Jimmy Carter's clarity of mind is sharp enough to
peirce through the Pravda-like filters of the NYTwits
(*newspaper of revision* rather than "newspaper of
record") and deliver the truth. Remember, the
_resident and his neo-con wet dreamers fumbled the
opportunity for a peaceful evolution on the Korean
pennisula. Calm 'Em Powell promised *under oath* in
his confirmation hearings there would be continuity on
the Clinton-Gore initiative, which had brought the
North Koreans to the negotiating table for real...Of
course, the VICE _resident, Condi the White House au
pair, Rumsfeld and the rest of those for whom
Secretary of Stone Calm 'Em Powell just fronts,
promptly scuttled those peace talks and started the
chain reaction that has brought us to this very
dangerous moment...I send you this news story so that
you remember and you can help others remember. One of
the reich-wing Bush cabal's greatest Weapons of Mass
Distraction is the utter lack of perspective (i.e.
continuity, context, accountability) from one month to
the next or one year to the next -- in the "US
mainstream news media" and the corpratist
propapunditgandists who establish the parameters of
the discussion. So, remember, "all the _resident's
men" brought us here to the bring of a nuclear
confrontation in the Pacific, just as they have
brought us to the brink of MEGA-Mogadishu in Iraq,
just as they have brought us to the brink of an
unthinkable WWIV if everything that have churned up
comes due at once...
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0906-05.htm
Published on Saturday, September 6, 2003 by the New
York Times
North Korean Standoff Poses 'Greatest Threat,' Carter Says
by James Brooke
TOKYO, Sept. 5 — Former President Jimmy Carter, the
man credited with defusing the 1994 North Korean
nuclear crisis, warned here today that the current
standoff was the world's "greatest threat."
Former US President and Nobel Peace laureate Jimmy
Carter slammed the stance of the administration of
President Bush, which has branded the North Korean
government part of an 'axis of evil.' Carter speaks to
reporters during a news conference in Tokyo on
September 5, 2003. (Kimimasa Mayama/Reuters)
"This paranoid nation and the United States now are
facing what I believe to be the greatest threat in the
world to regional and global peace," Mr. Carter said
of North Korea. The Bush administration, which has
avoided using the word "crisis" in referring to North
Korea's revival of its nuclear program, had no
immediate comment on Mr. Carter's Asian visit or his
message.
Mr. Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year,
met here today with Japan's prime minister, Junichiro
Koizumi. On Sunday he flies to Beijing where he is to
meet with top Chinese leaders. Traveling on an agenda
to promote aid to Africa, he said he had no plan to
repeat his 1994 trip to North Korea's capital,
Pyongyang, which opened the way to the first nuclear
agreement with North Korea.
"Unfortunately both sides have violated some of those
agreements," he said, criticizing North Korea for
enriching uranium in order to make bombs. "At the same
time, the United States has refused direct talks, has
branded North Korea as an axis of evil, has declared
an end of no first use of atomic weapons, has invaded
Iraq and has been intercepting North Korean ships at
sea."
Warning against pushing North Korea, he added, "That
country is isolated, very fearful of outside threats,
economically punished by longstanding sanctions with a
superb military technology and the ability to destroy
hundreds and thousand of lives and most of Seoul if a
war should come."
He urged a continuation of the six-party talks in
Beijing that took place last week with the
participation of China, Japan, Russia, the United
States and North and South Korea.
Mr. Carter said North Korea should renounce nuclear
weapons and the use of violence in dealing with South
Korea. Next Tuesday North Korea's leadership
celebrates the 55th anniversary of the founding of the
country. Many outside analysts fear that North Korea
could use the anniversary to declare itself a nuclear
power or hold a nuclear test.
In return for North Korea's giving up its bombs and
its bomb-making capabilities, Mr. Carter said, the
United States should agree to a nonaggression pact
with North Korea, negotiated and guaranteed by North
Korea's neighbors.
"A unilateral decision by the United States the North
Koreans would not trust," he said. Other incentives,
he said, could include "the lifting of all economic
and political sanctions against North Korea and the
opportunity for that little country to become
completely absorbed in world affairs on a normal
basis."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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