In Kim’s Death, an Extensive Intelligence Failure
WASHINGTON — Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it — to say nothing of Washington, where the State Department acknowledged “press reporting” of Mr. Kim’s death well after North Korean state media had already announced it.
For South Korean and American intelligence services to have failed to pick up any clues to this momentous development — panicked phone calls between government officials, say, or soldiers massing around Mr. Kim’s train — attests to the secretive nature of North Korea, a country not only at odds with most of the world but also sealed off from it in a way that defies spies or satellites.
Asian and American intelligence services have failed before to pick up significant developments in North Korea. Pyongyang built a sprawling plant to enrich uranium that went undetected for about a year and a half until North Korean officials showed it off in late 2010 to an American nuclear scientist. The North also helped build a complete nuclear reactor in Syria without tipping off Western intelligence.
As the United States and its allies confront a perilous leadership transition in North Korea — a failed state with nuclear weapons — the closed nature of the country will greatly complicate their calculations. With little information about Mr. Kim’s son and successor, Kim Jong-un, and even less insight into the palace intrigue in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, much of their response will necessarily be guesswork.
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In Kim Jong-il Death, an Extensive Intelligence Failure
I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up it was considered to be in bad taste to make fun of the lame and mentally challenged or to speak ill of the dead. Speaking of ILL and DEAD, the picture below was floating all over various social networks and I just could NOT resist.
OK, that said, lets address the REAL story.
It seems American Intelligence Services are taking the same road to failure under Obama and Company as they did under Jimmy Carter and the Bill Clinton administration.
As stated above, Asian and American intelligence services have failed before to pick up significant developments in North Korea. I can’t explain exactly WHY, but U.S. Intelligence and our military always seem to be the hardest hit under ANY Democratic administration.
Jimmy Carter cut our Intel agencies and Military to the bone, Ronald Reagan built it back to a position of strength and prominence.
Bill and Hillary Clinton, Co-Presidents, ripped the Intel community and Military down to the bone once again. They actually believed that all the information we needed to have could be gained through foreign Intel services and satellite intelligence and surveillance.
They were, of course, wrong and George W. Bush built it back again.
Fast forward to 2009 when Barack Hussein Obama takes office and all of a sudden our Intel and Military folks begin to take hits, almost immediately. That translates into a lack of vital information, information needed to keep this nation safe.
Further; Iran may have captured U.S. stealth drone by hacking its GPS. Iran claims to have hacked the control system of the most sophisticated drone we have, hacked it, landed it and now have STEALTH technology in their hands.
Barack Hussein Obama may not have done this personally, he may not have actually given the Iranians the drone, but it DID happen under HIS watch!
