This is an ex post facto rationalization bordering on a conspiracy theory. To my limited understanding, predicting tsunami or its effect is quite difficult because it depends pretty much on the underwater topography, and the type and location of the quake - not just the magnitude. Therefore, claiming that a 8.9 quake will certainly produce a devastating tsunami is a long stretch - to say the least.
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The US Navy maintains a global acoustic monitoring network known as SOSUS for Sound Surveillance System.
SOSUS is part of the Navy's Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, a listening infrastructure so sensitive it's been used to track the movements of deep sea whales.
The quake produced sound. The sound was undoubtedly detected by the sensor net. The strength of the audio signal would have indicated a large seismic event - perhaps of sufficient magnitude to produce a tsunami. At the time the acoustic energy was detected, a tsunami was not a certainty - as you say - but considering the strong possibility would not have been unreasonable.
It would not have been difficult for the Navy to share this information with governments in the quake region hours before the event. The Navy did not do this.
That is the central point of the post that began this thread - not that every life could have been saved, that would have been beyond our capabilities, but that information which might have lessened the number of lives loss was not shared. Apparently, no real effort was made.
For the curious, I recommend the following:
SOSUS -
<http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sosus.html >
Integrated Undersea Surveillance System
<http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/iuss.htm
>
.d.
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