Buy it ,read it, give a copy to a high school if they;ll allow you to do so.
James Ennes literally “wrote THE book” on the deliberate attack by Israel on the USS Liberty on June , 1967. The crap and abuse this man has taken for its publication in 1979 would have broken Job. The Book is in its 11th edition and is still in print. Buy it at the USS Liberty.org website and Mr. Ennes will sign it as well. It’s a keeper. With every edition came new exposures, new information, new declassification of material held “Top Secret” which further laid claim to the nonsense , lies, obfuscations, misleading disinformation that is the “Official US and Israel versions” of the attack.
The “Ultra Secret” of WW2 which was the Allied capability to read the German Enigma decryptions were hard classified from 1945 to its public disclosure in 1973 lasted 28 years. It’s been 42 years and files, tapes, records are still classified and unavailable or “missing” for an official version of an “accident”. The USS Liberty attack is probably the most ‘classified’ and secret “Accident” in naval history.
I’ve always asked if the ‘official goverment versions” are true as claimed, what is there to fear? Would not a first time open and honest investigation of the attack clear the air and refute all the USS Liberty ‘conspiracy theorists’, ‘ anti-Semites’, ‘haters’ and ‘liars’? Wouldn’t this be a good thing? Let the chips fall where they may and let the sunshine in. After all it’s an “accident”…right?
But “No” to any congressional investigations, “No” to sunshine and openness, “No” to honesty, integrity”, ‘duty’ and ‘public trust’. The reason are for all the same reasons when public officials are at their typical worst, for political expediency, pandering, selling out and the perpetuation of evil and non-admission of the simple truth via “politics”, ‘bread and circuses” and their paramount desire to get re-elected over the public truth. Every Congress and Administration since June 8, 1967 along with the majority of the corporate media sold out. Period.
America First has become Israel First.
So here are a few selected bits from Mr. Ennis book which he wrote “with tears” and what it cost him and his shipmates so much but who never gave up just like they kept a ship afloat by all their powers for 17 hours after the attack. The ship Israel and the US government couldn’t sink.
Remember the USS Liberty!
As.sault on the Liberty
Addendum to 2007 Edition
June 2007
James M. Ennes, Jr.
Copyright 2007 James M. Ennes, Jr.
All Rights Reserved
James Ennes, a Liberty officer who was badly injured in the attack, is tired of waiting for answers: “We want both sides to stop lying".
Every author must wonder how his new book will be received, how it will be criticized and, indeed, whether it will be noticed at all. Those concerns and more faced me when Assault on the Liberty first appeared, for this book was in many ways more controversial and more vulnerable than most. Because I had criticized Israel, I could be attacked on political or even ethnic and racist grounds. Because I included personal experiences, the book could be dismissed as “merely a memoir.” Because I had criticized some aspects of U.S. Navy performance, I could be called disloyal to the Navy I love. Because I was not a recognized author or an accredited historian, my work could be dismissed on those grounds. And because I was not the first to charge that the attack was deliberate, my new evidence could be dismissed as “nothing new.”
To no surprise, Assault on the Liberty was attacked on all those grounds. Many stores retailers refused to carry it, wholesalers and chain bookstores dropped it, distributors regularly lost or misplaced orders for it, and major reviewers such as the New York Times and all national news magazines refused to review it. Newsweek actually had a review set in type and ready to print before an order came to kill the story.
Slowly, however, other reviewers discovered the book. Reviews that did appear were uniformly favorable, sometimes highly enthusiastic. “A balance between The Cruel Sea and Mr. Roberts…the most important book you’ll read this year,” said the Hartford Courant. “Reads like a thriller,” said the Washington Post. “A superbly told account. A gripping yarn that can stand with any of the Hornblower tales,” wrote James J. Kilpatrick. “I’ve never read a more graphic depiction of war and its effects at sea,” said Seymour Hersh. People magazine devoted two pages to the story. The professional military organizations were even more positive. “The author develops a strong case to support his contention of a cover-up,” said the Naval War College Review. “…A meticulous account, unemotional and detailed –not reckless or shrill. It will require answers,” wrote Military Review. “Perhaps the most important naval book of the year,” said the U.S. Naval Institute while honoring Assault as a “Notable Naval Book.”
Still my mailbox was jammed with letters from strangers who could find me but could not find the book. Few booksellers could identify it when customers asked for it, because it had vanished from most booklists even before it was distributed. Yet stores that did manage to order the book and displayed it prominently often found that it did quite well. Of the 10,000 copies in the first printing, for instance, 4,000 were sold by just four retailers. “We have had it on order for months,” a Brentano’s manager told me in the basement of the Pentagon. “It just doesn’t come in,” she said. Her experience was typical.
Much the same happened when Assault on the Liberty was published by the Ivy Books division of Ballantine. Assault was to be the flagship edition of a new Ivy series of war books, to be featured in every book store in the country. “This book will never go out of print,” Ivy told me. “Your grandchildren will be receiving royalties.”
But that was not to be. Ivy did not anticipate the complaints from their Zionist customers. Although the 40,000-copy first printing sold out quickly, it was never reprinted. My inquiries to Ivy and those of my agent went unanswered for nearly two years. Finally, under the terms of my contract, I requested and received return of my rights so that I could republish the book independently.
The USS Liberty Memorial Website
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