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Former USPACOM Commander Reacts to False Alarm

Ku'uwehi Hiraishi

The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission called Saturday’s false alarm concerning a ballistic missile attack “absolutely unacceptable.”

Ajit Pai says an investigation by the FCC into the communications is “well underway.” Adding that it is already clear that the state did NOT have any “reasonable safeguards in place” to prevent a false alarm.

Pai also says false alerts “undermine public confidence in the alerting system and thus reduce their effectiveness during real emergencies.”

That view is shared by Retired Air Force General Dan Leaf, the former deputy commander of Pacific Command here in Hawai‘i.

He told Hawai‘i Public Radio that while something didn’t seem right about the alert on Saturday, it still carries a lesson.

General Leaf also says the entire incident this weekend shows the “significance and the immediacy of the North Korean threat and that we can no longer put it aside and wish it away”---adding that it also underscores the importance of diplomatic action on the Korean peninsula.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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