Contact: John Van Horn

Moosic Mtn. Wild Co.

TheTucsonPhantom@verizon.net

HONESDALE, PA – Moosic Mtn. Wild Co., a publisher of historical novels, announces the release of The Tucson Phantom by John Van Horn. The 166-page novel draws on controversial conspiracies and events surrounding the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 and intertwines a plot that leaves the reader wondering what parts are history and what parts are fiction. The author uses the work of fiction to raise questions about the conduct of decision-makers during the war in Vietnam and what may have been the cover for other agendas. The murder mystery also provides a platform for exploring the balance of power in the Middle East as it was defined almost forty years ago.

During the Six Day War between Israel and the Arab States, the American intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked for 75 minutes in international waters by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. Thirty-four men died and 172 were wounded. The author describes the attack, which is being investigated as a war crime, as "a conspiracy born in 1967 and perpetuated to this day." According to information posted at www.ussliberty.org, survivors and many key government officials including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, former JCS Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer, and nearly every senior American intelligence professional say it was no accident. Israel and its supporters insist it was a "tragic case of misidentification."

The book’s timely release coincides with the current war crime investigation and report filed by the USS Liberty Veterans Association with the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon on June 8, the 38^th anniversary of the attack, by LVA General Legal Counsel James R. Gotcher. The report establishes evidence that Israel committed war crimes, which the Secretary of Defense is obligated under existing Department Of Defense directives to investigate.

Captain Ward Boston, the legal advisor to the Court of Inquiry, has examined the original copy of the Court of Inquiry record and declared it to be a fraud. "The evidence was clear. Both Admiral Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack...was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew.... It was our shared belief. . .that the attack. . .could not possibly have been an accident.... I am certain that the Israeli pilots [and] their superiors. . .were well aware that the ship was American."

The Tucson Phantom is the first of a series of mysteries challenging contemporary history centered around an unlikely part time detective, Jack Harvey and his female associate K, who does the real brain work and research.