north korea

It’s not your grandpa’s MI6. Britain behaves like a defeated nation. The government so fears the muslims in its own population that they would align themselves with those who would see them destroyed.

MI6 Headquarters, London

Stuxnet is raising Cain with not only Iran’s centrifuges but, as I predicted, their military targeting computers as well. It’s no coincidence that there are reports of penetration of Iranian air space during such periods.

I have no idea where Stuxnet was spawned. The implication was that it was done by hackers… I believe that it was a creation of Israel with the aid of the US.

I said that Iranian claims that they had cornered the critter and all was rosy were so much garbage. It turned out that I was right. Stuxnet is the gift that keeps giving… it works by being patient and opportunistic. Then, when it does strike, it spreads like crazy.

Is it possible that Britain can be that badly deceived? As reported, MI6 thinks the Stuxnet worm is national enemy #1. News reports on British television, by so-called ‘experts’, have completely omitted the fact that in every country where the worm has been detected it has been benign… except Iran.

American intelligence would like to see Stuxnet pay a visit to North Korea and her nuclear program. Whether it would be possible to plant the worm, in as tightly-controlled a country as N. Korea, remains to be seen.

Korea or not, I think that Britain should consider her position with regard to Stuxnet, and the real reason for pandering to muslims by the condemnation of the virus with regard to Iran.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Our nation reels from the economic and fiscal disasters created by Barack Hussein Obama’s Marxist redistributionist agenda. Unemployment reaches new heights as the government ‘stimulus’ programs record failure after failure, while at the same time Obama claims three million jobs created or ‘saved’, even as private sector economists show incontrovertible proof that well over four million jobs have been lost since the Anointed One took office.

Obama’s supporters are falling away like autumn leaves in a brisk wind. His lying prevarication hasn’t been lost on the world stage either. His limp-wristed pandering to countries who, if not our sworn enemies, are anxious to see us diminished… in which endeavor Barack Hussein is only too happy to oblige.

Obama’s unconscionable treatment of our allies, and his bullying of countries whose stand against totalitarianism has been nothing less than heroic, also has not gone unremarked. Little Honduras stands like a giant beside Obama’s treachery. Now, the fruits of his labors are coming to bear. The undoing of many a would-be tyrant has come by the unintended consequences of his own machinations.

Barack Obama’s weakness has spawned what has become the 21st century axis of evil. What passes for foreign policy in Obama’s DeMarxist administration has wedded two disparate, but equally evil, philosophies. The increasingly paranoid and unstable communist North Korea has threatened nuclear war against democratic South Korea and the US forces currently in joint military exercises.

Radical socialist (communist) Venezuela, under the Benito Mussolini look-alike thug Hugo Chavez, is currently ginning up a war with neighboring Colombia, a long time ally of the United States. In addition, Chavez is actively harboring and supporting international terrorism at the behest of the other members of the evil alliance, Iran and Syria. That radical socialism and extreme sharia would soon be at each others throats seems to have fallen by the wayside during this marriage of convenience.

Iran’s dash to obtain nuclear weapons and the constant drumbeat of threats against the State of Israel has been enabled by Barack Obama’s perfidy and treachery towards one of our staunchest allies. This has emboldened not only the schizoid radical islamists of Iran, but the normally timid Bashar Assad of Syria has been encouraged to new heights of military adventurism through its ally in Lebanon, Hizballah, a creation and tool of Iran.

Obama may find that he has sown the wind. But it is we, the free peoples of the world, that will have to deal with the whirlwind. Israel does not want to be seen as the country who initiates what is sure to be at least a regional conflict, but it may not have any other choices. They know, as I do, that Obama is a pathological liar and an extreme ideological Marxist.

They may soon come to the realization that, Obama and his leftist State Department’s admonitions and threats notwithstanding, they will have to go it alone against Iran before it is too late.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

With tension still running high in the Korean peninsula, there are still more questions than answers. It has been confirmed that the South Korean ‘Cheonan’ was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, but there has been no reason given for this unwarranted act which could be, and has been by various news sources, termed an act of war.

South Korean Corvette 'Cheonan'

Was it the action of some renegade submarine commander that harbored a particularly strong hatred for his southern neighbors? Perhaps he saw it as an opportunity to find favor in Pyongyang? This theory is unlikely, as intelligence sources have revealed that a few Yeono-class midget submarines, and a mother ship supporting them, left a North Korean naval base in the West Sea two to three days prior to the attack and returned to their port two to three days after the attack. This would indicate a planned attack, under orders from a higher authority.

Many have speculated that it could be an attempt by Kim Jong Il to assert his power, or perhaps more accurately the power of his family, over the North Korean people. It is a country that is virtually dead on its feet, by some accounts much like its leader. It is evident that he has been honing his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, to take the dictatorial throne upon Il’s death or incapacity.

Kim Jong-Un

As with most things in N. Korea, much about the younger Kim remains a mystery. Even recent photographs, claimed to be of him, have been disproved. The one shown here was taken when he attended a German-speaking school in Berne, Switzerland, while assuming a false name. According to fellow students, he was a great fan of the NBA and held Michael Jordan in high esteem. He owned a collection of Nike shoes which, he lamented, were not available in his home country.

Perhaps, after tasting the freedom of the west and all it offers, it has opened his eyes to the reality that capitalism is not the beast portrayed to him by his forebears.

There is the possibility that this latest attack is the ‘dying wish’ of a man who knows that his time is near, that the chances of a conflict with those that he holds in contempt will be diminished after his passing, that he would prefer to go in a blaze of glory, regardless of the consequences to his people and the world.

Let’s hope that his successor will see this act as the folly of a senile, power-crazed tyrant, rather than the inspirational act of a paternal figure. Whatever happens in the domestic affairs of North Korea, whoever takes control, we cannot allow acts of aggression that involve the deaths of innocent personnel to go unpunished. However, with one as unbalanced as Kim Jong Il, we have to tread very carefully.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

If there is one thing that really gets under my skin, it’s double standards. Politics is full of it, you see news items nearly every day about elected officials doing a full 180° turn on important issues.

Often, they will excuse it away with comments like ‘my words were taken out of context’ or ‘I misunderstood the question’. Thanks to modern media technology, the first excuse can be easily disproved with a quick replay of the original interview or a quick search of YouTube. As for the ‘misunderstanding’ – it’s worrying that so many powerful figures don’t have a basic grasp of their own language.

While I’m on the subject of the media, it’s interesting to note that Obama is holding a press conference today, his first in 308 days. So much for the ‘transparency’ that he promised and the ‘monthly press conference’ he spoke of as a Presidential candidate. Maybe he thought there would be more good news to share with the American public after his election? It’s pretty difficult using a teleprompter to answer ‘off-the-cuff’ questions and rumor has it that he has a team of programmers designing software that can instantaneously display the ‘correct’ answer to any query!

He really has embraced technology with the creation of the official White House news channel. Who needs questions from the networks when their version of the ‘truth’ is there for all to see. Remember those big video screens in ’1984′?

Regardless of the inconsistencies of the President, his administration and, ashamedly, some Republicans, there is a double standard that should annoy every American. It is the use of the United States as the world’s scapegoat. While they are all too happy to enjoy the benefits they reap from America, all the ills of the world seem to be attributed in some way to the US. You’d expect this sort of  propaganda from the…. let’s say non Judeo-Christian countries, to prevent accusations of racism from the left. However, this attitude is prevalent amongst our so-called allies.

Recently, in one of  Skip’s articles, he included a forum post, written by myself, to a British site. One or two of the Brit contributors were, although distinctly left-leaning, reasonable in their approach. Most, however, were totally anti-American and even made remarks such as, “Can’t we get away from you lot?” An interesting statement, coming from one who lives in an island (Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency) whose liberation from occupying nazi forces was in no small part due to the support of the US military. Strangely, they feel a strong bond to the UK, whose government (the recent socialist one, anyway), along with the EU, would have them change their attractive taxation rules as an offshore banking center, a move that would decimate their strong economy.

It’s no good trying to find logic in any of this, most of it stems from purely emotive reactions of one kind or another. Sour grapes on the part of Britain, perhaps, because it could have been what America became, but didn’t? A country which was a world leader in research, technology, invention and industry is now run on service industries and civil servants. It would be interesting to know what the reaction would have been in Britain, if Texaco had caused a spill on the British coast the size of the one in the Gulf created by British Petroleum. No prizes for guessing!

It also gets me wondering what the world would be saying if a North Korean ship had been sunk by an American torpedo. A UN meeting to discuss sanctions? Would China, Russia and various other countries who are strangely silent be so quiet?

Obama proceeded on a false assumption, that by extending a hand of friendship to our enemies, by compromising our American values, he could create a safer world. Wrong, Mr President! They see you as a soft touch, giving them the precious time they need to further their totalitarian aims. They hate America and while some of them find your bowing agreeable, it shows subservience. The look of arrogance that is your hallmark when talking to your American people should be used on the Kim Jong Ils of this world.

As we head towards the mid-term elections, conservative Republican candidates take some advice. Stay strong to your conservative beliefs, be honest to yourself and your electorate, do not be swayed by the media, peers or any other factor that may present itself. I believe that although we are not in the best of times, America can and will remain an example to the rest of the world of what can be achieved by adhering to the principles laid down in the Constitution.

God Bless America.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

With all the Obama-Congressional dog and pony side shows to dazzle the rubes losing their luster, and the country coming to the stark realization that President Obama’s ‘transformational’ leadership is actually the gateway to durance vile for all Americans, have we taken our eyes and attention from what is actually happening in Iran?

With our attention riveted to the battle in Washington over the detested health care legislation, and Congress poised to attempt to thwart the will of the great majority of the American people apparently without regard to political consequences, are we missing the increasingly obvious signs of impending Middle East conflict?

IGLA-S

Syria has ratcheted up the war index by supplying the Lebanese Hizballah with the advanced shoulder-fired Russian-made IGLA-S surface to air missile, ignoring Israel’s pointed warning that such an action would guarantee Israeli retaliation on Syria. The IGLA-S is an all-weather day or night missile which could threaten low-flying F-16 warplanes, drones, helicopters, cruise missiles, transports or surveillance aircraft. These weapons in the hands of the Lebanese Hizballah could seriously hamper Israeli operations over Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already stated in a visit to Washington that if Israel is attacked from Lebanon by Hizballah, she will retaliate by attacking Hizballah’s terrorist sponsors in Iran and Syria. There are an estimated 45,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon which could be loosed on Israeli towns and cities by Hizballah. Iran has successfully test-fired a multiple warhead missile. Though the range was not stated, it was thought that it was comparable to Iran’s existing ballistic missile which has a range of 2000 miles.

Iran's Simorgh Rocket

Iranian state television said that the missile had the capability of avoiding anti-missile radars. The launch of the FAJR-3 raises the odds even farther that Israel is going to have to act soon or face much heavier odds.

Iran is also building a massive new launch site with the aid of the North Koreans. The new launching facility is located in Semnan province, east of Teheran. Intelligence sources say that the site may be for launching the Simorgh, which is supposedly intended as a space launch vehicle but which could be converted to a military long range ballistic missile.

Semnan Province Launch Site

Iran is planning large-scale military exercises in late March aimed at ‘repelling’ Iran’s ‘enemies’. And the beat goes on…..

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

A HAPPY AND BLESSED HANUKKAH to Israel and all our Jewish friends. Speaking of Israel, we see that Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is calling for Damascus to join with Iran in striking back at Israel for the attack it feels must be coming within a month or so, according to Iranian Intelligence Services.

The Syrians tepid response to the Iranian call to action may be because they do not wish to attract any more Israeli attention than is absolutely necessary. Though the mental imagery of a military coalition between Syria and Iran is more like the Keystone cops meet Laurel and Hardy. The IDF will no doubt take the situation very seriously. Since the IDF has been probing Syrian air defense measures for some time, the least Syria can expect is the loss of their air force and their command and control centers.

The increasingly feckless Obama administration will make more noise about sanctions against Iran and then do exactly what the United Nations will do, which is nothing. The United States will also make a lot of noise about the detection of highly processed plutonium at Dir a-Zur, where the IAF turned Syria’s secret nuclear facility into so much concrete aggregate. One wonders had the Israeli Air Force not hit these facilities, would the usually inept UN have even known about Syria’s nuclear proliferation with the aid of North Korea and Iran. Traces of the same plutonium were discovered at the nuclear research reactor near the Syrian capital of Damascus.

As we have stated before, the convergence of events has been coming closer in the past few months and Israel must strike before Russia fulfills its contract to deliver the more advanced S-300 anti-aircraft defense system. The US has also been supplying Israel with more advanced fighter aircraft, utilizing special Israeli electronics systems. It is not known whether these are operational as yet.

Given Israel’s proven ability to slip past the best of what both Tehran and Damascus have deployed, and given Iran’s almost comical performance during their much touted defense training, I shouldn’t wonder if there weren’t some uneasy people in the defense commands of both countries.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

by  Lance Thompson  

I’ve been having trouble coming up with a column lately, and certainly not because there are fewer official decisions to object to.  Rather, I find it difficult to express my objections to current administration policy with the existing vocabulary, without veering into invective.  Therefore, I decided to make up a few of my own terms to deal with the issues before us.

For example, how does one describe an administration that seems completely divorced from the reality of the nuclear threats from Iran, North Korea, Communist China and whoever ends up running Pakistan?  But one must also address the relentless apology tours of the President as he asks forgiveness for our military’s fight against oppression, our nation’s imprisoning of terrorists, and our moral leadership on the world stage?

What is the term for a president who is both asleep at the wheel and endlessly seeking forgiveness?  NAPOLOGIST.

What is the term for a Supreme Court nominee who openly ridicules the system of checks and balances that underpin our Constitution, vows to legislate from the bench, and believes that her own Hispanic heritage and gender make her more qualified than any white male?   But the term must also infer the widespread outrage and reaction this nominee causes in the opposition.  Cultural and sexual chauvinism and incited panic would both be encompassed in the term HERSPANIC.

We need a word that conveys a president who has spent four months multiplying our massive debt with unprecedented spending, but also needs three jets to take the First Lady on a dream date to New York, including one plane just for the press.  A president who is unconcerned with the fiscal realities of the nation, yet fully capable of lavishing his attention on his own social calendar can only be called OUTDATING.

How does one describe a President who, during his campaign, vowed to close Guantanamo Bay and bring the prisoners to the United States for trial and incarceration?  But the term would also have to include the refusal of any governor to host the prisoners, and the president’s own immediate reversal of his own policy.  If one were to advise this president to carefully study a situation before making unenlightened decisions that would not lead embarrassing situations, it might be called GIT MO INFO.

What do you call a White House press secretary who never answers a direct question, speaks in sentence fragments that would mystify the most devoted text messenger, and whose incoherent syntax defies analysis?

This master communicator explains policies with a series of unintelligible monosyllables, ducks challenges with a dismissive glazed-over expression, and considers giggling an effective verbal riposte. This executive staff position should simply be known as MISPOKESMAN.

I’m sure more terms will arise as events dictate, but we should apply these first few as needed.  I’ll be on holiday for the first half of June, so maybe the next couple of weeks’ events will inspire an entirely new vocabulary.

Reporting from Seoul — North Korea has positioned its most sophisticated long-range ballistic missile at a launch site for a test firing that could come within weeks, a newspaper here reported today.

Pyongyang, which last month raised tensions worldwide by conducting a nuclear test, could even fire its missile June 16, when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meets with President Obama in Washington, according to the report.

In recent days, North Korea has ordered all shipping traffic from waters off its western coast, a ban it said was effective through July.

The move comes while the U.N. Security Council contemplates new sanctions against North Korea’s underground nuclear test and launching of five short-range missiles last month.

The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper in Seoul reported that the new missile set for launch from the Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea’s west coast may be a version of the Taepodong-2 rocket that Pyongyang fired in April.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said the missile had a range of up to 4,000 miles and could reach Alaska.

Both South Korea and Japan acknowledged today that a new North Korean long-range missile test could come within weeks.

“Given that North Korea has carried out a nuclear test, we can’t deny the possibility that they will further test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

Without mentioning the new North Korean missile, South Korean President Lee said in a radio address that his nation would not tolerate further provocations from Pyongyang.

Advertisements –> Email Archiving | Exchange Hosting | Bonita Web Design “North Korea’s second nuclear test last week brought great disappointment and shock not only to our people, but the entire world,” Lee said, who echoed U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ claim that the world would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.

During a news conference in Manila, where he is meeting with Filipino military officials, Gates confirmed that North Korea appears to be preparing a long-range missile. But, Gates added, “at this point, it’s not clear what they’re going to do.”

Following last month’s nuclear test by North Korea, Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons — by North Korea or any other nation.

Pyongyang responded with anger, implying that it would no longer abide by the armistice that was signed to bring an end to fighting between north and south in 1953. But Lee indicated today that Seoul would not back down.

If Pyongyang “refuses to take the path to dialogue and chooses the path of military threats and provocation, [South Korea] will never tolerate such threats.”

“We sincerely hope for peace but will sternly deal with any threats,” said Lee, who is attending an Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit on the southern island of Jeju.

South Korean newspapers have reported that a train carrying a long-range missile arrived at a missile base 120 miles northwest of Pyongyang, where a launch pad had been erected. The press reports speculated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il might visit the site in early June.

In a release on Friday, Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said that the nation had “a right to conduct as many nuclear tests or missile launches as it wants in the event that the supreme interests of the state are infringed upon.”

“Such self-defensive measures do not run counter to any other international law,” the release stated.

Analysts say Pyongyang may be looking to disrupt the June summit between Lee and Obama, who will discuss the ongoing crisis on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang’s last rocket launch, in April, was timed to coincide with an international summit in Europe.

“North Korea could possibly launch its missile during the summit between South Korea and the United States,” said Choi Choon-heum, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “The last rocket launch was in April when the G20 meeting took place.”

Other analysts agreed that a missile launch appeared certain if the U.N. lays out new sanctions.

“North Korea has said that if the U.N. Security Council agrees on sanctions, it would stage a nuclear test or missile test,” said Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at Sejong Institute near Seoul.

“They think this is their chance to test fire an ICBM. They’re thinking: Let’s get a status of a nuclear state. And besides that, we can achieve a capability for the ICBM.”

In belligerent language, North Korea continually has defied the international community in recent weeks. The communist state is angry over sanctions enacted by the Security Council following its April 5 rocket launch.

Pyongyang insisted that it placed a communications satellite into space although intelligence reports suggested that the launch was a disguised missile test.

In recent days, the Korean peninsula has become more tense with Pyongyang’s nuclear test and the firing of five short-range missiles.

On Thursday, North Korea also will put on trial two U.S. journalists who were taken into custody in March, reportedly while on North Korean soil.

The reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who work for a San Francisco-based television station, are accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in “hostile acts.”

john.glionna@latimes.com

News assistant Ju-min Park in The Times’ Seoul bureau contributed to this report

Barack Obama takes center stage in Denver tonight to accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. That makes today a great time to reflect on what Obama's campaign of hope and change hath wrought.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, is a compilation of Obama's greatest rhetorical hits from the past 19 months. I've limited this special package to 10 tracks and five minutes, but there surely are more that could have been included. Share your favorites in the comments.

The 10 tracks from this collection are:

1. Farewell To Arms -- Obama's plan to dismantle U.S. defenses
2. Loveable Rogues -- An open invitation for talks with global thugs
3. Bomb Iran -- Maybe, depending on what day you ask
4. Baby Be Gone -- No one wants to be "punished" with babies
5. Workin' 9 to 5 -- Tough questions are "above my pay grade"
6. The Gospel Of Barack -- The gay marriage Sermon on the Mount
7. Take The Race Bait -- Typical dollar bills ... and white people
8. Bitter -- The guns 'n Bibles crowd
9. Jeremiah Was An Albatross -- Tossed under the bus with Grandma
10. A Gaffe A Minute -- Fallen heroes in the 57 states of America.