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Old 14-February-2006, 04:10 AM
turbonium turbonium is offline
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"What has not been well established, because of continuing security classification of key documents, is just how much of JN-25 was readable in the critical months before the Pearl Harbor attack." - Budiansky

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eta C
This statement does not mean what you think it means. What Budiansky is referring to here is the statement such as "we could read about 10% of JN-25b." This does not mean we could read 10% of the messages. What is means that in any given message we'd be lucky to decode 10% of it. What Budianksy is saying is that the absolute level of comprehension is uncertain. I'm sure he is not claiming that we understood enough pre-war to allow for a warning.
Certainly, Budiansky makes no claim that we knew enough to allow for a warning before the attack. Indeed, his statement does not need personal interpretations whatsoever. He clearly makes the points that it "has not been well established...just how much of JN-25 was readable" beforehand, due to "continuing security classification of key documents". Those are the points I was making, and they still stand. The documents exist, and they are still classified. I was not implying anything about his intentions beyond this.