Washington, DC – In an interview today on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) called on the State of Hawai‘i to immediately address the failures that led to the false missile alert and correct them. She also pointed to decades of regime change policies, including in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, that have led North Korea to strengthen its nuclear program, and undermined the credibility of the U.S. Gabbard reiterated her calls for President Trump to immediately begin direct negotiations without preconditions with North Korea to deescalate and ultimately denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard released the following statement:
“The people of Hawai‘i lived through the unimaginable yesterday, receiving an urgent mobile alert telling them to immediately seek shelter from an incoming ballistic missile. Families all across Hawai‘i were terrified that they and their loved ones were about to experience the horror of nuclear war, with just minutes to live.
“This false missile alert that went out yesterday was a colossal failure that caused a nightmare. Those responsible must be held accountable. There must be state and federal investigations into what occurred, and immediate corrective action taken to ensure the people in Hawai’i never have to go through anything like this again. I am working to get answers for the people of Hawai’i and determine ways to address this preparedness failure through the Armed Services Committee in Congress, but we cannot stop there.
“What makes me particularly angry is that the people of Hawai’i and this country live with the fear of a missile attack at all. We are paying the price for decades of failed leadership in this country. Our leaders’ failure to take seriously the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and engage in face-to-face discussions to alleviate that threat, has produced the crisis we face today. I hope that leaders in Washington and the President truly understand the terror that Hawaii’s families just went through, and heed this wakeup call about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war.
“President Trump must immediately begin direct talks with Kim Jong Un, without preconditions, to denuclearize North Korea. President Trump needs to understand that Kim Jong UN maintains a tight grip on North Korea’s nuclear weapons as a deterrent against U.S.-led regime change. North Korea has witnessed past and present U.S.-led regime change wars in countries like Libya, Iraq, Syria, and increased calls for regime change in Iran. North Korea feels it must protect itself with its own nuclear weapons for fear of ending up like Gaddafi who, after being promised the US would not overthrow his regime, gave up his nuclear weapons, only to be deposed shortly thereafter by the United States.
“This is why effective negotiations to denuclearize North Korea require an end to our failed and counterproductive regime change war policy. The people of Hawai’i and this country want peace. President Trump needs to end the posturing and games, and immediately begin direct negotiations with North Korea. There is no time to waste.”
Background:
Yesterday, a false alert was sent to Hawai‘i cell phones that read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” Moments after receiving the message, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) confirmed with Hawai‘i Emergency Management Officials that the message was an error and there was no missile threat to Hawaii. She immediately alerted the people of Hawaii of the false message through multiple social media platforms. Thirty-eight minutes after the initial alert, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent a corrective alert to phones across the state that the alarm was sent in error. Initial reports from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) suggest the state did not have “reasonable safeguards or process controls in place to prevent the transmission of the false alert.”
She is correct. This would never even be an issue without our government’s belligerence. I would hope that enough people in power would listen so that we might establish a sense of sanity.
Aint gonna happen.Those in power are in power because of their fealty to the neocons.And Trump is yet another globalist sockpuppet.
Fear is what the warmongering neocons want.
Gabbard,like Ron Paul,is correct.
Denuclearize is not the right word. In the near term it’s unlikely that North Korea will give up its nukes. The first issue in a nuclear standoff is to reduce tension and increase the margin for error.
There are too many people who either think they can mess about with a Sledge Hammer attitude of ‘Trust me I know what I’m doing’, or they just think tension is good. Good for business, and good for tying your allies to you.
Republicans and numerous Democrats fear Tulsi Gabbard as a potential presidency candidate. Thats is why the pro Irael media have been given the word “reduce publicity to Gabbard”
I’d love to see Gabbard run.
But let’s be realistic: Precisely one time in American history has a candidate ascended directly from the US House of Representatives to the presidency, and that was in 1880.
and he got assassinated.
Arpaio is launching what I hope will be a dud campaign for the Senate. Senate is Latin for Senile cranky opinionated old men. AND he’s putting the governor of Hawai’i in a position of dishonor in his campaign over the response to the false alarm. That and Obama’s original birth certificate. Which every other cop in the world acknowledged that Obama was a citizen by birth in Hawai’i. There’s even been legislation, rule of law, you know the concept, that people born in embassies, on U.S. ships at sea and on military bases — it would be exactly equivalent to being born within the borders.
Since one of the themes the Birthers scream about is the theory that he was born on board a U.S. airliner. Legislators, as was pointed out to him many times in the past week, should Know The Law if they want to write laws.
And somehow he would know how to stop an ICBM from vaporizing lots of Americans. The presidents since Ike have collectively failed to find a way to do that. Not to mention the military. But by golly he’s smarter than all of them.
I wonder if he has His Own original Birth Certificate. He supposedly learned last week that a Pardon is contingent on admission of guilt. Does he not ever speak to his lawyers?
Tulsi Gabbard is what representation looks like. It has been so long I almost forgot.