Thinking Outside the Box

It's funny that Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- of South Park fame -- were among the first to publicly posit active collaboration between Kim Jong-Il and Islamic terrorists in Team America: World Police.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned Geostrategy-direct's report that Iran has received a shipment of plutonium from NK. A possibility it took the CIA 10 years to confirm. Two years after we became aware that NK had supplied Libya with much of its unconventional weapons capabilities.

This "unthinkable" cooperation between the remaining two members of the Axis of Evil is discussed in greater depth in an article on FPM: The Iran-North Korea Connection.

Of one thing we can be absolutely certain: this web of terror is bound together by a glue of total hatred directed at America, at our freedoms, and at the culture of the West. All terror masters are allied in that goal; they will settle differences among themselves after we are defeated.

Corroborating this deadly trend are the latest reports from Iran that detail how North Korea has supported Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Again, because of our cultural blinders, we have been reluctant to look much further east than Pakistan to seek those who are assisting Iran with its nuclear R&D. Sure, some observers say, we know that the North Koreans are there, but because of the differences we minimize the effectiveness of the collaboration. But think for a minute how ridiculous that concept sounds. Who, for example, are our two most solid treaty partners in Asia? Japan and South Korea share out geopolitical goals and participate in joint defense projects. Why can we handily bridge cultural gaps to produce credible results, but discount the notion that our enemies are capable of doing something similar?

North Korea has a several-year old relationship with the mullah regime in Iran that includes a technological spectrum of evil: medium range missiles, nuclear weapons, poison gas, and warhead guidance systems. It is possible, but not verified at this time, that the Kim Jong Il regime is also using the mullah’s Italian crime contacts to launder heroin. Regardless, the known degree of cooperation is sufficiently serious to warrant concern.

Given the reports coming out of Gadhafi’s Libya that North Korea was a major supplier of partially processed uranium ore to the dictator’s weapons program, we ought not be shocked that Iran was in on the action also. . . . Not to be unnecessarily redundant, but these continual, repeated poor performances by CIA and State intelligence services are singularly unhelpful to the president and to the country. Drastic reform is overdue, especially at State.

Investigative reporter Joel Mowbray made an excellent case for exactly that in his book Dangerous Diplomacy -- published almost two years ago. Tick tock.