Title: Assault on The “Liberty”
Author: James M. Ennes, Jr.
Ennes, James M., Jr. (1979). Assault on The “Liberty”: The True Story of The Israeli Attack on An American Intelligence Ship. New York: Random House
LCCN: 79004793
Subjects
Date Updated: April 28, 2015
Reviewed by George C. Constantinides[1]
A number of things connected with the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in June 1967 are still considered unanswered or inadequately answered. Ennes served as an officer and cryptographic specialist aboard the ship and was wounded in the attack. He has brought up new facts about the attack, allegations of a U.S. Navy coverup of the truth, charges of deliberate Israeli intent to attack, and speculation about the Israeli decision. He is not clear as to the identities of those responsible for the “coverup” and admits that the Liberty story is still a puzzle: “for each question answered, another looms in its place.” Ennes is also careful and general when dealing with the Liberty’s intelligence mission and its exact signals intelligence role; he covers nothing new here. Since he has nothing solid on the motive of the Israeli attack, he can only offer his own hypothesis. An article in the June 1978 issue of the USNI Proceedings cites Israeli jamming of U.S. Navy communications frequencies, as does Ennes, as the most telling evidence against the Israeli claim that they erred on the nationality of the target. Note the unconfirmed and hearsay story of the Liberty’s mysterious contact, believed by him to be a U.S. nuclear submarine. The same story appeared in Deacon’s The Silent War[2]. What the author relates of command, control, and communications weaknesses in the U.S. naval and naval intelligence organization is shocking. L. M. Bucher, in his review of this book, contended that the lessons of the Liberty were never made known to the planners of the USS Pueblo mission or to himself as commander.
[1] Constantinides, George C. (1983). Intelligence and Espionage: An Analytical Bibliography. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, p. 177
[2] Deacon, Richard (1978). The Silent War: A History of Western Naval Intelligence. New York: Hippocrene Books
Intelligence Analysis and Reporting 