Now Bill gets to pick up two woman and take them home on his plane....but surprisingly other than wondering what was given in trade the freepers seem pretty civil about this, alt least so far.
These “journalists” work for Al Gore. Better to let them rot in North Korea....
Was Jimmy Carter busy?Well, right after the last time Jimmy Carter visited North Korea, the leader of the country dropped dead. I'm not sure the US wanted to come across as that threatening.
North Korea gets unexpected propaganda windfall as former American President, Bill Clinton, begs “Dear Leader” for custody of two naive ladies.The Bush administration was an era in which the biggest fear was that any form of negotiations would result in... "OMG the other side might feel better about themselves!!1!11111!!!" as if face-to-face contacts were some sort of "reward" to be doled out.
“While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment,” Mr. Gibbs said in a statement. “We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.”Do you not understand at all how this is a conflict of interest?
(emphasis mine)
If you thought they could keep two hotties who haven't seen a man in months away from Bill? You don't know Bill.We don't know how the girls' were treated in North Korea. They may have been treated well, given their high profile. But given the hellish conditions in North Korean forced labor camps ( We had an FPP about them month ago) I find these jokes in pretty poor taste.
Poor Bill Clinton. He thought 'captive girls' meant the Pleasure Squad.
Was Jimmy Carter busy? Bill Clinton is not merely the former president but the spouse of the Secretary of State, our top diplomat. -- cmgonzalezBill Clinton has a far bigger international celebrity then carter these days.
Do you not understand at all how this is a conflict of interest? -- cmgonzalezUh, no. Also, the idea you seem to have that we would be better off letting these two innocent women rot in a North Korean prison rather then somehow "undermine" the authority of the Secretary of State in some sense (if you think about it a certain way) is downright bizarre.
Let's say I am the head of company X, looking to make a deal with company Y. My husband used to work for company Z in a similar, but slightly higher level position as mine, but he retired and is now an independent consultant.That entire scenario is absurd. First of all, if I'm a shareholder in X, and I want the deal with Y done, I don't give a damn how it happens. If the CEO can call in her husband to negotiate, that makes her a better CEO in my mind because she can call in her husband to make these deals go through. If on the other hand, I knew that the CEO refused to do the deal because they preferred working with her husband and thus undermined her perceived authority, I would be pissed. It would mean I was losing money because the CEO was valuing her ego and sense of authority over shareholder value.
I've been working to make this deal for a while and company Y's CEO and I have butted heads a little.
Suddenly one morning, my husband visits Y's CEO, they have a beer and by lunch time, they make the deal between X & Y that I've been trying to negotiate and seal for a while.
Stolen thunder, etc.
Even if it's for the same ultimate goal, in this scenario my husband has undermined my authority, made me look weak in my ability to do my job, and basically cost me respect in front of the shareholders.
If it were up to me, I'd say you can keep our prisoners or we level Pyongyang, pick one, but whatevs.
Seoul sits within range of the vast majority of North Korea’s 50-year long artillery and rocket force buildup...U.S. military estimates in 1994 were that those artillery pieces could bombard Seoul with 5,000 rounds in the first 24 hours of any attack. Such an attack could mean tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties and billions of dollars of damage in Seoul.Whatevs indeed.
"Fuck you, Kim Jong-il, you evil commie bastard! This shit has THREE KINDS OF HAM ON IT!"LOL
I am engaging in discussion . And it is obviously her authority and reputation/image as America's head diplomat and representative of the US on the international relations stage, which you might have realized had you not been too busy trying to insult me instead of thinking.Obama was never going to legitimize North Korea's actions in holding the journalists prisoner by sending his actual Secretary of State to negotiate with North Korea in good faith. You don't do that sort of thing when you're the most powerful country in the world. You especially don't give away that sort of major diplomatic coup to a small-time lunatic, which is what Kim Jong-Il is.
She never seemed to worried about the ones in Gitmo.It is vastly politically easier to do something about the Americans being held by foreign powers than it is to do something about the Americans being held by our own government.
§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.He was not authorized: "While this solely private mission to secure the release of the two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment," said a statement by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
Christian aid groups say the high-profile arrest in March of two American journalists for illegally crossing into North Korea from China has made it more difficult to help the people the women went to report about: North Koreans who have escaped to China.posted by FuManchu at 4:33 AM on August 24, 2009
The Durihana Association, which helped arrange a guide in China for Current TV reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling, said that after the women were captured, one of its missionaries was expelled from China and its program caring for children of North Korean refugees was shut down. ...
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In all seriousness: Holy crap. This is wonderful, wonderful news, especially since it was starting to feel as if Ling and Lee had been all but forgotten. Nice going, Bill!
posted by shiu mai baby at 1:14 PM on August 4, 2009 [4 favorites]