WE WON’T FLY THAT FLAG!
A Kentucky art group is appealing the city of Louisville’s decision to move a Confederate statue from a prominent location.
The Courier Journal reports the Friends of Louisville Public Art sued Monday to stop the John B. Castleman statue from moving to Cave Hill Cemetery from the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood. Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration has pushed to move the statue because of its Confederate and slavery ties.
The plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville are requesting a change of venue for the proceedings, citing potential jury bias in the case of what they say was the illegal removal of Confederate monuments.
The Roanoke Times reports the lawsuit was filed by the Monument Fund in March 2017. The plaintiffs say the Charlottesville City Council violated a state code that bans the removal of war memorials, when it voted in 2016 to take down statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The Roanoke Times reports that in a recent filing, the plaintiff’s attorneys argued the defendants’ positions as councilors would make it difficult to find an unbiased jury.
The paper says the defendants have not responded. The trial is set for September.
CORPUS CHRISTI STILL DEBATING
The subject of whether or not to allow the SCV to fly Confederate Flags in Corpus Christi parades came up yet again at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
It looks like the NAACP just isn’t gonna let this go till they get what they want. Which means Texas SCV members are going to have to attend every Corpus Christi council meeting from now until the Lord returns.
DALLAS SELLS STATUE
Dallas’ council agenda shows that North Texas lawyer Ronald Holmes is the “LawDude” who paid more than $1.4 million for the city’s Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Soldier sculpture.
The council voted Wednesday to approve the sale of Alexander Phimister Proctor’s 1935 sculpture of the general, which the city moved into storage in 2017. Documents prepared for the meeting identified the winning auction bidder, who had the online username “LawDude,” as the Holmes Firm PC, with Holmes as the only name listed. Holmes’ website says he practices real estate law. The council’s vote authorized City Manager T.C. Broadnax to “execute a purchase agreement and bill of sale with the purchaser.”
But the documents do not say whether Holmes purchased the statue for the firm, for himself or as a stalking horse for a client. Holmes did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. And following Wednesday’s vote, he wasn’t interested in answering questions.
“I really don’t have any comment on it,” is all he said when asked why and for whom he bought the statue.
But that was fine with the city: “We went into this knowing someone could use an agent,” Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata said after the vote.
The Holmes Firm in the auction narrowly beat out Diamond A-Ford Corp., of which Southern Methodist University’s football stadium namesake Gerald J. Ford is chairman and CEO. Twinwood (U.S.), Inc. out of Simonton came in a distant third with a $775,000 bid. And Patrick Shelby finished fourth with a $550,000 offer.
Holmes also declined to say where he or the next owner planned to display the sculpture. The Dallas City Council, when approving the auction, forbid the statue’s public display inside city limits. The Holmes Firm’s offices are on Quorum Drive, near the Dallas North Tollway and Belt Line Road in Addison.
JUST A REMINDER
Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden once voted to restore the U.S. citizenship of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The former vice-president, 76, was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that unanimously approved a bill in 1977. The measure was sent to the full Senate, where it was approved without dissent and later signed by President Jimmy Carter.
A year earlier, Biden had been among senators who voted to restore citizenship to Robert E. Lee.
The initiatives generated relatively little controversy at the time.
BLACK POLITICIAN CALLS FOR FLAG BURNINGS
E.W. Jackson, the radio host and failed U.S. Senate candidate who recently said Pete Buttigieg wants to turn the nation into a “homocracy,” is now saying rainbow flags as as despicable as Confederate flags and need to be burned accordingly.
He made the comments on his “The Awakening” radio program this week:
“I don’t want the gay flag being flown at our embassies any more than I want the Confederate flag being flown at our embassies. And there is a very simple reason: It does not represent the United States of America … As far as I am concerned, the rainbow flag is no different than the Confederate flag.That’s right, I said it and I mean it. The rainbow flag is no different than the Confederate flag in that sense. It is a flag that represents the interests of a special group and their own interests, not the interests of our country.”
“The idea that a man should be sexually attracted to another man is a lie, or that a woman should be attracted sexually to another woman is a lie,” Jackson concluded with disgust. “We need to burn every rainbow flag in this nation. Not we, but the LGBTQ community needs to burn it and renounce that mess and say, ‘Lord, forgive us for our sin and rebellion against you and bring us to the cross.'”
MICHIGAN TEACHER VANDALIZES CLASSROOM
McBain Rural Agricultural School conducted an investigation after a teacher was filmed taking a hammer to a former student’s art tile with a Confederate flag on it.
School superintendent Steve Prissel said the school found out about the video when someone brought it to the attention of high school principal Ryan Biller.
In the video you can see the teacher take down a tile with a Confederate flag on it that the teacher said was “offensive.”
Biller began an investigation to address the incident as the school had not pre-approved the removal of the tile, the superintendent said.
Prissel would not identify the high school teacher involved in the incident or go into details about the investigation due to confidentiality reasons.
McBain senior Jackie Coleman said in a Facebook message that she took the video of the teacher.
Coleman said she was in the school’s art room during her study hour to work on her final piece. Some kids were making their senior tile and were viewing the ones already on the wall made by the 2007 seniors.
Students were making comments and ideas as they looked at the tiles and the one with the Confederate flag tile was particularly a conversation starter, she said.
When the teacher heard about the Confederate flag conversation, she said she didn’t agree with the tile being displayed and said she would take it down. She grabbed a hammer, pulled a table up, climbed on top of it, and started destroying the tile, Coleman said.
When Falmouth resident Kasia Vasser saw the video on Facebook, she recognized the tile. It was identical to the one she kept in her house and now has in her truck.
She was a senior at the McBain school in 2007 and made the tiles as part of an art project, she said.
She said all the seniors made the tiles, one for the wall and one to take with them. The teacher told them to put something on the tile that represented themselves.
What represented Vasser was horseshoes, her initials and the Confederate flag, she said.
Those items together represented freedom for her too. She loved horses and loved to ride them.
“When I ride I don’t think about problems, I just enjoy the ride,’ she said. “Enjoy the freedom of the ride.’
As for the flag, she said she believes it stands for history, freedom and respect.
She lived in southern states for a while and said that they were the best days for her family financially, academically and health wise.
No one said anything about the flag when she was making it and a lot of people have their own opinions and think of the flag in multiple ways, she said.
In the video’s Facebook comments, Vasser saw negative comments toward the teacher’s actions and negative comments toward her. There were also praises toward the teacher and praises toward Vasser.
“It’s whatever you believe and your opinion,’ she said.
Prissel said this was a “passionate’ subject and was handled accordingly.
It was a controversial piece and because there are differing views on it, it brings up different emotions, he said.
He consulted with the school’s attorney who supported that it was justified that the tile be taken down if it was bothering students.
The reasoning for taking it down was because students were offended by it and did not want it right on the wall. It was a disruption in the classroom and that had to be taken into account, he said.
As of now, Prissel is not aware of other tiles being taken down.
A handful of people did reach out and parents were concerned about the situation. They’re not used to seeing McBain on social media for something controversial, he said.
There is a process in place for removing something like this, but in this case it was not followed and the teacher did not ask for permission beforehand.
“The staff needs to follow protocol,’ he said. “So will they be reminded of that? Absolutely.’
At the school they support different viewpoints, that’s part of being an educational institution. They are also responsible as a school district to hear students’ concerns, he said.
“I think people need to be sensitive on both sides,’ he said.
An attempt to contact the teacher involved was unsuccessful.
TRUMP SAYS “BRING IT ON”
On Tuesday, President Trump filed a brief in the nation’s second-most-important court that takes the position that Congress cannot investigate the president, except possibly in impeachment proceedings.
Essentially, the President’s brief is an invitation to Democrats to commence impeachment proceedings.
ARMING AN ENEMY?
One of President Trump’s closest congressional allies is ready to strip him of certain emergency powers in response to the administration sidestepping Congress to secure 22 arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“Do away with the emergency exception,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday. Doing so, he added, would prevent the executive branch from repeating such a move in the future. “I would not have agreed to that before, but after this maneuver by the administration, count me in.”
Graham is one of several leading in Congress conferring over how to change the rules governing congressional oversight of arms sales to prevent end runs around Congress, after Democrats and Republicans objected to the administration citing an “unspecific threat from Iran” to expedite more than $8 billion worth of weapons sales to another radical Islamic nation that has previously attacked the United States.
ISRAELI NEWSPAPER DEFENDS GEORGE SOROS
Declaring anyone who dares to criticize George Soros as “anti-semitic” for an example of this assenine reporting read the following:
NORTH KOREA WISHES TRUMP HAPPY BIRTHDAY
A “beautiful” letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted by President Donald Trump on Tuesday: “I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un … I appreciated the letter.”
President Trump said he received the letter from Kim on Monday, the first since the February summit in Hanoi, which both leaders left empty-handed.
An administration official described the letter as a “birthday greeting.” Trump’s birthday is Friday and the official says Kim wished the President good health.
The President declared that North Korea was “not ready to negotiate” last month, but Monday’s letter appeared to prompt him to take a more optimistic stance on the possibility of future talks.
President Trump says Kim has ‘kept his word’ just hours after John Bolton said he hasn’t – “We have a very good relationship together,” Trump said of Kim as he stood outside the White House on Tuesday. “Now I can confirm it because of the letter I got yesterday, and I think something will happen that’s going to be very positive. But in the meantime, we have our hostages back, the remains keep coming back, we have a relationship.”
The President views the letter as a “reset” and setting the tone for a possible third summit. The administration official says the US is prepared for a third summit but is waiting to hear more from the North Koreans.
On Wednesday Trump called the letter “very nice” and “unexpected” but wouldn’t elaborate on what was in it.
“Maybe in 100 years from now you’ll see what was in that letter,” he told reporters in a Rose Garden news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda. The State Department declined to comment on the content of the letter and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
SHADOW GOVERNMENT AND DEEP STATE
by Al Benson, Jr.
Al Benson, Jr., is the Editor of the Copperhead Chronicle. In addition to writing for Southern Patriot and other publications, he is a member of the Confederate Society of America and the League of the South.
Only recently I heard a talk by a man who was a CIA whistle blower. He made some interesting statements that clarified the differences between the Deep State and the Shadow Government.
He noted that the Shadow Government is comprised of your “security” agencies, the CIA, NSA, and FBI. Uudoubtedly there are more than this but he wasn’t anymore specific than this.
He then noted that the Deep State is what we call the Military Industrial Complex, lobbyists, etc. He stated that part of the MO of the CIA is to “Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter accusations, and accuse your adversaries of what you, yourself, are doing.” This is the classic definition of cultural Marxism. What does that say for the CIA?
He observed that the Shadow Government used a soft coup against Donald Trump with Steele’s fake Russian “dossier” which Clapper leaked to the mainstream “news” media, knowing they hated Trump so much they’d run with it. The result was that Mueller ended up investigating Trump, based on this fake dossier, which was presented to the FISA Court as “verified.” This resulted on illegal spying (yes, spying) on American citizens.
In a report that appeared on the Zero Hedge website for June 8th, it was noted: “North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows told Hannity Friday night that the FBI knew ‘within 60 days of them opening the investigation, prior ot Mueller coming on, the FBI and the (Department of Justice) knew that Christopher Steele was not credible, the dossier was not true, George Papadopoulos was innocent.'” In spite of all that, they had Mueller spend two years and millions of our tax dollars pursuing what Trump accurately termed a “witch hunt” to basically frame Trump when they already knew he was innocent. This is your Shadow Government at work!
Ain’t pretty is it?
The trail for this led back to Hillary Clinton. Seeing that James Clapper, John Brennan and James Comey, all part and parcel of the Shadow Government, did all this dirty work for Hillary, the question might be asked, what does Hillary have on Clapper, Brennan, Comey, and maybe even Obama, for that matter? She paid to get dirt on Trump, fake though it was. Steele paid for fake anti-Trump info from Russia.
And as for Mueller, the supposed “boy scout” investigator, it might not hurt us to remember that Mueller took samples of Uranium to Russia back during the Uranium One scandal. So he is hardly the “objective” investigator the media has sought to portray him as.
Hillary was supposed to win in 2016 and none of this would have ever showed up had she won. I’m sure it was Divine Intervention that kept her out of office. And now we have the Deep State, Shadow Government, mainstream media, Hollyweird, the Democratic Party establishment and many in the Republican Party establishment all frantically trying to get rid of Trump lest anymore of their actions end up being exposed.
If Mr. Barr ends up doing his job, many of those people herein mentioned should end up with jail time. But let’s wait and see what happens before we cheer too loudly.
WE ARE WINNING!
by Michael Martin
Michael Martin is an educator, writer, and historian with experience working in both public and private schools. He currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina where he specializes in the emerging field of sensory history.
I don’t want our monuments removed.
So I made a sign and I went to counter protest people (who traveled from New York City all the way down to South Carolina)… and you know what, the next thing I know, my sign and my face made all 3 major TV networks.
THEN THIS HAPPENED
Well, even though I can be heard in one of the news videos saying “we all need to come together” and even though I am proud to be a father and husband in a mixed race family – liberals had to say that I was a racist.
SO NOW I NEED YOUR HELP
WE have to show that real South Carolinians don’t want our heritage torn down. I know there are some that disagree and I respect that, but I know that the overwhelming majority of US don’t want our heritage torn down.
JOIN THE CHALLENGE
I started a contest recently, called “protect our monuments”
ITS EASY:
- STEP 1: Pick a S.C. monument you don’t want torn down
- STEP 2: Make your version of the now famous “Show me where the statue hurt you” SIGN
- STEP 3: Take a selfie .. in front of the monument … with the sign
- STEP 4: Send a copy to PSI and we will post it up on social media
Person with the most photos wins a free dinner to a restaurant in our capitol (South Carolina NOT Washington)
IF MORE SOUTH CAROLINIANS SHOW THIS SAME POSTER, IT WILL SHOW THAT THE MOVEMENT IS SPREADING!
INTERVIEW WITH U.S.S. LIBERTY SURVIVOR
by Dr. Chuck Baldwin
Dr. Chuck Baldwin is a radio broadcaster, syndicated columnist, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded.
Two days from today (June 8, 2019) is the 52nd anniversary of the unprovoked attack of the USS LIBERTY by the State of Israel that killed 34 American sailors and Marines and wounded 174. To this day, the State of Israel has never been held accountable for this despicable and dastardly attack against the people of the United States. In fact, the U.S. government and the news media have covered up this horrific attack for all of these decades.
I am using today’s column to print my recorded interview with a USS LIBERTY survivor. This man is a friend of mine. His name is Ron Kukal.
Ron was born in 1939. He grew up in Rushville, Nebraska, and now lives in Sheridan, Wyoming. He joined the Navy at the age of 20. He served 8 years in the Navy and had served 7 years when he was assigned to the LIBERTY. He was a first class petty officer and a communications supervisor on board the LIBERTY. Here is my interview with Ron Kukal (edited for space):
[Begin interview]
CB: So, Ron, why was the USS LIBERTY where it was in the Mediterranean Sea on June 8, 1967? Why was it there?
RK: We were first assigned to sail up and down the coast of Africa. We all know that the USS LIBERTY was an intelligence ship. That’s no secret anymore. We were gathering the intelligence that we were supposed to gather. And in the middle of our tour over there, we got a call (I think in the middle of the night) that we were needed to go to the Med. And none of us really knew what it was all about.
CB: Obviously, your ship was not designed for combat.
RK: Absolutely not.
CB: And you were not there for the purpose of any aggressive action.
RK: Absolutely not.
CB: So the ship was pretty much by itself? You didn’t have protective ships around you or anything like that?
RK: The only thing we were told [is] that if something would happen to us, the 6th Fleet was only about a half an hour away by jet plane. I believe our captain did request some protection, but it was refused. And they just said, “You keep yourself in international waters, and don’t worry about it. Fly the American flag, and don’t worry about it.”
CB: And that’s what the captain did? You were in international waters, and your ship was clearly identified as a United States vessel flying the U.S. flag very clearly, right?
RK: Yes. All morning long we had reconnaissance planes, which were Israeli, flying around us. The flag was definitely up there, and we were well marked: large lettering on the bow and “USS LIBERTY” on the fantail. Very, very clearly marked.
CB: And, of course, Israel is supposedly a U.S. ally, so I assume that the captain and the officers on the ship did not perceive a threat from the State of Israel before the attack.
RK: At breakfast that morning, some of the guys who were working for me had come to me; they were all excited because of the reconnaissance planes that we were experiencing topside. And I told them, “There’s really nothing to worry about. If they are Israeli, we’re flying the flag, and they’re friendly. So don’t let it bother you. Let’s just go to work, and don’t let it occupy your mind.” And that’s the way everybody felt about the whole thing.
CB: So at what time of day was it when the attack actually began?
RK: The exact time was 14:01. 2:01 in the afternoon.
CB: Ok. And how long had you been in those waters where you were? How long had the ship been there?
RK: Oh let’s see. That’s really a good question. I think we’d been there a couple of days. I’m pretty sure that we got there about the third day of the Six-Day War. And I think we were there a day or two before the attack began.
CB: How far out was the ship?
RK: We were out 12 miles-a little over 12 miles.
CB: Ok. Thank you. Where were you on the ship when the attack began?
RK: I was two decks below the main deck. About right at the water line is about where I was at, in my own compartment and in my own spaces.
CB: Did anybody on the ship have any reason to believe or suspect that they were going to be or might be attacked?
RK: No. We did have a General Quarters drill that day, which, as you know, gets everyone prepared for attacks which we might experience. We had just finished that General Quarters drill. We were just getting back to our own work spaces when the attack occurred. Pretty good time to attack somebody, I guess you might say. They are just all settled down after having a drill like that. So it was a good time, whoever ordered it. A great time. Everybody was pretty relaxed. There were guys on the top deck that were off duty sunbathing. And one of them, I think, was the executive officer, Philip Armstrong. And no, you wouldn’t say that anybody was expecting anything.
CB: And the drill you described would have been a routine matter, I would assume.
RK: This was probably a little bit more than routine. We did them routinely, but the captain-his words to us on the intercom, I think, were: “We are in a war zone, and we will do these General Quarters drills as much as possible.”
CB: But that would have been precautionary, right? He didn’t have any indication or reason to believe that an attack was imminent.
RK: No. None whatsoever. Yes, precautionary is a good way to put it.
CB: So how many officers and crew were on board the USS LIBERTY when it was attacked?
RK: Well, the total was 294.
CB: How many were killed and wounded?
RK: Well, 34 were killed: 25 down below where I was at and 9 topside. The wounded numbered 174. The ship itself is the most decorated crew for a single action in the United States Navy.
CB: So the men had finished a precautionary drill and had just settled in. They were relaxing. Some of the men were sunbathing on deck. Everybody was pretty much calm and going about their normal routine. You were two decks down. Now, the attack occurred. When you first realized that you were under attack, did you realize that it was from the State of Israel?
RK: Oh no. No, we didn’t know that. The planes that attacked us were unmarked.
CB: So they were unmarked. And what kind of aircraft were attacking you?
RK: They were French Mirage jets.
CB: So when the attack occurred, it was machine gun fire. Were there bombs dropped?
RK: Well, when the planes attacked, it was limited to machine gun fire, cannon fire, rocket fire, and they tossed some napalm at us too.
CB: And then were the aircraft reinforced with watercraft in the attack?
RK: I think it would be a half an hour to forty-five minutes into the attack [that] the torpedo boats showed up. They fired five torpedoes at us and hit us with one.
CB: At what point did you realize that you were being attacked by the State of Israel?
RK: Shortly after the attack, the Israeli Ambassador, or maybe it was the Prime Minister at the time, called on the hotline and told them [Washington] they had made a mistake and attacked the ship. So, it was shortly after the attack that everybody really knew about it, because they took responsibility and said that it was an accident.
CB: But the attack continued after they acknowledged that it was a mistake. If they went on the air that quickly, and the attack lasted an hour and a half . . .
RK: I think during that time-somehow a phone call on the hotline-I think it was the very first phone call ever made on the hotline if I remember correctly-it called, and the President got word that it was the Israelis that had done it. And the USS America was going to send help for us, and they [the U.S. government] turned those pilots around. I believe LBJ did that personally. I guess once he found out who was attacking us [Israel], he turned our help around.
CB: Do you believe that the Israelis fully intended to sink the ship? Do you believe that that was their goal?
RK: I certainly do! Yes. As a matter of fact, one of the Israeli pilots actually radioed back to-I don’t know if it was Ashdod or Tel Aviv or where it was-but said that he would not participate in this attack because it was an American ship. And those transcriptions and that voice has been on TV a couple of times where he literally said that he wouldn’t attack, and he turned back. They told him to turn around [to pursue the attack], but he flew back to their headquarters. He was jailed for several years, and when he got out of jail he came over to this country. And he actually went straight to former Congressman Pete McCloskey, and told him his story: that he would not attack an American ship.
CB: Wow. Okay. So take us through the sequence of the attack, so that we can have a feel for all they did during this hour and a half. This was 90 minutes of intense, aggressive action by sea and air, with the purpose of sinking an American ship. So take us through the attack process and the different ways in which they attacked the ship.
RK: Well, as I said, being two decks down, it’s kinda hard for me to say how many planes there were. I think there were 3 or 4 that circled around and strafed us several times. What happened to me is, at my desk I was just getting ready to sit down, and the first strafing run went by. And, actually, I didn’t know what it was. I had no clue what that was that was hitting the deck above me. What I didn’t know was that it was killing these guys just above my head about 20 feet, I guess. I’m guessing it was 30 to 45 minutes of constant strafing. And they did also fire napalm at us. So we ended up receiving machine gun and cannon fire, rocket fire and napalm until the torpedo boats got there.
CB: So the torpedo boats showed up; then they launched torpedoes. One of them hit the LIBERTY, and what else took place? I remember reading somewhere about some of the fellows on the LIBERTY trying to escape-trying to get a lifeboat or something. Walk me through that. Was there actually fire on the men who were trying to get off the ship? Am I remembering that correctly?
RK: You are. It would be Lieutenant Lloyd Peters that could tell that story about as well as anyone. Because he literally was going to testify at the court of inquiry that they fired on our lifeboats, and they literally did not want any lifeboats out there for anybody. They wanted us all dead. And so they had to get rid of those [lifeboats].
The torpedo hit I’m guessing about 30 feet from me, maybe 40. And then you know the story. As soon as I got done with my prayers, an audible voice came to me (maybe it wasn’t audible-maybe just to me). “Get down, and get down now!” is all I remember of it. And then from that point to the point of me being either pushed-or somehow I ended up on the steel deck with my nose right on the steel-and the torpedo exploded, and the shrapnel was flying through the air. It took awhile for the water to get in there. Not very long, but you could hear the shrapnel flying through the air. Killed all the men around me. There was only myself and two or three other guys that escaped from down in that area.
CB: You said 25 men died down in that area?
RK: 25 in that area. That would have been the second deck down, the third deck and the fourth deck down. That torpedo took-I think the height of that hole was something like 30-some feet. And so it encompassed a lot of decks. And it took all of the security group personnel; that was most of the men that died down there.
CB: So, after the torpedo hit and you were still alive (you and a couple of others), then what happened?
RK: Well, like I said, I heard the shrapnel flying through the air, and then the whole compartment became an instant swimming pool. I got up off the deck, and I think the water was probably to my shoulders and still rising. And a battle lantern (which all ships have on them that automatically come on when you lose power) was shining over the hatchway to the ladder that led to the deck above. I knew I had to get through that hatch and get to the ladder and get to the deck above to keep from drowning. And there were a lot of guys trying to get up the same ladder, of course. But several of us got up through there, and the only way we got through the hatchway was-they have what they call a scuttle hole in there. It’s just big enough for a man to slip through; a small hole in the middle of the hatch. And most of the guys who were up on the top deck (on the main deck) came down to help out. And they were helping pull us through that hole.
I immediately headed towards the main deck. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible just like everybody else. [I was] slipping and sliding in the passageways. What I was slipping and sliding in was mainly water and blood. And when I got topside, Lieutenant George Golden gave me an order to turn around and go back down below and make sure everybody got out. And so I went back down below and hollered down in that dark hole-you could hear the water sloshing around and stuff like that-trying to get some answers from somebody, and nobody answered.
CB: So I would assume by what you said that many of the men and the captain thought the ship was going to sink. Was that a concern of the captain and the crew?
RK: Yes. And that whole night we were in danger of sinking. The following morning when the sun just came over the horizon, the destroyer USS Davis came over the horizon and came up alongside of us and brought some men over. Those men went down below where the torpedo had hit and shored up those bulkheads to keep us from going to the bottom. According to the officers and the commanders, the captain, everybody else, it was never a question of were we going to sink; the question was “when?” So yes, had the USS Davis not come alongside and sent their men over to help us, we probably wouldn’t be here today.
CB: And that was at dawn the following morning?
RK: Yeah. The sun was coming over the horizon. I suppose it was 6:30 or 7:00.
CB: But you said that during the attack that U.S. aircraft were launched to come to your assistance from a U.S. aircraft carrier?
RK: USS America, yeah. That’s the aircraft carrier. I believe also the USS Saratoga launched some, and they were turned around.
CB: So those planes never arrived at your location to help you. Somebody ordered those planes to go back to the ship and to not come to your assistance?
RK: That’s correct. It was either McNamara or Johnson; I’m not sure which one it was.
CB: So either President Lyndon Johnson or Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara?
RK: That’s right.
CB: Do you believe that it was an act of God that the ship stayed afloat?
RK: There’s no question in my mind. If you take into consideration the firepower that they had compared to what we had. I don’t think that we ever fired a shot that I can remember.
CB: Do you believe there was a concerted effort by the White House and members of Congress to cover up that attack?
RK: Yes. Matter of fact, if you were to talk with Phil Turney, he will tell you that he and several others of the LIBERTY crewmen were called into a room and told that if they ever talked about this, they would be imprisoned and fined a huge amount of money.
CB: They were told that by a Navy officer?
RK: Yes. An admiral.
CB: An admiral. So when you say that there was a cover-up, that must have involved a lot of different people. So you are talking about a chain of command starting from the White House and going all the way down the command structure of the Navy? How far would this go?
RK: I guess if I could make it short and concise, I could tell you that Captain Ward Boston (who conducted the Board of Inquiry) before he died left his testimony that he was told to make the outcome of that Board that the attack was an accident. He said he had no choice. That’s written down in black and white. He was forced.
CB: So the official story from Washington-they finally did acknowledge that it was Israel that launched this attack, but then they claimed it was an accident. Was that the official story?
RK: That was the official story. Captain Boston told me, and he wrote some handwritten letters to me about this stuff. And he literally said that he was forced to make the outcome what the administration wanted-I guess what LBJ wanted.
CB: Has there ever been any due recognition for the men of the LIBERTY? You mentioned decorations.
RK: Decorations and medals were given to us, such as the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Navy Cross and even the Congressional Medal of Honor. The problem is that, as I understand it, medals like we earned are only earned if you are attacked by an enemy state. You don’t get them for friendly fire. They come from being attacked by an enemy. That’s never ever been straightened out. I’ve asked about it a lot of times.
CB: That’s a very good point. And given the nature of the cover-up, the media was also obviously complicit in the cover-up. I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of the American people do not really know what happened to the USS LIBERTY. So it seems that the cover-up has been far more extensive than we might like to think. Because, unless you know somebody like you, Ron, or you happen to hear about it in some small ceremony or something of that nature, one wouldn’t even know about it. It just seems to me to have been a cover-up that extended all the way from the highest levels of government to the media and that it continues to this day. Would you agree with that?
RK: I certainly would.
CB: What is your feeling about the State of Israel now? Do you consider the State of Israel an ally of the United States?
RK: No, I think that they-I’m talking mainly about the leadership in Israel-are Zionists. Pastor, I’ll be really truthful on this. I’ve been involved with the church for many, many years. I played the piano for a church several times; I was on worship teams several times. And one of my biggest mistakes at a church right here in my hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming, was I told the story about the LIBERTY, and I told it truthfully. And I’ve got to tell you, things got pretty cold there at that church for me.
CB: Amazing. So you perceive that this infatuation that most Christians have with the State of Israel is misplaced?
RK: I certainly do! I really don’t believe that physical Israel has a thing to do with Biblical Israel at all.
CB: I totally agree with you, Ron.
Has there ever been any of the crew that you’ve talked with-survivors of this attack-have you guys ever put your minds together and come up with anything that you could figure why Israel attacked you like they did? We know it was not an accident. We know it was deliberate. We know that it was not only deliberate but they intended to sink the ship and kill the entire crew.
RK: And people have said that in very high positions. The [deputy] director of the National Security Agency back then-I think his name was Louis Tordella-he knew it was no accident. I can quote Dean Rusk who said in his book As I Saw It, “[I] didn’t believe the Israelis then, and I don’t believe them now.” That’s in his book. And people in very high places, including Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, said it was no accident. Could not have been.
I believe it was the intent of Israel to sink the LIBERTY [and] blame it on Cairo, which would draw the U.S. into the war.
CB: Ron, your story is a testament to God’s sovereign power and grace in your life and the lives of all of those crew members that survived. But I think it’s also a story that needs to be told in regard to what Israel did. And that there has been not only no accountability for what they did but not even an acknowledgement for what they did, which suggests that there is an evil nature in this that transcends politics.
RK: Oh absolutely. I think I’ve said in a couple of interviews that I believe on June 8, 1967, we looked Satan in the eye and lived to tell about it.
CB: Yep. I believe that’s true. And I think that the cover-up proves the evil nature of the offenders.
RK: Oh I believe that implicitly. To the hilt.
CB: Thank you, Ron. I’m sure this interview will help a lot of people.
[End interview]
Ladies and gentleman, can you imagine what the reaction of the U.S. government would have been if the USS LIBERTY had been attacked by Iraq, Iran or Syria-or any other country, for that matter? Yet the U.S. government not only did nothing to protect the officers and crew of the USS LIBERTY it also ordered the American fighter aircraft that were enroute to protect the LIBERTY to turn around. And then the government lied about the attack and ordered a massive cover-up of the attack so as to cast no blame on the attacking country. Ask yourself, “Why?”
FROM THE EDITOR
Dr. Ed is a pastor, author, public speaker, radio personality, lobbyist, re-enactor, and the Director of Dixie Heritage.
Its good to be home. I’ll likely be writing about various aspects of my trip and activities over the next few weeks. This week, I will simply say that the trip ws productive, and that I saw far too many “fag” flags. They were on everything. Especially in Boston.
Practically every building on the “Freedom Trail” in Boston had a rainbow draped over it. Is the implication that the Founding Fathers were Sodomites?
When I went to the airport, where I had the misfortune of flying Southwest (Delta is my preferred airline) I arrived to find the Southwest terminal flooded in rainbow flags. Flags that, by the way, were carefully “installed” by Southwest employees. In otherwords, it wasn’t that passengers had littered the terminal with them, the airline was “proudly” displaying them.
I walked through the Delta terminal on my way to the Southwest terminal. Not a single rainbow flag in the Delta terminal.
Yes, I’m sharing this information in hopes that it effects your future choice of airlines!
God bless President Trump for ordering the rainbow flags from U.S. Embassies and government buildings. Massechusettes obviously did not have the same good sense. Perhaps, if Scott Lively had been elected as that State’s governor rather than Charlie Baker the cradle of our liberty may have had such good sense.
But what really strikes me as odd is that the Sodomites, while claiming the “rainbow” because it symbolizes “inclusion” are abot the most bigotted and non-inclusive people I have ever encountered.
Did you know that the LGBTQ lobby is one of the most active against the Confederate Flag and monuments? We are supposed to acceopt them but they are VIOLENTLY opposed to us. Go figure.
And as I was in D.C., Annapolis, Virginia, and overseas advocating for the preservation of our Confederate symbols in every place I encountered LGBTQ’s activists who were actively working to counter everything I was doing. They hate with a hatred far hotter and more severe than they acuse us of.
All of that said, our national motto (of the Confederacy) still endures: God will vindicate!
Until Next Week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed
Dixie Heritage
P.O. Box 618
Lowell, FL 32663
