Which do you think it is: “news”, or “a rumor”?

2) “…There is a million and one reason why Israel would want to strike Syria even if DPRK didn’t exist.”

I take it this means that you firmly believe no DPRK military and/or weapons technician personnel are in Syria for sinister purposes? If so, what evidence would it take to convince you? I don’t think they are going to make a public announcement with pictures/video, for the benefit of providing the world with US-courtroom standard “proof beyond a reasonable doubt”.

I think it’s the unanimous conclusion of all the major intelligence services of the world that both Syria and Iran are major customers for DPRK export versions of short-range ballistic missiles. Do you really think the DPRK would export these without sending technicians as long-term “customer support”?

3) Given their willingness to export such missiles, it’s long been considered an open question as to whether DPRK would eventually take the logical next step — the export of “nuclear materials”. They’ve never manufactured a “non-nuclear” weapon that they wouldn’t sell to an anti-US customer.

Conclusion: It’s your privilege to believe whatever you want. However, I don’t think that entitles you to assume that those of us who “believe” the worst about the DPRK are “dumb”.

Look at this gem from the piece:
“…disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.”

“Disgraced?” WTF? This guy is a national hero in Pakistan. What do you mean disgraced?

There is a million and one reason why Israel would want to strike Syria even if DPRK didn’t exist.

Paul H, What exactly constitutes “all of you globalvillage types”? I have little or no scorn for the United States, and this includes military in general or USFK in particular. Were you to have read any of my posts over the last couple of years, you would be unable to find a single post of mine where I am critical of USFK - who I am, of course, appreciative of - or posts where I would have in any way been supportive of Korean leftists/anti-Americans, who I generally can’t stand. (If I’m mistaken in this regard, please refresh my memory.)

I may be critical of the war in Iraq and what I see as hypocrisy in some US foreign policy, but this alone hardly puts me on the fringe, let alone suggests I have scorn for the US or its military. I am a staunch supporter of the war in Afghanistan and in conversations with Korean in-laws, friends, students, and colleagues I’m usually the one giving a US-friendly perspective to the conversation/debate.

My take on the US and Korea: I have always believed that the US/Korea alliance wouldn’t exist and continue to exist unless both sides felt it was mutually benificial. Some Koreans and Americans can bitch and moan all they like - and both groups will claim that they’re the ones getting shafted in the deal. (Clearly the United States bears the brunt of the financial cost, but must see it as being in their national interest to do so.) If one or both sides no longer want it, quit the bitching and move on. (And in the case of the Koreans in particular, no bitching after the fact!) Good riddance or not.

I’m glad to see a rare point of agreement between us. Realistically, I’m afraid the earliest date for a complete US withdrawl from ROK is probably 2013, and IMO even that’s probably only possible if a President Guiliani or McCain is inaugurated in 2009.

If it’s President Clinton redux, I reckon all of you globalvillage types will be able to go on living securely in the ROK (under the American guns you are so pleased to profess scorn for) for probably at least another decade.

Absent of course a fiscal/economic disaster in the US govt/economy (the first baby boomers hit age 62 on Jan 1, 2008 and the demographic wave of retirements start).

That’s going to impose such a strain on future US budgets that I don’t think we’ll be able to go on funding these far-flung defense outposts. No US ground troops should be stationed anywhere overseas, except as needed for the defense of an absolutely minimal number of US air/sea bases (though I’d like to see all of them eventually closed as well).

To include Iraq of course, I expect to see a pretty rapid withdrawl from there in any new administration regardless of party.

Even without the stories of Syrian scientists killed aboard the train, or missile parts allegedly going to Syria, I thought to myself, “When has Syria EVER been first to offer relief in times of international disaster (with the possible exception of disasters in Lebanon or Iran)?”

Hence, the latest news did not surprise me at all, it only served to add to the body of evidence pointing to a Syria-NK link.

Glad you liked it.

“Think of the sensation! From the Yalu in the north to Dokdo in the south, a firestorm of grief and righteous indignation will sweep across the land. Maybe it will finally suffice to sweep the “American” version of reality right out of Korea — once and for all.

Good riddance.”

I think the long-suffering United States could choose to leave Korea at any time. No hypothetical post-summit, Syrian raid inspired nationalistic wave required. And Dokdo isn’t exactly the southernmost point of the peninsula. But in a world where Iraq was deliberately and wrongly suggested to be involved in the attack on the World Trade Center and have an active WMD program, who cares about details, right?

“I must say I relish the opportunity to cite John Bolton; one hopes it will induce at least one fit of apoplexy out there somewhere in the ether.”

Nice try.

No special revelations but some very informed speculation as to the reasons behind the raid; less to do with the specific targets in Ross’s opinion that with the Israelis sending the Syrians an overall “message” about the undesirability of any ideas the Syrians might have of fighting a duplicate “2006 Hezbollah-style” long-range missile war.

It’s just not easy being the last Arab Baathist dictator these days. Especially when you haven’t got any substantial amounts of domestic oil production of your own. Oh well, perhaps God will provide; “Inshallah”.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i.....ross092407

(Note: the “bio” provided at the end of this article is IMO rather brief. So below is an excerpt from Ross’s wikipedia article.

So you’ll know he’s not just another neocon tool! Of course he does appear frequently as a mideastern affairs commentor on the Fox News Channel in CONUS, so perhaps he has been subverted. Oh well, here it is anyway:

“Dennis B. Ross…served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton…..As an architect of the peace process, he helped the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria….While having worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Ross himself is a Democrat…).

The Japanese Daily Newspaper Sankei Shinbun reported then, that among casualties there were several Syrian engineers and scientists among them.

World Tribune reported on April 18th, 2004, that this report by the Japanese daily newspaper was confirmed by some US government officials.

“A North Korean missile shipment to Syria was halted when a train collision in that Asian country destroyed the missile cargo and killed about a dozen Syrian technicians.
U.S. officials confirmed a report in a Japanese daily newspaper that a train explosion on April 22 killed about a dozen Syrian technicians near the Ryongchon province in North Korea. The officials said the technicians were accompanying a train car full of missile components and other equipment from a facility near the Chinese border to a North Korea port.
A U.S. official said North Korean train cargo was also believed to have contained tools for the production of ballistic missiles. North Korea has sold Syria the extended-range Scud C and Scud D missiles, according to reports by Middle East Newsline.
“The way it was supposed work was that the train car full of missiles and components would have arrived at the port and some would have been shipped to Syria while others would have been transported by air,” an official said.”
http://www.worldtribune.com/wo.....05_18.html

Coincidence?

One month later the Chosun Ilbao reported that North Korean government insisted that this explosion was not an accident but rather an assassination act by rebellious forces.

“According to a source, North Korea’s State Safety & Security Agency concluded that the massive explosion that occurred in the North Korean city of Ryongchon on April 22 had been conspired by anti-North Korean government forces to harm North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.”
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....40030.html

Maybe the North Korean governments speak sometimes truth.
Were these rebellious forces supported by MOSAD and CIA?

One month ago, haphazardly I happened to listen to a radio interview by a Japanese ex-diplomat Sato Masaru.

He said that during the Obuchi administration, some foreign intelligent service approached several Japanese politician and showed them concrete evidence and blueprints of North Korean missiles which were sold to Iran. According to Sato, based on these informations, Japanese government stopped cooperation with the Iranian government to develop the Azadegan oil fields.

From his interview, I’ve got strong impression that this “foreign intelligent service” was MOSAD (He clearly denied that it was the CIA, saying that there are better intelligent service when handling information in the middle east).