Recently in North Korea Category

The great irony here continues to be that their mutually exclusive ideologies would be duty-bound to attempt to annihilate one another if they came into competition. But for now, North Korea needs cash, and Iran wants the bomb.

They have collaborated both on computer technology that could help design nuclear weapons, and on missile technology, so there is no reason to believe they would stop there.

"Report: Iran held nuclear test in N. Korea," from YNet News, March 5:

Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported Sunday that Iran held at least one nuclear weapons test in North Korea in 2010.

The paper's report is based on "Western intelligence agencies sources," and says that the test, in fact, refutes US intelligence assessments suggesting there is no "hard evidence" that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently declared that its nuclear negotiations with Iran have failed.

The statement followed Tehran's decision the bar IAEA inspectors from what is believed to be key military sites in the Islamic Republic.

Iran vehemently claims that its nuclear program is meant to serve civil, peaceful purposes only.

The Die Welt noted that evidence of the 2010 nuclear tests in North Korea was published in early February in Nature Magazine.

According to the report, Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik de Geer analyzed data "showing the presence of radioisotopes that betrayed a uranium bomb explosion."

"After a year of work, (de Geer) concluded that North Korea carried out two small nuclear tests in April and May 2010 that caused explosions in the range of 50–200 tons of TNT equivalent.

"The types and ratios of isotopes detected… suggest that North Korea was testing materials and techniques intended to boost the yield of its weapons," the report said.

The desire to engage in nuclear blackmail and possibly slaughter untold numbers of people makes strange bedfellows. North Korea, which trumpets its Juche ideology of national self-reliance (despite abject dependence on foreign food aid), needs a little help from its friends in Tehran. Iran, for its part, has to accept the help of a bunch of infidels who worship a bouffant-haired mortal in platform shoes and a dismal synthetic-fiber track suit as a god.

If either had the power they wanted, they would obliterate the other, quite possibly with nuclear weapons. But for now, each has something the other needs to get the bomb in the first place.

First things first. "North Korea and Iran 'jointly working on building nuclear missile', report claims," by Damien McElroy for the Telegraph, July 21:

According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea's weapons programmes are now benefiting from technology from Iran. In return, Pyongyang is supplying technology to Iran's uranium enrichment programme that would allow it to increase its output.

The disclosure marks a disturbing escalation in the race for nuclear weapons technology by the two states which are seen to present the biggest threat to global security.

Mark Fitzpatrick, the IISS expert on weapons proliferation, said North Korea possessed a technological edge over Iran in making nuclear equipment.

It was capable of manufacturing high strength steel that Iran has been unable to manufacture. Iran has instead relied on carbon fibre materials that are less reliable.

"What previously had been a one way flow of North Korean nuclear sales to Iran is now going two ways," he said. "North Korea may be self-sufficient in its uranium programme and there are some areas where Iran can't produce equipment that North Korea has the capacity to produce."

The emergence of a North Korean "comparative advantage" over Iran in uranium enrichment has caught experts by surprise. Iran has been working for 20 years on manufacturing advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium to weapons grade. However North Korea has make the breakthrough to produce advanced machines where Iran had failed.

The IISS's fears over North Korea's activities are widely shared by defence experts.

"North Korea has been assisting Iran in going forward with its nuclear programme," said Bruce Bennett, the senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, a US think tank.

"North Korea has been providing help to Iran with missile technology and testing (nuclear) triggering devices while Iran has only more recently done that kind of thing."

North Korea's weapons technology is the regime's main source of foreign earnings and the country has supplied Iran, Syria, Burma and Libya with its latest equipment.

"Not only has it developed nearly the full array of weapons of mass destruction, it has been willing to sell them and its missiles and conventional arms to any would-be buyer," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The report said it also appeared that Iran has been able to develop more sophisticated versions of North Korea's No-dong long range missiles.

Recent television broadcasts of Pyongyang military parades showed North Korean No-dong 2 missiles with the same "baby-shaped" nose cone that Iran has fitted on its Ghadr-1.

The modified nose on the Ghadr-1 has been at the root of fears that Iran was attempting to develop nuclear capable missiles....

That is, at least until it can put them to use against Israel. Hizballah, now a stronger armed force in Lebanon than the Lebanese Army, is the only group from the Lebanese civil war that failed to disarm. This activity yet again renders U.N. Resolution 1559, a 2004 document demanding the disarmament of all Lebanese militia groups including Hizballah, not worth the paper it was printed on until it is fully enforced.

The reward for Beirut's longstanding inaction toward the parallel, parasitic pseudo-state growing within it is that Lebanon has become a hostage state in a Syrian-Iranian proxy jihad via Hizballah, and the hostage quite often seems to have Stockholm Syndrome.

"Syria steps up Hezbollah armament," from YNet News, July 16:

Damascus has accelerated its supply of weapons to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, Ynet learned Saturday.

According to intelligence sources in the West and the Middle East, Syria's arms shipments to the Shiite organization have remained steady despite the unrest sweeping across the country, and they include advanced ballistic missiles.

Syria is said to be employing the help of experts from Iran and North Korea to press ahead with its development of sophisticated missiles at a secret site, believed to be built into Jabal Taqsis, a mountain near the opposition stronghold of Hama.

The missile program is allegedly run by the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Damascus, an organization that is already on the United States' sanctions list.

With financial and political support from Iran, Damascus has also stepped up its military assistance to Hezbollah.

Sources close to Hezbollah said that the flow of weapons entering the Bekaa Valley from Syria had accelerated since March, when protests erupted against the Assad regime.

The scale of arms shipments is said to be so great that Hezbollah "doesn’t know where to put it all." Another source said that the shipments were simply contingency measures and that "We can send it all back when things calm down in Syria."

Latest weapon deliveries to the Lebanon-based militant group include, according to The Australian, advanced Scud D surface-to-surface missiles, which can carry a one-ton warhead and have a range of 700km – placing all of Israel, Jordan and a large part of Turkey within Hezbollah's range and therefore at risk.

Hezbollah has also reportedly been given M600 surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of 250km and are based on Iranian technology.

According to The Times, M600 missiles are considered "strategic weapons" and "This is the first time that a terror organization has obtained a missile of this type."

Scud missiles are based on North Korean expertise.

Dear Leader must have liked the floral basket.

"North Korea has transitioned from selling full missile systems to licensed production and assembly of missiles (in third countries)," said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies non-proliferation and disarmament program.

Israeli military intelligence also confirmed that Hezbollah has been engaged in a serious arms build-up....

AQ Khan was not the only one. "Pakistani generals 'helped sell nuclear secrets'," by Julian Borger for the Guardian, July 7:

The story of the world's worst case of nuclear smuggling took a new twist on Thursday when documents surfaced appearing to implicate two former Pakistani generals in the sale of uranium enrichment technology to North Korea in return for millions of dollars in cash and jewels handed over in a canvas bag and cardboard boxes of fruit.

The source of the documents is AQ Khan, who confessed in 2004 to selling parts and instructions for the use of high-speed centrifuges in enriching uranium to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Extracts were published by the Washington Post, including a letter in English purportedly from a senior North Korean official to Khan in 1998 detailing payment of $3m to Pakistan's former army chief, General Jehangir Karamat, and another half-million to Lieutenant General Zulfiqar Khan, who was involved in Pakistan's nuclear bomb tests.

Both generals denied the allegations. "What can I say. [These are] bits of old info packaged together. [There is] not an iota of truth in the allegations against me. [There is] no reason on earth for anyone to pay me for something I could not deliver," Karamat wrote in an email to the Guardian. Lt Gen Khan told the Washington Post that the documents were "a fabrication".

The issue is seen as critically important by western governments. Seven years after Khan, the godfather of the Pakistani nuclear programme, made his public confession on Pakistani television, there is still uncertainty over the extent to which he was a rogue operator or just a salesman acting on behalf of the Pakistani state and its army. Western officials are also unsure whether the covert nuclear sales are continuing.

It seems like "rogue operator" might as well be a military rank in Pakistan.

One of the documents published on Thursday was allegedly a copy of a 1998 letter in English to him from Jon Byong Ho, then the secretary of the North Korean Workers' party, who is believed to have masterminded the state's covert trade in nuclear and missile technology. The document states that "the $3m have already been paid" to Karamat, and "half a million dollars" and some jewellery had been given to Lt Gen Khan, who went on to run the national water and power company. The Washington Post interviewed senior US officials who said that the document contained "accurate details of sensitive matters known only to a handful of people in Pakistan, North Korea and the United States", and that the substance was "consistent with our knowledge" of the same events....

The jihad and Juche ideologies would be duty-bound to annihilate one another if they ever came into conflict. It's hard to find much more shirk than bowing down to the giant statue of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang with a big bouquet of flowers. It's... shirktastic. Shirktacular. But that won't stop Iran from getting what it needs to threaten Israel, and U.S. interests in the region on land and at sea. First things first; there will be time to smite other unbelievers later on. There's always room for jihad.

"North Korea, Iran trade missile technology: U.N.," by Louis Charbonneau for Reuters, May 14:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missile technology in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a confidential U.N. report obtained by Reuters on Saturday.

The report said the illicit technology transfers had "trans-shipment through a neighboring third country." That country was China, several diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The report was submitted to the Security Council by a U.N. Panel of Experts, a group that monitors compliance with U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after it conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

The U.N. sanctions included a ban on trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea, as well as an arms embargo. They also banned trade with a number of North Korean firms and called for asset freezes and travel bans on some North Korean individuals.

"Prohibited ballistic missile-related items are suspected to have been transferred between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Islamic Republic of Iran on regular scheduled flights of Air Koryo and Iran Air," the report said....

Another care package to jihadists from Dear Leader. Unsurprisingly, "35 tonnes of weapons, including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades" seem to have a way of smoothing over the general, blazing shirk of the "Juche" ideology.

"North Korea arms plane 'bound for Hezbollah'," by James Hider for the Times Online, May 13:

An aircraft full of weapons seized in Bangkok last year was heading from North Korea to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, and Hamas, the Palestinian group, Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said yesterday.

The Thai authorities said that the aircraft was carrying 35 tonnes of weapons, including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades. The Thai Government informed the UN that the haul had been bound for Iran, which is believed to ship weapons to its ally Syria, which distributes them to Hezbollah or Hamas.

North Korea had the "intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah", Mr Lieberman said in Japan, where he was on an official visit. "This co-operation between North Korea and Syria [does not] improve the economic situation in their countries," he added.

Tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon increased after Israel said that Syria had transferred new Scud missiles to Hezbollah, which has an estimated 42,000 rockets pointed at the Jewish state, with whom it fought a bitter summer war in 2006. The new rockets are believed capable of accurately hitting any target inside Israel, although Israel has developed its own missile system capable of bringing down incoming projectiles.

Israel's intelligence agency Mossad has focused much of its attention on preventing weapons from Iran and Syria reaching their proxies on Israel's borders, launching a long-range airstrike on a weapons convoy in Sudan in early 2009, and blowing up what was thought to be a nuclear facility under construction in Syria in 2007. That facility was believed to have been based on North Korean technology....

A "peaceful nuclear program" characterized by secrecy and subterfuge, and an advancing missile program with help from a country that has spent decades playing a nuclear shell game: sure, those are completely unrelated. "Iran's secret nuclear base," by Marco Giannangeli for the Sunday Express, March 14:

Iran's lurch towards becoming a nuclear power took another stride last night after reports of a new missile-launching facility.

Satellite images of the complex reinforced concerns that the Islamic Republic is being aided by North Korea.

Iran unveiled the Simorgh (Phoenix) space launch vehicle (SLV) on February 3 but has not publicly revealed the location of the rocket's launch complex.

According to Jane's, the London-based intelligence group, new satellite images show a launch pad 6.5 miles north-east of the existing Semnan site. It could ultimately launch Tehran's next-generation Simorgh rocket, said experts. Worryingly, the nature of construction suggests that Iran has been collaborating with Pyongyang.

Last month President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Iran was officially a "nuclear state" after allegedly producing its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level. The claims, made before hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, came a day after the US imposed tougher sanctions.

Mr Ahmadinejad repeated that Iran was pursuing nuclear energy and had no intention of producing nuclear weapons.

However, satellite images taken on that day revealed Simorgh and Safir-2 rockets displayed in Tehran's Azadi Square.

The new site includes a gantry tower which is 43 feet wide, approximately 60 feet tall "and has a cliff-side flame bucket nearly as high as the tower itself". A Jane's report said: "It appears midway towards completion," adding that the launch pad could easily accommodate the 88-foot Simorgh if the gantry were to be extended by 33 feet.

It went on: "The development of the Semnan facility and the Simorgh SLV both demonstrate the likelihood of collaboration with North Korea in Iran's missile programme.

"The platforms seen on the new gantry tower resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea's new launch pad at Tongchang. A drainage pit 570 feet directly in front of the pad also mirrors one at Pyongyang's new west-coast launch site.

"Similarly, the first stage of the Simorgh strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-2, with four clustered engines and nearly the same dimensions."

The respected information group concluded: "Given these investments in its missile infrastructure, and despite the United States attempting to garner support for further sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programme, Tehran appears determined to continue developing its missile and rocket capabilities in the foreseeable future."

Last night Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox warned: "Iran is our single biggest emerging threat."

He added: "If Iran becomes a nuclear weapon state, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be next.

"After all that we did to try to stop nuclear proliferation at the end of the Cold War, failing with Iran will lead to a nuclear arms race in the world's most unstable region."

Axis of Evil Update: Kim Jong Il throws in his lot with the Somali jihadis, via the Sudanese jihadis. "N.Korean Arms Cache 'Bound for Sudan,'" from the Chosun Ilbo, December 16 (thanks to Maxwell):

A Georgian cargo plane carrying North Korean weapons that was intercepted in Thailand last Saturday was bound for Sudan, reports say. Christian LeMiere, the editor of Jane's Intelligence Weekly, told AP on Tuesday that the aviation path of the plane suggested it was heading to Sudan, where they might have been handed over to armed groups in Somalia through Chad and Eritrea.

Siemon Wezeman of the Arms Transfers Project of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, agreed, telling AP that the "types of arms found in the aircraft -- used to add firepower against planes and tanks in the arsenal of government forces -- were typical of those used by insurgent movements, and raised suspicion they could be headed for an African rebel group."...

Talks on Uranium Enrichment a Ruse. Sources say Bush stunned by news of N.Korea transfer. From WND, "Intel: Iran equipped for atomic weapon," with thanks to PC Kills.

While European negotiators focus on Iran's development of enriched plutonium, U.S. intelligence officials say Tehran already has completed all of the elements required for an atomic bomb.

The news has stunned President Bush, according to Geostrategy Direct, an intelligence news service led by national security reporter Bill Gertz of the Washington Times.

"It's an incredible piece of intelligence that overshadows everything we thought we knew on Iran's nuclear program," one U.S. intelligence source said.

Geostrategy says the intelligence information asserts North Korea this year transferred components to Iran to assemble a plutonium-based nuclear warhead.

The components were believed to have originated in Pakistan.

Iran insists its nuclear program is only for generation of electricity. But Washington contends Tehran's intentions are not peaceful, pointing to an enrichment program hidden from U.N. inspectors for nearly two decades before it was officially declared in October 2003.

The CIA has been tracking for the past two years Iran's efforts to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon, Geostrategy reports.

All of the agency's assessments were based on how much technology and enriched uranium Iran had obtained for its first nuclear warhead.

While dismayed by Iran's efforts, the CIA believed Iran needed at least another three years before it could assemble an atomic bomb.

"Instead, the entire Iranian uranium enrichment effort appears to have concealed a much more immediate aim," Geostrategy says.

Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, praised Iran for its decision Wednesday to continue suspension of its enrichment program and to continue talks with the EU-3 -- France, German and Britain.

In exchange, the Europeans will present plans for economic and political incentives that will become part of a final deal.

Also, the World Trade Organization rewarded Tehran for its decision by opening membership negotiations...

In late 2004, says Geostrategy, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested a command and control network that would permit a nuclear weapons warhead to be placed on an enhanced Shihab-3 intermediate-range missile.

The CIA believes Iran could immediately assemble several nuclear warheads for the Shihab-3 arsenal.

"This means that U.S. forces in Iraq and southern Europe are under immediate Iranian threat," Geostrategy says. "Israel and Saudi Arabia are already under Iranian nuclear threat."

The CIA first obtained reports in 1994 of Iran obtaining plutonium components from North Korea.

The latest information, however, comes from a new and far more reliable source, Geostrategy says...

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.

Abdul Qadeer Khan

Nuclear jihad:The Wrath of Khan

LONDON [MENL] -- A Dubai-based company in the United Arab Emirates has been cited as the linchpin in the lucrative nuclear weapons black market that has supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have determined that the UAE company served as the hub for the traffic of nuclear weapons components. Officials said the company coordinated with a range of nuclear suppliers for orders from such countries as Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The Bush administration identified the UAE firm as SMB Computers, a key element in the nuclear weapons black market operated by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The company was found to have served as a clearinghouse for nuclear components ordered by Iran, Libya and North Korea.

"Khan and his associates," a White House fact sheet said, "used a factory in Malaysia to manufacture key parts for centrifuges, and purchased other necessary parts through network operatives based in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Libya, Iran, and North Korea were customers of the Khan network, and several other countries expressed an interest in Khan's services."

The latest on Pakistan's nuclear jihad from AP:

The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted he transferred nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, a Pakistani government official said Monday.

Khan made the confession in a written statement submitted "a couple of days ago" to investigators probing allegations of nuclear proliferation by Pakistan, the official told The Associated Press on condition on anonymity.

The transfers were made during the late 1980s and in the early and mid 1990s, and were motivated by "personal greed and ambition," the official said. . . .

They told journalists that Khan admitted to selling outdated "drawings and machinery" to the three countries to earn money for Pakistan. However, Khan claimed the transfers to Libya and Iran were also motivated by wanting to help other Muslim countries become nuclear powers, said two journalists who attended the briefing.

Now that it has come to light that Pakistan may have given nuclear secrets to Iran and North Korea, we must ask what may have been the motivations of those who did so. In an editorial entitled "Jihad and loss of internal sovereignty," the Daily Times of Pakistan acknowledges that jihad was likely to have been high on the list.

The editorial focuses on two news items: "According to a Foreign Office spokesman in Islamabad, investigations show that 'certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed' in facilitating possible nuclear technology transfers from Pakistan to Iran. The government says it will take to task anyone found involved in such activity. In another interesting report, we learn of a top Chinese 'terrorist' by the name of Hasan Mahsum who was shot dead in Pakistan's South Waziristan area during a military operation last October. Mr Mahsum was supposed to have links with Al Qaeda.

"Two conclusions can be immediately drawn from these news items. First, that the sale of our nuclear secrets was probably more a result of lack of state control over individuals working in our nuclear establishment than any conscious or permitted state policy. Two, the killing of Hasan Mahsum should surprises us about the extent of penetration of our country by persons accused of terrorism by the countries of their origin. Both cases point to a lack of internal state control and jurisdiction in the past decade."

This lack of internal state control, says the editorial, became particularly acute in connection with jihad ideology: "Internal control was lost after the compulsion of importing warriors led to their immunity from the law inside Pakistan. Once such immunity was granted through special agencies handling jihad, larger sections of the state began to be included in it. Jihad, when it is not declared by the Islamic state, tends to eat at the fabric of the state's sovereignty. Just as foreign mujahideen had a free run of the country, the personnel involved in the strategy of jihad gradually assumed immunity. In this context, the nuclear programme became an integral part of the strategy of deniable proxy jihad. In 1999, for example, when scientists from our nuclear establishment were decorated on Pakistan Day, most of them were proud to sport flowing beards, overtly displaying their political and religious viewpoint!

And: "In her second tenure, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto got the ISI to register the 'foreign' mujahideen in Peshawar in the wake of Egypt's complaint that Mohammad Shawky al-Islambouli, a brother of the killer of President Anwer Sadat, was being sheltered there. The ISI came up with 5,000 names: 1,142 Egyptians, 981 Saudis, 946 Algerians, 771 Jordanians, 326 Iraqis, 292 Syrians, 234 Sudanese, 199 Libyans, 117 Libyans and 102 Moroccans. The world now knows how Pakistan became the bridge between Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and the 'takfeer'-based Algerian-FIS breakaway organisation called the GIA whose terrorists had lived in the guesthouses in Peshawar. There is also an established connection with Iraqi Mulla Krekar's Kurdish organisation whose members also came to join the jihad in Peshawar. Krekar, originally Najmuddin Feraj Ahmad, taught at Islamabad's Islamic University where he also met Abdallah Azzam, Osama's man in Peshawar. The University routinely employed Egyptian fundamentalist clerics in its faculty. Ramzi Yusuf, the first bomber of the Trade Center in New York, frequented the hostel of the University and this appeared in the Pakistani press. Similarly, one can explain how the Indonesian terrorist Hambali, the Bali bomber, and his brother wound up in Karachi. There are hundreds of examples of how the country simply gave away its internal sovereignty. Pakistani scientists and doctors began going to Afghanistan and meeting Osama bin Laden in the wake of the international terrorists. Just like the jihadi leaders who vowed divine rage, most of them were in it for money. Doctors were found in Lahore with huge amounts of dollars in their possession.

"If 9/11 had not happened and the UN Security Council had not forced Pakistan to reimpose internal controls, more and more Pakistanis would have found their way into the toils of global terrorism. We already have our plate full. We have to clean up and return to normalcy after years of chaos. But first we must correctly grasp the enormity of the task ahead of us."