LATEST: Whistleblower Answers Accusations from American Samoa Governor’s Office

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PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA – OCTOBER 03: A car sits up against the side of a building near the village of Leone following the 8.3 magnitude strong earthquake which struck on Tuesday 29th September. The quake triggered a tsunami wave up to 1.5 metres across areas of the island, with the official death toll in American Samoa standing at 34.  Close to 200 lost their lives in the South Coast of Upolu Samoa, American Samoa and Niuatoputapu. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

[tweetmeme]Before we go to the response from the former Homeland Security Director for American Samoa, let’s  recap. This is part of an ongoing series on American Samoa post-tsunami and its disaster preparedness:

Background

Last month, CNN screened an explosive investigation into American Samoa Government’s misuse of federal funds targeted for disaster preparedness.

In light of the tragedy that took place on Tuesday 29^th September, when an 8.3 magnitude earthquake triggered a destructive tsunami that claimed 34 lives in American Samoa, it is not surprisingly that reporters started asking questions.

CNN Investigation Aired October

CNN found that since 2003 Tutuila, as the islands are known to Samoans, had been receiving millions of dollars in disaster preparedness. The CNN reporting team spoke to American Samoans on the island, and abroad, off the record. They spoke to US Government officials off the record for background information. The final outcome? It all pointed to very disappointing revelations about how the American Samoa Governor’s office are under FBI investigation. That American Samoa, thanks to the Governor and his Cabinet,  have been on a high risk list for  federal funds. The biggest blow, perhaps, was the shocking revelation that there were funds targeted for a tsunami emergency siren.

But because of the Governor’s misuse of federal funds, they were asked by the US Government to repay it pending any more disaster preparedness funding being released. They never repaid a cent. And no more disaster relief funding was released. We approached the Governor’s office as soon as we heard the CNN report was due to be aired in the USA. In response, American Samoa Homeland Security Director Mike Sala eventually responded:

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File photo: WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 26 2007: U.S. President George W. Bush (C) speaks as (L-R) America Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, National Governors Association Chairwoman and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, Washington State Gov. Chris Gregoire, and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine listen during a meeting February 26, 2007 at the White House in Washington, DC. The members of the National Governors Association are in Washington for their annual winter meeting.

On Behalf of the Governor of American Samoa

Email received from Sala dated: Wed 28/10/2009 11:53 a.m(NZ time)

The samoanews has asked me to  comment on the CNN and Birdie Alailima stories today.  I will respond accordingly and in the future, please forward all inquiries to me regarding government corruption and misuse of federal funds.  I will repond on the behalf of the Governor on those issues as mentioned.

Email cc’d to: Ttulafono@aol.com; gar@americansamoa.gov; ‘JACINTA GALEAI’; ‘Andy Puletasi’; ‘Jacinta Brown’; ‘Evelyn Vaitautolu-Langford’; ‘Blanche Barber’

We did forward our inquiries directly to Mike Sala, as well as other members of the Cabinet including the Governor.

In his response, Sala, on behalf of the Governor, highlighted the need for federal government to take responsibility for not having a tsunami siren installed. To be frank ,we baulked at that suggestion because if the Governor’s office had appropriately used federal funds, American Samoa would not have been found in the situation it was in on Tuesday 29^th September 2009.

Governor’s Representative Caught Lying

Soon afterwards, Sala sent us an email attaching a story he claimed was written and published by Samoa News, the local American Samoa newspaper. That turned out to be a blatant lie. Samoa News verified that it was not their story, and had never been published by their newspaper. In fact, it has not been published by any known media outlet as far as we have been able to verify. Remember, Mike said he was speaking on behalf of the Governor. This email, with the fabricated story, was cc’d to the Governor and Evelyn Langford and others in the Cabinet as noted above.

Almost immediately after receiving Sala’s email, pacificEyeWitness.org then received an email directly from Governor Tulafono, from his personal AOL email, asking to know more about our media outlet.

As far as answering pacificEyeWitness.org questions about who wrote the story, and why it was wrongly attributed to samoa news, no answer. Complete silence from all of them on this.

Back to the CNN report. As they stated, they were not prepared for the disaster. And seven weeks later, while Samoa, a country without the aid of the might and money of the USA, begins its rebuilding, American Samoa languishes still in the emergency recovery stage.

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RESPONSE FROM WHISTLEBLOWER ALA’ILIMA

Now we turn to the former Homeland Security Director for American Samoa, Lei’ataualesā Birdsall Ala’ilima.

After we published our findings, we later received heard from Ala’ilima’s attorney requesting a copy of the fabricated “story” that Sala had sent.  We understand they are currently in legal action against the American Samoa Government and specific officials for slander and other related matters. We did not publish the “story” sent by Sala. It levelled accusations at the former Homeland Security Director and also laid blame with the USA federal government. We sent his attorney a copy of  Sala’s “story” and asked Ala’ilima,  through his attorney, to respond to the allegations in it. Ala’ilima responded to us directly with his answers. We publish the first three responses to the story. We will cover the rest as part of the series.

Mr. Sala’s action as a high level government official has serious implications on the integrity of the current administration and tarnishes the honest efforts of many hard working Samoans within the American Samoa Government (ASG).

Former Homeland Security Director for American Samoa, Lei’ataualesā Birdsall Ala’ilima.

UNEDITED

For the sake of clarity, the “story” sent by Sala to pacificEyeWitness.org will be named GOVERNOR/SALA with Ala’ilima’s response after. Because Sala said he was speaking on behalf of the Governor, with the Governor, and his key staff, included in all correspondence, we have bylined accordingly:

GOVERNOR/SALA: Mike Sala addresses CNN allegations, by Samoa News staff. (please note this is a fabricated nonpublished story from Sala). “American Samoa has a back up warning system in place and it works” according to Mike Sala, Director of American Samoa Department of Homeland Security.

ALA’ILIMA: Yes there was a radio system that had been developed during my time at TOHS (Territorial Office of Homeland Security) It was in effect and working during the Cyclone Olaf in February of 2005 and instrumental in keeping people apprised of the status of the hurricane. It was well recognized, however, that while hurricanes can be tracked days before they hit land; in earthquake generated tsunamis there are precious few minutes to alert people to run to high ground. It was for this reason that the siren alert system was developed by my office.

GOVERNOR/SALA:A CNN report alleging that government corruption and misuse of funds was responsible for 34 deaths in the wake of the disastrous tsunami of late September has many wondering where the facts lie. The issues involved are two-fold: a siren warning system which was allegedly “purchased” under former director Birdsall Alailima, (nowhere to be found) and (in lieu of the Emergency Alert System equipment) a back-up radio system for the EAS which was in place the morning of the magnitude 8.3 earthquake, and utilized by Homeland Security Deputy Director Jacinta Brown.

ALA’ILIMA: Mr. Sala does not seem to recognize that the sirens were intended to add to the capabilities of the existing EAS system. While I was at TOHS we were always testing and developing additions that would address real world situations. In addition to the sirens we were working on extending the EAS broadcast coverage to the Manu’a islands. I have taken the liberty of forwarding the October 2006 test results for alert radios we distributed into the community. As you can see, the results revealed weak radio signals in some of the deeper valleys on Tutuila. We were working on resolving this matter and achieving 90% coverage throughout the territory. Also, as explained below, the siren system was to be purchased and installed by the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) and then reimbursed.

GOVERNOR/SALA:It should be understood that the backup system consists of 2-Way Communication Radios, aka COM Radios.

ALA’ILIMA: Mr. Sala does not understand his own system. The radios that were assigned to the village mayors and government departments were one way informational communications from NOAA and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Once alerted of a pending emergency these radios would automatically turn on and tune to the broadcast which would provide needed information. The problem we recognized was that for tsunami events there needed to be an immediate attention grabbing alert so everyone could act immediately. Only an island wide siren system could provide that immediate alert.

Tomorrow,  the emergency training under Ala’ilima’s watch and more responses to Sala’s “story”.

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American Samoa “Not Quite There Yet” on Rebuilding

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