I have to also be skeptical of any reports from DG. I was stationed there as a weatherman in 72-73, things were pretty primitive when I arrived but a lot changed in a year. We had 3000' of asphalt strip at first when I left we had 13,000' of concrete strip. The highest point on the island was 7.2' above sea level, I'm sorry but a six foot tidal surge would have put most of the place under water, it would have been a big deal.
On our Diego Garcia newsgroup there was no e-mail from DG for a long time, then e-mails saying all was well that there was some erosion on the plantation side( eastern). when I was ther everything was censored in and out we never knew what was true. I would be very suprised if it was not the same now. The only way to know would be a satellite photo from an independesource, I'm not sure that exists. Take with several grains of salt.
The Washington Post reported in December, 2002 that Diego Garcia was used for secret interrogations of detainees.
The off-limits patch of ground at Bagram is one of a number of secret detention centers overseas where U.S. due process does not apply, according to several U.S. and European national security officials, where the CIA undertakes or manages the interrogation of suspected terrorists. Another is Diego Garcia, a somewhat horseshoe-shaped island in the Indian Ocean that the United States leases from Britain. [Available on lexis.com]
Human Rights First issued a report with the same finding. The Red Cross thinks so too.
In January, 2002, Stewart Powell of Hearst newspapers reported on the transfer of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh and seven other detainees to a ship in the Indian Ocean--likely on Diego Garcia.
Captured Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh was transferred Monday from one American warship to another in a move that signaled Pentagon preparations to return him to U.S. territory for a possible trial. Navy Cmdr. David Culler, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said the 20-year-old American and seven other battlefield detainees from Afghanistan were flown by helicopter from the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea to the USS Bataan in the Indian Ocean.
....Aircraft carriers handle the planes that would be used to ferry Walker to an allied nation in the Persian Gulf such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia or Oman, or to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, a British-controlled U.S. base. From any of these places, Walker could then be transferred to an intercontinental passenger jet. [Available on lexis.com]
There is a very interesting article discussing among other things Diego Garcia and the Tsunami here. It mentions that the New York Times reported that Diego Garcia had advance warning of the tsunami:
"One of the few places in the Indian Ocean that got the message of the quake was Diego Garcia, a speck of an island with a United States Navy base, because the Pacific warning center's contact list includes the Navy. Finding the appropriate people in Sri Lanka or India was harder." (NYT, 28 Dec 2004, emphasis added)
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