Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm

An emergency alert went out Saturday telling people in Hawaii to take shelter from an incoming ballistic missile. It was a false alarm.

"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL," the emergency alert read.

While the message caused concern on social media, the Hawaii Office of Emergency Management quickly responded on Twitter, saying, "NO missile threat to Hawaii."

Commander David Benham, a spokesman for US Pacific Command confirmed in a statement that there is no threat: "USPACOM has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii," the statement read. "Earlier message was sent in error. State of Hawaii will send out a correction message as soon as possible."

Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that human error caused the alert to go out.

"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button," Ige said.

Vern Miyagi, the administrator for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said the error was his fault but refused to say who was directly responsible. Miyagi couldn't explain to reporters why it took almost 40 minutes for the agency to issue a second, correcting alert.

"We need to work on the response time," Miyagi said.

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, told MSNBC that Hawaiian families were forced to rush to their basements and call loved ones, believing that they had just 15 minutes before an attack. Gabbard, who is not currently in Hawaii, added: "So this is stark reality that Hawaii faces now of what a potential nuclear strike on Hawaii would be where do people go."

An aide to Gabbard said: “Immediately after the Congresswoman was notified of the alert, she called Hawaii Emergency Management Officials to get information and confirmed it was false alert. She was informed that this alert was sent out mistakenly. She sent out a tweet immediately to let people in Hawaii know that it was a false alarm, and there was no incoming missile."

Something smells very rotten. Here are four "facts" that were repeated more than once buy the responsible officers at the governor's press conference a few minutes ago:

1. The alarm button that initiated the smart phone messages was pressed by mistake.

2. There is a second confirmation button that also needs to be pressed.

3. The sirens are on a separate system.

4. The fellow in charge of triggering the sirens sits next to the first guy above.

As I said, those facts were repeated more than once because there were some sharp reporters that caught on that something didn't add up and kept going back to them.

Now please tell me that just one button pressed by mistake was the problem.

If you ask me, the cabal trying to discredit Trump hacked the Hawaiian system.

If you ask a Democrat, the Russians did it.

Take your choice.

Oh, and remember that Hawaiian judges are among those who questioned Trump's ability to protect the nation and issued the orders to stop the vetting of foreigners entering the US.