Some may think the the Liberaleliti aren't backing North Korea
But consider that in this age of "Bush is responsible for everything bad" (BIRFEB) that any excuse to bash the President is a good one.
From the San Francisco Chronicles "World Views" blog in an article titled "Why the confusion? North Korea says why it test-fired missiles", Edward M. Gomez virtually parrots the official "Democratic" Peoples Republic of Korea's official news agency:
Mr. Gomez goes on to talk about the 1999 self-imposed moratorium where North Korea agreed to stop its testing of long range missiles in exchange for easing of economic sanctions (Mr. Gomez overlooks the money issue). He states (quoting the double-think of the DPRK news service) that the agreement was only valid in so long as the United States continued its dialog with North Korea and essentially blames the United States for the missile launch (he also throws in a jab at the media claiming that the "...tidbit of recent history has not and is not being widely reported by U.S. mainstream news media." Of course Mr. Gomez is technically correct in it "not being widely reported", since saying that is akin to saying "there have been no news stories specifically talking about this facet of the issue" (which I have to assume is correct, I mean, they do still have fact checkers at the Chronicle right? Or does that not apply to blogs?) . However, Mr. Gomez apparently forgot to fact check himself as a quick search via Google reveals the following:
New York Times coverage
CNN Coverage
Los Angeles Times Coverage
Unless of course three of the biggest news services in the country don't count.
Mr. Gomez also fails to recall other recent history about North Korea including its kicking out of U.N. IAEA inspectors, resumption of nuclear weapons development, threats against the United States and Japan, and North Korea's production of counterfeit U.S. currency. In fact, the counterfeit money is probably the real central issue here, since Banco Delta Asia was forced to freeze the North Korean money laundering accounts which resulted in depriving North Korea of one of their biggest influxes of illicit cash. Mr. Gomez fails to note that the re-opening of those accounts is also one of North Korea's demands for them to return to multi-national talks.
But, possibly because of BIRFEB, that little tidbit of recent history isn't being reported much either.
From the San Francisco Chronicles "World Views" blog in an article titled "Why the confusion? North Korea says why it test-fired missiles", Edward M. Gomez virtually parrots the official "Democratic" Peoples Republic of Korea's official news agency:
"North Korea's early-morning test launches of seven missiles on Wednesday provoked alarm in Washington and Tokyo, allowing both the Bush administration and the Japanese government to do what they do best. Team Bush quickly put its fear-mongering mechanism into high gear, while officials in the government of soon-to-retire Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi wrung their hands, shifted into high-victim, they-could-target-us-next mode, and then wrung their hands some more."
"In Australia, George W. Bush's sidekick, Prime Minister John Howard, dutifully parroted Washington's no-nukes-for-the-North line."
Mr. Gomez goes on to talk about the 1999 self-imposed moratorium where North Korea agreed to stop its testing of long range missiles in exchange for easing of economic sanctions (Mr. Gomez overlooks the money issue). He states (quoting the double-think of the DPRK news service) that the agreement was only valid in so long as the United States continued its dialog with North Korea and essentially blames the United States for the missile launch (he also throws in a jab at the media claiming that the "...tidbit of recent history has not and is not being widely reported by U.S. mainstream news media." Of course Mr. Gomez is technically correct in it "not being widely reported", since saying that is akin to saying "there have been no news stories specifically talking about this facet of the issue" (which I have to assume is correct, I mean, they do still have fact checkers at the Chronicle right? Or does that not apply to blogs?) . However, Mr. Gomez apparently forgot to fact check himself as a quick search via Google reveals the following:
New York Times coverage
CNN Coverage
Los Angeles Times Coverage
Unless of course three of the biggest news services in the country don't count.
Mr. Gomez also fails to recall other recent history about North Korea including its kicking out of U.N. IAEA inspectors, resumption of nuclear weapons development, threats against the United States and Japan, and North Korea's production of counterfeit U.S. currency. In fact, the counterfeit money is probably the real central issue here, since Banco Delta Asia was forced to freeze the North Korean money laundering accounts which resulted in depriving North Korea of one of their biggest influxes of illicit cash. Mr. Gomez fails to note that the re-opening of those accounts is also one of North Korea's demands for them to return to multi-national talks.
But, possibly because of BIRFEB, that little tidbit of recent history isn't being reported much either.
