Israel was well aware that it was attacking its own allies when it attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 Americans and wounding another 171. Survivor Phil Tourney is convinced of this.

– They wanted us at the bottom of the ocean – so they could blame it on the Arabs and bring the US into World War Three, he explains.

The USS Liberty was a US intelligence warship patrolling the Mediterranean during the 1967 Six-Day War when it was suddenly attacked by Israeli jets and torpedo boats. The attack, which was very prolonged, resulted in over 200 crew members killed or injured.

Both Israeli and US officials have always maintained that the Liberty was attacked by mistake and that the American ship was confused with a hostile Egyptian vessel.

However, survivors of the Israeli attack have testified to the contrary from the start, maintaining that the Israeli army was well aware that the ship was American – but tried to sink it and kill the crew anyway. The plan is said to have been to carry out a so-called "false flag attack", blaming the massacre on the Arabs and forcing the US into the war.

"Our sin was that we survived"

In an interview with conservative journalist Candace Owens, survivor Phil Tourney talks about his experiences on that fateful day, and how he and his comrades were threatened to keep quiet about what really happened and were vilified and demonized when they chose to talk about their experiences.

– Our only sin is that we survived. We didn’t kill anyone. Israel did all the murdering that day and the U.S. government did all the covering up.

According to the survivor, both US and Israeli officials at the highest levels were involved in the mass murder of the American crew members – and the primary reason was to get the US involved in the war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

Wanted to manipulate public opinion

At the time, however, the US already had nearly half a million troops stationed in Vietnam, so public support for another American war was also very low. By sinking the USS Liberty, killing its crew and blaming it on an Arab attack, it was hoped to turn public opinion and bring the US into another bloody war.

Perhaps Tourney's most shocking claim is that both then US President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara knew the attack was coming and denied the crew help and support – even though US ships were nearby.

Instead, it was 17 hours before anyone showed up to help Liberty after the attack and once help arrived, the survivors were threatened with reprisals if they ever spoke freely about the incident.

To this day, crew members who talk about how Israel deliberately attacked them are often dismissed as "conspiracy theorists" and there is a widespread political reluctance in the United States to even investigate the incident further.