INDEX	August 19, 2022
Hoover suckered
One of the problems with "intelligence" is that it is often wrong, perhaps because it has been invented by an agent who is desperate to get paid for information, or possibly because it has been provided by the enemy as a deception. The recipients of intelligence know this only too well so they tend to be extremely sceptical. One extreme example that may have helped determine the outcome of the Second World and the shape of the world after that war, was the dismissal by J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI at the time, of the intelligence that the Japanese were planning to bomb Pearl Harbour. He was even given an approximate guide to when it was going to happen. A German agent called Johann Jebsen discovered that the Japanese navy was seeking information about a British navy torpedo bomber attack on the Italian fleet in Taranto in 1940. Jebsen told Dusko Popov about this and he also supplied Popov with the latest German technical development, a microdot communication system. Popov was told to find everything he could about the defences at the American base in Pearl Harbour. Popov put two and two together and came to the conclusion that the Japanese were planning to attack Pearl Harbour. He also had a timetable since the Germans had calculated that the Japanese would need to hold at least 12 months supply of oil to start a war, and the American oil embargo meant that threshold would be crossed in early December. The actual attack happened on December 7, 1941. Popov sent by the Germans to spy in Britain gave himself up to the British intelligence service. The British sent him to meet Edgar J Hoover in America, to tell what he knew about the Pearl Harbour attack. Hoover was completely disgusted by Popov, who was a Slav, didn't believe him and wanted to arrest him. When the attack actually happened Hoover shrugged off any blame.
One extraordinary aspect of this is that the British agent who sent Popov to see Hoover was Guy Liddell, who has been identified by some as one of the Cambridge group of Soviet agents, though other sources say the charge was groundless. True or false Liddell was criticised for failing to alert the American Office of Naval Intelligence about Popov's story. Clearly the main gainers out of all this were the Soviets since America coming into the war on the side of the Allies took a lot of pressure off them. Prior to Pearl Harbour there was a powerful anti-Communist pro-German lobby in America.
Pages 148-151 Phillip Knightley The Second Oldest Profession: Spies and Spying in the Twentieth Century ISBN: 9781844130917
CASES	August 19, 2022