DID HOOVER KNOW OF PEARL HARBOR?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505150004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505150004-3
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Historians Say FBI Chief Suppressed a' rn gs
By Thomas O'Toole". land for them. Popov (code name
In the war of. ,words over who-was Ivan) agreed but turned . double
to blame for the surprise Japanese agent (code name Tricycle) as soon
attack on Pearl Harbor 41 years ago;; he arrived in England. The Ger-
-fresh evidence is emerging that the man Abwehr (intelligence) : soon
late FBI director J. Edgar Harvey trusted Popov so much that they
had a hand in the intelligence. bun- told him go to the United States
.gles that led the United States to to set up a spy ring,` an instruction
heed none of the warnings that the that. Popov immediately communi-
invasion was imminent. cated to British intelligence.
The new evidence is supplied by Upon his arrive] in - New York;
Michigan State University historians Popov was met by agents of the FBI
John F. Bratzel and Leslie B. Rout who grilled him for -days In -his
Jr., who write in the current issue.of memoirs, Popov said that one of his
The American Historical Review first statements to FBI bureau chief
that Hoover received a double warn- John Foxworth was: 'You can expect
ing more than three months before an attack on Pearl Harbor before the
the attack that the Japanese were end of the year ... "
thinking of making a surprise air-
craft attack on the American fleet-n
Pearl Harbor.
Based on.information in 40-year
old -FBI documents and documents
from the FDR library near Hyde
Park, 'N. Y., the two.historians.a]so
claim thatshe double warning to-
Hoover is the "missing evidence"
that Pulitzer Prize-winning author'
John Toland said he and other Pearl.
Harbor writers have sought for
years. Toland claimed in his last
book, "Infamy," that the "disappear-
ance" of this evidence was part of a
cover up" to . purge' intelligence..
records damaging .to high officials in
.the Franklin D. Roosevelt adminis=
tation :..,;
Bratzel and Rout %mmte that the ?.
story of -the "missing 'evidence" be-
gins. in 1939 in Yugoslavia,. where
German . - military intelligence re- i
cruited a Mediterranean playboy..
named Dusko Popov ?to spy in Eng- j
THE WASHINGTON POST
2 DECEMBER 1982
.. The Michigan State historians say
-Popov had two pieces of evidence to
back up his warning. One was a ver.
bal'aommunique from the German
airl attachein Tokyo, who `had es-*
corted Japanese naval officers to the
Gulf of -Taranto below the Italian
boot, where British warplanes from
the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious .1
had devastated the 'Italian fleet in
November of 1940.
'The Japanese wanted to know all
about the attack in infinite detail,"
the historians write. Popov's- German
.sources 'had concluded that the
Asian member of the Tripartite Al-
liance was planning .to.duplicate the
British feat.
':Of far more importance, the his-
torians write, eras Ihe telegram in I
Popov r, possession when he arrived '
in New York. Hidden on the face of
.the telegram was a microdot message
-to Popov asking Tar defense informs
tion about the U.S. and Canadian air
forces and listing a series of ques-
tions the Japanese had asked their
Germaiallies to airswer.. One third '
-of the questions p twined to the de-
fense installations-that ringed the
U.S: naval base`at'Pearl Harbor.
."The Germans -wanted sketches '
showjng the exact locations of Hick
sin, Wheeler. and Kaneohe airfields,".
be historians write. "They likewise
'' wanted sketches of the installations-
at ?iarl Harbor and detailed infor- .
oration concerning dredging, depth
of .water, torpedo nets, anchorages .
and the like." ? - -
. The historians write -that -Popov
was passed on to J. Edgar Hoover,.
who chastised him for-taking his un-
married girlfriend to Miami and
then look only a small portion of the
microdot. material on the telegram to
translate and pass -on to the White
House, the Military -Intelligence Di-
vision and the Office of.Naval Intel-
ligence. The historians claim that-
none of, the questions -the Germans
asked about Pearl' `Harbor were
passed by_' Hoover to. the White
House or anybody else.
'Hoover used the information to
.demonstrate how efficient the FBI
was .(about discovering the microdot
system) rather than to warn of a
possible attack," the historians write.
:'Fhe full text of Popovs question-
naire still rests in the files of the
FBI, where- it -has been for over 40
years."
Why did Hoover not send 'the full
;text of the micro of questionnaire to
the - White House? '"Hoover wanted
to look good to the president and...
gain. Points against his rivals-
namely, :the other U.S. intelligence
agencies and MI6 :British intelli-
gence),' 'the- historians .conclude.
"Clearly, he also found Popov and
.is style of living abhorrent and did'
"Pearl Harbor?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505150004-3