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NBC's Today Despairs Team Bush Ruined Clinton Progress in North Korea
MRC ^ | 10-10-06

Posted on 10/10/2006 2:30:59 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan

     As they padded for time waiting in the 9:30am half hour of Monday's Today for a live statement on the North Korean nuclear test from President Bush, NBC's Andrea Mitchell scolded that Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were building reconciliation between North and South Korea, but Bush came in and ruined it, overruling his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, "cutting him off at the knees." Typically, Today co-host Matt Lauer insisted the North Korean nuclear test was just the latest in a string of bad news for Bush, from Iraq and Iran to the Mark Foley page scandal.

     [This item, by Tim Graham based on a transcript provided by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Matt Lauer led into the Clinton-praising section: "Andrea, I have to say as David [Gregory] mentioned a second ago, when I was there a few years ago it was surprising to me that there is starting to be this communication and actual physical contact between South and North Korea. This, there's a super highway being built that really connects the two."
     Andrea Mitchell: "Exactly. Well that and the rail connections. All of this as the new Sunshine policy that David alluded to but that came right up against the Bush administration's decision to cut off the connections. You know Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were progressing in October and November of 2000 towards the restoration of diplomatic relations and if the Democrats had won that election that probably would've happened. Colin Powell recommended very strongly as the new Secretary of State in 2001 that, that policy be pursued. But it was cut short in March of 2001 by President Bush, overruling his new Secretary of State, some people said, cutting him off at the knees. That was the first real setback for Powell and then telling South Korea, the South Korean ally on the first visit in March 2001 that they would not support, the Bush administration would not support, re-engagement with North Korea. So there've been a lot of starts and stops but as David was, was pointing out and as you point out the South does want to re-engage. They have every reason, politically, to want to do that but this is not something this administration has really been comfortable with."
     Lauer: "Alright Andrea thank you very much. Tim Russert is NBC's Washington bureau chief, of course, moderator of Meet the Press and let's talk about the timing of this, Tim. It's been a bad few weeks for the administration. We've got problems in Iraq that seem to be getting worse. We've had the situation with Iran and the whole UN situation a couple of weeks ago, then the, the page scandal and the email scandal in Congress and now the administration wakes up to this nuclear test from North Korea."
     Russert: "Well Matt it is very important issue. Obviously back in May of 2003 President Bush said, quote, 'We will not tolerate North Korea having nuclear weapons.' And so he has drawn the line and now three years later North Korea is very much testing George Bush. It is ironic when they tested their long range rockets it was on the Fourth of July and now they've chosen Columbus Day to undertake this nuclear test. So it's very much a symbolic poke in the eye at the U.S. basically saying, 'we're gonna do what we want to do and you said we couldn't, what are you gonna do about it?' And this puts the President in a very difficult position."
     Lauer: "Well what does he do about it? I mean what can he say today, what tone should he strike to send a proper message?"
     Russert: "Well if you talk to military people Matt, they believe that the war in Iraq is one that is very much a strain on our assets. I don't find any one who believes that, at this time, a military action against North Korea is something that is being considered in a serious way. I think the President's first attempt will be at sanctions and the difficulty there, of course, is getting China and other countries to go along with them and so I expect some very strong words, some strong rhetoric, if you will, as the administration tries to buy time and figure out exactly what to do."

     It's not exactly like the Clinton "engagement" strategy made them peaceful. Why can't NBC acknowledge that the North Koreans made a deal with the Clinton team, and then cheated on it? Oh, they did. David Gregory noted the cheating, and then moved on. A tyranny like North Korea's doesn't find it difficult to cheat, and yet still stay in the good graces of global public opinion, as Western reporters see only diplomatic and military paralysis as the options:
     "He wants his regime to stick around and he has sought, before, security guarantees from the West. And you go way back to 1994 and the Clinton administration they negotiated an agreement with North Korea that said basically, 'Stop your weapons program, cold.' And the North Koreans started cheating on that toward the end of a 10 year period. So then President Bush comes to power, doesn't like the idea of negotiating with the North Koreans because he doesn't think that they negotiate in good faith and they cheat. And so you had a kind of freeze on diplomatic activity and then all of a sudden you have the so-called Six Party talks where you had regional players including the U.S. and Russia putting that pressure on to say, 'You can't continue a nuclear program.' And then finally North Korea has just pulled out of that process as well. So there's been all of this dancing going on."



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: andreaspacenik; bustdirt; drunkonairgregory; mattblather; nbcjunknews
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

Someone posted this earlier on a related thread...It's needed here

41 posted on 10/10/2006 3:23:04 PM PDT by right-wingin_It
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan
I've never trusted her, and I think if we ever get to the bottom of the Wilson/Plame scandal, we'll find she hasn't been completely honest. Maybe Fitzgerald will indict her, Matt Cooper, and Tim Russert!
42 posted on 10/10/2006 3:25:10 PM PDT by PeskyOne
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To: stockstrader
The House North Korea Advisory Group, chaired by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y. Members of the panel included Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., then chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Christopher Cox, R-Calif., then chairman of the Republican Policy Committee issued a report in 1999 stating among other things:

"Through the provision of two light water reactors [LWRs] under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States, through KEDO, will provide North Korea with the capacity to produce annually enough fissile material for nearly 100 nuclear bombs, should the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] decide to violate the Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT]."

"If the 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two LWRs are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material."

"Although the 1994 Agreed Framework was essentially aimed at eliminating North Korea's ability to make nuclear weapons, there is significant evidence that nuclear weapons development is continuing, including its efforts to acquire uranium enrichment technologies and its nuclear-related high explosive tests."

"In the last five years, North Korea's missile capabilities have improved dramatically. North Korea has produced, deployed and exported missiles to Iran and Pakistan, launched a three-stage missile [Taepo Dong 1], and continues to develop a larger and more powerful missile [Taepo Dong 2].

"Unlike five years ago, North Korea can now strike the United States with a missile that could deliver high explosive, chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons. Currently, the United States is unable to defend against this threat."

"In an astonishing reversal of nine previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1994, committed not only to provide foreign aid for North Korea, but to earmark that aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion."

North Korea Advisory Group - Final Report
43 posted on 10/10/2006 3:27:38 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan (I am defiantly proud of being part of the Religious Right in America.)
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To: stockstrader
The democrats are shameless, but at least their 'spin' and their demagoguery show some backbone.

Well, the Left's does a great job of 'demigogueing' 'so to speak'. . .but don't think it is backbone that infuses their MO. . .but rather a spineless non-resistance to evil that motivates them. . .

. . .being 'spineless' allows them to be brazen. . .arrogant; indifferent to truth; gluttonous for power; allergic to any form of altruism; in their spinlessness; they are mean and they are snarky; they are rude and they can be dangerous. . .as well as 'very dangerous'.

These people do not 'walk tall' but rather 'crawl low'. . .

44 posted on 10/10/2006 3:27:58 PM PDT by cricket (Live Liberal free. . .or suffer their consequences. . .SAVE THE TERRORISTS! VOTE DEMOCRAT. . .)
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To: johnny7; All

45 posted on 10/10/2006 3:30:06 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan (I am defiantly proud of being part of the Religious Right in America.)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan
The Republicans have failed miserably in getting the following facts out:

1. Bush inheritied a RECESSION from Clinton. The market tanked 9 months before Clinton left office--and entered recession the first quarter of 2001.

2. Bush inherited a grossly underfunded intelligence budget,

3. Bush inherited a grossly underfunded military,

4. Bush inherited the Gorelick Wall (with bricks supplied by Clinton),

5. Bush inherited a national security mess when it came to terrorism due to all of the above--and Clinton's derelection of duty on national security,

6. Bush inherited an absolute mess dealing with North Korea due to Clinton's 1994 Agreement with North Korea to subsidize their economy and allow them nuclear technology, and

7. Republicans are letting the democrats set the agenda with this Foley fiasco.

The MSM sure won't highlight these ISSUES (except with the 'spin' the democrats put on it)--but you would think the Republicans WOULD. Their silence on these facts is outrageous. As I said, the Republicans deserve their fate in next month's election.

46 posted on 10/10/2006 3:30:49 PM PDT by stockstrader (“Where government advances–and it advances RELENTLESSLY-freedom is imperiled”-Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Lurker

PING..


47 posted on 10/10/2006 3:31:07 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan (I am defiantly proud of being part of the Religious Right in America.)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

I agree.

Rather than having our troops sitting in So. Korea, enjoying their kimchee and their new wifes,

we need these troops in Iraq, killing poeple and breaking things!


48 posted on 10/10/2006 3:32:56 PM PDT by aShepard (Maybe the UN should donate UNICEF proceeds to the Gates Foundation, and fold!)
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To: aShepard

We need U.S. troops in Iraq to fight fanatical Islamic-Jihadists and former Baathists that are want to establish their "caliphate" of one-world totalitarian islamic state...the ayatollah of Iraq gave a speech yesterday declaring they would use any means...even chemical and biological to conquer such capitals as Moscow, London, and Washington D.C. - we also need them to protect our southern border from a literal invasion.


49 posted on 10/10/2006 3:37:39 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan (I am defiantly proud of being part of the Religious Right in America.)
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To: stockstrader

Believe it or not... McCain actually came out a bit after Hillary tried to sling some NK crap towards Bush. Not that I forgive him for being such a RINO...


50 posted on 10/10/2006 3:38:57 PM PDT by xmission
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To: xmission
Exactly. I'm not a McCain fan either, but at least he (he's the ONLY one) is HIGHLIGHTING the mess that President Bush inherited from Clinton's Appeasement Agreement with North Korea. President Bush has had to figure out some way to clean up that mess.

The rest of the Republican Party's silence is pathetic.

51 posted on 10/10/2006 3:45:49 PM PDT by stockstrader (“Where government advances–and it advances RELENTLESSLY-freedom is imperiled”-Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan
No wonder Chia Head's nuke test failed. It would have succeeded, if we had continued all the progress Bill Clinton was making.
52 posted on 10/10/2006 3:52:07 PM PDT by .cnI redruM (Appeasement never works. It only encourages new and escalating demands.)
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To: stockstrader
It is sad, that the people fighting back are conservative columnists, and bloggers. That's roughly it.

If anyone from up in the party is listening, every time there is a BS campaign like this, we'd like you to get out the facts immediately, throw a press conference, and hand their heads to em.
53 posted on 10/10/2006 3:53:16 PM PDT by xmission
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

How naive, ignorant and stupid of 'Today' to think that America can just wine and dine the dictator and everyone will live happily everafter. Lauer and company should stick to promoting bio's and CD's of their liberal friends...


54 posted on 10/10/2006 3:54:24 PM PDT by citizencon
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

KOREAN KONSEQUENCES
CLINTON GAVE NORTH KOREA THE BOMB

By: Geoff Metcalf

Notwithstanding the protestations of blind democrat sycophants, former President Bill Clinton was a foreign policy disaster. The consequences of his geopolitical myopia and epic penchant for doing exactly the wrong thing are personified in the recent acknowledgment of North Korea.

So they lied…and North Korea IS working to develop nuclear weapons. You got a problem with that?

Arguably one of the worst foreign policy screw-ups since FDR sat down with Stalin in Yalta, North Korea fessed up to their nuke work. Work, which would have been highly unlikely, had not the Clinton regime showered billions of dollars in foreign aid throughout the 1990s and earmarked a chunk for North Korea’s nuclear energy program. In 1994 Clinton/Gore earmarked aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion...

http://www.etherzone.com/2002/metc102902.shtml


55 posted on 10/10/2006 4:00:06 PM PDT by HarleyLady27 (My ? to libs: "Do they ever shut up on your planet?" "Grow your own DOPE: Plant a LIB!")
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

NBC has it exactly bass-akwards. The Clinton regime ruined it for everyone else.


56 posted on 10/10/2006 4:01:32 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Gator101
Boy is that true! If Bush had followed Clinton's game plan North Korea would have a huge arsenal of fully functioning ICBMs by now and we'd have probably paid for it all along the way!

Not true, Kim couldn't afford the Campaign Funds to get our most top secret nuclear/missle secrets like China.

Pray for W and Our Troops

57 posted on 10/10/2006 4:07:29 PM PDT by bray (Voting for the Rats is Suicide)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashma.htm

The Youtube video on the Dimms

Somebody save it!


58 posted on 10/10/2006 4:13:00 PM PDT by combat_boots (The MSM: State run Democrat media masquerading as corporations)
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

Albright hears North Korea pledge to end missile tests
Chicago Sun-Times, Oct 24, 2000 by GEORGE GEDDA PYONGYANG, North Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today that his country won't test any more missiles.

Albright said she took seriously Kim's promise, delivered seemingly offhand at a gymnastic exhibition.

Kim raised the issue when an image of a Taepo Dong I missile was flashed before the audience. "He quipped that this was the first satellite launch and it would be the last," Albright said.

Asked if she interpreted that as a pledge to end missile launches, Albright said, "I take what he said as serious as to his desire to move forward to resolve various questions."

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after Albright and Kim finished their talks that the North Korean leader has accepted the idea of "serious restraint" in missiles.

Albright was going to Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday to tell South Korean and Japanese officials about her talks with Kim. President Clinton is considering whether to visit North Korea himself.
Advertisement

Diplomats offered no further elaboration of Kim's words in the meetings. Lower-level talks on missiles were planned for next week.

Many analysts are convinced North Korea already has the capacity to strike at the perimeter of the United States with a long-range missile.

That concern has been the main impetus for proposals to build a U.S. national missile defense system. North Korea already has agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program and to stop selling missiles to regimes the United States considers hostile.

"Chairman Kim was quite clear in explaining his understanding of U.S. concerns," Albright said of her meetings, describing him as "a good listener and very decisive."

Albright said they also discussed security issues, terrorism, human rights and "the need for concrete steps toward tension reduction on the Korean peninsula."

Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.


59 posted on 10/10/2006 4:14:00 PM PDT by BlueJ7
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To: Conservative Coulter Fan

Albright seeks global help for North Korean projects
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The, May 2, 1998 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is seeking international donations to help pay for a civilian power reactor and diesel oil that were promised to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in its nuclear weapons program.

In South Korea on Friday, and earlier in Japan during a weeklong Asia trip, Albright talked to officials about the need to raise about $500 million to help pay for the $5 billion reactor and a minimum of $47 million to cover a debt on diesel purchases. Further deliveries the United States is committed to provide 500,000 metric tons a year will run that bill up.

If the reactor agreement founders, there is "grave risk" that North Korea will resume a program that the Pentagon said already had turned out at least one nuclear weapon, she said. "There should be no doubt we will fulfill an agreement as important as this," she said. She stressed the agreement "has prevented the emergence of a nuclear power." South Korea has pledged to pay for 70% of the reactor, and Japan 20%. That leaves 10%, or about $500 million, uncovered. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is providing strong backing for the diplomacy South Korea is pursuing for peace and reunification on the peninsula. Praising President Kim Dae-jung as "one of the world's true champions of freedom," Albright endorsed his call for resuming the North-South dialogue that stalled last month and the government's drive for four-way peace talks that include the U.S. and China.


60 posted on 10/10/2006 4:16:06 PM PDT by BlueJ7
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