Five days after the tsunami, Jan
Egeland, UN Undersecretary
General for Humanitarian Affairs
and Emergency Relief
Coordinator, emphatically stated
his desire "to put a stop to
those rumors now" that the
Sumatra-Andaman undersea
earthquake was caused by nuclear
"tests" in the Indian Ocean
practiced for many years since
World War II by world nuclear
powers.
On January 9th, the US State
Department then offered its
views on the subject through
Todd Leventhal, its Chief of
Counter-Misinformation in a
briefing to the Daily Times of
Pakistan, saying that its
undersea nuclear tests had never
caused any "significant"
tsunamis in the region, quoting
from a January 6 fact sheet by
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In the same document, NOAA
admits that "tsunami waves can
also be generated from very
large nuclear explosions."
The State Department also chose
to downplay the significance of
the quake, citing a January 5th
change in seismic evaluations of
the quake, the Daily wrote.
Leventhal reiterated that the
quake stemmed from natural
processes "as they have for
millions of years."
In the briefing, he did not
offer a scientific disclaimer,
turning to ridicule instead to
defend his government and failed
to admit reason for suspision
since the US and Britain has
been testing 'tsunami bombs' in
the area, as cited in the 1945
British mililtary document: the
comments amounted to little more
than a play on words and denial
of scientific data.
In addition, it is evident that
scientists at the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in
Hawaii were under obvious
pressure by the US Department of
Defence when they lowered their
calculations of the undersea
earthquake from magnitude 9.0 to
8.0, a revision that has since
been overturned. A magnitude 8.0
is only one-tenth as severe as a
magnitude 9.0 earthquake,
according to the US Geological
Survey. The US
Counter-Misinformation
Department has not offered
further comment since.
In February, scientists
reevaluated the Sumatra-Andaman
earthquake as being between
magnitude 9.1- 9.3, if not more
severe.
In May, they also declared the
quake as the longest ever
recorded, CNN reported, lasting
10 minutes. Earthquakes are
widely known to last only a few
seconds on average.
Many who were at first
skeptical of an atomic culprit
began to suggest that the ocean
as well as impacted areas be
tested to verify claims of a
nuclear explosion, as evidence
of an atomic blast is hard to
conceal: radioactive fallout
would begin to surface
undoubtedly.
Radioactive fallout is now
surfacing even in unimpacted
areas, coming into contact with
humans by means of water wells
and radioactive clouds. In
Yemen, unnamed government
sources initially blamed illegal
nuclear dumping in the Red Sea
"after the December 26, 2004
tsunami" as responsible for the
presence of radioactivity now
washing up in unlikely places.
Now anger is stirred because
the US media is refusing to
publicize reports of radiation
sickness now widespread and a
very serious threat to the rest
of the region, notwithstanding
repercussions within the already
fragile global ecology. Many
heath workers are referring to
the fallout as an "African
Chernobyl."
There can only be one reason why
news of such magnitude could be
supressed.