“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."--Aldous Huxley
It was 7:48 a.m. Sunday morning on December 7, 1941 when Japanese planes started dropping bombs on Pearl Harbor.
This was followed up the next day by Franklin D. Roosevelt saying “Yesterday, December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy.”
However, just a few months earlier that year on the dates between June 29th and August 10th, 1941 a young Serbian double agent by the name of Duskov Popov who served with the German Abwehr and MI6 was assigned to the Hotel Palacio during one of his missions in Estoril, Portugal.
As a double agent Popov, who despised Nazism, would pass off disinformation to Germany. He would do this as part of a Double-Cross System as he worked for the Yugoslav government while he was in exile in London.
It was during this stay that he met another gentleman whose name you may have heard before that was working for the British Royal Navy by the name of Ian Fleming. Both of these men shared a mission there at the Hotel Estoril.
It was here where apparently Popov sparked the creative inspiration that would eventually ignite the birth of Ian Fleming’s great fictional action character James Bond.
The Real Life James Bond
However, after his last stay Popov was then transferred to the United States by the Abwehr to establish a new German network. In case you didn’t know, the Abwehr was the German military intelligence for the unified armed forces of Nazi, Germany from 1935 to 1945.
Out of Popov’s assignment from the Abwehr he was given a key intelligence questionnaire which involved significant key intelligence targets. According to records Popov was given three pages of intel questions. Of the questionnaire he was given, one page was entirely devoted to highly detailed inquiries that were centered around key U.S. defenses at Pearl Harbor.
Now Popov was a very charismatic and capable spy. After all, this Serbian Playboy had managed to rebrand the profile of a spy by being incredibly resourceful and seductive to both the women he encountered during his missions, as well as, the governments that entrusted him with their money and sensitive intel which he would eventually use to double-cross them with from his missions.
Given all of this it is easy to see why Popov displayed a persona that caught the eye of Ian Fleming when In August 1941, Fleming was assigned to protect Britain's financial investment — some $40,000 — and observed first-hand what a great baccarat player Popov was when he won an outrageous bet at the Casino Estoril in Portugal. This, of course, inspired the debut of Bond in Casino Royale. (Source: USA Today The Life of Serbian Spy Duskov Popov, The Real 007 Author: Bill Desowitz)
Now it’s no secret that art imitates life and that life imitates art. To me that last cultural quote also parallels the old metaphor of which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Well here in the case of James Bond and Duskov Popov it appears reality is every bit as interesting as fiction.
As cool and righteous as you and I may think Popov was for living the life he did there was one individual who didn’t care much for Duskov and he was a major bureaucrat that headed up a huge three letter agency that you know as the FBI by the name of J. Edgar Hoover.
According to Michigan State historians when Popov was put on assignment in the U.S. he quickly sought out the FBI and was met by agents who would end up grilling him with questions for days on end.
During this period of interrogation Duskov directly warned the FBI that there would be an attack on Pearl Harbor. In his later writings Popov said that upon his arrival to the bureau, one of his first statements to FBI bureau chief John Foxworth was: “You can expect an attack on Pearl Harbor before the end of the year…” (Source: Washington Post: Did Hoover Know of Pearl Harbor? Author: Thomas O'Toole)
Once again, according to Michigan State historians Popov’s claim of an impending attack on Pearl Harbor was backed up by a couple of impressive pieces of information and evidence.
The following breakdown of this evidence once again comes from The Washington Post article I just referenced. I’ll read you the paragraphs here:
The first, was a verbal communique’ from German air attache' in Tokyo, who had escorted Japanese naval officers to the Gulf of Taranto below the Italian boot, where British warplanes from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious had devastated the Italian fleet in November of 1940.
"The Japanese wanted to know all about the attack in infinite detail," the historians write. Popov's German sources "had concluded that the Asian member of the Tripartite Alliance was planning to duplicate the British feat."
The historians referenced that despite this piece of evidence Popov had another more impressive piece of evidence in his possession. This other piece of evidence in Popov’s possession was a telegram message. According to the historians referenced in The Washington Post article hidden on this telegram (which was part of the questionnaire mentioned earlier) was a microdot message to Popov from a series of questions the Japanese allies of Germany wanted to know about with regard to defense installations and airfields at Pearl Harbor.
Apparently after the warning it is reported that Popov was passed on to J. Edgar Hoover who was seemingly more concerned about chastising Popov over him taking his unmarried girlfriend to Miami rather than trying to avert an attack on U.S. soil. This sounds like a familiar trend particularly by modern standards.
According to the historians Hoover was more proud of the FBI discovering the microdot system itself rather than warning everyone of the message included in the microdot about an impending attack. This is what is known as incompetence at the highest level of government which again sounds very familiar as certain things seemingly never change.
The Decentralization of Institutions and The Rise of Citizen Discernment
So why did I choose to talk about the real life James Bond to open this episode?
I wanted to use Duskov’s story which is backed by historical documentation and accounts to illustrate the significance of intelligence and how information can be disseminated or suppressed as we have seen here with J. Edgar Hoover’s choice to not heed Popov’s intelligence gathering surrounding Pearl Harbor.
The era of information we live in is used more as a weapon to shape outcomes in today’s world more than it is used as a means to inform the public. Because of this as individuals we are now living in an era where we MUST learn how to get better at discernment, as well as, being able to read the legacy media’s true intention behind a story, or to recognize that the story they’re reporting may be covering up the truly significant message that we should really know about. In other words, we have to be able to discern signal from noise.
Once again in the Hoover and Popov example here we saw that Popov had a real “signal” in terms of information and intelligence that should have been acted upon and used to get the warning out to the public, but instead Hoover ignored it.
He distrusted Popov, but Hoover was told directly by MI6 that Popov would be arriving in New York with the intel, yet he still chose to ignore Popov’s evidence and verbal warning.
This is a clear problem when it comes to too much centralization of power and authority as we’ve seen play out here both throughout history and with what’s still happening directly in our modern society today.
This is exactly why I believe the media landscape in our modern era, along with the advent of social media and technology, is changing. I believe it is shifting from the traditional stance where the public has historically relied upon and trusted a handful of giant media corporations to now we are seeing a revolutionary growth of more decentralized independent citizen journalism.
This is happening because people who can discern fact from fiction are taking the time to dive into the details and history of stories and media narratives as I work to do that very thing right here on this platform.
As a spy Popov proved himself to be a very resourceful individual and it is my belief that we can learn a lot from this man which is why he serves as the central motivation for today’s article/podcast.
In the world of intelligence and the flow of information Popov had to be smart about his role as a double agent. If he slipped or wavered and it resulted in the risk of his loyalty being questioned it could have very quickly cost him his life, but that didn’t happen. Popov ended up living a fairly lengthy life, particularly considering the line of work he was in, passing away in Opio on August 10, 1981 at the age of 69.
I must admit that James Bond has always had a significant impact on my life as I always admired how such a character can be so cool under pressure and manage to escape the most dangerous situations.
With that being said there’s a lot that we can take from such a man like Popov and apply it to this modern era of information warfare that we’re living in.
Like Popov, both you and I must always work to hone our skills of discernment not only for extracting the signal from the legacy media while at the same time not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the noise, but to also apply this skill to our everyday lives.
We must be able to apply these skills when reading people for the purpose of minimizing risks when it comes to negotiating business deals, getting into partnerships, and also learning to listen to our intuition when faced with a situation that just seems off and in our gut doesn’t seem right.
“In a world of propaganda, the truth is always conspiracy.” –Herbert Hildebrandt
It takes work, discipline, and focus to discern the truth from a lie and many people lack this ability. I’ve experienced this with multiple people who have even expressed what seemed to be a genuine interest in my discussions and writings, but ultimately just didn’t seem to have the ability to see through a false narrative.
I think some people lack a good reference point or guide in their lives so when they become adults they are incapable of accepting reality until reality smashes in their door and forces them to face it.
With that being said I do believe there are people who just need a bit of coaching and to be exposed to an alternative viewpoint that makes sense. In this way logical thinking can be taught to those that possess a gauge for it.
Because of this I wanted to include the following little logic test below to help you think through a problem when seeking the truth. This is a formula that I use when starting the process to discern what is more true and what isn’t when faced with a more complex scenario.
In this era we are living in we must all focus more on our abilities of discernment so that we (the citizens) can be the solution to a decentralized form of media and assist in the dissemination of accurate information.
This can be used as a good reminder that sometimes extracting the signal from the noise can take a bit of thought and work that many lack the ability to carry out. However, perhaps this little exercise can serve you well.
The Exercise: How to discern and who you can MORE likely trust...
When scanning conflicting news stories or a physical room during a condition where there's contentious disagreement on an issue, first ask which person/side is advocating for more freedom and go with that person as long as they maintain the goal of freedom.
Next, look DIRECTLY to the source and what each source on both sides of the argument or disagreement are actually debating.
Third, look at which side is trying to silence, demonize, erase, cancel, label, and look at what they actually stand for. Avoid siding with these people.
Finally, if neither side is making sense then pick up the fight and offer a freedom first option yourself.
Consider the following logic test to help you with walking through the difficult task of discernment and examine the following parable that illustrates logic.
Parable:
Imagine a traveler is walking along a path and comes to a fork in the road.
At this fork one path leads to heaven and the other leads to hell.
At this fork the traveler knows this and also knows there will be two men at this fork as well. Of these two men the traveler also knows that one of these men is a liar while the other is a truth teller.
Given this knowledge what the traveler DOES NOT know is which man is the liar and which one is the truth teller. The traveler also doesn't know which path leads to heaven and which one will lead them to hell.
So how should the traveler think through this problem to take the correct path?
To clarify this let's start by assuming you (the reader here) knows that the path to the left leads to hell and the path to the right leads to heaven for the sake of discussion.
Now knowing this you also know that one of the men is a liar and cannot be trusted while the other is a truth teller and can be trusted, but you don't know which.
The way you (or the traveler) can find the correct path to get you to heaven is to approach one man at a time and ask him which direction the OTHER man would tell you to go in order for you to get to HEAVEN.
Given that the liar will lie he would say that the OTHER man would tell you to take the path to the left (the path to hell).
Given that the truth teller will tell you the truth he would say that the OTHER man would tell you to take the path to the left (the path to hell).
Therefore you know that the path to HEAVEN is on the path to the right.
This is a brilliant logical model for working through a difficult scenario. Keep this in mind.
The Wrap Up
Remember that the space between the truth and lies is a massive battlefield. Everyday there are forces that are fighting for that space in order to control a narrative so that you remain paralyzed in a state of confusion.
This state of confusion allows very powerful and very bad actors to shape narratives that allow them to exert more control over your mind and your body unless you master the ability of discernment.
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