Tag: Accidents

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Critical perspectives on the Sinking of the Cheonan

Korean Americans: Korea’s Cheonan Ship Sinking Incident-Questions

Thanks to Sung-hee Choi and her No Bases Stories of Korea blog for forwarding this video by Korean Americans that raises important questions about the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan. In an email she reminds us:

The  issues of Cheonan ship and Jeju naval Base should not be separated. We can predict by using the excuse of Cheonan ship, the US-Japan- ROK would spur the strengthening of alliances. It is also used for June 2 nationwide local election in Korea.

And drive for Okinawa base relocation (as reported and forwarded by some) and construction of the Jeju naval base. We should not also forget that this is also for arms industry (as reported in Futenma case) . The Samsung, the one of the construction companies for the naval base and one of the Korea aerospace companies is behind the Jeju naval base plan.

Compilation of news and analysis about the sinking of the Cheonan

With apologies and thanks to Satoko Norimatsu and the Peace Philosophy Centre blog for reposting her compilation of news and analysis about the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Questions about Cheonan Sinking – What’s Available in English 天安艦沈没事件への疑問

Little has been reported in English on the growing suspicion about the outcome of the investigation of the sinking of South Korean warship Cheonan during the joint military exercise of South Korea and the U.S., and more people demand for more thorough and scientific re-investigation. We will try to list what is available.

******This one by Stephen Gowan, a Canadian writer and activist is a must-read, full of credible quotes by South Korean officials denying the North’s involvement and linking it to Japan-US military buildup in Okinawa and US arms sales to South Korean military.

“…a North Korean submarine is now said to have fired a torpedo which sank the Cheonan, but in the immediate aftermath of the sinking the South Korean navy detected no North Korean naval vessels, including submarines, in the area. Indeed, immediately following the incident defense minister Lee ruled out a North Korean torpedo attack, noting that a torpedo would have been spotted, and no torpedo had been spotted.”

To read the whole article,
The Sinking of Cheonan: Another Gulf of Tonkin Incident
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/the-sinking-of-the-cheonan-another-gulf-of-tonkin-incident/

******Here is a letter to Hillary Clinton from S. C. Shin, a maritime expert recommended by Korean National Assembly for investigation of the sinking of Cheonan, who disagreed to the conclusion of the Korean military administration and now has been sued for libel by them. Shin argues on Cheonan he could not see any sign of explosion or a torpedo. It was a grounding accident accompanied by a second collision accident. Shin summarizes his report as:

(1) The most important thing is there were two series of accidents not one.
(2) The 1st accident was ‘Grounding’ with the evidences above.
(3) The ‘Grounding on a sand’ made some damages and led flooding but itself didn’t make those serious situation torn down in two.
(4) The 2nd accident hit a count-blow to sink.
(5) I couldn’t find even a slight sign of ‘Explosion’.
(6) The 2nd accident was ‘Collision’ with my analysis above.

For details, see:
http://www.seoprise.com/~bu/dk/Letter_to_Hillary_Clinton_US_Secretary_of_State.pdf

******Here is U.S. author and activist Bruce Gagnon’s take on it.(bolded by PeacePhilosopher)
“Most activists in South Korea have been, and remain, suspicious about the official story surrounding the sinking of their Navy ship. At the time of the incident the U.S. and South Korea were having one of their annual provocative war games where they practice an invasion of North Korea. One has to remember that the U.S. has a modus operandi when it comes to using sunk boats to justify war – “Remember the Maine” that was the prelude to the Spanish-American War and the more contemporary Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that was the kick-off to the Vietnam War. Some are already speculating that the South Korean sinking was timed before their June 2 elections and/or timed to ensure that Japan’s new government reneges on its promise to close a U.S. military base in Okinawa. I’m sure there are other good theories on this as well.”

****** Japan’s international affairs analyst Tanaka Sakai suspects a U.S. vessel involved. Tanaka’s article has been translated and posted on Japan Focus:Asia-Pacific Journal.

Who Sank the South Korean Warship Cheonan? A New Stage in the US-Korean War and US-China Relations

****** Historian Bruce Cumings urges us to look at this incident in a larger context in Democracy Now!

Historian Bruce Cumings: US Stance on Korea Ignores Tensions Rooted in 65-Year-Old Conflict; North Korea Sinking Could Be Response to November ’09 South Korea Attack
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/27/nk

****** In CNN, University of Georgia Professor Han Park argues hardliner reactions are counterproductive calls for re-investigation and talks.

Tensions Between Koreas
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/05/24/intv.korea.torpedo.sanctions.cnn

****** Selig Harrison in Hankyoreh, Korea’s national daily newspaper.

What Seoul should do despite the Cheonan
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_opinion/420827.html

****** A Russian perspective on the issue. This article, in “38 North,” specializing in DPRK analysis (hosted by SAIS, Johns Hopkins University), presents a sensible list of questions to be answered before we reach any conclusion.

“…The Russian position thus far has been to “wait and see,” most likely intending to follow China’s lead. If this issue is brought before the UN Security Council, Russia will probably demand ironclad proof of North Korean culpability and will likely abstain at best if this proof is not provided. “

To read the whole article,

Peace or War? Do we have to choose? A Russian Perspective by Georgy Toloraya
http://38north.org/2010/05/peace-or-war-do-we-have-to-choose-a-russian-perspective/

******Here are Scott Creighton’s “5-point flaws” of the report of the “international investigation team.”
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/pcc-772-cheonan-an-unacceptable-provocation-by-the-united-states-of-america-and-the-international-community-has-a-duty-to-respond/

Peace Philosopher

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Who Sank the South Korean Warship Cheonan?

South Korea and the U.S. have blamed North Korea for the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan.  But the circumstances surrounding the sinking are very murky.  This article by a Japanese independent journalist hypothesizes that the ship may have been sunk by friendly fire.  He also discusses a story that was quickly suppressed in South Korea about salvage operations near another sunken object that appears to be a U.S. submarine.  He speculates that this sunken ship may be the USS Columbia, a nuclear powered and nuclear weapon capable submarine that visited South Korea but never returned to its homeport at Pearl Harbor.   There seems to be more to this story than meets the eye. Below is the introduction to the translated article from Japan Focus and a link to the full article.

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http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tanaka-Sakai/3361

Who Sank the South Korean Warship Cheonan? A New Stage in the US-Korean War and US-China Relations

Tanaka Sakai

Translated by Kyoko Selden

Introduction

At 9:22 on the night of March 26, the 1,200 ton ROK Navy corvette Cheonan was severed in two and sank in the waters off Baengnyeong Island, a contested area that is the closest point of South Korean territory to North Korea. Forty-six crew members died and 58 of the 104 member crew were rescued. It was the worst ROK naval disaster since 1974 when a navy landing ship capsized killing 159 sailors.

Nearly two months later, the elaborate political choreography of explanation and blame for the disaster continues on the part of North and South Korea, China and the United States. The stakes are high: ranging from an easing of tensions on the Korean peninsula to a new stage of fighting in the Korean War. With polls showing that 80 percent of ROK citizens believe that the sinking was caused by North Korean attack, tensions remain high. While segments of the US, European and Japanese mainstream press have exercised caution in jumping to the conclusion that a DPRK ship had attacked the Cheonan, the international media have shown no interest in following the leads opened by South Korean media and citizen researchers.

An ROK-sponsored investigation, with technical support from the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Canada and Australia, has been underway. On 18 May, The Korea Times reported that investigators have found pieces of the torpedo screw that sunk the Cheonan, and that it is of a type manufactured exclusively by China and Russia. On May 20, the ROK government released its findings, charging that the submarine was sunk by a DPRK torpedo. Case closed. What is evident, however, is that important issues have been ignored or suppressed by the US and South Korean authorities.

In the article that follows, independent journalist Tanaka Sakai hypothesizes about what may have happened on the night of March 26 and after. Drawing on ROK TV and press reports and photographs, some of which were subsequently suppressed, Tanaka places at center stage a range of factors, some fully documented, others speculative, that have been missing, distorted, or silenced in US and ROK narratives: they include the fact and location of the US-ROK military exercise that was in progress at the time of the incident and the possibility that the Cheonan was sunk by friendly fire. Tanaka also presents evidence suggesting the secret presence of a US nuclear submarine stationed off Byaengnyong Island, the possible sinking of a US vessel during the incident, the role of US ships in the salvage and rescue operations that followed, the failure of the submarine USS Columbia to return from South Korea to its home port in Hawaii, and the death of an ROK diver in the attempt to recover that vessel.

At stake are issues that could rock the ROK government on the eve of elections, and could impinge on the US-ROK military relationship as the US moves to transfer authority over command to ROK forces by 2012, and to expand the role of China in the geopolitics of the region. There are implications for tensions between North Korea and the US/ROK on the one hand, and for the permanent stationing of US nuclear, and nuclear-armed, submarines in South Korean waters. Above all, there is the possibility that renewed war may be imminent in the Korean peninsula.   Mark Selden

Read more…

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800 gallons of sewage spills into Pearl Harbor

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100417/BREAKING01/100417032/800+gallons+of+sewage+spills+into+Pearl+Harbor

Updated at 2:03 p.m., Saturday, April 17, 2010

800 gallons of sewage spills into Pearl Harbor

Advertiser Staff

An estimated 800 gallons of sewage has been discharged into a storm drain at Merry Point, Pearl Harbor today due to a broken pipe, according to the state’s Department of Health Clean Water Branch.

The break occurred in a 16-inch force main, the Clean Water Branch reported. Signs have been posted and military and private commercial divers are advised to stay out of the water through the weekend.

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Soldier dies in motorcycle crash in Waipahu

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/90957439.html

Soldier dies in motorcycle crash in Waipahu

By Star-Bulletin Staff

POSTED: 08:13 a.m. HST, Apr 15, 2010

Speed may have been a factor in a motorcycle crash that killed a U.S. Army soldier on Farrington Highway near Fort Weaver Road last night, police said.

The crash happened at about 9:56 p.m. on Farrington Highway just east of the Fort Weaver Road overpass.

Police said the 45-year-old Ewa Beach resident was driving a black 2008 Kawasaki Ninja VX6R and had just made a turn onto Farrington Highway when he lost control of the motorcycle.

The victim was not wearing a helmet. Police said they have not determined if alcohol was also a factor in the crash.

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Kane’ohe Marine death under investigation

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100330/BREAKING01/100330078/Death+of+Marine+under+investigation

Updated at 8:14 p.m., Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Death of Marine under investigation

Advertiser Staff

The Navy is investigating the death of a Marine who was found unresponsive Tuesday morning at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe.

Military police responded to a 911 call for help at a barracks room on the base early Monday morning, according to a Marine Corps statement. Two service personnel were checking the man’s vital signs and told military police that the man was not breathing.

Two MPs began CPR, but were unable to revive the man and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The statement did not provide information on the victim. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the case.

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U.S. Navy woman held in Okinawa hit-and-run

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201003170255.html

U.S. Navy woman in Okinawa hit-and-run

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2010/03/18

NAGO, Okinawa Prefecture–An American servicewoman was taken into U.S. military custody Wednesday in connection with an apparent hit-and-run that injured a 2-year-old boy.

U.S. military authorities announced the same day that the woman, 25, was placed in custody on suspicion of driving under the influence and causing an accident.

Police said the woman’s vehicle rear-ended a minicar driven by a 45-year-old Japanese employee of the U.S. military near the Henoko area of Nago around 10:55 p.m. Tuesday.

The man’s 2-year-old son sustained cuts on his forehead, while he and another son, 10, received minor bruises.

Police said a military vehicle was found abandoned with the engine still running about 12 kilometers from the scene. The vehicle had crashed into guardrails.

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Pearl Harbor submariner died in waters of Mokapu-Marine Base

The missing boater, whose body was found in waters off the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe was identified as a submariner based at Pearl Harbor.  He was found near Kuau, what the military calls Pyramid Rock.

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100308/BREAKING01/100308009/Boater+who+died+off+of+Marine+base+identified+as+Pearl+Harbor+sailor+

Updated at 1:24 p.m., Monday, March 8, 2010

Boater who died off of Marine base identified as Pearl Harbor sailor

Advertiser Staff and News Reports

A boater whose body was recovered in waters off of Pyramid Rock Beach near Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Saturday has been identified as a submariner assigned to the fast-attack submarine USS Olympia based at Pearl Harbor.

The Navy said Electricians Mate 1st Class Robert Lawrence Mudd, 29, of Fort Mitchell, Ky., joined the Navy in June 1998. He had been assigned to USS Olympia since May 30, 2007. He previously served at the Trident Training Facility in Kings Bay, Ga., and aboard USS Nebraska.

“Our sincerest condolences and prayers go out to the family and friends of Petty Officer Mudd,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force said.

A memorial service for the Olympia crew is being planned for later this week at the Submarine Memorial Chapel on Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam.

Mudd’s body was found and recovered from the water, about 60 feet from the shores of Pyramid Rock Beach at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, at approximately 1:40 p.m. Saturday, the Navy said.

Navy officials said first responders from the Marine Corps base were alerted to flares sighted in the air near Pyramid Rock Beach at approximately 6:20 p.m. Friday. Shortly after, Mudd was spotted in distress in a life raft.

Marine Corps rescue swimmers, rescue boats, and the Honolulu Fire Department responded, but reduced visibility and high surf conditions prevented rescuers from reaching Mudd, officials said.

The high surf had forced the cancellation of a surf contest earlier in the day. Rescuers lost sight of the man about 50 yards offshore around 7 p.m. Shortly afterward, military police recovered a life raft from the beach, along with a flare gun and a small, waterproof box.

Military police, a helicopter and fixed wing aircraft from U.S. Coast Guard District 14 and Honolulu Fire Department personnel continued to search throughout the night.

Mudd’s body was found Saturday by Marine Corps lifeguards. No wreckage of a boat has been found at this time, the Navy said.

Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, the Navy said no further details of the incident are available at this time.

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Demoted Navy Captain Led Warship into Drag Race

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/05/national/main6269357.shtml

March 5, 2010

Navy Captain Led Warship into Drag Race

Officer Demoted Not for High-Speed Race, Navy Says, but for Abusive Behavior Toward Crew

(AP) A Navy captain was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows.

Capt. Holly Graf was relieved of her command of the cruiser USS Cowpens after an investigation substantiated crew allegations that she was abusive and used her position for personal gain, naval officials said Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Graf did not immediately answer an e-mail. A message on her phone said the number had been changed, disconnected or was not in service.

A Navy inspector general report said investigators had substantiated that Graf assaulted subordinates (pushing one, grabbing another and once throwing wadded up paper at another sailor) and that she regularly verbally abused subordinates by publicly berating them, belittling them and using profane language.

The allegations were called in to a Navy hotline and covered March 2008 to July 2009. The report was issued in December, she was relieved of her command on Jan. 19 and on Thursday was awaiting new orders, one official said.

Graf once ordered a subordinate to stand in a “timeout” in a corner in front of the full watch team, which he complained to investigators was demeaning to him, according to the report.

The report also found she used her office for personal gain – that is, asked junior officers to play piano at her private Christmas party and to walk her dogs.

Among allegations not substantiated was one that she endangered the ship while allowing a drag-race between the Cowpens and the destroyer USS John S. McCain in February 2009.

Four witnesses described the 2009 race off of Okinawa, but they differed on how close the two vessels came to each other before the race was halted.

One sailor said that during the race, aimed at boosting morale, the McCain got ahead of the Cowpens and began drifting to the left into the path of the Cowpens. Though the report did not question that the race took place, it said the allegation of “hazarding a vessel” was unsubstantiated.

“In order to show that (she) improperly hazarded the USS Cowpens, the evidence must show that an actual event occurred in which the ship was lost or damaged, or that there was a situation in which the ship was placed in imminent danger of loss or serious damage” and that she did it willfully, the inspector general said.

One of the officials, who has many years of sea duty, said races on the open seas are not uncommon and are done to bolster morale or as a kind of maneuver drill.

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Marine killed in motorcycle crash

Posted on: Sunday, February 28, 2010 http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100228/NEWS01/2280349/Motorcycle+crash+kills+Marine

Motorcycle crash kills Marine

Advertiser Staff

A Marine stationed at Camp Smith was killed yesterday when the motorcycle he was riding rear-ended a car on H-1 Freeway near Kapolei.

The motorcyclist, a 24-year-old man, was thrown from the motorcycle.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department.

According to the Honolulu Police Department’s Vehicular Homicide Division, a 2009 Suzuki motorcycle was traveling west on H-1 just after 4:20 a.m. when it struck a 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara from behind.

The driver of the car, a 31-year-old man from Kapolei, was taken to an area hospital in serious condition.

Police said speed was a factor in the collision. It is not known whether drugs or alcohol also were involved.

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Soldier killed in fall from ridge in Makaha valley

A young man who fell to his death 1/10/2010 from the steep ridge at the back of Makaha valley was a soldier.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/81153657.html

Fire crews recover hiker’s body in Makaha

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 08:30 a.m. HST, Jan 11, 2010

Firefighters this morning recovered the body of a 28-year-old man who fell about 400 feet to his death from the Waianae Mountains yesterday afternoon.

Fire officials said the man and a fellow hiker had returned to the ridge to retrieve a tent that they had lost. They were rappelling down the ridge when one of them fell toward the Makaha side.

A fire helicopter picked up the second man and brought him off the trail yesterday. However high winds, poor visibility and darkness hampered efforts to recover the body, which had been spotted at 5:00 p.m. several hundred feet below where he was last seen.

“It was located in a steep heavily forested gully that was not easily accessible by helicopter or by foot. From the position of the body and the distance of the fall, it was determined that the hiker could not have survived the fall,” according to a statement from HFD Capt. Robert Main.

Recovery efforts resumed at daybreak and after working for three hours today, Honolulu Fire Department personnel took the body out of the valley at about 9:30 a.m.

A total of 12 firefighters were involved in the recovery mission.

An HFD helicopter dropped off firefighters at a landing zone and they hiked up the steep terrain to the body and carried it back down, which took more than 90 minutes, officials said. The helicopter returned the body to the HFD command center at the Mauna Olu Estates Community Center. Firefighters turned the body over to the Honolulu medical examiner for an autopsy.

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http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=888239

Area soldier, activist killed climbing in Hawaii

Wynantskill man was both passionate, disciplined about life and his beliefs

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer

First published in print: Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Garland English, a humanitarian from Wynantskill who became an Army platoon leader, died Sunday after falling about 400 feet in a rock climbing accident in Hawaii, where he was stationed, his friends said. He was 28.

English grew up on Oberlook Avenue and graduated from Averill Park High School before attending Columbia University in Manhattan. He was proud of being arrested at political protests, tried his hand at acting and writing poetry and traveled extensively before joining the Army in 2007, which he thought could lead to a career in politics, friends said.

English recently returned from a tour of Iraq.

He and a friend Sunday had returned to a rocky cliff in the remote and rural Makaha Valley near Honululu to try to retrieve a tent one of them dropped days earlier while hiking, said Capt. Terry Seelig of the Honululu Fire Department. English, who had a fearless side, didn’t have enough rope to climb down, and died trying to reach the gear, Seelig said.

High winds stalled a recovery effort for his body in the forested area until Monday, Seelig said.

“There will never be anyone quite like Garland,” English’s close friend and former Manhattan roommate Katharine Jose said. “He was a force of life.”

English was raised in Rensselaer County by his father Reed, and his grandmother would serve him hot meals. He named the Helena M. English Fund after her, a humanitarian organization that raised money to improve the political and health care systems of less fortunate countries. English pledged one-tenth of every paycheck he earned to it.

“He had certain deep beliefs about social justice, conservation and kindness that he tried to put into practice,” said Michael Crowley, a friend who recalled that English never took an elevator down from his 13th-floor dorm room.

English’s father could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Garland English was a military leader who cared about his soldiers. He asked people he knew in the U.S. to write to those under him who didn’t have family, his friend Joanna Siegel recalled. English smuggled five jars of date paste from Iraq and sent them to his friends with individual notes,

“He brought a sort of independent spirit to the military, but he also used it as a tool to gain discipline and experience,” Siegel said. Garland English was interested in cooking and adventure, and he wrote poetry under a pen name. He had exceptional good looks, Siegel said.

Garland worked as a deputy campaign manager for a New York City Council candidate in 2005, when he, Jose and his girlfriend at the time, Gillian Osborne, were featured in a New York Times story about sharing apartment space in the city at a time of high rents.

Garland had been living on Oahu island at the time of his death, but had been discussing buying a farmhouse upstate. Funeral service information could not be obtained late Tuesday.

“He was alive, really and truly alive, in a way that most of us only dream about,” Crowley said.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=888239#ixzz0cVldrIfz

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