This resolution honors the USS Liberty crew, urges the declassification of all records related to the 1967 attack, and affirms that U.S. citizen safety must be paramount in foreign policy.
Thomas Massie
Representative
KY-4
This resolution honors the crew of the USS Liberty following the 1967 Israeli attack and urges the full declassification of all related government records. It also affirms that the safety of U.S. citizens and service members must be the paramount consideration in American foreign policy.
New Resolution Demands Full Declassification of 1967 USS Liberty Attack Records and Prioritizes Service Member Safety
This resolution is a formal push by the House of Representatives to finally pull back the curtain on one of the most controversial maritime incidents in U.S. history: the June 8, 1967, attack on the USS Liberty. It officially honors the 34 Americans killed and 174 wounded during the assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats in international waters. Beyond just a memorial, the bill explicitly calls for the President to declassify every single scrap of paper—from NSA intercepts to CIA memos—held by the government regarding the incident, while affirming that the safety of U.S. troops must never be sidelined for the sake of foreign diplomatic interests.
Lifting the Gag Order
For decades, the survivors of the USS Liberty have lived under what the resolution describes as a strict gag order, with crew members allegedly threatened with prison time if they spoke about the attack. This bill aims to flip that script by demanding the release of all investigative files, after-action reports, and diplomatic communications. By citing former high-ranking officials like Admiral Thomas Moorer and former CIA Director Richard Helms—who both expressed serious doubts that the attack was an accident—the resolution challenges the long-standing official narrative of 'mistaken identity.' For the families of the 34 sailors listed by name in the text, this is a direct move toward public accountability and historical clarity.
Putting Boots Before Diplomacy
The most forward-looking part of this resolution is a clear policy shift: it declares that the lives of U.S. citizens and service members are 'paramount' and should never be 'subordinated to the interests of any foreign nation.' In plain English, it tells the State Department and the Pentagon that protecting the person in the uniform comes before keeping a foreign ally happy. For today’s active-duty military and their families, this serves as a legislative stake in the ground, asserting that their safety is the ultimate priority in any foreign policy calculation, regardless of who the other players are on the global stage.