Clinton Threatened to Attack North Korea

[Sprayber]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...a_clinton_dc_2

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Sunday his administration threatened North Korea (news - web sites) with the destruction of its nuclear facilities when the Asian state was developing weapons-grade plutonium in the early 1990s.

"We were in a very intense situation with North Korea. They were planning to produce six to eight nuclear weapons per year with plutonium extracted from power plants," Clinton said in a speech to a security forum in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.

"We actually drew up plans to attack North Korea and to destroy their reactors and we told them we would attack unless they ended their nuclear program."

North Korea this month said it planned to restart a nuclear reactor that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The plant was idled under a 1994 agreement with the United States aimed at preventing the reclusive Stalinist state from developing nuclear weapons.

Seoul described the decision as "unacceptable" and both the United States and South Korea (news - web sites) have put fresh pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

Impoverished North Korea, which relies heavily on foreign aid to feed its people, says it needs the complex for power.

"They probably don't intend to sell these weapons but instead bargain for more aid by threats. I approve of the approach by President (George W.) Bush to work with the South Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Russians to end this program -- but make no mistake about it, it has to be ended," said Clinton.

"You do not want North Korea making bombs and selling them to the highest bidder because they cannot feed themselves through the winter."

Under the 1994 pact, North Korea agreed to freeze operations at the Soviet-era nuclear complex in exchange for heavy fuel oil and construction of two light-water reactors, less likely to yield weapons-grade fuel.

When Pyongyang told an American envoy in October that it had been pursuing a separate, clandestine uranium-enrichment program, the United States and its South Korean, Japanese and European Union (news - web sites) allies decided to halt fuel oil shipments.

Bush has branded North Korea part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran.

A job left undone?

[Stefu]

Clinton also planned to use his super-powered penis to blow away that comet threatening the Earth (what comet? Did I mention a comet? I don't see any mentions of comets around here) but sort of forgot it and wandered away.

[Arrian]

@ Stefu.

I was waiting for someone to start a thread on this story.

It raises a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Why is Bill Clinton divulging such information? Is he helping Bush (in a very strange good cop/bad cop routine)?
2) Would we dare to attack NK without China's & Russia's approval?

-Arrian

[Giancarlo]

Clinton threatens to do a lot of things. Only problem is he never did any of them.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Arrian
2) Would we dare to attack NK without China's & Russia's approval?

-Arrian

Perhaps thats why it never happened

[Clear Skies]

Clinton was the best Republican President America's ever had.

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Arrian
@ Stefu.

I was waiting for someone to start a thread on this story.

It raises a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Why is Bill Clinton divulging such information? Is he helping Bush (in a very strange good cop/bad cop routine)?
2) Would we dare to attack NK without China's & Russia's approval?

-Arrian

Its penis envy. Bush has been brandishing a bigger stick than Clinton and Bill can't deal with it.

Insofar as attacking NK, no we would not invade without the support of China. But we could very well take out targets from the air. This would not precipitate a war with China.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Clear Skies
Clinton was the best Republican President America's ever had.

Is that why he and Tony got along so well?

[SlowwHand]

Too bad he didn't do it. We could be working fresh issues today.

[Andrew1999]

Yes, like trying to rebuild northeast Asia from the Second Korean War. Well, the parts that aren't still glowing anyway.

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Is that why he and Tony got along so well?

Yup. America's best Republican and Britain's best Tory.

[TCO]

Somehow, Clinton making the statement for the good of the nation seems the most improbable reason. Personal vanity or Democrat vs Republican p[olitics seems much more likely.

Also, if he was such a swingining **** why did he try to appease Saddam on inspections (secretly urging the inspectors not to press inspections in the mid-90's. For which Scott Ritter retired in protest and revealed US actions to Congress.)

[Saint Marcus]

Clinton threatens to do a lot of things. Only problem is he never did any of them.

**cough**Kosovo**cough**

[FNBrown]

Either this story is total B.S., or Clinton should be brought up on charges of revealing national secrets.

[Case]

I seem to recall the US's sabre rattling during the Korean nuclear crisis being extensively covered by the world's media. It's hardly rocket science to deduce that the US had a plan to attack Korea's nuclear facilities.

[Gatekeeper]

GP:

I was under the impression that Scott Ritter pulled up his stakes because the inspection teams were riddled with intelligence agents, not because inspections weren't being pushed hard enough.

Gatekeeper

[Boris Godunov]

I threatened to invade Missouri once. Who cares?

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
I threatened to invade Missouri once. Who cares?

I didnt think you would have anything to say about your boy.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Sprayber


I didnt think you would have anything to say about your boy.

My boy? I never sired/gave/birth to/owned/fellated Clinton at any point, good sir.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


My boy? I never sired/gave/birth to/owned/fellated Clinton at any point, good sir.

I guess I should know that since I met his mother long ago.

[DanS]

I thought this was old news?

It was discussed openly when Carter got the Peace Prize, since he was the mediator that defused the situation and got us to the Agreed Framework. Carter pulled Clinton's nuts out of the fire.

Of course, the Agreed Framework is toast right now, so Clinton might not want to own up to the bastard he sired.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
GP:

I was under the impression that Scott Ritter pulled up his stakes because the inspection teams were riddled with intelligence agents, not because inspections weren't being pushed hard enough.

Gatekeeper

I watched several hours of the testimony. Did you? Ritter specifically said that the US told the UN to tell the inspectors not too push on various inspections. The administration did this through back channels and secretly because they did not want a confrontation but wanted to maintain a fiction that we were not weakening on inspections. (Obviously that fiction was only for the benefit of the general public.)

Go read Ritter's testimony. (I'm not making this up. You could disagree with Ritter. You could even disagree with my interpretation. But certainly, he did say that the administration tried to stop the inspectors from various showdowns and did so secretly. Albright, etc. did not Ritter's claims...or even justify the actions. They just said it was none of Ritter's business what the US decided to do in backchannel UN armtwisting.)

I'll go look up some stuff on the net.

[TCO]

Here are some links:

http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/ritter.htm
(his testimony)

http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/09/980907-in.htm (bit of a conservative slant...but you get the basic claims that I made.)