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. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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