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Indybay Feature

US Military Base in Indian Ocean Received Tsunami Warning

by Socialist
The US military base in the Indian Ocean on the British-controlled island of Diego Garcia, received sufficient warning of the tsunami so that it suffered no damage, unlike the rest of the Indian Ocean.
The US military base in the Indian Ocean on the British-controlled island of Diego Garcia, received sufficient warning of the tsunami so that it suffered no damage, unlike the rest of the Indian Ocean.

Diego Garcia is the island, about 1,000 miles from India and directly in the path of the tsunami, from which the US conducts its bombing raids on Afghanistan and Iraq.

This important piece of information is from the 12/30/04 World Socialist Website, in an article by Patrick Martin, "Bush’s response to South Asia disaster: indifference compounded by political incompetence"
at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/bush-d30.shtml

This article further states:

"There is already evidence that the US government had ample warning of the earthquake-driven tsunami, but did not communicate the information to the countries involved. US press reports indicate that the Pacific Warning Center in Hawaii, a facility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, detected the earthquake when it occurred and immediately warned of the likelihood of tidal waves generated by one of largest temblors ever recorded."

"Charles McCreery, director of the center, confirmed that his team had transmitted warnings to the US Navy, the US State Department and the government of Australia. The State Department claimed to have notified India, but the Indian government said it received no such warning in the two hours that elapsed between the quake off Sumatra and the tidal wave that hit the Indian coastline in the southern province of Tamil Nadu. Nor did the Sri Lankan government receive a warning."

Please read the rest of the article as it provides outstanding imagery on the nature of the administration we have. If anyone heard Bush's statement on the news, or at least excerpts of it, one would have thought we were listening to an 8 year old child talking rather than the statement of a middle-aged statesman of a large industrialized country. Patrick Martin correctly refers to Bush's statement as being semi-coherent, and he continues:

"Bush’s press statement in Crawford did contain one indisputable truth. “This has been a terrible disaster,” Bush said. “It is beyond our comprehension.”"

"The speechwriter who crafted those words revealed more about Bush than he perhaps intended. This failure to grasp the dimensions of the south Asian disaster—and anticipate the public reaction to a display of indifference—is a measure of the moral and intellectual cretinism of Bush and his cohorts."

"If great events take the true measure of men, the enormous tragedy on the shores of the Indian Ocean has provided another yardstick of the vicious and small-minded man who occupies the White House. Bush personifies the ignorant and reactionary character of American imperialism."
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