59 years ago TODAY, the United States government helped cover up the killing of 34 American sailors.
Here is what actually happened on June 8, 1967.
The USS Liberty was an unarmed intelligence ship stationed in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula. It was a clear, sunny day. The American flag was flying. The hull number was painted in large numerals on the bow and stern. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft had circled the ship at least eight times throughout the morning.
Then at 2 PM, everything changed.
Israeli Mirage jets came in low and fast. They hit the Liberty with rockets, cannons, and napalm. The napalm destroyed every life raft and lifeboat on deck. When the crew managed to deploy spare life rafts into the water, Israeli torpedo boats circled and machine-gunned them. Not the ship. The empty life rafts. Floating rubber. They shot those too.
A torpedo then tore a 40-foot hole in the hull, killing 25 men instantly in a single compartment.
The attack lasted 23 minutes. 34 Americans killed. 171 wounded. The Liberty took 821 rocket and cannon holes. The ship never sank, which survivors say is the only reason any of them are alive.
Here is where it gets worse.
When the USS Saratoga launched fighter jets to defend the Liberty, President Lyndon Johnson personally recalled them. The Secretary of Defense relayed the order: "We are not going to embarrass an ally." American pilots sat on a carrier deck listening to their fellow sailors die over the radio.
When the Liberty finally limped into port, survivors were told: say nothing, or face serious consequences. The official Navy court of inquiry was completed in just 10 days. The lead investigator, Admiral Isaac Kidd, later admitted under sworn testimony that he had been pressured to rule it a case of mistaken identity. That testimony stayed secret for decades.
The American investigation report remained classified for nine years. It only came out because of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Here is what senior US officials said in private:
Secretary of State Dean Rusk: "I have never believed the Israeli explanation."
CIA Director Richard Helms: "To say that this was an accident is drawing a pretty long bow in view of the evidence."
NSA Director Marshall Carter: "There is no way that they didn't know it was an American ship."
Captain William McGonagle, who commanded the Liberty and received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day (in a ceremony held quietly, without the President, at the Washington Navy Yard rather than the White House): "For years I wanted to believe it was an error. I can no longer do that."
The working theory among survivors is straightforward: Israel was preparing to seize the Golan Heights the next morning, a move that would be controversial even among US allies. The Liberty's job was signals intelligence. She would have heard everything. The attack was meant to silence her.
Today, on the 59th anniversary, a US Congressman has formally demanded a congressional investigation.
34 Americans were killed. Their families were told to stay quiet. The official investigation was pressured to a predetermined conclusion. The most senior intelligence and foreign policy officials in the country privately said it was not a mistake.
59 years. No real investigation. No accountability. No answers.
Why?