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Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War III
 
 
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Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War III (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The crew of the USS Liberty had no inkling of the catastrophe that awaited them as they sailed slowly at five knots along the Egyptian..." (more)
Key Phrases: naval representative, spy ship, distress message, United States, Sixth Fleet, Six-Day War (more...)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

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"Deserves more than passing interest." -- College and Research Libraries News


Product Description

The USS Liberty was attacked by unmarked planes and torpedo boats in international waters during the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States. The attack on the surveillance ship lasted 75 minutes -- 34 men died and 172 were injured. Initially it was thought that either Egypt or the U.S.S.R. was responsible, but astonishingly Israel, the U.S.'s closest ally, said that the planes and boats belonged to them, and that they mistook the ship for an Egyptian vessel -- despite the prominently displayed Stars and Stripes.

This hard-hitting investigation shows that on that day in 1967, the world came closer to all-out nuclear war than ever before -- this incident made the Cuban Missile Crisis seem tame by comparison. Peter Hounam reveals that the attack was part of a clandestine plan between the US and Israel known as "Operation Cyanide," designed to ensure victory for Israel in the Middle East. By blaming the attack on the Arab world, retaliation on a grand scale would be justified.

A massive cover-up has endured to this day -- the attack on the Liberty remains the only maritime incident that has not been investigated by Congress. But many survivors and senior government officials say that the attack was no accident, including Secretary of State at the time, Dean Rusk. Based on interviews with ex-government officers and the examination of official documents, this book answers the following questions: Why did the White House call back rescue planes from helping the Liberty -- twice? What was the CIA's role in this attack? Did LBJ know in advance about the attack? Why did the U.S. government accept Israel's explanation?

This book will shock any reader interested in Middle-East affairs, as it shows that the U.S. was prepared to -sacrifice its men and risk nuclear war to ensure victory for Israel.

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vision (May 15, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1904132197
  • ISBN-13: 978-1904132196
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #331,525 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Peter Hounam
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The crew of the USS Liberty had no inkling of the catastrophe that awaited them as they sailed slowly at five knots along the Egyptian coast in the early afternoon of 8 June 1967. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
naval representative, spy ship, distress message, flash message, been torpedoed, secret spaces, attacking planes, torpedo boats
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Sixth Fleet, Six-Day War, White House, Middle East, Tel Aviv, Operation Cyanide, State Department, Soviet Union, King Hussein, Jim Ennes, Lyndon Johnson, Yitzhak Rabin, Dean Rusk, Andrew Jackson, Moshe Dayan, President Johnson, Situation Room, United Nations, Walt Rostow, Levi Eshkol, Suez Canal, Abba Eban, Admiral Shlomo Erell, Day One
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars America's Hidden History: A must read for true Americans, January 19, 2006
My own copy of this book contains the signatures of several USS Liberty Survivors whom I've interviewed and written about throughout the years. This book IS their story and the survivors proudly recommended it to me. Every American needs to read Operation Cyanide, the story detailing a horrendous crime against the American people and our sailors; a crime which for nearly forty years has yet to be addressed because of who purposely and with malice, committed it: the state of Israel.
As with all books, films, professors and speakers exposing Israeli atrocities, its protectors have attacked this book (see the one star analysis. This is standard procedure on all books exposing Israeli war crimes) and others in an attempt to prevent your reading this book. The attack on the USS Liberty was a war crime; Israel shot out the life boats, used napalm, lied about it, torpedoed the ship... AND still our sailors survived. Historically accurate, true and very much needing to be told Operation Cyanide's award winning British author Hounam, details the amazing escape and survival of the USS Liberty against all odds and how it came to be. It is what true heroism is about. You will be inspired by the story of the Liberty crew and disgusted by the cover-up now in its 38th year. This is a great book for anyone who enjoys espionage stories, historical novels or adventures. It is the perfect book for any patriotic American.
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42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Storytelling and Investigatory Work, February 9, 2004
By William Hughes (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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On June 8, 1967, the Israelis attacked the USS Liberty, in international waters, 13 miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, and tried to sink it, and kill all 294 American on board the spy ship. The Israelis then falsely claimed it was just a case of "mistaken identity."

However, according to Peter Hounam, the author of the expose', "Operation Cyanide," the murderous Israeli attack was a set up to blame the Egyptians and bring the U.S. into the 1967 war on their side. The Liberty was a "sitting duck" for the Israeli jet planes' missiles and rockets and their torpedo boats. The attack lasted at least 75 minutes, killing 34 brave Americans and wounding 172 others. On first hearing of the Liberty attack by allegedly "unidentified aircraft," the U.S. launched planes from the Sixth Fleet carriers, then located in the Mediterranean, off Crete, armed with nuclear weapons. They were headed for Cairo to retaliate. Only minutes before reaching their target, they were recalled. Why? The Israelis had failed to sink the Liberty! According to Hounam's research, the White House knew within minutes of the Liberty attack, that the perpetrator was really Israel (p. 94). On two separate occasions, the White House recalled aircraft rescue missions for the Liberty. On the last attempt, LBJ told Rear-Admiral Lawrence Geis of the Sixth Fleet, "I WILL NOT EMBARRASS OUR ALLY." The Liberty was then left "dead in the water," without any assistance for over 16 hours.

At pp. 267-268, Hounam said, "Sinking the Liberty and blaming Egypt and the Soviets would have freed Johnson's hand to do almost anything-even to drop an atomic bomb on Cairo. Trouble only arose when the Israel operation failed - and the damned ship stayed afloat." Hounam revealed that within LBJ's hawkish administration, there was shadowy clique that met under the rubric of the "303 Committee." Richard Helms, the late CIA Director, said that entity was, "A device for examining covert operations of any kind and making a judgment on behalf of the President, so he wouldn't be nailed with the thing, if it failed." Out of the "303 Committee," came a project labeled, "Frontlet 615," which was furthered defined as, "A secret political agreement in 1966 by which Israel and the U.S. had vowed to destroy (Egypt's Gamal Abdel) Nasser." The military name for the operation was, "Operation Cyanide." The secrets of our government can kill.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Uriah's death was no accident, September 10, 2007
Nor was the attack on the USS Liberty. The Liberty was a sacrificial lamb (or in the words of those candid few on the inside, a "guinea pig") whose sinking was to be a pretext for the US to nuke an airbase outside Cairo at which Soviet bombers were based. The IDF tried their damndest to sink her and eliminate the entire crew, but could not, and someone, thank God, put a stop to it before they eventually succeeded. Hounam's research follows on that of survivor Jim Ennes and Pearson and is quite comprehensive given the intense, massive, and on-going cover-up (an example of which is the many pans offered by others on this page). Although after one recognizes the absurdity of the "accidental friendly fire" cover story it is easily surmised that the US must have put Israel up to the attack on the Liberty for some reason, it becomes fairly speculative as to precisely what the US aims were. Hounam's research indicates that the US may have been after more than simply removing Nasser as a threat to the Saudis and thwarting the USSR from assuming control of the Suez Canal. Hounam's thesis - and it is well supported - is that the onset of WW III may have been avoided by a mere three minutes. The story is not yet complete - and may never be - but Hounam's detective work has yielded a remarkably extensive picture - the most compete thus far. King David owned up to his culpability in the murder of Uriah, but LBJ, MacNamara and their co-consipirators never did own up to their responsibility, leaving all the blame on Israel. The Liberty was not the first USN vessel intended to be sacrificed as a pretext for war; the USS Maine was precedent sixty-nine years earlier. And one can speculate as to whether the Stark and Cole may have been intended tp serve some similar purpose. But in the case of the Liberty, nukes were sent aloft with aircraft launched from the USS America. Could it happen again?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Truth Diluted by Some Fiction
I believe other outstanding books and reports have established beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel deliberately attacked the U.S.S. Liberty ([...]). Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mike Burke

5.0 out of 5 stars Survivors' thoughts
As a survivor of this horrendous intentional attack, I felt that this book provided some very interesting points as to why the attack occurred and why the United States Government... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Larry L. Bowen

3.0 out of 5 stars Ian Fleming Reincarnated
If you like James Bond thrillers, you'll love Peter Hounam's OPERATION CYANIDE. It's well-written, exciting and a real page turner. Read more
Published 13 months ago by John M. Lane

1.0 out of 5 stars More conspiracy nonsense
This book is so far fetched its still hard to believe that someone would publish this. The theory's are so out of space, does one even think before accepting them at face value... Read more
Published on December 19, 2007 by Richard Resnick

1.0 out of 5 stars If you hate good investigative reporting, you will love this book!
For decades, I have been comsumed with knowing how the catastrophic attack on the USS Liberty could have happenend. Read more
Published on August 17, 2007 by Mark I. Kaufman

5.0 out of 5 stars uss liberty
Book was well researched and provided great insight regarding the attack On the USS Liberty.
Published on August 10, 2006 by Richard H. Kraeger

1.0 out of 5 stars Unsubstantiated hype......
There are better books out there if you're interested in more substantiated accounts of the USS Liberty attack. Read more
Published on November 27, 2005 by Monjy

1.0 out of 5 stars A house of cards
Hounam's book is a conspiracy story lacking plausibility and without any evidence to support it. People that believe that Kennedy was assassinated at the behest of the... Read more
Published on August 16, 2005 by Mr. Roger Rick

1.0 out of 5 stars It's really just a well-written piece of fiction
The book by Peter Hounam appears to be an attempt to update the first conspiracy book on the subject of the Israeli attack on the USS LIBERTY during the Six-Day War. Read more
Published on July 10, 2004 by Mike Weeks

1.0 out of 5 stars Just another pathetic attempt to rewrite history
One of the most overused myths of this friendly fire accident is that Israel should have seen the American flag on the ship, however when there is no wind a flag does not fly, it... Read more
Published on October 27, 2003

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