberty’s last recourse for justice.

Unlike the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) that produced an exceptional documentary, “Dead in the Water,” demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that the attack was not an accident, the vast majority of the US media has perpetuated the excuse that it was simply an accident. When the attack occurred on June 8, 1967, why was the story buried on page 28 of the New York Times? Had an Arab country, instead of the Israelis, attacked the Liberty truly by accident, I doubt it would have been reported on page 28.

After polling a number of journalists this past week to inquire what they felt Liberty survivors could do to secure justice, the consensus was that the executive and legislative branches of our government will continue to oppose any thorough and just investigation of the attack. How will elected officials that have provided Israel with billions of dollars in aid explain to their constituents why they so strongly support a government that intentionally undertook an attack that claimed the lives of 34 US servicemen and wounded 171 others?

For almost fifty years, between 1943 and 1990, almost everyone knew that the Russians, and not the Germans, were guilty of murdering the Polish officers in the Katyn Wood massacre. Likewise, anyone who has carefully examined the extensive evidence involving the USS Liberty knows that Israel's attack was as accidental as Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, no elected official today seems to have the moral courage to do anything about it.

As the 40 year anniversary of the attack on the Liberty approaches, the political situation in the Middle East is not much better than it was forty years ago. Just as there can be no true and lasting peace in that region without justice, so too will the survivors and families of the Liberty never find peace in their lives until justice is served.

Gene-Thomas Gomulka
Author of The Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military available at www.plaintec.net
Have a question?  Write Gene-Thomas at letters@plaintec.net

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