It was memorial day in the US just recently, the start of summer for some, a point of reflection for others. I read an interesting article that bought to my attention once more the relationship between the US and Israel. The article concerned the shelling of the USS Liberty with the resultant death of 35 American Mariners and injury of a further 176. It has been 40 years since the incident on the 8th June 1967. Since then there has been a fruitless campaign by the majority surviving crew members who argue that the incident was deliberate.
I decided to dig deeper and look at some of the othe information regarding this incident. To many concerned this has been a massive cover-up on the part of the US government and the Israeli government. By all accounts, the dismissive nature of the testimony of those on the ship gives that opinion. One would imagine that a first hand account should matter. The US governement decided otherwise. That begs the question, why?
Why does the US still refuse to hold a congressional hearing? Why are they reliant upon dubious testimony of Israeli politicians from the period in favour or their own people?
An interesting docu-movie prepared by the BBC can be seen here .
Also the discussion on whatreallyhappened is interesting as well.
When I looked further, in particular at the role Lyndon Johnson played I was dismayed to note that in the Wikipedia entry for him that the incident did not rate a mention. What I did note however that it was Johnson that formalised the US-Israeli relationship that exists today even if that has gone further off track than Johnston may have visualised.
It certainly begs an answer, if not for the remaining men who served on her, for the American people and the rest of the world? It begs the question why this has not been done before now?
