Friday, March 27, 2009
Will Iranians Observe North Korean Missile Test?
China Confidential analysts say North Korea has probably invited a delegation of Iranian VIPs, including military and intelligence officers, scientists and technicians, to observe its upcoming, long-range rocket launch.
The Stalinist and Islamist states have been collaborating on ballistic missile development for about 25 years. With money and equipment provided by Iran, North Korea has developed missiles and exported missile-related technologies to Pakistan. The rocket that Iran used to launch its first satellite on February 2 was based on North Korean missile technology.
North Koreans were on hand for Iranian test-firings of ship-to-shore missiles, which proved the practicality of using cargo ships to attack coastal cities, military bases, and other land-based targets.North Korean Missile Could Hit Hawaii
First, it was Alaska; now, it's Hawaii. Will California be next?
As if to confirm our assertions concerning the seriousness of the North Korean missile menace, America's top military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday that a Taepodong-2 has a range that could possibly hit Hawaii.
Asked if the rocket Pyongyang plans to launch could reach the U.S. states of Hawaii or Alaska, Mullen told CNN: "In some cases, yes, they could probably get down to Hawaii."
Click here for the story.Lost War, Flawed Strategy, Doomed Diplomacy
America's Afghan war is lost. Counterinsurgency experts tell China Confidential that a minimum of 30,000 additional troops will be needed to prevent a Taliban takeover; but even that level of escalation is almost certain to fail absent destruction of the cross-border Islamist sanctuaries in Pakistan's neighboring, lawless, tribal areas.
President Barack Obama said today that he plans to send approximately 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and step up diplomacy with Pakistan. The estimated 4,000 new troops will join 17,000 additional combat and support troops the President wants to deploy in Afghanistan in the coming months. By October, the overall force level is supposed to reach 59,000.
The plan recalls another failed American strategy--Vietnamization--in that it shifts the emphasis of the U.S. mission to training and increasing the size of the Afghan security forces in order for them to eventually take responsibility for their country's security. Vietnamization was the name for Washington's plan to gradually withdraw its forces from South Vietnam by letting the country stand on its own. Instead, it left South Vietnam standing alone, vulnerable to conquest by the North.
The U.S. talked about nation building in Vietnam; and there is nation building, too, in Obama's plan. He is asking the U.S. Congress to authorize $1.5 billion in spending for building schools, roads and hospitals in Pakistan, and legislation to develop the economy along the border, in addition to other diplomatic initiatives. Diplomacy is code for appeasement--reconciliation with a supposed silent majority of allegedly moderate Taliban.
Appeasement of Iran
The administration's appeasement policy extends to Iran. The Obama administration sees the nuclear-arming Islamist nation as the key to regional stability--meaning, sufficient calm to allow for an orderly U.S. exit. More specifically, the administration hopes that so-called reformers will come to power in Iran, keep a lid on the Taliban and other Islamists--and stop short of actually making nuclear weapons--in exchange for a U.S. pledge of non-interference in Iranian internal affairs.
Incredibly, there are important individuals in the Obama administration who are prepared to upport formal security guarantees for the mullahs. Some of these U.S. officials and advisers are receptive to assuring the monstrous regime's security even if it develops nuclear weapons and declares itself a nuclear power (although an actual nuclear test is still unacceptable).
The administration's ultra-appeasement faction follows a line articulated during the 2008 Presidential campaign by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter when he was in office. The Polish-born political scientist, who played a crucial role in persuading Carter to betray Iran's pro-U.S. modernizing monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in a failed attempt to hop aboard the Islamist bandwagon, argues that the U.S. can both "live with" and never "accept" (meaning never officially approve of) a nuclear-armed Iran, drawing an analogy to relations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers during the Cold War.
Which is utter nonsense. Brzezinski conveniently ignores Iran's determination to destroy Israel and drive the U.S. out of the Middle East, and the fact that even in the case of the long competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the two nations came close to a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
U.S. diplomacy with Iran is doomed. Instead of preventing war, which is diplomacy's highest purpose, the administration's appeasement policy will make war--on Iranian terms--inevitable.Washington Post Again Agrees With China Confidential: North Korea Nuclear Test Possible
This is the second time this week that the paper has confirmed a China Confidential story about North Korea. Scroll for the hostage stories.
For the record: on Thursday, October 5, 2006, China Confidential said:China Confidential continues to believe that a North Korean nuclear bomb test could occur on or around October 9. There are signs of suspicious activity at possible test sites; and Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, as we have previously noted, would like to upstage the United Nations Security Council when it meets next Monday to formally endorse South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon as its choice to become the next UN secretary general.
North Korea detonated its nuclear device on Monday, October 9, 2006.N. Korea Threatens to Restart Plutonium Plant
Less than a half-day after China Confidential reported that North Korea intends to break off the stalled, six-way nuclear disarmament talks, and could eventually explode another nuclear device to demonstrate its power to the world, the Stalinist/Kimist state threatened to restart the North Korean nuclear plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium. Click here for the story. Scroll for the China Confidential report.Thursday, March 26, 2009
Japan Defense Chief OKs Shooting Down NK Rocket
Countdown to crisis.
Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada gave security forces the green light Friday to shoot down any North Korean missile that enters Japanese territory.
“We will take every effort to protect the safety of Japanese people,” Hamada told reporters in Tokyo.
Japanese intelligence sources say the North Korean missile launch is imminent. Scroll down to read the reports.
Saturday 28 March 2009
The Washington Post has confirmed what China Confidential reported yesterday and earlier this morning: nuclear-armed North Korea could be planning another atomic test. Scroll down for the China Confidential stories; search our archives for related reports and analyses. Click here to read the Washington Post story.
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