Steve writes:

> > There will be a Court Martial.  Someone didn't set a
>  > security watch or was looking the wrong way.
>
>  Is there a basis for this "fact"? In a foreign port, where uncontrolled
>  piers are 30 seconds away, neither negligence nor incompetence are required
>  precursors to a successful penetration like this.

If there is no basis not in fact, there is an enormous amount of precedence
that would suggest such a response. Just by coincidence, yesterday, a bill
passed the House that would restore the honor of the two commanders at Pearl
Harbor who were in charge at the time of the Japanese attack. I've included
just a bit of a news snippet below about the House passage yesterday:

========================================

Congress May Restore Honor of Pearl Harbor Commanders

By BRUCE DUNFORD
.c The Associated Press

HONOLULU (Oct. 12) - Ned Kimmel was 20 when Japanese planes staged a
crippling surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, plunging the United
States into World War II.

The stunned military brass in Washington blamed the attack's success on his
father, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, the Pacific Fleet commander, and on acting
Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, Commander of the U.S. Army Hawaiian Department.

Accused of ``dereliction of duty,'' both were relieved of their commands and
demoted to their permanent grades of rear admiral and major general. Years
later, they were exonerated, but their demotions remained.

A bill now in Congress aims to restore both men's honor and set two other
World War II records straight. On Wednesday, the House passed the Defense
Authorization Bill with all three provisions intact; it is pending in the
Senate.

``It will be a great sense of gratitude to have the House and Senate correct
an injustice that has existed since 1941,'' said Ned Kimmel, now 79 and a
retired Wilmington, Del., attorney.

Kimo W. McVay, 73, is also hoping Congress will pass the bill and bring
closure to the injustice he feels was done when his father was blamed for the
Navy's worst sea disaster, 55 years ago.

Capt. Charles Butler McVay was court-martialed and found guilty of failing to
steer a zigzag course to evade the Japanese submarine attack that sank the
cruiser USS Indianapolis [at almost the end of the war, in 1945]. Only 316 of
the 1,196 men aboard were alive when rescuers arrived four and a half days
later.

McVay remained in the Navy, but was denied promotion to rear admiral upon
retirement. He committed suicide in 1968. The bill calls on the Navy to
change McVay's record to show he is exonerated and to award the ship and crew
a Navy Unit Commendation.

In Kimmel and Short's case, inquiries found their superiors had not shared
vital intelligence information and had not warned them about the growing
Japanese threat. The bill asks the president to posthumously restore their
ranks. Kimmel died in 1968, and Short died in 1949.

=========================================

General Walter Short's son was Dean Short, a stockbroker who lived here in
Las Cruces, NM, and someone I knew moderately. Dean died a few years ago, but
he spent a good portion of his life trying to gather evidence to clear his
father's name. I'm sure that he would be very pleased with the current
legislation.

Wirt Atmar