Obama Administration Worried That It's Being Too Hard on North Korea

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By Barbara Starr and Tom Cohen. Recent announcements of American military deployments in response to belligerent statements by North Korea may have contributed to escalating tensions between the two countries, Pentagon officials told CNN on Thursday in explaining an effort to reduce U.S. rhetoric about the reclusive state.

“We accused the North Koreans of amping things up, now we are worried we did the same thing,” one Defense Department official said.

They spoke on the same day a U.S. official first told CNN that communications intercepts indicated North Korea may be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks.

Classified images and communications intercepts show that North Korea has moved up to two mobile missiles, launchers and fuel tanks to its East coast, another American official with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee in Seoul that the activity signaled an imminent test firing or military drill, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap. Read more from this story HERE.

US chemical battalion in South Korea

By PressTV. The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical attacks in South Korea after North Korea threatened to attack the US with ‘nuclear weapons.’

Reports say about 250 soldiers from the US Army 23rd chemical battalion have returned to South Korea. The troops are stationed at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) has said that the deployment is a revelation of the criminal attempt of the United States to impose nuclear disasters on the Korean nation.

“During the Korean War, the US indiscriminately used germ and chemical weapons against the Korean people, stunning the world,” the CPRK stated on Wednesday. “The US now seeks to make such crimes against humanity repeat.”

War of words escalated between Washington and Pyongyang after the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in the United States’ joint military drills with South Korea. Read more from this story HERE.

Amid Pyongyang bluster, missile launch feared

By Jethro Mullen, Barbara Starr and Joe Sterling. Missile and launch components have been moved to the east coast of North Korea in the “last few days,” a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the information told CNN Thursday.

The apparent deployment comes amid further threatening statements by North Korea and heightened tensions in the region — a situation that “does not need to get hotter,” a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.

The move of the missile and launch equipment could mean that Pyongyang, which unleashed another round of scathing rhetoric accusing the United States of pushing the region to the “brink of war,” may be planning a missile launch soon.

The components, the official said, are consistent with those of a Musudan missile, which has a 2,500-mile range, meaning it could threaten South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.

The United States has been looking for a hidden North Korean east coast launch site or mobile launchers, a concern because a launch from the east coast would go over Japan, the official said. Read more from this story HERE.

China Flaunts Its Influence Over Golden Triangle in Capture of Drug Lord

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Photo Credit: Adam Dean

It was 100 miles downstream from China, on the banks of the Mekong River, where a notorious drug lord slipped ashore in the dusk into the hands of law enforcement.

Security officials from Laos arrested the trafficker, Naw Kham, but the international manhunt that led to his capture was organized in Beijing, by top Chinese government officials intent on making him pay for the killings of 13 Chinese seamen on the river, which has become a major trade route into China.

The bodies of the Chinese, the crew of two cargo boats, were found badly mutilated on the Thai side of the river in early October 2011. The killings, the worst slaughter of Chinese citizens abroad in recent memory, angered the Chinese public. Chinese investigators insist that Mr. Naw Kham was the mastermind of the murders.

China’s search for Mr. Naw Kham, overseen by its powerful Ministry of Public Security, was a hard-nosed display of the government’s political and economic clout across Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, the three countries of Southeast Asia that form the Golden Triangle. The capture shows how China’s law enforcement tentacles reach far beyond its borders into a region now drawn by investment and trade into China’s orbit, and where the United States’ influence is being challenged.

It took six months for China to catch Mr. Naw Kham, a citizen of Myanmar in his 40s, a man of many aliases who was at the center of the booming synthetic drug business in the Golden Triangle, once known for its opium.

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI Documents Connect Aryan Brotherhood With Mexican Cartels

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

News coverage of the assassinations of Kaufman County, TX Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, District Attorney Mike McLelland, and McLelland’s wife Cynthia has turned to the alleged involvement of a group named the Aryan Brotherhood (AB).

Considering McLelland was part of a task force that investigated the Aryan Brotherhood, and in light of the recent killing of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements allegedly by a member of a white supremacist prison gang, this theory that the AB may have been involved in the murders clearly has some merit.

Yet in that coverage, the mainstream media has gone to great lengths to label ad-infinitum the Aryan Brotherhood as a “white supremacist” group, implying a racial motivation. The AB, even if involved at all, however, may have been motivated not by a “white supremacist” philosophy, but rather by something more mundane. Evidence suggests that the Aryan Brotherhood has morphed into what is primarily a drug-trafficking gang, and there is a more frightening possibility: that the Aryan Brotherhood is acting as a conduit, doing the dirty work for a Mexican drug cartel criminal insurgency into the United States.

In November of last year, for example, an Aryan Brotherhood member went on the record stating that he had helped smuggle hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine across the border from Mexico. According to the Mexican newswire Notimex, the AB member “stated that he had some important connections with Mexican drug cartels.” On Tuesday of this week, a federal task force apprehended an Aryan Brotherhood “general” who “had ounces of crystal methamphetamine” on him at the time of his arrest.

Moreover, since many Republicans and Democrats seek a compromise on immigration reform in short order, it is not surprising that politicians are themselves ignoring the possible connection between the murders and the Mexican cartels, with the notable exception of Governor Rick Perry. After all, if Americans were to find out that the Mexican cartels are operating on U.S. soil, it would likely change the immigration debate and could potentially delay a deal indefinitely.

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea Finalizes Plan for 'Merciless' Nuclear Strikes on U.S. as China Mobilizes Near the Border

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Photo Credit: AP

By Guy Taylor. North Korea’s military ratcheted up its threat to carry out a nuclear strike on the U.S. to new heights Thursday — just hours after the Pentagon announced the deployment of an American ballistic missile defense system to Guam.

Claiming that the “moment of explosion is approaching fast” and that war could break out “today or tomorrow,” the General Staff of North Korea’s military claimed in a statement to the nation’s official government-run news agency that it has final approval to carry out “merciless” strikes on the United States.

The statement appeared to come in response to Washington’s decision to enhance U.S. military assets in the region and to the Obama administration’s own ramping up of rhetoric toward North Korea in recent days.

The escalation comes as senior administration officials say that they are searching for ways to defuse the situation, which also saw North Korea on Wednesday block South Koreans from accessing a border industrial park that has long stood as an important, albeit precarious, symbol of cooperation on the Korean Peninsula.

The State Department and Pentagon have suggested that a core part of the administration’s Korea strategy is to gently push on China to play a more active role in steering Pyongyang away from provocations and threats that may ultimately provoke military conflict. Read more from this story HERE.

Risky Business: Military buildup in China near North Korean border continues as tanks, armored vehicles spotted

By Bill Gertz. China continued moving tanks and armored vehicles and flying flights near North Korea this week as part of a military buildup in the northeastern part of the country that U.S. officials say is related to the crisis with North Korea.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, sought to play down the Chinese military buildup along the border with Beijing’s fraternal communist ally despite the growing danger of conflict following unprecedented threats by Pyongyang to attack the United States and South Korea with nuclear weapons.

According to U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports, both intelligence and Internet reports from the region over the past week revealed the modest military movements in the border region that began in mid-March and are continuing.

The buildup appears linked to North Korea’s March 30 announcement that it is in a “state of war” with South Korea after the United Nations imposed a new round of sanctions following the North’s Feb. 12 nuclear test and because of ongoing large-scale joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troop and tank movements were reported in Daqing, located in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, and in the border city of Shenyang, in Liaoning Province. Read more from this story HERE.

Illegal Border Crossings Double in Anticipation of DC's Amnesty Deal

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Photo Credit: CBP intelligence

As the immigration reform Gang of Eight inside the Beltway prepares to announce a deal later this week, claiming border security will come before a path to citizenship for millions of illegals, Border Patrol agents have seen illegal border crossings double and warn the cutting of agent work hours will only result in less border security, not more…

“We’ve seen the number of illegal aliens double, maybe even triple since amnesty talk started happening,” an agent told Townhall, who asked to remain unnamed due to fears of retaliation within Customs and Border Protection [CBP], something he said is common. “A lot of these people, although not the majority, are criminals or aggravated felons. This is a direct danger to our communities.”

Data obtained by Townhall and reported within CBP from February 5 through March 1, 2013 shows 504 illegal aliens were spotted exploiting the Tucson/Nogales area, 189 were caught on CBP intelligence cameras. Of those 504, only 174 were apprehended and 32 of the 189 on camera were carrying large drug load packs for Mexican cartels. Some were armed with AK-47 style weapons.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. on Alert For EMP Nuclear Blast Overhead

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Photo Credit: EMP

U.S. officials quietly are expressing concern that North Korea could use its “space launch vehicle” to explode a high-altitude nuclear device over the United States, creating an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy major portions of the U.S. electrical grid system as well as the nation’s critical infrastructures.

The concern is so great that U.S. officials who watch North Korea closely are continually monitoring the status of the North Korean “space launch vehicle,” whose status could suggest a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

They are aware of the three-stage missile North Korea launched last December that also orbited a “package,” which experts say could be a test to orbit a nuclear weapon that then would be deorbited on command anywhere over the U.S. and exploded at a high altitude, creating an EMP effect.

This concern is in addition to North Korea’s latest threat to strike targets in Hawaii and the continental U.S., as well as possible attacks against U.S. bases in South Korea and Japan.

The 28-year-old North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has signed an order for North Korea’s strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at U.S. targets.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ron Paul: "The Same Thing Will Happen to the Federal Reserve as Happened to the Soviet Union"

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Ron Paul spoke this morning in Santiago, Chile.

Jim Rickards sent out the following tweets from the event:

A raucous, extended standing ovation for #RonPaul here in #Santiago. Paul: “It sounds like the revolution has gone international!”

One of the most attractive things about #RonPaul is his humility. Before he started speaking, he took time to introduce and thank his wife. [Note: This is genuine Ron Paul and not the “performance humility” of the new Pope-RW]

#RonPaul in #Santiago: “The same thing will happen to the Federal Reserve as happened to the Soviet Union.”

More of #RonPaul in #Santiago: “The handwriting’s on the wall; the system is failing.”

In #Chile #RonPaul: “What are they going to replace it with. It could go into a fascist state. I don’t believe we’ll work our way out of it”

Read more from this story HERE.

Israel Strikes It Rich: Enormous Natural Gas Field Begins Production

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Photo Credit: AP

Natural gas began to flow into Israel over the weekend from a large offshore field, ending Israel’s status as a dry patch in an oil-rich region.

The flow came from the first of two enormous gas fields discovered off Israel’s coast in the past three years. The two fields, known as Tamar and Leviathan, are sufficient to supply Israel for 150 years, according to Bloomberg Business Week.

The Bank of Israel estimated that the flow this year from Tamar, the smaller of the two fields, would contribute one percent to Israel’s gross domestic product. Overall, the bank expects Israel’s economy to grow 3.8 percent this year.

The field is located 56 miles west of the Haifa port. The Leviathan field is slated to come online in 2016. The long-term value of the fields at today’s prices has been estimated at about $240 billion. More than half of profits are to be paid in taxes to the Israeli government.

“This is the beginning of a new era,” Isaac Tshuva, controlling shareholder of Delek Group Ltd., which holds a major stake in Tamar, told Business Week. “The Israeli economy will be able to exploit natural gas environmentally, geopolitically, socially and economically.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Last Minute Reversal: U.S. will "Vote Yes" on UN Arms Treaty

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

The National Shooting Sports Foundation today strongly objected to the last-minute reversal of the U.S. government position regarding the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. In the closing hours of negotiations on Thursday, March 28, the government abandoned its previous insistence that the treaty be approved only through achieving “consensus” of all the member states. Requiring consensus had been the United States position going back to earlier administrations.

At the end of the session, a U.S. government spokesperson told reporters “It’s important to the United States and the defense of our interests to insist on consensus. But every state in this process has always been conscious of the fact that if consensus is not reached in this process, that there are other ways to adopt this treaty, including via a vote of the General Assembly.” The spokesperson went on to say that the United States would vote “yes” on the treaty in the General Assembly, regardless of the positions of other member states. By abandoning the requirement for consensus the United States is assuring passage of the treaty by the United Nations.

“This abrupt about-face on the long-standing United States requirement for ‘consensus’ illustrates that the Obama Administration wants a sweeping U.N. arms control treaty,” said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “We are troubled by the timing of the Obama Administration’s decision to abandon consensus on the eve of the Senate debate on pending gun control measures. The United Nations treaty would have a broad impact on the U.S. firearms industry and its base of consumers in the U.S.”

Read more from this story HERE.

China-Australia Pact Could Lead to Dollar's Collapse

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Photo Credit: Zero Hedge

[T]he Australian [is] reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world’s “reserve currency” in its trade dealings with the world’s biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process “slashing costs for thousands of business” and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar’s reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China’s slow but certain internationalization of its currency over the past two years…

And while previously the focus was on Chinese currency swap arrangements, the uniqueness of this weekend’s news is that it promotes outright convertibility of the Yuan: something China has long said would happen but many were skeptical it ever would. That is no longer the case, and with Australia setting the precedent, expect many more Asian countries (at first) to follow in Australia’s footsteps, because while the developed world is far more engaged in diluting its currency as a means to spur “growth”, Asian and developing world nations are still engage in real, actual trade, where China is rapidly and aggressively becoming the world’s hub…

Why is this so very critical? For the simple reason that the free lunch the US has enjoyed ever since the advent of the US dollar as world reserve currency, may be coming to an end as other, more aggressive alternatives – both fiat, and hard-asset based – to the USD appear. And since there is no such thing as a free lunch, all the deferred pain the US Treasury Department has been able to offset thanks to its global currency monopoly status will come crashing down the second the world starts getting doubts about the true nature of just who the real reserve currency will be in the future.

Read more from this story HERE.