[AmericanInTokyo]

That is neither here nor there.

I brought this up as a legitimate question and as a reference to national security issues. Even the Japanese blogosphere from several months back has questioned this Dell-to-Pyongyang route, title: "ＤＥＬＬが北朝鮮に多数のＰＣを納入していたことが判明" (Many Dell Computers Procured By North Korean Uncovered")http://news2plus.blog123.fc2.com/blog-entry-441.html

and was discussed thoroughly, without slinging insults.

All I can surmise is that there were some upset Dell management or employees or stockholders that were disturbed by this story, spouted and went to bed. However, I think it is a story worth getting into, as deeply as possible.

Is not this what Free Republic is all about? Asking legitimate questions and trying to determine facts?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Additional photos of other occasion, here:

http://blog-imgs-40.fc2.com/n/e/w/news2plus/20090101_1_1.jpg

[Pollster1]

I don't think it's likely that Dell is to blame. Probably someone made an extra hundred dollars per computer through straw purchases that were resold to NK. If we ignore the detail that Dell management probably doesn't want to wake up to the sight of a mushroom cloud outside their bedroom windows, there is the detail that they probably don't want to wake up to the sight of the FBI arresting them. The simplest explanation is a straw purchase, and that is what I will assume in the absence of evidence to the contrary. This is not like a Cray, where the company would know for each individual purchase who wanted the machine and why.

There is a huge difference. I would no more blame Dell for "aiding" NK than I would blame Bic if we discovered that their pens were in use for the NK WMD program.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Is not this what Free Republic is all about? Asking legitimate questions and trying to determine facts? “

Yes it is exactly what Free Republic is all about. But then again, you have to put up with the “mavens”. The experts who ridicule you. People like DB, who are engineers who know more about everything that you should bow down to their intellectual superiority.

Keep me posted and thanks.