A resolution of enduring loyalty to the heroic veterans of the U.S.S. Liberty and condemning their cowardly attackers.
A House Resolution to recognize the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s cowardly attack on the U.S.S. Liberty on June 8, 1967; to affirm that the attack was an act of war against the United States and to call upon the Congress of the United States to formally recognize it as such; to honor the American servicemen killed and wounded; to condemn the deliberate act of war against a vessel of the United States Navy and the subsequent cover-up; to demand that the Congress of the United States investigate and account for the attack; and to request that June 8 be proclaimed “U.S.S. Liberty Remembrance Day.”
Whereas, on June 8, 1967, the United States Navy intelligence ship U.S.S. Liberty, virtually unarmed and clearly flying the American flag, was operating in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean during the Six-Day War; and
Whereas, the Liberty was attacked for over one hour in a deliberate and cowardly assault by Israeli Defense Forces aircraft and torpedo boats, killing thirty-four American sailors, Marines, and a civilian, and wounding one hundred seventy-four crew members; and
Whereas, the crew of the U.S.S. Liberty is the most decorated crew since World War II, and among the most decorated for a single engagement in the history of the United States Navy; and
Whereas, aircraft dispatched from the United States Sixth Fleet to render aid were ordered to return to their carriers, leaving the Liberty and her crew to be slaughtered without American military protection; and
Whereas, in the years following the attack, surviving crew members were threatened with court-martial, imprisonment, or worse if they exposed the truth, and were abandoned by their own government, a deliberate and ongoing cover-up by the executive branch of the United States; and
Whereas, in 2003 an Independent Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Admiral Thomas H. Moorer (former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and including General Raymond G. Davis (Medal of Honor recipient), Rear Admiral Merlin Staring (former Judge Advocate General of the Navy), and Ambassador James Akins, concluded that “Israel committed acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States,” and that the United States Congress has never conducted a full investigation of the attack as required by law; and
Whereas, a deliberate attack by a foreign government upon a vessel of the United States Navy is an act of war against the United States; and
Whereas, numerous records related to the attack remain classified, beyond the reach of the surviving crew, the families of the deceased, and the American people; and
Whereas, the State of South Carolina is home to a substantial veteran population and holds in the highest honor those who have served the United States in uniform, and no foreign nation’s interests can be permitted to take precedence over our duty to those who serve in our nation’s armed forces; and
Whereas, the survivors of the U.S.S. Liberty are now in their late seventies and eighties, and June 8, 2027, will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the attack, likely the last chance for Congress to act while the survivors are still alive to see it. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the South Carolina House of Representatives recognizes the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, honors the killed and wounded, condemns the attack and the subsequent cover-up, and demands that the Congress of the United States declassify all remaining records, convene a new Court of Inquiry with public testimony from surviving crew members, investigate the executive-branch actions that prevented the rescue of the Liberty and that suppressed the truth in the years following, and proclaim June 8 of every year as “U.S.S. Liberty Remembrance Day,” to commemorate the Liberty’s heroic crew and to educate the American people of the danger to our national security inherent in any passionate attachment of our elected officials for any foreign nation.
Be it further resolved that the South Carolina House of Representatives affirms the conclusion of the 2003 Independent Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, that Israel committed an act of war against the United States when its forces attacked the U.S.S. Liberty, and calls upon the Congress of the United States to formally recognize and declare that the attack was an act of war committed by the State of Israel against the United States of America.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the South Carolina delegation to the United States Congress, to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to the U.S.S. Liberty Veterans Association.