Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met during his visit to Washington
Wendy Sherman, an adviser to the US Democratic Party's presidential
primary candidate Hillary Clinton, the foreign affairs ministry
announced on Thursday.
The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid stated that
during the meeting Sherman listened to Shoukry's evaluations of
political and economic developments taking place in Egypt, the country's
regional and international relations, as well as the country's efforts
to fight terrorism.
"The meeting reflected the mutual wish to enforce Egyptian-American
relations if Hillary Clinton wins the US presidential elections," the
foreign ministry statement read.
Sherman noted that she was ready to transfer any message from the
Egyptian side that would enforce the US's relationship with Egypt to
Hilary Clinton, Abu Zeid said in the statement.
The name Wendy Sherman should ring a bell to all of you. A nuclear bell. In 1994, the Clinton administration signed a deal that it claimed would
stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. The deal was
negotiated by Wendy Sherman, the same Democratic party hack who was the chief concessionaire to Iran. North Korea abrogated the agreement when it felt able to do so, and has gone on to test nuclear weapons. Iran has participated in North Korea's nuclear tests.
Sherman is a total incompetent who was in way over her head. Even the Obama administration has no confidence in Sherman, who
is nothing but a hack. (Look how many times they sent John Kerry to Vienna during the Iran negotiations). Here's Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal nearly three years ago.
In 1988, the former social worker ran the
Washington office of the
Dukakis
campaign and worked at the Democratic National Committee. That
was the year the Massachusetts governor carried 111 electoral votes to
George H.W. Bush's
426. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Sherman was briefly the CEO of
something called the Fannie Mae Foundation, supposedly a charity that
was shut down a decade later for what the
Washington Post
called "using tax-exempt contributions to advance corporate interests."
From
there it was on to the State Department, where she served as a point
person in nuclear negotiations with North Korea and met with
Kim Jong Il
himself. The late dictator, she testified, was "witty and
humorous," "a conceptual thinker," "a quick problem-solver," "smart,
engaged, knowledgeable, self-confident." Also a movie buff who loved
Michael Jordan
highlight videos. A regular guy!
Later Ms. Sherman was to be found working
for her former boss as the No. 2 at the Albright-Stonebridge Group
before taking the No. 3 spot at the State Department. Ethics scolds
might describe the arc of her career as a revolving door between
misspending taxpayer dollars in government and mooching off them in the
private sector. But it's mainly an example of failing up—the
Washingtonian phenomenon of promotion to ever-higher positions of
authority and prestige irrespective of past performance.
This
administration in particular is stuffed with fail-uppers—the president,
the vice president, the secretary of state and the national security
adviser, to name a few—and every now and then it shows. Like, for
instance, when people for whom the test of real-world results has never
meant very much meet people for whom that test means everything.
Two years ago, Sherman accused Israel of making the Iran talks 'harder.'
In what appeared to be a warning to Israel, she said the United States hopes no one will interfere with the talks.
"We don't enter these talks with rose-colored glasses and we don't
know yet if we can resolve this diplomatically," Sherman said, according
to Haaretz.
"It will be critical that our negotiators and partners have the space
to get this done diplomatically. The talks with Iran will be very hard
and we can't afford to make it even harder."
Haaretz also quoted her as having stressed that Iran’s
nuclear program would have to be "limited, discreet, constrained,
monitored and verified." [All the things that it clearly isn't in 2016. CiJ]
If the Iranian nuclear enrichment program does not meet these conditions there will be no agreement, Sherman added.
She noted that the United States "would like there to be zero enrichment" but that is an "unlikely" expectation.
From social worker to Secretary of State? What could go wrong?
State Department spokesman John Kirby: 'We don't have to accept reality'
.@apdiplowriter (Matt Lee) demolishes State Department spokesman John Kirby at last Wednesday's State Department briefing. The subject was North Korea but it could as well have been Iran or the 'Middle East peace process.'
Let's go to the videotape.
If you had any doubts that the Obama administration is living in Fantasyland, this should resolve them.
In a report on the North Korea monitoring
website, 38 North, Jeffrey Lewis said recent satellite imagery showed
that in the past year North Korea had begun to refurbish a major uranium
mill in Pyongsan, a county in the southern part of the country.
"The
renovation suggests that North Korea is preparing to expand the
production of uranium from a nearby mine," Lewis, director of the East
Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International
Studies, said in the report.
"One possibility is that North Korea will enrich the uranium to expand its stockpile of nuclear weapons," Lewis said.
Another
possibility was that the uranium would be used for production of fuel
for an Experimental Light Water Reactor under construction at its
Yongbon nuclear research facility and future light-water reactors based
on that model, Lewis added.
Lewis said Pyongsan
was believed to be the most important uranium mine in North Korea and
recent satellite imagery indicated that the Uranium Concentration Plant
there was undergoing significant refurbishment.
"Since
2013, most of the buildings have received new roofs," he said. "Other
buildings appear to have been gutted and are now in the process of being
rebuilt with new roofing."
"The
significant investment in refurbishing the mill suggests that North
Korea is expecting to process significant amounts of uranium, either
from the Pyongsan mine or other uranium mines."
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, the last in February 2013, and now calls itself a nuclear weapons state.
It
has said it is not interested in a dialogue with the United States like
that which led to a deal over Iran's nuclear program and says its
nuclear capabilities are an "essential deterrence" against hostile U.S.
policy.
In a column published by the London-based Arabic news website Elaph, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, a former intelligence chief and Ambassador to the United States, has blasted President Hussein Obama's sellout to Iran, claiming it will 'wreak havoc' in the Middle East.
“Serious pundits in the media and in politics say that President
Obama’s Iran deal is ‘déjà vu’ in relation to President Clinton’s North
Korean nuclear deal.”
President Clinton’s decision was based on
strategic foreign policy analysts, top secret national intelligence, and
the desire “to save the people of North Korea from starvation,” wrote
Prince Bandar, in reference to the 1994 “Agreed Framework” between North
Korea and the United States that aimed to freeze the country’s nuclear
power program.
The agreement finally broke down in 2003 when
North Korea announced its withdrawal from the international Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and later declared it had manufactured
nuclear weapons. The country now has as many as 20 nuclear warheads,
according to Chinese intelligence.
President
Clinton “would not have made that decision” had he known it was based
on “a major intelligence failure” and “wrong foreign policy analysis,”
wrote Prince Bandar, nephew of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
But
“President Obama made his decision to go ahead with the Iran nuclear
deal fully aware that the strategic foreign policy analysis, the
national intelligence information, and America’s allies in the region’s
intelligence all predict not only the same outcome of the North Korean
nuclear deal but worse - with the billions of dollars that Iran will
have access to,” Prince Bandar stated.
“It will wreak havoc in
the Middle East which is already living in a disastrous environment, in
which Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region,” he
continued.
Why would Obama go ahead with such an agreement,
“knowing what President Clinton didn’t know when he made his deal with
North Korea?” questioned the former diplomat.
It’s because Obama “ideologically believes what he is doing is right,” said Prince Bandar.
Yes, that's precisely right. Things sure have changed since Obama bowed to the Saudis in 2009.
The parallels are striking: China estimates N. Korea will have 40 nukes by 2016 and 75 by the end of the decade
The parallels are striking.
In 1994, the Clinton administration signed a deal that it claimed would stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. The deal was negotiated by Wendy Sherman, the same Democratic party hack who is now in charge of the Iran file. North Korea abrogated the agreement when it felt able to do so, and has gone on to test nuclear weapons. Iran has participated in North Korea's nuclear tests.
Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that China, which is not known for being alarmist, says that North Korea will have 40 nuclear weapons - double the number it has now - by 2016 and 75 by the end of the decade.
China’s top nuclear experts have increased their
estimates of NorthKorea’s nuclear weapons production well beyond most previous
U.S. figures, suggesting Pyongyang can make enough warheads to threaten regional
security for the U.S. and its allies.
The latest Chinese estimates, relayed in a
closed-door meeting with U.S. nuclear specialists, showed that North Korea may
already have 20 warheads, as well as the capability of producing enough
weapons-grade uranium to double its arsenal by next year, according to people
briefed on the matter.
A well-stocked nuclear armory in North Korea
ramps up security fears in Japan and South Korea, neighboring U.S. allies that
could seek their own nuclear weapons in defense. Washington has mutual defense
treaties with Seoul and Tokyo, which mean an attack on South Korea or Japan is
regarded as an attack on the U.S.
“I’m concerned that by 20, they actually have a
nuclear arsenal,” said Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University professor and
former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who attended the closed-door
meeting in February. “The more they believe they have a fully functional nuclear
arsenal and deterrent, the more difficult it’s going to be to walk them back
from that.”
Chinese experts now believe North Korea has a
greater domestic capacity to enrich uranium than previously thought, Mr. Hecker
said.
The Chinese estimates reflect growing concern in
Beijing over North Korea’s weapons program and what they see as U.S. inaction
while President Barack Obama
focuses on a nuclear deal with Iran.
In Washington, some Republican lawmakers said
the pending White House deal with Iran could mirror the 1994 nuclear agreement
the Clinton administration made with North Korea. The deal was intended to halt
Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons capabilities, but instead, they allege, provided
diplomatic cover to expand them. North Korea tested its first nuclear device in
2006.
“We saw how North Korea was able to game this
whole process,” U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, said in an interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran had
its hands on the same playbook.”
The pace of North Korea’s nuclear arms growth
depends on its warhead designs and its uranium-enrichment capacity, Mr. Royce
said: “We know they have one factory; we don’t know if they have another one.”
China, which
is North Korea’s largest investor, aid donor and trade partner, has for most of
the past decade underestimated Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, nuclear experts
said, including its capacity to produce fissile
material.
Estimates of North Korea’s capabilities by
Chinese experts began to align with those in the U.S. after 2010, and moved
beyond after 2013, according to people familiar with exchanges on the matter
between China and the U.S.
Until recently, the Chinese “had a pretty low
opinion of what the North Koreans could do,” said David Albright, an expert on
North Korea’s nuclear weapons and head of the Institute for Science and
International Security in Washington. “I think they’re worried now.”
China’s foreign and defense ministries didn’t
respond to requests for comment. Diplomats at North Korea’s mission to the
United Nations didn’t respond to attempts to seek comment. The White House,
State Department and Pentagon declined to provide U.S. estimates of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
“We have been and remain concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program and believe China should continue to use its influence
to curtail North Korea’s provocative actions,” said Patrick Ventrell, a
spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.
He said the U.S. was working with other
countries to implement U.N. sanctions designed to press North Korea “to return
to credible and authentic denuclearization talks and to take concrete steps to
denuclearize.”
After all, that's worked so well until now. /sarc
In an email, the Israel Project's Omri Ceren breaks it down into politics and policy implications.
Politics -- why it will matter: The parallels write themselves. The Agreed Framework was negotiated by Wendy Sherman and the Iran deal is being negotiated by Wendy Sherman. The Agreed framework lasted a decade and the Iran deal is slated to last a decade. The Agreed Framework relied on IAEA verification and the Iran deal relies on IAEA verification. And now the North Koreans have a full-blown nuclear arsenal, which the Americans don't even know about ("U.S. officials didn’t attend the meeting but some expressed surprise when they were later briefed on the details"). It's a disaster on any number of levels.
Policy -- why it should matter even more: the Iran deal will flood the Islamic Republic with hundreds of billions of dollars, potentially including the $50 billion signing bonus. But in every meaningful sense, the North Korean nuclear program is an Iranian nuclear program, albeit beyond Iran's territorial borders. The Iranians pay for the program. The Iranians receive knowledge and technology from the program. The Iranians are on hand to observe every major nuclear and missile test. Etc. Seen in this light, the nuclear deal with Iran will become a multi-billion dollar jobs program for North Korean nuclear engineers, who will use the money to create and miniaturize more nuclear warheads, which they will then give back to Tehran. The deal doesn't stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. It finances the program.
Report: Obama covered up N. Korea missile component transfers to Iran during nuke talks
The Washington Free Beacon reports that North Korea transferred advanced missile components to Iran while the P 5+1 talks with Iran were ongoing - and that President Hussein Obama hid that fact from the United Nations (Hat Tip: Gershon D).
Since September more than two shipments of missile parts have been
monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies as they transited from North
Korea to Iran, said officials familiar with intelligence reports who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
Details of the arms shipments were included in President Obama’s
daily intelligence briefings and officials suggested information about
the transfers was kept secret from the United Nations, which is in
charge of monitoring sanctions violations.
...
CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani declined to comment on the missile
component shipments, citing a policy of not discussing classified
information.
But other officials said the transfers included goods covered by the
Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary agreement among 34
nations that limits transfers of missiles and components of systems with
ranges of greater than 186 miles.
One official said the transfers between North Korea and Iran included
large diameter engines, which could be used for a future Iranian
long-range missile system.
The United Nations Security Council in June 2010 imposed sanctions on
Iran for its illegal uranium enrichment program. The sanctions prohibit
Iran from purchasing ballistic missile goods and are aimed at blocking
Iran from acquiring “technology related to ballistic missiles capable of
delivering nuclear weapons.”
U.S. officials said the transfers carried out since September appear to be covered by the sanctions.
Other details of the transfers could not be learned. However, U.S.
intelligence agencies in the past have identified Iran’s Islamic
Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) as the main shipper involved in transferring ballistic missile-related materials.
...
A classified State Department cable from October 2009 reveals that Iran is one of North Korea’s key missile customers.
The cable, made public by Wikileaks, states that since the 1980s
North Korea has provided Iran with complete Scud missiles and production
technology used in developing 620-mile-range Nodong missiles.
Additionally, North Korea also supplied Iran with a medium-range
missile called the BM-25 that is a variant of the North Korean Musudan
missile.
“This technology would provide Iran with more advanced missile
technology than currently used in its Shahab-series of ballistic
missiles and could form the basis for future Iranian missile and [space
launch vehicle] designs.”
“Pyongyang’s assistance to Iran’s [space launch vehicle] program
suggests that North Korea and Iran may also be cooperating on the
development of long-range ballistic missiles.”
A second cable
from September 2009 states that Iran’s Safir rocket uses missile
steering engines likely provided by North Korea that are based on
Soviet-era SS-N-6 submarine launched ballistic missiles.
That technology transfer was significant because it has allowed Iran
to develop a self-igniting missile propellant that the cable said “could
significantly enhance Tehran’s ability to develop a new generation of
more-advanced ballistic missiles.”
“All of these technologies, demonstrated in the Safir [space launch
vehicle] are critical to the development of long-range ballistic
missiles and highlight the possibility of Iran using the Safir as a
platform to further its ballistic missile development.”
A spokesman for Spain’s mission to the United Nations, currently in
charge of the world body’s sanctions committee, said the committee has
not received any communications from the United States since Spain took
charge of the panel in January.
If you're waiting for a White House or State Department denial, don't hold your breath.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan
declined to comment. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf did not
return emails seeking comment.
If you're still wondering whose side President Obama is on, or whether he's seeking to arm Iran with nuclear weapons, I don't think you have to wonder anymore.
As President Hussein Obama prepares to appease Iran, Yukia Amano, the chairman of the body that will be asked to monitor any agreement with the mullahcracy, says that his agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is unable to verify whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons due to Iran's refusal to cooperate.
The head of the
United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Monday Iran had still not
handed over key information to his staff, and his body's investigation
into Tehran's atomic program could not continue indefinitely.
"Iran has yet to provide
explanations that enable the agency to clarify two outstanding practical
measures," chief Yukiya Amano told the body's Board of Governors in
Vienna, echoing a report seen by Reuters last month.
The
two measures relating to alleged explosives tests and other measures
that might have been used for bomb research should have been addressed
by Iran by last August.
"The Agency is not in a position to provide
credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and
activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material
in Iran is in peaceful activities," Amano said.
...
The Agency remains ready to accelerate the
resolution of all outstanding issues, he added, but "this process cannot
continue indefinitely".
The issue first came to the public’s attention during the 2006 war
against Hezbollah, when the Shi’ite terrorists popped out of
well-concealed, planned and equipped tunnels to attack IDF soldiers –
often with lethal results.
A renewed public awareness of the issue emerged when residents of
Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv and Kiryat Shmona reported that they heard muffled
voices beneath their homes and suspected that tunnels were being dug
under their feet, not unlike similar reports from Gaza-area residents.
Last week, Kiryat Shmona Mayor Nissim Malka asked Defense Minister
Moshe Ya’alon to investigate the issue when the fighting in the south
ebbs.
Residents “have complained of hearing noises coming from under the
ground. I have heard these complaints several times, but yesterday, when
I came back from a tour of the Gaza border communities, I understood,”
Malka wrote.
“If this is what they did in the south, I am certain [Hezbollah
leader Hassan] Nasrallah is not sitting idly and giving out candy,” he
said.
While the sandy and clay-like soil near Gaza is relatively easy to
dig through, the boulder-strewn and rocky hills on Israel’s northern
frontier are far harder to tunnel into. However, concerned ministry
officials have turned to geologists at Tel Aviv University to
investigate the potential subterranean threat.
“I can tell you that the issue of tunnels from Lebanon to Israel is
really disturbing the security echelon,” one geologist said, adding that
“There’s been a lot of talk about it and concerns.”
“Hassan Nasrallah says Hezbollah has a two-part
operational plan,” says Shimon Shapira. “One is rocket fire on Tel Aviv
and two is conquest of the Galilee. I wondered what he meant by that—how
is Hezbollah going to invade the Galilee, take hostages, capture
villages, and overrun military installations? But we’re learning from
what is happening now. Nasrallah means Hezbollah is going to penetrate
Israel through tunnels.”
The difference between Hamas’s underground network and
Hezbollah’s, explain experts, is the topography. It’s easier to dig
tunnels in the Gaza sand than in the rocky pastures and rich soil of the
Galilee. The catch is that the latter are also harder to destroy since
they are further fortified by nature.
Several Israeli journalists are reporting that “the fiasco
of the tunnels,” as Yossi Melman calls it, might have been avoided.
Either military and security officials were aware of the extent of
Hamas’s network and didn’t do enough about it, or they ran up against
bureaucratic roadblocks. Whether the IDF needs to detail a specific unit
to monitor and uproot the tunnels that cross into Israel on its
southern and northern borders, one fact is plain: For decades Israel’s
traditional military doctrine has been to fight its enemies on the other
side of the wire. However, its enemies’ new North Korean-inspired
doctrine is to go under the wire. If Israel doesn’t deal with first
Hamas’s tunnels and then Hezbollah’s, the next war it faces may well be
inside Israel itself.
Israel has been aware of this since at least 2006 when Gilad Shalit was kidnapped through a tunnel.
Hezbullah doesn't have to deal with a blockade and therefore has many more resources with which to dig tunnels than does Hamas. And yet, Israel has done nothing about it. Why?
Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based
trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organisation
based in east Beirut.
Hamas officials are believed to have already made an initial cash down payment
to secure the deal, and are now hoping that North Korea will soon begin
shipping extra supplies of weapons to Gaza.
“Hamas is looking for ways to replenish its stocks of missiles because of the
large numbers it has fired at Israel in recent weeks,” explained a security
official. “North Korea is an obvious place to seek supplies because
Pyongyang already has close ties with a number of militant Islamist groups
in the Middle East.”
Using intermediaries based in Lebanon, Hamas officials are said to be
intensifying their efforts to sign a new agreement with Pyongyang to provide
hundreds of missiles together with communications equipment that will
improve the ability of Hamas fighters to coordinate operations against
Israeli forces.
...
Israeli military commanders supervising operations against Gaza believe North
Korean experts have given Hamas advice on building the extensive network of
tunnels in Gaza that has enabled fighters to move weapons without detection
by Israeli drones, which maintain a constant monitoring operation over Gaza.
The North Koreans have one of the world’s most sophisticated network of
tunnels running beneath the demilitarised zone with South Korea, and Israeli
commanders believe Hamas has used this expertise to improve their own tunnel
network.
The Hamas arsenal has become increasing sophisticated with foreign assistance
and now boasts five variants of rockets and missiles. Its basic weapon is
the Iranian-designed Qassam rocket with a range of less than ten miles but
it also has a large stockpile of the 122mm Katyushas which boast a range of
up to 30 miles.
The introduction of the M-75 and Syrian-made M0302 missiles means Hamas boast
offensive weapons with a longer range of up to 100 miles and a much greater
explosive impact.
In other news, US Secretary of State John FN Kerry announced on Monday that the United States will provide $47 million in aid to Hamas to rebuild the Gaza Stripits rocket and tunneling supplies.
Bizarre as it may seem, the Korea Times on Tuesday reported
that the new edict went into effect in the capital of Pyongyang two
weeks ago, and is now being enforced nation wide.
However, not all North Koreans greeted the mandate to look like their leader with fondness. Radio Free Asia quoted
one local saying "our leader’s haircut is very particular, if you will.
It doesn’t always go with everyone since everyone has different face
and head shapes."
Another former Pyongyang resident now living in China noted "until
the mid-2000s, we called it the ‘Chinese smuggler haircut,'" adding that
the haircut was shunned until Kim began popularizing it.
The new order is a severe cutback from the former 28 authorized
hairstyles. Until now, men had a choice of ten hairstyles, and women had
their choice of 18 haircuts, with married women having a wider variety
to choose from, reports Want China Times.
...
The program even proposed health reasons for the short hairstyles, claiming longer hair steals energy from the brain.
According to the existing regulations before everyone was ordered to
look like Kim, men were to cut their hair every 15 days, keeping it
under two inches, while older men were allowed to grow up to three
inches, apparently under the assumption that energy to the brain is less
critical the older you are.
Still waiting to hear whether Kim's good friend, former NBA star Dennis Rodman, will comply.
Laugh all you want folks, but this guy is one of the world's two biggest nuclear proliferators.
'This administration like Neville Chamberlain is yielding a large and bloody conflict in the Middle East involving Iranian nuclear weapons'
Here's a full transcript of Senator Mark Kirk (R-Il)'s remarks after the Kerry-Sherman presentation to the Senate Banking Committee earlier this week. It's brutal.
Sen. Kirk: …that it was fairly anti-Israeli that I was
supposed to disbelieve everything that the Israelis had just told me.
And I don’t. I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good
intelligence service.
Question: What did the Israelis just tell you?
Sen. Kirk: They told us that the total changes proposed set back the program about 24 days.
Question: Oh wow. And in exchange they get what?
Sen. Kirk: They get billions in gold.
Question: Billions in gold and also humanitarian stuff?
Sen. Kirk: What I’m going to start doing is add up the financial
incentives and divide it by the number of Iranians and seeing how much
money per Iranian is it. I asked the Secretary if you add it all, how
much per Iranian citizen is this? He didn’t know. The one thing I did, I
started questioning Wendy Sherman about her record on North Korea and
she surprisingly defended it to me.
Question: Really? What’s her defense? I’m wearing my North Korea flag pin today.
Sen. Kirk: There is no defense. After Wendy led the effort to give
North Korea nuclear reactors and food, her record on North Korea is a
total failure and an embarrassment to her service.
Question: And you think that speaks to her handling of the Iran…?
Sen. Kirk: Yea, she started to defend using very precise legal words, saying “we haven’t had any plutonium production in..”
Question: So you’re saying that the administration is not representing…?
Sen. Kirk: The point that Wendy wants you to forget her service on North Korea. You shouldn’t allow her to.
Question: Okay I won’t. What about, do you think the administration has lost credibility on this?
Sen. Kirk: A lot, very low credibility, I would say.
Question: What about sanctions on the defense bill?
Sen. Kirk: I’ll use every method I have as a Senator.
Question: Do you think the banking committee will move forward?
Sen. Kirk: I think today is the day in which I witnessed a feature of
nuclear war in the Middle East in the future someday that will be part
of our children’s heritage. This administration like Neville Chamberlain
is yielding a large and bloody conflict in the Middle East involving
Iranian nuclear weapons that will now be part of our children’s future.
And the best way to prevent that from happening is to continue sanctions
which Secretary Kerry goes on and on about how effective. What I told
Bob Menendez was the administration is sitting at a negotiating table
that was built by the Congress. Without the Congress having tough
sanctions, the Iranians would walk away.
Question: Do you think there’s the votes in the Senate to attach Iran sanctions to the defense authorization bill?
Sen. Kirk: I do in fact. I think overwhelmingly if it was given a
vote 90% of the Senate would vote for it as they did last time. All we
would do is remind Senators that every single Senator voted for
Menendez-Kirk.
Question: What made you move to the conclusion that we witnessed the beginning of the potential nuclear war in the Middle East?
Sen. Kirk: That the administration is not going to act in the best
way to prevent nuclear war in the Middle East. Right when the Iranians
are…you know, how do you define an Iranian moderate? It’s an Iranian who
is out of bullets or out of money.
Question: What was the exact source for the 24 days, can you elaborate?
Sen. Kirk: That was the Israelis, the Israelis gave that to me this
morning. And the administration very disappointingly said discount what
the Israelis say and I think that was wrong as a policy matter. I think
the Israelis have a very good intelligence service.
The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific said this week that North Korea’s
KN-08 missile — a new road-mobile, intercontinental-range weapon — is a
serious threat with the potential to hit the United States with a
nuclear warhead.
The comments by Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear
to foreign reporters on Tuesday were made as a report provided new
details on the six KN-08 missiles — initially thought in 2012 to be
mock-ups — that now appear to be hard-to-locate and easy-to-fire mobile
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
“From a military
planning perspective, when I see KN-08 road-mobile missiles that appear
in a North Korean military parade, I am bound to take that serious, both
for not only the peninsula, but also the region, as well as my own
homeland, should we speculate that those missiles potentially have the
technology to reach out,” Adm. Locklear said.
North Korea wants the United States to believe it has strategic missiles, and the strategic threat cannot be ignored, he said.
The KN-08's have not yet been tested.
Meanwhile, North Korea is also reported to be developing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.
A new twist on the threat of a North Korea
missile strike on the United States was disclosed Monday in Seoul.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service revealed that Pyongyang is
developing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.
The intelligence service stated in a report to the South Korean legislature that North Korea has purchased Russian-made EMP technology for developing its own pulse arms, Agence France-Presse reported.
EMP
was first discovered in the 1950s during nuclear tests in the Pacific.
After large nuclear test blasts, all electronics in areas up to 1,000
miles from the point of detonation were disrupted.
In recent
years, EMP simulators have evolved from test equipment — used to check
the survivability of electronics on nuclear and other weapons — to
offensive weapons that can create EMP waves without nuclear blasts. The
United States, China, Russia and North Korea are believed to be working on EMP weapons.
Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey Jr. and Peter Pry, a former U.S. intelligence officer who took part in a congressional EMP commission, stated in a recent article that North Korea’s long-range missiles appear “capable of making a catastrophic nuclear EMP attack on the United States.”
North Korea’s
2012 satellite launch shows that a warhead-equipped satellite in polar
orbit at a height of around 310 miles could be detonated over U.S.
territory. The satellite bomb would be “ideal for making an EMP attack
that places the [disruption] field over the entire contiguous 48 United
States,” they wrote on the Family Security Matters website.
Analyst Mark Langfan says that if North Korea has these weapons, so does Iran.
Arutz Sheva analyst Mark Langfan, who has been warning of
the EMP threat for a long time, notes that North Korea and Iran have
long been cooperating in the nuclear field, and that technology that
reaches Pyongyang can be assumed to have reached Iran as well.
Langfan recently predicted
that Iran will use an EMP bomb to take control of the Shiite-majority
areas of eastern Saudi Arabia where almost 100% of Saudi oil is located.
One Iranian EMP bomb can knock out the Saudi and American defenses in Saudi Arabia, he noted.
Obama uses the North Korea model to handle Iran and Syria
Caroline Glick writes that President Obama is using the North Korean model to handle Iran's and Syria's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
With the US's experience with North Korea clearly in mind, it is
possible to assess US actions with regards to Syria and Iran. The first
thing that becomes clear is that the Obama administration is
implementing the North Korean model in its dealings with Syria and Iran.
With
regards to Syria, there is no conceivable way to peacefully enforce the
US Russian agreement on the ground. Technically it is almost impossible
to safely dispose of chemical weapons under the best of circumstances.
Given
that Syria is in the midst of a brutal civil war, the notion that it is
possible for UN inspectors to remove or destroy the regime's chemical
weapons is patently absurd.
Moreover, since the
agreement itself requires non-compliance complaints to be discussed
first at the UN Security Council, and it is clear that Russia is willing
to do anything to protect the Syrian regime, no action will be taken to
punish non-compliance.
Finally, like his
predecessors with regard to Pyongyang, Obama has effectively accepted
the continued legitimacy of the regime of Bashar Assad, despite the fact
that he is an acknowledged war criminal.
As
was the case with Pyongyang and its nuclear brinkmanship and weapons
tests, Assad won his legitimacy and removed the US threat to remove him
from power by using weapons of mass destruction.
As
for Iran, Rouhani's talk of closing Fordo needs to be viewed against
the precedents set at Yongbyon by the North Koreans. In other words,
even if the installation is shuttered, there is every reason to believe
that the shutdown will be temporary. On the other hand, just as North
Korea remains off the State Department's list of state sponsors of
terrorism despite the fact that since its removal it carried out two
more nuclear tests, it is hard to imagine that sanctions on Iran's oil
exports and central bank removed in exchange for an Iranian pledge to
close Fordo, would be restored after Fordo is reopened.
Like North Korea, Iran will negotiate until it is ready to vacate its signature on the NPT and test its first nuclear weapon.
'Little Kim' handing out copies of Mein Kampf to North Korean officials
In case you were wondering what he plans to do with those nuclear weapons....
Senior North Korean officials received copies of “Mein Kampf,” Adolf
Hitler’s rambling prison memoir, as gifts for Kim Jong Un’s birthday
this January, according to a report by New Focus International, a North Korean news organization that sources from defectors and volunteer citizens within the country.
The famous Nazi autobiography was reportedly distributed as what’s
called a “hundred-copy book,” which refers to Pyongyang’s practice of
circulating an extremely limited number of copies among top officials,
though most books are forbidden in North Korea. Gifts marking the
leader’s birthday are typically imbued with special political
significance.
The book was apparently not distributed to endorse Nazism so much as
to draw attention to Germany’s economic and military reconstruction
after World War One. A North Korean who works on behalf of the country
in China told New Focus that Kim gave a speech endorsing Germany’s
inter-war revival and encouraging officials to read “Mein Kampf.”
“Kim Jong Un gave a lecture to high-ranking officials, stressing that
we must pursue the policy of Byungjin in terms of nuclear and economic
development,” New Focus’s North Korean source told them by phone.
“Byungjin” translates literally to “in tandem” and refers to official policy of developing the nuclear program and economy simultaneously.
The source continued, “Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild
Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War One, Kim Jong
Un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked
that practical applications be drawn from it.”
I wonder whether his Iranian and Syrian allies handed it out too. What could go wrong?
Netanyahu: Iran needs 80 kilos of 20% enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb
Prime Minister Netanyahu had another interview with the BBC on Thursday afternoon, in which he warned that Iran is only 80 kilos of 20% enriched uranium from a nuclear weapon, that Israel has the right to defend itself, and that only military force will stop Iran. (The full interview video is available at the link). Draw your own conclusions.
A summary of the interview is here. Here are some highlights.
“It takes 250 kilos of 20% enriched uranium to manufacture a nuclear
bomb. They [Iran] have gone up from 110 to 170 kilos,” Netanyahu said.
“They have sort of crept up, but not crossed it,” he said.
The
IDF has the right to safeguard its citizens should Iran cross that
line, he said and added that the United States has never questioned that
right.
“Israel’s right to defend its existence is not subject to a
traffic light. We do not need anyone to give us the right to prevent a
new holocaust,” he said.
“It is a right that we exercise if we need to,” he told the BBC.
...
The threat of a North Korean nuclear strike has underscored the danger of Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu said.
“The
entire world is paralyzed, shattered, destabilized by this rogue state
[North Korea] that has nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
“Iran is
many times fold stronger than North Korea both in GDP and aggressive
tendencies and the world wide web of terror that they have,” Netanyahu
said.
Tehran has armed terrorists with rockets and has the ability
to shut down the world’s oil supply, he said. If they have a nuclear
weapons, it would spark a nuclear arms race in the region.
“The
Middle East will become a tinderbox. The threat of Iran’s getting
nuclear weapons is a direct threat to the existence of Israel, but I
think that it is a supreme pivot of history. It threatens the peace of
the world,” Netanyahu said.
Ahead of Israel's 65th Independence Day, Latma's band sings about
bringing back the country, North Korean dicatator Kim Jong Un comes to
the studio for an interview to set out his demands, and the Palestinian
Minister of Uncontrollable Rage, Tawil Fadiha explains why Israel is
actually worse than Nazi Germany and more like Costa Rica.
Let's go to the videotape.
And yes, I had to silence the video for the song, but it looked pretty cool.
If North Korea is capable of delivering a ballistic missile mounted on a nuclear weapon, could Iran be far behind?
Iran has been closely linked to North Korea’s missile and nuclear
programs. Analysts suspect that Iranian assistance was critical in rapidly advancing North Korea’s missile program. Iranian missile experts are thought to have been on the ground during North Korea’s recent rocket launch, and there have reportedly been high-level meetings between Iranian and North Korean officials on the issue.
On the nuclear front, Pyongyang has developed its nuclear arsenal
despite international sanctions and diplomatic efforts. In 2003, North
Korea unilaterally withdrew from the Treat on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons. The country tested nuclear weapons in 2006, 2009, and
in February 2013.
The February 2013 test was suspected at the time of being a mechanism for Iran to outsource its nuclear development
to North Korea, with a U.S. official saying that “it’s very possible
that the North Koreans are testing for two countries.” Suspicions
heightened earlier this month when it emerged
that the North Koreans had taken unusually stringent measures to shield
the composition of the blast from detection. It is feared that the
explosion was uranium-based rather than plutonium-based, as had been the
previous two tests.
North Korea is not known to possess a pathway to creating
weapons-grade uranium. Meanwhile the Iranian program largely focuses on
enriching uranium, with Tehran making moves to activate a plutonium
pathway only recently.
Any uranium bomb tested in North Korea would functionally be treated as
an Iranian bomb, either directly or because Iran had transferred the
technology to build it.
Meanwhile Western officials have drawn parallels between how the two
countries developed nuclear weapons, with an emphasis on the need to
prevent Iran from following North Korea’s example and using negotiations
to stall for time while developing the infrastructure necessary for
acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
And yet Iran continues to do just that, and the West continues to go along via the P 5+1 talks.... And Iran is a bigger threat.
Iran would also be different from other nuclear rogue states. The
West often fears a nuclear Pakistan, given that a large part of its
tribal lands is ungovernable and overrun with Islamic radicals. Its
government is friendly to the West only to the degree that American aid
continues.
Yet far larger and more powerful India deters nuclear Pakistan. For
all the wild talk from both the Pakistani government and tribal
terrorists, there is general fear in Pakistan that India has superior
conventional and nuclear forces. India is also unpredictable and not the
sort of nation that can be periodically threatened and shaken down for
concessions.
Iran has no comparable existential enemy of a billion people — only a
tiny Israel of some seven million. The result is that there is no
commensurate regional deterrent.
Nor does Iran have a tough master like nuclear China. Even Beijing
finally pulls on the leash when its unpredictable North Korean client
has threatened to bully neighbors and create too unprofitable a fuss.
Of course, China enjoys the angst that its subordinate causes its
rivals. It also sees North Korea as a valuable impediment to a huge,
unified, and Westernized Korea on its borders. But that said, China does
not want a nuclear war in its backyard. That fact ultimately means
North Korea is muzzled once its barking becomes too obnoxious.
A nuclear Iran would worry about neither a billion-person nuclear
existential enemy nearby such as India, nor a billion-person patron such
as China that would establish redlines to its periodic madness.
Instead, Tehran would be free to do and say what it pleased. And its
nuclear status would become a force multiplier to its enormous oil
wealth and self-acclaimed world leadership of Shiite Muslims.
If North Korea has been a danger, then a bigger, richer, and undeterred nuclear Iran would be a nightmare.
Meanwhile Nero Obama continues to fiddle and to send his minions to talk about linkage. Get ready for nuclear war, folks. It's coming.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
