Dean Rusk

Secretary of State
1909-1994
Biography

“I just don’t believe that it was an accident or trigger happy local commanders, there was just too much of a sustained effort to disable and sink the Liberty.”

On June 15, 1967, Rusk tells NATO ambassadors in Luxembourg that Israel’s attack was deliberate. His remark is reported in European, but not U.S. papers.

Rusk sent a stinging letter to Israel’s ambassador, describing the assault as “quite literally incomprehensible” and arguing that it represented “wanton disregard for human life.” Rusk demanded that Israel punish the attackers in accordance with international law.

Rusk made remarks about the Liberty at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, June 28, 1967.

Thomas H. Moorer

Chief of Naval Operations
1912-2004
Biography

On June 8, 1997, Moorer wrote, “I have never believed that the attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity. That is ridiculous.”

“And I believe Moshe Dayan (the Israeli minister of defense) concluded that he could prevent Washington from becoming aware of what Israel was up to by destroying the primary source of acquiring that information—the USS Liberty. The result was a wanton sneak attack that left 34 American sailors dead and 171 seriously injured. What is so chilling and cold-blooded, of course, is that they could kill as many Americans as they did in confidence that Washington would cooperate in quelling any public outcry.”

Read more of what Admiral Moorer had to say about the attack on the USS Liberty.

Louis W. Tordella

Director of the National Security Agency
1911-1996
Biography

On June 20, 1967, Tordella was asked by three Congressmen why Israel attacked the USS Liberty. He said, “for what it was worth, I believed the attack might have been ordered by some senior commander on the Sinai Peninsula who wrongly suspected that the Liberty was monitoring his activities.”

Richard Helms

CIA Director
1913-2002
Biography

“Israeli authorities subsequently apologized for the incident, but few in Washington could believe that the ship had not been identified as an American naval vessel. Later, an interim intelligence memorandum concluded the attack was a mistake and not made in malice against the U.S”

“I don’t think there can be any doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing,”

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

1st Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of State
1945-
Biography

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, best known for being the Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, has commented on the USS Liberty is numerous media appearances, suggesting that the U.S. military understands the attack as deliberate. He's said that “Lyndon Johnson...knew the gory details of the Israeli attack on USS Liberty.”

He's said, “There's no doubt in my mind that Israel did that intentionally.”

Wilkerson on The Chris Hedges Report

Jerome H. King

Vice Admiral
1919-2008
Biography

“It certainly was not mistaken identity...I don’t buy it. I never did. Nobody that I knew ever did either. It wasn’t as though it was at night or a rainy day or anything like that. There wasn't any excuse for not knowing what that ship was. You could divine from just the apparatus on deck–all the antennae and so on–what its mission was.”

George Ball

Under Secretary of State
1909-1994
Biography

“American leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of its citizens. . . . The Liberty's presence and function were well known to Israel's leaders. ...Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If American leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything.”—writing in The Passionate Attachment: America's Involvement with Israel, pages 57-58.

George Christian

Press Secretary to LBJ
1927-2002
Biography

“No one in the White House believed that the attack was an accident.”—in letter to James Ennes, 1978

John E. Morrison Jr

Major General
1918-2013
Biography

“...did not buy the Israeli ‘mistake’ explanations either. Nobody believes that explanation.” When informed by author Bamford of gruesome war crime (killing of large numbers of POWs) at nearby El Arish, Morrison saw the connection. “That would be enough,” he said. “They wouldn't want us in on that. You've got the motive. What a hell of a thing to do.”—reported in Body of Secrets by James Bamford on page 233.

Adlai Stevenson III

U.S. Senator (D-IL)
1930-2021
Biography

“Those sailors who were wounded, who were eyewitnesses, have not been heard from by the American public. . . [Their story] leaves no doubt but what this was a premeditated, carefully reconnoitered attack by Israeli aircraft against our ship.”—US Senator Adlai Stevenson III in interview with Wm. J. Small, UPI, for publication September 28, 1980

James Abourezk

U.S. Senator (D-SD)
1931-2023
Biography

“The shame of the U.S.S. Liberty incident is that our sailors were treated as though they were enemies, rather than the patriots and heroes that they were. There is no other incident--beyond Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty--that shows the power of the Israeli Lobby by being able to silence successive American governments. Allowing the lies told by the Israelis and their minions in the U.S. is disheartening to all of us who are proud of our servicemen.”

Craig Hosmer

U.S. Representative (R-CA)
1915-1982
Biography

“The fact that the U.S.S. Liberty was a Victory hull vessel, hundreds of which were produced and used by the U.S. Navy during World War II and since, rules out the possibility of mistaken identity. Every ship recognition book in the world has, for years, identified the characteristic Victory hull and superstructure of the U.S.S. Liberty as U.S. Navy property...”

“Whatever the reason for the attack, it was an act of high piracy. Those responsible should be court-martialed on charges of murder, amongst other counts. The Israel Government should pay full reparations to the United States and indemnities to the families of the Americans killed.”—on the floor of the House of Representatives, 29 June 1967

Ward Boston

U.S. Navy Captain and attorney
1923-2008
Biography

Retired Navy legal counsel Capt. Ward Boston says he and the court's president, the late Rear Adm. Isaac "Ike" Kidd, always believed Israeli forces knowingly attacked the Liberty. “I feel the Israelis knew what they were doing. They knew they were shooting at a U.S. Navy ship...That's the bottom line. I don't care how they tried to get out of it.”—Text and quotes from the Navy Times, 26 June 2002

John Sampson

American Legion
Biography

In July 2018, in Rochester, New York, the American Legion, under the leadership of John Sampson, issued Resolution 18 titled “USS Liberty Recognition” that urged the New York State legislature to formally recognize June 8th as U.S.S. Liberty Day.

Read Resolution 18

There have been other Resolutions from the American Legion. You can read about them in this Station Hypo article