USS LIBERTY Survivors need your help

 USS LIBERTY Survivors need your help

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2007


Contact: Joe Meadors
joe@...

On June 8, 1967 the USS Liberty was attacked by the combined forces of the Israeli air force and navy. Notified almost immediately that the ship was under attack, Sixth Fleet aircraft carriers quickly launched rescue aircraft. Two flights were launched—both were recalled on orders of The White House. The cost of abandoning the USS Liberty while the ship was under fire was horrific: 34 dead, 174 wounded and a U.S. Navy ship totally destroyed.

The U.S. Navy abandons the USS Liberty.

The U.S. Navy convened a Court of Inquiry to investigate "all aspects" of the attack.

• USS Liberty crewmen were denied the opportunity to testify;
• sworn testimony about the machine gunning of the Liberty's life rafts was removed from the official record;
• more than 65 written statements provided to the Court by USS Liberty survivors have been lost;
  both the Court's Legal Adviser and the Legal Adviser to the Convening Authority have condemned the Report as pre-determined, totally inadequate and in violation of U.S. Navy guidelines;
• the Court's own legal counsel has filed an affidavit certifying that the official record was changed in Washington after it was signed by Members of the Court.

The Congress of the United States abandons the USS Liberty.

For decades survivors of the USS Liberty have lobbied Congress to conduct an investigation of the attack on their ship. Congressional refusal to conduct an investigation leaves the attack on the USS Liberty
the only serious maritime incident in American history NOT to be the subject of congressional scrutiny.

The Department of Defense abandons the USS Liberty.

On June 8, 2005, after many months of agony caused by reliving the attack in the excruciatingly painful detail required to complete their task, USS Liberty survivors completed a War Crimes Report. They submitted that report to the Department of Defense knowing that the Department of Defense Law of War Program requires the DoD to ensure the allegations contained in the report are "investigated thoroughly." The Department of Defense has not yet responded to the USS Liberty Veterans Association regarding their submission.

Shortly after the USS Liberty Veterans Association made its submission an unrelated group, the Liberty Alliance, submitted the same report to the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense responded almost immediately to the Liberty Alliance.

The Department of Defense abandons the USS Liberty again.

As a result of an invitation included in the DoD response to the Liberty Alliance, USS Liberty survivor Joe Meadors entered into an e-mail exchange with Joe Baggett of the Office of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General on the DoD's handling of the War Crimes Report. Mr. Baggett showed himself to be quite professional and expert at addressing all of the issues that were raised. Meadors subsequently contacted the U.S. Navy Speakers Bureau to request that the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General provide a spokesperson to address a public meeting during the June 2007 USS Liberty Veterans Association reunion near Washington, DC. The Department of Defense refused Meadors' request, claiming that there is no one in the DoD who can speak adequately to the subject—this despite the fact that Meadors and Baggett have been doing just that by e-mail.

USS Liberty survivors need your help.

Please call the Office of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General at (202) 685-5493 to request they provide a speaker to address the crew of the USS Liberty during their June 2007 reunion. Call the members of your Congressional Delegation and ask that they contact the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General and request that they provide the speaker the USS Liberty survivors are requesting. Invite your Congressional Delegation and their staff members to attend that presentation.

Then e-mail Joe Meadors at joe@... so he can coordinate a follow-up.

For more information, or to read the War Crimes Report, visit the USS Liberty Web site: <
http://www.ussliberty.org/>

Please don't let the U.S. government abandon the USS Liberty again.

 

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