Kim Jong Il: Stalinist jihad?
What were "Syrian technicians" doing on the train? Could they provide a hint as to why it exploded? Is Kim Jong Il making common cause with the global jihad? From The World Tribune, with thanks to Mrs. Obelix:
Syrian technicians accompanying unknown equipment were killed in the train explosion in North Korea on April 22, according to a report in a Japanese newspaper.A military specialist on Korean affairs revealed that the Syrian technicians were killed in the explosion in Ryongchon in the northwestern part of the country, according to the Sankei Shimbun. The specialist said the Syrians were accompanying "large equipment" and that the damage from the explosion was greatest in the portion of the train they occupied.
The source said North Korean military personnel with protective suits responded to the scene soon after the explosion and removed material only from the Syrians' section of the train.
The technicians were from the Syrian technical research center called Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Scientific (CERS). Although CERS was established to promote science and technology development, it has been viewed as a major player in Syria's weapons of mass destruction development program. ...
As many as 10 Syrians and accompanying North Koreans were killed, according to the report. The bodies of the Syrians were taken home on May 1 by a Syrian aircraft, which had come to Pyongyang to deliver aid supplies.
The Syrians and North Koreans who transported the victims were also reportedly wearing protective suits similar to those worn by the North Korean military figures who arrived on the scene immediately after the accident, the source said.
The United States and other countries have expressed concern that Syrian and North Korea are developoing Scud-D missiles, as well as chemical and biological weapons.
Concerning the cause of the explosion incident, the DPRK has explained that a train carrying fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate and a railroad tank carrying petroleum were being shunted, and, in the process, came into contact with electrical wires, due to carelessness.
Does anyone know what really happened to cause the explosion? Was it an "accident"? Or was it syrian clumsiness?
Juche is such a mockery of a religion/philosophy. I just don't understand why dear leader little god doesn't just divinely clean up this little mess?
/sarcasm off
Ka-poret, here are some online Koran resources:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279
Fox News is covering the N. Korea story right now. John Loftus, former DOJ prosecutor, is saying the Iraq WMD were transfered via Syria to N.K. That's why the N.K. had guys in chem suits at the scene.
He said the "biggest scandal yet to come is the Arab nazis, a group called the Muslim Brotherhood."
I believe there is a very good chance this story has surfaced on the mainstream only because it was was discovered here. I think Fox is reading this blog. I think that's wonderful. I want to say something here. Ted Kennedy compared the current war with Vietnam. The reason why the comparison is valid is because the Left is fighting it in exactly the same way they fought against the Vietnam War -- with Sy Hersh propaganda and campus agitators and Congressional investigations against our intelligence aparatus. But there is one difference, and I believe that difference is of the greatest importance. And that difference is the ready democratic access to information from the internet. And blogs like this one are on the front line. To put it simply, they can't control the information like they did in Vietnam. Nobody gives a crap anymore about what the New York Times thinks about anything anymore, because they are just one voice. Now, if the Times or CBS ignores a story, or buries it, it comes right back at their credibility in a way that would have been unthinkable during the Vietnam War.
Terror groups sharing resources, what a novel idea. Not! Of course they work together. We can see the big picture. Does living and working within the beltway preclude the development of this skill? Perhaps it's a matter of groupthink and bureaucratic culture that doesn't reward thinking and operating outside the lines.
Well if the leadership of the Left get in power you can expect to see 'internet speech' undergo serious regulation. If you don't believe me then check out the new book entitled: "Hillary's Secret War", which details in depth the Left's (spearheaded by Hillary) efforts to curb internet speech. And those on the Left say that those on the Right are the ones whom everyday people have to fear!
www.CapitalismMagazine.com]
Q: I need the spirit of optimism in daily news analysis. Is there something wrong with me that I need to hear good things from other people?
A: Not at all. A news commentary should tell you that there’s hope, if there is hope. At the same time, a news commentary should not pretend that reality is other than what it is. This does not only apply to news commentary. It applies to all of life. Rational optimism is what I recommend, both as a psychologist and as a writer. I’ll cover here merely one aspect of this very big issue.
If you’re expecting to find good in the evil (or in the bad, or in the wrong), then something is wrong in your thinking. At the same time, it’s helpful to sometimes remind yourself of how weak and vulnerable the evil is. Take the example of terrorists. They’re clearly evil and it’s almost impossible to feel any sense of optimism when thinking about terrorism. At the same time, terrorists can only do so much, especially if our leaders do their jobs and match terror with equally if not more terrifying force. Terrorists are weakened because they must operate in secret and on the run. We would have had ten more 9/11’s by now if terrorists weren’t on the run as much as they are. And to truly succeed at what they want to do, they have to commit suicide in the process of each individual terrorist act. Yes, there’s a shocking availability of terrorists who want to commit suicide. At the same time, their most prominent figures and leaders—Osama bin Laden, most notably—show no intention of planning to commit suicide nor even risk death, now or ever. And of course they can’t risk death if they are to continue providing "moral" and practical guidance to their followers in their evil crusade. In short, even the most dangerous and depressing people on the face of the planet today are sitting on a gigantic contradiction: kill but in the process face extinction.
A less extreme example was illustrated in my Daily Dose of Reason the other day. For those of you who share my view that making money is a moral and practical way for both an individual and society to flourish, it’s quite depressing to see all the impositions on this value placed by a myriad of politicians (John Kerry merely the next in line eager to do so). Yet even John Kerry, the great liberal of our time, acknowledges he’s got something of a contradiction going on here: in order to expropriate the wealth creators, he has to hate them. But he recognizes he can’t hate them if he’s going to get what he wants from them. He married a rich Republican, so on some level he probably doesn’t hate wealth (imagine such a thing for a liberal Democrat!) Reality places a check on his ability to tax and regulate wealth creators that our constitutional system, regrettably, doesn’t do such a good job of anymore. There’s reason to feel optimism because the socialists and the statists can only go so far in a country already used to the wealth and comfort that even hampered capitalism delivers.
The evil are ultimately weak. The wrong and the mistaken are caught in their own contradictions. This is true by the very logic of their status as evil, wrong or mistaken. Don’t apply this only to politicians or terrorists. Apply this to dysfunctional, unreasonable or downright bad people you know in your own life. Don't feel sorry for them; but do think about how weak, ineffectual and contradictory they are. The irrational or the bad can at best survive for a time, but only through irrational means (usually intimidation, force and/or fraud) and much less so in a context where people are used to the benefits of relative rationality and won’t put up with too much nonsense. Even today, as we face a dismal presidential election season; a haggard, defensive President Bush; and a continuing, very real threat of terrorism, I can think of no better reason for optimism than this.
About the Author: Dr. Michael Hurd is a psychologist, psychotherapist and author of Effective Therapy (New York: Dunhill, 1997) and Grow Up America! Visit his website at: www.DrHurd.com.
In one way this war is like Vietnam, we seem to be unable to tell our friends from our enemeies, or unwilling to do so. If you can't tell who is on which side, you will not be able to win a war.
Also like Vietnam this is not about simply moving an Army in and taking land, that may be part of it, but not all.
In one way this war is like Vietnam, we seem to be unable to tell our friends from our enemeies, or unwilling to do so. If you can't tell who is on which side, you will not be able to win a war.
Also like Vietnam this is not about simply moving an Army in and taking land, that may be part of it, but not all.
In my opintion far too few people in the US or around the world actually believe Islamofascism is a serious threat. No major media people anywhere believe it. Certain key leaders do, but I don't think it is enough. Yet.
Some terrorist group will get a nuke or other serious nasty. First one goes in Tel Aviv. That won't affect world feelings much. But the next one might - in London, or Paris, or New York.
Until something a lot bigger than 9-11 or 3-11 hits the West, they'll mainly sit on their naive little hands and wait and hope it all goes away.
It is not going to go away. The longer the 'World' waits, the harder and nastier the battle will be. If there was unity and strength on 9-12 it would be over already, and a more peaceful Islam would survive. But now, when it gets serious, I suspect the result will be worse than WW II. Probably the destruction of Israel. HUGE 'collateral' damage - "the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim". Probably the destruction of all significant Muslim holy places. Moscow is on the front lines of this, even more than the US and Western Europe - what will Putin's response be to a nuking of the Kremlin? Melted Mecca?
Arm yourselves. Teach your children how to shoot. Learn how your opponent thinks. Form networks of others who understand the threat. Even if you are optimistic, and think governments will solve it all for you, it never hurts to be prepared.
Who's surprised?
A similar train-explosion in Iran several months ago could most probably be laid to the same cause: transportation of volatile materials under unsafe conditions - due to the handicaps caused by secrecy in the shipments themselves and decrepit infrastructure generally.
On top of the collaboration of various international, national and local criminal mafias, the rump of the old KGB "Terrorist International", once composed of Baader-Meinhoff, the Red Brigades, the Japanese Red Army, the Kurdish PKK, the IRA, ETA, l'Union Corse, the November 17 Group in Greece, etc, plus the range of gangs affiliated to the PLO, in addition to their remaining State sponsors (among them North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba), is making cause with "Jihad Inc", the terror-network for which el-Qaeda serves as the umbrella.
The combination above of the "Terrorist International" and "Jihad Inc" grows out two (possibly inter-linked) things:
i) "Sheikh" Osama bin-Laden's fatwa of about a year ago, when he authorized the collaboration of Jihadis with "socialists" (i.e. "secularists" of the fascist pan-Arab, Arab nationalist and "Arab Socialist" stripe)
&
ii) The approximately 3-1/2 year-old model of the practical advantages - especially on the tactical and logistical level - exemplified by the "success" of joint terror-operations in "Palestine", integrating the efforts and resources of the "secularist" PLO with those of the Moslem "holy warriors" of Hamas, Jihad Islami, Hezbollah and el-Qaeda, under the aegis of the "Palestinian National & Islamic Front", now the "High Command" for the "el-Aqsa Intefada".
Many valid points, but my question is this: is there any more logical nation for Saddam to have shipped his WMDs to if they did, in fact, exist, than to Syria?
Can anyone shed some light on the diplomatic relationship that existed between the Ba'athist Party/Saddam Hussein and the leadership in Syria before our U.S. Troops finally rolled in?
I mean, it's not like Saddam is stupid and he had more than enough time to see that the ship was going to sink, but if there's one thing you can count on about Stalinists, it's that they will plot some way to revenge themselves upon their enemies if at all possible.
I'll tell you, my gut reaction the minute I heard about this North Korean train accident was that something was fishy and this was long before I knew anything about this Syrian connection.
It would all make perfect sense. Now if someone could just manage to find some damn evidence.
In the 1990 - 91 Kuwait War, Syria's acquiescence was purchased by the Saudis, to the tune of $20 billion. This sum was promptly turned over to North Korea in payment for WMD and missile technology previously sold to Syria by Pyongyang.
With the death in 1992 of Damascus' dictator Hafez el-Asad and the accession of his son, Bashar, during the subsequent period of sanctions against Iraq, Saddam managed to warm relations between his Baathist wing and that in Syria, to the extent of Syria soon serving as a secret conduit for illicit Iraqi oil-flows out and the influx of banned and luxury commodities into Iraq.
The Coalition's intervention against Saddam spoiled that sweet deal....
Surveillance and other sources purport that about a year before the Allies' arrival in Bagdad, Saddam had trucked his WMD establishment to Syria, for temporary "safe-keeping", till the heat would be off him.
With this not transpiring, Damascus then on-shipped Iraq's materiel, at least 6 months back - together with much of its own incriminating bio-chem stuff - on into the terrorist-ridden Beqaa Valley in its satellite, Lebanon.
Since then, a portion's reputed to've been further dispersed to the genocidal régime in the Sudan; it'd be no big shock to find that North Korea's "storing" some of it as well.
Hmmmmm.......I wonder...we are moving 4,000 troops out of S. Korea and into Iraq.
Actually, we have satellite pictures of tractor trailers moving from Iraq to Syria - pre war. DEBKA claims that David Kay was given a map of 3 sites in Syria - but of course he couldn't check them. Would it not make sense, (Syria being under sanctions), for them to see the writing on the wall and move material to a safe place out of the region?
zach,
this is not the same. We will not let the dem's have control again. And 9/11 made this like WW2 not veitnaim we know you are a terrorist supporter!!!!
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and all who fight with her give them strength and courage to stay the course to Victory Amen
You know, ever since I learned about this incident on the news I have suspected something fishy was up. Now they say the North Koreans sent people in protective suits. It makes me think WMD. Either this was chemical, biological or nuclear in nature. And, from what I remember the scene of the accident looked like a complete wreck. There is plenty that has not yet been revealed.
I'd like to thank HG for that very informative little blurb. It definitely answered my question!