FC: Author defends claim: Ciphers show U.S. was warned of Pearl Harbor

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

THE LIGHTHOUSE
"Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy..."
Vol. 4, Issue 48
December 2, 2002

Welcome to THE LIGHTHOUSE, the weekly e-mail newsletter of The
Independent Institute, the non-politicized public-policy research
organization. We provide you with updates of the Institute's current
research, publications, events and media programs, plus commentary on
current affairs.

[...]

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PEARL HARBOR "DAY OF DECEIT" AUTHOR ANSWERS HIS CRITICS

In the three years since the publication of his bestseller, DAY OF
DECEIT: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor, Robert B. Stinnett has
drawn plenty of fans and critics. (Stinnett's op-eds, by the way, are
among the Independent Institute's most frequently visited web pages.)

Fans praise Stinnett's original archival research, aided by the
Freedom of Information Act, for showing that decision-makers in
Washington, D.C. had foreknowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor -- and in fact had intended to provoke a Japanese attack.

Stinnett's detractors, however, sling their arrows at everything from
the book's underlying thesis to relatively minor issues such as its
location of U.S. military code-breaking outposts and the dates of
recently declassified wartime memos.

Last December, the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Letters-to-the-Editor page
became ground zero for the anti-Stinnett attack by publishing letters
written by two influential critics of Stinnett -- authors Stephen
Budiansky and Edward J. Drea (who have written separate books on
code-breaking in World War II). Along with earlier criticism by David
Kahn (also the author of a book on code-breaking), published the
previous November in the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, these attacks
comprise the loudest broadside against Stinnett's work.

Unfortunately, although Stinnett authored a detailed rejoinder,
neither the WSJ nor the NYROB deemed it sufficiently newsworthy to
published. Fortunately, Stinnett's rejoinder, "The Pearl Harbor
Deception," is now available on the Independent Institute website.

There is, however, an injustice that should enrage even Stinnett's
critics -- assuming that they seek the truth. "Immediately after DAY
OF DECEIT appeared in bookstores in 1999," writes Stinnett in his
rejoinder, "NSA [the National Security Agency] began withdrawing
pre-Pearl Harbor documents from the Crane Files housed in Archives
II.... As of January 2002, over two dozen NSA withdrawal notices have
triggered the removal of Pearl Harbor documents from public
inspection."

If Stinnett's critics want an honest debate, shouldn't they speak out
against the NSA's stonewalling and in favor of the release of the
documents -- written more than 60 years ago -- that would help settle
the debate? If truth is their goal, what have they got to lose?

See "The Pearl Harbor Deception," by Robert B. Stinnett (December 2, 2002)
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/021202Stinnett.html

Also see

"December 7, 1941: A Setup from the Beginning," by Robert B. Stinnett
(HONOLULU ADVERTISER, December 7, 2000)
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/001207Stinnett.html

  "Pentagon Still Scapegoats Pearl Harbor Fall Guys," by Robert B.
Stinnett (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, December 7, 2001) at
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/011203Stinnett.html

"Do Freedom of Information Act Files Prove FDR Had Foreknowledge of
Pearl Harbor? An Interview with Robert B. Stinnett," by Douglas
Cirignano http://www.independent.org/tii/news/020311Cirignano.html

To read or hear Robert B. Stinnett's address to the Independent
Policy Forum, "Pearl Harbor: Official Lies in an American War
Tragedy?" see
http://www.independent.org/tii/forums/000524ipfTrans.html




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