The Oranckay gives you all the the required links in this latest turn in the saga of everyone’s favorite American defector to North Korea (yes, the very same one about whom — as Peter points out — I once said could rot in the DPRK). Actually, they really are fascinating must reads, so check them out pronto.
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3 Comments
Had this shit happened two years ago, I would have been Jenkins’s lawyer . . . and before his plane even touched down at Narita, I’d have sprinted across the tarmac, dodging 747s and flapping my business cards like signal flags, telling him to shut his damn mouth.
His cooperation / denunciation of the NorKs would have been part of the deal.
Hmmm. Maybe Fox News needs a telegenic JAG has-been to play pundit.
OK, I now see what a sympathetic story this is. Capt. Culp (who I may well have met in passing, if I remember right) had good reason to think the story would create favorable publicity for his client. My only quibble is the public release of info about NorK sleepers that Jenkins is going to “out.” On the other hand, the NorKs have probably figured that out, too.
As for punishment, I’m more convinced than ever that unless Jenkins hurt someone else, he’s suffered enough. Clearly, the man hasn’t much time left. Give him his Chapter 10 and O-T-H discharge, turn him loose on the media, and let him live out his remaining years with his family. I’d guess that will happen for many reasons, including the fact that the Camp Zama command has grown much more sensible in its command decisions on military justice in the last 2 years. Jenkins’s comments to the media will probably do enough good for the North Korean people to outweigh the harm of his defection.
Jimmy Culp is one smart defense counsel. He knows what’s up here. That’s why Jeremy Kirk wrote the article. Because his office is a five minute walk from Culp’s and he hangs out in the court room at Yongsan every time Jimmy’s got his Class As on.
This is the story of a broken down, uneducated, soon-to-die, pitiful old senior citizen, who yes, once did something really, really stupid, but who has suffered enough from the consequences of his own actions and who should be allowed to just “fade away” like old soldiers are supposed to.