This entry marks the first time I have published in this space the notes [with typos corrected] I prepared to accompany an episode of the Two Mikes’ podcast. I am doing so because I can think of nothing better to make the point that the American government’s relationship with Israel is an ongoing and accelerating disaster for the republic, its future, and its citizens, The news this morning proves this point yet again as President Trump urges actions against the 1st Amendment to quiet people rhetorically opposing Israel’s savage and U.S. funded-and equipped war against Palestinian civilians, and then thunders “warnings” to the Palestinians that he will help Netanyahu and his colleagues wipe every last Palestinian from the face of the earth. (NB: Here I am talking about speech, an peaceful marching, not such clear and punishable illegalities as occupying buildings, blocking roads, or destroying property). On this position, Trump is supported by all members of the Congress and Senate, the bulk of the federal bureaucracy, most senior U.S. intelligence officials, flag officers, most sate governors, all the mainstream media, and far to many of the of the major alternative media programs.
Why? Well the answer is simple, they long have been the creatures of Israel and its Jewish and non-Jewish American supporters. The basic and irrefutable fact is that the United States government, and two-thirds of the state governments, have been suborned and so compromised by foreign forces — Israel itself, Israeli-related politicians and billionaires, and their media, business, and academic sycophants in the United States. The annihilation of Palestine and Palestinians also been steadily supported by shocking numbers of Evangelical Christians, whom, it seems, puts Israel first, and leaves God and his commandments to take the hindmost.
Trump keeps pledging the annihilation Palestine and its people –via-Israel-and-U.S. weaponry — in a war which always has been irrelevant to U.S. national security, one that should be ignored by Washington, and left to sort itself out. Please read the following and listen to the 1967 experience of a U.S. sailor and the 299 other members of the USS Liberty’s crew as they were butchered by the Israeli navy and air forces, while Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson ordered the nearby U.S. aircraft carriers not to send air support to the USS Liberty, thereby leaving her to her fate.
Its worth noting that every president, every Congressman, event Senator, every Secretary of Defense, every State Governor, every CIA and NSA Director, every secretary of the Navy, and every other flag officer from the presidencies of Johnson-through-Trump have — for 58 years — refused to reveal the truth about Israel’s deliberate massacre of the USS Liberty, instead claiming the attack was a “mistake”. The answer to this foul cover-up is to press Trump’s administration to release all papers related to the deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, as well as the papers that are still suppressed in the U.S. Archives dealing with the 9-11 attack and Franklin Roosevelt’s role in baiting Japan to stage an attack on U.S. military bases in the Pacific as the means not only ensure war with Japan, but as an event would help him get the United States into the European war, an action which most Americans still opposed on 7 December 1941. Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States, gave FDR his chance to create a base which thereafter stupidly tied America to Europe until this day, although the steady crumbling of NATO , the UN, and the EU gives all Americans hope that they will soon have a much more non-interventionist foreign policy.
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Today (4 March 2025), on The Two Mikes, Colonel Mike, Dr. Mike, and Jack Maxey had the great honor of speaking to one of the survivors — Mr. Phil Tourney — of the pre-planned and extraordinarily vicious Israeli air force and naval attack on the U.S. Navy’s communications ship, the USS Liberty in June, 1967. The ship carried a crew of 300 sailors, Marines, and NSA and CIA language experts. At the time of the Israeli attack, the USS Liberty was the world’s most modern communications ship. Following is Mr. Tourney’s story of the attack, much of which has been supported by communications reports declassified by the National Security Agency (NSA).
On the afternoon of 8 June 1967, the USS Liberty was sailing slowly about 12.5 miles off the Sinai Peninsula – clearly in international waters – when its lookouts and radars picked out the presence of Israeli scout planes repeatedly flying around the ship, giving the ship’s crew a clear view of the blue Israeli star on the wings and sides of the aircraft. Shortly after the scout planes departed, Blue-starred Israeli fighters appeared and began to attack the ship with machine guns, bombs, rockets, and napalm. The attack was highly destructive, and successfully destroyed every antenna on the ship, save for one. Such a success rate, of course, is more than ample evidence that the Israel’s slaughtering attack was well planned. The premeditated Israeli attack lasted nearly 30 minutes.
Shortly after those Israeli war planes departed, five Israeli motor-torpedo boats attacked the Liberty, hitting it with one Israeli torpedo that blew a forty-foot-by-forty-foot hole in the hull of the ship at the point where it shielded the communications quarters, immediately killing many sailors and language experts. The motor-torpedo boats also shot the ship’s deployed lifeboats out of the water, with the exception of one that they Israelis took home as trophy. Overall, the deliberate Israeli attacks on the ship killed 34 members of the Liberty’s crew, and wounded 174 more – all Americans — a total that was more than two-thirds of the ship’s crew.
We asked Mr. Tourney why other U.S. naval ships in the region did not come to the aid of the Liberty? He responded that the Liberty notified all U.S. Navy vessels in the vicinity were notified of the attack, and almost immediately the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga launched aircraft to try and save the Liberty. Before they could reach the Liberty, however, the Saratoga recalled the aircraft under the orders of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara . The order from him was “do not help Liberty, return to base”. Shortly thereafter, the commanders of the Saratoga and the nearby aircraft carrier America again sent fighters to assist the Liberty. The Commanders of both ships would not accept another order from McNamara, and said that another stand-down order “would have to come for higher authority”. Before the U.S. fighters could get to the Liberty, President Lyndon Johnson personally recalled the planes. The entire story of the deliberate failure to get help to the Liberty – especially the immediate availability of the Secretary of Defense and the President to intervene on Israel’s behalf – surely suggests that both men and their Washington-based admirals knew the Israeli attack on the Liberty was planned. Indeed, Mr. Tourney said that he has learned from others and from intelligence documents that U.S. Strategic Air Command bombers were in the air heading toward Cairo to attack in support of Israel’s then ongoing war with Egypt. That attack apparently was cancelled due to the deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
The Liberty eventually received post-attack U.S. Naval assistance and was ordered to sail to the harbor in Crete, though getting there was a much longer voyage than to the nearby port of Malta. While in Crete, the Liberty’s surviving crew members were exhaustively debriefed by an Admiral who was also a lawyer. During the sessions, the Admiral had been told by the survivors that they saw and experienced, namely a deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, and added that their experience foreclosed any claim that the Israeli attack could be seen as a mistake or accident. At that point the Admiral concluded the session and told the sailors that if anything they had told him was told to the media or otherwise made public, the sailor or sailors doing the telling would be “sent to prison or worse”.
It seems clear that the USS Liberty and its crew were set up for an attack via Israeli-U.S. cooperation on an operation that saw Israel’s air and naval forces do their best to sink the Liberty and kill all its crew. To this day, the U.S. government and military continue to claim that the Israeli attack was a “mistake”, these apparent liars have yet to tell the truth and to provide full honors to the Liberty and her crew for their heroic but unaided performance during the Israeli attack.
Currently there are less than 50 survivors of the Liberty’s, June, 1967 crew. On the weekend of 6-8 June 2025, many of them will gather in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Sheraton Inn, for their annual remembrance of the Israeli slaughter of their fellow crewman and to discuss the truth of an issue that the U.S. government wants to remain buried forever. With the assistance of VFW Post 4809 (Norfolk, VA), the attendees will honor their fallen colleagues and discuss many the facets of the attack. The public is welcome to attend, listen, ask questions, and learn. Perhaps President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and the CIA and NSA directors might spare some time to hear the truth about the murderous, 8 June, 1967, behavior of the country they endlessly identify as “our best ally.’’
Given the relatively few remaining survivors of the Liberty’s crew, the survivors’ organization is always happy to receive donations from people interested in doing right by the ship and crew that were attacked by Israel, with what surely appears to be the approval of President Johnson. If you would like to make a donation to these American heroes, your gift can be sent to the group’s website, https://ussliberty.org/ or to the USS Liberty Veterans Association, Attn: Moe Shafer, PO Box 3000, Pawley’s Island, SC 29585
