Posted on 12/13/2012 4:06:57 PM PST by kristinn
The Obama administration's Asia team was caught so off guard by North Korea's Dec. 11 rocket launch, several of them actually had to put down their drinks and suddenly leave a holiday party being held in honor of the Japanese emperor's birthday.
Several top U.S. officials dealing with Asia and North Korea from the State Department, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council were relaxing Tuesday night at the Japanese ambassador's Nebraska Avenue residence in Washington when the news came over their blackberries that North Korea had launched another Unha-3 rocket with a "satellite" attached, this time with much more success than a previous attempt in April.
Just minutes before the launch news became known, several officials were overheard remarking how nice it was that North Korea was apparently delaying the launch, giving U.S. North Korea watchers hope that their holiday festivities would not be interrupted.
"Nobody in the U.S. government thought this would happen when it did," said one top Asia expert who attended the party. "A lot of the guys who do the Korea stuff both on the policy and intelligence side were at this thing. They were saying ‘We bought ourselves some time.' People were hoping it didn't happen before Christmas because they wanted to take time off."
SNIP
But several attendees at the Japanese emperor's birthday celebration told The Cable that the fact so many Asia officials were not at their desks illustrated how surprised the administration was about the timing of the launch.
"Everybody stood down. Nobody thought they were going to do it this week. It was a real head fake by the North Koreans," another top Asia expert and party attendee said. "DOD, State, and the White House were just stunned by it. They were shocked."
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
Isn't it awesome to watch these light-weight clowns deal with our national security? Can you imagine how much fun they've had unloading all our national defense secrets to the Chi-Coms these past 4 years?
“DOD, State, and the White House were just stunned by it. They were shocked.”
Obama still par for the course.
They will be thinking the same thing when a portion of America disappears due to an Iranian strike. Wish we could have had more time to party.
If the norks had landed a nuke on some hapless American city, there would have been no end to the toasts.
Obama sliced a drive at East Potomac Park when the DPRK launched that missile.
That said, this is exactly what Obama voters voted for. No one who voted against Obama is surprised by this. Foreign policy incompetence, along with domestic policy incompetence, and economic policy incompetence, are hallmarks of the Obama presidency.
If any leftist is disturbed by this story, they really are completely out of touch with reality.
3 months later nad we still have no idea where obama was during the Libya attack, who gave the order to stand down and did obama watch the attacks live in the situation room.
Then we have people saying they;re the press and yet have not asked these questions nor has the GOP
Right up there with
“Stand down”
Or....
not waking Der Fuhrer on D-Day.
...and just as ignorant about what they put into orbit this time.
Idiots.
Our intel (on everything) is wholly unreliable and I don’t believe a thing coming out of the mouths of obozo administration officials anyway.
Plus they are just about to mothball two Aegiis Cruisers that are capable of shooting down missiles like these. We should have had vessels in place to shoot this thing down. It would have been in accord with UN resolutions condemning NOK.
I seriously hope we have undisclosed operations looking out for us, and capable of putting this sloppy, commie crap to rest.
I’m glad they were caught off guard. If they had known about it they probably would have been helping the Norks.
If I were North Korea looking at this bunch, I’d be nuking up too.
Let’s hope these same clowns are partying at ground zero when the Iranians strike.
The launch apparently was quite “unexpected”.
“Just minutes before the launch news became known, several officials were overheard remarking how nice it was that North Korea was apparently delaying the launch, giving U.S. North Korea watchers hope that their holiday festivities would not be interrupted.”
Beyond stupid, naive. The history of North Korea should have these people on alert to be alert.
This entire administration from top to bottom suffers dearly of incompetence. How can we sleep at night with these clowns running the circus.
———People were hoping it didn’t happen before Christmas because they wanted to take time off.”-——
One can only wonder about how they were forced to go to work. Doing what? What can they do that has any actual meaning?
Is wringing hands while watching a harsh press release being written actually work?
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