Briefing Skipper: Pakistan, Mideast peace, Iran, Cheonan, Einhorn, Hiroshima

Posted By Josh Rogin Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 6:46 AM Share

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. These are the highlights of Wednesday's briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement of condolence following the plane crash in Islamabad that killed all 152 passengers, including two Americans. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and with all the people of Pakistan at this difficult time. As I saw first-hand during my visit last week, the Pakistani people are friends and partners and we will continue to stand with them," she said.
"The secretary has had a number of conversations with leaders in recent days," regarding the Mideast peace process, Crowley said, including with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal. "We want to see the parties get into, you know, direct negotiations as soon as possible. "We're having conversations with the parties directly and other countries that we think can be influential in encouraging the leaders to take this important step at this time," he said.
The IAEA received a letter from Iran, State is reviewing it, but no news to report yet and no real comment on Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's claim that Iran is ready to talk and stop enriching toward 20 percent if there's a fuel swap deal. "you know, Iran has in recent months, you know, made a variety of public statements. Usually, they are heavily conditioned," Crowley said.
The U.S. Side would welcome a meeting, if that's what Iran is interested in. But Crowley isn't convinced that there's been any change in Iranian attitudes and isn't willing to say that the new sanctions are yet having an effect. "But we'll see whether Iran is doing this to try to forestall further action by specific countries... but we hope and we do expect that -- you know, the cost of doing business in Iran is going up," he said.
The State Department's new arms control compliance report has a lot to say about Russia and START, but it also has a lot to say about the illicit activities of other countries, as well. "It states that Iran is in violation of Article III of the nonproliferation treaty; North Korea in violation of Articles II and III... It cites the fact that Syria has failed to provide, you know, critical information required for the IAEA," said Crowley.
State is sticking with its own conclusion that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean ship the Cheonan, despite that Russia has apparently concluded that it was a mine. "Russia sent its own investigators to South Korea. You know, those Russian investigators can provide their own report," Crowley said. "We have reached our own conclusion and we have not changed our view."
Bob Einhorn, State's new envoy for sanctions, will be traveling next week to the countries of Japan and South Korea, "among others," Crowley said. State still isn't talking much about the new sanctions targeting North Korea's money, probably because they don't want to tip off Kim Jong Il, who is apparently stashing $4 billion in European banks under his son's name to avoid the measures.
Ambassador to Japan John Roos will represent the United States at the August 6th Hiroshima Peace Memorial, "to express respect for all of the victims of World War II," Crowley said. "At this particular point, we thought it was the right thing to do."
Congratulatios to @statedept on Twitter, which crossed 25,000 followers! Only about 275,000 more to go to catch State's leading Twitterati @alecjross and @jaredcohen!

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LETSTRY REASON

3:59 AM ET

July 30, 2010

To the "outside" world intellectuals who don't read Korean,

To the "outside" world intellectuals who don't read Korean,
This is a remarkable story of people the governed(although they are in theory supposed to be the actual governor in democracy), not their government making difference in the world (history).
1. Compare and contrast.
"More enlightened" American people, Congress and media; Bush; WMD; War (and huge suffering),
(http://whitehouser.com/war/CIA-confirms-Bush-WMD-lie)
and,
"Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people; Korean President Lee; Cheonan; prevention of War (so far).
(I am including among 'the Korean people' the Korean-Americans.)
2. Also remarkable is that the "inside" Korean people braved the government prosecution.
Caveat: Under the current South Korean regime, South Korean citizens can be sued for defamation by their own government officials, and defamation in South Korea is a crime (as well as a civil offense) prosecuted by the government's own centrally-controlled national prosecutors who selectively choose or choose not whom to prosecute.
Recently, Shin Sang-chul, "an expert placed on the JIG [Joint Investigation Group] by" the Nationial Assembly, got (criminally) sued for defamation by a government official for expressing disagreement over the current South Korean regime's version of the Cheonan Incident.
(South Korean people's firsthand knowledge about the pro-government polls is that they are ridiculously overinflated.
A proof: war-fear-mongering South Korean President Lee Myung-bak got unexpectedly humiliated on the June 2 election by the "Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people,
when "survey conducted by the major daily [pro-government]Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Research Center from May 24 to 26[7-days-before] forecast[ed] that Oh would beat Han by 20.8 percent."
Actual election result: 0.6 percent(="47.4 percent"-"46.8 percent.")
Source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921960 )
3. A list of early English publications on Questions on the Cheonan Incident and the Power of South Korean Netizens can be found at http://korea.true.ws (by LetsTry Reason).
Also, look at: "Five reasons why the the JIG's 5-page statement cannot be considered scientific and objective, nor ... 'international'" http://japanfocus.org/-JOHN-MCGLYNN/3372 ;
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/pcc-772-cheonan-south-korean-government-admits-the-deception-and-then-lies-about-it/ ;
http://nature.com/news/2010/080710/full/news.2010.343.html ;
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-torpedo-20100724,0,4196801,full.story
4. Compare and contrast.
9/11; Al-Qaeda; brags We did it(, was not wrong, not sorry about it and we will do it again).
Cheonan; North Korea; brags We didn't do it (therefore, presumably, was wrong, sorry about it and we will not do it). (Why the difference?)
Crime and punishment. If we are taking consequentialist moral philosophy, and if the utilitarian utility of punishment is to prevent future crime, then punishment serves little or no purpose (maybe to others but not)to North Korea who says 'We didn't do it,' because either (a) the North didn't do it, therefore the punishment will be outrageous injustice,
or (b) the North did do it, but 'We didn't do it' basically implies 'We will not do it.'
(This particular 'it' hardly gives the North any payoff.)
5. Representative democracy is not pure democracy. (Pure)Direct democracy of a nation-size is now (or becoming) possible, through recent developments in computer science and technology, making secure private Internet-voting, democratic online discussions, cheap instantaneous micro referendum and freedom of choice to vote directly on an issue or use an agent possible.
The science (computer science) should finally make the people, the governed, the actual de facto governor in democracy.
6. I take this honor of hereby formally asking the folks in Norway to consider awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to the "Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people including myself,
who in early days, among various activities, proposed the "outside" world contact initiative for the Cheonan peace, providing email addresses of all the foreign embassies in Korea, U.N., Hillary, Obama, and the foreign media.