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Michael Ramirez on the Coming GOP Debacle
Election 2006 Watch: The Coming Republican DEBACLE
Evans and Novak Political Report:
The Foley Affair is like an interception returned for a touchdown on the second drive of that comeback. Team GOP now finds itself three scores behind all over again, this time with only 12 minutes to go. The fans are demoralized. Victory (which this year would simply be to keep both houses of Congress) seems like an almost impossible feat at this point, even if the most loyal fans refuse to give up.
Foley Fallout: Republicans continue to suffer because of the scandal of Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), which involves sexually explicit communication with underage boys in the page program. We see a gain of 21 Democratic seats, if the election were held today — six more than are needed to take congressional control from the GOP
Technorati Tags: MichaelRamirez, MarkFoley, RobertNovak
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Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Lieberman Defends Civil Rights Record
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman makes a point during a news conference in his Hartford, Conn.. campaign headquarters where he refuted points made earlier in the day at a news conference attended by rival Ned Lamont about his civil rights record.
AP: Lieberman defends civil rights record
Sen. Joe Lieberman defended his civil rights record, disputing a black Democratic group’s charge he lied about his 1960s activism fighting segregation in the South.
“That’s really outrageous and, of course, it’s a lie,” Lieberman said Wednesday.
The Connecticut Federation of Black Democratic Clubs, which includes 20 clubs across the state, endorsed Lieberman’s Democratic rival Ned Lamont and questioned whether he marched for civil rights.
“Senator, the Connecticut Federation of Black Democratic Clubs is offended by your television ad which claims you were an advocate for African-Americans’ first-class citizenship and as such you marched for our civil rights,” said Henry E. Parker, a former state treasurer, during a news conference attended by Lamont.
“Our research indicates that there is no evidence of you taking any action that could be described as an initiative to remove the shackles of second-class citizenship,” Parker said.
Lieberman’s campaign produced a 1963 college newspaper clip that cites Lieberman’s reporting from Jackson, Miss., about the arrests of civil rights workers. Lieberman was chairman of the Yale Daily News.
“Was I there?” Lieberman said. “You bet I was there.”
Lieberman said he led a group of Yale students to Mississippi. He also recalled being part of the Washington, D.C., crowd at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famed “I Have a Dream” speech in August 1963.
Keep writing those self-promoting campaign checks, Ned.
Behind in the polls, Lamont has given $2 million to his campaign to unseat the three-term incumbent.Lamont has contributed $8,751,500 of his own personal wealth to his Senate bid, including a $2 million check he wrote on Tuesday. The latest poll showed him trailing Lieberman, 48-40 percent, with Republican Alan Schlesinger at just 4 percent.
Has the Fat Lady sung?
NOPE, but warming up in this race.
Keep writin’ Ned…….
Previous:
Senator Joe Lieberman Watch: Richie Rich and the Two Anti-Semites
Technorati Tags: JoeLieberman, NedLamont
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California Election 2006 Watch: Phil Angelides Demands Equal Time on the Jay Leno Show
Arnold Schwarzenegger during his appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in October 2003. The Democratic challenger to Schwarzenegger is angry that Leno has invited the Republican incumbent on his show weeks before the gubernatorial election but so far has snubbed him.
Reuters: Angelides demands equal time on Leno
The Democratic challenger to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is angry that TV host Jay Leno has invited the Republican incumbent on his show weeks before the gubernatorial election but so far has snubbed him.
Schwarzenegger, seeking a second term, was set to go on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” for an interview on Wednesday, marking his fifth appearance as a guest since he used that late-night program to announce his bid for public office in 2003.
Leno has so far declined to extend an invitation to Democrat Phil Angelides. A spokesman for Angelides, the state’s Treasurer, said that move violates federal rules that generally require broadcast outlets to give opposing candidates equal time.
Phil, it won’t help your GEEK candidacy in any case. The last time Flap checked you were down by over 17 percentage points.
Remember what DiFi said about smirking.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., left, embraces California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides during Angelides’ campaign speech Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006, in San Francisco.
At least the Nurses are trying to help you, Phil.
Previous:
California Election 2006 Watch: The Schwarzenegger – Angelides Debate
Technorati Tags: ArnoldSchwarzenegger, PhilAngelides, CaliforniaElection2006
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Missile Defense Watch: The LEFT’S Revisionist History on Missile Defense
Austin Bay: the Left’s new history on missile defense
That’s Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s line on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning– liberal Democrats have always supported missile defense. Hogwash. The LibDems have spent over two decades demonizing those of us who do support missile defense. The NoKo bomb has changed the LibDem tune. That’s good, but please, let’s not try and change history — the history of hysterical opposition to strategic missile defense. (Tauscher comes on about 2 hours into the show. Two hours and one minute into the program. Her comments on missile defense crop up about 2:25 into the show. Toggle forward at the C-SPAN site.)
Tauscher says she’s for a “missile defense system†that works. Hah. These folks have fought funding and testing tooth and nail. She’s also something of a “unilateralist†when it comes to diplomacy vis a vis North Korea. (Engage North Korea!) Sheesh.
Yeah right.
Austin Bay points out the DOUBLESPEAK of the LEFT.
The Democrats ridiculed Ronald Reagan when he gave his famous speech on the Strategic Defense Initiative. Remember they called it STAR WARS with a deprecating tone.
President Reagan Addresses the Nation from the oval office on National Security (Strategic Defense Initiative speech) March 23, 1983.
Writings from the LEFT and the past:
A Shield in Space? Technology, Politics, and the Strategic Defense Initiative
In ”A Shield in Space?” Sanford Lakoff, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, and Herbert York, a physicist with long Government experience, outline how we got into ”this mess,” and what the American and international political communities have done with it over the past six years.
Their thesis is both simple and persuasive. Because S.D.I. is not just a man-against-nature problem (like going to the moon) but also a man-against-man contest, there will always be a countermeasure or another move. To suggest that effective strategic defenses can be developed and installed at a particular time is both dangerous and misleading.SDI is believed to have been first dubbed “Star Wars” by opponent Dr. Carol Rosin, a consultant and former spokesperson for Wernher von Braun. Some critics used that term derisively, implying it is an impractical science fiction fantasy, but supporters have adopted the usage as well on the grounds that yesterday’s science fiction is often tomorrow’s engineering.
Ashton Carter, a fellow at MIT, assessed SDI for Congress in 1984. He said there were a number of difficulties in creating an adequate missile defense shield, with or without lasers.
Physicist Hans Bethe, who worked with Teller on both the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb, both at Los Alamos, claimed a laser defense shield was unfeasible. He said that a defensive system was costly and difficult to build, but simple to destroy, and claimed that the Soviets could easily use thousands of decoys to overwhelm it during a nuclear attack. He believed that the only way to stop the threat of nuclear war was through diplomacy and dismissed the idea of a technical solution to the Cold War, saying that a defense shield could be viewed as threatening because it would limit or destroy Soviet offensive capabilities while leaving the American offense intact. In March 1984, Bethe coauthored a 106-page report for the Union of Concerned Scientists that concluded “the X-ray laser offers no prospect of being a useful component in a system for ballistic missile defense.”[27]
“This premise, that one day Kim Jong Il or someone will wake up one morning and say ‘Aha, San Francisco!’ is specious,” Senator Joe Biden told AP in May 2001.
Meanwhile in the Senate, Carl Levin (D., Mich.) offered in June to cut off funds for the ground-based interceptor program that Mr. Bush recently activated in Alaska in anticipation of the North Korean launch. Mr. Levin wants to stop new interceptors from being built, but Senate Republicans wouldn’t bring his proposal up for a vote. Mr. Levin has been waging his own private war against missile defenses for a generation, to the point of outflanking Russian objections on the political left.
In May 2001 the Boston Herald‘s Woodlief wrote that John Kerry “wants to croak the hugely costly nuclear missile defense system.” And just one day before the 9/11 attacks Joe Biden (D., Del.) gave a National Press Club speech outlining Democrat opposition to national missile defense.
In May 2001, John Kerry himself outlined some of these arguments on Meet the Press by saying that he wanted “a very limited…highly verifiable and mutually agreed-upon (missile) defense system.” And he complained about the cost. “We’ve already spent $68 billion and have almost nothing to show for it,” noted Kerry.
On May 3, 2001, John Kerry called national missile defense a “mythology” on Don Imus’s radio show.
On June 14, 2001, John Kerry told Hardball‘s Chris Matthews that a “missile shield that could defend the United States against any incoming missile is a fantasy, it is too expensive, it won’t work, and that’s what people believe will drive an arms race.”
“The United States does not need a multi-billion-dollar national missile defense against the possibility of a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile.
“What we need is a strong nonproliferation policy with other nations to combat the most serious threat to our national security and to the safety of the world – weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists who would smuggle them into our cities.
The LEFT and Democrats cannot have it BOTH ways. In the past, the Left Democrats have NOT supported national missile defense. In fact, many of them have voted to CUT the program. Now, with North Korea threatening on the 4th of July to launch an ICBM pointed at Hawaii suddenly they GET religion?
Doubtful
For your reading pleasure – some experts on missile defense.
Austin Bay, Thomas Karako, Ilan Berman and Jed Babbin have Symposium: Star Wars Defense
Ground-Based Interceptor Emplacement, Sea-Based X-Band Radar, In-Flight Interceptor communications sytem Data Terminal. L-R-Down.
Previous:Missile Defense Watch: Reagan’s Vision
Missile Defense Watch: Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Tours Alaska Missile Defense Center
Missile Defense Watch: United States and Israel Collaborating on Missile Defense
Missile Defense Watch: “Concept of Operations†To Be Done by Fall
Technorati Tags: RonaldReagan, MissileDefenseAgency, SDI, StrategicDefenseInitiative
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Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Gadahn Indicted for TREASON and Aiding Terrorists
These undated, handout file photos provided by the FBI shows Adam Gadahn, who is suspected of attending an al-Qaida training camp and working as a translator for the terror group. The 28-year-old Californian, who joined al-Qaida and appeared in propaganda videos for the terrorist organization, was indicted Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006, on federal charges of treason and providing material support to terrorists, a U.S. Justice Department official said.
AP: U.S. indicts American in al-Qaida video
A 28-year-old Californian who joined al-Qaida and appeared in propaganda videos for the terrorist organization was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of treason and aiding terrorists, a U.S. Justice Department official said.
From the Department of Justice:
U.S. Citizen Indicted on Treason, Material Support Charges
for Providing Aid and Comfort to al Qaeda
WASHINGTON – A former resident of Orange County, Calif., has been indicted in the Central District of California on charges of treason and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization for making a series of propaganda videotapes for al Qaeda, the Department of Justice announced today.Adam Gadahn, 28, also known as Azzam al-Amriki or Azzam the American, “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort … with intent to betray the United States,†according to the treason count in the indictment. The two-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, Calif., today also charges Gadahn with providing material support to al Qaeda.
Gadahn is the first person to be charged with treason against the United States since the World War II era.
Al Qaeda, which has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks around the world, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State since 1999.
Gadahn appeared in several videotapes that were broadcast between October 2004 and Sept. 11, 2006. In the first tape, Gadahn announced that he had joined al Qaeda, “a movement waging war on America and killing large numbers of Americans,†and that “the streets of America shall run red with blood.â€
In another al Qaeda videotape made in September 2005, around the time of the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Gadahn called the attacks “the blessed raids on New York and Washington.†Discussing “jihad against America,†Gadahn referenced terrorist attacks in London and Madrid and stated, “Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing.â€
Earlier this summer, Gadahn appeared in another videotape that also contained statements from al Qaeda leaders Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In another videotape that was broadcast around the world on Sept. 2, 2006, Gadahn encouraged American soldiers to “escape from the unbelieving Army and join the winning side.†Recently, in a videotape released to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Gadahn praised the pilots involved in the attacks and referred to the United States as “enemy soil.â€
“Adam Gadahn is a U.S. citizen who made a choice to join and act as a propagandist for al Qaeda, an enemy of this country responsible for the horrific deaths of thousands of innocent Americans on Sept. 11, 2001,†said Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty. “The War on Terror is a fight for hearts and minds, and Gadahn gave himself to our enemies in al Qaeda for the purpose of being a central part of their propaganda machine. By making this choice, we believe Gadahn committed treason – perhaps the most serious offense for which any person can be tried under our Constitution.â€
“Adam Gadahn represents a new breed of home-grown extremist, who has chosen to betray the country of his birth, and align with the al Qaeda terrorist network,†said FBI Executive Assistant Director Willie Hulon, National Security Branch. “Based on this indictment, Gadahn was added today to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List.â€
“By aligning himself with al Qaeda, by moving overseas to be closer to al Qaeda’s base and leadership, and by joining in advocating al Qaeda’s terrorist agenda, an agenda that includes the overthrow of the United States government and the murder of American citizens, Adam Gadahn has committed treason against the United States of America,†said U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang of the Central District of California. “The charges returned today by a federal grand jury demonstrate that the criminal justice system will not sit passively by while a United States citizen engages in such activities.â€
Gadhan, 28, is a fugitive who is believed to be overseas, and has been added to the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Photographs, aliases and a full description of Gadahn can be found by visiting http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm. The Rewards for Justice Program, run by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to Gadahn’s arrest or conviction.
The charge of treason carries a range of penalties from a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in jail to a maximum sentence of the death penalty. The charge of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization carries a potential sentence of 15 years in prison.
The Gadahn case was investigated by the FBI’s Orange County Joint Terrorism Task Force in Santa Ana, California. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division – formerly part of the Criminal Division – at the Department of Justice.
A treason charge and the death penalty IS appropriate for this POS scum.
Remember this scum terrorist from last year?
Previous:
Global War on Terror Watch: Adam Gadahn to Be Charged with Treason
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn Indicted for Material Support to Terrorism
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn – “Join the Winning Side†Before it is Too Late – MEMRI Cut
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn – “Join the Winning Side†Before it is Too Late
Al Qaeda Watch: Californian Adam Gadahn Reveals Role as Al Qaeda Leader
Al Qaeda Watch: Los Angeles and Melbourne Next Targets
Technorati Tags: AlQaeda, AdamGadahn, AdamPearlman.
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NYC SCARE: SMALL PLANE CRASHES INTO HIGH-RISE ON UPPER EAST SIDE
REPORT: 'FIXED WING AIRCRAFT' FLIES INTO BUILDING E. 72ND STREET AT YORK, NEAR EAST RIVER... FDNY REPORTS 'PEOPLE TRAPPED'... STOCKS DIVE ON NEWS... DEVELOPING...Drudge has the story……
Looks like terrorism to Flap although it is being reported as NOT.
A temporary flight restriction has now been ordered for a 1 mile radius.
NORAD: Fighters have been dispatched to area and to patrol all major American cities as a precaution.
FAA: all three NYC Area Airports operating normally.
At least two people dead.
This image from television shows fire and smoke after a small plane crashed into a high-rise on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, police said Wednesday Oct. 11, 2006.
A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side on Oct. 11, 2006, setting off a fire and startling New Yorkers, police said. There were conflicting reports on whether the aircraft was a small plane or a helicopter.
NYC Reports: Plane registered to Yankee Pitcher Cory Lidle
US INTEL OFFICIALS: NO sign of terrorism
Fox News is reporting that New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was on the plane and is dead.
AP: Yankee Cory Lidle on NYC plane; 4 killed
A small plane with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle aboard crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, killing at least four people and raining flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said.
NYC Mayor Bloomberg will have a news conference shortly.
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Global War on Terror Watch: Adam Gadahn to Be Charged with Treason
Adam Yehiye Gadahn – “Join the Winning Side†Before it is Too Late – MEMRI Cut
Reuters: U.S. weighs first treason charges in over 50 years
A California-born convert to Islam could become the first American accused of treason since World War Two after he appeared in al Qaeda videos, sources familiar with the man’s case said on Wednesday.
They said U.S. prosecutors were strongly considering bringing the charges, which carry a maximum punishment of death, against Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be overseas and is not in U.S. custody.
The charges could come as early as Wednesday.
The U.S. Justice Department last brought treason charges, during the World War Two era, the sources said.
Allah has the story with Breaking: Adam Gadahn to be charged with treason
The last person convicted of treason was Tomoya Kawakita, a dual Japanese-American citizen found guilty in 1952 of having tortured American POWs during WWII. Still looking to see if he was the last person charged.
How did a nice American boy find his way into Al Qaeda? The LA Times reports.
But, Gadahn has been indicted previously.
CNN has Sources: American al Qaeda faces treason
American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Yahiye Gadahn is to face treason charges, federal sources told CNN on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old California native who has appeared in five al Qaeda videos will also be charged with offering material support for terrorism, the two sources said.
His indictment was to be returned in Los Angeles and will be announced at 4 p.m. ET in Washington by the Justice Department, one of the sources said.
A treason charge and the death penalty would be appropriate for this POS scum.
Remember this scum terrorist from last year?
Previous:
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn Indicted for Material Support to Terrorism
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn – “Join the Winning Side†Before it is Too Late – MEMRI Cut
Al Qaeda Watch: Adam Yehiye Gadahn – “Join the Winning Side†Before it is Too Late
Al Qaeda Watch: Californian Adam Gadahn Reveals Role as Al Qaeda Leader
Al Qaeda Watch: Los Angeles and Melbourne Next Targets
Technorati Tags: AlQaeda, AdamGadahn, AdamPearlman.
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Global War on Terror: FBI Agents Lack Arabic Language Skills
CONSIDERED A CAREER AS AN FBI LANGUAGE SPECIALIST?
Washington Post: FBI Agents Still Lacking Arabic Skills
Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics.
Counting agents who know only a handful of Arabic words — including those who scored zero on a standard proficiency test — just 1 percent of the FBI’s 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language, the statistics show.
The numbers reflect the FBI’s continued struggle to attract employees who speak Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages of the Middle East and South Asia, even as the bureau leads a fight against terrorist groups primarily centered in those parts of the world. The same challenge is facing the CIA and other agencies as the government competes with the private sector for a limited number of applicants with foreign-language proficiency, according to U.S. officials and experts.
Well, the FBI and CIA need to identify young, middle age and older candidates, recruit college age/middle age students and offer them financial incentives including scholarships and loan forgiveness.
The United States has its national security at stake and intelligence/law enforcement services are of vital national interest.
The federal checkbook should be opened to train, and deploy qualified people to protect us.
And an ROTC type program based at colleges/universities would stimulate an immediate recruitment of language skills specialists.
Technorati Tags: FBI, CIA, FBILanguageSpecialists
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Election 2006 Watch: The Coming Republican DEBACLE
President Bush walks with FEMA’s Mike Brown (R) and U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) (L) after Florida was hit by Hurricane Charlie in this August 15, 2004 file photo. Lawmakers charged with enforcing ethics in the U.S. House of Representatives met on October 5, 2006 to begin an investigation of a sex scandal that has ensnared top Republicans and could harm their chances of keeping control of Congress in the November 7 elections. Foley resigned his office and checked into an alcohol rehab center last week after copies of his overly friendly messages to teen-age male congressional pages set off a scandal that could threaten his party’s majority in Congress.
William Rusher: The coming Republican debacle
Regular readers of these columns will not have been taken by surprise by the recent turn of events against the Republicans in the forthcoming Congressional elections. I have warned for several months that the GOP faces “a handsome drubbing.”
In part this is simply a reaffirmation of the old truism that the party in the White House traditionally suffers losses in Congress in the Congressional elections of its second term. In further part, however, it is a byproduct of the fact that this particular administration and its allies in Congress have succumbed to the familiar temptations of power.
Read it all……
Flap agrees.
The Mark Foley Sex Scandal was the nail in the coffin for the national Congressional GOP.
Speaker of the House Hastert should have RESIGNED to contain the damage. But, he, instead insulated himself with the rather weak “Buck Stops Here – But I didn’t know about it.”
But, the Foley Sex Scandal and Hastert’s intransigent is only the latest of GOP’s foibles and Rusher names a few in his piece, including the budgetary largess of “EARMARKS”.
American voters are tired of the GOP.
They will throw the RASCALS out in November.
Technorati Tags: WilliamRusher, GOP, DennisHastert, MarkFoley
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North Korea Nuclear Watch: North Korea Threatens War Against the United States
North Korean military officers (L) and a South Korean soldier (front) at the border village of Panmunjom. A defiant North Korea has warned that it would regard harsh sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and threatened further trials if the United States kept up its pressure.
North Korea warned on Wednesday that increased U.S. pressure over the regime’s reported nuclear test could be considered an act of war, and South Korea suggested it would build up its conventional arsenal to deal with its belligerent neighbor.
North Korea’s No. 2 leader threatened to conduct more nuclear tests if the United States continued what he called its “hostile attitude.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an
Iraq-style U.S. invasion.North Korea is rogue regime that will not listen to any rational reassurance. If they wish WAR Kim Jong-Il will make an excuse. Kim has quite a nuclear extortion racket:
“Pay me off and guarantee the survival of my impoverished, criminal regime, or I’ll nuke my economic and human hostages and cost all of you more in lives and money than the bribes and media kowtow I demand.”
And what about China? What will be their role in reining in Kim?
In its first formal statement since the test, North Korea said it could respond to U.S. pressure with “physical” measures.
“If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement didn’t specify what those measures could be.
The United Nations Security Council MUST impose harsh sanctions including a tight land and maritime EMBARGO or QUARANTINE.
If North Korea wishes WAR, then better NOW before they proliferate their nuclear materials to other rogue or terrorist organizations/regimes.
But, will Kim Jong-Il provoke Japan or the United States?
Will China allow a land embargo?
Stay tuned…..
South Korean conservative activists hold placards during an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul.
Previous:
Michael Ramirez on Nuclear North Korea
North Korea Nuclear Watch: McCain vs. Clinton
North Korea Nuclear Watch: Kick North Korea Out of the United Nations?
North Korea Nuclear Watch: United States Proposes United Nations Sanctions Against North Korea
Technorati Tags: NorthKorea, UnitedNations