Reactions to story from FOX News

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  N. Korea to be removed from list. America needs some Viagra.

  http://www.winkydog.net/2008/10/10/n-korea-to-be-removed-fro...
  53 days ago in WinkyDog. Barking out loud, from the Right. · Authority: 3

  N. Korea to be removed from list. America needs some Viagra. Can anyone tell me why a nation that has made a fool out of administration after administration, be taken of the the list of state sponsors, days after it restarts its nuclear program, and one day after they threaten a test launch of 10 missiles of their coast? Answer: This administration is impotent, and cannot afford another black eye.  Condi will give away the store. Insight:  You can insert Obama and Iran into this story, and you will have a news story from the future. From The Jawa Report: North Korea: Terror No More? It is being reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might announce as early as today that the United States will remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration looks poised to provisionally remove North Korea from the State Department’s terrorism blacklist, perhaps as soon as Friday, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.The move would be an effort to keep a nuclear disarmament pact with North Korea from falling apart, the newspaper said in an article posted on its website, quoting sources close to the administration. The newspaper quoted some sources as saying the delisting could happen as soon as Friday. But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told the Post in an e-mail, ” I can assure you that a decision has not been made.” I don’t know about you, but I think this is enough to convince me that they should stay on the list: North Korea deployed more than 10 missiles on its west coast apparently for an imminent test launch, a South Korean newspaper said on Thursday, and Pyongyang halted U.N. monitoring of its nuclear complex.The potentially destabilizing actions followed reports the United States had offered to remove North Korea from its terrorism blacklist this month. And this…. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said in recent days North Korea appeared to have been powering up its nuclear program and testing missiles. American satellite images confirmed reports of short-range missile testing recently, but the U.S. said those moves would not mean the death of international efforts to persuade North Korea to recommit to an agreement that offers it diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament. Would removing them from the terror list actually help men relations between North Korea and the U.S. or would we merely be giving them a pass? I personally think it would be a mistake. What say you? 2008 10 10 N. Korea Obersvations United Nations
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  North Korea: Terror No More?

  http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194381.php
  53 days ago in The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta · Authority: 1,178

  It is being reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might announce as early as today that the United States will remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration looks poised...
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  U.S. May Remove North Korea from Terrorism List

  http://www.warriorsciencegroup.com/newsblog/?p=632
  53 days ago in Homeland Security Updates · Authority: 2

  Via Foxnews.com Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could announce as early as Friday that the United States will remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, FOX News learned Thursday. Sources at the State Department told FOX News that there is a potential deal under which the U.S. would de-list North Korea. The deal, which would require North Korea to agree to verification protocols, was discussed during a meeting Thursday morning between Rice and other government agencies. Sources tell FOX News that it was a direct result of North Korea’s decision to allow U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill recently to inspect its nuclear facilities, including the Yongbyon plant. Removing North Korea from the terror list would be a major step in mending relations between the reclusive communist nation and the United States, though it also would come amid concerns about North Korea’s weapons program. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said in recent days North Korea appeared to have been powering up its nuclear program and testing missiles. American satellite images confirmed reports of short-range missile testing recently, but the U.S. said those moves would not mean the death of international efforts to persuade North Korea to recommit to an agreement that offers it diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament. (Full Article)
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  Let’s Have Some Fun With the Terror List: How About Nuclear Extortion Racket Derivatives?

  http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/and-now-lets-have-some...
  54 days ago in The Rosett Report · Authority: 76

  While everyone’s watching the markets and the election, the State Department – by now the Fannie Mae of foreign policy — is setting us up for the next crisis. That one is going to involve things possibly even worse than mortgage defaults, such as missiles and nuclear bombs. At the core of that crisis, when things really start to crater, will be Iran. But in times to come, when analysts (working by candlelight in their underground shafts) get around to asking the ritual questions (you know them well: Who let this happen? Why didn’t we see it coming?) they will also point to the leading edge of the wreck. That would be the Bush administration policy of the past few years on North Korea. It is Kim Jong Il (dead or alive) who has been setting the pace for racketeering rogue regimes and wannabe nuclear extortionists everywhere. If — over the objections of the U.S., Europe, Japan and anyone else who wants to play — he can counterfeit U.S. currency, wheel and deal in missiles and nuclear technology, make and test nuclear bombs, offer a piece of the action to Syria and Iran, and get paid by America for his pains, well then, who can’t? Here’s how Nuclear Extortion 101 works. North Korea tests some missiles, revs up its Yongbyon reactor, and America & friends pay Kim to stop. He pockets the bribe, reneges on the deal, and repeats the threat. We pay, he pockets… and here we go again:  Word is leaking out of Washington that Condoleezza Rice is on the verge of removing North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, with an announcement imminent. Why? It’s not because North Korea has gone out the terror business. If anything, Pyongyang –with considerable success — appears to be quite busy at the moment terrorizing the U.S. State Department. North Korea has learned that Rice and her special envoy, Chris Hill, baseball cap in hand, will do just about anything (pay, wait, fudge, dissemble, cover up, roll over, beg) to keep alive the pretense of a nuclear disarmament deal which from the start was about as solid as today’s mortgage derivatives market. North Korea wants off the terror list. The State Department, having showered Kim with gifts since mid-2007, finally balked, for the very good reason that North Korea refuses to agree to any system that might let inspectors actually verify what’s going on with its nuclear ventures (let alone take away the bombs). So North Korea is now threatening to re-start its Yongbyon reactor, and letting out rumbles about preparations to test another nuclear weapon. This is a way of telling the United States to jump. And if Rice responds to this blackmail by taking North Korea off the terror list, what she and Hill and President Bush (is he still there?) will really be saying to Pyongyang is: How high? Fox News is reporting that in preparing to caper to North Korea’s tune, State has cut its own verification bureau out of the loop. Looks like U.S. policy has morphed from “trust, but verify” to “trust, and pay the blackmail.” The same otherwise worthy Fox report includes an interesting sentence, culled from the conventional wisdom of the diplomatic circuit: “Removing North Korea from the terror list would be a major step in mending relations between the reclusive communist nation and the United States, though it would also come amid concerns about North Korea’s weapons program.” Aha… so it’s the terror list that’s caused all that friction between North Korea and the U.S.? Hey, if all we have to do to be safe from North Korea is take them off the terror list, a whole industry awaits. Make the whole world safe. Take everyone off the terror list. But why stop there? Just scrap the entire idea of a terror list. I do have a suggestion for what we might create in its place. To play its part in the growing global market in nuclear extortion that the Condi-and-Chris legacy is even now engendering, America is going to have to do a lot of groveling, and appropriate a lot of tax money – for free food, free fuel (nuclear or otherwise) and other doo-dads — to pay off rogue regimes that are already lining up to cash in on this bonanza. So how about State creating a public list of terror-loving governments to which America sends pay-offs in hope of stopping their nuclear weapons programs. Call it the Nuclear Extortion Racket List. That way, instead of Chris Hill cutting secret deals while back-slapping North Koreans in Berlin and touring Yongbyon, there could at least be some better planning, and accountability. There could be clear budgets assigned to how much in pay-offs  — whether in cash, kind or diplomatic concessions — should go to North Korea, to Iran, to Syria…or, well, imagine the possibilities. Heck, the way U.S. policy is going, this has all the makings of a broad and deep emerging market. A sort of Subprime for Rogue States. Of course, the startup costs for a nuclear weapons program are considerable. So maybe the World Bank and the UN Development Program could be recruited to figure out how to issue shares in the proposed nuclear extortion rackets of developing economies. We could have Cuba’s initial public offering, Khartoum extortion bonds. And there’s no reason for terrorist groups to be excluded from the action just because they happen to be part of the private sector. There is scope here for Al-Qaeda-Hezbollah extortion-racket swaps. And no reason that the American taxpayer should be cut out of this, if he wants to speculate on the chance of getting back some of his own money. Welcome to the 21st century, State Department style. Congratulations, Chris and Condi. How long before we can sit at our computers and trade Nuclear Extortion Racket derivatives? .. at least until the lights go out.
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  Who "Get's It" on Foreign Affairs?

  http://www.therevu.com/2008/10/world-events-favor-barack-oba...
  55 days ago in theRevū · No authority yet

  Someone's on the wrong side of the issues. First the Iraqi president demands a timeline - and gets it. Then the Bush administration tries its hand at diplomacy with N. Korea, albeit with limited success. We also heard that a possible embassy in Iran would be postponed until the end of the election cycle so as to not favor any particular political candidate (wonder who that might be). Now the infallible General David Petraeus is thinking about talking to the Taliban. Not exactly Iran, but pretty damn close. McCain should show exactly how "mavricky" he is and go against Gen. Petraeus. Contradict someone you've previously quoted as evidence you're on the right track? Now that's a true maverick. McCain's strong on foreign policy? Not anymore. Anyone who watched the debate knows that McCain is losing the upper hand in this regard. He has utterly failed in painting Obama as a neophyte clueless about foreign policy. Now the intelligence community is coming out with a dire report on Afghanistan, a war McCain likes to ignore and Obama constantly reminds us about (r. comparative spending on the wars from the NYT article). McCain has been saying that we need to win the war in Iraq before we can win it in Afghanistan. As America and other NATO allies have concluded, we can't wait that long. I'm not sure if McCain's definition of maverick includes going against common sense. And remember the Biden zinger during the VP debate? "He wouldn't even sit down with the government of Spain, a NATO ally." Read a fact-checking article from PolitiFact that gives this claim a "barely true" rating on its "Truth-O-Meter". The fact that there is any truth to that is troubling. There's a reason McCain's not been winning these debates, even on foreign policy issues: "He just doesn't get it." What do you think? Let us know on the poll to the right! UPDATE (11:21PM): The State Department is poised to remove North Korea from its terror list (which it never should have been on in the first place) in a deal, Fox News reports

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