Bush authorized NK reactor construction in 2001
In 2006 I posted this diary at Dkos about Rumsfeld and George W. Bush enabling the North Korean nuclear weapons project. The last point in the FORTUNE article still concerns me. Are we subsidizing, never mind approving, private companies efforts to provide us with enemies?
...The Bush administration... authorized $3.5 million to keep the project going
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/9/255614/-Bush-authorized-NK-react...
Bush authorized NK reactor construction in 2001
By Linda Wood
Monday Oct 09, 2006 · 6:14 PM PDT
14 Comments (14 New)
This May 12, 2003 FORTUNE Magazine article about Rumsfeld's membership on the board of directors of ABB, a Swiss company that took part in building the North Korean nuclear reactors, and Rumsfeld's lobbying for the contract, includes the following paragraphs:
http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/05/12/...
... President Bush was skeptical of Pyongyang's intentions and called for a policy review in March 2001. Two months later the DOE, after consulting with Rumsfeld's Pentagon, renewed the authorization to send nuclear technology to North Korea. Groundbreaking ceremonies attended by Westinghouse and North Korean officials were held Sept. 14, 2001--three days after the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.
The Bush administration still hasn't abandoned the project. Representative Edward Markey and other Congressmen have been sending letters to Bush and Rumsfeld, asking them to pull the plug on the reactors, which Markey calls "nuclear bomb factories." Nevertheless, a concrete-pouring ceremony was held last August, and Westinghouse sponsored a training course for the North Koreans that concluded in October--shortly before Pyongyang confessed to having a secret uranium program, kicked inspectors out, and said it would start making plutonium. The Bush administration has suspended further transfers of nuclear technology, but in January it authorized $3.5 million to keep the project going...
Comments
History repeats itself.
In the 1930s our Red-blooded Amerikkkan Kapitalists helped Adolph H. re-arm his country into the then world's most potent military. Good money to be made by IBM, Ford, etc. So now it's Westinghouse's turn to cash in. Cash in doubly because they manufacture jet engines on planes* which most assuredly will bombing those Naughty Norks for "daring" to self-protect. Perfect case of chicken versus egg. Surrounded NK decides it needs potent weaponry to discourage external threat (not excusing their tactics with SK, though). Westinghouse and Dumbya ride into the breach, cheered on by Rummy (who probably owns a gazillion Westinghouse shares) to give NK a modicum of nuclear power.
*also radar, avionics and stuff.
War is good business if you're not a grunt or civilian.
Thanks! A great find and the
Thanks! A great find and the first mention of this that I can recall reading. Very interesting - and evidently typical, unfortunately.
Such as this is why psychopaths and other vampiric self-interests must be kept out of public policy and government...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Ayup.
As the alligator also reminds us, Are we subsidizing, never mind approving, private companies efforts to provide us with enemies?, it wasn't only Hitler that we helped put in power, but many, many others.
We put countless dictators in their positions only to have to remove them later when they misbehaved, we also helped Al Qaida become the menace they are. The so called "moderate terrorists who were offshoots of AQ and rumor has it that we created and funded ISIS and protected them as they were fleeing Allepo. We aren't the only country that does this. The U.K. let a known terrorist group come and go to Libya and back again. This was the group that was responsible for the Manchester concert bombing. Last (?) but not least, there are the people who the FBI sets up to do a terror attack so they can keep the fear level high.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.