US had advance warning of tsunami: Canadian professor

[aikido15]

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: A Canadian expert has claimed that the US Military and the State Department were given advance tsunami warning and America’s Navy base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean was notified but the information was not passed on to the countries that bore the brunt of the disaster.

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa asks in an analysis produced for the Venus Project why fishermen in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand were not provided with the same warnings as the US Navy and the US State Department. He wants to know why the US State Department remained mum on the existence of an impending catastrophe. With a modern communications system, why did the information not get out? By email, telephone, fax, satellite TV, he asks, as it could have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=story_3-1-2005_pg7_37&ndate=1/4/2005%202:46:49%20PM

[Wonk]

1. I suppose that makes this cartoon even less funny

[Judi Lynn]

27. It's a good one, Wonk. Sad, but good. n/t

[Retired AF Dem]

2. I guess being a professor

He can CLAIM anything.

[Born Free]

4. "He can CLAIM anything."

Yeah, some even claimed similar ideas about 9-11

[mallard]

8. Re: And other people want to deny the merit of ...

any and all inquiries regarding the government's apparent failure to respond as they ought to, assuming concern for human life in the greater region. This denial happens despite physical evidence making such questions ever-more valid, despite the published observations of someone in the know. What's that all about - blind patriotism?

The scale of this tsunami disaster doesn't make unresolved questions about government accountability before, during and after 911 go away.

Questions regarding the possible preparedness of US Navy personnel at Diego Garcia ahead of the arrival of that wave do not effectively lead educated readers to drop their suspicions about entirley unrelated events in different time and setting.

They do seem to make one wonder how disaster gets exploited, though.

mallard in thailand

[librarycard]

5. Aceh took on the 1st tsunami wave a few minutes after the 9.0

earthquake. The other Indonesia provinces and Central Asian/north African countries took the brunt approximately 2 hours or more later. Nobody knew squat but the U.S. Why?

I blame international media as well. They had plenty of lead time after the devastating quake and initial tsunami to make phonecalls to US govt. resources for their expertise so that they could do their job and report the news. CNNI's slogan is "Be the first to know." Those in the affected regions were the last to know. It's time for a slogan change at CNNI.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

3. Thought it was odd

... when Colin Powell was asked during last weekend's press conference with Kofin Annan what sort of damage had been done on Diego Garcia and he just shrugged off the question with "I don't have any information".

Found that hard to believe from a SoS who's also a former military man.

[illflem]

6. Diego Garcia was spared because it is surrounded

by deep water, the wave couldn't build any height.
The USGS did warn the countries affected, it should have been those countries' obligation to pass the info on, apparently they didn't.

[Turbineguy]

23. There was also

something about an emergency meeting in Thailand from which it emerged that they would not warn.

Their decision was based on information that the quake was 8.0 which did not produce a tidal was a week earlier.

[neweurope]

7. US. government failed to warn region

(unfortunately didn't copy the link but one more at bottom)
Although the local governments had no real warning, the U.S. government did, and it failed to pass along the information. Within minutes of the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, U.S. scientists working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suspected that a deadly wave was spreading through the Indian Ocean. They did not call anyone in the governments in the area. Jeff LaDouce, an official in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that they e-mailed Indonesian officials, but said that he wasn’t aware what happened after they sent the e-mails.
In this day of instant communications, controlled in a large part by the U.S., it is possible to communicate within minutes to every part of the globe. It is beyond belief that the officials at the NOAA could not find any method to directly and immediately contact civilian authorities in the area. Their decision not to do so may have cost thousands of lives.
Even a few minutes warning would have given the inhabitants a chance to seek higher ground. The NOAA had several hours notice before the first waves hit shore. Tim Walsh, geologic-hazards program manager for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said, "Fifty feet of elevation would be enough to escape the worst of the waves. In most places, 25 feet would be sufficient. If you go uphill or inland, the effect of the tsunami will be diminished." But the inhabitants of the area weren't given the warning - as a result, television and radio alerts were not issued in Thailand until nearly an hour after the waves had hit and thousands were already dead.


http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=596628&host=3&dir=71&dir=71&host=3
From the London Indepedent 29 Dec 2004. "DIEGO GARCIA: How did it escape harm? How did Diego Garcia, the British-owned island in the Indian Ocean and home of a US base for B2 bombers, escape the effects of the tsunami? The island, 1,000 miles south of India and well within range of the wave, has a highest point of 22ft and an average elevation of 4ft, yet a spokesman for the US Pacific Command in Hawaii said that the base had not been harmed. Officials at the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said Diego Garcia had been forewarned. Other countries were not, apparently because of a lack of contact details over a holiday weekend."

------------------------

Remember Fallujah!

Bush to The Hague

[Gin]

9. No I know why shrub is being so public gathering aid for the victims.

He is covering his ass. It figures.

I guess phones have gone by the wayside in emergencies.

[Turley]

10. Oh yeah, those bastards at Diego Garcia

Think about it, even if they had forewarning, what could they possibly do to protect the island? It's covered with tin-metal buildings and airplanes and only a few feet above sea-level. What do you think they did? Use a super-secret hydraulic leverage system to jack up the ENTIRE FUCKING ATOLL from 22 ft above sea-level to a nice, safe height?

I guess the notion that it is protected by a massive undersea trench just doesn't support the ole conspiracy theory, does it?

[Wonk]

13. How far could you run in a half hour if you knew your life depended on it?

Just wondering...

[Turley]

16. So what's your point?

There's no place to run on Diego Garcia. It's a freaking little dot in the ocean, a few meters above sea level.

[Nihil]

20. I think the point is obvious ...

If the warning had been propagated, many people would have had half
an hour to find higher land (etc.).

Who gives a fuck about Diego Garcia?
As you say, it is a freaking little dot in the ocean and mainly consists
of a bunch of armed forces berks.

This warning should have been passed on to the highly populated areas.

They are the ones who would have benefited from every minute they could
have got ... but didn't.

[Turley]

25. No wonder you didn't copy the link

What you have posted is not an article at all, but a statement by something called the "International Action Center".

IIRC (and I usually do) the original assessment was for an Earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale which apparently is not that uncommon and which certainly would not have allowed the scientists at the PWC to predict tidal waves. Only after the first reports hit the TV news of a tidal wave did the report change to a Richter level of 8.50 and hours later that was upgraded to 9.0.

More on the timeline at the PWC: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050102/REPOSITORY/501020385/1013/NEWS03

In addition, the scientists couldn't predict a tidal wave without a buoy system in place, a system which could have been bought relatively cheaply but which the Asian governments declined to fund because Tsunamis were considered unlikely in the Indian Ocean.

I think that's worth repeating. Last year Asian governments had considered such a system for the Indian Ocean. The Japanese Gov't had proposed the system and was prepared to fund a major portion of it but talks broke down after other Asian governments balked at investing in the system. I'm still not sure why this is America's fault, maybe someone can explain it to me.

[neweurope]

28. I can't explain it and wasn't even trying to make a point. I just added

something that I read. Saying "No wonder you didn't copy the link" is not nice because it implies that I had shady intents. Well I didn't - I had read that and saved it for myself (never keep the links if I don't plan to get back to a site) and later stumbled over this thread here.

[pinniped]

11. The more death and destruction the more the asshole's* asshole...

brother has to stay in the spotlight along with that POS colon bowell.

Remember, these assholes thrive on death and destruction.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. Well, Duh. I hope so. As much as we spent on the submarine

war over the years.
Advance warning means shit when dealing with something moving at 450mph on a Saturday night in Washington DC and early Sunday morning in the effected areas.

Again, I ask for common sense...

What would about 30 minutes of advance warning do? All that would do is get people mad ath their governments bechause there is nothing in place for them to do. Nor should there have been since this was a remote threat.

We don't have Stampede warnings in the US anymore. Hey. How come?

[malaise]

14. The Original article

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO412C.html

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

26. Yep. Again. Of course we knew. And of course we notified the

Naval Base.

They have the same command structure... they have SYSTEMS in place for things like this.

Civilian governments don't. And never will.

[whistle]

15. The article's last paragraph sums it up nicely....

<snip>

Prof. Chossudovsky writes, “In a bitter irony, part of this operation is being coordinated out of America’s Naval base in Diego Garcia, which was not struck by the tidal wave. Meanwhile, USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which was in Hong Kong when the earthquake and tsunamis struck, has been diverted to the Gulf of Thailand to support recovery operations. Two Aircraft Carriers have been sent to the region. Why is it necessary for the US to mobilise so much military equipment? The pattern is unprecedented ... Why has a senior commander involved in the invasion of Iraq been assigned to lead the US emergency relief program?”

Do we have any explanation as to why a 9.0 earthquake was so under reported around the world? This is an interesting link:

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

[SheilaT]

17. I got into a huge fight

with my husband over this a couple of days ago. He's absolutely convinced that all those people could have been warned and "they" did nothing to do so.

The essential fact is that there simply is no effective warning system in place. Think of a calling tree you may have participated in. They're set up ahead of time and still it can take surprisingly long to spread information to thirty or forty people.

Now think about the thousands of resorts and villages involved, and the fact that there wasn't already a calling tree set up. Someone would have had to look up individual phone numbers and started dialing.

And yes, efforts were made to get the information out, but the first waves hit within an hour of the earthquake.

Tsunamis are much less common in the Indian Ocean than in the Pacific Ocean where there has been warning system in place ever since a tsunami hit Hawaii in 1946. Even with the system, it was only partially effective for the tsunami of 1960, according to program on tsunamis I saw the other night on the National Geographic channel.

[Massachusetts]

18. Tip of the Hat

To the Pacific Warning Center in Hawaii. These guys did what they could to communicate the information they had. Please consider the fact that there are NO Tsunami early warning devices located off the areas that were impacted.

Please don't shoot the messenger.IMHO

[Turley]

19. No, you just don't understand

We're trying to get a good conspiracy theory off the ground here.

That means....anything goes.

[Nihil]

21. Fuck that

You are the one who doesn't understand.

A warning was sent out to Diego (unnecessarily as it happens, due to the
topography of the area) but it WASN'T PASSED ON.

The issue is that non-Americans might well view this as yet another
shining example of how only Americans matter to Americans.
The others were foreign and so don't count.

[Turley]

24. The warning to Diego

was the same warning sent out to the standard mailing list. It warned of a possible Tsunami even though the scientists DID NOT KNOW tsunamis would occur.

When they became aware Tsunamis were developing, they attempted to warn those in its path. For anyone with an open mind, you can read more here http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050102/REPOSITORY/501020385/1013/NEWS03

[Liberty2001]

29. Thought Experiment ...

You're sitting in a little office measuring seismic activity ... you're machine starts going hog wild and you've just gotten seismic readings of a very large earthquake ... after reading your instruments, and figuring out where the earthquake hit (Indian Ocean) you might realize that there are going to be some major tsunamis.

Assume the waves hit 1 hour after the earthquake (and most certainly some got hit much faster than that the closer they are to the earthquake.)

You took about 5 minutes to digest the information.

It will take about 10-15 minutes (assuming all goes well) for people to reach higher ground after they're notified (and that's probably a very optimistic number considering people will be slowed by the other people in their way.)

That leaves you, at best, about 45 minutes to notify the appropriate people.

Those people then have to notify others ... the messages has to get out to ALL the countries in the area, and all the people in the coastline areas (we're talking potentially millions.)

Do you HONESTLY think that can all get done in 45 minutes?

That's extravagantly optimistic.

ON EDIT: The link provided in another post above states: "Computers ate up 15 minutes verifying the earthquake reading, plotting its location, estimating its size." .... So now you have a half-an-hour. Again, good luck.

[illflem]

30. Not only that but if the tsunami had never materialized

after the warning and the people on high ground home's had been looted while they were away do you think they'd pay attention to the next warning?

[Zero Gravitas]

31. Warn who?

The US does not have a monopoly on seismographs. Scientists in Indonesia and Thailand tried to warn the authorities about the potential for a Tsunami and could not reach anyone in their respective governments (remember the quake occurred early Sunday morning local time.) And even if they did reach high up people there was no warning system in place. the idea that the US Government somehow dropped the ball before the waves even reach land is ridiculous IMO.

[Democracy Died 2004]

22. Another LIHOP we are so screwed. eom