Atlas Shrugs

VENEZUELA AND BOLIVA EXPEL US AMBASSADORS

Venezuela expels US ambassador, threatens to cut oil

BOLIVIA EXPELS US AMBASSADOR

Olavo de Carvalho is a Brazilian journalist and philosopher who has been sounding the alarm about the leftist takeover of Latin America for some time especially concentrating on the machinations of the Sao Paulo Forum, the new Latin American Commintern of Communist parties of which current President of Brazil Lula da Silva was the one time President. Below is an article by Carvalho analysing the Obama phenomenon.

The American Lula  Olavo de Carvalho hat tip Paul

With the same self-confident insolence, Obama’s government plans run flagrantly counter to the will of the majority, without the candidate having to fear the loss of even a single vote. The nation wants gas prices down; Obama promises to send them up, by maintaining the ban on new oil drilling. America wants to see illegal immigrants depart; Obama promises not only to grant them amnesty but also to give them taxpayer-funded health care. The nation wants fewer taxes; Obama promises to create a few more. If millions of American citizens who think and want the opposite of what Obama does have sworn to vote for Obama for president, it is not on account of what he promises, but in spite of his promising them even hell itself. The attraction of the hypnotic image is stronger than the cost-benefit analysis.

Obama’s campaign is a work of precision psychological engineering, planned not to win over voters through rational persuasion, but to weaken, shock, and stupefy them to the point of making them accept every loss, every humiliation, every defeat, just in order not to contradict the assumed moral obligation to elect him, it being of little importance whether he actually is an enemy in disguise. Here is what Obama is demanding—and obtaining—from voters: that they sacrifice everything to a fetish, that they do so to some extent consciously, sharing therefore the blame for the operation and becoming in advance unable to fight against it once it has been accomplished. We have already seen this operation be carried out in Brazil, on the basis of the stereotypical image of the “worker president,” against whose crimes and perfidies no one can raise an audible voice anymore, for everyone, dragged by the psychological blackmail, became an accomplice somehow in the rite of sacrifice before the altar of the idol.

UPDATE: Honduras in diplomatic snub to U.S. over Bolivia

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras, a former U.S. ally in Central America now run by a leftist government, told a U.S. envoy not to present his credentials as ambassador on Friday in a diplomatic snub in support of Bolivia.

RUSSIA ON WARPATH, DANGEROUS MOVES

UPDATE 9/10 8:28pm: Russian Muslim Leader Declares Anti-US Jihad

Talgat Tadzhuddin, one of Russia's two competing chief muftis, has once again declared jihad against the US, this time because of its support for Georgia, ...

UPDATE: The Marxist Obama can be depended upon to take the KGBs’ side (I know they changed the name) in any conflict. The Post editorial that follows gives an example.

Putin is trying to overthrow Georgia’s pro-free market, pro American president Mikheil Saakashvilli. For starters, he proclaimed a boycott on Georgia’s wines and spirits. It hurt the economy because Russia was their largest market. But the Georgians didn’t whine about it –they started marketing to the EU and America. We can help them by buying their wines. Georgian brandy is good stuff.  Historian Richard Holbrooke says that if Saakashvili survives, Putin loses and freedom wins. I’ll drink to that.  [I got this info from the 9/6 WSJ article, How’s Your Drink? by Eric Felton eric.felton@wsj.com  -Geo.

August 15, 2008 Editorial in the New York Post

The phone may not have rung at 3 a.m., but when word came of Russia 's brutal invasion of neighboring Georgia , one of the two presidential candidates instinctively understood the adventure's long-range implications.

And one did not.

Indeed, the crisis in the Caucasus is giving voters real insight into how John McCain and Barack Obama might handle a foreign-policy emergency.

In his first public reaction, Obama merely called on " Georgia and Russia to show restraint" - a reflexive exercise in what Sen. Joe Lieberman rightly labeled "moral neutrality."

Then Obama called for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia - apparently unaware that Moscow , a permanent Security Council member, can veto any such resolution.

He also suggested sending an international force under "an appropriate UN mandate" to South Ossetia . (See above, Security Council veto.)

Obama's initial reaction was that only Georgia 's territorial sovereignty was at stake - and that the way to resolve that issue was to negotiate.

But McCain immediately understood that the real issue wasn't just a Georgian territory violation, but Vladimir Putin's premeditated effort to let Eastern Europe know that Russia intends thoroughly to dominate what it terms its "near abroad."

And, belligerently, to let the world know that Moscow again considers itself a player on the global stage.

"World history is often made in remote, obscure countries," McCain said. "It is being made in Georgia today."

Translation: Small regional clashes can have ominous wider implications.

And, unlike even President Bush, McCain appreciates the real nature of Russia 's leader.

Where Bush famously described looking into Putin's soul and seeing someone "straightforward and trustworthy," McCain retorted: "I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes, and I saw three things: a K and a G and a B."

His firm line from the start - calling on Russia to be booted from the G-8 and for NATO to immediately admit Georgia - was a model of what the entire Western response should have been.

Obama's campaign, meanwhile, decried McCain's approach as "belligerent," and pointed out that one of his advisers formerly lobbied for the Georgian government - criticism that mirrored almost exactly attacks on McCain emanating from Putin's foreign ministry.

Pretty weak beer.

The crisis in Georgia was the first real election-season test for the two men who seek to become commander-in-chief. Only one passed.

Daryl said, "Talking, cajoling, and threats of a good scolding worked just great with Hitler and Tojo, too.

Obama should become President of Sesame Street. He may be able to handle that.

Leave being Commander-in-Chief and leading America through the dangers of the real world to John McCain. We can trust him to handle that.

Check out what Russia is up to post Georgia invasion. America is lost in the presidential election and Putin knows it - they are moving their chess pieces - belligerent war posturing. Much thanks to Van for the links.

Russia prepares to launch Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant J Post

Russia says to send nuclear warship to Caribbean

US-Russian naval rivalries heat up over Black, Caspian, Persian Gulf seas Debka

DEBKAfile's military sources report Washington is testing the Turkish government's response to the permanent anchoring of US warships at either of the two Georgian ports of Poti or Batumi. This would be quid pro quo for Moscow's interest in bases in Iranian Azerbaijan and the Persian Gulf.

Our sources report that the US anticipates a protracted period of tension with Russia for the following reasons:

1. US and NATO vessels will need safe coastal berths when the approaching winter storms strike the Black Sea. As time goes by, Turkey, which under international conventions controls the passage of naval vessels through the Dardanelles, will be under increasing pressure from Russia to block the waterway to NATO.

3. Washington is well aware of the talk in Moscow and Tehran in recent days about establishing Russian naval bases in Iran: Iranian Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea and an Iranian-held island in the Persian Gulf.

The latter, if Moscow and Tehran reached agreement, would terminate US naval control of the Persian Gulf waters opposite Iran forces and drastically upset the balance of strength in the region. Washington's response to this talk is its bid for a permanent Black Sea base.

Here's some more on the Russia Venezuela Naval issue. A good piece from the excellent IBD Editorials series. They get it.

The Russians have little respect for Chavez, but their anger over the U.S. missile shield treaty with Poland and the U.S. Navy's relief mission to Georgia coincide their interests with his.

This threat to sea lanes will increase the burden on U.S. forces who must monitor the new activity. It also underscores how important it is for Congress to permit new drilling for reasons of national security. If Russia can gain control of 25% of Europe's oil just by menacing Georgia, it could get an even more impressive return in the Caribbean.

Van opines, "the entrance to the Black Sea is through the narrow Dardanelle Straits. Russia is trying to persuade Turkey to block this vital passage to our ships. Russia is Turkey's biggest trading partner, so the economic incentive is great.

Russia has announced plans to acquire an Iranian port for its Mediterranean fleet. This would spell the end of our dominance of the Persian Gulf region.

Russia has announced plans to finish the Iranian Nuclear plant at Busheir. This has been on hold for 5 years, due to pressure from the U.S. That understanding has now gone south.

Venezuela/Chavez has made huge military purchases of planes, armament and submarines as of late. There are also stories out there that Hezbollah is operating there against the Jews.

The STRATEGIC BALANCE of POWER in the world is in a major state of flux right now. The pieces on the chessboard are being re-arranged. To put it in non-diplomatic terms, the shit is going to hit the fan soon!"

Democrat Leadership Heart Chavez, Hezbollah, FARC

All of those Hugo Chavez loving leftard asshats know not what they do? Or is it all about destroying America?

U.S. ties Caracas to Hezbollah aid Freezes assets of envoy, businessman Washington Times

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia | The Bush administration is accusing the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of providing cash and refuge to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah of southern Lebanon.

An investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) names Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din and Venezuelan-Arab businessman Fawzi Kanan as key links between the two.

"It is extremely troubling to see the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers," said Adam Szubin, political affairs director of OFAC.

Mr. al Din has served as charge d'affaires at the Venezuelan Embassy in Syria and as director of political affairs at the embassy in Lebanon.

The Treasury Department made the accusations in a June 18 statement, which summarized an investigation of Venezuelan-registered businesses that are thought to be laundering money for Hezbollah.

The department also froze assets of Mr. al Din and Mr. Kanan and banned them from conducting business in the U.S. or with U.S. citizens and residents.

Read it all. Ouch

Larwyn sent this bombshell over. Over at Gateway:

Speaker Pelosi Was Sending Messages to FARC Terrorists While Undermining Colombian Government!

SWAMP POLITICS---

New information reveals that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was indirectly sending messages to the FARC. The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is designated as a terrorist group by the US government. Speaker Pelosi was doing this while at the same time she refused to bring a free trade agreement with Colombia up for a vote in the US House. In fact, Pelosi took extraordinary steps to block this trade agreement with America's closest ally in South America.

Cordoba-Pelosi-McGovern
Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba (left) is currently under investigation by the Colombian attorney general for ties to the FARC. Cordoba claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was sending messages to the FARC terrorists. Cordoba also claimed during FARC negotiations that Pelosi had assigned Rep. Jim McGovern, as the point man. Captured FARC documents confirmed in March that Mr. McGovern had been working with an American go-between, who had been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia's elected and popular government.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the confiscated FARC documents that implicated Rep. McGovern back in March:

The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal. Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia's elected and popular government.

Mr. McGovern's press office says the Congressman is merely working at the behest of families whose relatives are held as FARC kidnap hostages. However, his go-between's letters reveal more than routine intervention.

Now, today we find out who was directing Rep. McGovern--
Speaker Pelosi!
Mary Anastasia O'Grady at The Wall Street Journal reported:

Last fall, Mr. Chávez and the FARC hatched an audacious plan whereby the Venezuelan would take "proof of life" of Ms. Betancourt to French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, where the plight of Ms. Betancourt was a cause célèbre. The rebels wrote that Mr. Chávez was sure French pressure for negotiations would cause President Bush to "order Uribe to allow the meeting" between Mr. Chávez and the rebels on Colombian soil, something Mr. Uribe had refused to do. The rebels reported that Mr. Chávez was "super-motivated," because he viewed the rendezvous as a public-relations coup that would give him and the FARC "continental and world renown."

That plan flopped, but Mr. Chavez had other cards up his sleeve. One involved Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, who is currently under investigation by the Colombian attorney general for ties to the FARC. She figures prominently in the captured rebel documents, and is notoriously close to Mr. Chávez.

She met at the Venezuelan presidential palace with FARC leaders last fall. From that meeting the rebels reported that "Piedad says that Chávez has Uribe going crazy. He doesn't know what to do. That Nancy Pelosi helps and is ready to help in the swap [hostages in exchange for captured guerrillas]. That she has designated [U.S. Congressman Jim] McGovern for this."

If the speaker of the House was working with Ms. Cordoba in this scheme, her judgment was more than a little misguided. The rebels write that on a trip to Argentina Ms. Cordoba told them, "It doesn't matter to me the proposal that Sarkozy has made to free Ingrid. Above all, do not liberate Ingrid." In short, why give up such a useful pawn?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (C), senior FARC rebel commander Ivan Marquez (L) of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba walk at Miraflores Palace in Caracas November 8, 2007. (Reuters)

 

BOLTON NAILS OBAMBI

The man who should be running weighs in on the radical left's nominee. Bolton dissects and shatters  Obambi's silly policy statements with surgical precision. This should be required reading for the electorate. Seriously.

Obama the naive John (the bomb) Bolton hat tip jon s

His views on world affairs ignore history and imperil the U.S. and our allies.

Barack Obama's willingness to meet with the leaders of rogue states such as Iran and North Korea "without preconditions" is a naive and dangerous approach to dealing with the hard men who run pariah states. It will be an important and legitimate issue for policy debate during the remainder of the presidential campaign.

Consider his facile observations about President Kennedy's first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in Vienna in 1961. Obama saw it as a meeting that helped win the Cold War, when in fact it was an embarrassment for the American side. The inexperienced Kennedy performed so poorly that Khrushchev may well have been encouraged to position Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962, thus precipitating one of the Cold War's most dangerous crises.

Such realities should cause Obama to become more circumspect, minimizing his off-the-cuff observations about history, grand strategy and diplomacy. In fact, he has done exactly the opposite, exhibiting so many gaps in his knowledge and understanding of world affairs that they have not yet received the attention they deserve. He consistently reveals failings in foreign policy that are far more serious than even his critics had previously imagined.

Consider the following statement, which was lost in the controversy over his comments about negotiations: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. ... Iran, they spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance."

Let's dissect this comment. Obama is correct that the rogue states he names do not present the same magnitude of threat as that posed by the Soviet Union through the possibility of nuclear war. Fortunately for us all, general nuclear war never took place. Nonetheless, serious surrogate struggles between the superpowers abounded because the Soviet Union's threat to the West was broader and more complex than simply the risk of nuclear war. Subversion, guerrilla warfare, sabotage and propaganda were several of the means by which this struggle was waged, and the stakes were high, even, or perhaps especially, in "tiny" countries.

In the Western Hemisphere, for example, the Soviets used Fidel Castro's Cuba to assist revolutionary activities in El Salvador and Nicaragua. In Western Europe, vigorous Moscow-directed communist parties challenged the democracies on their home turfs. In Africa, numerous regimes depended on Soviet military assistance to stay in power, threaten their neighbors or resist anti-communist opposition groups.

Both sides in the Cold War were anxious to keep these surrogate struggles from going nuclear, so the stakes were never "civilizational." But to say that these "asymmetric" threats were "tiny" would be news to those who struggled to maintain or extend freedom's reach during the Cold War.

Had Italy, for example, gone communist during the 1950s or 1960s, it would have been an inconvenient defeat for the United States but a catastrophe for the people of Italy. An "asymmetric" threat to the U.S. often is an existential threat to its friends, which was something we never forgot during the Cold War. Obama plainly seems to have entirely missed this crucial point. Ironically, it is he who is advocating a unilateralist policy, ignoring the risks and challenges to U.S. allies when the direct threat to us is, in his view, "tiny."

What is implicit in Obama's reference to "tiny" threats is that they are sufficiently insignificant that negotiations alone can resolve them. Indeed, he has gone even further, arguing that the lack of negotiations with Iran caused the threats: "And the fact that we have not talked to them means that they have been developing nuclear weapons, funding Hamas, funding Hezbollah."

This is perhaps the most breathtakingly naive statement of all, implying as it does that it is actually U.S. policy that motivates Iran rather than Iran's own perceived ambitions and interests. That would be news to the mullahs in Tehran, not to mention the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.

It is an article of faith for Obama, and many others on the left in the U.S. and abroad, that it is the United States that is mostly responsible for the world's ills. In 1984, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick labeled people with these views the "San Francisco Democrats," after the city where Walter Mondale was nominated for president.

Most famously, Kirkpatrick forever seared the San Francisco Democrats by saying that "they always blame America first" for the world's problems. In so doing, she turned the name of the pre-World War II isolationist America First movement into a stigma the Democratic Party has never shaken.

This is yet another piece of history that Obama has ignored or never learned. There may be one more piece of history worthy of attention: In 1984, Mondale went down to one of the worst electoral defeats in American political history. We will now see whether Obama follows that path as well.

Evil takes a Roman Holiday

Show me your friends - this is priceless

Barbarians of a feather, rot together

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called Mugabe's presence in Rome "obscene". Britain also criticised Mugabe's rare foray out of Zimbabwe where he is fighting for his political future in an election runoff.     

"This is the person who has presided over the starvation of his people. This is the person who has used food aid in a politically motivated way," Smith said.     

"So Robert Mugabe turning up to a conference dealing with food security or food issues is, in my view, frankly obscene," added the Australian minister, who is also to attend the Food and Agriculture Organization summit.
[...]
There were also protests in Italy by activists, leftist politicians and Jewish groups against Mugabe and Ahmadinejad.    

"It is in no way legitimate for the people of Zimbabwe to be represented by a head of state who has been disowned by the international community and who is unwanted by his own people," Sergio Marelli, Italian host of a forum on food sovereignty coinciding with the summit, told AFP.     

"We are against all dictatorships," Radical Party spokeswoman Anita Friedman told AFP.     

Zimbabwe faces acute food shortages after land reforms and the collapse of the farming sector.     

The 84-year-old president is subject to a travel ban to the European Union because of sanctions imposed after he allegedly rigged his re-election in 2002, but is able to attend UN forums.     

Ahmadinejad's presence at the summit "addressing the tragedy of hunger in the world symbolises the devastating contradiction between the violence of totalitarian governments and their demogogic statements," demonstration organisers said in a statement.     

[..]

"For nearly 30 years, the rulers in Tehran have negated the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, women, gays, student associations and anyone who does not agree with the regime's policies," the statement said.  (more here)

Meanwhile, the poison dwarf, yet again, threatened the tiny Jewish state with annihilation:

Iran's president took yet another swipe at Israel and the U.S. today claiming the former "would soon disappear off the map" while he branded the latter a "satanic power" which faced destruction.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke out at a gathering of foreign guests marking this week's 19th anniversary of the death of Iran's late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

He said: "You should know that the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime which has 60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes in its file has reached the end of its work and will soon disappear off the geographical scene."

Turning to the United States, he added that the era of decline and destruction of its "satanic power" had begun. He said: "The bell on the countdown of the destruction of the empire of power and wealth has begun to ring."

Americans Name top Enemies

Despite Condiappeaser, Bush lite, State dept arabists, Olmurderer and the Euroweenies, Americans know who the enemy is:

Americans call Iran, Iraq, China top enemies
USA Today
China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans. Iran topped the list, with 25% naming it when asked which country is the greatest U.S. enemy, according to the Gallup Poll. Iraq came next at 22%, then China with 14%.

But folks, North Korea is huge. Americans perceive it as China's vassel.

China, a growing economic rival of the U.S., was cited by 11% as top enemy a year ago.

Gallup first asked the question in early 2001, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. At the time, Iraq was seen as the biggest foe, followed by China and Iran.

CONDI'S LETHAL LEGACY

Condi has nothing on Iran as they race to build a nuclear arsenal. No plan. Gotz. She's got nothing on the NORKS  as they race to nuclear arm Syria and Iran and who the hell knows who else. She's got nothing ............so her leagcy will be the funding and arming of Islamic jihad under the auspices of a bloody, deadly, "peace" process. This headbanging has gone on long enough. How many Jewish kids, rabbis, believers have to die before the deadly reality of not backing Israel but backing our mortal enemies sets in?

The Jews are not the problem. Nuclear armed Islamic regimes are the most frightening of all possible futures.

Deconstructing the utter mess we are in begins we de-nuclearizing the North Koreans. Bolton has a plan.... is anyone listening?

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal Ambassador John Bolton writes:

At a minimum, President Bush should not bequeath to the next president only the burned-out hulk of the Six-Party Talks, and countless failed and violated North Korean commitments.

David Gothard

Since they were conceived in spring 2003, the Six-Party Talks have stumbled around inconclusively. And for the last 13 months, Pyongyang has ignored, stalled, renegotiated and violated the Feb. 13, 2007 agreement.

Throughout all this "negotiation," which has mostly consisted of our government negotiating with itself, North Korea has benefited enormously. It's been spared the truly punishing sanctions that concerted international effort might have produced. In large part because of the appeasement policies of the two previous South Korean governments, Pyongyang has not felt the full impact of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on its outward proliferation efforts. The U.S. has muzzled its criticism of North Korea's atrocious oppression of its own citizens. And, perhaps most humiliatingly of all, the U.S., in a vain effort at chasing the mirage, gave up its most effective pressure point -- the financial squeeze -- allowing Pyongyang renewed access to international markets through institutions like Banco Delta Asia.

In fact, the protracted Six-Party Talks have provided Kim Jong-il with the most precious resource of all: the time to enhance, conceal and even disperse his nuclear weapons programs. Time is nearly always on the side of the would-be proliferator, and so it has proven here. In exchange for five years of grace to North Korea, the U.S. has received precious little in return.

Pyongyang is now stonewalling yet again on its promise to disclose fully the details of its nuclear programs, including its uranium enrichment efforts and its outward proliferation. The successful Israeli military strike against a Syrian-North Korean facility on the Euphrates River last September highlighted the gravity of the regime's unwillingness to do anything serious that might restrict its nuclear option.

Nuclear arming of Islamic regimes. The worst of all possible scenarios.

President Bush should spend the next 10 months rectifying the Six-Party concessions and put North Korea back under international pressure -- efforts that would be welcomed by Japan, and South Korea's new, far more realistic President Lee Myung-bak. Here are the steps to take:

- Declare North Korea's repeated refusal to honor its commitments, especially but not exclusively concerning full disclosure of its nuclear programs, unacceptable. This is the easiest step, and the most obvious. It can happen immediately. Accept no further partial "compliance," as the State Department continuously tries to do. Make public what we know about the North's Syria project, and its uranium enrichment and missile programs, so our 2008 presidential candidates can have a fully-informed debate.

- Suspend the Six-Party Talks, and reconvene talks without North Korea. Although the talks could be jettisoned altogether, continuing them without the North allows Japan, South Korea and the U.S. to begin applying real pressure to China, the one nation with the capacity to bring Pyongyang's nuclear program to a halt. China has feared to apply such pressure, worried that it could collapse Kim Jong-il's regime altogether -- an accurate assessment of the regime's limited staying power. Nonetheless, the effect of Chinese reticence has been to preserve Kim and his nuclear program. It is vital that China know this policy is no longer viable.

- Strengthen international pressure on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Ramp up PSI cooperation with South Korea. Remind Russia of its own voluntarily-assumed obligations as a PSI core member. Remind China as well to comply with the sanctions imposed on North Korea by U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718 (which followed the North's 2006 ballistic missile and nuclear tests), and honor its other counterproliferation obligations. Tell them we will be watching with particular care, and that Chinese failure to increase pressure on North Korea will have implications in Sino-American bilateral relations. We can make this point privately to China rather that trumpet it publicly, but it should be made without ambiguity.

- Squeeze North Korea economically. Return the regime to limbo outside the international financial system, and step up action against its other illicit activities, such as trafficking in illicit narcotics and counterfeiting U.S. money. These and other "defensive measures" are nothing more than what any self-respecting nation does to protect itself, and the U.S. should never have eased up on them. Even now they can have a measurable impact on Kim Jong-il's weak and unsteady regime.

- Prepare contingency plans for humanitarian relief in the event of increased North Korean refugee flows or a regime collapse. Both China and South Korea have legitimate concerns about the burdens they would face if the North collapsed, or if increased internal economic deprivation spread instability. America and Japan should make it plain that they will fully shoulder their share of providing humanitarian supplies and assistance if either happened. Moreover, President Lee should increase pressure on Pyongyang -- by reiterating that South Korea will fully comply with its own constitution and grant full citizenship to any refugees from the North, however they make their way to the South.

Doubtless there are other steps. President Bush will not likely be able to solve the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Nonetheless, he still has time to implement policies that will allow him to leave office with the nation back on offense -- thereby affording his successor the chance to vindicate a return to the original Bush administration national security strategy.

OT but related: Anybody know if McCain is talking to Bolton? I mean really.

UPDATE: VENEZUELA AMASSING MILITARY SHOWDOWN ISRAEL SUPPORTS COLUMBIA CHAVEZ SUPPORTS 2ND HOLOCAUST

UPDATE 3/5 : VENEZUELA IS GOING TO WAR

CHAVEZ AMASSING MILITARY SHOWDOWN AT COLUMBIA BORDER

UPDATE: VENEZUELA IS MOVING 10 TANK BATTALIONS TO THE COLUMBIA BORDER. They are sending tanks, troops, warships.

Leftist terror FARC trying to acquire uranium.

*************************************************************

Israel supports Columbia in her fight against terror as does Atlas and  every  freedom loving man. The media will spin this differently but Columbia is in the same fight we are. Chavez is licking his chops stoking the fires of war and ..... Jew hatred.

Columbia takes Chavez to International Criminal Court BBC:

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says he will ask the International Criminal Court to bring genocide charges against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

He accused Mr Chavez of sponsoring and financing Colombian Farc rebels. Venezuela denies the charge.

Colombian officials say a laptop found during a raid on a Farc camp held files indicating Venezuela gave Farc $300m.

Important to watch the align of nations in the lead up to the unavoidable world war. It is important to expose the increasing Jew hatred in in Venezuela. Since Chavez it has become virulent.

Check these articles out, read them carefully.  There's a campaign going on against the Jews in  Venezuela and it really is noteworthy, regarding Chavez' declaration of  Columbia being the Israel of Latin America. This guys enemies are, of  course, the Jews.

Israel supports Columbia in its War on Terror. Chavez is apoplectic and will call upon the  dangerous  alliances with Islamic jihad, Hezb'Allah for one:

In a nearer and more dangerous scenario which also has Venezuela as a starting point, Hezbollah in Latin America, also called Hezbollah Venezuela, converts to Islam any indigenous Chavista it can, because they are the ones that least understand what is going on. Evangelical missionaries have disappeared from the jungle because according to Chavez they are genocidal spies. Evo Morales in Bolivia repeats Chavez's same words.

Chavez has invited Iranian Shiite "missionaries" to convert the Guajiros and other indigenous peoples in Amazonia. The entire Wayuu tribe is now Muslim, women wear veils while men go to Kalashnikov shooting practice. Some have themselves photographed wearing suicide vests loaded with bombs, and the Venezuelan government distributes the photos, publicizing its friendship with Ahmadinejad and Middle East terrorist groups.

More here.

Antisemitism in Venezuela 1996-98
Antisemitism in Venezuela 1999-2000
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela 200 -2001
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela 2001- 2002
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela 2002 -2003
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela 2003-4
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela  2004
Anti-Semitism/in Venezuela 2005
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela 2006

THE CHAVEZ REGIME: Fostering Anti-Semitism and Supporting Radical Islam ADL

Over the years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has befriended a number of questionable figures in South America and also in the Middle East where he has formed bonds through both OPEC and ideological channels. As Chavez's hatred of the United States Israe has grown, he has become close allies with a number of the West's most dangerous adversaries. These relationships grew only stronger during the Israel-Hezbollah war, when Chavez was outspoken in his criticism of Israel and the United States and in his support for Hezbollah.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – President of Iran

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explicitly threatens to wipe Israel< from the map, denies the Holocaust and defies the democratic world by supporting terrorism and extremism and pursuing nuclear weapons.

Chavez has visited Iran on several occasions, has hosted President Ahmadinejad in  Venezuela and has made extensive bilateral agreements with the current Iranian government. On July 30, 2006, while visiting Iran, Chavez and Ahmadinejad took part in a joint press conference at which Ahmadinejad stated, "Just like my dear brother Chavez expressed, [Israel's incursion] is a real shameful crime, and a handful of Zionists see an open path to crime…. We believe the real criminals are those who have created this illegal regime.

Also disturbing is Chavez's Argentinian ties:

BUENOS AIRES-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has developed close links         with Argentine radicals ranging from Communists to right-wing nationalists,  some of whom, knowledgeable people here fear, have the potential to further  destabilize Argentina as it struggles to emerge from its worst economic crisis in decades.

In the Caribbean heat of Caracas, a continent away from the mock-Parisian         boulevards of Buenos Aires, Mr. Chavez is presiding over his own deepening         economic and political crisis. But his domestic troubles haven't kept him from working hard to push his notion of populist revolution. In Argentina, which is struggling to emerge from its own economic debacle, some in the    country's political leadership worry about the influence Mr. Chavez, who is due here for Sunday's inauguration of Nestor Kirchner, the country's   new president, exerts over local radicals.

There isn't any evidence that the Venezuelan leader is working to overthrow         governments. But his politicking comes at a very delicate time in Latin America. Fragile democracies throughout the region are struggling to cope with an economic downturn and growing popular resentment at the market-based  economic policies pushed by Washington and Wall Street. Mr. Chavez, who  has been accused of trying to turn Venezuela into a second Cuba, spouts   a heady mix of nationalist, leftist and populist sentiments.

Note also that there's a growing presence of Hezbollah in Venezuela and read this document here:

    The October 23, 2006 failed explosive operation in Caracas     On October 23, 2006, the Baruta Municipality police found two explosive devices near     the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. One of the bombs was found in a box     containing leaflets making reference to the Lebanese radical Islamic group Hezbollah.     The local television news network, Globovision, reported one of the devices found in a     flowerpot near the Embassy, while the other device found outside a school, near the     diplomatic premises.     Wilfredo Porras, acting director of the Baruta police, said they arrested a man carrying “a backpack with six containers of 100 black powder bases, pliers, adhesive tape, glue and electric leads". At that time, the suspect declared the devices were “set to explode in 15 minutes".     1 “The idea was apparently to create alarm and publicize a message", Borraz told reporters, explaining that the explosives were made to scatter the pamphlets.2 It is possible that the second device was intended to explode near the Israeli Embassy but the suspect gotnervous and dropped it near the American Embassy.     \The arrested man is Jose Miguel Rojas Espinoza, a 26-year-old student of the state-run     Bolivarian University founded by President Hugo Chaves, offering free education.

    An organization calling itself the Hezbollah Latin America (Hezbollah LA) took     responsibility for the attack on October 25 on their website and promised they would     stage other simultaneous attacks, with the same goal of publicizing the organization. The website presented Rojas as “the brother mujahedeen, the first example of dignity and struggle in the cause of Allah, the first prisoner of the revolutionary Islamic movement Hezbollah Venezuela”.3 The organization already threatened to explode a non-lethal device on August 18, 2006, which is surprising since they publicly announced their plans and because no one seemed to take notice to this warning. The target mentioned was an ally of the U.S. in a Latin American city in order to launch its propaganda campaign. Hezbollah Venezuela would see this as a beginning of their war against imperialism and Zionism and to show its solidarity with the Lebanese Hizballah after the July war in Lebanon (see Annex 1).

Read this excerpt:

"The Sephardic Tiferet Israel Synagogue suffered repeated attacks in the wake of several pro-Chavez demonstrations (see also ASW 2003/4). Following a government organized rally on 16 May under the banner “Against terrorism and foreign involvement, for respect of sovereignty, the homeland and the Constitution,” a group of persons scrawled slogans on its walls and in the car park, in the name of the ‘Simon Bolivar Coordination’ (Coordinadora Simón Bolívar − CSB) and the ‘Revolutionary Left Youth’ (Juventud de Izquierda Revolucionaria − JIR). It should be noted that Chavez’s revolution − the ‘Bolivarian revolution’ − is named after the 19th century general Simón Bolívar (El Liberator). The slogans read, inter alia: “Don’t allow Colombia to be the Israel of Latin America [an allusion to US attempts to bring Colombia under its wing in order to fight left-wing guerilla groups]”; Sharon is a murderer of the Palestinian People”; “Viva the armed Palestinian people”; and “Free Palestine.”

Similar graffiti, as well as the slogan “Jews go home,” appeared on the wall of synagogue after a pro-government rally on 6 June. It was signed by the pro-Chavez Communist Youth and the Communist Party of Venezuela. On 8 August a group of supporters from a pro-Chavez rally held at the close of his anti-referendum campaign daubed slogans such as: “Sharon is a murder. No to Israel,” with the letter ‘S’ shaped like a swastika. They also wrote, inter alia: “Viva Chavez and Arafat”; and “NO to Zionism.”

Virulently anti-Israel posters appeared on the streets of Caracas in December during the Second Bolivarian Congress of the People (II Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos). Signed by pro-government organizations such as MVR (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario/Movimiento Quinta Republica [Quinta=5 in Roman numbers], the Chavez Party), the Communist Party in Venezuela (Partido Comunista de Venezuela) and Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, they read, inter alia: “Neither Orlando Urdaneta [Venezuelan anti-Chavez actor] nor the super-terrorist Israelis will succeed with our people”; “No to the Israeli commandos in Caracas”; “No to the involvement of Israelis in our nation”; “No to the Mossad and no to the CIA”; and “Bush+Sharon = murderers.”"

 

Much thanks to Michael N for sharing all this with me. We got all this information via this  German blog

Venezuela: Jew Hatred Chavez Style

An epidemic of incomprehensible proportions.

Journalist: There is a new fear among Jews in Venezuela Miami Herald hat tip Mara

A Venezuelan journalist sounded the alarm about repeated acts of 'government-sponsored' anti-Semitism in the South American country at a presentation at a South Florida synagogue.

Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chávez government's alliances with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday.

''The situation we have now in Venezuela is that for the first time in modern history we have government-sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country,'' said Sammy Eppel. ``That is why this is very dangerous, not just for the Jewish community in Venezuela but for the Jewish community as a whole.''

Update: Fausta is on it as well.

Sleep with dogs ...............

Sleep with dogs ............. and maybe you don't wake up at all.

Iran's poison dwarf President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad walks hand in hand with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Doha 12/3/07.

Ahmadinejad has been invited to perform the hajj pilgrimage by Saudi King Abdullah, in another first for the Islamic republic's leader, Iran's ambassador to Riyadh has announced.

Double Jeopardy Dan Diker J Post hat tip Carolyn

[...]

But Abdullah's last minute invitation to Ahmadinejad, and his public cozying up to the Iranian at a moment when Iran threatens to replace Saudi Arabia as the new hegemon in the Middle East could be the latest signal of how terrified the Sunni Arab establishment is - and the Gulf states in particular are, of Iran's rising power. It is also seems a graphic indication of Saudi and "Gulfie" nervousness over their perception of America's growing weakness and loss of political will opposite Teheran.

On the face of it, Ahmadinejad's key note address - the first for any Iranian leader to the Sunni Gulf Cooperation Council - that included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman seems counter intuitive.

Wasn't the GCC created to offset the very threatening Iranian regional influence it now appears the Gulf States are ready to honor? In fact, as the Washington Institute's Simon Henderson points out in a December 7 analysis, the UAE set a precedent in November by impounding an Iranian-bound shipment of undisclosed material banned by UN Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747 because of its potential use for nuclear weapons or missile programs. The Washington Institute brief also notes that Bahrain's crown prince for the first time openly accused Iran in a recent interview of seeking nuclear weapons.

And didn't the same Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and other Gulfies send senior officials to Washington's Annapolis conference two weeks ago, to show the Iranians that the US could lead a coalition of Arab Sunni states to Isolate Teheran's Islamo-fascist mullocracy?

So how can what looked like the beginning of a kiss and make up session last week between Iran's Ahmadinejad and Iran's Sunni Gulf rivals be understood?

FOR STARTERS It was little coincidence that the Abdullah-Ahmadinejad photo op took place on the same day and virtually in tandem with the release of the US National Intelligence Estimate. 

Arab leaders don't believe that for a minute. Middle East scholar and Council on foreign Relations fellow Max Boot noted in a Wall Street Journal article this week that a senior Arab official warned him during a recent trip to the Gulf that "accepting Ahmadinejad with nuclear weapons is like accepting Hitler in 1933." Broad Arab participation at the Annapolis conference exemplified their heightened fears.

Now, for Arab Sunni Gulf States who are worried about Iran's ascendancy under a nuclear umbrella, the National Intelligence Estimate underscores growing confusion, disunity and discord in Washington.

While former UN ambassador John Bolton blasted the report as "politics masquerading as intelligence," to worried Arab leaders, the apparent lack of US unity and purpose opposite Iran spells weakness and a lack of political will. Some leading Islamic affairs experts inside and outside the Beltway have been issuing this warning for some time.

IRAN, MEANWHILE, continues to charge ahead with its atomic weapons plans while destabilizing the region via proxy terror groups in Iraq, in Lebanon via Hizbullah, via Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic jihad in Gaza, all the while promising to liquidate Israel, the US's key Middle East ally.

So despite palpable Arab fears of Iran - particularly a nuclear one - as Jordan's King Abdullah II first publicly expressed in 2004 when he coined the term "the Shi'ite crescent" - to refer to Iran's arc of control, Professor Bernard Lewis, the world's leading scholar on Islam and the Near East, has long reminded the West that Arab political culture runs with the winning horse.

THIS IS the also the context in which the recent US hosted Annapolis conference should be considered. Instead of pressing for victory against Iran, Bush's summoning much of the international community to Washington to advance Palestinian-Israeli peace and to send a message to Iran was likely perceived somewhat differently in the Middle East.

In the context of Lewis's "winning horse" analogy, Bush in the Arab and Persian mind may have appeared more like the school weakling who needed to turn to the rest of the class to back him opposite the class bully, in this case the 120 pound Ahmadinejad.

So with the US National Intelligence Estimate weakening US diplomatic efforts to mobilize the international community against Teheran, Arab states prefer to mingle with Iranian power rather than risk American uncertainty.

Read it all.

 

North Korea Aids the Hezbos

Evil makes for some strange bedfellows.It hardly seems a stretch when we know that the NORKS have been providing nuclear technology to Syria and Syria provides support, munitions to hezbollah so if A =B and B =C then A= C blah blah blah. Nobody gives a rats ass. Carolyn adds, "no matter.Condi will think.It's only Israel. If it could really harm the Saudis, well, that would be a different story-don't you know."

Oh and BTW, we are rewarding these nuclear proliferators with 100,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil? They don't even have the facilities to house such an enormous amount of heavy fuel so we, and our "partners," are going to BUILD THEM. More here

North Korea may have aided Hizbullah, US report says Ynet via Reuters hat tip Carolyn

Congressional Research Service quotes 'reputable sources' as saying Pyongyang may have armed, trained members of Lebanese terror group.

French publication says training 'significantly improved Hizbullah's ability to fight the Israelis during the 2006 war'

North Korea may have given arms to Lebanon's Hizbullah and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, according to a report compiled for Congress that could complicate US plans to drop Pyongyang from its terrorism blacklist.

The report obtained on Wednesday by Reuters was written by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides independent analysis to Congress, and cited "reputable sources" as saying Pyongyang had given arms and possibly training to the militant groups, which Washington regards as "terrorist" organizations.

As part of a deal to get Pyongyang to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons, Washington has dangled the possibility of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if it fully discloses its nuclear programs.

North Korea, which conducted a nuclear test in 2006, has agreed to provide a "complete and correct" declaration of these programs by the end of the year, although analysts say there is considerable uncertainty whether it will meet the deadline.

Venezuela RIP UPDATED: BACK FROM THE DEAD!

Say Goodbye to Venezuela. As that fat thug imposes fascist lockdown, the pogroms have begun. Police raided Venezuela's main Jewish social club on the eve of a national referendum (and it's not the first time.)

Say Goodbye to Venezuela. hat tip Larwyn

The police raid took place as 900 Jews enjoyed an all-night wedding party at the nearby Union Israelita synagogue in Altamira, an upscale suburb of Caracas.

According to sources, members of the police unit that investigates drug-trafficking and terrorism broke the main gate of La Hebraica in the middle of the night, allegedly looking for weapons and explosives.
Officers searched the premises but found nothing, the sources said.

Venezuelans on Sunday were deciding whether to approve 69 constitutional amendments proposed by the Chavez government, including whether to eliminate presidential term limits. That would pave the way for Chavez to be re-elected indefinitely.

Thug for life.

Experts predicted a very close vote; results were not expected until late Sunday.

 

Chavez Claiming Victory

And he's doing it on Mecca time. The Tehran papers haver also been following the vote. Interesting that this would first turn up on Al Jazeera, via Reuters, ay?

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, is heading for victory in a referendum on allowing him to remain in power as long as he keeps winning elections, two government-linked sources said citing exit polls.

Three exit polls showed Chavez won by between six and eight points in a vote where turnout was low, they told Reuters news agency.

If confirmed, the results would be by far the slimmest victory margin in the career of a man who wants to rule for life.

Most pre-vote opinion surveys predicted a close referendum on the raft of constitutional changes that the opposition and even some longtime former allies say are authoritarian.

An emboldened opposition and recent violent clashes during street protests have created fears of a potentially volatile dispute

UPDATE: Dr. Clifton writes of this breaking story:

1:20 AM
Fireworks in San Felipe. Chavez on cadena!!!

1:17
Tibisay Lucena head of the CNE has announced that the NO has won!!!!! Less than 2% margin!!!

UPDATE: Caracas Chronicle:

Hell No!...it's OFFICIAL!

Quico says: Venezuela rejects authoriarianism. It's a historic day. The myth of Chávez the invincible is no more.
NO 51%
SÍ 49%

GULF PETRO$: What Have We Wrought?

$100 BUCKS A BARREL AND CLIMBING

OIL BONANZA FUNDS GULF INVESTMENT SPREE

Near East meets Far East: the rise of Gulf investment in Asia EIU.com

Gulf-based investors have become increasingly active in Asia in recent years, and the trend looks set to continue over the medium term, according to Near East meets Far East: the rise of Gulf investment in Asia, an Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by Arcapita Bank B.S.C.(c). While claims that a "new Silk Road" is emerging that will trump the Gulf's relations with the West look overstated, there is little doubt that the small but substantial portion of petrodollar investment going into the region (estimated at around 10-11% of total Gulf outward investment) will increase significantly over the next five years.

Several trends have underpinned the rising interest from investors in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries in Asian assets:

• Changing investment preferences in the Gulf.
  In previous oil booms most of the billions of dollars in Gulf capital was parked in the international banking system and US treasuries, and the rest invested cautiously in portfolios that tended to favour capital preservation over yield maximisation. Today GCC sovereigns are increasingly managing their own surpluses directly, rather than outsourcing that process. At the same time, the past decade has witnessed rising sophistication in the GCC banking sector and among public and private investors, and deepening integration of emerging markets into the world economy, which have also underpinned a growing appetite among GCC investors for riskier Asian assets.

There's more (click headline)

China seeks 30% increase in Saudi crude supplies Reuters

China has asked for a 30 per cent increase in crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia for 2008 and also aims to raise imports from Iran, partly to feed two new refineries amid steady demand growth, trading sources said yesterday.

Sinopec, Asia's top refiner, wants to increase Saudi crude imports to 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) for next year, up from this year's 460,000 bpd, a trading source close to the supply talks told Reuters.

The supply pact, pending Saudi confirmation, would foster closer energy ties between Beijing and Riyadh, while maintaining the kingdom as China's top oil supplier.

China is keen to secure more long-term fuel supplies while the Saudis are building a refinery in China and looking to invest in a second one.

TRIAD OF EVIL MEETS, PLANS

STOP FUNDING THE JIHAD, OUR MORTAL ENEMY!

Triad of Terror: PA Terrorists Meet With Iranian FM in Damascus INN

(IsraelNN.com) Officials from Palestinian Authority terrorist factions met in Damascus Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Motaki to discuss the situation in Gaza and the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit.

According to a member of the Iranian delegation who spoke on condition of anonymity, Motaki met with Hamas deputy politburo head Moussa Abu Marzouk, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, and PA officials.

"Damn Iranian Chavistas!"

Wow............. Anti-Chavez rally (hope he doesn't crush them)

Lots more pics here Brazilian Neocon's rough translation

From what I could see in the comments, this was a massive student demonstration against Chaves' so-called "constitutional reform". I am not very up to date in Venezuelan politics, but I think this reform is the one that would give him even more absolut powers and let him get re-elected forever... 

The great majority of the commenters were congratulating the students for having the guts to stand up against the dictator. Some mentioned that it is very ironic how the chavistas' demonstrations are all openly supported by the government and the police, while the pro-democracy protests are always met with brutality and suppression of free speech on the hands of the regime's security apparatus.  

I would not translate most of the comments, though, because they are basically very nasty slurs of a very graphic sexual nature slung between the few chavistas agitators infiltrated in that forum and the rest of the people - something very common among Latinos (I can say that because I am classified as one by most people...).  

There was one phrase though that caught my attention... MALDITOS CHAVISTAS IRANIES

or, "Damn Iranian Chavistas!" in English... It shows how the people in Venezuela are not only aware of the infamous alliance between Chavez and Ahmadinejad, but are also fed up with it.

UPDATE: Cinnamon Stillwell: Hugo Chavez seems determined to disallow anyone to interfere with his naked grab for power by "reforming" the constitution of Venezuela.  Does this look like a functioning democracy to you?

Syria Fesses Up to NUKES

 Nuclear Proliferation among the worst of players. I wonder if this is enough confirmation for the IAEA. Nah.

Syrian Confirms Israel Destroyed Nuclear Facility INN

(IsraelNN.com) A Syrian official has now admitted that the Israeli operation on September 6 destroyed a nuclear facility.

A Syrian representative said Tuesday at the United Nations that reports that the target was a nuclear device were accurate.  Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad had previously claimed that Israel attacked an abandoned army base or an agricultural facility.

During a meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission, the Syrian representative acknowledged that the target had been the nuclear facility. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials were also attending. He accused Israel of aggression for targeting the facility.

NORK NUKE DUPE DEAL: SCAMMING PAYS

To read the latest missive from the State department on the deal struck with the North Koreans is to suspend your disbelief. America has become a joke. A terrible joke. We screw our friends and reward our enemies. That prison, that 30 million manned gulag parading as a nation has used every "negotiation" to buy time, blackmail the west, while building nuclear weapons, testing nuclear weapons and sharing that technology with the axis of evil.  State Department willful stupidity is stupefying in the face of the mortal threats we face. Who the frick are they working for? It's a disablement proposal not a disarment program. They can always reassemble. Hellooooo. What of their record of constant lying?

The reason we have no other options, the reason we have no leverage - is because we turned a blind eye to their lies in the past. There was no punishment for all the past deceptions, only continual reward.

The NORKs have repeatedly lied and bought time, why would it be different now? Scroll the State department doc and just look at what we are giving this despot in return for violation after violation (we are talking NUKEs here, NUKE violations.) REWARDING ENEMIES FOR SPITTING IN OUR FACE and flouting every tenet of basic human decency. This rounds perks are astounding. Removing  the North Korean designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Further,  the NORKS do not even have the facilities to store some of the extortion goodies, so what are going to do? Build the facilities for them. You just can't make this stuff up.

John Bolton said this last week here," I don’t think North Korea is ever going to voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons. I don’t think you can chat Kim Jong Il out of what he sees as his trump card against Japan, the United States, South Korea, and others. So, in a sense, the entire six-party talks are a way of subsidizing Kim Jong Il with tangible economic and political benefits, relegitimizing him after his ballistic missile and nuclear weapons test of last year, and propping up a regime whose two main objectives are staying in power and keeping its nuclear weapons. So from that point of view, I don’t think the six-party talks can solve the North Korean nuclear problem. I think they’re perpetuating it.

FP: So could you not imagine a scenario wherein Kim Jong Il knows he’s better off without nuclear weapons than with them?

JB: I don’t think he can imagine such a scenario. He has repeatedly promised to give up nuclear weapons, or the regime has [via] the North-South Joint Denuclearization Declaration and the Agreed Framework. There have been any number of statements during the course of the six-party talks, not just the February 13 [2007] agreement or the September 2005 agreement, but earlier during the first Bush term. The difference is that in February of this year, Kim Jong Il was feeling the effects of the credit squeeze because of [the Banco Delta Asia issue] and keeping the North Koreans out of international financial markets. I think he was feeling the squeeze and the isolation as a consequence of his October nuclear test, and he needed to get himself out of the corner he had painted himself into. Once he’s out of that corner, I think he’ll simply revert to past practices.

Six Parties October 3, 2007 Agreement on "Second-Phase Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement

* On October 3, 2007, the Six Parties – the United States, China Japan, Russia, the DPRK, and the ROK – agreed on “Second-Phase Actions for Implementation of the Joint Statement.”
* The United States welcomes the October 3 agreement, which outlines a roadmap for a declaration of the DPRK’s nuclear programs and disablement of its core nuclear facilities at Yongbyon by the end of the year.

Yeah right like they did the zillions of other times they promised. Schmucks we are!

* These Second-Phase actions will effectively end the DPRK’s production  of plutonium – a major step towards the goal of achieving the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
* We intend to work closely with the other parties to implement Second-Phase actions as expeditiously and effectively as possible.

Jerking off - all together now!

Under the terms of the October 3 agreement:

+ The DPRK agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs – including clarification regarding the uranium issue – by the end of the year

+ The DPRK agreed to disable all existing nuclear facilities subject to;
the September 2005 Joint Statement and February 13 Agreement. As a start, the core nuclear facilities at Yongbyon – 5-MW(e) nuclear reactor, reprocessing plant (Radiochemical Laboratory), and fuel rod; fabrication facility – are to be disabled by the end of the year.+ The DPRK committed not to transfer nuclear materials, technology, or know-how.

Is Kim Jung Very Ill still claiming the NORK nukes in Syria weren't theirs? If they lie about their nuclear proliferation, they can commit not to transfer right?

+ The United States reaffirmed its intent to fulfill its commitments
regarding the removal of the designation of the DPRK as a state sponsor of terrorism and the termination of the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) with respect to the DPRK.

They have been transfering nuclear technology to terror states (Syria, Iran) and you are removing them from the terror list? Holy shia!

+ U.S. action related to the terrorism designation and TWEA application will depend on the DPRK’s fulfillment of its Second-Phase commitments on providing a declaration and disabling its nuclear facilities.

Schmucks! They have lied and deceived time and time again - every time. Why is this time different. I can't believe this agreement.

+ The DPRK and Japan agreed to make “sincere efforts” to normalize their relations.

Japan is not the problem.

+ The other parties reaffirmed their commitment to providing the DPRK
with economic, energy, and humanitarian assistance up to the equivalent of one million tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO), inclusive of the 100,000 metric tons that has already been delivered.

We are rewarding these nuclear proliferators with 100,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil? They don't even have the facilities to house such an enormous amount of heavy fuel so we, and our "partners," are going to BUILD THEM.

+ The Six Parties remain committed to holding a ministerial level meeting
in the near future.

* · The October 3 agreement builds on the February 13 agreement on  Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement, pursuant to which the DPRK in July shut down and sealed the Yongbyon nuclear facility and invited back the IAEA to verify and monitor these  activities.
Declaration
* The declaration will include all nuclear facilities, materials, and

* The DPRK also agreed to address concerns related to any uranium enrichment

Disablement
* Specific disablement actions will be based on the findings of the U.S.-China-Russia experts who visited the DPRK September 11-15 to survey the facilities at Yongbyon
* The goal of these actions is to ensure that the DPRK would have to expend  significant time and effort to reconstitute its ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
* At the request of the Six Parties, the United States has agreed to lead disablement activities and provide the initial funding for those

* As a first step, U.S. experts will lead another delegation to Yongbyon the week of October 8 to prepare to develop o