How many here know that Rumsfeld sold nuclear reactors to North Korea?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,952289,00.html


The two faces of Rumsfeld

2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change

Randeep Ramesh
Friday May 9, 2003
The Guardian


Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons.

Continued at above link

[NVMojo]

1. just like in Iraq!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. Awwww...those were chemical weapons! Why doesn't anyone get this info

out there?????

[rfranklin]

7. I think light water reactors were part of Clinton's pact with NK...

I don't think that they lead to weapons grade uranium or plutonium. Check that out before using it as a club on Rumsfeld. I think he just took the opportunity to make a buck.

[mod mom]

10. This is important. We need to not jump the gun until we have all the facts

See my post below.

[Rosemary2205]

16. Yes, and the RWers are all over Clinton for it.

selling light reactors to NK 6 years ago is being spun to be the D's support the "Axis of Evil". That little factoid that Rummy was involved is obviously quite important in stopping the propaganda.

[BrotherBuzz]

18. The deal was initially brokered by Carter.

The Agreed Framework was supposed to freeze activities at Yongbyon. In their place, the Kumho facility would include two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors. The light water reactors comply with the Agreed Framework.

[ThoughtCriminal]

22. Correct - the deal was to replace

graphite-moderated reactors that produce weapons-grade plutonium with light-water reactors that did not. As far as I know, construction of these reactors was halted long before completion.

[HereSince1628]

3. I think he was also on the board of a Swiss Co. that sold triggers

suitable for use in nuclear weapons to Libya, but I might have that wrong.

[Botany]

4. Congressional Investigation Time

Were the reactors that rummy sold N. Korea used to
produce the material for the bombs?

[flyarm]

5. HEYYY SWEETS..!! I KNEW!!...WOO HOO..!! BUT I ALWAYS READ BRIT PAPERS!!

HI sweets!!

someone else posted a bit ago..it's either on lbn or greatest..

morning!!

fly

[flyarm]

6. here it is on LBN..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2352155

but we can not get this story out enough!!

i just sent to KO!!

fly

[RethugAssKicker]

8. Has the press ever asked him about this ?

[mod mom]

9. BUT read this paragraph in the article:

The reactor deal was part of President Bill Clinton's policy of persuading the North Korean regime to positively engage with the west.
The sale of the nuclear technology was a high-profile contract. ABB's then chief executive, Goran Lindahl, visited North Korea in November 1999 to announce ABB's "wide-ranging, long-term cooperation agreement" with the communist government.

LITTLE DID CLINTON KNOW THAT HOW UNDIPLOMATIC AND PROVOCATIVE THE NEXT PRESIDENT WOULD BE.

[Holly_Hobby]

11. Kick n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Rumsfeld and Cheney have a lot to hide, don't they?

And they're in a perfect position to hide it.

[pecwae]

13. He certainly gets around.

This is a man who is in the killing business, period. He also rammed through the approval of aspartame (which turns into formaldahyde inside the the body) when he was with Searle.

[cyberpj]

14. Be careful with this info - because the next paragraph says:

"The reactor deal was part of President Bill Clinton's policy of persuading the North Korean regime to positively engage with the west."

[Rosemary2205]

17. So obviously

Rummy didn't see any problem back then with the deal possibly leading to a nuke capability or else he's have had nothing to do with it.

[Straight Shooter]

15. *raises hand* I knew, I knew!

Always wondered why that didn't make the news with blaring headlines. OTOH, considering the state of "journalism" in America, I didn't wonder at all. :(

[civildisoBDence]

19. If the press were worth a shit, Dumsfailed would have been out long ago

Our MSM are like little lapdogs cowering at the feet of their Master, waiting for the next hushpuppy to be thrown their way and hoping they won't be kicked off the farm like those noisy watchdogs.

Newsprism

[CorwinB]

20. Aaaah....

But 9/11 changed everything, you see !

Before 9/11, doing nukular business with N. Korea was A-OK ! After 9/11, doing nukular business with N. Korea required going through proxy companies...

Before 9/11, the Bush Administration was a bundle of incompetent a**holes. After 9/11... Well, I guess 9/11 didn't really change everything...

[IChing]

21. Well, I want my damn Bird Flu vaccine

My nuclear power plant and my chemical weapon technology like he sold around the world.

[proud patriot]

23. I think everyone needs to be informed of this

:kick:

[calimary]

24. I had heard that. In fact, I remember seeing this Guardian article.

I just wrote one of my own here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2873896

For your consideration.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

25. You have to read the whole article to get the gist of this

Here's what I read:

1) The Clinton administration had a policy aimed at persuading NK to negotiate by offering to sell them some light water nuclear reactor technology.

2) There is disagreement about whether this technology could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium; my non-scientific reaction (so to speak) is that this was perhaps a bad sale to make, but it was part of a larger policy by Clinton to bring NK to the diplomacy table. At least Clinton was trying a diplomatic option. Bush, on the other hand, wouldn't know a diplomatic option if it bit him in the ass. It ain't the cowboy way, as they say in Crawford.

3) Rumsfeld at the time probably didn't give a shit one way or the other about the potential consequences, he was just making a quick buck. It was a huge contract.

4) As soon as Bush took office he of course ended all talks with NK and later declared them as part of the Axis of Evil.

The conclusions I draw from this are that Rumsfeld has always been a greedy fuck and Bush has always been an idiot with no foreign policy beyond "bring it on."

[fooj]

31. That's how I'm reading this, too.

It's all about the money. These treasonous, rat bastards think that they can take it with them and they are willing to sell out our country to do it.

Bottom line- with diplomatic ties in place...Little Lord Pissypants called "game-over", took his marbles and went home. What an asshole.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

34. It's a total failure on his part...

to see the big picture. If you believe Woodward, Bush had no idea why NK was even important. My guess is someone (Prince Bandar? Steven Baldwin?) told him to cut off ties, undoing any diplomacy that Clinton had started.

[MGD]

26. I knew that. nt

[IWantAChange]

27. Former Nixonites Cheney and Rumsfeld and we expected

anything less than a colossal screw up of everything they would come into contact with? They've sold out this country both as Corporate Ceo's and part of the evil cabal that is the Bush Administration.

:hurts:

[TheBaldyMan]

28. 9/11 changed everything n/t

[Amonester]

29. K&R - eom

[malaise]

30. Wake up DUers

The neocons want nukes in Asia -they are terrified of China and don't have any intention of paying back that debt. The day they get a chance they'll set up their own little despot in NK, arm Japan, Taiwan and hope that they can get the 'yellow people' to kill themselves.

[exlrrp]

32. Rummy will do business with ANYONE and then attack them

Regard one of my favorite photos: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-rumsfeldsaddam.htm

[bdamomma]

33. Rumsfeld has a way of always popping up selling arms to dictators

doesn't he, Saddam and Kim Jong Il, it takes one terrorist to know another.