Conservatively Speaking

Saturday I participated in a 4^th of July Parade and TEA Party not far from NEVERLAND RANCH in the Santa Ynez Valley at Solvang. It was very Americana with plenty of horses, wagons, Cub and Girl Scouts, flags, fireengines and such. I drove a Corvette convertible bearing  “Government Motors” door signs and a fella dressed up like Obama. Of those who reacted to the Obama masked man they were roughly divided between those who applauded and gave a thumbs up and those signaling with their middle finger.

“If you can’t read the bill; get off the hill” was the best sign at the entire TEA Party the best curb signs said “I’m TEAd-off about taxes.”

Widely circulating reports say U.S. intelligence has confirmed Iran as a major backer of North Korea’s missile exports. According to the reports the Teheran regime was and presumably is financing and facilitating North Korean exports of ballistic missiles and related systems. Last week a North Korean ship named Kang Nam 1 after chugging through the South China Sea and being shadowed by a US Navy destroyer turned tail and headed back to its North Korea port.

North Korea has established Iranian fronts, one of them identified as Hong Kong Electronics, to conceal missile contracts by Pyongyang.

In a separate story on June 30, 2009 the US Treasury department announced a freeze of Hong Kong Electronics assets and designated it a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them, thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems.  Hong Kong Electronics, is reportedly located in Kish Island, Iran, and has been designated for providing support to North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon) and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID).

“North Korea uses this front company and others for a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions,” Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said.

On June 30, Treasury imposed sanctions on the Iranian-based Hong Kong Electronics. The decision would freeze any U.S. assets of Hong Kong and prevent Americans from doing business with the firm.

“Today’s action is a part of our overall effort to prevent North Korea from misusing the international financial system to advance its nuclear and missile programs and to sell dangerous technology around the world,” Levey said.

Officials said Hong Kong Electronics, located on the Iranian island of Kish, was supporting North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. Both North Korean companies, said to play a major role in Pyongyang’s missile program, have been under sanctions by the United States and the United Nations. Kish (Persian: کیش) is a resort island in the Persian Gulf. It is part of the Hormozgān Province of Iran. Due to its free trade zone status it is touted as a consumer’s paradise. It has about 20,000 permanent residents and is visited by 5.5 million mostly from the region. For some while Iran has been pouring money into Kish for the purpose of making it competitive with Dubai as a tourist destination.

North Korea has been deemed the leading foreign supplier of Iran’s ballistic missile program. Officials said Iran has been directly financing North Korea’s missile program and exports since at least 2005.

Tanchon, with extensive ties to Iran’s Bank Sepah, was said to have financed the sales of ballistic missiles for KOMID. Officials said Tahnchon was also involved in financing North Korean missiles sales to Iran.

“Tanchon has also been involved in financing ballistic missile sales from KOMID to Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which is the Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled missiles,” Treasury said. “The U.S. has reason to believe that the Tanchon-Bank Sepah relationship has been used for North Korea-Iran proliferation-related transactions.”

Since 2007, Hong Kong Electronics has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation- related funds on behalf of Tanchon and KOMID, officials said. They said Hong Kong Electronics has also facilitated funds from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID.

“Tanchon, a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the financial arm for KOMID - North Korea’s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons,” Treasury said. “Tanchon plays a key role in financing the sales of ballistic missiles for KOMID.”

“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.”
                                                                                    ~ Ronald Reagan

Efforts to stop North Korean shipments of weapons of mass destruction have failed. South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies believe the North exported about $800 million worth of weapons including missiles, submarines, multi-launch rockets and field artillery to Iran, Syria and Burma between 2000 and 2008, despite the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, according to the Chosun Ilbo, newspaper said citing South Korean government sources.

To avoid international monitoring and tracking, the North has used roundabout land routes via neighboring China and Russia (neither of which could be possible without their complicity), making shipments more difficult to trace. Pyongyang also used transport planes at night to deliver weapons to its clients.

“To circumvent an entry ban on its ships in ports, North Korean chartered ships under the names of foreigners, falsified the country of origin, or did business through a third country,” the newspaper reported. “That is … how it was able to export to Iran, Syria, Burma and Laos,” it said.

The United States is tracking a number of ships and airplanes.

A U.S. destroyer is currently shadowing a North Korean cargo vessel suspected of carrying weapons. The ship, Kang Nam, left the North Korean port of Nampo, west of Pyongyang in late June and was believed bound for Burma (Myanmar), according to South Korean officials. North Korea has reportedly exported conventional weapons and tunneling technology to Rangoon’s junta.  There have been conflicting reports about it course and whereabouts. It has been rumored to have a cargo of small arms and ammunition for the Myanmar junta.

The Associated Press reported June 30 that the ship had reversed course and was heading back to North Korea.

The U.S. tracking operation followed the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which calls for tougher cargo inspections, a tighter arms embargo and stronger financial sanctions to punish North Korea for its second nuclear weapons test in May.

Apart from the UN resolution, the United States is strengthening its own counter-proliferation efforts. In late May, South Korea joined the PSI despite the North’s threat to consider the decision as a “declaration of war.”

Begun by President George W. Bush in 2003, the PSI aims to halt trade that facilitates the construction of weapons of mass destruction and calls for the stopping and searching of ships on the high seas. Obama has done little to strengthen the ban except talk.

Obama is in Moscow extensively to face down Medvedev and Putin. His insult to Putin as having one foot in the Cold War past can be chalked up to just popping off, and Putin is a master chess player and will get almost everything he wants. The Poles and Czechs are bracing for a U. S. betrayal.

Vice President Joe Biden inserted his foot in his mouth again signaling Obama would not stand in Israel’s way if it attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, even as the top U.S. military officer said any attack on Iran would be destabilizing.

Administration officials insisted his televised remarks Sunday from the Middle East reflected the U.S. view that Israel has a right to defend itself and make its own decisions on national security.

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden also said the U.S. offer to negotiate with Tehran on its nuclear program still stands. Some thought the administration’s approach might change in light of the Iranian government’s harsh crackdown on protesters after the June 12 presidential election. Opponents of the ruling authorities claimed the vote was rigged against them.

“If the Iranians respond to the offer of engagement, we will engage,” Biden said.

It was after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on May 18 that President Barack Obama said it should be clear by year’s end whether Iran was open to direct negotiations. Obama told The Associated Press last Thursday that persuading Iran to forego nuclear weapons has been made more difficult by the crackdown after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Biden was asked whether Netanyahu was taking the right approach by indicating that Israel would take matters into its own hands if Iran did not show a willingness to negotiate by the end of the year.

“Look, Israel can determine for itself - it’s a sovereign nation - what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” Biden replied. He added that this was the case, “whether we agree or not” with the Israeli view.

Biden was then asked more pointedly whether the U.S. would stand in the way if the Israelis, viewing the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, decided to launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do,” he said.

Pressed further on this point with a reminder that the U.S. could impede an Israeli strike on Iran by prohibiting it from using Iraqi air space, Biden said he was “not going to speculate” beyond saying that Israel, like the U.S., has a right to “determine what is in its interests.”

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that he has been concerned “for some time concerned about any strike on Iran.” He also said military action should not be ruled out and that a nuclear-armed Iran is a highly troubling prospect.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli government had no comment on Biden’s remarks.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Biden was not signaling any change of approach on Iran or Israel.

“The vice president refused to engage hypotheticals, and he made clear that our policy has not changed,” Vietor said. “Our friends and allies, including Israel, know that the president believes that now is the time to explore direct diplomatic options.”

The Netanyahu government says it prefers to see Iran’s nuclear program stopped through diplomacy but has not ruled out a military strike. Israel, within easy range of an Iranian ballistic missile, has been skeptical of the administration’s aim of engaging in dialogue with Iran rather than threatening sanctions and military action.

The New York Times reported in January, shortly before Obama took office, that President George W. Bush had deflected an Israeli request in 2008 for specialized U.S. bombs that it would use for an airstrike on Iran’s main nuclear complex at Natanz. And it reported that Bush was persuaded by aides, including his defense chief, Robert Gates, that a U.S. strike on Iran would probably be ineffective.

Obama retained Gates as his defense secretary.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

There are many reasons for Washington to oppose an Israeli attack on Iran now, including the presence in neighboring Iraq of about 130,000 American troops, who could become targets for Iranian retaliation. The security consequences could be much broader.

Mullen, who as Joint Chiefs chairman is the top military adviser to Obama and Gates, said he worries about unpredictable consequences of an attack on Iran.

“I worry about it being very destabilizing not just in and of itself but the unintended consequences of a strike like that,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that’s very destabilizing.”

Mullen said he worries that, in the event Iran were to obtain a nuclear weapon, other countries in the Middle East would feel compelled to follow suit. That would open a door to a proliferation of nuclear technology that would be destabilizing, Mullen said, adding that this is a subject he discusses regularly with his Israeli counterpart.

The prospect of a regional nuclear arms race was raised by Obama in an AP interview Thursday.

“The biggest concern is not simply that Iran can threaten us or our allies like Israel or its neighbors in the region,” Obama said. “A very real concern is, is that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon triggers an arms race in the region and suddenly countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Turkey all feel obliged to get nuclear weapons. And if you’ve got the most volatile region in the world and everybody armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, you’ve got a recipe for potential disaster.”

Most experts believe that wiping out the Iranian nuclear program is beyond the ability of Israel’s military. In 1981 the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in a lightning strike. But Iran’s facilities are scattered around the country, some of them underground.

California is issuing “registered warrants” or so-called IOU’s to pay its bills or at least keep creditors at bay. Some banks are accepting the IOUs and keeping the interest that will exceed $45 million for the first week’s. Governor Pete Wilson also issued IOUs when he failed to put a budget together and the state couldn’t pay its bills 17 years ago. The practice began during the “Great Depression” of the 1930s. California’s unemployment has topped 12%; also for the first time since the 1930s. VP Biden declared Sunday Obama greatly misjudged the economy. Critics of the so-called Economic Stimulus package point out that the only jobs “saved” have been those of bureaucrats - that consume rather than produce anything. Some think that rest at Biden’s feet because he has been unable to even get those funds out of Washington DC.