Posted on 06/20/2017 6:54:05 AM PDT by C19fan
Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student imprisoned by North Korea for over a year for attempting to steal a propaganda poster, has died after coming home to Ohio last week. He showed signs of severe brain damage though North Korean officials claimed he had contracted botulism during his imprisonment. His original sentence was 15 years of hard labor but he was released early due to his health. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I’m having a real problem feeling bad for the family. He was a college student, so they likely paid for him to go to North Korea for a fun trip.
What would you say if your college student daughter asked if you’d help her pay for a trip to N Korea?
We know, because there’s video of someone (may or may not be him) removing something (may or may not be the poster) from a wall somewhere (may or may not be the hotel he stayed in) and bending over at the waist in a manner common to North Koreans rather than squatting as is common to Americans to place the something carefully on the floor and leaning it against the wall it was taken from rather than actually taking it away.
We know, because when Korean officials took him into custody later, on his way out of the country, they charged him with trying to steal the poster, which means he failed in that task and didn’t have the poster, and being good commies we accept that as proof of his guilt.
We know, because after they tortured a confession out of him, he begged for his life.
And we know, because the torture they inflicted on him resulted in brain damage and death, and being good commies we know our fellow commies would never do that unless he was guilty of something equally serious like trying to straighten a crooked frame and accidentally dislodging the nail in the wall and setting the frame on the floor to replace the nail.
So yeah, we know, and we are qualified to judge him worthy of the punishment heaped upon him.
Or maybe we don’t know as much as we pretend to know, so we can feel oh so superior.
Precisely what is the explanation as to why he was in NK? Normally, you'd think he might have been working for the CIA, but he in no way fit in, or was he just a lib that thought the stories of the regime there were false?
I am reminded of how I am somehow a d\ck because I won’t let my wife go to Mexico.
Sorry Honey, gotta keep you alive to help me raise the kids!
Cooler heads see the risk inherent with all activities, and act accordingly.
My kid would never get my approval to go to NK. Apparently Otto’s parents are left-leaning.
He (and perhaps? his parents) were, above all else, a victim of the huge kumbayah delusion that the Left has infused into the press and academe and the out to lunch politicized schools of theology in the West. “We’re all one world, all love peace, all love each other, etc, etc, etc.” The poor guy was a victim of Communism/Marxism, both from the West and then from the East.
I’ve wondered from the very beginning of this sad saga, what the hell this kid was doing in North Korea? It’s hardly a tourist place or a place where you’d learn something of value for the furture. I feel for this family.
I won’t go to Mexico either, just on principle. We go every winter to Jamaica instead. English is also the language in Jamaica, plus you have reggae!
Warmbier was taken prisoner because fat boy wanted a provocation. Of course no American should go to North Korea but a risk taker will want North Korea on their bucket list. The evil is strictly on the side of fat boy.
The stupider the action, the more extreme the consequences.
What “should” have happened is irrelevant, what likely “could” and did happen are what’s pertinent.
And you believe that he took the poster?
And you believe that he took the poster?
And you believe that he took the poster?
He had to be a spy. UVA is their go to college. He was a smart guy. Its just insulting that we have not been told the truth. The NK know the truth, out CIA knows the truth and we are all getting wrung out over this situation without the first truthful statement.
Jamaica is not safe either!
Savagery is everywhere.
We took a wrong turn in PR and the folks wanted to kill us when they realized we did not want to buy their cocaine.
Sure, my wife could get murdered here in Houston too, but at least they’re “our people”, /s.
it was on video.
I disagree. Lots of people visit NK... every year 100's of journalists go for the big annual parade, and others do go for the experience of being immersed in the totally backwards place for a few days. It's definitely an educational type of thing.
Otto was with a group with 10 others for a short visit. Normally, visitors are assigned "minders" who take you around and make sure you see things "correctly" and stay out of trouble.
It's not like going to Syria to join ISIS or something.... this sort of trip is probably safer than going to Chicago for the weekend.
If he had snuck in to try and do minister work or something then yes, that would have been super dangerous... but not coming in via normal "tourist" methods.
He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. For whatever reason, the Norks decided to have an American hostage as a bargaining chip or something.
“Lots of people visit NK...”
“Lots” of people are imbeciles.
It’s a big wonderful world with literally thousands of reasonably safe places to visit. There are however a small number of places that are most definately not.
If one is crazy enough to want to gamble traveling to one of these places they better be prepared to lose....big time.
Family should call for an autopsy to establish cause of death. His brain should reveal all kinds of secrets.
I agree. It sounds like (I have zero medical training) that his brain had been starved of oxygen for too long. Perhaps his heart had stopped (during a torture session or something) and it took them too long to get it restarted.
Not him.
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