HONOLULU — The Hawaii state employee who mistakenly sent an alert warning of a ballistic missile attack has refused to cooperate with federal and state investigators, officials said Thursday.
Lisa Fowlkes, head of the Federal Communications Commission Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, said the agency was disappointed by the refusal.
“We hope that person will reconsider,” she told members of a U.S. Senate commerce committee in Washington during a hearing on the alert that caused widespread panic and confusion.
However, Fowlkes said she was pleased with the cooperation of leaders of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, told the committee he was introducing legislation making it clear that the authority to issue missile alerts rests with the U.S. departments of Defense and Homeland Security, not with state and local governments.
“It is increasingly clear to me that if we get all 50 states and all the territories and 3,007 counties across the country participating in this program, the likelihood of another mistaken missile alert as a result of human or bureaucratic error is not zero,” Schatz said
Spokesman Richard Rapoza said the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has encouraged all employees to cooperate with investigations of the erroneous message. He said the worker who sent it has also refused to cooperate with the state agency’s internal investigations.
“He has taken the position that he provided a written statement shortly after the incident, and doesn’t need to speak to investigators because he has nothing to add,” Rapoza said in an email.
The name of the worker has not been released. He continues to work at the agency but has been reassigned to a section where he doesn’t have access to the warning system.
He is among people at the agency that received death threats after the false alarm.
The alert was sent to cellphones, TV and radio stations in Hawaii. The effect of the mistake was compounded when it took 38 minutes for the emergency management agency to send an alert retracting the warning.
After the incident, the agency began requiring two people to sign off on the transmission of alerts and tests. It also drafted a correction that it will be able to send immediately if a missile alert is wrongly sent in the future.
1) Publish his picture. 2) Fire his ass.
Not cooperating. I guess he will also be getting a pay raise.
Not cooperating? Let us know who they are and where they live and I am certain that….. “We The People” (and not the lazy, fat worthless, pigs(cops)) WILL MAKE him cooperate.
Exactly what us Italians would do…..there are ways and means to get people to cooperate….a nice way and a strong-armed way.
This is a typical demo rat mode of operation. Along with his fellow demo rats giveing the rat a raise and promotion.
I guessing you have autism.. you’re kinda like rain man and repeat the exact same phrase….was the Texas gene pool a little shallow?
empty
giving
Another idiot $hithole talking out of his $hithole.
Come on, it was an obvious Homeland Insecurity Scare The Krap Out Of Everyone So They Will Want More Military “Protection” either he was put up to it or there really was a missle shot and our military or some aliens shot it down so WWIII wouldn’t start.
The drugs have totally wiped your brain Sara.
what drugs is that Jack?
The ones that make you write what you wrote in your original post.
Leave the person ALONE. The mistake was mainly because of the application was a bad design! Fire the programmer. The person needs to cooperate in fixing the problem with the program and not be continuously dogged as the problem. The person is not the problem to be solved. It is the program that lacked the protection against the mistake. One little addition of a question that would pop up if the button was pushed “Are you sure you want to send out this message as not a drill”.
I am more worried about “What should I do” if it was real. The government has totally forgot about “We the People” and focused on pointing a finger. Dear Government Officials: You need to focus on what the people need to do in the case of a missile attack. Also think about providing some government help on where to go. Remember the cold war?
Come on guys. If you are our elected officials you should be thinking of our health and welfare. The fix for this program mistake is simple.
If there is a missile attack you should…. bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. That is all you can do.
He’s not cooperating because his story is a lie. This goes way higher than some old Japanese dude who looks like someone pulled a turtle outta its shell.
Just let the feds run this system. They are the best at mucking things up.
This Employee should be terminated immediately for his refusal to cooperate….end of story!