FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

---

High-Level Military Conference in Hawai’i Day Before False Missile Alarm

Jan. 15, 2018 (EIRNS)—On Jan. 12, the day before the state of Hawai’i was thrown into existential chaos with the issuance of an erroneous nuclear missile attack alert, several hundred military commanders, politicians, and others were in Honolulu for the Chamber of Commerce’s Hawai’i Military Affairs Council. An annual event, this year’s conference had the added intensity of the media-induced hysteria of the war of words between American President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The gathering included an impressive representation of the U.S. Pacific Command, including Adm. Harry Harris, head of the PACOM, who gave the closing keynote; Maj. Gen. Russ Mack, deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces; Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Leaf, a former PACOM deputy commander; and George Ka’iliwai, Pacific Command’s “director of the requirements and resources directorate,” according to an accounting by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The air was heavy with neo-con saber rattling.

“There is a real threat” to Hawai’i, General Leaf told the community leaders. “We’re closer” to Korea than the U.S. mainland, he said. “Easier.” He then insisted that Pyongyang’s nuclear missiles are not aimed at South Korea, not at Japan. “The U.S. is the designated recipient—and that’s because we are public enemy No. 1 to North Korea.”

In his summary presentation, Admiral Harris got straight to the point, telling the nervous attendees that, “While the possibility of a nuclear strike is slim, we now live in a world where we must be prepared for every contingency.”

The next morning the “accidental” nuclear attack warning set the entire state into panic, under the observation of the leading U.S. military command for Asia.