The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Kindle Edition)

by James Scott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by John Lancaster Few events in modern military history have spawned as many conspiracy theories as Israel's attack on a U.S. Navy spy ship, the Liberty, during the Six-Day War in June 1967. For those too young to remember, the Liberty was collecting intelligence off the Gaza Strip when, literally out of the blue, it was strafed, bombed and finally torpedoed in a horrific hour-long assault that killed 34 of its men and wounded 171, many of them gravely. The ship was operating in international waters, and the United States, then as now, was Israel's closest ally. How could Israel have made such a blunder? Israel's official explanation -- that the ship was mistaken for an Egyptian horse-and-troop carrier -- raised as many questions as it answered. Hours before the assault, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly buzzed the Liberty, which should have cleared up any confusion as to its identity. After all, the Liberty was twice the size of the Egyptian vessel and cut a distinctive profile with its thicket of eavesdropping antennae, to say nothing of its U.S. Navy markings and American flag. To this day, many Liberty survivors -- as well as some former U.S. officials -- contend that Israel's vaunted military could not possibly have carried out such a sustained and ferocious assault except as a deliberate act. A new book, "The Attack on the Liberty," by James Scott, stops short of a final verdict on that charge. Still, after reading this comprehensive and compelling account, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Israel's actions were, at a minimum, criminally negligent -- and harder still to understand why no one in Israel was punished. For this, the United States also bears some of the blame. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with survivors and former officials, Scott argues that the Johnson administration deliberately soft-pedaled the incident to avoid straining relations with an important Cold War ally and its American backers. Scott, a South Carolina journalist, is the son of a Liberty survivor and has a good feel for life onboard the converted World War II cargo vessel. For example, nearly half the crew were "spooks" -- such as linguists and cryptologists -- who lived by themselves and looked down their noses at ordinary sailors, or "deck apes." The captain, William McGonagle, comes across as something of a martinet, known to rouse sleeping sailors to berate them for minor lapses; by contrast, his second-in-command, Philip Armstrong, was an easygoing sort who liked to invite junior officers into his cabin for belts of prohibited scotch. The attack began around 2 p.m. on the fourth day of the war, when the Liberty was about 17 miles from the coast. Almost without warning, French-made Israeli fighter jets tore into the lightly defended ship with rockets, cannons and napalm. "Shells smashed portholes, ripped gashes in sealed metal doors," Scott writes. "Dead and injured sailors, many of whom had been chipping paint seconds earlier, littered the decks." Eventually, a torpedo fired by an Israeli patrol boat ripped a 39-foot-wide hole in the Liberty, flooding lower compartments. Nearly 17 hours passed before help arrived from other U.S. Navy ships. In the meantime, surviving officers and crew struggled valiantly to aid the wounded and keep the listing vessel afloat. McGonagle, who suffered a concussion and shrapnel wounds, remained in command throughout the ordeal and later was awarded a Medal of Honor. Armstrong was killed. The record of the Navy's civilian and military leadership was less inspiring. Though privately furious, U.S. officials lied about the nature of the Liberty's mission and, Scott writes, were so eager to avoid stirring up public anger toward Israel that at one point they contemplated scuttling the ship to prevent news organizations from photographing the damage. Adm. John McCain Jr., the father of the Arizona senator and 2008 presidential candidate, comes in for especially sharp criticism. As the head of the Navy's inquiry, Scott writes, McCain understood that a "report critical of Israel would trigger diplomatic ramifications for the State Department and create domestic political trouble for the beleaguered White House, which now wanted to deemphasize the attack." As a consequence, he contends, McCain barred his investigators from traveling to Israel to interview the attackers and allowed only a week to complete the probe, "less time than it took to bury some of the dead." Scott cites transcripts of conversations between the Israeli pilots and air controllers in Tel Aviv to show that at least some Israeli commanders were aware of the Liberty's identity before the attack. He also shows that many U.S. officials -- including then-CIA Director Richard Helms -- were privately scornful of Israel's explanation. Some believed the attack may have been ordered by a battlefield commander who feared that Israel's combat orders, if detected by the Liberty, might somehow leak to the Arabs. Scott clearly has his own suspicions, though he produces no smoking-gun evidence to support the charge of a deliberate attack, perhaps because none exists. In that sense, his book is likely to disappoint the conspiracy theorists as much as it angers proponents of the "fog of war" defense offered by Israel. But Scott is wise to leave the speculating to others. The story is shocking enough as it is.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review

"Now, 42 years after the event, and with the benefit of stacks of newly declassified documents, author James Scott is able to reveal the shocking truth. While the most senior U.S. intelligence officials were convinced that the attack was deliberate, they agreed to keep quiet as part of a massive White House cover-up to protect U.S.-Israeli relations...The country should be grateful to James Scott for this very courageous book." -- James Bamford, author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA, From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America and two other books on the NSA

"My book on this subject is often considered the definitive work. Yet I must now proudly yield that spot to author James Scott's meticulously documented and persuasive study. Anyone who can read The Attack on the Liberty and not agree that this was a deliberate attack on a ship known to be American, and that the facts were then criminally covered up by both countries, is willfully blind or hopelessly biased." -- James Ennes, Jr., author of Assault on the Liberty

"John Scott, the author's father, received the Silver Star for his valor during the assault and the critical role he played in the ship's survival. His son has now performed a great service to Liberty victims, students of history, and the nation as a whole in casting a new, penetrating light on one of the most disgraceful chapters in modern U.S. naval history. The Attack on the Liberty is a vivid account worthy of a careful reading by anyone interested in ensuring that painful past experience properly illuminates the U.S. government's current and future policy choices and standards of public candor." -- Proceedings

"Scott's book is a densely documented, suspenseful narrative that uses declassified U.S. and Israeli documents to give fresh insights into the attack and the aftermath." -- The Seattle Times

"This book is both a tribute and a belated memorial to the officers and men of that ill-fated spy ship...By raising carefully researched questions about the entire process, Scott's fine book has put the Liberty center stage and perhaps given the surviving crewmen an account that truly binds up their wounds." -- Naval History Magazine

"[Scott] didn't simply rely on tales told around the family dining table. He conducted prodigious research to document every aspect of the story...As a former newspaper reporter, Scott knew how to dig for facts, and his book resonates with the results of his relentless search for the truth...It is high time someone drew our attention to this tragedy, and Scott has done it in magnificent fashion." -- The Tampa Tribune

"Carefully researched, extensively annotated and refreshingly non-polemical... It fully merits a careful reading." -- Foreign Service Journal

"Engrossing....Scott's book will be the definitive account of the attack."-- The Virginian-Pilot

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1071 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 2, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0029XXT1I
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,206 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book....my opinion being that of one of the survivors, May 29, 2009

By	Liberty Survivor - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Hardcover)

I, Gary W Brummett, surviving crewman of USS Liberty & former President of the USS Liberty Veterans Association do highly recommend The Attack on the Liberty by James Scott to be the most authoritative and well researched book to date. I would recommend anyone interested in the history of this country and this event read and pass the book around and recommend it to any and all civic, military or any other organization interested in the truth. I want to thank James Scott for a wonderful book. Job well done, James!

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ATTACK ON THE LIBERTY, June 2, 2009

By	Lloyd C. Painter - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Hardcover)

I was Officer of the Deck when the Israeli Defense Forces attacked our ship, the USS Liberty (AGTR-5), without warning. I have read James Scott's riveting account of the attack and can vouch for it's historical accuracy. A fine piece of Investigative Journalism.

Lloyd C. Painter
US Secret Service (retired)

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revealing book even for some of the survivors, June 1, 2009

By	R. Kukal "TruthProjectMan" (Sheridan, Wy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Hardcover)

This review is written by one of the survivors who also was the Petty Officer in Charge of the body recovery and identifcation. I know how well
researched James Scott's book is, because I know he sat in with four of the survivors who were interviewed by the Army War College. Mr. Scott
had first hand knowledge from those survivors including James Ennes
who wrote "Assault on the Liberty". The student at the Army War Collge researched this in depth also, and in his report stated that this attack was most likely deliberate. James Scott had the knowledge of his father John Scott who was an officer aboard the Liberty at the time of the attack.
I am only writing in my review of the fourth chapter of the book, but would like the readers to know how close Mr. Scott is to those who saw this first hand.