US denies 'foreknowledge' of Asian tsunami
The State Department denied on Friday that it had "foreknowledge" of the tsunami, but withheld it from South Asian countries, while warning the US base at Diego Garcia, thereby preventing damage to it. It also denied that the tsunami was caused by underground nuclear tests, saying these allegations were utterly false and fell in the category of "misinformation." Todd Leventhal, State Department-designated Chief, Counter Misinformation/Disinformation Team told Daily Times that after the South Asian tsunami, two false misinformation allegations have arisen, first that Washington had foreknowledge of the impending disaster but held back the information and, secondly, that the giant wave was caused by a subterranean nuclear explosion. Regarding the "foreknowledge" allegation, Leventhal said the facts are that scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii, which tracks earthquakes and the danger of tsunamis in the Pacific, detected the earthquake immediately. Their initial calculations were that it was an 8.0 quake, which is 10 times less powerful than the 9.0 quake it was eventually determined to be. Based on these calculations, their initial bulletin, sent 15 minutes after the quake occurred, judged that "no destructive tsunami threat exists," referring to the Pacific Ocean region. [more] and [more]