englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 04, 2010 12:51 KST

The North Korean regime has sacked the Workers' Party's Finance Director Pak Nam-gi, letting him take the fall for the failed currency reform late last year. Until December, Pak was frequently spotted accompanying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on his "on-the-spot-guidance" tours, but he suddenly dropped from sight in January.

Diplomatic sources in Beijing say Pak was probably removed as a sacrificial lamb after social unrest increased following the currency revaluation, which led to skyrocketing prices. When millions of people starved to death or fled the country to escape famine and flooding between 1995 and '96, North Korea accused Minister of Agriculture Seo Gwan-hee of espionage and executed him in public in the streets of Pyongyang.

North Korean defectors say the official price of rice was 20 won per kilogram, but in the month after the currency revaluation, it jumped 20 times to 30 times and now costs 600 won. In some areas, prices are said to have soared 50 times to 1,000 won. As a result, frustrated North Koreans have no qualms about making insulting comments about their leader now, even in front of state security agents.

North Korea revalued its currency because a nascent market economy began taking root in various parts of the country following the collapse of the state's ability to distribute food and other supplies in the late 1990s, which created a new class of relatively wealthy merchants who became an increasing threat to the privileges of party members. North Korea wanted to revamp the system of state distribution system and reclaim economic control to protect the communist ruling class and to ensure the smooth transfer of power from Kim Jong-il to his third son Jong-un.

The crisis demonstrates the losing battle the North Korean leader is fighting against market forces and rising public discontent. The regime is even said to have issued live ammunition to security agents and authorized them to shoot and kill protesting citizens. But the regime still had to resort to blaming its chief economic policymaker after the draconian measures failed to appease public anger, a tactic commonly used by regimes that have lost the support of the public.

If the rumors coming out of North Korea are accurate, then the country is a ticking time bomb. During the last crisis during the late 1990s, North Korea pursued the Geneva Agreement with the U.S., while sending armed infiltrators to South Korea aboard submarines and launched the Taepodong-1 long-range missile. Now it is resorting to similar tactics by demanding talks with South Korea while launching massive military exercises and firing artillery rounds near the maritime border in the West Sea.

Grand National Party leader Chung Mong-joon said on Wednesday, "I would like to be briefed by intelligence officers" on the situation in North Korea. The South Korean public is even more anxious about the situation. Cheong Wa Dae, the Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service are saying that the situation in North Korea is not serious enough to threaten Kim's rule. In January 1989, the West German government said there were no unusual signs coming out of East Germany, but soon after, masses of East Germans fled their country and headed to Hungary and Austria, and in November the same year the Berlin Wall came down.

This does not mean South Korea's intelligence is inaccurate. It is important to note that nobody can be certain of the fate of the North Korean regime at this point. But what is required is for the government to set aside its preconceived ideas and prepare contingency plans in case of an emergency in North Korea. South Korean officials from the president on down must be prepared to deal with any scenario.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea are proposing to Seoul a joint military exercise in preparation for the collapse of the North Korean regime.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries have almost completed an operational plan for what is delicately called a "sudden change" in the North, but they have yet to carry out a joint exercise based on the plan.

The Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff are reviewing the plan cautiously for fear of further angering the North, which is already on edge amid international sanctions and a currency reform gone disastrously wrong.

A government source on Thursday said since late last year, one U.S. military leader after another has proposed to the Defense Ministry and the JCS officially or unofficially that a joint military exercise be staged in preparation for the "sudden change."

U.S. JCS Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen reportedly made the proposal to his South Korean counterpart Gen. Lee Sang-eui at the bilateral Military Committee Meeting in Seoul in October last year. USFK Commander Gen. Walter Sharp repeated the proposal to senior South Korean military officers in a recent meeting, according to a source.

The ministry and the JCS urged caution but agreed there is a need for such an exercise. Military authorities are considering two options. The first envisages staging the drill as inconspicuously as possible as part of one of the existing annual joint exercises. The other is a drill ostensibly for humanitarian relief in case of a massive natural disaster in a hypothetical neighboring state.

The joint contingency plan, dubbed OPLAN  5029, envisages six scenarios, including civil war caused by a transition of power or a coup after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death; theft and sale abroad of so-called weapons of mass destruction by an insurgent army; mass defection; massive natural disaster; and the kidnapping of South Korean citizens in the North. However, this has never been officially confirmed.

The New York Times is displayed on Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. /AP

With its newly unveiled iPad tablet PC, Apple is threatening the dominance of online retailer Amazon in the U.S. e-book market.

Amazon, the world's largest online bookstore, has been leading the e-book market for the past two years, selling 2.5 million units of its Kindle wireless e-reader. But less than a week after the iPad's debut, Amazon has already been forced to revise its pricing policy.

Amazon had been charging US$9.99 for e-book versions of popular titles, but last weekend it was forced to raise its prices when U.S. publishing giant Macmillan demanded it charge $12.99 to $14.99. Amazon initially took a tough stance and halted all sales of Macmillan books, but later retracted the measure and said on Sunday it would accept Macmillan's demand, according to international media reports.

Apple is behind the dispute between Amazon and the publishing industry. When it unveiled the iPad last Wednesday, Apple offered to charge up to $14.99 per e-book, prompting publishers, which have been unhappy with Amazon's monopoly, to revolt against the retailer. Apple also promised to give publishers or copyright holders 70 percent of the revenue from e-book sales, as it does with developers of applications for the iPhone. That gave Macmillan leverage to demand that Amazon raise its prices.

Industry insiders predict that e-book makers including publishers and newspapers will eventually have a bigger say in distribution. They may be helped by the decision of Internet giant Google to enter the market. Google plans to only set certain standards on discount rates and give publishers the right to decide prices. That will enable publishers to choose the retailer that offers the most favorable terms.

Dear Family, Friends, Allies & Future Friends,

by Philip Giraldi
January 28, 2010

A curious op-ed "The Tel Aviv Cluster" by the reliably neoconnish David Brooks appeared in the New York Times on January 12th.  Brooks enthused over the prowess of Israel’s high tech businesses, attributing their success in large part to Jewish exceptionalism and genius, which must have provided the ultimate feel good moment for Brooks, who is himself Jewish.  That Israel has a booming technology sector is undeniably true, but Brooks failed to mention other contributing factors such as the $101 billion dollars in US economic and military aid over the course of more than four decades, which does not include the additional $30 billion recently approved by President Barack Obama.  American assistance has financed and fueled Israel’s business growth while the open access and even "preferential treatment" afforded to Israeli exporters through the Israel Free Trade Implementation Act of 1985 has provided Israelis with the enormous US market to sell their products and services.  By act of Congress, Israeli businesses can even bid on most American Federal and State government contracts just as if they were US companies.

The reality of Israeli spying is indisputable.  Israel always features prominently in the annual FBI report called "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage." The 2005 report states, "Israel has an active program to gather proprietary information within the United States. These collection activities are primarily directed at obtaining information on military systems and advanced computing applications that can be used in Israel’s sizable armaments industry." It adds that Israel recruits spies, uses electronic methods, and carries out computer intrusion to gain the information. The 2005 report concluded that the thefts eroded US military advantage, enabling foreign powers to obtain expensive technologies that had taken years to develop.
 
A 1996 Defense Investigative Service report noted that Israel has great success stealing technology by exploiting the numerous co-production projects that it has with the Pentagon. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries …is a technique utilized with great success." A General Accounting Office (GAO) examination of espionage directed against American defense and security industries described how Israeli citizens residing in the US had stolen sensitive technology to manufacture artillery gun tubes, obtained classified plans for a reconnaissance system, and passed sensitive aerospace designs to unauthorized users. An Israeli company was caught monitoring a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry. The GAO concluded that Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally." In June 2006, a Pentagon administrative judge overruled an appeal by an Israeli who had been denied a security clearance, stating, "The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and industrial espionage in the United States. An Israeli citizen working in the US who has access to proprietary information is likely to be a target of such espionage."  More recently, FBI counter intelligence officer John Cole has reported how many cases of Israeli espionage are dropped under orders from the Justice Department.  He provides a "conservative estimate" of 125 worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage involving both American citizens and Israelis that were stopped due to political pressure from above.
 
Two recent stories that have been reported in the Israeli media but are strangely absent from the news on this side of the Atlantic demonstrate exactly what is going on and what is at stake. The first story confirms that Israeli efforts to obtain US technology are ongoing.  Stewart David Nozette, a US government scientist who was arrested on October 19, 2009 in an FBI sting operation after offering to spy for Israel has been waiting in jail to go to trial on espionage charges.  New documents in the case were presented in the Federal court in Washington last week.  The documents confirm that Nozette was a paid consultant for Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and it is believed that he passed to them classified material in return for an estimated $225,000 in consulting fees.  Examination of his computer by the FBI revealed that he was planning a "penetration of NASA" the US space agency and that he was also trying to crack into other scientists’ computers to obtain additional classified material.  Other documents demonstrate that he was cooperating with two Israeli scientists who were administrators with IAI, Yossi Weiss and Yossi Fishman.  Nozette made several trips to Israel without reporting them, which he was required to do because of his high security clearance.  The FBI reportedly also has incriminating letters and other documents that were obtained from the computer.
 
The second story relates to the pending sale of twenty-five F-35 fighter planes to Israel.  The F-35 is one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world.  The $130 million planes would be purchased with US military assistance money, which means they would effectively be a gift from the US taxpayer.  But Israel is balking at the sale reportedly because it wants to install some of its own local content in the aircraft.  The Pentagon has already made some concessions but is disinclined to grant approval for all the changes because to do so would require giving the Israelis full access to the plane’s advanced avionics and computer systems.  Israel also wants to independently maintain the aircraft, which would also require access to all systems.  It would be nice to think that the Pentagon wants to keep the maintenance in American hands to preserve jobs, but the Defense Department has never cared about US workers before when the issue is Israel, and the real reason for the standoff is that Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal whatever it can if it gains access.  It would then use the technology to market its own products at a price below that of US defense contractors. The result would be a triple whammy for Uncle Sam:  the expensive planes are given to Israel free, the technology is then stolen, and future sales vanish as our Israeli friends market their knock down versions of weapons systems reliant on the stolen technology.
 
So to David Brooks I would say that there is most definitely an economic surge taking place in high tech Israel, but it is less a miracle than the fruit of a long series of thefts and manipulations fueled by American tax money and the connivance of a Congress that is always willing to do favors for the country that it appears to love beyond all others.  I’m sure most Americans would wish the Israelis well and would applaud the prosperity that derives from their own industry and inventiveness but it is also time to put the brakes on business as usual and to take the Israeli hand out of our pocket.  I’m sure Brooks’ job is pretty secure and well paid, but many Americans are out of work and suffering, so let’s take some steps to protect our economy from the information thieves from Tel Aviv and keep our money and jobs over here...

"Get off my lawn!"

For the first time since 1994 -- when he was recovering from the Keating Five scandal -- John McCain's approval rating has hit 40 percent.

A poll conducted by the Behavior Research Center determined the figure, but while McCain's numbers may be down, Arizona's senior U.S. senator is far from out.

Republicans, for the most part, still like McCain. The poll finds that within the Republican Party McCain still has a 52 percent approval rating, with only 14 percent of those polled saying he's doing a "poor" job.

The Republican side of the aisle, at the moment, is where McCain's toughest challenge may lie, with former congressman J.D. Hayworth announcing that he will try to unseat McCain as the Republican candidate for Senate.

Hayworth is essentially running on a platform that McCain is too old and out of touch with the conservative base of the Republican party to effectively represent the people of Arizona.

McCain's wife and daughter's supporting gay-marriage couldn't have done much to help McCain's case that he is still, at heart, a conservative.

Despite his low poll numbers, Earl de Berge, the man who conducted the poll, says McCain will be tough to beat in a Republican primary.

"A McCain-Hayworth primary, however, will undoubtably provide voters with much entertainment as the two argue about which one is more conservative and worthy of trust," De Berge tells the Arizona Guardian.

Maybe all that "entertainment" will take voters' minds off the fact that while these two duke it out over who's best for all the gun-slingin' righties, the state and country have been on the verge of financial collapse for the last two years.

By Curt Maynard
January 30, 2010

USA Today[1] is reporting that the Senate’s immigration deal pleases few. No kidding? What, I need a mainstream publication to tell me that? I don’t think so. I can tell the reader without any hesitation whatsoever that the Senate’s immigration deal pleases almost nobody with the exception of the 20 million illegal aliens here in the United States at present and a few million Jews and ultra-liberal leftists on the east coast.

Don’t be fooled by the US governments attempts to convince you through the Zionist media that Democrats want this or want that, or Republican moderates favor the deal, or that liberals see it this way, or conservatives see it that way, the government is lying and they’re using the media to shovel this crap down your throat.

Illegal immigration and whether or not to send the 20 million illegals in this country packing is one of very few bipartisan issues that nearly everyone, Black, White Hispanic, or Asian can agree on today. NO AMNESTY! No amnesty OR anything that smells like amnesty, these people must leave, one way or another and if our Congressional representatives can’t or won’t make that happen, we have a duty, an obligation, to our children, grandchildren, and those of our neighbors to make them!

When do we take our guns off the rack, oil them up, and head to Washington DC? That’s really the question isn’t it? We do have a right to do so you know, in fact, that is the very purpose of the Second Amendment, something our government has been actively trying to take away from us or at least reinterpret so as to disarm the American people.

The definition of treason is relatively clear, especially as it applies to anyone that has taken an oath swearing allegiance to the United States Constitution, which clearly states that the oath taker swears to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign AND domestic. One definition is vague enough to include dissidents like myself IF one reads it as is, rather than considers what it really states and that is that treason is “a crime that undermines the offender's government.” I certainly am not in favor of our present government and won’t support it or anything it seeks to do until it [this is important] recognizes the authority of the American people, the true owners of this government. Theoretically, our politicians are suppose to represent us the American people, when they stop representing what we the people want they need to either leave office voluntarily or be thrown out.

The legal definition of treason as defined by Merriam Webster is simply a “betrayal of trust.” Now if the current representatives of this government aren’t guilty of treason as defined by Merriam Webster I don’t know what to say, they [Democrats and Republicans] have done nothing but lie, deceive, subvert, coerce, threaten, and betray our trust since 9-11. They have already engaged in treason and many of them know it, that is why you see so many of them completely selling out at present, selling their corrupt souls and votes to the hidden elite – the true rulers of the United States of America, who by the way do not represent the American people.

Am I saying that George Bush is a traitor? Damn right I am. I’m also accusing the following Senators of High Treason, each one of them voted to give amnesty to the 20 million illegal invaders presently squatting on American soil and not one of them can or ever will attempt to prove that the majority of their constituents [The people that elected these people to represent THEM] approve of any form of amnesty or forgiveness of the illegal aliens in their midst, not one. Thus, it’s really simple no? These Senators are NOT representing those that voted for them – they are however, representing something or someone else.

Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK), Kyl (R-AZ), Lincoln (D-AR), Pryor (D-AR), Boxer (D-CA), Feinstein (D-CA), Salazar (D-CO), Lieberman (D-CT), Carper (D-DE), Martinez (R-FL), Chambliss (R-GA), Isakson (R-GA), Inouye (D-HI), Craig (R-ID), Durbin (D-IL), Bayh (D-IN), Lugar (R-IN), Grassley (R-IA), Harkin (D-IA), Brownback (R-KS), McConnell (R-KY), Landrieu (D-LA), Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME), Cardin (D-MD), Mikulski (D-MD), Kennedy (D-MA), Levin (D-MI), Stabenow (D-MI), Coleman (R-MN), Klobuchar (D-MN), Cochran (R-MS), Lott (R-MS), Bond (R-MO), McCaskill (D-MO), Hagel (R-NE), Nelson (D-NE), Ensign (R-NV), Reid (D-NV), Gregg (R-NH), Sununu (R-NH), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Menendez (D-NJ), Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-NM), Schumer (D-NY), Burr (R-NC), Conrad (D-ND), Brown (D-OH), Voinovich (R-OH), Smith (R-OR), Wyden (D-OR), Casey (D-PA), Specter (R-PA), Reed (D-RI), Whitehouse (D-RI), Graham (R-SC), Alexander (R-TN), Bennett (R-UT), Hatch (R-UT), Leahy (D-VT), Warner (R-VA), Webb (D-VA), Cantwell (D-WA), Murray (D-WA), Rockefeller (D-WV), Feingold (D-WI), Kohl (D-WI),

I’m often accused of anti-Semitism because of my willingness to say and write the word “Jew,” so why change things now. Let me be the first to tell you then that every single Jewish Senator without exception voted to provide amnesty to illegal aliens on Monday, May 21, 2007, just as their co-ethnics in the ADL, SPLC, ACLU, AJC, and every other organized Jewish group in the United States expected them to.

I am not guilty of subversion, but many, if not most of our politicians today are. I am not guilty of lying to the American people and telling them that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, ties to Al Qaeda, and was responsible for 9-11, yet many of our politicians continue to embrace Bush’s foreign policies in the Mid East, despite the fact that they know they were developed as a result of the above lies. I am not guilty of spitting in the face of the American people and betraying their trust, but all of the above Senators are. I am not guilty of serving the interests of a foreign government [Israel] as are so many in Congress today, but yet, I guarantee you, the Jewish media will soon be doing all it can to convince Americans that people like me [Patriotic Constitutionalists] are terrorists and enemies of the state – don’t be fooled – they’re lying – that’s what they do best].

Lastly, don’t fall for the phony vernacular and bald faced lies of our politicians; they want to play with the meaning of words. They’ll insist that they aren’t giving amnesty to illegal aliens because of this or that. They’ll also insist that their constituencies “want” them to “solve” the illegal alien issue. It’s all lies – yes, their constituents want them to solve the problem and they want them to do this by voting against any form of amnesty, any bill that allows illegal immigrants to stay in this country, but these liars will do their best to skew what their constituents want and to move forward with their treasonous objectives.

The government does NOT represent us any longer, it serves other interests and as long as it continues to do so, it is guilty of treason and we the people can lawfully oppose them in any manner we wish, we’re protected by the Constitution, they aren’t.

Washington (CNN) -- Overriding objections from China, the Obama administration unveiled a $6.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan on Friday -- including about $2.85 billion in missiles.

The sale includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters (totaling $3.1 billion), 114 advanced Patriot air defense missiles; a pair of Osprey mine-hunting ships; and dozens of advanced communications systems.

China has complained to the United States about the sale of Patriot missiles and other weapons to Taiwan, which neither Beijing nor Washington recognize as a sovereign nation. The deals do not include F-16 fighter jets, which China has vehemently opposed.

China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei issued a statement in response to Friday's announcement, saying the arms deal was a "rude interference in China's internal affairs, severely endangering China's national security." He added, "China expresses its strong indignation."

The State Department described the latest round of arms sales to Taiwan as a way to guarantee security and stability, despite China's objections...