This goes beyond being ridiculous to being extremely dangerous, but I think we have come to expect this type of chicanery from the Bush Administration. With half their mouths speaking to the American public about the need to isolate North Korea, one of the original Axis of Evil partners, they secretly allowed an arms shipment from North Korea to Ethiopia. Check out the sordid details below the fold.
This is just the height of hypocrisy and danger to boot. And again, the North Koreans and the Ethiopians played President Bush like a fiddle. This news should be made public and should stay public for the rest of his lame duck term and the Senate and House Armed Services Committees should start an immediate investigation of the complicity of Bush Administration officials in this outrage.
New York Times
Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.
The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.
In January we were still in the midst of our honeymoon with the Administration as we hadn't found too much to investigate just yet. And we were in the midst of our euphoria so I don't blame the committees in the Congressional chambers for not looking closer into these reports, if any were even allowed to pass the walls of the Defense Department. I think the New York Times gets it correct right here:
But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush administration’s commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program.
But excusing this type of behavior with some theory of foreign policy absolutes is useless. First of all, we know that Bush has no foreign policy other than "you're either with us or you're against us." And now, this is just another case in point of how President Bush says one thing and does another... and more ominously, says something while doing another thing. If only it were the first time (and I'm not only talking about domestic policy):
It is also not the first time that the Bush administration has made an exception for allies in their dealings with North Korea. In 2002, Spain intercepted a ship carrying Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen. At the time, Yemen was working with the United States to hunt members of Al Qaeda operating within its borders, and after its government protested, the United States asked that the freighter be released.
Bush didn't even alert the rest of the State Department... the Ethiopians had to do it:
Several officials said they first learned that Ethiopia planned to receive a delivery of military cargo from North Korea when the country’s government alerted the American Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, after the adoption on Oct. 14 of the United Nations Security Council measure imposing sanctions. snip
The value of the shipment is unclear, but Ethiopia purchased $20 million worth of arms from North Korea in 2001, according to American estimates, a pattern that officials said had continued. The United States gives Ethiopia millions of dollars of foreign aid and some nonlethal military equipment.
After a brief debate in Washington, the decision was made not to block the arms deal and to press Ethiopia not to make future purchases.
Even the former walrus-man himself was scratching his head about this one:
John R. Bolton, who helped to push the resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea through the Security Council in October, before stepping down as United Nations ambassador, said that the Ethiopians had long known that Washington was concerned about their arms purchases from North Korea and that the Bush administration should not have tolerated the January shipment.
"To make it clear to everyone how strongly we feel on this issue we should have gone to the Ethiopians and said they should send it back," said Mr. Bolton, who added that he had been unaware of the deal before being contacted for this article. "I know they have been helpful in Somalia, but there is a nuclear weapons program in North Korea that is unhelpful for everybody worldwide... .
He makes some excuse for Bush later but it's stupid nonsense. The State Department spokeperson also dribbled out an answer when questioned about this article:
Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, declined to comment on the specifics of the arms shipment but said the United States was "deeply committed to upholding and enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions." Repeated efforts to contact the Ethiopian Embassy were unsuccessful.
Here's what the CIA knew about this matter:
In late January, the Central Intelligence Agency reported that an Ethiopian-flagged vessel had left a North Korean port and that its cargo probably included "tank parts," among other military equipment.
American officials said that the ship, the Tekeze, a modern vessel bought from a company in Montenegro and named after an Ethiopian river, unloaded its cargo in Djibouti, a former French colony where the United States has based Special Operations troops and other military forces. From there, the cargo was transported overland to Ethiopia.
Now, there's no doubt that President Bush was unaware of this. And there can be no denying it by anyone now. Aren't we then in violation of United Nations weapons sanctions against North Korea? Weren't we the ones pushing hardest for these sanction to go through in the first place, over the objections of Russia and China?
The Security Council resolution’s list of prohibited items included spare parts. Because the cargo was never inspected, some administration officials say the United States cannot say for certain that the shipment violated the resolution.
Hmm, let's see, we are inspecting a bunch of ships going into and out of Iran for nuclear weapons parts (refer to the capture of British sailors in late March) and we had thinner details on those shipments than this specific one.
Now, a little context for the weapons purchase in the first place, not that they couldn't get the spare parts from Russia, who made their tanks. No they wanted a bargain, and Bush is a man who won't deny his buddies a bargain... kind of like a used car salesman, giving the same sales pitch over and over again, i.e., this Supplemental bill will hurt the troops, Democrats are evil, I am the Decider, etc.
American officials said that the Ethiopians acknowledged that the ship was en route and said they needed the military equipment to sustain their Soviet-era military. Ethiopia has a longstanding border dispute with Eritrea, but of more concern to Washington, Ethiopia was also focused on neighboring Somalia, where Islamic forces that had taken over Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, six months earlier were attacking Baidoa, the seat of a relatively powerless transitional government that was formed with the support of the United Nations.
I always thought, incorrectly, that this Administration, no matter its many faults, would at least do nothing to help their designated Axis of Evil members. Sure, a little humanitarian aid here, a little agricultural aid there, some medical aid sprinkled in. But never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that President Bush would allow a lovely infusion of cash (roughly the same amount as what the North Koreans had been trying to get out of that bank in Macau actually, [here]) to this regime.
I have been against impeachment ever since November, just because I thought it would be a waste of time, but now, I'm warming up to it.