12/23/25 Phil Tourney on the Barbarity and Relevance of the USS Liberty Attack

·55 min·4 clips

Dying shipmate Gary Blanchard asked Tourney, 'Do you think I'm going to make it?' Tourney told him the truth: no.

1. This is an interview on the Scott Horton Show with USS Liberty survivor Phil Tourney about the June 8, 1967 Israeli attack on his ship. 2. Host Scott Horton, a libertarian foreign-policy commentator, interviews Tourney, a retired U.S. Navy sailor and author of 'What I Saw That Day,' about his firsthand experience of the attack. 3. The episode's core question is what actually happened to the USS Liberty and why the U.S. government has, in Tourney's account, covered it up for decades. 4. Tourney says the Liberty, an NSA/CIA signals-intelligence ship, arrived off the Egyptian coast on June 7, 1967 and was overflown repeatedly by clearly marked Israeli aircraft that waved at the crew. 5. He says the ship's request for a destroyer escort into the war zone was denied because officials considered the clearly marked American ship safe. 6. On June 8, at around 2 p.m., Tourney says unmarked jets attacked the Liberty for 25 minutes, and radioman Terry Halbardier got a distress signal out roughly 12-15 minutes in. 7. Tourney says aircraft launched from the USS Saratoga were recalled by Secretary of Defense McNamara, and a second launch was recalled after President Johnson said he would not embarrass his ally over a few dead sailors. 8. Torpedo boats then fired five torpedoes, one of which struck the ship's intelligence compartment and instantly killed 25 CIA and NSA personnel. 9. Tourney describes napalm burns, more than 800 rocket holes, roughly 5,000 armor-piercing bullet holes, and Israeli gunners shooting up the ship's life rafts as sailors tried to launch them. 10. He says 34 men were killed and 174 wounded, and that U.S. help did not arrive for 17 hours even though ships were only 40 minutes away. 11. Tourney credits a single torpedo striking a structural I-beam, rather than penetrating fully, with keeping the ship afloat. 12. He recalls a dying shipmate, Gary Blanchard, asking him directly whether he would survive, and Tourney telling him honestly that he would not. 13. He says Admiral Isaac Kidd, after debriefing survivors two days into the journey to Malta, threatened them with Leavenworth or worse if they told anyone, including family, what happened. 14. Tourney says that threat began roughly 20 years of enforced silence, ending only after officer Jim Ennis published 'Assault on the Liberty' and survivors began speaking publicly. 15. He alleges that groups including AIPAC and the ADL have pressured members of Congress into dismissing the survivors' account, naming former lawmakers Devin Nunes, Pete McCloskey, Paul Findley, and Cynthia McKinney as having stood up for the crew. 16. He also says he suspects, without proof, that former congressman Jim Traficant's death was connected to his support for the Liberty crew. 17. The interview is a first-person survivor narrative delivered in a serious, sometimes emotional register, structured as extended storytelling punctuated by Horton's follow-up questions. 18. Horton periodically breaks for sponsor reads, including his own foreign-policy course and an unrelated retail promotion, before returning to the interview. 19. Listeners interested in Cold War-era military history, government accountability, and firsthand war narratives would likely value this episode. 20. Listeners uninterested in contested Middle East politics or skeptical of cover-up narratives may want to skip it.

As heard by us

A firsthand USS Liberty account drives a sober discussion of military accountability and official denial.

Phil Turney brings a personal and plainly unresolved account of the 1967 USS Liberty attack, speaking as a retired former U.S. Navy serviceman connected to the ship and as the author of What I Saw That Day.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a USS Liberty conversation with a former crewman, and the argument around the attack is still burning.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews