reSee.it Video Transcript AI Summary
Phil Turney, 77, describes receiving a letter that recounts his role as a 20-year-old during the USS Liberty attack on June 8, 1967. He says the USS Liberty’s American flag flew while in the Mediterranean Sea, with “A g t r five” painted on the bow, port, and starboard sides, and “USS Liberty” written on the stern. He states they were overflown by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft on June 7 and again on the morning of June 8, and that the IDF positively identified the ship as American and friendly. He says they requested a destroyer escort twice before entering the Mediterranean and were denied, and that their captain assured them the ship was clearly marked as American and therefore had nothing to fear. He claims they remained twelve and a half miles off the Sinai Peninsula in international waters, and that they felt secure because Israeli reconnaissance aircraft were marked with the Star of David.
Turney describes an air attack beginning at about 2:00 p.m. using French-made Mirage and Mistral jets painted black with no markings, lasting about twenty-five minutes. He says the jets destroyed transmitting antennas and watertight doors above the waterline, killed and maimed firefighters and sailors, and that his radio man took one antenna offline, ran a long wire, and sent an SOS that was picked up as far away as Vietnam. He says jets sent to aid the ship were recalled: first by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, then again by Lyndon Baines Johnson, who is quoted as saying he did not care about a few dead sailors and would not embarrass Israel, ordering a return to base immediately. Turney asks how they could have known who was attacking them if the ship did not.
He claims the IDF dropped napalm on the bridge of the ship and that three motor torpedo boats approached, with one torpedo hitting the starboard side. He says the attack continued for another hour and a half, destroying all but three life rafts, shooting two out of the water, and taking one aboard their boats as a trophy. He says IDF helicopters sent troops armed to board the ship later left without finishing the boarding.
Afterward, Turney says the ship had over 821 rocket and cannon holes and over 5,000 armor-piercing bullet impacts, napalm burning the ship, and a 40-by-40-foot torpedo hole that caused the ship to list badly to starboard. He states they waited seventeen hours for help and that help was about forty minutes away but they were left to die. When the USS America and the USS Davis arrived, he says they took wounded for care. He recounts Admiral Kidd boarding days later and an immediate cover-up, stating they were ordered to never speak of the attack to anyone and faced fines, imprisonment, or worse.
Turney concludes that survivors are “the biggest whistleblowers” in the country, that they have been smeared, and that Israel did the murdering while the US government did the covering up. He asks for support to “save America” by telling the facts and ends with “Respectfully, Phil Turney, the president of the USS Liberty.”