Washington had foreknowledge of Natural Disaster

[nascarblue]

This is just part of a well researched piece...link is at the bottom


Why did the US State Department remain 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... ?

As confirmed by several reports, US scientists in Hawaii, had advanced knowledge regarding an impending catastrophe, but failed to contact their Asian counterparts.

"One of the few places in the Indian Ocean that got the message of the quake was Diego Garcia, a speck of an island with a United States Navy base, because the Pacific warning center's contact list includes the Navy. Finding the appropriate people in Sri Lanka or India was harder." (NYT, 28 Dec 2004, emphasis added)

Now how hard is it to pick up the phone and call Sri Lanka?

According to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

"We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world"

These statement on the surface are inconsistent, since several Indian Ocean Asian countries are in fact members of the Tsunami Warning System.

Why in the wake of the disaster, is the US military (rather than civilian humanitarian/aid organizations operating under UN auspices) taking a lead role?

Lieutenant General Blackman was previously Chief of Staff for Coalition Forces Land Component Command, responsible for leading the Marines into Baghdad during "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

US military aircraft are conducting observation missions

"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" (Press Conference of Pacific Command, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2004/n12292004_2004122905.html ).

Two other Aircraft Carriers as wekk have been sent to the region.

Why is it necessary for the US to mobilize so much military equipment? The pattern is unprecedented:

Conway said the Lincoln carrier strike group has 12 helicopters embarked that he said could be "extremely valuable" in recovery missions.

An additional 25 helicopters are aboard USS Bonhomme Richard, headed to the Bay of Bengal. Conway said the expeditionary strike group was in Guam and is forgoing port visits in Guam and Singapore and expects to arrive in the Bay of Bengal by Jan. 7.

Conway said the strike group, with its seven ships, 2,100 Marines and 1,400 sailors aboard, also has four Cobra helicopters that will be instrumented in reconnaissance efforts.

Why has a senior commander involved in the invasion of Iraq been assigned to lead the US emergency relief program?

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/412A.html

Click on the image to see an animation (650 KB)

[Stinky The Clown]

1. For an answer about the military aspect of your post see this DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1461372

[tngledwebb]

2. BushCo will take strategic advantage of this disaster.

Helping those in need has never been part of its agenda.

And it is scandalous how PTWC could admit such incompetence.

[Truman01]

3. Asia was warned.

Several Asian and Indian governments were warned but they did not have the means to disseminate the information to the people. There are no "Asian counterparts." We have a Tsunami warning system they don't.

TC

[shawcomm]

4. And, had there been counterparts

they wouldn't have needed ours calling them.

It was a freaking natural disaster. It's no secret that an earthquake near an ocean may set off a tsunami. Those governments know that and should have put into place plans to evacuate as much as possible. They should at least have disseminated the same knowledge amongst their people.

Trying to place blame on the U.S. (other than the ridiculously small pitance disguised as aid) is just silly. There's a reason why they're the NOAA and not the IOAA.

[XemaSab]

5. Frankly,

I'm pretty shocked that India and Thailand don't have geologists, and oceanographers to figure that stuff out for themselves. These countries aren't totally backwards.

According to the New York Times article today, Kenya managed to get their beaches evacuated in time, and very few lives were lost. The tsunami wasn't as severe in Kenya, but they had an emergency plan in place. It wasn't a tsunami emergency plan, but they got it together and got people away from the coast.

We've known for years that there's a severe tsunami/earthquake hazard along the coast in the Pacific Northwest, and they have a very similar fault structure there on the floor of the Indian Ocean. All the scientists quoted in the Times article were in the US, Australia, and Japan. Like, seriously, I think it's tragic that we couldn't warn them in time, but it's not the fault of the US.