rssBreaking: GOP Lawmaker Spies North Koreans Outside North Korea
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 4:20 pm
- 5 Comments
Here’s a bizarre observation from six-term GOP Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, speaking to reporters today following a trip to Syria, during which he spotted several North Koreans shopping in a Damascus bazaar. In light of North Korea’s military aspirations — combined with Israel’s 2007 bombing of a suspected nuclear plant in Syria — these shoppers, Inglis concludes, must surely “be up to no good.”
[S]ure enough, North Koreans hang out in Damascus a fair amount. And you’ve got to wonder what they’re doing there. Just what is a North Korean doing in Damascus, Syria? It’s a long way from North Korea to Damascus, Syria. And you got to wonder about what that plant was that the Israelis blew up and that the Syrians have never really mentioned what was happening there.
And so seeing the North Koreans literally on the street in Damascus brings all this to a fine point for me. I mean, what a deal, at this point in time, for the president to be cutting missile defense, when I see with my own eyes people in North Korean outfits on the streets of Damascus, knowing that they’re up to — they’ve got to be up to no good because of the plant that was built there and destroyed subsequently by the Israelis.
One wonders what the North Koreans thought, seeing Inglis and his handlers — no doubt in American outfits — on those same streets of Damascus. After all, it’s a long way from South Carolina to Syria.
5 Comments
Comment posted April 22, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
what does he mean by north korean outfits? unless these people were wearing uniforms with a NK flag, let's not make assumptions here. could just as well be be south korean missionaries or korean american missionaries. inglis needs to just step back a bit and figure out the details before he goes off ranting to reporters.
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 9:47 am
First of all, what qualifies as an “American outfit” in Damascus? I doubt Bob Inglis is running around Syria wearing a “South Carolina Gamecocks Football” T-shirt and visor.
North Koreans always wear Kim Il-sung pins on their outfits, so they are easy to spot. I've seen them at a wholesale market in Dandong, a city in China located directly across the Yalu River from North Korea.
Spotting North Koreans at a bazaar in Damascus buying carpets or kebabs hardly qualifies as nuclear intelligence unless you are an overseas correspondent for Comedy Channel's “The Daily Show” or “Colbert Report”.
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
First of all, what qualifies as an “American outfit” in Damascus? I doubt Bob Inglis is running around Syria wearing a “South Carolina Gamecocks Football” T-shirt and visor.
North Koreans always wear Kim Il-sung pins on their outfits, so they are easy to spot. I've seen them at a wholesale market in Dandong, a city in China located directly across the Yalu River from North Korea.
Spotting North Koreans at a bazaar in Damascus buying carpets or kebabs hardly qualifies as nuclear intelligence unless you are an overseas correspondent for Comedy Channel's “The Daily Show” or “Colbert Report”.
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