Be Afraid, Very Afraid (North Korea Has Nukes, Long-range Missles)

National Review Online ^ | Mar 14, 2002 | Rich Lowry

[My Identity]

When you testify to Congress in measured tones, what you say doesn't always get the attention it deserves.

That's the lesson from Robert Walpole's March 11th testimony before a Senate subcommittee. Walpole is the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic and Nuclear Programs for the CIA and was there to update senators on the National Intelligence Estimate.

He calmly delivered the following blockbuster: "The Intelligence Community judged in the mid-1990s that North Korea had produced one, possibly two, nuclear weapons."

That means North Korea may already be a nuclear-weapon state. This is news.

Just last Sunday, the Washington Post reported, "North Korea may have enough fissile material for one or two nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say."

But this conventional wisdom appears to be outdated.

Also according to Walpole, the North Korean "multiple-stage Taepo Dong-2, which is capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear-weapon-sized payload, may be ready for flight testing."

Feeling secure yet?

The conventional wisdom also previously held that Iran could probably achieve an ICBM capability within 15 years.

Walpole reports, "All agencies agree that Iran could attempt to launch an ICBM about mid-decade." That could, then, be in three or five years so. (He went on to say, "[the agencies] believe Iran is likely to take until the last half of the decade to do so. One agency further judges that Iran is unlikely to achieve a successful test of an ICBM before 2015.")

It is clear that Iran has been overachieving when it comes to nuclear and ballistic-missile technology.

Walpole again: "The Intelligence Community judges that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon. Most agencies assess that Tehran could have one by the end of the decade, although one agency judges it will take longer. All agree that Iran could reduce this time frame by several years with foreign assistance."

Foreign assistance is the great friend of rogues generally.

If it bought the right engines, according to Walpole, Iraq "could test an ICBM within about five years of the acquisition."

And if it slipped out from various U.N. prohibitions, "Iraq would be likely to test an ICBM probably masked as an SLV [space launch vehicle] before 2015, possibly before 2010 with significant foreign assistance."

The bottom line, according to Walpole: "All this leads us to assess that the probability that a missile with a weapon of mass destruction will be used against U.S. forces or interests is higher today than during most of the Cold War, and it will continue to grow as the capabilities of potential adversaries mature."

It is worth noting that all this was occurring before the Bush administration pursued missile defense and thought about designing a low-yield nuke to deter rogues from developing and using weapons of mass destruction.

So, the administration's critics have it backwards — Bush isn't creating a threatening international environment, he's reacting to one.

Unless the New York Times and others will now consider North Korea just another mature, responsible country — since, after all, it may already have joined the nuclear "club."

[ChaseR]

"We have enough to blow North Korea to kingdom come..."

Something to be on the lookout for: Since there are 37,000 U. S. troops stationed in S. Korea, if they're suddenly/quickly brought home...well - - grab some cover.
(Thanks treasonous bastard Bill Clinton and Delusional Democraps)

[goldilucky]

I remember once saying that compromising with the enemy gets a nation nowhere but in states of peril. The illuminated ones in charge fail to learn from such compromising.

[goldilucky]

Rev. Moon is on the side of the NWO which includes Uncle Prescott Bush and the international bankers which support the Unification Church for the purpose of replacing all nations with secularist "religion" which is antiChrist. Rev. Moon is a false prophet.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

....also according to Walpole, the North Korean "multiple-stage Taepo Dong-2, which is capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear-weapon-sized payload, may be ready for flight testing"....

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hey Walpole, you're killin' me with this warmonger for rent schtick! The Taepo-Dong 1

*had no payload

*was unguided

*is 1970s 'technology', and

*barely scraped across Japan like a toy rocket

but now the DPRK might be ready to flight test a nuke that could reach the US? Keep 'em comin, champ, you're the best comedian the WoT's produced.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...this is certainly a Red Alert at several different levels...

Agreed.

My 'fearmongering NSA spook' light is flashing fit to burst.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...if a country as poor as North Korea has a nuke and an ICBM to hook it up to, it's a pretty safe bet that Iran already has one....

Sure.

And following that 'logic', we can be pretty confident that Tahiti has one too.

[Quix]

And we all know how accurate the CIA et al's assessments were re the Berlin wall and Soviet Union falling.

Perhaps they should be known as the CENTRAL DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AGENCY.

Then we have to face the BILLDOS who don't have a clue about what to do with accurate info when they have it.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

....instead, we should work to implement a change in that evil regime....

Aaaaaah. Twenty-nine posts 'til some commonsense arrived.

[boris]

"The entire NMD industry is a racket and Rumsfeld's deal with the DPRK is only the tip of the iceberg."

Believe it or not but many of us who are working very hard on missile defense are not running a racket.

Instead, we are striving to make a very complicated and difficult defense system reality. It is really easy to sit back and take shots: "It's a racket." OK, YOU do better.

ABL is 7 years behind schedule?...how many years behind schedule would it be with you in charge?

There are thousands of dedicated and patriotic people--engineers, scientists, technicians, and office workers--who are trying to strengthen our nation's defenses.

What have you done to strengthen our defense?

--Boris

P.S. My brother is a raging liberal. I told him: "Liberals are in favor of any paper defense system--as long as it remains on paper. The instant it threatens to become reality, they oppose it. The will do anything to weaken America."

He replied heatedly, "are you questioning our patriotism?"

"Yes."

[Senator Pardek]

I had not known that was your "racket". You're one of the few civilian folks out there who (indirectly) receive federal $$$ in a constitutional manner, and rightly so.

After all, what more important and constitutionally mandated job does Fedgov have than to make sure that a nuke doesn't land on Ol' Pardek's (or any other American's) noggin???

[goldilucky]

evening bump!

[rightwing2]

Moon has a long history of playing all sides in international political intrigue. Moon was supporting the Contra drug-running operation, which had a base on Clinton's territory of Mena, Arkansas.

This would be a bizarre turn of events indeed. Actually, Moon has a long history of supporting the anti-Communist side in opposition to Communism worldwide. As Rev. Moon helped to found the World Anti-Communist League back in the 1970s, helped the contras fight the Communists in Nicaragua, and owns the conservative Washington Times, newspaper and UPI which have reported on the North Korean nuclear threat, it would definitely represent a complete turn around for him to move to North Korea. While I highly doubt this crapola story of Rev. Moon moving to North Korea, if he did it would be a sure sign that he has permanently defected from the anti-Communist cause which he helped to lead for two decades.

The entire NMD industry is a racket and Rumsfeld's deal with the DPRK is only the tip of the iceberg. See post #1 here: US-Taiwan: The guiding hand of Frank Carlucci.

You have completely lost me here. I have no idea what ayou are talking about especially in regards to your comment about "Rumsfeld's deal with the DPRK". I assume you are talking about his involvement in a company which will cooperate with our Japanese friends to build the DPRK nuclear weapons producing "light water" reactors? And what's this crap about the NMD industry being a "racket"? Actually, NMD is the only hope for US survival in a nuclear age.

[rightwing2]

That means North Korea may already be a nuclear-weapon state. This is news.

Actually, this is OLD news. The DPRK was reported as possessing five atomic bombs back in 1993 nearly a decade ago. As for Walpole, I seem to recall from my 35 page study on the DPRK nuclear threat I wrote two years ago that he was the Clinton cronie that pooh-poohed the DRPK nuclear threat.

[DoughtyOne]

Actually Clinton was upstaged by the Peanut brain from Georgia. Clinton seemed ready to escalate the issue with North Korea until Jimmy Carter went there without permission. He made an agreement that Clinton reluctantly signed on to. I dispise Clinton, but this one isn't entirely his fault. Pussies like Carter have no idea how much damage they do. They waltz through life oblivious to the ramifications of appeasing nations like North Korea and Cuba, his next dibachle.

[ChaseR]

bttt