USS Liberty: More Congressional BS
The response I received from Senator John Cornyn is so outrageous that it deserves far more than the meek and mild “BS,” it warrants a more emphatic, spelled out description of what it is: BS.
by Joe Meadors
For decades USS Liberty survivors have been waiting for Congress to tell us they are beginning an investigation of the attack on our ship. Not an unexpected event given the fact that Congress has investigated every attack on a US Navy ship since the end of World War II.
You can understand our surprise when in the late 1990’s we learned from our Congressional Delegations that “there have been ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations)” of the attack.
Actually, more confusion than surprise.
You see, despite so many investigations of the attack, not a single USS Liberty survivor was questioned. Well, that’s not entirely true. There was a US Navy Court of Inquiry that was conducted. A few USS Liberty survivors were interviewed by that Court. But we know that some testimony has been removed from the record of the Court.
The removed testimony that we know about is Lloyd Painter’s.
He testified about his witnessing the attacking torpedo boats deliberately machine gun the life rafts we had dropped over the side in anticipation of abandoning ship.
Why the Court picked his testimony to remove from the record is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they didn’t want to embarrass our “best friend and only ally in the Middle East.”
Maybe that’s the reason the US Navy removed the written statements submitted to the Court at its request by 65 USS Liberty crewmen. Maybe something they wrote in those sworn statements would embarrass the people who attacked us.
Clearly that was paramount in their minds. Just like it was during the investigations of the attacks on the USS Pueblo, USS Stark and USS Cole as well as the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. <Sarcastic mode off>
Where does Senator John Cornyn enter the picture?
We all know that Congress has never investigated the attack on our ship. Despite this, Members of Congress routinely reply to constituent’s inquiries by insisting the US government (and Congress) has conducted numerous investigations of the attack. John Cornyn is no different. He lies about the USS Liberty investigation right along with the best of them.
I thought the best way to educate Members of Congress that there has been no Congressional investigation is to ask them to provide me with a copy of it. And not only me, but everyone who is sick and tired about Congress lying about the attack on our ship.
So, I created an easy way to email your Congressional Delegation to ask for a copy of their investigation and I encourage everyone to do so. Just click here to send an email to your Congressional Delegation asking for a copy of the Congressional investigation of the attack on the USS Liberty.
I sent a request to my Texas delegation. John Cornyn responded by claiming:
“I have received your recent letter and regret the problem you describe does not appear to be one over which I have jurisdiction as a United States Senator. Consequently, I am unable to afford you the assistance you requested.”
So a United States Senator, second in the Senate only to Senator Mitch McConnell, cannot send me a copy of the Congressional investigation of the attack on our ship nor can he contact the Congressional Research Service and have them send me a copy of any US government investigation of the attack because it is not in his jurisdiction!?
If you are as outraged at this turn of events as we are, please email your Congressional Delegation with a request that they send you a copy of the Congressional investigation of the attack on our ship. When they respond, please send a copy of their response to us at congressionalresponse@usslibertyveterans.org.
