Washington warns five countries over weapons of mass destruction

[Judi Lynn]

Now it's IST 02:16:23 PM Thursday

Washington warns five countries over weapons of mass destruction

Washington Dec 3
(DPA) A high-ranking U S official has directly warned five countries that pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) will bring ''adverse consequences'' including seizures of illicit materials.

''Rogue states such as Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya and Cuba, whose pursuit of weapons of mass destruction makes them hostile to US interests, will learn that their covert programmes will not escape either detection or consequences,'' said John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security yesterday.

''While we will pursue diplomatic solutions whenever possible, the United States and its allies are also willing to deploy more robust techniques, such as the interdiction and seizure of illicit goods.

If rogue states are not willing to follow the logic of nonproliferation norms, they must be prepared to face the logic of adverse consequences.'' Speaking to a conference of the institute for Foreign Policy Analysis and the Fletcher School's International Security Studies Programme, Bolton repeated the U S policy that no options are precluded when confronting the threat of erratic or terrorist-linked regimes in possession of chemical, biological and nuclear arms. (snip/...)

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=32605

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Printed in the Cuban newspaper, "Granma:"

Havana. December 3, 2003


Bolton threatens Cuba again

WASHINGTON (DPA) .– The U.S. government has accused five countries of procuring weapons of mass destruction and threatened them with serious consequences.

The accusations were hurled by John Bolton, the State Department’s Secretary for Armaments Control, and were directed at Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Libya.

“What happened in Iraq should be a lesson to these countries,” Bolton stated at the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis in Washington. (snip/...)

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/diciembre03/mier3/48bolton-i.html

[roguevalley]

1. These are the remaining five countries of the seven the PNAC targets.

Amazing. What are we going to do about them? Hit them
with our purses? Or colostomy bags? Can anyone spell
paper tiger?

[aquart]

3. The draft will take care of that.

All our brave young 'uns in uniform, marching off for the glory of the American Empire and Emperor George.

Or we can nuke 'em. That makes it tough to steal their assets, though.

Let's see, if we nuke Korea, China will do what?

Has anyone noticed that China is threatening war with Taiwan again? They know we can't interfere if they finally decide to invade. That would be when George's weakness leads us into another world war.

Maybe a meteor will strike us. We'll deserve it.

[PaDUer]

41. Jenna, Barbara, *, and

gang in the front line leading the way!! And the people better demand it!

[loudnclear]

53. Cuba!!!???? Please get these people out of power...they are mad!

How about Israel???? When will the world and US warn Israel about their WMDs?

[pinniped]

2. Five different wars at one time?

North Korea shouldn't worry too much unless they have natural (OIL)resources to plunder.

[goforit]

31. LOL!!!!.....I love your picture of the twin brothers!!!

Yep that baron country of NK doesn't have anything to worry about.

[Spentastic]

4. Ha ha ha

"What happened in Iraq should be a lesson to these countries"

What? If you do have WMD or if you don't have WMD we will invade your country?

"will learn that their covert programmes will not escape either detection or consequences"

What like the Iraqis WMD programme that was so covert it was being run by elves and gnomes in Santa's grotto in the Tigris / Euphrates river valley?

What a fool.

[Don_G]

5. Wasn't ONE Vietnam Enough

Without the current two? And now Dimbo wants to add another five?

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Has it escaped the whole USA Population that the USA has more WMD's

. . than the rest of the world put together ??

. . and alot of those WMD's that REALLY exist out there

were supplied in whole or part BY the USA when it suited their purposes?



and Saddam was only one of many

BUT

- he disarmed, and the USA blew his country and people to hellandgone anyways -

and the world knows this - so anyone with ANYTHING ain't gonna disarm

at least not on the pRomise of the USA pResident !!

[ozymandius]

7. When reading the headline, I thought, "gotta be John Bolton."

But then, to his defense, maybe Mr. Bolton has not read the memo that no weapons have been found during the six months we have occupied Iraq. I hardly see what lesson these "rogue" states have to learn here.

Didn't I read something recently about Cuba planning to tap oil deposits off its coast? Hmmm...

[Bozita]

35. Bolton is Dumbya's "Secretary of Trial Balloons"

If not, he's definitely the loosest cannon on the deck of the ship of state.

[La_Serpiente]

8. I think I am going to have a headache

We can achieve a non-violent solution to the Cuban problem - simply lift the sanctions.

This really strikes at the heart of US credibility. I am even more convinced to get Bush out of the White House. If we bomb Cuba, then the entire WORLD will be against us, no doubt about that.

[Mika]

18. Almost the entire world is against us, re: Cuba.

Every year the UN votes to condemn the US sanctions on Cuba with near unanimity, with only Israel and the Marshall Islands voting with the USA.



Viva Cuba!

[Say_What]

45. Mika, Bush's attitude re Fidel is changing

check this out. }(

http://home.comcast.net/~freshlaundry/bush.html?bs=AWJWB%21GJEFM%21

[chenGOD]

9. I guess Bolton got tired of being belittled and laughed at by

the North Koreans.

What's with this guy? Seriously, the PNACers should really rein this guy in, he does nothing to help their image.

I wonder if this warning means that Iran and North Korea are off the "Axis of Evil"?

[salin]

10. Think about what is missing and has fallen out of ALL of these

discussions:

All of those nukes - proliferation from our Reagan era arms race with the old Soviet Union - that are in Russia and many other former Soviet Republics... some with some pretty rotten economies. So we threaten countries about development, countries that conveniently enough (except for Cuba - that is an ongoing target of the former coldwarriers) are part of the PNAC plan... but we ignore the existence of (and some not accounted for) existing nukes?

Why has this story suddenly become a never mentioned reality?

THese are the questions to ask if/when the public starts buying into this staged meme.

[ze_dscherman]

11. Former Soviet Republics

This problem has been adressed successfully by the CTR program. The former SU Republics became nuclear weapons free.


http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/ctr/index.html
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/ctr/

[TheLastMohican]

17. What are you talking about?

US military themselves have several nukes missing. It's time to start cleanup in one's own house before going to the neighbor and complain how dirty he is.

[Terran]

23. The US is missing nukes?

I hadn't heard that. Would you document that please?

[TheLastMohican]

32. Sure. Ever heard of these incidents?

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/0008/msg00673.html

http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-nyc/2001-August/002962.html

[TheLastMohican]

12. I love this phrase

"While we will pursue diplomatic solutions whenever possible, the United States and its allies are also willing to deploy more robust techniques, such as the interdiction and seizure of illicit goods".
(c) John Bolton, the village idiot

Yes, yes, I'd like to see the seizure of illicit goods, especially those of North Korea. How is he going to do that without getting a bloody nose?

[progressiverealist]

21. you mean, like a BLACKADE?

Parse the speech.

Lie by omission.

Subtlety of a hammer if you ask me.

[progressiverealist]

30. or a blOckade, even (nt)

[Skidmore]

13. If all those countries decide to get togther and unload

a can of whupass on us, we do not have enough people breathing air in this nation to draft to war agains billions indefinitely. We need to push this point because short of dropping WMDs first, we are through as a nation. Ah, the glory that was Rome's.

[ILeft]

26. That's why the 2004 election is so important, eh?

If the monsters in the Bush Regime are still in power in 2005, the rest of the world, not just PNAC target countries, will have no choice...

[Occulus]

38. Ever heard of John Titor?

heheh

[TheLastMohican]

14. I hate this vocabulary by WH

"Rogue states", "terrarists", "insurgents" - this shit has to stop.
These countries are sovereign entities and have every right to enjoy their own government as every other country. Calling them "rogue" all the time will only alienate the said countries towards any good policy coming out of this administration. They'd better watch their mouth when labelling something or calling names.

[0007]

15. This is terriblely wrong!

....and the day will come perhaps that we'll understand we were jerks.

[Justice]

16. Supports What Clark Said He Heard

From People At the Pentagon.

[sistersofmercy]

19. Can we start a gag order for Bolton?

[lumpy]

28. No we can't

and no one should. This guy is revealing Bushco foreign policies against other nations, threatening them with not with just bold words but with invasion the same as what the US has done to Iraq. US news sources should be broadcasting Bolton/Bushco plans of aggression and threats to US citizens. Maybe Bush supporters would wake up and see the dark at the end of the tunnel. Nothing has changed. Until this tyranical administration is out of power we will be confronted with continual mayhem.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. All part of the PNAC plan for global dominance...

...and still more justification (in their minds) for the reinstatement of the military draft.

Lovely world we're living in these days.

[pinto]

22. question re: Cuba

What purported evidence are they supplying that Cuba's seeking WMD? Any links out there? I've heard this one run out from the Admin before...

[Gin]

24. Cuba has WMD? Maybe its in those old cars on the roads.

gin

[bemildred]

25. I don't know in this case,

but in the past they have used some made up claims
about seeking biological weapons, based on the Cuban
successes in medicine and drug development.

[Barrett808]

27. A lie made up whole cloth -- but the US has dropped bio weapons on Cuba

Notably dengue fever.

[ConcernedCanuk]

34. Biological warfare started on Native Americans withSmallpox laden blankets

. . so it would not suprize me that the USA continues it's "disease" spreading

. . heck

- we've all mostly heard of "Agent Orange"

and "Depleted Uranium"

and so on, that the US Military inflicts on it's OWN as well as others

US Military will kill anything that gets in it's way , including their own

Just A Dumm Canuk's Observations

[kysrsoze]

33. They just want cheap Cuban cigars.

It's not like they had to PROVE Iraq had anything. They'll make it up as they go.

[pinniped]

39. President Jerkoff is using 40-year old intelligence.

[Say_What]

44. Pinto...check this link out...

http://home.comcast.net/~freshlaundry/bush.html?bs=AWJWB%21GJEFM%21

[pinto]

46. Yo! that's great.

Forwarded to a friend who went to the Carribean this summer.....found folks STILL love Americans, just don't like our government so much....

[Say_What]

50. A friend who's been to the island several times says she thinks that

Bush has Fidel envy. LOL

Welcome to DU :hi:

[Mokito]

48. They'll probably spin cigars as a WMD.

nt.

[Aristus]

29. So now they're giving the threats to some office flunky to issue.

They're preserving what Nixon called 'deniability'. If the public doesn't go for this posturing, they can always claim that Bolton went off the rez and then fire his ass without a drop in the polls.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Contemplating "deniability," they couldn't have made a better choice.

(snip)...Senator Jesse Helms had endorsed Bolton's appointment with what one hopes was unconscious irony "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world."(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/williams02222003.html



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really thought he had been sufficiently discredited the FIRST time he drug out the bizarre charges of Cuba's threat to the world.

From an article written in 1998, published in the Miami Herald, undoubtedly hacking off a lot of hardline right-wing "exiles," concerning remarks made by a returning American former Marine General Sheehan on his visit in Cuba:

(snip) WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that Cuba poses no significant threat to U.S. national security, and senior defense officials increasingly favor engaging their island counterparts to reduce existing tensions.

In a classified report to be given to Congress by Tuesday, Secretary of Defense William Cohen plans to portray Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces as a severely diminished military and to downplay the dangers posed by chemical or biological weapons, or by another refugee exodus, according to people briefed on the findings.

At the same time, retired Marine Gen. John Sheehan has just returned from a weeklong tour of the island—the highest-ranking U.S. officer to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution—and is urging the Clinton administration to "regularize contacts'' between Cuban and American military chiefs. (snip)


(snip) Partly as a hedge against such an outcome, Sheehan advocates lifting the ban on U.S. food and medical sales to Cuba and urges professional contacts among senior military officers of both countries.

Sheehan, a much-decorated veteran of Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, traveled to eastern Cuba with Raul Castro during his visit. Contrary to some accounts that the younger Castro brother inspires little loyalty among the troops, Sheehan said, "There clearly is an affection for him. . . . You can see the admiration in the young kids' eyes.'' (snip/)

http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y98/mar98/30e6.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


(snip) Wayne Smith, a Cuba expert who represented Washington in Havana under Carter, has long held the view that Cuba affects US officials the way the moon supposedly affects a werewolf.(snip)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0513/p01s01-uspo.html

[pinto]

40. No flunky, obsessed with Cuba for a long time

in private and public sector roles. I think Admin picked him as Undersecretary to try a keep a reign on him. Seems to scare everyone, and uses intimidation as a day-to-day tool.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

37. What, is Bolton doinf coke and steroids? The arrogance of his statements

is an embarrassment to thinking Americans.

Cowboy diplomacy at its worst.

[Rex]

42. I wish they would quit using that great mans name

and fess up to it being the 'BFEE warns five countries over weapons of mass destruction'.

Ever notice that when they do something that they KNOW will piss off the public or be unpopular globally, they always say the U.S. and include us? I fear these bastards will drag the rest of us down with them.

[Say_What]

43. John Bolton spinning his lies once again about Cuba...

They subscribe to the theory that if they tell the same lie over and over it will eventually become the truth. What a POS


http://home.comcast.net/~freshlaundry/bush.html?bs=AWJWB%21GJEFM%21

[pinto]

47. kick

[Osolomia]

49. Cuban Biotechnology: A First Hand Report

Cuban Biotechnology: A First Hand Report
May 1, 2003

In May 2002, John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, triggered a furor when he stated, "The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort." That Fall, CDI sponsored a trip into Havana for a group of bioscience and bioweapons experts. A tour of nine facilities, sanctioned by the Cuban government, is the basis for this report.

http://www.cdi.org/pubs/cubanbiotech.pdf

[Judi Lynn]

52. Amazing report.

I've heard of one of the parties in this report before, General Wilhelm. I'm looking forward to getting some time to look through this.

Just saw this remark, very similar to things the guy has said previously:

(snip) Gen. Charles Wilhelm, USMC (Ret.)
Distinguished Military Fellow, Center for Defense Information
Commander in Chief, U.S. Southern Command, 1997-2000. Prior to that he served as Commander, U.S.
Marine Forces Atlantic, Europe and South/Commanding General II Marine Expeditionary Force/Commander
Marine Striking Force Atlantic and Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Gen. Wilhelm held a variety of command positions including two tours of duty in Vietnam. From December
1992 to March 1993, while serving as Commanding General, 1st Marine Division, he commanded Marine Forces
participating in the U.S.-led coalition during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, and he served as Deputy Commander
of Joint Task Force Proven Force during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Among many other senior
assignments, he was selected in 1990 to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict; and, in 1994, he assumed duties as Commanding
General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Va.
Gen. Wilhelm was a contributor to the 1998 Dept. of Defense study on Cuba that concluded “Cuba does not
pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region.” Today, he is a leading proponent
for security cooperation between the United States and Cuba.(snip/...)

Thanks for putting this information here.

[pinto]

54. Bravo!, love this quote from the report:

"Neither I, nor any other member of the group, found any indications that Cuba was invovled in other than legitimate biotechnology activities."


General Charles Wilhelm
USMC (ret)
Center for Defense Information
Commander in Chief
Southern Command 1997-2000

[GermanDJ]

51. Libya is no rogue state

If someone had asked me three years ago if Libya is involved in state terrorism I would have said "yes". Because Libya was all over the news because of Lockerbie, La Belle, etc.
But after 9/11 I became interested in international politics and especially in the function of Western media and how they work in favour of the powers that be. Partly in my part of the world (Germany), but especially in the USA. It's quite interesting how my view of the world has changed since then. And Libya is one of the prime examples.

Today I am convinced that this North African state is not more involved in - what we call - terrorism than my own country. And certainly much less that Great Britain or the USA.
The Lockerbie bombing for example was almost certainly *not* carried out by the Libyan state. It's a well fabricated myth. I don't know who it was, but today it seems rather clear that this terrible act of terrorism was conducted by Palestinian terror groups co-operating with the Iranian government. It was a retaliation for the killing of 290 passengers aboard a civilian Iranian airbus in 1988. At that time the US government was looking for a scapegoat for Lockerbie. Some background information on this issue can be found here:

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/TerrorInUSA/faq/Libya.asp#lockerbie

http://www.countercurrents.org/chomsky3.htm

I am angry about how I was fooled by the mass media. Today I am completely convinced that the only reason why Libya is still being called a rogue state is because Gaddhafi had kicked out the colonial powers and Western oil companies, so that the profit from Libya's resources are distributed to the Libyan people instead into the pockets of Exxon Mobile's managers, etc.

And regarding Ghaddafi: I would be angry about the USA and Great Britain too, like he obviously is, if those two nations would try to kill me for the last 30 years and are responsible for the killing of my daughter.
Personally I would compare him to Chavez in Venezuela: Ghaddafi was of course not elected, he *is* a dictator, no doubt about that. But judging from socio-economic data and the very high living standards in Libya generally I would say that he has done a rather good job as a leader of this North African state. The Libyan people would certainly be in a much worse position if Great Britain and the USA would have succeeded in removing Gaddhafi from power and installing a puppet regime instead.

Just look to Iran (1953), Indonesia, Chile. I wish our media would change their perspective and look at those facts instead of spreading rather blatant propaganda. In my eyes it's *not* justified to call other nations "rogue states" and attack them just because they have oil and are not controlled by the West.

And I really wonder why I had to turn to the internet to read about Noam Chomskys view on this matter (see above)? I find his conclusions much more sound than anything I had read before about Lockerbie or Libya in the newspapers I used to read so far. It's strange!



On edit: I corrected the first link and some typos.