Just to be clear, Clausen names Bratton as one of the most responsible for his handling of the 14 part message, not this particular document. He also isn’t as kind to the upper brass as you imply. General Leornard T. Gerow and FDR are also on his list of most responsible along with Bratton and others. He also blasts both General Miles and General Marshall for committing perjury at the Army Pearl Harbor Hearings Board. Though he states that he understands why they did it, he still does not approve of it.
That aside, this is just another example that shows that culpability for the failure to defend Pearl Harbor goes completely up and down the chain of command from the President down to the field commanders and many of their subordinates. General Miles, in this case, never followed up on this message. Bratton was asked if Miles ever asked him his opinion on this message to which Bratton replied that Miles had not. Clearly Miles should have followed up on this, but it is also of note that Bratton never felt compelled to approach Miles with his concerns over this either.
Bratton also goes on to testify that this breaking Pearl into a grid is a practice used to shorten radio messages. The Navy was doing this as well. What would be of particular interest to me would be to see if anyone has ever bothered to look into the possibility of Japanese messages asking to report ship dispositions in the Philippines. Bratton himself testified that the U.S. Navy was making a concerted effort to know where every Japanese capital ship was at all times. It only stands to reason that the Japanese would be doing the same.
That is not the impressions Prange's words leave.
Reading Prange's report, you'd naturally suppose there must have been discussions, even debates going on.
But you're telling us there were no actual talks, just words flittering briefly inside the minds of these characters?