Letter to the editor

  • Oct 04, 2002

There are only three types of information: my information, your information, and our information.

History has shown us that sharing information is more of a sociological issue than a technological issue.

The Sept. 11 story is much like the Pearl Harbor story. Adm. Richard Turner's Pacific code crackers passed on the fact that the Japanese were sending out harbor grid coordinates and charting ship positions on a day-to-day basis. Because that information wasn't developed in Washington, D.C., it wasn't politically advantageous to share. Besides, everyone in D.C. "knew" that the Japanese would strike Indonesia.

In much the same way, any information we had about a Sept. 11 plot simply was not politically expedient to share.

After Pearl Harbor, the subsequent fact-finding mission blamed Rear Adm. Husband Kimmel [commander in chief of the U.S. Fleet and Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor] instead of the true culprits because it was politically expedient to do so.

Has anything changed? Nick Mitschkowetz Energy Department

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