Thomas Massie Honors the USS Liberty 59 Years Later

On June 8, 2026, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) stood on the House floor and formally honored the survivors of the USS Liberty attack, demanding an investigation into Israel’s 1967 assault on an American naval vessel that killed 34 crew members and wounded 174 others.

Survivors of the attack watched from the House gallery as Massie delivered his remarks on the 59th anniversary of the incident.

“It’s a great honor, maybe one of the biggest honors of my lifetime, to stand here on the floor and do something that’s 59 years overdue: to recognize the survivors and those who gave their lives on the USS Liberty 59 years ago today,” Massie said.

The Kentucky Republican did not mince words about what he believes happened that day. “This was an effort to kill everybody on board. There was no intention of taking prisoners,” Massie declared on the House floor.

He pointed to the assessments of senior American officials who rejected Israel’s claim that the attack was a case of mistaken identity. “None of these distinguished men think this was an accident. They think it was intentional murder by the country of Israel, either as a false flag operation or because they simply didn’t want anybody observing what they were doing that day,” Massie stated, citing former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, CIA Director Richard Helms, NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Thomas Moorer, and Navy JAG counsel Captain Ward Boston.

Massie’s speech came weeks after he lost his Republican primary to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL. Pro-Israel groups including AIPAC spent over $9 million to defeat him. With nothing left to lose electorally, Massie used his remaining time in Congress to raise an issue that powerful interests have worked to suppress for nearly six decades.

After his primary defeat, Massie quipped that “I would have come out sooner but I had to call my opponent to concede and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.”

The USS Liberty Veterans Association has fought for decades to bring attention to what happened on June 8, 1967. The organization is committed to “demanding accountability through transparency, lawful inquiry, and historical integrity,” guided by the belief that “no nation, no alliance, and no political convenience outweighs the truth or the lives of American servicemen.”

Their most significant action came on June 8, 2005, when the LVA filed a formal War Crimes Report with the Secretary of Defense. The report established prima facie evidence that Israeli forces jammed American emergency radio frequencies, used unmarked aircraft, machine-gunned life rafts, and that rescue aircraft launched from U.S. carriers were recalled while the attack continued.

Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk wrote in 1991 that he “was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. … The attack was outrageous.” Captain Ward Boston, senior counsel for the Navy’s original Court of Inquiry, signed a 2004 sworn affidavit stating that President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had ordered investigators to conclude “that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite ‘overwhelming evidence to the contrary.'”

Major veterans organizations have backed the survivors’ demands. The American Legion passed Resolution 40 at its 2017 national convention in Reno, calling for the first full U.S. government investigation of the attack—a resolution that called upon “the 115th United States Congress to publicly, impartially, and thoroughly investigate the attack on the USS Liberty and its aftermath.”

Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired an independent commission in 2003 that concluded that “Israel committed acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States.” Moorer asked pointedly, “Why would our government put Israel’s interests ahead of our own?”

The USS Liberty attack carries a distinction no other military incident shares. Since World War II, it remains the only attack on a U.S. Navy ship that Congress has never formally investigated. Full congressional inquiries followed the attacks on the USS Pueblo, the USS Stark, the USS Cole, and the 1983 Marine barracks bombing. The Liberty received nothing of the kind.

Massie concluded his floor speech with an urgent appeal. “While they’re still alive, they need closure. Let’s give them closure. Let’s have an investigation. Let’s pass a resolution honoring them. It’s long overdue. And then they can have their justice,” he declared.

However, this plea for an official reckoning highlights a profound disconnect between the nation’s representatives and its masters. As long as the halls of Congress remain subservient to organized jewry, such calls for accountability will be met with the same calculated indifference that has defined the last six decades.

The continued suppression of the Liberty investigation is not a failure of bureaucracy but a deliberate feature of a system entirely captured by Jewish interests. Until this ruling class is fully dispossessed of its power, the murder of our sailors will remain conveniently memory-holed to protect the sacred status of Israel.