Dr. Marvin Nowicki was the US Navy supervisor on the EC-121 aircraft who heard the actual Israel Air Force radio transmissions, in Hebrew, on 8 June 1967 and thereafter listened to the tapes in Hebrew (Nowicki was an NSA/Navy trained Hebrew linguist). Nowicki sent an e-mail to James Bamford with five enclosures on 20 March 2000.

Bamford claims the Nowicki letter told him that the tapes establish that the Israelis knew they were attacking a US ship. Read the Nowicki e-mail and decide if you agree with Bamford's interpretation. Dr. Nowicki did not agree with Bamford's interpretation. He wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal, summarized below, in which he explicitly stated the tapes proved the attack was made in error.

Text of e-mail sent to James Bamford (3 March 2000)

Enclosure 1: Assault on the Liberty: The untold story from SIGINT

Enclosure 2: Postscript to the attack on the Liberty

Enclosure 3: Exculpatory evidence supporting a mistaken attack

Enclosure 4: Cover-up conundrum, Who was responsible, Why VQ flight never divulged

Enclosure 5: Chronology of Nowicki Duty Stations - Summarized

Nowicki's letter to the Wall Street Journal