UPDATE: “Clinton Delivers” is the headline on the Drudge Report, with breaking news that in response to Bill Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il has pardoned the two jailed American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are expected to be home shortly, and it will be a welcome relief when they are free of North Korea.
But the huge and disturbing question is, what else has Bill Clinton delivered? And to whom? The White House is calling Bill’s trip a “private mission,” but there are reports that Bill was met at the Pyongyang airport by North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan – a curious choice of host if Clinton went only to discuss the two hostage journalists. Likewise, just how private is it when Clinton had a long talk with Kim Jong Il over a dinner hosted by North Korea’s National Defense Commission.
Kim Kye Gwan and Kim Jong Il led the Bush administration on a merry dance via the Six-Party Talks of recent years, in which North Korea raked in concessions and aid from the U.S. — and cheated, with the resulting collapse of the deal late last year. The same regime did the same to Bill Clinton when he was president in the 1990s — talk, sign, collect, and cheat. North Korea’s totalitarian regime is not a system in which morality, decency or human kindness figure as motivating factors. Kim Jong Il got something from the U.S. for those journalists — the question is, did he simply get the already huge concession of a visit from a former U.S. president and husband of Obama’s secretary of state? Or did Bill Clinton deliver a lot more to Kim, which we have yet to hear about?
More on the Pyongyang calculus below, as posted just after Clinton arrived in Pyongyang, but before the report that “Clinton Delivers”:
Snatch two American journalists, get yourself a visit from an American ex-president — with added payolas likely to follow.
That’s the conclusion the strategists of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il regime might reasonably draw, as Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang to navigate the release of the two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were nabbed by North Korea, accused of trespassing on its turf and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. I use the word “navigate” rather than “negotiate” for whatever Clinton is about to do in North Korea, because his arrival there — as ex-president and husband of President Obama’s secretary of state — is, in itself, already a U.S. concession to North Korea; a deal already struck, with more U.S. concessions likely to follow).
There’s every reason for North Korea to be pleased with this arrangement. The last American ex-president to tread the corridors of Pyongyang was Jimmy Carter, who went to North Korea in 1994, while Bill Clinton was president. Out of that visit, 15 years ago, came the Agreed Framework nuclear freeze deal, in which North Korea was promised two modern nuclear reactors and a flow of aid, and got to store in-country its spent nuclear fuel (which later came in handy when Kim decided to reprocess it for nuclear bombs). On Clinton’s watch, construction began on the reactors, the aid flowed, Madeleine Albright dropped by in 2000 in a propaganda coup for Kim — and North Korea cheated on the deal.
The net effect was to help Kim Jong Il consolidate power and sustain his regime. Kim enhanced his missile arsenal, expanded his proliferation networks, starved an estimated million or so of his countrymen to death, and conducted nuclear and long-range missiles tests in 2006 and this spring.
Now Bill Clinton has come calling on Pyongyang. One can feel enormous sympathy for the two journalists whose release he’s gone to obtain. It would be a very good thing to see them come home. But this is a terrible way to handle it, and the precedent now being set is monstrous.
What will be the real costs of this high-profile brand of ransom payment? It’s not only the tyrant regime of Pyongyang that’s noting the rewards of hostage politics – which is becoming hard to distinguish from Obama’s broad efforts in any event to engage with the world’s most ruthless and manipulative tyrannies. Iran has just picked up three Americans accused by Iranian authorities of straying over the border from Iraq. Which ex-president should Iran now expect to come calling? Or, given the current calculus of hostage politics, and appeasement whatever the cost, should we expect that Obama will do it himself?
How altogether unsurprising to see the ultra-wingnut PJM taking North Korea’s side over the United States.
Good job, Comrades.
Sort of reminds me of Chamberlin going to Munich.
Leave it for those who are challenged when it comes to credibility to meet with birds of the same feather.
Those who do not want to learn tend not to learn.
This is disappointing. We should just sell them weapons and supplies like Reagan did.
Uh-huh, Roberrt V. Would you care to provide a reference for that?
Apparently you didn’t read the article, which described the transfer of supplies and technology under Clinton which was initiated by none other than Mr. Appeasement, himself, Jimmy Carter.
Could you imagine ex-president W. traveling to a country like Korea and using his popularity, as well as the prestige and influence of his former office, as leverage to compel Korea to free American journalists?
I know, I can’t either.
If the husband Clinton went to Pyongyang only to get the two reporters out, it may be excusable, or even commendable. If he talked about the nuclear and the peace treaty, etc. with the kidnapper-murderer Kim Jong-il, it is totally unexcusable. He has no business of meddling in. Last time when the idiot Jimmy Carter meddled in, more than 3 million people perished in North Korea. Obama-Clinton-Clinton can be as bad as W. Bush-Rice-Hill, or Clinton-Albright-Wendy, et al. Stop meddling in, you Carters, Bushes, and Obamas, unless you are ready to kill Kim Jong-il, the mass-murderer! There is a genocide going on in the Korean peninsula.
Sorry, meant like Reagan did with Iran to free those hostages.
And by the way, I do believe that pandering to NK by sending Clinton over is not the way to go and will further empower Kim Jong.
When I heard President Clinton is in North Korea to visit dictator Kim Jong Il, I get President Jimmy Carter flashbacks after he too is no longer POTUS, but injects himself into places where he has no business anymore. Bubba Clinton will do more harm than good in playing supplicant to the mad dictator.
If this is a sign of things to come, The US is in deep-doo-doo. All you have to do to get rewards and concessions from the USA is kidnap American citizens???
Obama has become an appeaser of the worst kind. He already says nothing about human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Mauritania, Iran, and Gaza. No..he wants to become “friends” with them.
His apologetic foreign policy is ass-backwards and his pro-muslim leanings will bring chaos to the USA.
Who voted for this weak-kneed moron? This is a time for a stong president, not a milquetoast. Sad to see. The USA is on it’s way down…and this will be bad for the world – very bad!
Clinton has successfully secured the release of the two American female journalists, and they will soon be leaving Korea with Clinton in his private plane.
One can only imagine the warm welcome that Mr. Clinton will receive from these liberated young women. I’m betting that the flight home will remind Clinton very much of being back in the oval office. And I’m betting that American soil will not be the only thing that the journalists get down on their knees and kiss.
Go Bubba.
Hope and Change.
and a photo op.
Nice to see that the new administration is getting along so famously with the dictators in the world. And the world breaths a sigh of relief. They were hoping we would change back to the same old policies of appeasement. Live and let die.
…the rewards of hostage politics
Kim likely received something in the way of material/money besides a visit from the esteemed bubba.
Last go round, 6 party talks, NK was granted concessions, including one high on its agenda of getting millions in its frozen money released.
After some interval, the Norks returned to business as usual, nuclear wise.
I’m glad the 2 reporters will be sprung (at least, one hopes Kim won’t renege, he’s capable of it) but “hostage politics” is an ugly reality that regimes like North Korea and Iran will gleefully use.
IF US leaders need an object lesson in how NOT to negotiate with terror leaders they ought to look towards the disasters created by Israel’s appeasement policies.
Israel is the poster nation for insane swaps with terror leaders.They have released thousands of captured ! blood soaked Jew killers, all in order to get back coffins of dead captive soldiers.
Not only that, but after each unfathomable exchange another kidnapping follows.
In other words, Israel’s demented leaders have not learned the salient lesson- NO good will come out of ‘deals’ with terrorists under ANY circumstances. That whenever one negotiates with terror driven leaders their appetites are whetted to commit more and more atrocities.
Therefore, the US can now look forward to more kidnappings ALL over the world. Every bloody dictator is watching how this plays out and taking notes for future ‘negotiations’.
Bloody morons….
The LA Times is reporting that N.Korea has pardoned the two captured journalists.
but at what cost?
n. korea needs to get their immigration policies correct. there are no borders and the two reporters should be offered a path to citizenship as well as free medical, they have broken no laws. iran has similar issues
I suppose you would rather have these people rot in jail. It is easy to stand on principle when it is not your life on the line
Israel is the poster nation for insane swaps with terror leaders.
Springing their guys from foreign jails is a huge deal with terrorists, hezbollah, hamas, al qaeda, all of them.
The most egregious release I’m aware of was Samir Kuntar, who received a hero’s welcome when he returned home to Lebanon.
The horror of which words can’t come close to describing.
*Shrug*
We got our citizens back and NK got a visit from a real live ex-president. Unless Bill Clinton has been appointed to an office recently he has no authority to negotiate on behalf of the US government. Even if he promised them the moon we won’t have to give them anything once we get our citizens back.
How does the tail rank over there Bubba?
Bring your cigars?
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
How does the tail rank over there Bubba?
Bring your cigars?
I hope Bill Clinton did not play intern with the freed Al Gore journalists. He needs to keep his cigars in his pocket.
Clinton shows you fools how it’s done – AGAIN.
Ah, feels like old times….
Blarty Blarckleblart:
Clinton shows you fools how it’s done – AGAIN.
Ah, feels like old times….
What a moron. Like them being released wasn’t already decided before Pres. Clinton arrived..
Get real. He would not have shown up if it wasn’t a done deal.
Leftist trolls on this site are such dumb asses.
I do thank Pres. Clinton for his help as I am sure the reporters are thankful for their release.
I’m very happy the journalists were pardoned.
There’s a lot I’d give up to keep Clinton away. He’s just not the same narcissistic boogeyman since President Stupidly came along, though.
Of course, Blarty. Clinton’s failure to rein N.Korea’s nuclear program has made him a star in that commie government. Madelene Albright was especially inept. Meanwhile, North Korean citizens actually have other things to worry about. (cough)
While some Americans celebrate the release of the hostages (playing right into the hands of the Norkos, who can now parade themselves as a mericful regmie willing to negotiate to the world), somewhere deep inside NK, political prisoners are executed daily without intervention from political superstars, and hundreds and thousands are throwing up tree barks they ate for breakfast and lunch. Yawn, no vistis from Clinton and UN reps on their behalf.
If you think Clinton was some brilliant tactician who moved the NK overlords with his eloquence (sinckers), then I pity you. Can you NOT see WHY Iran and N.Korea captured these western journalists / citizens in the first place, only to eventually let them go in such generous fashion? Why is Iran publicly announce the capture of three American hikers? Why did the Iranian media broadcast captured British soldiers “apologizing” for invading their waters? Why on earth did NK sentence the two journalists for 10+ years, emphasizing “hard labor” in the sentence, only to suddenly “pardon” them after a high profile visit from a American politician? Can you buy a clue at ebay for less than buck?
Thank god for your superheroes Clinton, Bush, and Obama, Blarty. Nay, not superheroes, but titans of global justice.
# 19-Tanstaafl-The release of baby killer Kuntar bespeaks of the heinous evil which our leaders are responsible for by unleashing monsters through ‘negotiations’.
Not only are they released-to kill another day-but many of them receive college degrees, some even advanced degrees,all the while they enjoy the fruits of their bloody rampages.
To add insult to grievous injury, it is the Israeli, mainly Jewish taxpayers,(the authorities have a terrible time collecting taxes from the Arab sector, but that is another travesty of injustice) who pay for their newly minted degrees.
Kuntar, the chubby cheeked killer (he ate very well in prison)and multiple murderer left Israel, not only to a hero’s welcome in Lebanon, but with a taxpayer funded education, all the while crowing that his mission is to kill more Jews.
The unbridled spectacle of witnessing these Jew killers being feted as heroes, plus the humiliation of realizing how spineless our leaders are by engaging in such lopsided exchanges is akin to being terrorized/raped all over again.
There is no downside to those who commit terror, safe in the knowledge that the insane Israeli leadership will trade baby killers for a few boxes of bones.
Hmm, let me think . . . send some vague “signal” about negotiating with terrorists or save two American citizens from 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean prison. Hmm, let me think . . . boy, that’s a tough one. If I based everything in my life on empty symbols like, I don’t know, flag pins, those two girls would still be breaking rocks. But since I’m a liberal who believes in proomoting the freedom of the individual, I think I’ll side with Bill on this one.
20. Paul in MI has it right. If Bill did carry some chips to Kim, so what. The North Koreans could get a bit of their own treatment – just ignore the deal Barack, if there is one. Let this play out, then criticize if warranted.
Can you imagine being held in that hellhole? Bill and his jet would look awfully good to any one of us.
The lesson here is as follows:
NoK : Perform nuclear bomb testing and perform ICBM Tests, and then kidnap two Americans; Then we watch as the USA, the paper tiger that it is, sends over it’s Ex-Presidents to beg us to release hostages.
Next Up: Iran will do the same with the tree hikers from Cal-Berkeley.
Blarty Blarckleblart:You are not just a twit, you are a badly cliched twit. The last time Clinton dealt with the NKs he gave them a treaty that allowed them the nuclear bombs they have now. YOU ARE RETARDED.
While not being one who sees a conspiracy in every nook and cranny…
I am wondering how two journalists, who worked for Al Gore, ended up so close to the border that they were ‘snatched’. Add to that the three Americans ‘bicycling’ (one of whom has been reported as a journalist) too near the Iranian border just doesn’t jive with me. In both cases it undermines any hard line position to be maintained and does in fact, force us to negotiate with the two nuclear monsters.
BB, have you been paying attention to Jimmy Carter? Bill Clinton turned into Jimmy Carter with this moment. Although Clinton got the journalists, what else did he give away for them? The USA got the short end of the stick while North Korea looks strong. Leftists in power are paper tigers at best. President Obama has demonstrated this repeatedly with his blowhard speeches, pontifications about America, & his doormat dandy all over the world.
Go back to the kiddie pool BB.
32. neverquit:
“Next Up: Iran will do the same with the tree hikers from Cal-Berkeley.”
Yeah, well if you were in the hands of the Iranians right now, you’d be down on your knees gobbling like it was Thanksgiving to get out of there. Typical conservative – all talk and smoke, bully brave when you’ve got nothing on the line. Your name shouldn’t’ be “neverquit”, it should be “never start to begin with.”
“One can feel enormous sympathy for the two journalists whose release he’s gone to obtain. It would be a very good thing to see them come home. But this is a terrible way to handle it, and the precedent now being set is monstrous”
The precedent was already set by the arrest, imprisonment and release of Roxana Sabiri from an Iranian prison this spring, at the cost of terrorists being released as the price in return.
And now we also have “three American hikers” who have been arrested in Iran because they “wandered across the Iranian border” when they were just out hiking.
So I’m sure the Iranians are drawing up their list, or just pulling up the priority list that was prepared when Sabiri was in their possession. Maybe Bill can swing by there and pick them up en route back from NK and work something out with the mullahs.
If the press reported honestly about these terrorist regimes maybe these Americans would decide not to go there and fake negotiations would not be necessary.
Photo-op and a two thumbs up for another tyrant. Yea! In the meantime #28 Lee has it exactly right. No hope for the humans who are under Kim Jong’s thumb of terror.
Everything that is wrong with the right:
“But I worry that the outcome is a lot better for North Korea than for the United States. I mean this is a classic case of rewarding bad behavior, the seizure of these two basically innocent Americans. Obviously all of us want to get them out but we want it done in a way that doesn’t increase the risks in the future for other Americans seized by North Korea, seized by Iran, seized by other despotic regimes and then turned into pawns to get senior officials like former presidents to come and legitimize the regime in order to get them out.”
This is why Republicans never actually get anything done. They just bump their gums playing to the extremist base.
Well, recall when the Chinese could not launch a rocket which would climb higher than an average firework before acting like one and exploding? Then, Clinton’s friend and largest donor, Schwartz, who runs Loral Space, went around export embargoes with clinton permission and TOLD THE CHINESE how to fix their launch vehicles and SOLD or gave them the devices to fix them. Now, they say they’re going to the moon. With our technology courtesy of bill clinton.
No wonder Kim Jong Sick wanted Clinton to visit. Anyone want to bet that in the near future, the always failing N Korean euphemistically named Long Dong 2 and 3 stage missiles will suddenly stop failing and actually be able to reach Hawaii and LA? I wish I didn’t have to say such a thing about a former president, but the the truth is the truth.
36 Now and Then
A few common sense rules of the road might be in order to avoid this in the future:
1) if you are thinking about sneaking into N. Korea, don’t
2) if you are going hiking, stay away from Iran, Syria, Burma and most of sub-Saharan Africa. there are plenty of other interesting and safer alternatives that should be quite entertaining and that might just keep your country from having to come and rescue you.
since it appears that none of those detained in these two unfortunate incidents are “conservatives”, perhaps you could get the word out to your side please.
Fact is Clinton got the job done, because unlike the Bush administration which didn’t have a clue about the world outside Texas, Clinton knows a bit how the world works, and the peculiarities of different cultures. You will also recall Clinton came the closest of anyone to solving the Middle East Crisis. They were after all shaking hands when he was around, rather than lobbing missiles at each other.
Obama keep showing the Republicans what happens when the world isn’t filled with tight-assed trigger happy Sergeants.
#36 – Now and Then –
Your personal attack upon me will not change the facts of the matter, as I posted them. Your posts here seek to personally attack me, and lack criticism for the Regime in North Korea. How quaint and reasoned.
No the dangerous part of the two girls entire ordeal begins. Being stuck on Clenis’ private plane with him.
Now not “no”.
@Anton: it would remind me more of Chamberlain in Munich if Clinton had given North Korea the green light to invade Czechoslovakia, er, South Korea. What exactly did we give up here?
I can imagine the options these ladies get from Slick Willie on his plane going back home; These ladies will be cigar experts when they get home.
#7: “Could you imagine ex-president W. traveling to a country like Korea….?”
Absolutely. To get an award from Kim Jong Il for taking his country off the terrorist list.
hey blarty …you know Clinton will be there for you.
can you get any funnier.
I was never a fan of Bill Clinton. However, in this particular occasion I will say “well done Bubba!” Let any one of us spend 24 hours in a N.Korean or Iranian prison nad who cares if it’s Bill Clinton. The United States always goes after its own people! For heavens sake, lighten up and give thanks for their release.
On the other hand, Americans have NO business going to or near to any hostile country! People who do these stupid things must have a death wish.
Hooray for Clinton! He’s awesome. I sure wish he were president still.
It’s interesting people here are putting Slick Willy on some type of pedestal for his flight attendant-like prowess in N Korea. He’s a skycab you plebes!
The State Department was responsible after weeks of negotiations for this matter.
‘Ol Bill went to grease some palms. Seems the wife, you know, the person who SHOULD HAVE gone to N. Korea to make this happen. Her pant suitness Hilary is uselss.
Here’s an excerpt of the details taken from the Baltimore Sun:
The journalists’ release followed weeks of quiet negotiations between the State Department and the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.
Clinton “didn’t go to negotiate this, he went to reap the fruits of the negotiation,” Sneider said.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/sns-ap-as-nkorea-journalists-held,0,382155.story?track=rss
hahaha, Blarty, Hollowed Brain.., Graham Master Trash & Co.. licking the boots of a disbarred, impeached, always picking ugly women to seduce philanderer.. again!
Even Stanford’s AD of the APRC saw the unintended praises anticipated for this blowhard.
A good read about the Clinton years in the White House:
Dereliction of Duty
An Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security
by Buzz Patterson
It’s a quick read..
Good on Bill Clinton for helping free those people.
Clinton’s return from N. Korea is:
1) a triumph for Bush’s policies towards N. Korea, policies that have put mr. Kim in a position of badly needing oxygen -
2) another sign that Obama and his crew are completely off in foreign affairs matters – at least when dealing with something more than receiving honorary degrees from the Timbuktu Universitie -
Mr. W, you’re good -
The usual paranoid small minds are coming out from their survival bunkers with the usual alarmist, overblown dishonest rhetoeric, how utterly predictable. Already we have had at least 3 Munich analogies, as if it is still 1938 on their bunker’s wall calendar. BTW, Chamberlain was a Tory. Or the usual moral hypocrites still responding to Clinton’s affairs, as if that makes him anything but a shrew.
Ransom? such dreck
PJ Media, where old Hollywood washups pander to the small minds they couldn’t reach when they were still working there.
Graham L, I couldn’t imagine W either, right wingers only want to attack or curse at other countries, they are incapable of diplomacy or tact
Option 1:
Possible masterminds Gore, Hillary and Bill send negotiators to NK. Agreement reached. Kim Jung Il wants his ego stroked, send President Clinton. Maybe something was conceded, nothing is free.
Option 2:
Send secret rescue mission. If it fails, lots of deaths. If it succeeds, NK goes ballistic, not just figuratively. Or just blast NK with a couple of nuclear bombs causing thousands of deaths including the two girls.
Option 1: watch the news on CNN
Option 2: go paranoid, hide under the bed, stockpile food, waste billions of $’s and be proud you are so macho.
I’m sure pajammers will have Option 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 . . .
I salute the journalists who travel into dangerous countries to tell us what is going on. They are dedicated to finding out the truth and letting the rest of the world know what is going on. And anyone who values the truth owes them a debt of gratitude.
Many of you are debt free.
Anyway, it’s good to have them back. I’m proud to share a blue passport with them.
Yup. Nailed it.
And it worked like a charm.
It’s worth noting here that the Norks have been pulling this kidnapping crap on the Japanese for years.
The Japanese, by contrast however, do not generally reward them for it. They’ve gotten some of their people back, but not all. They play it from the other side — “You wan’t something from us? Give us our people back.”
What do you think is the likelihood that the Red Hussein administration is going to support the Japanese in this matter?
Just kidding. No chance at all. And they know it in Tokyo too. And they’re thinking about what that says about the relationship between Japan & America.
===============
On another note, this item really has brought out the trolls. Notable. This site doesn’t usually get so much troll traffic.
I’m not sure if it’s the involvement of Clinton or perhaps just delight at the sight of an American surrender to a nothing country.
Either way it’s kinda creepy.
If the president had any balls, he’d look at the success we had in shutting down the Libyan nuclear program. Alas, he is nutless. Nuclear proliferation will continue among those who hate us.
61. joeblough:
“I’m not sure if it’s the involvement of Clinton or perhaps just delight at the sight of an American surrender to a nothing country.”
I’d like to hear that when one of your close relatives go through the same thing.
Do you live in a ‘nothing’ city?
Pimpin’ Asian chicks fer political currency?…Obama n’ Kim Jong are on the same page…If anyone can tell me why these two “hostages” could not have simply been turned over to a neutral Ambassador, (perhaps the Sweedish one that had recently visited them?)or any other authority instead of the “North Koreans choice” (probably was the WhGore girls insistence)…I would like to see the reasoning…By giving the NK’s such a concession to a photo-op (or them giving one to the current US admin. which is probably more closer to the truth)it was clear legitimization of an agenda of collusion and street trash “show”man ship….What no respect for Chris Hill?
Jest another episode in the highly-watched, reality-TV fave, “When Narcissists Go Mad”…
Same ole Synghman(Rhee) an’ dance…Check out S. Korean headlines in Pyeongtaek…
I have to wonder how Bill can just fly in and, in a few hours, obtain the release of these two hostages. I suspect that it was all pre-arranged, and Bill was allowed to complete the deal to renew and rehabilitate his public image for Hillary’s future use.
But – would you want your attractive young daughter to be traveling on a private plane with the Cheater-in Chief?
The Big Dog scores a touchdown and it drives you guys nuts.
Like McDonald’s, I’m lovin’ it!
Picture this scenario – Claudia Rosett’s two children have been captured by the North Koreans. Bill Clinto offers to go to North Korea to negotiate their release. What does she do?
Clinton did it. Where was Bush? Eating pretzels?
And how much did Al Gore and Current TV deposit in the swiss bank accounts of kim jong ill and his cohorts???
And Cinton was Al Gore’s “bag man”
Unlike a lot of you guys, I had tears in my eyes when I saw the video of the two journalists returning home to their families. It seems that Bill did a good job. I actually wish he was still president-he had his flaws, but he’s a really smart guy, smarter, I think, than either W or Obama.
The only secret Clinton probably revealed to Kim Jung-Ill is his ability to snatch up ladies. It’s probably all that Kim wanted.
On another note, did anyone else here think that the picture of Clinton and Kim Jung-Il together bore a resemblance to Ricardo Montalban and Tatu from Fantasy Island?
I don’t think former President Clinton looks very happy playing the part of Jesse Jackson. That’s not what he had in mind for his future and I bethch Jesse is steamin that his role went to someone else.
seansarto:
is that the reality show about your life? Honestly, that is the most over worked psychobabbel term of the last 2 decades that has been rendered utterly meaningless.
Are you suffering from CDS?
I love how this is going to stick in a lot of neocon’s craws. John Bolton (aka Human Scum to North Korea) is already having a hissy.
Mr. Clinton, nicely done!
76 Dumbo
Please Mr Dumbo you must learn to restrain your aggressive tendencies..You remember what that brought upon your mother…Don’t You?
It’s hard to see this as a huge diplomatic success for this administration in light of the North Koreans renouncing the Armistice that stood for over 50 years as an agreement to the cessation of open hostilities towards South Korea and it’s allies….Thus the photo-op was an incentive for OBAMA…not the North Koreans in terms of political currency. Clinton,( the first US black President)
is the NAACP’s hostage.
Some one should read the logan act.
I find it hard to beleive that he went there on his own, and secured the release of the 2 women.
its a cover. I want to know what was given to NK.
What promise did he make.
what did obummer tell him to give away.
Don’t ever think we didn’t give up a lot. We’re being cut down to a third world country !!!!
“Snatch two American journalists, get yourself a visit from an American ex-president — with added payolas likely to follow”
This Sentence destroys the balance of the article. Those two ladies crossed into North Korea, even if by error. That area they were in is notorious and avoided by local Chinese, because the river fluctuates wildly but the boundary does not. The journalists thought the middle of the river is the boundary, and they crossed into North Korea.
I bet Those two ladies will learn to understand national boundaries and listen to locals when they tell them not to cross the border next time.
It sure would be nice if Clinton could go to Mexico next, and stop the invasion. I forgot, that is not very important. Never mind.
Bill Clinton Takes Private Jet Abroad To Pick Up Two Women…
In ordinary times this would be just another ordinary Headline for a typical 90’s news story. Nothing to see here people. Go home, nothing to see here! But these are not ordinary times and North Korea isn’t an ordinary threat. It’s been reported that this was a “surprise” trip. We all know this is BS. I can’t see Kim Joog Il coming out of the bathroom one morning and saying “Bill, is that you”? “I’m so surprised”!”Ah, if I’d known you were coming I’d have baked a cake”. One doesn’t travel to N. Korea in surprise fashion lest ye be shot down. So clearly the statement is false and preparations were made. Plans were in the works long enough to write Al Gore out of the script. After all, it’s Al’s network where the young ladies worked. Why didn’t he go? So bill goes to N. Korea, we get what we wanted, freedom for the two journalist, nothing more to report… except…What did Kim Jong Il get? We know Bill didn’t say “okay Kim, hand ‘em over or I’ll kick your butt” and I doubt Kim Jong Il was overtaken with sudden compassion. So logically, a bargain must have been reached. What was that “bargain”. Remember if you will Bill Clinton, Loral Space, the Chinese and the nuclear secrets lost therein. Pres. Obama was quick to point out that this was “solely a private mission” implying once again that there was no U.S. involvement. This has already been disproved by debunking the “surprise” aspect of released statements. Also, Mr. Obama often says the opposite of “the truth of the matter”. But why would Obama not want to give America any kudos in this matter? I believe this statement was a lame attempt at a preemptive deflection of the inevitable question, “what did North Korea get from the U.S. in this deal”? The world may never know……until a city somewhere disappears in a brilliant flash of moral equivalence.
Crystal clear that for the likes of the patently brainless self-styled, “Deep Brain Diarist,” reality, just, as some might say, beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And as for “Pat J” and the rest of the hatred-driven projectors of the FasciSSocialist Psychopathology?
ES&D.
Guess the fascists just cannot grasp that nary a one of the thuggish O’Zero Crime Family is on America’s side. Nor that a single member of the treasonous, recidivist, lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering, Chi-Comm-financed co-serial-rapist Billy-Bubbah B-J Blythe (“Cli’ton”) Gang was — or is — either.
Last time any of the Cli’ton Gang went to North Korea it cost America Scores of Billions of Dollars, (Billions of it kicked-back to the “Chelsea Hubbell-Cli’toon Trust”) the rabid prolification of Cli’toon-supplied American-developed nuclear technology to another dozen slave states — and a permanent and perhaps terminal nuclear threat to our nation.
Way to go fascists.
Brian Richard Allen
Lost Angels – Califobambicated 90028
And the Far Abroad
First of all I feel very happy for the two detainees being released from the midget’s hell hole. That being said the next question is what concessions did the midget extract from our government? Seems regimes like NK and Iran do this on a regular basis basically kidnapping or detaining civilians under trumped up charges while our government which values every life must pay ransom money one way or another. Perhaps a warning be made public that anyone foolish enough to travel in or near these rogue countries should not expect a white night named Bill Clinton to come to their rescue. Individuals stupid enough to take foolish chances should not be a bargaining chip concerning national security. Of course all the details involving their release will not be disclosed. But one has to believe that the cost was substantial considering the modus operandi of a tyrannical regime. I doubt a photo op with a former president is the price to pay for freedom. Give Clinton kudos for undertaking this affair. He handled it stoicly. Did you notice how big they made the midget look standing next to Clinton? The shot was taken from above in order to give the illusion of equal height. The midget looks oversized though and I believe the photo was doctored. What a joke.
Bill Clinton in the Pantheon of Heroes. Who wudda thunk?
That being said the next question is what concessions did the midget extract from our government?
Since nobody has any idea, why don’t y’all make a bunch of crazy poop up?
Oh, wait… I see you already have
“But this is a terrible way to handle it, and the precedent now being set is monstrous.”
This is your movements answer to everything. Ignore things forever, and criticize everyone who tries to fix problems with mealy mouthed and back-handed criticisms. The problem is that this reminds most people of some member of their family who never got off the couch, is still living with mom and dad, won’t get a job, but still has a mountain of criticism for everyone in the family doing something with their lives. That image seems to be working for you, in that its activated the pent up frustrations of the 13% of Americans who are made of jell-o and have no shame. Welcome to the Republican party, circa 09.
How do we know they were “journalists?” Isn’t the anti-American bias of most American “journalists,” especially, those working for Gore, the PERFECT cover for a spy?
I also love how Clinton’s heroics are sticking in the craw of many Pajamas posters. Now maybe we can concentrate on North Korea without the distraction of these two brave young women.
92 continued:
Make no mistake though.
I wouldn’t mind sending in a couple of battalions of American military to pull those girls out.
Or, as an alternative, I’d be perfectly open to bombing Pyon Yang to cinders if they refused to turn those girls over.
They are, after all, our fellow citizens.
But surrender. Nah.
That’s for somebody else.
Somebody I’d never want to be.
Somebody like a traitor.