It has the makings of the opening sequence in an apocalyptic thriller. A ship enters the Gulf, carrying a secret, illicit cargo of munitions, bound for Iran from North Korea. The ship is seized by the United Arab Emirates, where authorities discover that instead of the oil boring equipment listed on the manifest, the cargo includes some 10 containers filled with rocket launchers, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and detonators.
The UAE seizes the cargo and notifies the United Nations Security Council. But for weeks, the public is told nothing about it – not by the UN, and not by Washington. The event remains cloaked in silence, the ship is sent on its way. Finally, an unnamed diplomat leaks the information to the Financial Times, and the story starts to emerge…
Except this is no fantasy. This is the latest news out of the web connecting totalitarian, nuclear North Korea with the messianic, terrorist-sponsoring, nuclear wannabe regime of Iran. And here we go again.
The story about this North Korean arms shipment broke August 29th in the FT, and in the short time since we have been hearing slightly more — but not nearly enough. This North Korean shipment underscores huge and troubling questions about what else is going on inside the tangled web of clandestine deals with which the world’s tyrannies are busy these days — arming each other, supporting each other, and fueling their killing machines while western diplomats jaw-jaw about “engagement” and “mutual respect.”
And what a web it is. There’s a good summary of the scene on Hot Air . Both North Korea and Iran are under multiple UN sanctions, meant to stop their nuclear proliferation programs. This shipment offers a terrific example of how rogue countries try to dodge such sanctions. The ship was Australian, controlled by a French conglomerate, registered in the Bahamas, with the actual shipment, according to Reuters, “arranged by the Shanghai office of an Italian company.” So, in the middle of this clandestine arms deal is a crazy quilt of countries, businesses and legal jurisdictions, apparently involving Australia, France, the Bahamas, Italy and China — all with North Korea on one end and Iran on the other (Iranian authorities are now denying that this shipment was coming their way. These are the same folks who say their nuclear program is just for electricity). So, what else is out there right now, on the high seas, on land, or in the air, bearing false labeling and traveling the back alleys of global commerce?
The Wall Street Journal reports that “according to people familiar with the seizure,” there was “no nuclear-related material” found on board. Should we trust such unnamed sources? Who are they, and why are they unnamed? Recall the case of the secret nuclear reactor nearly completed by Syria, with North Korean help, modeled on North Korea’s Yongbyon complex. That reactor was destroyed two years ago, in September, 2007, by an Israeli air strike. But from a Bush administration intent at the time on trying to consumate a deal in which North Korea would denuclearize in exchange for loads of U.S. aid and concessions, the truth was covered up until the following April — leaving the public in the dark for more than half a year about the incriminating evidence of both North Korea’s proliferation racket, and its duplicity at the negotiating table.
I can’t understand how people like Ms.Rosett can write as her opinions are facts. How does she know what is going on by sitting in Washington? I agree that things like these need to be watched closely but blaming the Obama administration for this is getting out of hand. Get it together conservatives or your opposition will forever look like Tina Fey as Sarah Palin selling rifles on the home shopping network.
Why? Because Obama wants to kill our children and grandparents. Duh!
One has to question whether people in power are positioning themselves for the ultimate victory of the rogues.
Obama professes the childish notion that gestures of respect will trigger reciprocation as a cover for his senseless “overtures to the clenched fists”. How is that for window dressing over a preemptive dhimmitude maneuver?
A show of cooperation with those who might get the upper hand if not stopped in time could be a bargain for a seat on the table after said tables have been turned? This gambit does not even need to be coldly calculated to be operative. General-purpose incompetence is often good enough to do a lot of damage.
America joining Eurabia? If you know specific reasons why such fears are unjustified, don’t you think this comment thread is a good place to explain them?
Why such silence? I imagine it’s quiet because the president (alleged) of the United States of America wants those deliveries to Iran to succeed. It would not suit his purposes, either short range or long range, to have too much light cast on the situation.
Why the silence? Because the oboMadministration is in favor of Iran having nuclear weapons. He’s ok with it.
The trolls’ effort to respond to things not yet said and thus blunt those later statements is irrelevant.
How many facts about obama and those who surround have been openly mocked for the first 6 months anyone referenced them? And then….hmmmmmm….the mockers just began to get very quiet. Why that silence? Mostly because it turns out that the worst any American citizen can suspect or fear about obama and his group turns out to be just the beginning point for what the facts actually are.
There actually is such a thing as predictable continuums in human behavior. The variables and predictables involved in those continuums actually do apply to statists even if they are elected.
So there is no need to wait for 10 months before we state the obvious conclusion about what’s going on. At the speed the obamagod is working, we can’t afford to keep giving him that much of a headstart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry
Please read before posting any more nonsense. This article is ridiculous, we routinely loan countries and foreign companies money so they can buy billions in missiles, ships, rockets, helicopters, fighters, tanks, and worse of all millions upon millions of landmines that maim and kill thousands decades after the wars end….ridiculous.
Seriously wrote:
Could you give an example? Seems to me, she’s — well — connected some factual dots with logic.
The ship was Australian, controlled by a French conglomerate, registered in the Bahamas, with the actual shipment, according to Reuters, “arranged by the Shanghai office of an Italian company.”
LMAO, say, weren’t any secret yellow cake that we would reward the Mullahs with ?
someone is bored not having us as the enemy to focuse on, I smell the desire for conspiracy
seriously, the boat was australian, that must be a certainty, the Bahamas registration too, but controlled by a french conglomerate ????
how comes “Autralians and Bahamas” would let us control their business ?
I tell ya, you’d better look into bank accounts in Caimans
I’m sorry, I thought it was a joke
http://www.anl.com.au/about/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125167591120871075.html
Hey, it’s not like these people are evil or dangerous like the Hondurans. Honduras is where we should focus all our efforts to fight tyranny and despotism. Nothing to see here in NK or Iran, move along.
While Now and Then’s comment was made in sarcasm, that doesn’t mean it isn’t an accurate description of what Obama’s malice and incompetence will accomplish.
Obama and the liberal media and blogs are shielding the public from the truth because remember, the messiah-wannabe is into unconditional engagement and dialogue with authoritarian dictatorships like Iran’s and friendship with known terrorists like Ayers.
Of course, they don’t want mainstream America to all of a sudden realize that maybe the hardliners were right about Iran and the charlatan was dead wrong.
Heh, the trolls are classic. We start off with one just attacking the author. Then another saying ‘ooh, well we sell arms to other countries too.’ All we need now is for a troll to say that at least NK isn’t racist.
Too bad they didn’t read the article to find the facts or the important part about the UN resolution banning North Korea from making arms sales….and the fact that the ship had an knowingly false manifest.
Keep bringing us the facts Ms. Rosett, and of course your personal take on the situation makes it all the richer.
Peace,
~e
#15 E
The Point is the USA is the worlds largest arms dealer, selling to anyone and everyone that has the money, including “terrorist” nations when it suits USA political atmosphere.
It is intellectually dishonest to state N Korea is violating weapons bans when every Nation with weapon industry violates weapons ban every day.
Obama’s background as a street hustler from Chicago’s South Side (Wesley Pruden) is the key to understanding what is going on here:
Obama feels comfortable doing deals with “bosses” and thugs.
Moreover, we must entertain the possibility that early on in his career, Obama entered into an explicit deal with Saudi Arabia, perhaps in return for college funding and organizational support.
Many such political deals are done on a wink and a nudge, but Saudi Arabia would probably have insisted that the young student put his “commitment” in writing. This and a long history of active “support” may account for the strange Obama bow to the king of Saudi Arabia.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/u_s_weapons_war_2008_0
More information for review. The US Arms industry tends to destabalize the region, then reap billions in profits from selling arms to whichever side wants them. If they dont have the money we loan it to them. N Korea was doing what everyone else does on daily basis, We taught them how.
16. alex:The Point is the USA is the worlds largest arms dealer,
Hahahaha! You are hilarious. ‘every Nation with a weapon industry violates weapons ban every day.’
Hmmm, you think maybe there exists some international body, a United Nations of some sort, that perhaps wildly ineffectual in most areas might pass resolutions to restrict trading of specific goods of certain governments. And yet there might be other countries not subject to these restrictions because no sanction has been passed against them?
But I guess this ‘United Nations’ which might have a ‘Security Council’ which could have passed a ‘Resololution’ apparently doesn’t exist in your universe, so sorry for wasting your time. Good is oblique; success is racist; up is grapefruit.
Post 16.
Alex name those “terrorist” nations America supposedly sells weapons to. Why would any of them be considered a terrorist nation? Is there a ban on selling them arms? NK is banned from selling weapons. Iran is currently seeking nuclear weapons. Both are belligerent nations intent on bullying and threatening their neighbors. It is morally dishonest to stand by and do nothing just because as you say everybody does it. If a cop catches you speeding will you say to him or to the judge in court “everybody does it”? You will not win a single case with that defense. The problem is how to punish offenders effectively so they don’t make a repeat performance. If you snub your nose at the law or the law refuses to punish you you would probably continue your speeding ways until you and/or some unfortunate other person is killed or hurt in an accident. In wordly events war is that accident that is bound to happen.
alex wrote:
1) tu Quoque, with a nifty little moral equivalence twist.
2) It is against the law in the US to do so, and those caught are generally fined or otherwise punished.
3) The UN has singled out Iran, and mandated that they not receive such arms shipments. Surely you aren’t advocating violating a UN mandate, right?
Why is it that the trolls get the concept of a convicted felon not being allowed to buy or sell guns, but not established terrorists not being able to buy and sell weapons? Or was I wrong to assume the former?
Why the secrecy? Because they do not want to prove that those they demonize was right.
After all, the axis of evil has a negative effect on geopolitics.
High seas, high treason.
How many ‘coincidences’ does it take to turn on a light bulb moment.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090831/wl_time/08599191934200/print
As always, Claudia, you are spot on.
“Why Such Secrecy When North Korea’s Caught Shipping Weapons to Iran?”
At the risk of sounding offensively familiar, it’s actually kind of cute when Claudia gets all rhetorical and diplomatic.
Why indeed?
Well, I know why I divert people’s attention from things they might object to … particularly if I am trying to save a friend some difficulty.
But the people in DC and at the UN will tell us that they have nothing but the wisest and most humane of reasons for ignoring the subject … at the same time that they will insist that they are not ignoring the subject … while informing us that there is no subject to ignore.
While we’re on the subject, I get it that the UN is largely incoherent, except insofar as transfers of cash are concerned.
But does anybody have any idea at all of what Obama’s intentions are with respect to Persia?
Does he even have any specific intentions, or is he just extemporizing while he attends to other things?
I can’t see any sense in it at all, unless he is actually trying to help the mullahs.