Conspiracy Theories.

[tonyav]

http://photos.uk.msn.com/slideshow/photos/greatest-conspiracy-theories/2xjkecgk#2

What do you think, any truth in them ?.

[Sqad]

Pearl Harbour.

I have heard it said that Bletchley Park picked up increased Japanese radio traffic suggesting that a carrier raid on Pearl Harbour was imminent.
Winston Churchill was informed, but he held the reports back from President Roosevelt in the hope that an unprovoked attack on the Island would bring the Americans into the war in support of the Allies.

Which it did.

[tonyav]

Well if it was true sqad, it worked out fine.

[Sqad]

LOL.....I am amazing tony.....I have been talking cr@p all my life and i still continue with amazing success.

Seriously.....I did indeed hear that report.

[tonyav]

It does sound very theoresable (sp) though, sqad.

[Prudie]

I've also heard the one about Churchill knowing beforehand about Pearl Harbour and it seems perfectly plausible, after all he knew about the imminent bombing of Coventry. I also believe global warning is bunkum.

[tonyav]

I have always thought that oil companies have suppressed alterative forms of propelling motor vehicles.

[Peter Pedant]

Sqaddy - I was gonna say !

'Breaking the emperor's codes ' is quite a good read
The Yanks had broken the Japanese diplomatic code (machine) - an amazing feat but not as difficult as Enigma apparently
and not surprisingly military targets are NOT mentioned in such traffic

The main one the Brits broke was JN25 - which was a book code and then with streams of random numbers added by hand - which they hadnt done by Dec 1941 as far as I recollect.
So long as you have enough messages, you can construct 'depth' - messages with the same additive stream - decide what the random number stream is and take it off ("I spent the war stripping ha ha ha" said one girlie code breaker) and so you are left with code numbers (from a book you dont have) which you can now analyse.

and do it all with pen and pencil and sheets of paper !

wow!

Anyway the convoy to Pearl Harbour maintained radio silence (of course) I thought
so I would be amazed if BP or the outposts - FRUMEL ? HYPO ? picked up signal intelligence (sigint)

The British were pretty supine in the pacific area for the first two or three or four years....

[AlwaysConfused]

Some of those theories are ludicrous, made me laugh though. Must go, need to seek out the aliens that keep coming through my window to test my vodka

[jim360]

Well, there's no truth in any of those conspiracy theories anyway...

I think Climate Change is genuine -- "global warming" is such a bad name for it.

[Sqad]

Peter....interesting.

[pixie373]

I can't remember the exact details here, but i remember my stepdad telling me that a lot of code words during the war, were given in answers in the Telegraph Cryptic Crossword. I believe they didn't find out how (probably wrong).
Does anyone know anything about that?