Survivor of USS Liberty 'incident' speaks up
On June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, the USS Liberty was attacked and American sailors were left to die. There was no help, sent no rescue, and as a survivor of that attack, Phillip Tourney has broken decades of silence to expose "what was never taught at schools anywhere."
Philip Tourney is a former US Navy Petty Officer and survivor of the USS Liberty 'incident'.
He has also covered how Israel controls the US in more ways than one, and he joins us today to give us the reasons why and how Israel controls the US and, of course, what occurred at the USS Liberty that fateful day back in 1967.
Would you please tell us briefly what happened to the USS Liberty that day, what you experienced and what you saw.
We got on station in the Mediterranean off the Sinai Peninsula on the seventh of June, and were immediately reconned by Israeli recon aircraft, a DC3 flying past, other smaller airplanes with the marking, the Star of David on them.
We asked for a destroyer escort, even before we got into the area, we were denied, not once, but twice. They said, you're flying an American flag. You're in international waters. You have nothing to worry about.
We saw our Israeli friends there because we didn't have any protection. We had nothing on the ship to protect us; we were most sophisticated spy ship in the world at that time.
So the same thing happened on June the eighth, over flights from Israel, marked with the star of David, tipping their wings, they'd fly low, oh, 50 feet off the deck.
It would shake the deck plates. That's how low they were. They would tip their wings, we'd wave at them, and they'd wave back. We could see the pilots in the cockpits. That's how low they were.
We thought they were there to, you know, take care of us, be our friends. We thought perhaps the Arabs were to come get us. I'll remind you, we were always in international waters, 12.5 miles off the coast.
Philip Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Okay, let me refer to a speech that you made at the Mises Institute on May 16, 2025, in Auburn, Alabama.
You said there that they used the crew of the USS Liberty to be eliminated by ... Israel. Why would they do that? And who are you referring to when you say ‘they’ why would they want you to be eliminated?
Well, it's not that complicated to really figure out; we were sent there in the war zone to be sunk by the Israelis, blame it on Egypt, and get us into World War Three.
That's what they wanted. They wanted all the land, the land they're taking now, from the Palestinians. They would have got it back in 1967 if we would have sunk, which they couldn't do.
They tried, but they couldn't sink us by the grace of God. And we, we prevented world war three.
And when I talk about 'they' I'm talking about Israel and our government. We were set up by LBJ, Lyndon Baines Johnson, that snake of a president, to be sunk, sacrificing 294 American sailors and marines, all for the benefit of Israel.
And when we did not sink, they lied about it. Said it was a mistake in identity, which it was not a mistake in identity. We testified to that, but that was stricken out of the record.
We were told never to say anything about it, or we'd end up prison or worse. Everybody knew what worse meant.
Philip Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
When you say world war three, that takes a few actors, who would have been involved in world war three, the US, Israel, Egypt, all three. Is that what you're referring to?
Well, I had one more in their Russia, because we had Russian submarines there too; they were ready to hit the Temple Mount, if, if it broke out. There were SAC aircraft that were sent from Nebraska, even before our ship got attacked.
Philip Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
You said the US had a part in setting this up with Israel. What was the purpose? Was it for Israel to take over Egypt?
Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was nothing but a land grab. I mean, think about it this way, if our ship goes down with 294 men, all of us dead, and they say that Nasser did it, what do you think would have happened?
Everything would have exploded, and we would have been on the side of Israel fighting their wars again for total domination, nothing but a land grab, same thing that is going on now in Gaza, but we we beat them. We stayed alive by the grace of God.
You know, I didn't talk about it for 18 years until I finally got together with a couple other crew mates, and then we all started talking, and I haven't shut up for the last 42 years.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty, Survivor
Well, your story is obviously very important.
One of the things that you said was that the USS Liberty was the most sophisticated spy ship in the world.
You said it could bounce messages off the moon and get them back to NASA within three seconds in 1967, which is quite impressive.
But yet you say you didn't know where you were headed.
You said you had no idea and that you didn't know the six day war was going on. How could you not have been aware of that? How could that be?
Well, we weren't aware of it until we got into Spain. We picked up three linguists, Russian linguists, I believe one was a Hebrew linguist too, and a civilian NSA guy. And we had a CIA personnel we picked up too. He was, he clearly was a CIA agent, but nobody knew it, but he was, and we finally found that out later.
We found out we were going into the Mediterranean, we knew there was a six day war coming on then, but I got to remind you, every antenna on that ship, every tuning antenna on that ship, was hit within the first three seconds.
Our four 50 caliber machine guns were taken out in the first three seconds with cannons and rockets and machine guns.
There was only one antenna left that was hooked up, because it wasn't tuning, the radio technician took it off line. He got it hooked up, and got a message off. “Rock star, rock star, under attack by unknown general aircrafts, send help send help”.
They sent help. Captain Tully from the USS Saratoga.
They were called by the United States of America Secretary of Defense, Robert Strange McNamara: "Do not help Liberty".
The message went out again, and both carriers, the America and the Saratoga, launched again.
President Johnson got on the line and said: "Do not help liberty. Return to base. I will not embarrass my ally, Israel". How did he know who was attacking us if we didn't? So, yeah, we were set up to die. We were nothing but sacrificial lambs.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Were they these conversations recorded at the time?
Yes.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
So to get this straight, first of all, you talk about how the intelligence capabilities, the antennas, were targeted so you would not be able to send a distress signal.
And then the Israeli Aircraft jammed the USS Liberty’s international distress frequencies, making it difficult to call for help. Is that correct?
Yes, so we could not call home for help, by the way, that's a war crime too.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Are we to conclude that the sophisticated Israel military, which at that point had close US ties, could not correctly identify this US intelligence ship which you were on board? Because that's the excuse that they have given; 'They couldn't identify it, and it was a mistake'.
Couldn't identify it? That's crazy! We had a brand new, five by eight flag up, brand spanking new, you can see it forever, flying all the time. The Israeli recon aircraft identified us as American and friendly, American and friendly in international waters.
The excuse was they took us off their war table and forgot we were there. They didn't tell the other watch commanders we were there. So we were a ghost ship, I guess.
And then they tried to say, Well, we were the El kazir, an old horse transport that was half sunk in a port. So that was, that was part of the cover up, which is a very flimsy part of the cover up, and they continue to to get into the cover up deeply and more deeply, because we survived.
And they changed all of our testimony or took it out of the board of inquiry, Admiral Isaac Kidd and Captain Ward Boston were told by Johnson and Admiral McCain. Okay, so he was in on it.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
The most commonly proposed motive is that the Liberty was monitoring Israeli military communications as Tel Aviv was about to launch a major assault on the Golan Heights, which it did the next day.
From what we understand, this was a violation of the ceasefire at that point, and it did not want the US to have evidence of this. Now that's very interesting, it suggests that Israel was acting on its own without providing information to the US, does it not?
It very well could be. But I think the main objective, it didn't matter what rhyme or reason, they wanted us at the bottom of the Mediterranean, also at this very same time, they were shooting Egyptian prisoners and burying them in mass graves.
And that's another disgusting thing that that has been out there. I'm sure you've heard about it, but we figured it out too.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Why were they shooting the prisoners?
Obviously, they wanted them all dead. They didn't want to keep any prisoners. Why would they? They just killed them.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Let's get down to this communications, internal communications from the Israeli regime forces.
Could you tell us what some of those communications were, because, you know, those must be very interesting, and perhaps even shocking?
Our radio intercept operators and the spies down in the lower decks were ordered: "If you pick up any any messages from Israel or the British Commonwealth, you're supposed to drop them immediately". So we weren't spying on Israel. We were ordered not to even know the Hebrew linguist was aboard this ship.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Okay, you know, what's very interesting is that rescue aircraft launched from the US carriers, from what you said and from the information we have uncovered, were recalled by Washington.
What reasons would there be for that to happen?
It has been said that President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to avoid embarrassing Israel in that regard. But why would they risk so many American lives for such an aim?
Well, we were, we were all jeopardized, they just wanted to sink as fast as fast as they could. Think about this. They fire five torpedoes at us in a two hour attack.
They have jet aircraft attacking us; unmarked jet aircraft, the Mirage jets that flew over us and bombed us with over 30 sorties, destroying our ship.
They dropped napalm on our ship. They did everything in the world they could do to sink that ship, to put us on the bottom and blame it on Egypt, and now the whole, the whole thing, would have blown up.
And believe me, we were close to World War III with nuclear capability submarines from Russia, they were there.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
A juridical examination of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was executed by Lieutenant Commander Walter Jacobson, the first legal study of that attack which was published in the Naval Law Review Volume 3 in 1986.
This review corroborates what you have said, that this was obviously not legally justified, and an act of aggression under the UN Charter.
How much suppression happened after this? We're talking about a number of lives that were lost, and obviously something that would be very shocking for the general public in the US and elsewhere.
Yes, shocking is an understatement, and it was so shocking to us that our own government would cover it up, like they did, and tell us to shut up, not say anything.
You know, we told them about shooting the life rafts. When we had had three life rafts left we put them over the side, put the most seriously wounded in them, because we thought we were going to sink. The old man said, prepare to abandon ship. And it just quit rolling over.
And those life rafts were shot out of the water, which is another war crime. They shot two out of the water and took one aboard their boat as a trophy of the kill.
I'm talking about Israel took that boat, and it's in Haifa, I believe, somewhere around there, as a trophy of killing Americans on the high seas.
So it's no different from what's going on today. Our politicians are controlled, used and abused by Israel, and it's been that way forever.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
So much has happened since then, obviously, all of which point to the existence of a massive cover up regarding certain Israeli actions, and the unwavering support by the US.
Now, one of the interesting things that have brought this to light is this assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Many are of the view that he was somehow targeted, either directly or indirectly, and that Mossad was involved because Charlie Kirk had somewhat turned against Israel; the genocide In Gaza, the way that it controlled the US that they may have wanted to get rid of him since he had started to criticize Israel.
Do you believe that maybe, in his case, Israel had something to do with it, or Mossad was somehow involved?
Absolutely I do. This lone shooter, this young kid, 22 year old kid, he's just a patsy like Lee Harvey Oswald was.
Netanyahu had invited Charlie Kirk to go to Israel; he turned down a great deal of money because he was shying away from Israel.
He saw the light, what they were doing, and how were they taking over Congress and what they were doing in Gaza.
And I even believe he came around to the story of the USS Liberty. First, he thought it was just a case of mistaken identity, but I believe he changed his tune, which is a good thing. I mean, I hate to see that 31 year old guy get killed.
He was, he was going to be presidential material, in my view. I mean, he was only 31, four more years he could run for president, and he probably would have won, because the college crowds loved him, and he was giving them the truth. And he went there to have dialog, communication, not a confrontation, but communication to give him his thoughts, and they could give him their thoughts back.
So it's a shame. It's a terrible, terrible shame for his family, for America, and you know, I can't guarantee who did it, but I got a good idea. And there's a lot of stuff going out online that says the same thing.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
Yeah, there are a lot of different events that show Israel was somehow involved. And, you know, it's just very interesting how these revelations have come to light even more since the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Another interesting fact that involves AIPAC has to deal with Thomas Massie's wife after he exposed Israel's near total control of US politicians, which is something that we hear a lot more these days.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson in June 2024 Congressman Massie revealed that almost every Republican in Congress has an AIPAC babysitter. Tell us what that means, what was he referring to?
Well, what he was referring to is that all the people, especially on the Republican side, have an APAC handler. They don't make a move, not unless their APAC handler approves it. And Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few others in Congress have not taken any money from APAC. There are just a few of them that haven't.
I'd say over 90% are beholden to the Zionist [regime] ... for one reason or another. And it has. It's become a cancer in our society, and I really don't know how we're going to fix it, not unless we vote all the bums out and get people who care about America, cut off all foreign aid to everybody, worry about Americans who do not fight any wars for ... Israel. We have bled enough for that ...
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
The US president, Donald Trump, has said that he's an avid supporter of Israel, and we know through the actions that he has taken in order to prove that Palestine is Israel's land such as declaring al-Quds to be Israel's capital.
However, Kirk's resentment of Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby is said to have even spread within Trump's inner circle, and even Trump himself is said to be somewhat intimidated by Israel.
What relationship do you think Trump has with Israel when it comes to covering up for Israel, or all the different actions that Israel is taking, particularly when it comes to the Gaza Strip?
Don't know how much he's covering up, but I do know that he's facilitating the destruction of Gaza by Israel with American money, American bombs, American planes, American military hardware, taking a population and actively cleansing them.
And that's exactly what they're doing. Everybody sees it. It's not me. Everybody sees it. And I have to tell you, I can't look at the pictures coming out of Gaza anymore, with the little children, the men and women. It's too heartbreaking. It's so sad. And you know, America isn't built on that. We're built on loving people, taking care of people, and not getting in wars all the time.
I mean, look at all the wars fought in the Middle East. They've all been fought for one reason, for the Zionist [regime] ... that's only one of the benefits from that, going back to the first, first Gulf War, and on, and on, and on, up to right now.
And it's heartbreaking for me, especially being a survivor of the USS Liberty and being almost eliminated. I saw 34 of my brothers slaughtered by the Zionist [regime] ...
They get off with a slap on the hand. They got more money for killing Americans than they ever did in their life, and they're still getting billions and billions and billions of dollars.
They get $10 million a day from America every day, and we have people homeless in the streets, veterans homeless, but all the money goes to Israel. Now figure that one out.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
You have said, "We have seceded our power to a foreign entity. Israel controls us. They control Congress, the Senate. They control our money. We don't control our country. The Zionist entity does".
Why does Israel have such a grip on the US, on its lawmakers? What is the US afraid of losing if it turns its back on Israel?
Probably their lives, you know, they could be blackmailing them. You know they don't want to lose the money they get from AIPAC. You look at the people who are paid the money from APAC, Democrat and Republican. It's all of them, and in lockstep they go along with whatever Israel wants to do. And it's very evident.
Rubio was just in Israel a couple days ago and got the go ahead to go into Gaza and just get it done quickly. Well, how do you displace or get rid of 2.5 million people quickly? Just can't do it. It's simple. It's disgraceful, and I'm ashamed of it; it breaks my heart (to see) what's going on.
We don't need any more wars. I mean, Jesus, this world is so badly off. We got wars in Europe, the Middle East, everywhere else. And look where we're at.
We're a broke country sending our young men and women into war for the greater good of Israel, the greater good of Israel period. It's been that way forever, and we have to vote the bums out.
That is the only I can figure out to get our country back online and make Israel register as a foreign ... agent.
There's no other [administration] ... that satisfies the needs of our congressmen, except Israel. We don't have Russian propaganda here. We don't have them sending money they're politicians and everything.
It's just Israel; they got a lock on our government. I mean anybody with half a brain can figure that one out.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
I'm sure the rest of the world is also trying to figure it out, because it just seems like the US doesn't aspire to any type of credibility for itself, but tries to push the line of Israel.
One general revealed that about 200,000 Gazans have been killed, as opposed to the official 60,000 plus figure released. The US just seems to be there backing Israel every step of the way.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
The US appears to be totally on board with the Greater Israel project, which includes not just the Gaza Strip, but the West Bank, Lebanon, and of course, we know Israel has its eyes set on Syria, which it is currently occupying, Jordan, Iraq, ... and who knows?
The Greater Israel project; I understand the IOF soldiers have that patch on their arm, as you said, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, all the rest of them.
And one great big package for the Greater Israel, and that's what they're talking about. That's what they want, and they're going to take it.
That's exactly what it looks like to me. They're going to take it by force, hook or crook, but they're going to get it.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty
Apart from the unfortunate targeting by Israel of the USS Liberty that claimed so many lives on that fateful day, there are other incidents that I want you to give us your opinion on.
There is one called the Lavon Affair that is pretty famous and was called a failed Israeli covert operation. But tell us if you have information on what happened.
There are other instances when the Israeli regime has actually carried out operations, either accompanied by or in cooperation with the US, to reach any stated goals that lay behind these operations; could you give us some examples, please?
Yeah, well, you're right about the Lavon Affair. Look at the Beirut bombings. What was it? 242 Marines killed that day. That was an inside job; in my view, Israel did that.
You know, they'd have to prove me wrong or whatever, but there's been so many of,... let's just take it to a head right now, when Israel can murder Americans on the high seas, and this came out of an ambassador in the United States, a friend of mine, James Aikens, he says, if they can murder Americans, they get by with almost anything, and they are right now. But there are too many instances of what Israel has done.
There's probably some we don't even know about that they've done and blamed on somebody else. They always do that. But I don't put anything past them. I just don't and I never will. You know, is anybody safe if you talk out about Israel?
I get hate mail. I get people saying I should be dead for speaking out about Israel. I'm just telling the truth. My shipmates were just telling the truth. We're not liars. That's why Congress won't get us in front of them. They say there have been five investigations there has never have been even one. They're all liars. If you ever write Congress, be prepared to be lied to, especially about the USS Liberty.
They're just waiting for us all to die out. But we're going to fight to the very end. We fought that day to stay alive, and through all odds, we should be, should have been dead, and with a 40 by 40 foot hole in our side, listing, ready to sink, the grace of God kept us alive.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
The Israeli regime just attacked Qatar, which is supposed to be a very big ally of the US in West Asia, and that has tipped the scales in terms of the way it has united the Arab countries.
Would you agree that Tel Aviv went too far after attacking Iran and that maybe the tables are now turned against it and Netanyahu may have to think twice about this notion of a Greater Israel after this attack on Qatar?
Yeah, the Hamas leaders were there to try to get a peace deal worked out, get the hostages back and try to tamper this thing down, figure it out. But yeah, they were targeted.
How did those Israeli planes get through America? Well, we had the airspace there. How did they get through there without us knowing it?
It was Okayed by somebody pretty high up to take these people out and to do it in a country that is supposed to be our friend that just gave President Trump a $400 million airplane or Air Force One, they treated him like gold, like a king, and then, look what happens!
They bomb a sovereign country to kill Hamas leaders trying to broker a peace deal. So that takes a lot of gall to do that, to go into another country. And I'm not surprised.
All the Arabs, the Arab League, everybody needs to be aware about these people, because they could target you anywhere. Be sure not to wear a pager keep your cell phone off whenever you travel. ... Don't ever take a pager.
Phil Tourney, USS Liberty Survivor
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