Disinformation: Naval intelligence, the FBI, and Roosevelt knew this man was spying on the fleet in Pearl Harbor, and they let the espionage go on. The policy of FDR's government then was to look the other way and let Japan prepare itself for attacking us?

Robert Stinnett: That's right. That is correct. He was providing a timetable for the attack.

Disinformation: The spy was even sending bomb plots of Pearl Harbor?

Robert Stinnett: Yes. From March to August he was giving a census of the US Pacific fleet. Then starting in August he started preparing bomb plots of Pearl Harbor, where our ships were anchored and so forth.

Disinformation: And Roosevelt even saw those bomb plots, right?

Robert Stinnett: Yes, that is correct.

Disinformation: You claim that twice during the week of December 1 to 6 the spy indicated that Pearl Harbor would be attacked. According to a Japanese commander, the message on December 2 was: "No changes observed by afternoon of 2 December. So far they do not seem to have been alerted." And on the morning of December 6 the message was: "There are no barrage balloons up and there is an opportunity left for a surprise attack against these places." These messages were intercepted by the Navy, right? Did Roosevelt know about these messages?

Robert Stinnett: They were intercepted. That is correct. They were sent by RCA communications. And Roosevelt had sent David Sarnoff, who was head of RCA, to Honolulu so that this would facilitate getting these messages even faster. Though we were also intercepting them off the airways, anyway. And on December 2 and on December 6 the spy indicated that Pearl was going to be the target. And the December 2 was intercepted, decoded, and translated prior to December 5. The December 6 message . . . there's really no proof that it was . . . it was intercepted, but there's all sorts of cover stories on whether or not that reached the President. But he received other information that it was going to happen the next day, anyway.

Disinformation: You saw the records of those intercepts yourself?

Robert Stinnett: Yes. I have those.

Disinformation: And all these other messages that the Navy was constantly intercepting showed exactly where the Japanese ships were, that they were preparing for war, and that they were heading straight for Hawaii. Right?

Robert Stinnett: That's right. Our radio direction finders located the Japanese warships.

Disinformation: You say Roosevelt regularly received copies of these intercepts. How were they delivered to him?

Robert Stinnett: By Commander McCollum routing the information to him. They were prepared in monograph form. They called it monograph . . . it was sent to the President through Commander McCollum who dispatched it through the naval aide to the President.

Disinformation: On page 203 of the hardcover edition of your book it reads, "Seven Japanese naval broadcasts intercepted between November 28 and December 6 confirmed that Japan intended to start the war and that it would begin in Pearl Harbor." Did you see the records of those intercepts yourself?

Robert Stinnett: Yes. And also we have new information about other intercepts in the current edition that's coming out in May 2001 . . . There's no question about it.

Disinformation: According to Day Of Deceit, on November 25 Admiral Yamamoto sent a radio message to the Japanese fleet. Part of the message read: "The task force, keeping its movements strictly secret and maintaining close guard against submarines and aircraft, shall advance into Hawaiian waters, and upon the very opening of hostilities shall attack the main force of the United States fleet in Hawaii and deal it a mortal blow . . ." What's the proof that the record of that intercept exists? Did you see it yourself? Again, did Roosevelt know about it?

Robert Stinnett: The English version of that message has been released by the United States, a government book. The Japanese version--the raw message--has not been released by the US. I have copies of the Station H radio logs--a monitoring station in Hawaii. They prove that the Navy intercepted eight-three messages that Yamamoto sent between November 17th and 25th. I have those records, but not the raw intercepts, eighty-six percent of which have not been released by the government . . . As far as Roosevelt, early in November 1941 Roosevelt ordered that Japanese raw intercepts be delivered directly to him by his naval aide, Captain Beardall. Sometimes if McCollum felt a message was particularly hot he would deliver it himself to FDR.

Disinformation: Late on December 6 and in the very early morning hours of December 7 the United States intercepted messages sent to the Japanese ambassador in Washington. These messages were basically a declaration of war--Japan was saying it was breaking off negotiations with America. At those times, General Marshall and President Roosevelt were shown the intercepts. When FDR read them he said, "This means war." When the last intercept was shown to Roosevelt it was still hours before the Pearl Harbor attack. In that last intercept Japan gave the deadline for when it was breaking off relations with the US--the deadline was the exact hour when Pearl Harbor was attacked. FDR and Marshall should have then sent an emergency warning to Admiral Kimmel in Pearl Harbor. But they acted nonchalantly and didn't get a warning to Kimmel.

Robert Stinnett: Yes. This is a message sent from the Japanese foreign office to the Japanese ambassador in Washington DC. And in it he directed . . . it broke off relations with the United States and set a timetable of 1:00 PM on Sunday, December 7, eastern time.

Disinformation: Which was the exact time that Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Robert Stinnett: That's right. So they realized, with all their information, this is it. And then General Marshall, though, sat on the message for about fifteen hours because he didn't want to send…he didn't want to warn the Hawaiian commanders in time . . . he didn't want them to interfere with the overt act. Eventually they did send it but it didn't arrive until way after the attack.

Disinformation: Roosevelt saw it too. They should have sent an emergency warning to Admiral Kimmel in Hawaii, right?

Robert Stinnett: That's right. But you see they wanted the successful overt act by Japan. It unified the American people.

Disinformation: This seems like a classic case of higher-ups doing something questionable, and then getting the people below them to take the blame for it. Admiral Husband Kimmel was in charge of the fleet in Pearl Harbor, and he was demoted and took the blame for the attack. Was that justified?