The Liberty Cipher

On June 8 in 1967, the USS Liberty, a lightly armed American Navy listening ship on duty for the National Security Agency (NSA) was flying the U.S. flag in international waters on a clear and breezy day in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was attacked and nearly sunk by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) air and naval units for no apparent reason. The U.S. Navy and the administration of then U.S. President Johnson covered up the fact that the attack was deliberate. Now, over 50 years later, the truth has been discerned. From the analysis of formerly classified, now made public accounts and old policy truths, we can see that it was the Israeli intention to communicate to the U.S. that it should not cooperate with the Soviets in forcing the Israelis to settle the raging 1967 war with a number of the Arab oil states. The U.S. then had and now has oil interests in the Middle East that led the U.S. to behave with sympathy towards that Arab armies, though Israel was a staunch U.S. ally. The Israelis did not approve of U.S. actions watching Israel and sought to telegraph that feeling to President Johnson by picking off one of his strategic picket ships, the USS Liberty.

The Liberty Cipher, reveals that the U.S. Navy's after action report on the near sinking of the USS Liberty was rushed under pressure from the Johnson White House and concluded the attack had been an accident done in the fog of war. In reality, the attack on the USS Liberty by the IDF had been highly coordinated and violated International Law because the IDF had machine-gunned the USS Liberty's life rafts which she had deployed into the sea during the attack by the IDF.

Experienced researcher-writer Patrick Pacalo peeled back the layers of the formerly classified onion revealing the only possible truth about the action. The USS Liberty was nearly sunk to send a message.

Patrick Pacalo is the author of the Cold Warfare series which was first published in 2004. Now it is updated with edition two of The Liberty Cipher. Pacalo holds degrees in Political Science and History, interned at the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College in 1983, and completed a Graduate Certificate in National Security Studies from the American Military University. He has published over 450 news and feature articles and a dozen books.