Obama’s Radioactive Potato
04.24.2008 - 4:11 PMWas North Korea helping Syria build a plutonium-producing reactor? The emerging consensus in the intelligence world is that it was. Indeed, the evidence, now including videotapes taken inside the facility before it was obliterated by Israeli jets last September 6, appears almost unequivocal.
It is therefore fascinating — and disturbing — to recall the alacrity with which Joseph Cirincione, Barack Obama’s top expert on matters nuclear, the author of a book called the Bomb Scare, was so quick back in September to dismiss the report as “nonsense.”
To Cirincione, writing on the blog of Foreign Policy Magazine, the stories surrounding surrounding the Israeli strike, namely that North Korea was building a Yongbyong-type plutonium reactor not far from the Euphrates River, was nothing more than a lie. It was a reprise, wrote Cirincione, of the way in which administration officials “misled the press” in the run-up to the second Gulf war.
Who was behind this nefarious manipulation? It seems, wrote Circincione, “to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted ‘intelligence’ to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda.” What exactly was that political agenda? “[I]t appears aimed at derailing the U.S.-North Korean agreement that administration hardliners think is appeasement.” There was also a dose of Zionist mischief thrown in: “Some Israelis want to thwart any dialogue between the U.S. and Syria.”
Along with Israel and the American hardliners, another villain in Cirincione’s take is the American press, which treats “selective leaks” from the administration “as if they were absolute truth.” Indeed, the lazy reporters pushing the story appear not “to have done even basic investigation of the miniscule Syrian nuclear program.”
All told, the “misleading story” of North Korean nuclear proliferation “will now enter the lexicon of the far Right” and “attempts to negotiate an end to North Korea’s program are bound fail in the face of such duplicity, etc., etc.”
In writing all these things, Cirincione sounds remarkably similar to Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations. “There was no Syria-North Korea cooperation whatsoever in Syria. We deny these rumors,” Bashar Ja’afari said yesterday.
Cirincione’s instant dismissal of the Syrian-North Korean nuclear axis raises a number of interesting questions.
One of them is: has Cirincione changed his mind in light of the latest intelligence?
A second: is he going to be the official called by Obama at 3AM when an intelligence cable comes in reporting that North Korea has shipped nuclear materials somewhere else?
A third: why are so many of Obama’s advisors so prone to blame, in whole or in part, the machinations of Israel for the problems of the world? See here and here and here.
A fourth: Is Joseph Cirincione going to go the way of Samatha Power and get dropped from the campaign like a radioactive potato.
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April 24th, 2008 at 4:37 PM
Obama’s foreign-policy supporters are still skeptical. They just don’t believe anything Israel and Bush say anymore.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/24/the_syria_nukes_narrative/
And that’s not going to change until Bush is out of office. They would even be more willing to believe McCain, but they wouldn’t even believe Bush if Bush told them that 2 + 2 = 4.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:55 PM
I think people are just now waking up to the fact that a man IS judged by the company he keeps. Obama has a natural propensity to associate with and pick people who could potentially be very dangerous for America’s safety.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:34 PM
or he is a good enough politician to sense the trend for sacrificing the jews to placate radical islam and he’s riding it.
dumping advisers don’t mean a thing. assuming one does not recruit advisers with whom one disagrees fundamentally, the real problem is obama himself. if he gets elected, with or without those advisers, beware. but my guess is they’ll be hired back.
oao
http://fallofknowledgeandreason.blogspot.com/
April 24th, 2008 at 6:53 PM
It doesn’t matter whether Obama’s supporters believe ‘Israel and Bush’ (nice juxtaposition, that). If the Democrats trot out another presidential candidate with flowers in his hair, they will go down in flames just as they have every time they’ve flashed a Peace Symbol as their foreign policy. Some elements of the Democratic base never learn this and never want to believe it, but the boneyard is full of the Democrats’ landslide losers who thought that “peace” was a “policy.”
The Donks have the best chance of taking the White House in a long time (even better than when Clinton actually won), but if they would like to find a way to blow it, nominating a peacenik on the subjects of Syria and North Korea is a good one.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:05 PM
Off topic, but…Curiel and curiouser…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352378,00.html
http://www.espionageinfo.com/Lo-Mo/Mexico-Intelligence-and-Security.html
April 24th, 2008 at 7:29 PM
Add advisor Cirincione to advisor General McPeak, the Air Force general who always wanted to be an admiral. No doubt about Cirincione’s in-depth knowledge on all things nuclear, but when North Korea complained about the air strike BEFORE Syria, even casual observers saw something was up. Assuming Mr. Obama goes on to win the Democratic nomination, it will be interesting (revealing) as to who he selects for his running mate and even more important, those names that will be bandied about for cabinet positions. I should think that Jimmy Carter could be drawn out of his unoffical diplomatic endeavours for official endeavours.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:22 PM
That’s possibly the most interesting element. Deir er Zeur is about 80 minutes, up the Euphrates from the Coalition outpost in Al Quaim. In addition, that same city, according to the West Point Center for Studying Terrorism; is a major supplier of jihadists into Iraq.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:25 AM
If Obama should by some miraculous catastrophe be elected President we would have an administration that would be likr Carter’s administration on steroids. After four years the damage may be irresversable.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:04 AM
The leftist hatred of Israel is boiling over into our mainstream politics.
The Democrats will find any way whatsoever to lose a presidential election.
It’s astonishing that they will blow what should be a cake walk to the presidency.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:50 AM
Mr. Schoenfeld:
No one bats 1.000. The evidence now seems strong that Syria was building a reactor. But you are not doing so hot yourself. I am not a top advisor to Senator Obama. I have never met the Senator. I have written occasional memos to his campaign and publicly endorsed his candidacy, but I am afraid there is no way I could be considered “Barack Obama’s top expert on matters nuclear.”
And, if I recall correctly, Commentary was absolutely certain Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of WMD and was close to a nuclear bomb. Those, like me, who doubted the claims and advocated the inspectors be given the time they needed to verify any weapons were called fools.
And for the record, I have family in Israel. I am just as concerned for their safety and security as you are. I am strongly pro-Israel. My views on Israeli politics are nothing you will not read in the national press or hear around the dinner table.