Not a surprise at all. A main point of my column today is the fact that this guy appears to be protected, or at the very least, isn’t being considered a problem. Perhaps now he will be.

Via Honolulu Star Advertiser.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency “button pusher” who sent a bogus missile alert that triggered panic across the islands on Jan. 13 is not cooperating with either a Federal Communications Commission investigation nor two internal investigations.

“We are quite pleased with the level of cooperation we have received from the leadership of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency thus far,” Lisa Fowlkes, the FCC’s Homeland Security Bureau chief, testified today at a Senate hearing on the missile alert incident. “We are disappointed, however, that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation. We hope that person will reconsider.”

The FCC sent two investigators to Honolulu but got no cooperation from the HI-EMA employee, Fowlkes said.

The unidentified “warning officer” — an exempt, union employee — also is not cooperating with two internal HI-EMA investigations, one looking into the events of Jan. 13 and another probing the agency’s overall operations, according to Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony, spokesman for Hawaii’s Department of Defense, which overseas HI-EMA.

The employee has since been reassigned to an unspecified job at HI-EMA but has not returned to work since the incident, Anthony said.

The employee gave a written statement on Jan. 13 but is no longer cooperating, Anthony said.

“Initially he did provide a statement of his actions that day, but now he is not cooperating,” Anthony said. “He’s choosing not to have further engagement with other employees at the Emergency Management Agency who have attempted to reach out to him.”

The employee has not been disciplined but faces the possibility of punishment, which could include termination, Anthony said.

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3 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. dilvish says:

    Remy has a relevant take on this subject. As usual.

    https://preview.tinyurl.com/y77ohkue

  2. Alain41 says:

    Gov’t employees are supposed to be fired for non-cooperation with an investigation. Are Hawaiian politicians or media or citizens demanding that?

  3. Alain41 says:

    Political calls for federal handling of emergency alerts for ballistic missiles are very wrong. You only want one emergency system. And you want the locals making the calls. The Left just wants to escape criticism while blaming feds. Like Katrina, when the LA Gov. went around yelling, Don’t blame the State, it was all FEMA’s (Bush’s) fault. (And GOPe went along.) Bottom line you want a local politician making the calls; See PA Gov. Dick Thornburg during the Three Mile Island accident, ADVISING VOLUNTARY EVACUATION for pregnant women and preschool children near the plant. (No Order. No mandatory. USNRC did advise the Gov., but his call.) Thornburg was born in Pittsburgh and went to college at U. Pitt. So even though he was a Repbub., any local criticism would have been directed at a local. Very different if a Fed in Washington was making the call. You wouldn’t hear the end of questioning/criticism. Eg, political football not public safety.

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