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EXACTLY WHAT SHE DESERVES: Professor Fired for Saying Otto Warmbier ‘Got Exactly What He Deserved’

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The University of Delaware has sacked Katherine Dettwyler, the taxpayer-funded professor who declared that Otto Warmbier was a “spoiled,” “white, rich, clueless” American college student who “got exactly what he deserved” when he recently ended up comatose and then died at the age of 22 after serving part of a lengthy prison sentence in North Korea.

“The University of Delaware has announced that Katherine Dettwyler, who last taught in the spring as an adjunct faculty member, will not be rehired to teach at the University in the future,” school officials said in a statement sent to The Daily Caller on Sunday.

Dettwyler made her comments on Wednesday on Facebook and in the comments section of a National Review article. At some point on Friday, she later removed or otherwise concealed the comments.

“Is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved?” the no-longer-employed professor wondered on Facebook. “He went to North Korea, for fuck’s sake, and then acted like a spoiled, naive, arrogant, US college student who had never had to face the consequences of his actions.”

The 62-year-old anthropology professor — an expert on breastfeeding (according to a now-deleted curriculum vitae) — was even more critical of Warmbier in her National Review comments. (Read more from “EXACTLY WHAT SHE DESERVES: Professor Fired for Saying Otto Warmbier ‘Got Exactly What He Deserved'” HERE)

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Did Obama Do Enough to Save Otto Warmbier in North Korea?

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Did President Obama do enough to save Otto Warmbier?

Otto’s father, Fred, clearly doesn’t appear to think so. During a press conference following the return of his then-comatose son, Warmbier said that the Obama administration told him and the family to “take a low profile” — meaning, avoid speaking to the media or making public statements about his son’s plight.

“We did so without resolve,” Mr. Warmbier said of his family’s compliance, after receiving assurances that the Obama White House was working hard to secure his son’s release.

So, what exactly did Obama and his Cabinet do to ensure Otto Warmbier was brought home?

It all started in late February, when under notably visible, extreme duress, Warmbier “confessed” to an act he allegedly committed.

One month later, the regime in Pyongyang convicted Warmbier of “hostile acts” against the nation after he was charged with trying to steal a political banner in a hotel. The then-21-year-old Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for his actions.

On March 16, 2016, in response to a question about Warmbier, Obama White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that “there is no greater priority for this administration than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad.”

“The allegations for which this individual was arrested and imprisoned would not give rise to arrest or imprisonment in the United States, or in just about any other country in the world,” Earnest said.

“We strongly urge the North Korean government to pardon him and grant him special amnesty and immediate release.”

That same day, President Obama signed an executive order sanctioning companies and individuals attached to the government of North Korea. However, Earnest said the sanctions were a response to North Korean ballistic missile tests the previous months, and seemingly not its imprisonment of an American citizen.

A search of public statements made by the Obama White House on Warmbier’s case, since Earnest’s call for his release, comes up almost entirely empty.

Months went by, and Otto Warmbier’s imprisonment seemed to be a forgotten cause. At this time, Fred Warmbier decided “the time for strategic patience was over.”

So, what did the Obama administration do behind the scenes while the young college student was suffering at the hands of the North Koreans?

Conservative Review reached out to the State Department to fill in the gaps.

“Together with Sweden, the protecting power for the United States in North Korea, we consistently raised concerns about Mr. Warmbier, the lack of consular access, and his harsh 15-year sentence to hard labor,” a State Department official told Conservative Review.

“We hold North Korea accountable for Otto Warmbier’s unjust imprisonment, and we want to see the three other Americans who are unjustly detained in North Korea come home as soon as possible.”

Nonetheless, until President Trump came into office, the diplomatic effort did not yield any noteworthy results.

“The question was, do I think the past administration could have done more? The results speak for themselves,” Warmbier told reporters, in a clear slight of the Obama White House.

Fred Warmbier credited the new administration with helping to bring his son home from captivity.

But four days after his release, Otto Warmbier died from complications stemming from a severe brain injury suffered in the custody of the tyrannical regime in North Korea. Otto was 22 years old. (For more from the author of “Did Obama Do Enough to Save Otto Warmbier in North Korea?” please click HERE)

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Death of American Student Held in North Korea Baffles Experts

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North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests, its carefully scripted propaganda bluster, even its military threats: Far from the scattershot workings of a madman, most of this fits the playbook of a small, proud country well used to stoking tensions to get concessions it would otherwise not receive from surrounding big powers.

What happened to Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died just days after North Korea released him from detention in a coma, is far more difficult to make sense of.

It jars so strikingly with the fates of most past detained Americans that outside observers are left struggling not only with the mystery of what killed Warmbier but also with what his death means for attempts by Washington and its allies to stop North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear-tipped ICBM that can target the U.S. mainland. (Read more from “Death of American Student Held in North Korea Baffles Experts” HERE)

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Otto Warmbier Dead: Trump Condemns ‘Brutal’ North Korea Regime

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President Trump slammed North Korea’s “brutal regime” Monday after the death of college student Otto Warmbier, who was released by the communist nation in a coma last week.

“Lot of bad things happened,” Trump said during a White House meeting with technology CEOs, “but at least we got him home to be with his parents.”

“It’s a brutal regime,” Trump went on, “and we’ll be able to handle it.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States held North Korea accountable for Warmbier’s “unjust imprisonment” and demanded that the country release three other Americans it is holding prisoner for alleged crimes against the state. The U.S. government has previously accused North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. (Read more from “Otto Warmbier Dead: Trump Condemns ‘Brutal’ North Korea Regime” HERE)

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Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma

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North Korea returned a young college student [Otto Frederick Warmbier] detained for over a year this week. He’s in a coma, and his parents don’t believe a word of North Korea’s explanation . . .

Warmbier returned to Cincinnati Tuesday and is now being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The comatose student’s condition is stable, but he suffered a “severe neurological injury,” according to a spokesperson from the medical facility where Warmiber is receiving care.

He reportedly fell into a coma shortly after his trial, and no one had heard anything from Warmbier for fifteen months.

“Even if you believe their explanation of botulism and a sleeping pill causing the coma, and we don’t, there is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret and deny him top-notch medical care for so long,” his father, Fred Warmbier, said at a press conference Thursday.

The U.S. recently obtained intelligence reports suggesting that North Korean authorities brutally beat Warmbier while in custody, a senior American official told The New York Times. There were actually serious concerns that the young student was dead. Some American officials suspect that Warmbier’s current condition is the result of his treatment. (Read more from “Father of College Student Released From N. Korea Doesn’t Buy Explanation for Son’s Coma” HERE)

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N Korea Releases US Hostage Otto Warmbier After Putting Him in a Coma

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North Korea has released Otto Warmbier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced Tuesday.

But the parents of the 22-year old American college student say their son is in a coma and was on a Medivac flight on his way home.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement to The Associated Press that they have been told their son has been in a coma since March 2016, but they had just learned about his condition only one week ago.

“We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime in North Korea,” they said.

Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts. (Read more from “N Korea Releases US Hostage Otto Warmbier After Putting Him in a Coma” HERE)

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US Conducts Successful ICBM Intercept Test With Eye on North Korea

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The U.S. tested its defenses against a simulated intercontinental ballistic missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Tuesday.

The U.S. fired off an interceptor at an ICBM target, Reuters reports. The Missile Defense Agency reports that the test was successful, meaning that the U.S. ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) system was able to shoot down a mock warhead fired from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

“This was the first live-fire test event against an ICBM-class target for GMD and the U.S. ballistic missile defense system,” MDA reported in a statement announcing the successful intercept.

WATCH:

The intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target is an incredible accomplishment for the GMD system and a critical milestone for this program,” MDA Director Vice Adm. Jim Syring said in a statement. “This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat.”

The missile defense shield has a spotty record, as only nine of the 17 tests have been successful, reports USA Today. (Read more from “US Conducts Successful ICBM Intercept Test With Eye on North Korea” HERE)

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North Korea Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile off Western Japan

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North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s maritime economic zone Monday, officials said, the latest in a string of test launches as the North seeks to build nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland.

This launch of a suspected Scud-type missile, which the South Korean military said flew about 450 kilometers (280 miles), may also be an attempt to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to strike U.S. and South Korean troops in the region.

The missile launched from the coastal town of Wonsan, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It landed in Japan’s exclusive maritime economic zone, which is set about 200 nautical miles off the Japanese coast, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He said there was no report of damage to planes or vessels in the area. (Read more from “North Korea Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile off Western Japan” HERE)

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North Korea Says It’s Ready to Deploy, Mass-Produce New Missile

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North Korea says it’s ready to deploy and start mass-producing a new medium-range missile capable of reaching Japan and major U.S. military bases there following a test launch it claims confirmed the missile’s combat readiness and is an “answer” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies.

The solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) and reached a height of 560 kilometers (350 miles) Sunday before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea’s media said more missiles will be launched in the future . . .

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch and watched from an observation post, state media reported Monday. The Korea Central News Agency said the test verified technical aspects of the weapon system and examined its “adaptability under various battle conditions” before it is deployed to military units. (Read more from “North Korea Says It’s Ready to Deploy, Mass-Produce New Missile” HERE)

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North Korea’s Missile Launch a ‘Litmus Test’ for Trump and South Korean Leader

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President Donald Trump will speak again to the newly elected South Korean president—who during his campaign advocated more direct engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That was before North Korea’s ballistic missile test over the weekend.

Trump talked by phone to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday, the same day the country’s liberal leader was sworn into office.

Asked if the administration will advise against South Korea’s engagement in light of the missile test, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to get ahead of Trump’s next conversation with the new leaders.

“The president looks forward to having a new conversation with the new president and discussing the way forward, but I’m not going to get ahead of him on that,” Spicer told The Daily Signal during the press briefing.

The test missile reportedly flew more than 430 miles and reached an altitude of 1,245 miles before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan, demonstrating that it could be used to target U.S. military bases in the Pacific.

North Korea’s launch will be a “litmus test” for both Trump and Moon, Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow in Asian studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

On one front, Klingner wonders if Trump will get ahead of China in seeking more sanctions on North Korea.

“Trump has been effusive in his praise for China,” he said, but added, “China is doing less than meets the eye. So will Trump hold back on sanctions?”

He continued:

Moon wanted less sanctions and more engagement. North Korea, as with [U.S. President Barack] Obama in 2009, showed they will act no differently with a liberal progressive than they did with his conservative predecessor [President George W. Bush].

The missile test should prompt caution for South Korea’s peace ambitions, said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a national security think tank.

“Governing is different than campaigning. North Korea also gets a vote. North Korea responded to Moon Jae-in’s outstretched hand with a ballasted missile test,” Ruggiero told The Daily Signal Monday.

Beyond sanctions, there are few diplomatic options to contain North Korea, and the United States will have to take the lead, Ruggiero said.

“China and Russia will not put the level of necessary pressure on North Korea, only the Trump administration [will],” he said. “This will not serve as a wake-up call for Russia.”

Over the weekend, Spicer issued a statement saying North Korea’s test missile hit close to Russia, and that “the president cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.” During the briefing, he again brought up the key United Nations Security Council member nations that haven’t been cooperative in pushing sanctions—China and Russia.

“There is no question that North Korea continues to threaten the United States, our allies, Japan, South Korea, and its neighbors, including both China and Russia,” Spicer said. “We are calling on all of those folks in the region, in particular, China and Russia, to do everything they can in terms of sanctions to help resolve the situation and bring stability to the peninsula.”

North Korea likely has the capacity for an electromagnetic pulse that could target the United States, said Clare Lopez, vice president for research and analysis the Center for Security Policy, a national security think tank. She said she doesn’t believe the U.S. civilian power grid could withstand such an attack if the regime is able to launch over the continental United States.

As for South Korean, Lopez said she believes the new government assuredly understands the threat.

“I can’t imagine the South Korean leadership is naïve about North Korea,” Lopez told The Daily Signal. “The new president might want to express a diplomatic ambition, but I can’t believe he is oblivious to the existential threat of the North.” (For more from the author of “North Korea’s Missile Launch a ‘Litmus Test’ for Trump and South Korean Leader” please click HERE)

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