Washingtons Playbook on North Korea by Stephen Gowans

   

In an April 3 Wall Street Journal article, “U.S. dials back on Korean show of force,” reporters Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes revealed that the White House approved a detailed plan, called ‘the playbook,’ to ratchet up tension with North Korea during the Pentagon’s war games with South Korea.

The war games, which are still in progress, and involve the deployment of a considerable amount of sophisticated US military hardware to within striking distance of North Korea, are already a source of considerable tension in Pyongyang, and represent what Korean specialist Tim Beal dubs “sub-critical” warfare.

The two-month-long war games, directed at and carried out in proximity to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, force the North Korean military onto high alert, an exhausting and cripplingly expensive state of affairs for a small country whose economy has already been crippled by wide-ranging sanctions. North Korea estimates that sanctions and US military aggression have taken an incalculable toll on its economy. [1]

The playbook was developed by the Pentagon’s Pacific Command, to augment the war games that began in early March, and was discussed at several high-level White House meetings, according to the Wall Street Journal reporters.

The plan called for low-altitude B-52 bomber flights over the Korean peninsula, which happened on March 8. A few weeks later, two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy payloads on a South Korean missile range. The flights were deliberately carried out in broad daylight at low altitude, according to a U.S. defense official, to produce the intended minatory effect. “We could fly it at night, but the point was for them to see it.” [2]

A few days ago, the Pentagon deployed two advanced F-22 warplanes to South Korea, also part of the ‘play-book’ plan to intimidate Pyongyang.

According to Entous and Barnes, the White House knew that the North Koreans would react by threatening to retaliate against the United States and South Korea.

In a March 29 article, Barnes wrote that “Defense officials acknowledged that North Korean military officers are particularly agitated by bomber flights because of memories of the destruction wrought from the air during the Korean War.” [3] During the war, the United States Air Force demolished every target over one story. It also dropped more napalm than it did later in Vietnam. [4]

The reality, then, is exactly opposite of the narrative formulated in the Western mass media. Washington hasn’t responded to North Korean belligerence and provocations with a show of force. On the contrary, Washington deliberately planned a show of force in order to elicit an angry North Korean reaction, which was then labelled “belligerence” and “provocation.” The provocations, coldly and calculating planned, have come from Washington. North Korea’s reactions have been defensive.

Pressed to explain why North Korea, a military pipsqueak in comparison to the United States, would deliberately provoke a military colossus, Western journalists, citing unnamed analysts, have concocted a risible fiction about Pyongyang using military threats as a bargaining chip to wheedle aid from the West, as a prop to its faltering “mismanaged” economy. The role of sanctions and the unceasing threat of US military intervention are swept aside as explanations for North Korea’s economic travails.

However, Entous’s and Barnes’s revelations now make the story harder to stick. The North Koreans haven’t developed a nuclear program, poured money into their military, and made firm their resolve to meet US and South Korean aggression head-on, in order to inveigle aid from Washington. They’ve done so to defend themselves against coldly calculated provocations.

According to the Wall Street Journal staffers, the White House has dialled back its provocations for now, for fear they could lead to a North Korean “miscalculation.” In street language, Washington challenged the DPRK to a game of chicken, and broke it off, when it became clear the game might not unfold as planned.

1. According to the Korean Central News Agency, March 26, 2013, “The amount of human and material damage done to the DPRK till 2005 totaled at least 64,959 854 million U.S. dollars.”

2. Jay Solomon, Julian E. Barnes and Alastair Gale, “North Korea warned”, The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2013

3. Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. pledges further show of force in Korea”, The Wall Street journal, March 29, 2013

4. Bruce Cumings. The Korean War: A History. Modern Library. 2010.

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/washingtons-playbook-for-provoking-north-korea/5329905

éirígí Cill Mhantáin Easter Commemoration 2013

éirígí Cill Mhantáin Easter Commemoration 2013 in Bré. Parade assembled at the 1798monument in the town before making its way to the grave of the great socialist republican, Seamus Costello.

Of all the politicians and political people with whom I have had conversations, and whom I have had conversations, and who called themselves followers of Connolly, he was the only one who truly understood what James Connolly meant when he spoke of his vision of the freedom of the Irish people	”
—Nora Connolly O'Brien speaking about Seamus Costello

Commemoration was addressed by Sean Doyle, a former comrade of Costello's, and éirígí Dublin City Councillor Louise Minihan.

William Cuffay 1788 - 1870 - Afrikan Chartist Leader Remembered

 

WILLIAM CUFFAY : The Life & Times of a Chartist Leader by Martin  Hoyles

William Cuffay (1788-1870) was one of the leaders of Chartism, which was the largest political movement ever seen in Britain.

 

His grandfather was an African slave and his father was a West Indian slave, from St Kitts, who managed to gain his freedom and settle in Chatham, Kent. Cuffay trained as a tailor and moved to London where, in 1834, he was involved in the tailors strike for shorter hours.

 

In 1839 he joined the Chartist movement and soon became well known for his oratory and sense of humour. At the final mass demonstration for the Charter on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848, he protested strongly at the decision to call off the march to the House of Commons to present the petition.

 

He called the national leadership a set of cowardly humbugs. In August 1848 Cuffay became involved in a secret revolutionary committee which was planning an uprising in London. He was arrested, tried and convicted, on the evidence of two police spies, of levying war against the Queen.

 

He was sentenced to transportation for life in Tasmania. In Hobart he carried on working as a tailor and remained actively involved in Tasmanian politics for twenty years. His wife was able to join him in 1853 and he was granted a free pardon in 1856. In 1870 he died a pauper in the workhouse.

 

William Cuffay s reputation during the Chartist years was immense, yet he was subsequently forgotten for over 130 years. This book aims to set him in his historical context and restore him to his rightful place as one of the key figures in British history.

See Also: http://cuffay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/william-cuffay-hoyles.html

Korea: Beneath the Surface: the investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan - A False Flag Operation

A documentary about unknown story behind the mysterious sinking of the warship.

On March 26, 2010, the South Korean Navy's patrol combat corvette Cheonan sank, and with it took the lives of 46 of the 104 sailors aboard.

Journalists have worked to uncover the facts behind what happened, and this documentary is a gathering of our investigation findings to date.

The findings uncovered significant flaws in the Civilian-Military Joint Investigation Group's report, and suggest that the next necessary step is a reinvestigation.

Democracy and Class Struggle says North Korea was unjustly blamed for sinking the Cheonan to justify further sanctions.

South Korean domestic politics are very dangerous under Park Geun-hye the dictators daughter beware of further false flag incidents like the Cheonan in this current crisis.

See Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_(PCC-772)

éírígí Baile Átha Cliath Easter Commemoration 2013, including parade from Phibsboro to Glasnevin Cemetery, laying of wreaths, readings and main oration by Cathaoirleach éírígí Brian Leeson.

Brian Leeson. continues to inspire listen to his speech Red Salute from The Great Unrest Group for a Welsh Socialist Republican Party - a wonderful defence of Socialism and a reminder of our need to combat anti socialist pro capitalist ideas in the Welsh as well as the Irish National Movements.

New Era of Nuclear-Armed North Korea Forces U.S. to Reconsider War Games at Regime's Door

As North Korea threatens to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, the Obama administration is quietly expressing concern its own recent actions may have been too provocative and could inadvertently trigger a deeper crisis.

We discuss the latest on North Korea and tensions in the region with Christine Hong, assistant professor at University of California-Santa Cruz, and an executive board member of the Korea Policy Institute.

She has spent time in North Korea, including a visit to the country as part of a North American peace delegation.

See Also : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324100904578400833997420280.html 

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/korea-two-months-of-drills-and-mock.html

Communist Party of of Philippines denounces arrival of 4000 US armed troops in Philippines

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today condemned the planned entry of up to 4,000 armed US troops in the Philippines over the next few days "which is a display of extreme contempt against Philippine sovereignty and a show of force in the face of heightened US war preparations in the Korean peninsula."

Up to 30 US jet fighters and an American naval carrier, the USS Tortuga, are also set to be deployed in Manila, Central Luzon and other areas, from 5 to 17 April, in line with the 2013 Balikatan military exercises between the US military and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

"By pushing through with the Balikatan 2013 exercises amidst increasing military tensions in the Korean peninsula, the Aquino regime is allowing the Philippines to be dragged by the US government to its military conflicts against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," said the CPP.

"The Filipino peoples denounce the Balikatan 2013 military exercises and demand the immediate pull-out of all American troops currently stationed in the Philippines, including the 700-strong Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) of the US Pacific Command permanently based in Zamboanga," added the CPP.

"The CPP denounces the US military and government for deceiving the Filipino people about the real intention of the so-called joint military exercises which are being portrayed by the US as serving humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness," said the CPP. "For the past several years, the US has been using humanitarian and disaster operations in order to surreptitiously carry out combat and intelligence operations and setup their spy and communications network and infrastructure."

"The so-called joint military exercises are nothing but preparations and muscle-flexing of the US in order to put the Philippine military under its command and make use of the Philippines as its outpost in the possibility of launching a war of aggression anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region," said the CPP.

"The Filipino people clamor for an independent foreign policy demand that the Philippines not be dragged in any of the war being launched by the US against another sovereign country," added the CPP.

"The Asia-Pacific military strategy of the US is to keep tens of thousands of its combat troops forward stationed in the Asia-Pacific in its naval carriers, military bases and outposts from South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia to Australia," said the CPP.

"The aim is to impose its imperialist hegemony, put pressure on China and other countries to toe US economic policy and make threats of war and aggression against any country who refuse to uphold US imperialist trade and investment policy directives."

The US Pacific Command currently maintains a force of more than 80,000 armed troops in the Asia-Pacific including 30,000 troops stationed in US bases in South Korea and 50,000 American troops in Japan.

Anonymous Claims It Hacked North Korea’s Intranet (But It Probably Didn’t)

The worldwide hacker collective Anonymous announced yesterday that it had hacked North Korean web servers and, among other things, the China-based North Korean propaganda site Uriminzokkiri.com, from which it claims to have stolen the data of around 15,000 users including their account names, hashed passwords, and birthdates.

But the Anonymous announcement also contained a rather bold claim for which the collective provided no supporting evidence:

We are inside your local intranets (Kwangmyong and others)

Kwangmyong is a North Korean intranet that was established in the year 2000. Although it operates much like the real internet — users use web browsers to surf pages, send emails, etc. — it is actually completely disconnected from the actual internet as a security control.

Content from the internet appears on the Kwangmyong network if it has been selected, inspected, and approved by North Korean censors and there is no way to connect to it from outside North Korea. Given that, it seems rather unlikely that Anonymous has actually gained access to it, as North Korea Tech has pointed out.

Accessing Kwangmyong is not theoretically impossible; it might be accomplished by slipping some code past the censors who scan and scrub content from the world wide web before re-posting it to Kwangmyong.

It also might be possible to infect the computers of North Korean officials who are privileged enough to have access to the “real” internet in addition to Kwangmyong (such access is not common and virtually unheard of for ordinary citizens).

Without any proof of such access, Anonymous’s claim seems dubious at best. The hacker collective seems to have thoroughly disrobed Uriminzokkiri, but that site is based in China and is not connected to the Kwangmyong intranet.

Source: http://www.techinasia.com/anonymous-claims-hacked-north-koreas-intranet/

See Also: http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/anonymous-attacks-north-korea-another.html

Democracy and Class Struggle agrees with the comment of Jon Robles:

 "The very nature of Anon Operations makes it another area where Western Intelligence Operatives and Cyber War Specialists can manipulate and use the Anonymous brand for their own nefarious ends and to give credibility to their own questionable and illegal operations"

US presence may drag Philippines to military tensions in Korean peninsula -- CPP

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) warned that the constant presence of US naval warships and armed American troops in the Philippines may drag the country to military tensions in the Korean pensinsula and a possible US-led war of aggression against the people and government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called for an immediate end to the "all-out access policy" of allowing US-led foreign troops unrestricted intrusion to Philippine territory.

At the same time, the CPP echoed the demand of the Korean people to lift the economic blockade against the DPRK and respect the country's right to self-determination, including the country's right to develop nuclear, rocket and space technology for economic progress.

Over the past several weeks, the government of the DPRK has been issuing bellicose threats after the US flew at least two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force against North Korea. The US has heightened economic sanctions in the vain hope of making the DPRK kneel before its imperial power.

Last March 30, the DPRK government declared that it was in a "state of war" with South Korea after putting an end to the truce agreement forged in 1953 and has subsequently cut communication lines.


"The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces denounce the US imperialists for further intensifying the tension in the Korean peninsula by making threatening fly-bys of its nuclear-capable bombers and building up its military strength near the DPRK," said the CPP.


"By using the Philippines as one of its key military stations and puppets in the Asia-Pacific, the US is putting the Philippines in the crosshairs of its enemies," said the CPP. "By acting subserviently to the US, the Aquino regime allows the US to use the Philippines as a pawn in its geo-political strategy and wars of aggression."


Yesterday, the US military deployed another naval warship in the Korean peninsula. The USS Decatur, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed into the area in addition to the USS John McCain.

There are close to 30,000 American soldiers in South Korea which hosts at least 20 US military bases and facilities. The US also maintains around 50,000 troops in Japan which hosts US Pacific Command's military base.

Anonymous attacks North Korea: another US tool? by Jon Robles

Members of the Anonymous collective have taken it upon themselves to once again become involved in a military confrontation and have once again seemingly been operating in conjunction with the US in mounting aggression against yet another small and almost defenseless country. Have the “Knights of the Internet” become nothing more than sadistic schoolyard bullies, and are they now an instrument of US geo-political interests?
 
 Judging from recent events in Syria and now in North Korea one might ask oneself if the hacker group Anonymous has allowed itself to become another extension and in fact a tool of the U.S. Government’s military adventurism and open policy of forcible regime change.

 According to certain “founders” of the group who I have communicated with in the past and active Anons the group is not political and does not “do politics”, yet what we have seen is something to the contrary. Due to its very nature and the fact that the organization, if we can call it that, has no hierarchy, it is impossible to ascertain if the attacks on North Korean sites and the demand for an end to nuclear threats and even the removal of power of the North Korean leader are supported by the group or not.

 Since Anonymous is so loosely knit and has almost no concrete rules or agenda it is not easy to determine if group has been infiltrated, which I would say is a given, and is in fact being used as a cover by the U.S. in launching cyber warfare operations against target countries.

 With the entire US war apparatus bearing down on small almost defenseless countries that the increasingly aggressive and dangerous U.S. Government deems to be “evil” for whatever reasons suits them at the moment, to see the once noble Anonymous collective increasingly being seemingly manipulated into advancing U.S. aggressive military objectives is a sad thing indeed.

 In my dealings with Anonymous, I have met and communicated with individuals with high ideals and noble goals as well as sadistic cyber criminals who prey on the weak and terrorize whoever they wish and even Russophobic lunatics and understand that due to their nature Anonymous might be seen as all inclusive.

 The very nature of Anon Operations makes it another area where Western Intelligence Operatives and Cyber War Specialists can manipulate and use the Anonymous brand for their own nefarious ends and to give credibility to their own questionable and illegal operations.