Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 295
Printing Date: May 31, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 1721266
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Draws on newly declassified documents and high-level interviews with numerous officials from the United States and Israel, including the late prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, that resolve lingering questions
A former naval aviator provides a page-turning, minute-by-minute account of the battering suffered by the U.S. Navy’s intelligence ship, USS Liberty
Includes diagrams, maps, and photographs, including images taken by the gun cameras of participating Israeli aircraft
On June 8, 1967, at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israeli air and naval forces attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence-collection ship in the service of Israel’s closest ally, while that vessel steamed in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelis killed 34 Americans, wounded 171, and nearly sank the ship. Dozens of theories exist about what happened that day. Official inquiries conducted in both the United States and Israel attributed the event to faulty communications and tragic error, but survivors remain outspoken and not alone in their belief that the Israelis acted deliberately.
Federal judge and former naval aviator A. Jay Cristol places the incident in its proper context. The Israeli strike, he argues, can only be understood in light of the Cold War, the outbreak of war in the Middle East, interservice rivalry within the Israeli Defense Forces, and the chaos of an operational environment. That both the United States and Israel kept much of the data concerning the incident classified for more than ten years served only to fuel the fires of intrigue and charges of conspiracy to cover up the truth, but since the incident significant portions of most of the official inquiries have now been declassified. Cristol draws on these, documents recently obtained by him through the Freedom of Information Act, and extensive oral history interviews to deliver the most comprehensive treatment of the episode that threatened to ruin Israel’s relations with the United States and has served as a nagging source of suspicion for so many years.
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Rated by buyers 
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I'm old enough to remember hearing about the attack on the LIBERTY when it very first took place during the Six Day War in 1967. The initial inquiries explained that the attack was a mistake, but the incident has continued to generate conspiracy theories suggesting that the Israelis knew the LIBERTY's status as a US Navy ship and attacked it anyway.
What has always been lacking in my mind is the reason why. I'd been a soldier and I knew that "blue on blue fire" and SNAFUs accounted for a lot of casualties during war. The war in Vietnam was going on and our forces had just strafed a Soviet ship in a North Vietnamese harbor. It had been an accident, but it was big issue at the time.
A.Jay Cristol brings lot of tools to this book. He was Naval officer with a background in aviation. He got a Ph.D. and he writes well. The result is a book which is easy to read, well annotated, and answered all the questions I had about this incident including the basic one, what was in it for the Israelis?
His answer, by the way, is that nothing was in it for the Israelis. Despite their legendary prowess, the Israelis make mistakes and their attack on the LIBERTY was just such a mistake.
He reconstructs it step by step. He includes photographs from the gun cameras on the attacking Israeli Mirage III fighter/bombers. He has photographs of the Israeli aircraft making their strafing runs taken by the LIBERTY's captain. He has profiles of the LIBERTY and an Egyptian ship which it resembled.
He understands how difficult it is to see a flag and read hull numbers from the cockpit of a Mirage diving at 600 mph. He also describes the Israeli Motor Torpedo Boats and the torpedoes they fired and reconstructs their communications with their HQ in Haifa.
Cristol's book is thoroughly researched and documented. It should be the definitive work on this subject. I gave it five stars.
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I found Judge Cristol's book comprehensive and convincing. I have seen any number of messages on the internet which endeavor to dissuade me from this view but none are very convincing. They all refer indirectly to things they have heard from key government officials without quoting them or providing the names of those making the alleged statements.
Judge Cristol tells you what he learned in his many interviews, names his sources, and quotes from them. Also, he has published, online, many of the documents he relied on and transcripts of some of his interviews.
He sets forth a fascinating story of blunders on the part of both the US Navy, and of the Israeli Air Force and Navy that resulted in a terrible tragedy.
For example: The US Navy Department sent a message to the USS Liberty to stay at least 100 miles off the coastline. It went astray and didn't get to the Liberty until after the incident.
The US Navy Department told the Israelis that it had no ship within 100 miles of the coastline.
I grieve for those who were killed and wounded but placing blame where none is due won't help. This is not the very first instance of "friendly fire" and won't be the last.
Why is it still in the news after these many years? Likely because the Islamists want to keep it there. The WRMEA magazine that is published by the American Educational Trust, a Saudi vehicle, publishes a new story about it frequently and has a whole section devoted to it on its website. Some writers for WRMEA,, I understand, also write for the Arab News. Other anti-Zionists bring it up often. James Bamford livened up two of his exceedingly boring books about the NSA and perhaps sold a few more of them by a paragraph or two with bold allegations on the Liberty Incident in each of them, blaming the Israelis, that had little support.
Cristol, in addition to being a Federal Bankruptcy Judge is a Navy Reserve Pilot and I think his flying experience helped him. He commenced writing about the Liberty to fulfill the requirements for a dissertation. It was worth publishing.
Rated by buyers 
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Even if you want to believe it to be an accident, you can do better than this book. Cristol created this book based on his doctoral dissertation, which was manufactured after (and some estimate to obfuscate and diffuse) Dr. John Borne's initial doctoral dissertation on the Liberty assault which came to the conclusion Israel knew it was a US ship before they attacked.
You don't even need to open the book to know what's inside!...let's take a look at the front cover photo...
The photo, claimed in the book to be provided to Cristol by the Israeli Air Force, as a gun camera photo, shows the USS Liberty flying no flag as it is attacked, with even a large splash of munition subsequent to it. This of course reinforces Israel's claim there was no flag flying during the attack, which would then debunk the survivors' claim they had an American flag flying(and put up an even larger US flag after the very first was shot down!).
-It turns out, according to a photo analysis done for the Liberty survivors' website, this "is in fact a doctored view of the ship just as she tied up at the pier at Little Creek, Virginia, in July, 1967, upon her return from repairs in Malta." The photo evidence is too much to list but here is some of it: All the vectors and even people on the ship correspond to the Little Creek dock photo. The smoke was apparently falsified - there is no smoke or fire damage in corresponding areas of the ship, in photos taken immediately after the attack. The displacement(how deep in the water the ship sets due to weight) of the Liberty during the actual attack was much greater than the Cristol image depicted, but corresponded perfectly with the Little Creek photo (after the ship was offloaded). The munition splash apparently was added to cover a tug boat that occluded a small part of the front side of the Liberty. A photo of a real wake created by the Liberty does not correspond to what was apparently a post photo wake added to the photo of the stationary Liberty. Etcetera, etcetera. Of course, the fact that there is no flag in Cristol's cover picture corresponds to the fact it is customary to take down the flag once you get into port, as the real Little Creek photo shows. So there you have it, no need to even open this book. Sorry to say, the photo was presented as evidence in a Thames television presentation before a proper analysis and debunking was done.
This is the second book(the other is the unrelated "Hitler's Pope" by Cornwell) I've reviewed where a photo was presented as evidence, but was apparently otherwise.
If you are an Israeli apologist and want to give a better try than Cristol's book, it's not hard. But you should at least go to the survivors' website and get firsthand information so you don't look as foolish as Cristol. Now that Cristol is being dismissed, Michael Oren is the subsequent big hope for Israeli apologists concerning Liberty. This assault is so dangerous to Israel's reputation that apologists consistently offer terminology that attempts to stop discusion on the subject rather than address concerns, such as the title of Michael Oren's writing's "USS Liberty: Case Closed". The process is consistent, very first the apologist (Oren/Cristol/whoever) offers what they claim is a thorough discussion-ending report(in Oren's case even titling it as such), then the apologist goes on with a typical limited and contextually false account, then right on queue, the apologist is soon after applauded for such a "conclusive", "thorough", "definitive" account. Then eventually the apologist is dismissed by those on the other side as false after having his material reviewed, such as Cristol eventually was. Then another apologist takes over the reigns as 'lead USS Liberty reference' for the apologists, conveniently forgetting they were just supporting the last guy who who offered false claims. To some, it might seem strange Oren was given the top prize at the LA book fair for what was a rehashing of the 1967 Israeli six day war in his book "Six Days of War". What Oren did conveniently offer in his newly awarded book, just as Crystol conveniently offered, was, once again, "new evidence" that the attack on the Liberty was accidental. Of course, "Body of Secrets" author James Bamford eventually took great exception to Oren's selective Liberty account, and offers insight into Oren's personal history and his close working connections to those who apparently were connected to Israeli war crimes that the Liberty would have monitored, and that, as Bamford suggests, would have been reason to snuff out the Liberty's surveillance.
The real story, and the amazing and intriguing evidence that is now coming out is mostly coming from NSA sources. The Anti-Defamation League primarily references Cristol and NSA transcripts released in 1999(published online in 2003) of helicopter pilots sent to the Liberty after the attack. Of course, the ADL pointing to the helicopter transmissions ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Judge Cristal's book is and has become just the continuing written resource of the "official version". He was a bankruptcy judge, a naval reserve officer who never saw combat, was never there, avoided the survivor's versions of events if it doesn't mesh with the "accident" thesis. He is held in deep disregard by the Liberty Veterans Organization, they are all wrong yet his version is correct. They were there, he was not.
What it doesn't say and what it avoids is as important as what he does says. He has avoided any debate whatsoever with any member of the Liberty Veterans Organization but now spends his time answering op-ed pieces proclaiming the "case is closed". His book is a part of the Liberty canon and it does demostrate the extremes that the Liberty opponents have taken over the last 40 years. The question still remains "why?". If it was a "friendly fire" so-called accident. Why oppose the Liberty crew the very first open honest day in an open manner? Like Ennes say, if they are lying, they go to jail but they are willing to take the chance.
But a bankruptcy judge who was never there, never a part of the investigation and and who has been condemned by the very limited number of Liberty crew he sought information and who deny "his version" of he claims does not make this a reliable resource. You want the truth, read Jim Ennnes' book, "Assault on the Liberty". He was there and no one has ever called his book disingenuous or fabricated.
There are two sides to every story and the good Judge has no monopoly on the truth. Certainly not the "Liberty Incident". BTW an "Attack" is hardly an "Incident" when 34 crew members were killed and 174 wounded. What's subsequent "The 9-11 Incident"? Decide for yourself. Buy it used .
Rated by buyers -
I had heard from time to time mention of the 'liberty incident' and never really knew what happened until I purchased this book. Those who want to live in their own fantasy world and believe that it was some type of conspiracy can go ahead, but this book will most definitely put cracks in all their stories, ideas, and theories. The actions of the ship are laid out, the actions of the Israeli pilots are plotted and presented as the fact that the liberty opened fire very first on the three Israeli torpedo boats that went out to try and identify the ship only after which did they fire their torpedo's. Suffice it to say this has to be the most definitive account of the incident covering all the angels to the minutest detail and showing where conspiracy theorists got their ideas from in the very first place is a nice addition. He goes through these 'theories' and rebukes them at every turn explaining why they don't make sense or what evidence is missing or simply put how logic does not dictate what is being presented as 'fact' and 'evidence.' Israel had no need to attack a US ship, Israel admitted their guilt and admitted it was a mistake as soon as they found out what they had done, there is no reason to think this action did anything more than damage, to a degree, the relationship between Israel and the US. Probably one of the better books on the subject no doubt about it, highly recommended.
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