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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Idiot; Useful; 1 ea.

Selig Harrison is possibly the most idiotic analyst of North Korean events I have ever read (noted here, here, here, and here). Well, other than the Pillsbury Nuke Boy himself. And International ANSWER. So, ok, he's third. But that's still pretty good. And since he gets printed in a leading news magazine, his influence outweighs his third place finish in the idiocy olympics.

Acting like the unofficial spokesman of that gulag with a UN seat, Mr. Harrison has written in defense of North Korea yet again. Wretchard notes Mr. Harrison's latest:

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations."

Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.


See? North Korea just wants to get along with us! Never mind the kidnapping, oppresssion, starvation, murder, terrorism, nuclear weapons, aiding Iran and whoever has money to buy WMD, threats to invade South Korea or just bombard it, missile firing over Japan, or actual criminal activities to support the regime.

The North Koreans didn't like the latter steps by us, however, and that just screwed things up for the former. Apparently, North Korea thinks it is "normal" to counterfeit our currency, launder money from drug dealing, and sell WMD technology to our enemies. Selig Harrison, too, apparently.

Selig Harrison just returned from his tenth visit to the psycho regime of Kim Jong-Il. Once again, it is time to answer the enduring mystery of why Kim Jong-Il lets Selig Harrison in so often to meet with North Korean officials. Quite the puzzle wrapped in an enigma, indeed.

The man is despicable and a one-man Joy Brigade bringing a nice smile to Kim's face every time he visits North Korea. But hey, Kim does buy Harrison dinner, so it isn't like he is prostituting himself or anything!

Newsweek should be ashamed to print his propaganda. I won't bother wondering why Mr. Harrison has no shame for his repeated defense of that murderous despotism in Pyongyang.