Laura Ling & Euna Lee Sentenced to 12 Yrs in N. Korean Labor Camp
Two journalists who were arrested for crossing the border of North Korea unlawfully, and accused of illegally filming for the purpose of showing the trafficking of females, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean camp late last night.
Al Gore, rather than immediately trying to free the women, only got the brilliant idea to help them after their sentencing. He had an opportunity to save them from “man-bear-pig” a couple of months ago, but the weather was not warm enough for him to leave a massive carbon footprint via his personal jet.
The Korean Central News Agency says the Central Court tried American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from June 4 to 8.
It said Monday the trial confirmed an unspecified “grave crime” against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea.
The report says the court “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.”
The journalists – working for former Vice President Al Gore’s California-based Current TV – were arrested March 17 as they were reporting about the trafficking of women. It’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China.
Although the Americans were accused of illegally entering North Korea and unspecified “hostile acts,” Pyongyong has yet to publicly announce the exact charges against them. South Korean legal experts have said a conviction for “hostility” or espionage could mean five to 10 years in a labor camp.
U.S. officials and others working for the reporters’ release have said they’ve received no information about the defendants and even lacked independent confirmation about whether the trial has started. The North has said the proceedings wouldn’t be open to foreign observers, including Swedish officials who act as Washington’s proxy in Pyongyang because the two countries do not have diplomatic ties.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she was “incredibly concerned” about the plight of the two women. In working for their release, Clinton said she has spoken with foreign officials with influence in North Korea and explored the possibility of sending an envoy to the North, but suggested that no one would be sent during the trial.
Now, the big question is, will North Korea finally close its labor camps to repair its image abroad?
North Korea Abandons Armistice From Korean War (1953) – “Declares War” on South Korea
B-r-r-r-ing… B-r-r-r-ing… Uhhh, Ummm, Hello? President Obama, there is an urgent matter regarding North Korea!
The breaking news this evening was North Korea’s provoking statements towards South Korea and its allies. Within the last few days it has launched more missiles and tested a nuclear weapon underground.
North Korea says it will use immediate military force if any ship searches are conducted by South Korea. Kim Jong Il also stated that he deems South Korea’s decision to join the anti-proliferation program a declaration of war.
There are sure to be more detailed articles tomorrow, but for now, the biggest question is in regard to Obama’s preparedness for immediate foreign diplomacy and not the usual niceties either. Eventually, I hope, Obama comes to realize that the world is not made up of chocolate covered mountains and rainbows, but rather some very cruel and unusual individuals.
I have to wonder if Hillary’s ad during the primaries was indeed correct. As much as I would like to think that the TelePrompTer could get us out of this one, I’m sure that a lot of clever improvisation and intelligent communication/negotiation will be required to resolve this conflict. Plus I also don’t think that North Korea has the electronic infrastructure to support a TOTUS hookup.
I also tend to get the feeling that some of these countries, like North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, who are otherwise non-entities on a normal basis, may be acting up because of what they sense from the leadership in the United States? Definitely a possibility…
Just as Sarah Palin recently stated “Now is not the time to cut missile defense!” Common sense just isn’t all that common anymore.
*Side Note: North Korea tends to be dramatic – if troops are moved that’s when there is definitive declaration of war — this is still a precarious situation though.
Kim Jong Il’s Response to Obama & U.N. On Future Resolutions…
* Warning: Strong Language at End of Clip
I do not think an explanation is necessary after watching that clip. What is currently going on is too uncanny when thinking about Team America… it’s best to not add my own thoughts here 
The reason for Kim’s actions may best be summed up in his own words and his own song…
President Bush, Integrity; Barack Obama, Floppy Fish
If there was one thing you could always say about President Bush, it is that he always stood on his principles and values. He had an enormous amount of integrity and did not compromise any of those things for political expediency. He firmly believed every move and decision he made was based on what was best for the American people. He did not rely on polling data or popularity statistics. President Bush’s firmly held beliefs in a post 9/11 world are what guided him.
Now President Obama, on the other hand, stands on his teleprompter. As he has “navigated” his way through the first 100 days in the Oval Office, we have yet to really see the characteristics of integrity or doing what is right by the American People. At least two of his cabinet members should have been tossed; Turbo Tax Tim Geithner and Secretary Napolitano, both of whom have embarrassed the Oval Office and outraged the American people. If he really stood on principle and integrity they would have been gone.
President Obama showed signs of this early in the election cycle when he said he would accept public financing of the campaign, but when the primary season was over and he was the nominee, he opted out of the system and continued to collect just shy of 3/4 of a billion dollars, most of which is untraceable. That in itself goes against the Open Government Act by fully disclosing all donors.
President Bush walked his talk after the campaign. He worked with the Democratic leadership, showing bipartisanship on the budget, FISA, immigration and other issues. The only thing he would not compromise on (thank goodness) was a troop withdrawal time table. Democrats tried in vain to force his hand as the Obama backing MSM flooded the evening news night after night with each road side bomb image they could find. Very little attention was paid to the success we were having, only the carnage. This unwavering stance against a timed withdrawal was significant because he did not want give the emboldened insurgency a window in which to “wait it out”, and to prevent these politicians from micromanaging commanders in the field. True, there was pressures to change strategies in order to combat this issue, and the administration did just that; they initiated the “surge”. And guess what, it worked! Now Mr. Obama on the other hand has shown about as much bipartisanship as Iran has shown cooperation with the UN….Uh that would be none! The GOP has been completely shut out of the administration, being told to basically shut up and sit down because “we” (the Dems) won. So much for a new era of cooperation and open government.
What people fail to realize in Iraq, is that not only did we rid the world of a very evil dictator, who’s atrocities are well documented (so in fact there is you weapon of mass destruction), shut down Dr. Germ Rihab Taha (who was identified by UN weapon inspectors specifically), the mission also brought stability to the region as a whole.
If you look back, Moamar Kadafi quickly and quietly ended their rebellious ways and cracked down on terrorists in Libya. Syria also became much more user friendly, and cooperative. So there were broader positive effects.
Mr. Obama who was not a Senator when the Congress initially authorized action in Iraq, on the campaign trail he waved the “No More War” flag like the checker flag at the end of a car race. The election was soundly anti-Bush, and all the rhetoric that goes with that. ‘When he is elected president, we will be out of Iraq in 16 months at the most. There should be no confusion about that’.
Well as you all know, the mission (and I am not complaining about this) remains on target and is, in fact, in a winding down phase. We have consolidated much of our operations to specific areas in Iraq, handed over control and security operations to the Iraqi Army and Police force in many areas, continue to train and equip those forces so when we do leave, there will be stability and peace inside the borders. Mr. Obama’s rhetoric got him into the White House, but the reality of the situation on the ground in Iraq dictated his actions. And if the people who were so hell bent on completely ditching the quote “Bush Doctrine” (as Charlie Gibson tried to nail Sarah Palin with) they would have realized that this notion of up and run out of Iraq was not plausible in the least.
President Bush was thrust into a situation that day in September, unbeknown to America or our intelligence agencies. We went from a 20 plus year time of relative peace and suddenly thrust into war, against an enemy that does not belong to a nation or state, but operates in the shadows among innocent people whom they will sacrifice without any hesitation. Yes, mistakes were made. But this nation was kept safe, and still is, by those policies President Bush put into place.
Now we have a floppy fish in the White House. Yes he was thrust into an economic situation that has not been pretty. However, Mr. Teleprompter as not shown us anything except he is bent on a socialistic agenda and that he changes his word like we change underwear.
Now Mr. Obama wants to openly (yes there is that word open again) and without preconditions, have talks with these nations that simply hate the United States. Iran, who is pursuing nuclear weapons and calling for the destruction of Israel, North Korea, who has nuclear material but can not build a delivery vehicle, Venezuela, who just yesterday seized American Owned and Operated energy sites and equipment, and Cuba, where money can now flow freely without using a 3rd and 4th party intermediary. Oh yes lets not forget Mexico. Yet, another apology from Mr. Obama and Secretary Clinton for causing the drug war along the boarder.
Mr. Obama and his economic team have showered the coffers with billions and billions of dollars in order to prop up the economy. Thus far, nothing. New jobless filings hover around 600K and overall, 6.5 million people are out of work, and counting. Now that Chrysler and GM are making significant cuts, that is going to go up more this year. Not only does that effect line workers in the auto plants, but spills out to the suppliers and peripheral businesses that support them.
Mr. Obama, first week in office broke the most basic of his campaign pledges, saying that the practice of earmarks and pork spending would immediately come to and end. Say what? The first two things he signs into law are pork laden wasteful bills that did nothing. The Stimulus package, which failed to stimulate the American people, was shoved through the congress by the new Dem Majority in the middle of the night in which no one was even able to read. And what was in there (Mr. Dodd)? Bonuses for the executives at AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac!!! Next he signed an Omnibus bill that contained over 9000 earmarks, again pushed through on a Dem freight train in the middle of the night.
Now the administration continues to politicize national security doctrine as the administration stammers on what our evil interrogators did to terror suspects. This emboldens the enemy, teaches them our techniques so now they can prepare for what little we actually do. The September 10th mentality of the administration puts us in jeopardy. Many of the policies that Mr. Obama so vehemently touted against remain in effect. The naval prison at Guantanamo Bay was ordered closed yet remains open as Obama plans where to send its inmates; the president has yet to establish a coherent policy on Iran — following in the Bush administration’s footsteps and while American troops are being removed from Iraq, most will stay in place until 2010.
It is important to note that all the enhanced interrogation tactics that we used actually yielded crucially important intelligence that helped keep this country safe,” with the eight years of safety on the home front since Sept. 11, 2001. Even though congressional leaders claimed to be left out of the loop on these techniques, it was revealed that the same Dem leaders, who bewitched President Bush, were duly informed of those methods. But as Dems, true to color, they pretended to take the moral high road, and were thus outed as hypocrites using this issue for political expediency.
Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, wrote an internal memo last week citing the “high value” information about Al Qaeda’s operations yielded by tactics such as water boarding, but its morality has been called into question by human rights monitors and many others both in and out of the Obama administration.
So therein lays the conflict with this administration. Integrity, direction, political expediency, governing by polling data, and letting Nancy Pelosi write its budget a mere 3 Trillion and some change.
So we as Americans have to wonder, where the transparency, openness, and new era of cooperation is. Yeah, that is right, so sorry, we lost.
U.S. Reporters Jailed in Iran and North Korea
This is a little ironic after the recent CIA Gitmo “torture” memo release.
North Korea has incarcerated two female journalists from the United States. Laura Ling and Euna Lee visited North Korea in hopes to interview defectors. They flew into Seoul and held meetings there for the beginning of their trip. They flew to Yanji, a small Chinese city over the border of North Korea after their sessions were complete. The women were advised not to leave the small city or else face possible incrimination by North Korea. Rather than heed the warning, the women crossed the Tumen River, in which reports after which are varying. One report states that the women were taken into custody because they would not stop filming, while another one states they were pursued back across the frozen river onto Chinese soil where they were brought back to North Korea.
The women have been jailed in North Korea for over a month now, while the Obama administration states it is trying to free them through diplomacy. I’m curious as to why none of us here have really heard anything about this? Nobody on the outside knows how the women are doing and Kim Jong Il is unlikely to release them anytime soon because of what U.S. captives mean for his country (usually money and food to continue to subsist on) and due to the grudge he is holding against the U.N. and the West for their reaction to his missile launch.
Kim Jong Il no has a lot of leverage against the United States and these two women will merely be pawns in this game. I hope that the “diplomacy” style does not wind up like Carter’s 444 day escapade.
Either way, within 24 hours Ms Ling and Ms Lee were taken in separate vehicles to Pyongyang for questioning. A week later it was announced that they would be put on trial.
Conviction for illegal entry carries up to three years in prison; the more serious crimes of espionage or “hostility toward North Korean people” are punishable by five to ten years.
The US State Department has said that it is making every diplomatic effort to free the two women and Mr Gore is said to have contacted Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, to ask for her assistance. The US has no embassy in North Korea but a representative of the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang is said to have seen the journalists at the end of last month.
Koh Yu Hwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that Pyongyang was unlikely to release the journalists soon. Having two Americans was like having a “piece of rice cake rolling in for free”, he said.
“They’re going to make maximum use of this for multiple purposes. Rather than a trial by a criminal code, it will be a political trial.”
Iran has also taken a U.S.-Iranian journalist prisoner and has officially sentenced her to 8 years in prison based on charges of espionage.
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist, was convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison on Saturday by Iran’s Revolutionary Court.
Ms. Saberi, a former American beauty queen, has been in detention in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since Jan. 31. She was charged with espionage earlier this month and tried this week behind closed doors.
The truth behind why she was detained in the first place is very disconnected with myriad reasons, which can only be expected by another “state”-run government much like North Korea.
This makes me wonder if Obama’s new call of diplomacy and negotiatons with hostile nations will still consider no pre-conditions…
“Ms Saberi has been sentenced to eight years in jail and I am going to appeal,” her lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi told AFP. Under Iranian law, the verdict can be appealed within 20 days.
The case against Saberi, who has both US and Iranian nationality, has raised deep concerns in Washington and among rights groups.
She was initially reported to have been detained for buying alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.
The ISNA news agency, quoting an unnamed judiciary source, confirmed that a revolutionary court had sentenced Saberi for espionage — a charge that could have risked the death sentence. No date was given for the verdict.
“Roxana said in court that her earlier confessions were not true and she told me she had been tricked into believing that she would be released if she cooperated,” her father Reza Saberi told AFP.
“Her denial is documented in her case but apparently they did not pay attention to it,” he added, without saying when he had spoken to his daughter.
“We are very shocked and we were not expecting it. We were hoping for six months and then clemency.”
The court ruling comes despite calls by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Saberi’s release and President Barack Obama’s diplomatic overtures to Iran after three decades of ruptured ties.
[...]
Last month, Saberi’s parents — who came to Iran to pursue her case and have visited her at least twice — appealed to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for her release, saying she was in a “dangerous” mental state.
Her mental state must be an indication of the wonderful treatment in Iran and the fact that no other countries use cruel and unusual punishment like the United States right? At least we make sure that our methods meet protocol standards and we only persecute real criminals and terrorists unlike others.
Clinton said she had delivered a letter to Iranian officials on March 31, seeking Saberi’s release and making appeals on behalf of two other US citizens.
Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, vanished on the Gulf island of Kish two years ago, and student Esha Momeni has been prevented from leaving Iran despite being released from jail last year.
After three decades of severed ties, the Obama administration has called for dialogue with Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive, which Western powers fear could be a cover for efforts to build an atomic bomb.
So we are to believe that Iran does not have bad intentions with their nuclear facilities whilst they kill and capture U.S. citizens, whom we conveniently do not hear much about from our own media propagandists?
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