Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has urged the US to reopen its investigation right into a 1967 Israeli assault on a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, that killed 34 service members and injured 171 others.
Monday marked the 59th anniversary of the assault, and Massie honoured the event by delivering a speech on the ground of the Home of Representatives, within the presence of survivors.
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The Israeli authorities has lengthy maintained the incident was a “pleasant hearth” accident. However some crew members from the USS Liberty have disputed that evaluation, calling the assault deliberate.
Massie highlighted their testimonies in his speech, which questioned the official model of the occasions.
“Whereas they’re nonetheless alive, they want closure,” Massie mentioned of the survivors.
“Let’s give them closure. Let’s have an investigation. Let’s go a decision honouring them. It’s lengthy overdue. After which they’ll have their justice.”
The Home ground speech represented a uncommon congressional acknowledgement of the lingering questions surrounding the assault.
It additionally comes at a time of rising opposition to the US’s coverage of giving unconditional assist to Israel.
Within the wake of Israel’s genocidal battle in Gaza and the joint US-Israeli battle in opposition to Iran, public opinion polls have proven that the US ally is changing into increasingly unpopular among the many American public.
Critics have argued for many years that the USS Liberty incident and the alleged cover-up that adopted illustrate a lopsided alliance with Israel that doesn’t serve Washington’s pursuits.
The war on Iran and horrific atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon have renewed scrutiny of that partnership, in addition to of the 1967 assault itself.
Massie is amongst these sceptical of the US-Israeli relationship. He has opposed the battle on Iran, in addition to efforts to additional combine the US and Israeli militaries.
The outgoing congressman finally misplaced his main final month to a challenger backed by US President Donald Trump and pro-Israel teams.
In Monday’s speech, he solid doubt as as to whether Israel might have unintentionally focused the USS Liberty.
“The visibility was limitless. The American flag was flying proudly on the USS Liberty,” he instructed the Home, describing the ship as being “viciously attacked”.
Israel’s supporters, nonetheless, insist that the assault was a misidentification accident not unusual in battle.
On the time, Israel was locked within the Six-Day Battle with a number of Arab international locations. The USS Liberty had been despatched to worldwide waters close by for commentary and intelligence assortment.
However on June 8, 1967, Israeli jets opened hearth and dropped napalm on the USS Liberty, earlier than torpedoing the vessel.
“The Israelis had been intent on leaving no survivors,” Massie mentioned in his speech, noting that Israeli jets had been seen surveilling the vessel the day previous to the assault.
To again up his argument, Massie cited statements from a number of prime diplomatic, intelligence and army officers, together with former US Secretary of State Dean Rusk and ex-top Common Thomas Hinman Moorer, each of whom have mentioned they imagine the assault was deliberate.
“None of those distinguished males suppose this was an accident,” Massie mentioned. “They suppose it was intentional homicide by the nation of Israel, both as a false flag operation or as a result of they merely didn’t need anyone observing what they had been doing that day.”
Israel illegally seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Syria’s Golan Heights by the tip of the battle in 1967.
Many years later, in 2003, Ward Boston — a US Navy official who served as an adviser to the court docket of inquiry that seemed into the assault — launched sworn testimony that lead investigator Isaac Kidd had confronted strain to rule the incident as a case of mistaken identification.
However an evaluation from the Central Intelligence Company (CIA) that was launched in 2006 claimed that Israeli pilots “did not establish” the USS Liberty as a US ship.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw criticised Massie, a fellow Republican, on Sunday for his plans to discuss the assault on the vessel.
“The USS Liberty incident is a tragic one, but it surely’s an incident with a transparent conclusion if one makes use of any goal evaluation of the information,” Crenshaw wrote on the net platform X.
However the USS Liberty Veterans Affiliation praised Massie in a social media publish. The group, composed largely of survivors, has been calling for accountability within the case.
“A dynomite [sic] telling telling of our story in such a brief period of time,” the group mentioned of Massie’s speech. “The story NO different member of Congress will even hearken to.”
