Earthquake and Tsunami Tragedy: how many lives could've been saved?
31 Dec 2004 10:26 GMTAt moment of this posting, the death toll from the earthquake and the tsunami costed already 125.000 lives. Somebody did write that's it "Whites-only 'aid' to tsunami disaster areas".
Features: Darwin IMC | Manila IMC | Melbourne IMC
Was warning of civil population possible?
In September there was an AGSO(Australian Government, Geoscience Australia) Report On Tsunami-Quake Danger . The American Government send a warning for a tsunami to a military base in Diego Garcia. Scientists in USA saw the tsunami coming but failed to warn the local governments they claim.Use of the disaster for extending USA global hegemony
The Pentagon Scrambles to Reenter its Old Thai Air Base. Bush said on 29-12-2004 that: "The US, Australia, Japan and India have formed an international coalition to lead aid efforts after the Indian Ocean sea surges".Lessons for the future: climate change, ecological collapse, etc
Science, tsunami and other Global Warming Threats |Asian Tsunami Hails Ecological Collapse |Putting a Disaster in Context ]Links: Worl d Health Organisation | Relief Web latest News | Wikiped ia | Tsunami News Updates
idiocy
gatsby 31.Dec.2004 15:21
for starters, geophysicists in the United States only knew that a tsunami was coming AFTER the earthquake occure (I beleive around 11pm PST on 12/25) moreover, direct, instantaneous communication from a laboratory in Seattle to Banda Aceh would have been impossible, given the local cirumstances of poverty, civil war, etc. Granted, it is a horrible tragedy that there are as of yet no tsunami warning buoys in the Indian Ocean, you react like the scientific community knowingly IGNORED this to allow 125,000 (as of 6:19am PST on 12/31) people to die.
Please react with some degree of restraint next time. I remember when Indymedia actually used to be independant and unbiased.
blalblabla gatsby
blabla 31.Dec.2004 17:55
'Congress will investigate why the US government did not notify some
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/29/noaas_role_in_warning_nations_is_questioned/
nations lining the Indian Ocean of early indications that a deadly tsunami
might be headed their way, a spokeswoman for Senator Olympia Snowe,
Republican of Maine, said yesterday.'
I have no idea
Red neck 31.Dec.2004 18:49
If these people could have been warned, all we really have to go on is what happened in Kenya.
You’re only responding to a portion of this (posted on Portland) collection. I find the one about a bomb a little out there but it’s not to ask if more or anything could have been done to prevent this.
As we all know, the true horror that these people will experience is that after the media frenzy dies down so will the aid. The Bush administration made yet another gaffe with its weak response “stingy”. Obviously underestimating the mood and forgetting the propaganda and political impact of such displays of (India has said no to aid) aid.
Clinton didn’t make such blunders in response to Hurricane Mitch and probably the worst ‘natural’ disaster in South American history: the flooding (‘Venezuela Mud Slide’ December, 1999) in Venezuela that killed 50,000 people. Caused by deforestation and the poor forced to live on mudslide-prone hillsides.
“Two C-130s arrived December 21 with a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit (ROWPU), 727 hygiene kits, blankets, chlorine and iodine tablets, and other supplies. Two additional Department of Defense (DoD) helicopters arrived December 21 to supplement the efforts of the eight DoD helicopters already in country. On December 24, 1999, President Clinton authorized the DoD to draw down $20 million to assist relief operations in Venezuela.”
What every political hack knows: Initial response has the biggest media impact.
tsunami red herring: ISSUE IS EARTHQUAKE WARNING STANDDOWN from U.S.
U.S. eco-terrorism watch 02.Jan.2005 01:55
tsunami is red herring: ISSUE IS EARTHQUAKE WARNING STANDDOWN from U.S. SHOWING THEY ARE JOYFUL TO SEE THIS HAPPEN, THUS IT SUITS THEIR BUSH-NAZI POLICY
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/307042.shtml
http://dictionary.reference.com/search...
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2357.htm ).
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2004/n12292004_2004122905.html ).
http://ioc.unesco.org/itsu/ and other reports)
http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seisplots/long-period/200412/20041226.PGC.LHZ.24hr.gif
http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/eqinfo/richter.htm )
http://www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/eqinfo/richter.htm
http://www.earthchangestv.com/ufo/0209gandor.htm
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/305741.shtml
http://www.climate.org/topics/climate/brazil_hurricane.shtml )
http://www.cma.gov.cn/ywwz/englishread.php...
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WEATHER/07/03/wmo.extremes/ )
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO409F.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WEATHER/07/03/wmo.extremes/ )
http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/ emphasis added)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO409F.html
orbitx@bigpond.com
http://iri.columbia.edu/~lareef/tsunami/ ).
http://www.rense.com/general61/ssag.htm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/123004X.shtml
http://www.rense.com/general61/ring.htm
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/37340.htm
http://www.alaska.net/~logjam/HAARP.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/307042.shtml
newswire article coverage global 30.Dec.2004 12:23
9.11 investigation | imperialism & war | technology
NAZI BUSH REGIME's ENVIRO/HAARP-REICHSTAG FIRE: seize Aceh oil militarily as "rescue"
author: various
Why has a senior commander involved in the invasion of Iraq been assigned to lead the US emergency relief program? "Lieutenant General Blackman was previously Chief of Staff...leading the Marines into Baghdad..."
US Foreknowledge and Selective Warnings. Similar to 9-11, the automatic warning system STANDS DOWN to allow a terrorist act occur, hypothetically using the HAARP technology, to justify upcoming militarization of the area with US troops in an area rich with oil. Whether HAARP or otherwise, the associated issue would be the standdown of the automatic earthquake warning system among its subscribing member nations. This is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE--U.S. ONLY WARNS AUSTRALIA AND INDONESIA--LEFT OTHERS IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL REICHSTAG FIRE TO DIE FOR POLITIAL GAIN, and then invaded oil rich Aceh with over 2000 U.S. Marines and two aircraft carriers with armed helicopters.
No one tells the member countries about the "earthquake". However, the US DOES WARN its military base in the aera. And from this military base, part of the invasion of Aceh is proceeding with TWO AIRCRAFT CARRIERS and led by the U.S.'s pre-emptive invasion of Iraq leadership. "In a bitter irony, part of this operation is being coordinated out of America's Naval base in Diego Garcia. The US warns its naval base, though fails to warn Indian Ocean rim governments. "...the strike group, with its seven ships, 2,100 Marines and 1,400 sailors aboard, also has four Cobra helicopters..."
The oil rich Aceh area, which like Iraq, was suffering from a civil war making oil extraction difficult. THE AMERICAN NAZI ANSCHLUSS MOVES OUT FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN--INTO ACEH: An·schluss: A political union, especially the one unifying Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938.
2004 Sumatra quake/tsunami (click to animate): HAARP and/or Selective Warnings
US Foreknowledge of Natural Disaster, then Selective Warning, then US military invasion from Iraqi commander and aircraft carriers
SAID IN APRIL 1997 BY THE U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, WILLIAM COHEN: "Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves... So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations... It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts." --- Secretary of Defense William Cohen at an April 1997 counterterrorism conference sponsored by former Senator Sam Nunn. Quoted from DoD News Briefing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, Athens, Apr. 28, 1997.
"In short,...the Secretary of Defense of the United States confirmed that there are indeed novel kinds of EM weapons, right now and have been for some time, which have been and are being used to (1) initiate earthquakes, (2) engineer the weather and climate, and (3) initiate the eruption of volcanoes. We wrote about those exact uses of the weaponry decades ago. Several nations now have such weapons. Three of them (two on one side and the other on a hostile side) are even firing practice shots into Western Australia, as a convenient test range." [or undersea Indian ocean, just to see what their power can do].
11 facts/points, most assembled from PIMC already
1.
Foreknowledge of A Natural Disaster
Washington was aware that a deadly Tidal Wave was building up in the Indian Ocean
Michel Chossudovsky | December 29 2004
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 more than 80,000 people. And the death toll is rising.
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
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 mandate of the ICGTWS is to "assist member states in establishing national warning systems, and makes information available on current technologies for tsunami warning systems."
Australia and Indonesia were notified. The US Congress is to investigate why the US government did not notify all the Indian Ocean nations in the affected area: "Only two countries in the affected region, Indonesia and Australia, received the warning"
"Although Thailand belongs to the international tsunami-warning network, its west coast does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.
The northern tip of the earthquake fault is located near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and tsunamis appear to have rushed eastward toward the Thai resort of Phuket.
"They had no tidal gauges and they had no warning," said Waverly Person, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden, Colorado, U.S., which monitors seismic activity worldwide. "There are no buoys in the Indian Ocean and that's where this tsunami occurred."" (Hindu, 27 Dec 2004)
The issue of the Ocean sensors is a Red Herring
We we were not able to warn them because we had no sensors in the Indian Ocean: This argument is a Red Herring.
We are not dealing with advanced information based on the Ocean sensors, but on an emergency warning transmitted in the immediate wake of the earthquake. The latter took place at 00.58 GMT on the 26th of Dec. That information was sent to The State Department and the US Navy.
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,
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 relief program?
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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
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)
(Animation provided by Kenji Satake, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Dec 2004
Seismic Activity on Dec 26
(click
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." (
The following criteria are given by 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 coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700) .
Source Natural Resources Canada:
2.
"To be able to cause natural disasters to that extent could put the entire world in jeopardy. Mother nature isn't exactly a force to reckon with, nor try to manipulate on such a large scale. "
Title: HAARP-watch: fake HAARP tremors rock earth deep beneath San Andreas Fault
Author: haarp-watch, Michel Chossudovsky
Date: 2004.12.11 07:02
Description: Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake-prone town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, FAR BELOW THE REGION WHERE EARTHQUAKES NORMALLY STRIKE -- and scientists say THEY CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING or what the motions mean. Seismic researchers are monitoring the strange vibrations..."..."We see this kind of tremor activity inside volcanoes like Mount St. Helens," Nadeau said, "but that's due to the movement of rising magma, and in the tremors we've recorded there's NO EVIDENCE OF VOLCANISM and NO SEISMIC WAVES TYPICAL OF ORDINARY EARTHQUAKES." "In the US, the technology is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP) as part of the ("Star Wars") Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI). Recent scientific evidence suggests that HAARP is fully operational and has the ability of potentially triggering floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction. Potentially, it constitutes an instrument of conquest capable of selectively destabilising agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions."
the how of HAARP causing seismic irregularities 11.Dec.2004 23:16
more link
"A short scan of the verbiage pertaining to HAARP in this post shows no theories offered as to how a high-powered radio-frequency transmitter like HAARP can cause seismic irregularities."
I'm sure other people are curious so here is more:
SAID IN APRIL 1997 BY THE U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, WILLIAM COHEN: "Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves... So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations... It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts." --- Secretary of Defense William Cohen at an April 1997 counterterrorism conference sponsored by former Senator Sam Nunn. Quoted from DoD News Briefing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, Athens, Apr. 28, 1997.
"In short,...the Secretary of Defense of the United States confirmed that there are indeed novel kinds of EM weapons, right now and have been for some time, which have been and are being used to (1) initiate earthquakes, (2) engineer the weather and climate, and (3) initiate the eruption of volcanoes. We wrote about those exact uses of the weaponry decades ago. Several nations now have such weapons. Three of them (two on one side and the other on a hostile side) are even firing practice shots into Western Australia, as a convenient test range." [or undersea Indian ocean, just to see what their power can do].
3.
Unusual Weather Patterns (2003-2004) of Bush/Pentagon's global enviro-warfare 28.Dec.2004 19:44
more link
Environmental warfare is defined as the intentional modification or manipulation of the natural ecology, such as climate and weather, earth systems such as the ionosphere, magnetosphere, tectonic plate system, and/or the triggering of seismic events (earthquakes) to cause intentional physical, economic, and psycho-social, and physical destruction to an intended target geophysical or population location, as part of strategic or tactical war." (Eco News)
TABLE 1: Unusual Weather Patterns (2003-2004)
Alex, Ivan, Frances, Charley and Jeanne (August-September 2004): Four destructive hurricanes and a tropical rain storm occur in a sequence, within a short period of time. Unprecedented in hurricane history in the Caribbean, the island of Grenada is completely devastated: 37 people died and roughly two-thirds of the island's 100,000 inhabitants have been left homeless, in Haiti, more than two thousand people have died and tens of thousands have been made homeless. The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas have also been devastated.
In the US, the damage hitting several Southern states including Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and the Carolinas is the highest in US history.
Brazil March 2004: The first-ever hurricane formed in the South Atlantic, striking Brazil with 90 mph winds and causing up to a dozen deaths. "Meteorologists were left scratching their heads in bewilderment as the familiar swirl of clouds, complete with a well-defined eye, appeared in an oceanic basin where none had been spotted before." (WP, 19 September 2004, See also
Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula: "Japan has suffered its highest number of typhoon strikes on record, and the storms -- which hit at the rate of one a week for much of the summer -- wreaked havoc in Taiwan, China and the Korean Peninsula." (ibid)
China (August 2004): Typhoon Rananim, the worst in 48 years, has killed at least 164 people and injured more than 1800 in China's Zhejiang province. Rananim is confirmed by China's meteorological authorities to be the strongest to hit the Chinese mainland since 1956. It is estimated to have disrupted the life of some 13 million people,
United States May 2003 : 562 tornadoes hit the United States, the highest in recorded history, far exceeding the previous monthly peak of 399 in June 1992.(CNN, July 3, 2003,
India, early 2003: a pre-monsoon heat wave caused peak temperatures of between 45 and 49 degrees Celsius (113 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit), killing more than 1400 people.(Ibid)
Sri Lanka, "heavy rainfalls from Tropical Cyclone 01B exacerbated already wet conditions, causing flooding and landslides and more than 300 fatalities." (Ibid)
Western Europe Summer 2003: experienced extremely high Summer temperatures. "Switzerland experienced its hottest June [2003] in at least 250 years while in the south of France average temperatures were between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius (9 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the long term average. England and Wales also experienced their hottest month since 1976." (Ibid)
...
The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction: "Owning the Weather" for Military Use
by Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca 27 September 2004
The URL of this article is:
This article is follow-up on an earlier study by the author entitled Washington's New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change, Third World Resurgence, January 2001,
What are the underlying causes of extreme weather instability, which has ravaged every major region of the World in the course of the last few years?
. . .
A study released in July 2003, by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) places the blame, without further examination, at the feet of global warming:
"These record extreme events [high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and droughts] all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages which, for temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past 100 years," the WMO said in its statement (CNN, July 3, 2003,
While global warming is undoubtedly an important factor, it does not fully account for these extreme and unusual weather patterns.
Weather Warfare
The significant expansion in America's weather warfare arsenal, which is a priority of the Department of Defense is not a matter for debate or discussion. While, environmentalists blame the Bush administration for not having signed the Kyoto protocol, the issue of "weather warfare", namely the manipulation of weather patterns for military use is never mentioned.
The US Air Force has the capability of manipulating climate either for testing purposes or for outright military-intelligence use. These capabilities extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes. In recent years, large amounts of money have been allocated by the US Department of Defense to further developing and perfecting these capabilities.
Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally... It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, ... and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. (US Air Force, emphasis added. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report,
4.
did you note that people above basically admitted that though Sumatra was only "minutes" from the tsunami when USGS noted it, they instead were presumably doing something for "20 minutes," and only after Sumatra/Aceh (oil area) was hit, then the US sent their indirect "email warning" 20 minutes later. Hypothetically, an expedited phone call to police or the main government on Sumatra would have definitely preserved more human lives. No one did this though. Surely this is criminal negligence and criminal forethought particularly in regards to Aceh.
Or, sit back and watch corp media. Here's what you would see. ABC talked up (with very detailed graphics already at the ready) Atlantic tsunamis on the morning of Dec 30. No one mentioned HAARP though. I was channel flipping, and I was shocked to see ABC repeating the same "Atlantic tsunamis" story over and over and over. I caught it twice myself and I was only channel flipping.
5.
How likely is it that this whole terrible earthquake/tsunami happened because US/Indonesian army folks thought it was a good idea to use a big bomb to quash the Aceh independence movement?
6.
Hehehe... 29.Dec.2004 19:47
Tony Blair's dog link
"I think it would be too obvious to too many scientists that something had happened at the bottom of the ocean to instigate an earthquake."
You mean scientists like the ones who got censored by the corporate
media when they exposed the explosions taking place at the WTC
*before* the WTC buildings went down on 9/11?
Yeah, I think they would find it a little too obvious.
But then, who could they reach out to with that information when the
big media would not let them tell about it? ;-)
7.
scalar fingerprint = missing p wave 29.Dec.2004 20:53
know somethin' about it link
Yes, scalar does have a "fingerprint." They typically lack a p-wave when they are a "scalar EM hit". The Kobe earthquake in Japan, and one in San Fran a while back, I know, were missing this p wave. Likely if someone queried the people...they would relate the same thing:...
8.
September 2004 prediction for Aceh quake, US did a report/study about a huge quake there regarding planning for it, then it happens
prediction = oil = epicenter = present ceasefire = EM history there.... 29.Dec.2004 21:12
. link
Sept AGSO Report On Tsunami-Quake Danger
For SW Sumatra
From Harry Mason
12-29-4
Dear Jeff,
Interestingly with amazing prescient "co-incidence" The Australian GeoScience Organisation - AGSO - ran an article in its AUSTGEO NEWS for September 2004 about the risk factors for earthquakes and consequent tsunamis developing off the SW coast of Sumatra.
See attached pdf file - note the AGSO model for a possible SW Sumatra tsunamis and compare with the recent tsunamis animation just posted on the Jeff Rense site (from
AGSO got it nearly right but failed to (publicly at least ) predict that multiple earthquakes would let rip along most of the entire Sumatra-Andaman shear zone and that this would create multiple tsunamis and that these would funnel up the Bay of Bengal and across to Sri Lanka with such DEADLY force. The AGSO model showed the tsunamis vectoring SW into the un-inhabited section of the Indian Ocean.
This is similar to the amazing coincidence of the Worlds foremost authorities on earthquakes and seismic events being in Tokyo for a major conference when disaster struck Kobe a few years ago, or the marine survey being located off shore of southern New Guinea when the "on fire" tsunamis hit their north coast. None of these coincidences on their own are out of the question BUT when taken as a class one has to seriously wonder...
The BIG question is was this AGSO report just an amazing co-incidence or were they asked to model the SW Sumatra area by someone wanting to know what might happen if the plate boundary was tickled by energetic scalar EM ??? The same area of the 9.2 richter quake has been the site of deliberate use of scalar EM to whip up cyclones (hurricanes). A Malaysian newspaper ran that story a few years back implying a deal between the Malaysian government and a Russian state owned company to create a cyclone to push smoke from Indonesian forrest fires offshore. The actual cyclone creation event was visible on weather imagery shown on West Australian TV during the 7.00pm ABC weather news. It consisted of an annular ring say 50 miles in diameter consisting of multiple micro spirals (each say 5 miles in diameter) in edge contact - each micro-spiral being created sequentially until the annular ring was closed back to the first micro-spiral. Within a day the cyclone centred upon the angular ring had begun to spin up to full power.
If AGSO were "simply" being prescient their guys deserve high accolade. However prescience is not something for which AGSO is normally known.
However if the study was requested from "on high" we have a potential conduit to the source.
It will be interesting to see if AGSO suffers senior staff loss by suicide in the new year.
Best Regards,
Harry Mason
9.
Aceh Province stands out amid the disaster's deepening toll, not only because it was closest to the earthquake's epicenter, but because the disaster has intruded on a region in the grip of a civil war. Aceh has been under martial law since May of last year, when five months of peace talks between separatist rebels and the government broke down.
The president at the time, Megawati Sukarnoputri, dispatched 40,000 troops to secure the province, whose oil and gas resources are vital to government revenue. The government declared a cease-fire after the earthquake, and observers said the truce appeared to be holding, allowing relief workers to tend to survivors.
10.
If I were to rig earthquake/tsunami...I'd hit Indian Ocean because... 29.Dec.2004 21:50
. link
I'd rig it in the Indian ocean area, because there is nothing in the way of warning systems. ONLY PLACE WITHOUT TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM. Last tsunami: 500 years ago there. Therefore, you could really guage your Machiavellian effects of a hypothetical HAARP operation on an unsuspecting population. This hypothetical surprise would be closer to an actual test of an eco-terrorism scalar hit.
"A tsunami last crossed the Indian Ocean in 1509. Scientists had not expected anything close to the quake and killer waves that struck Sunday because 90 percent of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, where there are warning systems."
11.
U.S. alibi: "WE EMAILED THEM! umm, after Sumatra was hit! Did they get it?" 29.Dec.2004 22:19
this is criminal negligence! link
Scientists in USA saw tsunami coming, opted for email warning after 20 minute standdown
[I sure hope I get an email warning form letter (sic)--after a national disaster.]
In fact, the detector buoys that monitor tsunami surges have been available for decades. None placed there though.
Tue Dec 28, 7:11 AM ET
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
***Minutes after*** a massive earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean on Sunday, international ocean monitors knew that a tsunami would likely follow. But they didn't know whom to tell. [so they say]
[Though we knew within minutes, we took our time and crafted a great memo! Hey, didn't you read it! Didn't you get it!] "We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it," says Jeff LaDouce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. LaDouce says e-mails were dispatched to Indonesian officials, but he doesn't know what happened to the information. ["All that was important was to shift the blame from us to them, and once that was accomplished we could sit back and watch!" This ignores that the US only warned Indonesia and Australia--and kept other countries in the dark.]
The [red herring] problem is that Sunday's earthquake struck the unmonitored Indian Ocean. An international system of buoys and monitoring stations - the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based in Hawaii - spans the Pacific, alerting nations there to any oncoming disasters. But no such system guards the Indian Ocean. [The issue is the lack of typical warning about earthquakes--which was stood down.]
(There isn't one in the Atlantic Ocean because there are comparatively few earthquakes there.[yet!]
LaDouce says efforts are being made in the Caribbean to set up a warning system after last year's tsunami caused by the volcanic collapse on the island of Montserrat.)
"Sumatra has an ample history of great earthquakes, which makes the lack of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean all the more tragic," says geologist Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites). "Everyone knew Sumatra was a loaded gun."[heh heh, freudian slip?]
On Monday, Asian government officials, notably in India, discussed plans to coordinate efforts to develop an Indian Ocean system. "It's a people problem, not a technology problem," says geophysicist Teng-fong Wong of the State University of New York-Stony Brook. "Governments just have to cooperate." [and do what we say, or else.]
12.
Tsunamis as U.S. enviromental blitzkrieg war? Regardless, this is being used to expand the American Nazi Anschluss as they Americans surf into oil-rich Aceh armed to the teeth on a 50 foot high wave.
add a comment on this article
disaster relief = military occupation 30.Dec.2004 13:34
luna moth link
The bouy sensors would have also notified about the tsunami, but most likely the earthquake was registered at the epicenter hours before the wave arrived and a warning could have been sent just as easily with enough time for people to evacuate..
That brings to attention the eagerness of the US military to provide humanitarian relief after the disaster already happened. There is of course the obligation on the part of the world's last superpower to "help out" those in need. Forget the fact that the slaughter of so many people was preventable. Not to mention the coastal overdevelopment is a direct result of the hotel tourist trade spawned by WTO imperialism that benefits G8 nations..
Then relief agencies like Red Cross and others rush in to help, once again looking like heroes. The US media broadcasts the body count and people donate huge sums of money to disaster relief agencies..
The Indonesian government has long waited for disaster to strike the areas of autonomous groups like the Tamil Tigers. What better way to squash indigenous resistance than to have the US military there for "disaster relief support"??
Prevention of death and catastrophe is never in the interest of the US government and their corporate puppet masters. Whether a detectable tsunami or US funded dictators like Hitler, Saddam, etc. the US creates the monster than rushes in as heroe to help the helpless victems..
Thank you... 30.Dec.2004 15:35
Tony Blair's dog link
for a most interesting collection of information.
Again, things are starting to look completely different
from the "official" versions of events.
Will "W" be allowed to be "inaugurated" again?
Or will the true patriots still alive in the defence
administration do their duty and detain the scum?
Adding insult to injury 30.Dec.2004 18:29
brahmin link
Lookout Malaysia, Thailand and India; World Vision is bringing humanitarian aid to your nations. The leader of this organization has ties to the CIA and is personal friends with the Bush crime family. It is a known spook infiltration front for the Nazi criminals running this phoney war on terrorism.
This Southeast Asian sector, especially Malaysia, is currently resisting the fiat banking scam run by the IMF and world bank. Maybe this tragedy is being used by the global crime syndicates as a warning to the leaders to cooperate with their scam. A sophisticated version of the Mafia trick of throwing a brick through a shopkeepers front window and then walking in and asking if the shopkeeper wants to buy their protection.
The Weather Machine 31.Dec.2004 03:32
weatherman link
or The Tesla Howitzer, pictured...
see
www.haarp.alaska.edu
HAARP phased array transmitter at Gakona, Alaska
HAARP phased array transmitter at Gakona, Alaska
The Ummah Factor & Band Aid Logic 31.Dec.2004 06:03
Devil's Advocate link
So what you're saying is that the US has the technological might to cause global disasters just to get oil? And they have used said technology which released enough energy to wobble a planet just to gas up a Hummvee?
I think different kinds of wobble (spin) should be considered.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world outside the Middle East. Would this administration use this catastrophe to win "hearts and minds" in their war on terrorism? Simple opportunism is by far more cost effective than the use of a superweapon.
Another point to consider is does the US Government have fleets of hospital ships the size of aircraft carriers to render aid? Entire squadrons of heavy lift cargo aircraft dedicated to relief efforts? Do they have divisions of 'citizen medics' to radiply deploy and "liberate" suffering anywhere in the world?
No. This country has no civilian infrastructure to quickly send the amount of equipment needed in a relief effort of this magnitude. It's all tied up in "providing for the common defense". So again it's more cost effective that a military conquistador would be put in charge of relief efforts. It would simply be a question of logistics.
sympathy for the Devil's advocate 31.Dec.2004 16:33
. link
To be Devil's Advocate, you have to intentionally ignore the US's selective warnings which were the only rationale why so many deaths occurred. This provides a context for the invasion.
Plus, you have to ignore the warning that was received by the US military bases at the same time...
Pleased to meet you... 01.Jan.2005 06:15
Devil's Advocate link
Unless you were at one of the US bases which received these messages or a copy of the tramsmission was made public, the context of invasion is speculation at best. But it may point to another front on the war on terrorism that has never been made public.
So please allow me to speculate as well.
It is not unlikely that there has been covert US submarine activity in that area ready to send commandos to the shores of some island or launch cruise missiles at some 'terrorist stronghold'. It is also possible that they inadvertingly discovered the seismic data in the area, and did not disclose it to the general public for fear of jepordizing their underwater operations. However the US Government did notify it's bases in the area.
Realizing the devastation witholding this information had done (another 100,000+ dead in the War on/of Terror), political hacks took time, say three days, to come up with some damage control. The best they came up with was to say nothing and throw the survivors a band aid in the form on "stingy" relief funds.
Looks a conspiracy 01.Jan.2005 13:21
Truthseeker link
My perception after knowing US delayed relaying of Tsunami, indicate that there is something wrong somewhere.. how US conveyed same to thier troops in the area and failed to relay to other Govt despite having hot lines, means that some one wants this should happen. For US govt, this humanitarion loss is nothing... when i look in iraq where genocide has been done with courage.
What other point i feel to tell people, in indian ocean american NAVY operates too much, but no damage to any US asset is reported. 3 hours warning in sea is also less as maximum distance to be covered is not more than 70 NM in 3 hours.. What i concieved american does know about this and they have removed thier fleet from indian ocean affected area... How they know ..people must think about it..may be it is working of HAARP technology which can be used to bring earthquakes.......................
LETS pound our thoughts and seek the truth.
Comments please.
---
More on Tsunami Foreknowledge
THEY KNEW 02.Jan.2005 02:18
NOAA's role in warning nations is questioned
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/29/noaas_role_in_warning_nations_is_questioned/
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | December 29, 2004
Congress will investigate why the US government did not notify some nations lining the Indian Ocean of early indications that a deadly tsunami might be headed their way, a spokeswoman for Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, said yesterday.
An early warning station in Hawaii operated by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration picked up signs that indicated a tsunami was possible on the afternoon of Christmas Day.
USA's Diego Garcia Military Base Undamaged by Tsunami (how lucky)
THEY KNEW 02.Jan.2005 02:20
Diego Garcia military base 'undamaged' by tsunamis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1273118.htm
The key United States military base in the Indian Ocean has been unaffected by the tsunamis which have devastated parts of Asia, The Washington Post has reported.
Diego Garcia, a British territory about 1,500 kilometres south of India, hosts about 3,200 US military personnel and civilian contractors and many US long-range bombers and Navy ships.
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for US Pacific Command in Hawaii told the newspaper the US base was apparently safe.
"There are no reports of any damage there," Lt Col Bigelow said.
NY Times Advises Bush to Seize Tsunami Opportunity to Expand USA's Reach in Asia
THEY KNEW 02.Jan.2005 02:53
[Another coincidental benefit of the Tsunami is that it provides the USA an opportunity to expand its power (or "promote democracy" to use official US Doublespeak) in Asia, just like 9-11 gave the USA the opportunity to expand its power/"democracy" in Central Asia and the Middle East. How convenient.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/international/worldspecial4/02diplo.html
Aid Summit Talks in Jakarta: U.S. Is Facing a Choice and an Opportunity
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 2, 2005
ACO, Tex., Jan. 1 - The announcement by Asian leaders that they will hold a summit meeting in Jakarta on Thursday to coordinate aid for victims of the tsunami presents the Bush administration with the first of many choices about whether to seize on a disaster to change the nature of how President Bush approaches Asia in his second term.
Until now, the region has fit into Mr. Bush's grand strategy primarily as a second front in his battle against terrorism, and as a place where future conflicts - with North Korea, between China and Taiwan or India and Pakistan - must be defused. But beyond that, his agenda has been modest, at best.
Now, as the United States joins the rush to deliver aid to the region, some officials inside the administration and many outside experts say Mr. Bush has a chance, particularly in Indonesia, to advance the cause he talked about so often in the presidential campaign: supporting the spread of democracy.
"No one could have seen this coming," John Lewis Gaddis, a professor of history at Yale, said Saturday. "But it represents an opportunity to try to move beyond the frustration of Iraq and pre-emption and his tensions with the Islamic world. It is an example of an area where the U.S., with its financial resources and its logistical capability, can work in a cause that no one can argue with."
But it is also an area where symbolism and real action on the ground will merge in a blur of imagery that could define how America is viewed in the world's most populous region and one of its most volatile.
In Indonesia in particular, anti-Americanism has increased. Fairly or unfairly, the negative view of Washington's intentions toward the Islamic world worsened with the Iraq invasion, as Mr. Bush learned during his one visit to Indonesia - a three-hour stop in Bali in 2003.
So now, every decision he makes will be examined for what it reveals of American intentions and generosity and for what it says about how American power will be exercised.
On Saturday, as the president relaxed on the last day of his weeklong vacation at his Texas ranch, officials said they were doubtful that he would join the prime ministers of Japan and Australia and other leaders at the meeting in Jakarta. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Mr. Bush's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, are already scheduled to be in the region, and a summit meeting in Jakarta, the site of a series of bombings attributed to groups with Al Qaeda sympathies, poses a host of security concerns.
"I don't think the president will decide that he has to attend personally to make his own commitment to aiding the victims clear," a senior administration official said.
There seems to be little doubt now that the administration, after spending the week grasping the magnitude of the disaster, is committed to providing considerable relief aid.
On Friday, days after disputing a senior United Nations official's charge that long-term Western aid efforts had been "stingy," Mr. Bush ordered that American aid to the disaster area be increased to $350 million from $35 million.
In a symbolic move, he also ordered American flags lowered to half staff from Monday through Friday.
In his weekly radio address, delivered Saturday morning, Mr. Bush suggested that more was on the way.
"Together, we are leading an international coalition to help with immediate humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and long-term construction efforts," he said. "India, Japan and Australia have already pledged to help us coordinate these relief efforts, and I'm confident many more nations will join this core group in short order."
Less certain is whether and how he will use the opportunity to repair some of the damage done in the last three years.
Both Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain have said in recent days that the recovery will take years, and that the lead must be taken by the United Nations - with the support of countries that have the naval and airlift capacity to help. But other American officials, past and current, have noted that the world's attention span is short, and that one of the lessons of Rwanda and Bosnia is that attention quickly moves on to the next urgent problem.
"This will be a test of the administration's ability to take a different tone in the next four years," said Mr. Gaddis, who just published an essay in Foreign Affairs magazine titled "Grand Strategy in the Second Term" that calls for significant course corrections by Mr. Bush and his aides.
That is particularly the case in Asia. Mr. Bush's main diplomatic effort there so far has been in organizing Japan, South Korea, China and Russia to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. He has periodically intervened to cool passions between China and Taiwan. But those have largely been efforts at preserving the status quo, avoiding the eruption of new crises while Iraq is still aflame.
Robert L. Barry, an ambassador to Indonesia under President Bill Clinton, said Saturday in an interview that so far there has been little engagement with places like Indonesia - even if it has become, since the fall of President Suharto six years ago, an example of a rising, if uneasy, Muslim democracy.
"It's on the edge," Mr. Barry said from his home in New Hampshire. "The popularity of the U.S. is at an all time low in Indonesia, and now there is a hell of a problem in Sumatra, as frustration mounts about getting supplies in."
"It's a huge opportunity for the president," he said, referring to the chance to change America's image in the region. "So far the response has been a bit slow, but the chance is there to make a big difference."
I don't get your point
Bob 02.Jan.2005 22:51
So the U.S. should have notified other countries of the tidal wave. However, that would require some U.S. presence in the region and you guys hate us Americans wherever we are. So what is it, do we have to monitor tidal waves from a distance to keep you guys happy?
So now we are sending aid the fastest way we can, by use of our military and again you complain. Yes, we are going to use a base. You should keep in mind that the use of the base and our military will probably mean that we will be sending more aid than any other country. And quit complaining about dollars being sent. Fresh water and food are more important than money now. The U.S. military is helping supply both.
Some of you crackpots even think we like this disaster or started it. You should take physics 101 and realize that we cannot do that. Quit turning the suffering of others into your anti-American tirade. Why would we like this disaster?
USA Advised to Start a "Marshall Plan" for Asia
THEY KNEW 03.Jan.2005 06:50
The following article states that US foreign policy establishment and media are pushing for the USA to implement a so-called "Marshall Plan" for Asia?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=597387
The question is why? Why is the USA political establishment including mainstream media like the NY Times and LA Times calling for the USA to become so "generous" all of a sudden. Is this motivated by a sudden humanitarian change of heart? (snicker) Or does it represent the implementation of a more sinister American geopolitical design on Asia? It is kind of uncanny how the America's Rulers and corporate media have jumped so quickly over the tragedy of the Tsunami in order to push through a radically new political agenda--much like 9-11... A little bit too quickly if you ask me.
America urged to devise 'Marshall plan' for Asia
By David Usborne in New York
03 January 2005
As American Sea Hawk helicopters began ferrying emergency supplies to the stricken coastal communities of Aceh on the island of Sumatra at the weekend, voices were being raised in the United States for a longer-term engagement in the area to rebuild lost political goodwill.
There is already talk of an updated "Marshall plan" for Asia, similar to the post-war aid for Europe, that would save lives and repair America's tattered reputation across the world.
The helicopters, from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier anchored close to Sumatra, were the first harbingers of the largest deployment of American military hardware in the region since the Vietnam War. Scores of US vessels and aircraft loaded with emergency supplies and equipment are heading for areas worst hit by the Boxing Day tsunami from points around the globe.
But America's humanitarian response to the tragedy, which has been ratcheted up rapidly in recent days after an early impression was created of superpower stinginess, was already being described as something much more, a mission to repair relations with the region severely strained since the invasion of Iraq and demonstrate its willingness to use its military might as a force for good.
Hold on
SisterGeoff 04.Jan.2005 23:48
To THEY KNEW:
Allow me to get this all lined up here, now you don't want the US to give emergency aid, reconstruction assitance, and otherwise help the people devistated by this disater regain their feet?
Don't be Naive
THEY KNEW 07.Jan.2005 17:56
"Allow me to get this all lined up here, now you don't want the US to give emergency aid, reconstruction assitance, and otherwise help the people devistated by this disater regain their feet?"
http://dc.indymedia.org/feature/display/111903/index.php
The American government doesn't not give out reconstruction "assistance" without strings attached and using it as a cover to push other more sinister agendas--in this case, expanding American military into the region. Most of this reconsruction will be nothing more than sweetheart deals for American corporations anyway--much like what is happening in Iraq with CheneyBurton and Bechtel.
Also, read the comments and links about how the USA is using this newly found image of "America's humanitarian concern" to expand the American war machine into SE Asia and Thailand:
Die rassistische Welle
antiracist@ 12.Jan.2005 18:43
Und du fragst dich: Was hat denn Tsunami jetzt schon wieder mit Rassismen zu tun?
http://at.indymedia.org/newswire/display/49587
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