Washington DC had foreknowledge of tidal wave!

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

Foreknowledge of A Natural Disaster:

Washington was aware that a deadly Tidal Wave was building up in the Indian Ocean​

by Michel Chossudovsky​

​

www.globalresearch.ca 29 December 2004
The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/412A.html

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Magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake

More than three hundred years ago, at 9 PM on January 26, 1700 one of the world's largest earthquakes occurred along the west coast of North America. The undersea Cascadia thrust fault ruptured along a 1000 km length, from mid Vancouver Island to northern California in a great earthquake, producing tremendous shaking and a huge tsunami that swept across the Pacific.

These events are recorded in the oral traditions of the First Nations people on Vancouver Island. The tsunami swept across the Pacific also causing destruction along the Pacific coast of Japan. It is the accurate descriptions of the tsunami and the accurate time keeping by the Japanese that allows us to confidently know the size and exact time of this great earthquake.

The recognition of definitive signatures in the geological record tells us the January 26, 1700 event was not a unique event, but has repeated many times at irregular intervals of hundreds of years. Geological evidence indicates that 13 great earthquakes have occurred in the last 6000 years.

Natural Resources Canada http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/hist/anniv.press.htm

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The US Military and the State Department were given advanced warning. America's Navy base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean was notified.

Why were fishermen in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand not provided with the same warnings as the US Navy and the US State Department?

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... ?

It could have saved the lives of thousands of people.

The earthquake was a Magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale, among the highest in recorded history. US authorities had initially recorded 8.0 on the Richter scale.

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

Charles McCreery of the Pacific Warning Center in Hawaii confirmed that his team tried desperately to get in touch with his counterparts in Asia. According to McCreery, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's center in Honolulu, the team did its utmost to contact the countries. (The NOAA in Hawaii's Report at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2357.htm ).

His team contacted the US State Department, which apparently contacted the Asian governments. The Indian government confirms that no such warning was received. (The Hindu, 27 Dec 2004)

Nine (9.0) on the Richter scale: The Director of the Hawaii Warning Center stated that "they did not know" that the earthquake would generate a deadly tidal wave until it had hit Sri Lanka, more than one and a half hours later, at 2.30 GMT. (see Timeline below)

"Not until the deadly wave hit Sri Lanka and the scientists in Honolulu saw news reports of the damage there did they recognize what was happening... 'Then we knew there was something moving across the Indian Ocean,' said Charles McCreery. (quoted in the NYT, 28 Dec 2004 ).​

This statement is at odds with the Timeline of the tidal wave disaster. Thailand was hit almost an hour before Sri Lanka and the news reports were already out. Surely, these reports out of Thailand were known to the scientists in Hawaii, not to mention the office of Sec. Colin Powell, well before the tidal wave reached Sri Lanka.

''We wanted to try to do something, but without a plan in place then, it was not an effective way to issue a warning, or to have it acted upon,'' Dr. McCreery said. ''There would have still been some time -- not a lot of time, but some time -- if there was something that could be done in Madagascar, or on the coast of Africa.''​

The above statement is also inconsistent.

The tidal wave reached the East African coastline several hours after it reached The Maldives islands. According to news reports, Male, the capital of the Maldives was hit three hours after the earthquake, at approximately 4.00 GMT. By that time everybody around the World knew.

It is worth noting that the US Navy was fully aware of the deadly tidal wave, because the Navy was on the Pacific Warning Center's list of contacts. Moreover, America's strategic Naval base on the island of Diego Garcia had also been notified. Although directly in the path of the tidal wave (see animated chart below), the Diego Garcia military base reported "no damage".

"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."

Only after the first waves hit Sri Lanka did workers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre [PTWC] and others in Hawaii start making phone calls to US diplomats in Madagascar and Mauritius in an attempt to head off further disaster.

"We didn't have a contact in place where you could just pick up the phone," Dolores Clark, spokeswoman for the International Tsunami Information Centre in Hawaii said. "We were starting from scratch."​

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

There are 26 member countries of the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System , including Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. All these countries would normally be in the address book of the PTWC, which works in close coordination with its sister organization the ICGTWS , which has its offices in Honolulu at the headquarters of the National Weather Service Pacific Region Headquarters in downtown Honolulu.

The issue of the Ocean sensors is a Red Herring

The Hawaii Center was not able to warn them because they had no sensors in the Indian Ocean: That argument is a Red Herring.

We are not dealing with information based on Ocean sensors: the emergency warning was transmitted in the immediate wake of the earthquake (based on seismic data). The earthquake took place at 00.58 GMT on the 26th of Dec. The report was transmitted to The State Department and the US Navy following the earthquake.

With modern communications, the information of an impending disaster could have been sent around the World in a matter of minutes, by email, by telephone, by fax, not to mention by live satellite Television.

Coastguards, municipalities, local governments, tourist hotels, etc. could have been warned.

According to Tsunami Society President Prof. Tad Murty of the University of Manitoba:

'there's no reason for a single individual to get killed in a tsunami,' since most areas had anywhere from 25 minutes to four hours before a wave hit. So, once again, because of indifference and corruption thousands of innocent people have died needlessly." (Calgary Sun, 28 Dec 2004)​

Key Questions

1. Why were the Indian Ocean countries' governments not informed?

Were there "guidelines" from the US military or the State Department regarding the release of an advanced warning?

According to the statement of the Hawaii based PTWC, advanced warning was released but on a selective basis. Indonesia was already hit, so the warning was in any event redundant and Australia was several thousand miles from the epicentre of the earthquake and was, therefore, under no immediate threat.

2. Did US authorities monitoring seismographic data have knowledge of the earthquake prior to its actual occurrence at 00.57 GMT on the 26th of December?

The question is whether there were indications of abnormal seismic activity prior to 01.00 GMT on the 26th of Dec.

The US Geological Survey confirmed that the earthquake which triggered the tidal wave measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and was the fourth largest quake since 1900. In such cases, one would expect evidence of abnormal seismic activity before the actual occurrence of a major earthquake.

3. Why is the US military Calling the Shots on Humanitarian Relief

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?

The US Pacific Command has been designated to coordinate the channeling of emergency relief? Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Rusty Blackman, commander of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, has been designated to lead the emergency relief program

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."

Three "Marine disaster relief assessment teams" under Blackman's command have been sent to Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

US military aircraft are conducting observation missions.

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

Two Aircraft Carriers 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.

Because fresh water is one of the greatest needs in the region, Fargo has ordered seven ships — each capable of producing 90,000 gallons of fresh water a day — to the region. Conway said five of these ships are pre-positioned in Guam and two will come from Diego Garcia.

A field hospital ship pre-positioned in Guam would also be ordered to the region, depending on findings of the disaster relief assessment teams and need, Conway said. (Ibid)​

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

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The Tsunami Timeline

Sunday 26 December 2004 (GMT)

00.57 GMT: Between 00.57 GMT and 00.59 GMT, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurs on the seafloor near Aceh in northern Indonesia. (See http://ioc.unesco.org/itsu/ and other reports)

00.58 GMT: Saturday 25 December, 2.58 pm Hawaii Time (GMT-10) 26 Dec 00.58 GMT. US government's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center registers the earthquake on its seismic instruments. In other words at the time of its occurrence at 00.58 GMT.

shortly after 01.00 GMT: Earthquake hits several cities in Indonesia, creates panic in urban areas in peninsular Malaysia. The news of the earthquakes is reported immediately.

01.3O GMT: Phuket and Coast of Thailand: The tidal wave hits to coastline shortly after 8.30 am, 01.30 GMT

02.30 GMT: Colombo Sri Lanka and Eastern Coast of Sri Lanka, the tidal wave hits the coastal regions close to the capital Colombo, according to report at 8.30 am local time, 02.30 GMT (an hour and a half after the earthqake)

02.45 GMT: India's Eastern Coastline. The tsunami hits India's eastern coast from 6:15 a.m.(2:45 GMT)

04.00 GMT: Male, Maldives: From about 9:00 am (0400 GMT), three hours after the earthquake, the capital, Male, and other parts of the country were flooded by the tsunami. (more than three hours after the earthquake)

11.00 GMT (approximate time according to news dispatches): East Coast of Africa is hit. More than ten hours after the earthquake

The animation below indicates approximate times at which the tidal wave hits the coastal areas of Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, The Maldives.

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



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26 Dec 2004

Seismic Activity on Dec 26

(click http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seisplots/long-period/200412/20041226.PGC.LHZ.24hr.gif

Note: extreme seismic activity prior to 01.00 GMT

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The Richter Scale

US scientists in Hawaii had initially indicated that the earthquake was of a magnitude of 8.0 (ten times weaker than in the case a 9.0 earthquake on the Richter scale).

How can an error of this nature be made, with very sophisticated measuring equipment?

According to Natural Resources Canada:
"The magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of the amount of energy released. Each earthquake has a unique magnitude assigned to it. This is based on the amplitude of seismic waves measured at a number of seismograph sites, after being corrected for distance from the earthquake. Magnitude estimates often change by up to 0.2 units, as additional data are included in the estimate.

The Richter scale is logarithmic, that is an increase of 1 magnitude unit represents a factor of ten times in amplitude. The seismic waves of a magnitude 6 earthquake are 10 times greater in amplitude than those of a magnitude 5 earthquake. However, in terms of energy release, a magnitude 6 earthquake is about 31 times greater than a magnitude 5. The intensity of an earthquake varies greatly according to distance from the earthquake, ground conditions, and other factors. The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is used to describe earthquake effects." (http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/eqinfo/richter.htm )

The following criteria are given Natural Resources, Canada

M=8: "Great" earthquake, great destruction, loss of life over several 100 km (1906 San Francisco, 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands

M=9: Rare, great earthquake, major damage over a large region over 1000 KM (Chile 1960, Alaska 1964 and west of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700)

Source Natural Resources Canada: http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/eqinfo/richter.htm

 

Interesting read... but from what I heard, the odd thing about this earthquake was that it did not generate abnormal seismic activity...
I am sure that someone knew of it, and am appalled..but no one indeed expected the tsumanies to reach some a hight or strengh. Plus, the people hit were either tourists or rather poor people, I do imagine a warning difficult... I'm sure that major cooporations and hotels were notified...but it is hard to get the working class to listen and give a damn. People could have went onto mountains, but all of the housing and such would have been destroyed... making it even harder to supply aid because of the larger number of people... It is unfortunate, I agree... but I do not think that warnings would have done much help.

 

Are those times accurate? By all estimates the tsunamis were moving at a speed of 500 mph. That means unless they took five hours to develop, which I highly doubt, at that rate of speed it would only take 2 hours for the wave to reach from the epicenter all the way to the Mal Dives and 4 hours to Somalia.

I highly doubt they kept the secret all to themselves. They more than likely knew that the earthquake had happened within minutes due to the USGS but, having full knowledge of the size tsunami's resulting from it is highly unlikely.

But God Damn Matt, do have to dig for falsities / mistakes / conspiries even in tragidies? I think its a bit scary that so quickly following the event reporters are already diggin' for parts of the whole world story so quickly.

 

and why the heck is this in the America Attacks forum? It's like a vegetarian attacking someone who eats meat in the Pets forum.

 

RELATED:

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/mickeyz12292004/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11813903%5E7583,00.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey12292004.html
http://www.sierratimes.com/04/12/30/starsstripes.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29794-2004Dec27.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=596628

 

lol..............wow pressed rat you really need to get a life

 

Why does it matter? I couldn't think of a more suitable forum to post it, so I posted it in here. It seems like Skip has a forum for everything except current events, which we need.

 

fair enough, i just think that if whatever is being reported is true, that placing it in this forum suggest malicious intent by the US. Heh - who knows, if it is true, maybe ole George had a hunch Osama was getting a tan somewhere on a beach in Thailand.

 

Whether you think it's a joke or not, the US naval base at Diego Garcia had forewarning of the tsunamis and properly evacuated. How come none of the surrounding areas were notified? Is that really too sensitive of a question to ask?

Geez, I guess some people just don't want to face the facts.

Am I saying the US didn't warn the neighboring islands intentionally? Not really. But I feel somebody needs to hold accountability for this at least.

 

Rat, you remind me of that one character in king of the hill, god i forget his name, always talkin up the conspiracy. true, the conspiracy is not a theory, it is what it is, but who's gonna hold people responsible for it? no one needs to be held responsible, its best just to not worry about that shit, i almost drove myself crazy over the shit years back, its good to be aware, even to quietly make others aware, but dont worry about it, your gonna make yourself sick, go plant a garden or learn the guitar or something. you got one shot at life, live it.

 

Who said I was worried about it? Is there something wrong with spreading information (that multiple sources have picked up on)? Geez... what is this, the Soviet Union?

I am not BLAMING anyone, but I find it to be kind of unsettling that the US knew about the tsunamis, evacuting their own base at Diego Garcia, yet did not inform the neighboring areas to evacuate as well.

 

im not the one saying anything is wrong with spreading information. i like it. ive learned it is wise not to, but since i love to do it so much, i still do, selectively, like im doing now.

 

the base was located 3-4 hours from the event ..so there was enough time to evac...

as for the other countries ....how would it had helped? ...they have no tsunami warning systems ....

who would they have called? what office in each country? ... that alone could take alot of time.

how would the governments have gotten to all those people in 1-2 hours?

who would they have called to relay the imformation?

with the limited time left at this point.....who should they have warned? the tourist areas where all the white people are ....or the small villages along the coast?

they did not and do not have the resources to warn the people spread over hundreds of thousands of miles of coast line.....

also don't forget about all of the other seismic monitoring stations around the region .... none of these pick up the surface quake?

unless there was a massive automated network set up ..... there would still be a high death toll.

 

Did you even read the article?

 

Ok, I have a question for you: Is there any major news story of the past year which you DON'T think is somehow related to a global conspiracy, a massive-scale coverup, the Freemasons, the Skull and Bones Society, the illuminati, or Elvis being abducted by aliens?

Just curious.

 

last time you told me i should not take what you write/post serious ......i don't

 

your crap should be posed in the paranoid forums.....there was already a thread there were a guys thinks the US military caused the tsunami

 

DAle Gribble is the dude's name in King of the hill. Yeah I think that anyone who says the U.S knew of this and did nothing are really washed up in the brain. So since we knew of this coming catastrophe you are saying we should'nt have evacuated because other nations had no warning? Sink or swim my friend which one you gonna do???

 

From what I've been able to glean both off the internet,and the usual news grinders,is the fact that the countries affected don't have any kind of infrastructure in place to recieve and dissemenate info on impending tsunamies(sp).In other words,who calls who,and what do they do with the info once they have it? Not all countries have the way-with-all to deal with this stuff.Or an effective way to tell the masses in their respective areas.Yes the U.S. had the knowledge etc,but who do you call? The people interviewed on the news worked at the tsunami center were very frustrated at this.I really don't see these "earthquake geeks" being vindictive in anyway,imho.Peace