A British double agent had information of Japan's interest in Pearl Harbor by the summer of 1941. According to this story Hoover at the FBI doctored the intell before sending it to Bill Donovan. This agent worked for Ian Fleming and was the inspiration for James Bond. Very interesting story.
Your link isn't convincing per it's title claim.
Warfare, especially World War Two WW2 is filled with plans and studies of potential future targets and factors to consider for attacks that often didn't come to actual occurrence.
Military commanders often want a variety of options to consider before selecting "The One" and the eventual attack at Pearl Harbor serves as an example of such.
To those on the USA side, this would appear to be one of many schemes that "MIGHT HAPPEN", but USA strategic thinking of the time considered others as more probable, especially in the Western Pacific/Eastern Asia, so an attack at Pearl Harbor was placed lower down on the list of serious concerns to prepare for.
Also, had the USA wanted an episode to "justify" getting a more active role in the War, events in the Atlantic earlier would have also served that purpose.
...
At the beginning of
World War II in Europe in September 1939,
Reuben James was assigned to the
Neutrality Patrol, which guarded the Atlantic and the Caribbean approaches to the American coast. In March 1941, she joined the force established to escort
convoys sailing to Great Britain. ...
...
Sinking
At dawn on 31 October 1941, she was torpedoed near Iceland by German submarine
U-552 commanded by
Kapitänleutnant Erich Topp.
Reuben James had positioned herself between an
ammunition ship in the convoy and the known position of a German "
wolfpack," a group of submarines poised to attack the convoy. The destroyer was not flying the
ensign of the United States and was in the process of dropping
depth charges on another U-boat when she was engaged.
Reuben James was hit forward by a torpedo meant for a merchant ship and her entire
bow was blown off when a
magazine exploded. The bow sank immediately. The aft section floated for five minutes before going down. Of a crew of seven officers and 136 enlisted men, plus one enlisted passenger, 100 were killed. Only 44 enlisted men and no officers survived.
...
en.wikipedia.org
....
There was also an earlier but less lethal incident;
USS Greer (DD–145) was a
Wickes-class destroyer in the
United States Navy, the first ship named for
Rear Admiral James A. Greer (1833–1904). In what became known as the "
Greer incident," she became the first US Navy ship to fire on a
German ship, three months before the United States officially entered
World War II. The incident led President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue what became known as his "shoot-on-sight" order. Roosevelt publicly confirmed the "shoot on sight" order on 11 September 1941, effectively declaring naval war against Germany and Italy in the
Battle of the Atlantic.
...
The "
Greer incident" occurred on 4 September. By all accounts, a German submarine (later identified as
U-652) fired upon
Greer, but made no contact. When news of the encounter reached the United States, public concern ran high. Initial reports reported that a British aircraft aided in repelling the attack.
In response, Germany claimed "that the attack had not been initiated by the German submarine; on the contrary, ... the submarine had been attacked with depth bombs, pursued continuously in the German blockade zone, and assailed by depth bombs until midnight." The communique implied that the US destroyer had dropped the first depth bombs. Germany accused President Roosevelt of "endeavoring with all the means at his disposal to provoke incidents for the purpose of baiting the American people into the war."
The
United States Department of the Navy replied that the German claims were inaccurate and that "the initial attack in the engagement was made by the submarine on the
Greer."<a href="
USS Greer - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a> Roosevelt made the
Greer incident the principal focus of one of his famed "
fireside chats", where he explained a new order he issued as
commander-in-chief that escalated America nearer to outright involvement in the European war. In Roosevelt's words: ...
...
en.wikipedia.org
~~~~~~~
I've about a dozen more posts to make relevant to this topic, but must break away for some chores, etc. the wife wants to do, back later .....
