Guarding Intelligence Successes

[Bill Grayson]

Guarding Intelligence Successes

Further to Dr D Wilson's note on intelligence secrecy:

We are witnessing a repeat of history unfolding with uncanny sameness!

In 1940, US code breakers had cracked and were routinely exploiting 
Japanese diplomatic and naval ciphers, known to history as 
â*œMagic.â*  Among the subjects revealed by the thousands of 
decrypted and translated Japanese messages was uncontestable evidence 
of spying by many Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans on the West 
Coast and in the Hawaiian Islands on behalf of their cultural 
homeland.  Intercepted Japanese messages also revealed the readiness 
of some of these to commit sabotage, in the event of war.  Because 
the sources and methods used to produce this Communications 
Intelligence were so fragile, they were protected by great secrecy 
and distribution of the translations was severely limited.  The 
highest priority was given to preventing discovery by Japan that 
their ciphers were being read, leading to their replacement by 
stronger systems and more secure procedures.

The day after the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, a Japanese 
submarine surfaced off California and actually shelled an oil 
refinery and it was mistakenly believed that Japanese reconnaissance 
aircraft had overflown Los Angeles.  The Nation was in fear bordering 
on panic.  Within a matter of hours, the Roosevelt administration set 
in motion the forced relocation of all persons of Japanese ancestry 
away from the Pacific Coast.  To protect the precious Magic secret 
that would shortly enable US Navy victories in the Coral Sea and at 
Midway, the known threats of sabotage and continued espionage could 
not be publicly revealed.  This secret was kept for forty years 
during which time those who were relocated and their heirs sued 
successfully for money damages, alleging that racism and paranoia on 
the part of Franklin Roosevelt and his administration fueled the 
violation of their civil rights without any just cause.

Fast-forward now to the current era.  The intelligence agencies of 
the US and Great Britain today stand accused of gross incompetence 
and lying by opposition political campaigns.  This is so reminiscent 
of the election of 1960, when John F. Kennedy baselessly charged that 
the Eisenhower-Nixon administration complacently allowed the Soviets 
to achieve a military advantage in ballistic missiles during what JFK 
termed, â*œthe years the locusts have eaten.â*  This charge was 
untrue but neither Ike nor Nixon could reveal that U-2 overflights 
gave US intelligence an accurate picture of a Soviet missile 
capability lagging well behind.

To be sure, the English-speaking allies currently have and are 
carefully guarding irreplaceable intelligence sources and methods. 
Without fanfare, this intelligence has led to the interdiction of 
terrorist cells, plans, and money in impressive numbers and, just 
recently, breaking-up mechanisms for the proliferation of nuclear 
weapons from Pakistan to rogue states. Although those who attack the 
President and Prime Minister charge that they lied and wrongly 
invaded Iraq without an international coalition, using trumped-up 
charges of WMD and Iraqi-Al Qaeda cooperation, it is instructive to 
note that there really are 35 allies supporting the US and Britain in 
Iraq, including Australia.  Why faraway Australia?

In her book War Against America, Dr. Laurie Mylroie makes a 
compelling case that Saddamâ*™s secret service played a key role in 
the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, during the Clinton 
presidency.  Her unrevealed information sources have the distinct 
ring of leaked intelligence, which could only have originated with a 
US or allied agency or congressional staff.  In 1993, Clinton took no 
decisive retaliatory action against Iraq.  Mixed in a following 
series of horrific mass murders was the October 2002 Al Qaeda 
atrocity in Bali, which slaughtered 88 vacationing Australians and 
many innocent others.  What is the likelihood that Australia, a full 
intelligence partner with the US and UK, knew that Saddamâ*™s secret 
service was complicit in the Bali bombing as well as World Trade 
Center/93 and that regime change in Iraq was an Australian national 
imperative?  With the War on Terror likely to continue for many 
years, it may take that long or longer for the true intelligence 
history to be released.

There is one other point worth considering.  FDR was up for 
reelection in 1944, running against a strong challenge by Thomas E. 
Dewey, who favored an investigation into how the Roosevelt 
administration had been so badly fooled at Pearl Harbor three years 
earlier in a colossal intelligence failure.  Concerned that FDR would 
be forced to choose between his reelection and revealing the 
â*œMagicâ* secret, while the war in the Pacific was raging, General 
George C. Marshall, reportedly on his own initiative, privately 
advised Dewey of the â*œMagicâ* resource.  In an act of patriotism, 
Dewey quietly dropped Pearl Harbor as a campaign issue.  We are at a 
loss for statesmen of his caliber today.

Thought-provoking reading:

â*“	David D. Lowman, Magic, the Untold Story, ISBN 0-9602736-1 and
â*“	Dr. Laurie Mylroie, War Against America, ISBN 0-06009771-X

William C. Grayson


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