Dwight Rider comments

She is bearing a burden that does not belong to her. That burden and the shame belong to the leaders who started and ended that war. It is their burden, they should bear the shame she had to live through. THey set the conditions, not her

It is sad butt governments know if they wait long enough, anyone concerned will go away

As an American, I am glad that the Mayor of Osaka took the action that he did. The issue of comfort women is not an issue that seriously confronts the US, San Francisco had no business in erecting a statue in their memory. If Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and others impacted by the issue of comfort women during the war with to erect such a monument, so be it. San Francisco's action in erecting such a monument were crude, naive and disingenuous, a common trait among Americans these days.

Having lived in Texas on and off for the last 50 years I can say that the reason you do not hear many calls for change in US guns laws is because, us Texicans, can handle it.

Not all the servicemen in Japan are bad. In fact, by percentage of population against crime in the US, they are actually pretty good. If Japan had the same criminal law as the US, the same interest in meaningless statistics as does our bureaucrats, I think people would find out that most US servicemen are too nice! Most of them are away from home, don't manage their limited pay as well as possible, are lonely and a bit intimidated by being in a country that does not speak "American." Call it a bit insecure. In addition, the base administration also has a tendency to encourage them to stay on the base, be careful, and travel in groups which...makes most Japanese wonder what they are scared of? I was in the service in East Asia for most of 21 years in the military and much of the next 19. I went where I wanted, floundered every time, and in every case, was rescued by a Japanese, Korea, Chinese, etc. Had, and still have a great time. The key is to take a chance on them, they will take a chance on you. Is it different? Sure...but that is what makes life worth living.

Ultimately, what is really disturbing is that North Korea's national goals and international strategy has undergone a drastic change and...no one seems to realize this. Most still think North Korea still wants to take over the South militarily. Nothing could be further from the truth.

North Korea is only dismantling the one or two sites that are commonly known and about the only things known to the intelligence community. It is not dismantling any of its clandestine sites, the ones that the intelligence community lacks the commonsense required to determine their function. However will there be an inspection regime when few know just what to inspect?

I am glad to see that the history is not being forsaken. Politics aside...it is history

It s not about smoking, it is about control and people putting their values on you. People should do what I did. I quit work, stay home, collect welfare, do what I want. I might have to live in their society but, I do not have to contribute.

The abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea is the tip of an iceberg of untold cooperation and perfidy. The North had to believe. and was correct in that, they could get away with it. Ask yourself why. I feel though, for the victims and their families.

Who is the UN again? Japan should do what Japan has decided to do. Japan is a sovereign country. The UN is what...and organization?

Must be a slow news day when the electrical power grid makes the headlines. No one is doing anything to protect the grid and they can't do a whole lot. The grid is what it is. It is susceptible to failure at any moment. Good luck with it.

How does Baez rate being a veteran of anything? I mean, she had affairs with a lot of other singers and such but...defend something? Stand up for something? She should do what she does only shut up and sing

Want to be rational about this? With only two exceptions all of the mass shootings in America have taken place after the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act. That act was primarily initiated by the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It was mostly legislation aimed at protecting elected officials and has resulted in a lack of accountability on the part of our elected officials. This, and all other gun control laws are unconstitutional and should be repealed. Should Cruz have been able to buy a rifle? According to the Constitution which does not deny anyone that right, yes he should. Our Founding Fathers believed in a liassez faire system of economics and government whereby issues are decided locally. Anti-gun laws prevent this from taking place. Anyone that wants a gun should be able to have a gun. What they do with it after they get it should be dealt with by other citizens equally well armed. Arm the teachers? Why? They should have been armed before the shooting ever occurred. By passing a single law you have created a myriad of problems that were did not exist before the law was passed. Who is responsible for what happened in Florida? The people, the sheriff they elected who refused to enforce the law, and the other elected officials who would rather report less crime by ignoring the problem. Will it happen again? Yes, sooner than you might want because the rights of the people have been so denied. Want to know how many will die before solid gun laws are enacted? The answer is "many." Want to know how many will die after gun restrictions are removed and the problem is allowed to be dealt with by those who refuse to run? The answer is a lot "less" than the condition in which we now exist. The choice in Broward County was decided by ill-informed and easily swayed voters. Live with it

You got to be kidding. Trump is not fit for the job? How? It also matters not. The American people voted him into office. It is a done deal. To say otherwise is to say the American people are incapable of choosing wisely. The resentment against Trump comes from those who have no faith in God, the soulless who need the guidance of government; personal and financial security due to their inability to compete in a competitive society.

Yep...just like some people are only a bit pregnant.

I have no pity for any of them. If so called gay people are born that way, then nature has determined they are not good candidates to propagate the species. If it is a choice, then it is a bad choice. Either way, they need to deal with it and not seek pity. Second, why does anyone look to movie actors and actresses as role models? What makes them any better than anyone else? In most cases, they are worse. What sacrifice have they made for their country and their people? How many of them are well-versed, not to mention educated in the subjects they have decided to push? Few. And yet, here we set, those with no believe in higher purposes, waiting with bait breath the words and actions of those with little purpose.

I'm with Crazy Joe above.... Pakistan harbors most of the world's greatest "terrorist wannabees." The US needs to end it's "need of Pakistan" and worry about its nuclear arsenal and move on

I get a real guffaw out of this kind of thing. It is like people in the oldest business in the world complaining about a draft when the door is opened. I mean, these people are "in the business," and they really pretend that they do not know what goes on?

I would like to ask for a follow-up feature to be posted containing as many photographs as possible. This is an interesting part of history that should not be forgotten

How many wake up calls do you need? This one came from Pyongyang, probably as much to impress the North Korean's in that city as to scare Japan. The point is, we missed it. When did we know? How soon did we know? Where was it stored? How many, and where are the others actually stored. Don't worry though, our intelligence agencies, drinking coffee in Vienna will get right on it....

To: Whom it May Concern:                                                                                      Date: 4 Sept 2017

Subject: North Korean Weapons-of Mass-Destruction (WMD).

Dear Mr. President

It is unlikely that long-standing issues between North Korea and the U.S. can be resolved through negotiation. Any effort to force North Korea to open to outside influences invites regime change; for Pyongyang, change invites self-destruction. Some level of force may necessary. Knowing where to apply that force is more likely to achieve U.S. desires rather than inviting a prolonged, and devastating war. As present, the intelligence community (IC) can offer no options, however, options do exist. This letter is intended to make you aware of such options.

Fifteen years ago I served as a senior intelligence consultant on a special access program (a “black program);” the organization was one of many established in the wake of 9-11 to confront Al Qaeda, and locate bin Laden. A Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (OUSD (AT&L)), with my assignment to the team, the group transitioned from the search for bin Laden, to an investigation of North Korea’s WMD program: Biological, Chemical, Computers, Nuclear and Missiles. I was specifically charged to “be the biggest pain in the ass possible to the intelligence community to force it to confront the most imminent issue facing the U.S.; the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide.” I was told that the program’s change in direction was “a direct response to the State of the Union address given by U. S. President George W. Bush on 29 January 2002 and his description of North Korea as part of the ‘axis of evil.’

Over the next five years, the group, identified much of Pyongyang’s overt and clandestine uranium enrichment facilities to include:

·       Nearly all of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program (production facilities, storage facilities, mines, R&D).

·       Most of their clandestine plutonium production facilities.

·       The transit points where North Korea ships materials in and out of the country (the threat of terrorism).

·       How the program is divided into several geographic areas of the country - containing older and newer parts of the program – uranium and plutonium facilities, etc.

·       Their efforts to proliferate this knowledge outward; Iraq, Iran, Burma, Pakistan.

·       Their R&D facilities.

·       Their initial weapons storage facilities in Pyongyang.

·       Their deployment of weapons to the field (locations in North Korea).

·       At least nine of their weapons storage locations.

·       Several possible locations for the operation of clandestine reactors.

·       The reason why North Korea’s electrical power grid appeared to collapse in 1990 and how the country clandestinely diverted its electrical power resources into its uranium enrichment program.

o  This explained their famine of the mid-1990s (the Arduous March) and why they let it occur.

§ Costing the world much in terms of food aid to keep the country going while its leadership built an offensive nuclear weapons capability.

The results of our analysis were instrumental in overturning the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate.

Our efforts then became the focus of unfavorable examinations conducted by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee (JAEIC). Our effort threatened the status quo. Our effort revealed years, if not decades of poor performance and intellectual dishonesty within the IC.

Outside groups, such as the JASON advisory group, an independent group of elite scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology, commended our effort to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and recommended its continuation. JASON considered our methodologies to be the “most promising to date in the effort to locate and identify North Korea’s uranium enrichment and clandestine nuclear weapons development program.”  The Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories concurred with JASON recommendations. Incapable, by law, to continue the effort as more than an experimental process, the Office of the Secretary of Defense was forced to end the project, out brief and recommend its continuation to the IC.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst present at that out brief, noted the project’s existence, the comments of the JASON group, and the recommendations of DOE national laboratories; but declined to adopt the project’s methodologies, findings and recommendations. The project ended. Its legacy was ignored.

The functions, facilities and installations identified by the program were discounted by the IC and cold-shouldered. Knowledge of North Korea’s actual program, facilities, installations and weapons storage facilities haunts those involved. Due to prior inaction and a lack of competence on the part of the IC, news reports suggest there are no options available for the U.S. in dealing with North Korea. I argue that there are a plethora of options. None of which have ever been explored by the IC.

I believe it is possible to deal with North Korea’s nuclear capability successfully, either through preemption; a retaliatory attack as a crisis develops, or on ground that the U.S. chooses, when and where America desires. I warn however that no successful outcome can be expected if the functions, facilities and installations the group I worked with previously identified, are not confronted in a manner similar to that planned for Yongbyon and other do-nothing targets as currently proposed by the IC

My experience with the IC leaves me convinced that community lacks the ability to confront this issue honestly and directly. Lacking some greater awakening; to strike the target set as presently developed by the IC leaves the majority of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities intact, inviting North Korean retaliation against China, Japan and Russia – and America bearing all responsibility.

Late last year, I filed a complaint at the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Inspectors General (IG) DoD IG to have unheard previous issues raised through 2015 heard. My complaint was actually written by the DoD IG.  This complaint was delegated by a DoD IG then confronting accusations of Russian involvement in U.S. elections, downward to DIA where I received a call from an agent of that agency. That agent laughed off the issue.

Over the past months I have contacted the offices of Congressmen Barr, Gowdy and Nunez who advised me to contact House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). I left messages on each phone system supporting the HPSCI for over one month. My calls were never returned. Since then I have attempted to work through informal channels with former high-ranking intelligence officials; to include a former Director of DIA, a former Deputy Assistant for Intelligence Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency, and others were I was told that the “problem was too big” for them to correct without the assistance of Congress.

A military confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea; or a preemptive strike by the U.S. against that country, multi- or unilaterally, is likely to occur within the next few years. U.S. success in definitively destroying North Korea’s WMD capabilities and its potential for counterstrike, rests entirely upon the information received; that information being accurately assessed, and converted into actionable targets. Anything less than 90% surety invites counterattack. The U.S. intelligence community has to date, failed to accurately interpret and convert the information received into actionable intelligence. Initiating action with less-than accurate intelligence of North Korea’s nuclear weapons cycle will result in the death of millions; primarily Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. Another Pearl Harbor, another 9-11 lies just around the corner.

The choices are; do nothing; negotiate from a point of no knowledge, negotiate from a point of in-depth knowledge; preemption or war based upon inaccurate information resulting in the death of many, many millions, preemption or war from an accurate knowledge base resulting in the death of millions.

Consideration of this information is requested.

Dwight R. Rider

(540-842-4813)

 

Mailing List:

To: The Executive Branch

President: Donald Trump

Vice President: Mike Pence

Secretary of State: Rex Tillerson

Secretary of Defense: James Mattis

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: General Joseph Dunford

National Security Advisor: H.R. McMaster

Deputy National Security Advisor: Ricky L. Waddell

Attorney General: Jeff Sessions

White House Chief of Staff:

Secretary of the Army

Secretary of the Navy

Secretary of the Air Force

Chief of Staff of the Army

Chief of Staff of the Navy

Chief of Staff of the Marine Corps

Chief of Staff of the Air Force

Chief of Staff PACOM

Chief of Staff United States Forces Japan

Chief of Staff United States Forces Korea

 

Governor’s Office of Kentucky:

 

To: Member of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Mike Conaway, Texas

Rick Crawford, Arkansas

Trey Gowdy, South Carolina

Will Hurd, Texas

Peter King, New York

Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey

Devin Nunes, California, Chair

Chris Stewart, Utah

Elise Stefanik, New York

Tom Rooney, Florida

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida

Mike Turner, Ohio

Brad Wenstrup, Ohio

 

Others

              John Bolton

My thoughts are that: 1) North Korea is admitting that the accuracy of its missiles fall short as they must "bracket" the target area, 2) that, in the event of a nuclear attack against Guam, the North Koreans are planning not to hit the island itself, but to detonate a weapon close-in, let the fallout contaminate Guam and kill some of its people, 3) that large storms in the equatorial regions of the world are in-fact, an energy transfer system that move heat from that area, north or south. Add more energy, create more storms. How much is required to throw El Nino and such, off kilter?

Japan did not go far enough in its report. It did not provide a list of clandestine facilities where North Korea has built and outfitted its arsenal. The report ignores North Korea's goals which were established in the 1950s, the planning that occurred in the 1960s, development of its clandestine facilities in the 1970s and their operation beginning in the mid-1980s. It ignores the fact that, while antiquated in many ways, North Korea's present technological base remains far more advanced than the 1930s technology used by the US to build its weapon; the pinnacle of the Industrial Revolution. Lastly, those clamoring for talks do not know their history, the US, South Korea, Japan and their allies have been trying to talk to North Korea since the ceasefire of the Korean War. North Korea does not want talk. Its position is clear, it wants independence for all Koreans and the right to exist in Northeast Asia without being a pawn in one of the four power's chessboard; China, Japan, Russia or the US. It wants Koreans; even those in China, to be allowed to rejoin the "tribe"

There will be no war. All we are seeing is the rise of a new Military Industrial Complex based upon missile defense systems, computer information sharing and the US intelligence community. It is simply a new way to beat a dead horse, the American taxpayer. Is North Korea a threat? Yes. Should they be dealt with? Yes. Then why aren't they? Simple. Since the 1950s the US has relied upon technologies to warn itself of future threats. That system has failed to deliver. Despite the investment of billion in high technology, most of it reproducing older technology, the US intelligence community has not similarly invested in human analysis. The reason they did not invest in their analysis is that, to know the answer, would mean to take action against the problem. In the end, the US intelligence community is weak, heavily politicized and criminally incompetent. They cannot direct the warfighter against the proper targets because they do not know where those targets are.... They are also dependent upon the public purse. To maintain their positions without accountability, they must enlarge the swamp, grow the government, and build their empires. The new boogie man to scare the people is nuclear weapons in the hands of people that cannot be trusted. If one thinks at the present that the swamp is large from bureaucratic skimming, you haven't seen nothing compared to what is coming. Eisenhower was correct, beware the Military-Industrial Complex...it is morphing into something new. Taxation via government controlled terror. The new "America"

There is no way to deal with North Korea effectively and without violence. China, despite its aid to North Korea during the Korean War, has been detested by Koreans for nearly 5000 years. No outside country really has any sway in what North Korea does and does not do. First strike options are poor at best. The target set is largely unknown. There will be however, only one chance to take out those targets before North Korea launches a barrage attack using nuclear weapons against its neighbors. South Korea, long the object of North Korea's military passion, is no longer their target and is unlikely to be hit with nuclear weapons. Instead, it will be Vladivostok, Japan, Beijing, Shanghai, Manila, Taipei, and possibly Hanoi.

I worked in the intelligence commumity for nearly 40 years mostly on WMD....i'll be damned if i know what worries them.... <>

Good analysis!! Spot on!!

I do no regret his comments about Obama...he has lessened America's role in the world, and the world is worse off for his presence

You obviously do not understand North Korea....they hate Japan. Despite the US involvement during the Korean War, all that devastation, the US military presence that has prevented a forced reunification, North Korea has used the Japanese threat of return to the peninsula as the boogie man to hold its people hostage for more than 60 years. Without Japan, North Korea's leadership would have to create a "Japan" to maintain their grip on power. As for nuclear provocations, do not rely on US intelligence to know where the bomb research, factories, and weapon's storage are at...Japan is on its own.