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Clinton White House Knew of N. Korean Nuclear Cheating
NewsMax ^ | 9/13/04 | Stewart Stogel

Posted on 09/13/2004 6:40:25 PM PDT by wagglebee

Despite statements to the contrary, senior Clinton White House officials knew of serious cheating by the North Korean government shortly after it signed the Agreed (Nuclear) Framework in 1994.

Clinton Secretary of Defense William Perry intentionally suppressed an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report submitted to its Board of Governors in late fall 1994 that raised serous questions about whether North Korea ever intended to abide by the Agreed Framework signed with the Clinton administration.

In October 1994, the IAEA, under the U.S.-Korean agreement, sent a team to the North Korean nuclear center at Yongbyon to do a field survey.

The team was led by Dimitri Perricos, a senior assistant to then IAEA Director-General Dr. Hans Blix.

The purpose of the Perricos visit was to begin the process of cataloging the equipment and materials at the site that were to be frozen under the agreement with the U.S.

What Perricos found – or didn't find – raised serious concerns within weeks of the U.S.-Korean agreement.

The White House was concerned about North Korea's construction of a massive, 50-megawatt nuclear reactor.

Though Pyongyang insisted that the reactor was destined for "civilian" energy purposes, the CIA was convinced the reactor's main purpose was to build atomic bombs.

Almost 10 times the size of the old Soviet-designed research reactor already in operation, the new reactor could produce enough bomb-grade material for 20 or more medium-size nuclear warheads a year, so said the CIA.

Under the Agreed Framework, work was to be halted and the reactor eventually dismantled.

The IAEA had internal assessments in 1994 that stated the reactor could be up and running within six months. But when Perricos and his team arrived at the Yongbyon nuclear center, to their surprise there was little left at the new reactor site but an empty foundation and the uncompleted superstructure.

In a recent interview, Perricos told this reporter that the North Koreans explained the surprise finding by telling the IAEA that since an agreement with the U.S. was imminent, they had suspended all work on the new reactor many months earlier.

Perricos had his doubts about the North Korean explanation, especially since he saw a series of newly built underground tunnels running from Yongbyon out to a nearby mountain range.

"These tunnels were large enough for trucks to pass through ... trucks that could have carried a disassembled nuclear reactor," he said.

The North Koreans insisted the tunnels led to underground bunkers to be used by their officials and scientists in the event of war.

All of the findings were included in a formal report to the IAEA's Board of Governors in late fall of 1994.

A copy of the report was forwarded to the State Department.

Joel Witt, a member of the Clinton administration's North Korean negotiating team, received the IAEA report.

What Witt did with the report became the focus of a NewsMax investigation.

Robert Gallucci (now a dean at Georgetown University) directed negotiations with the North Koreans for the White House.

He was also the architect of the 1994 Agreed Framework.

It was Gallucci's job to sell the agreement to Capitol Hill.

Gallucci, in an interview, insisted he never saw the Perricos-IAEA report, and because he never saw the report he never mentioned it during his Capitol Hill hearings.

Those hearings were led by Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., who chaired the House International Relations Committee.

In an interview with NewsMax, Gilman insisted the IAEA report was news to him. "We never knew of the IAEA report. ... [I]f we did, I doubt that we would have approved the agreement."

Coincidentally, Gilman repeatedly charged the Clinton White House with being "less than candid" on U.S. dealings with North Korea.

Gilman also claimed that Pyongyang had been cheating "since day one."

The White House, led by Madeleine K. Albright, repeatedly refuted Gilman.

Now Albright has reversed herself.

Meanwhile, NewsMax learned that the IAEA report received by Witt at the State Department was in fact forwarded to Secretary of Defense Bill Perry rather than Gallucci, to whom it should have been sent.

It was Perry who made the call to keep the report from Gallucci.

Why?

If Gallucci had seen the report, most likely it would have been discussed at the upcoming congressional hearing.

Should the questions raised by Perricos been forwarded to the Hill, most likely any agreement with the North Koreans would have been seriously stalled if not killed.

Perry was not available for comment.

Witt has since left the State Department and now works for a Washington, D.C., think tank.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: albright; clinton; hansblix; iaea; impeachedx42; northkorea; nucleararms; williamperry; x42
Clinton, Albright, Blix . . . sometimes you just have to wonder whose side they're on.
1 posted on 09/13/2004 6:40:27 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee

2 posted on 09/13/2004 6:42:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin (We have low inflation and and low unemployment.)
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To: wagglebee

"Clinton White House Knew of N. Korean Nuclear Cheating"

So they got a sort of 'Nukular Lewinski'? that's not really a nuke, is it?


3 posted on 09/13/2004 6:44:45 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: BenLurkin

Was she there on a date?


4 posted on 09/13/2004 6:46:04 PM PDT by wagglebee (Benedict Arnold was for American independence before he was against it.)
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To: wagglebee

Isn`t this when Carter went over there to try to bribe them with 5 billion worth of oil, and the N. Koreans took it and used that cash to build nukes anyway? "Yasss saaar Mista Carta!! We no build nuke! You give us 5 billion!" And what happened? N. Korea only last year threaten to Nuke California. And lets not even go into the Koreans they send over here in NYC who give you 35 cents change after handing them a 20 buck bill to buy an apple. I refuse to do anymore shopping in Korean delis/supermarkets where I live (NYC)..they ALWAYS short change me. All you Korean Freepers, sorry, but that`s the truth. Nothing racist in the least, just telling it as it is. You don`t believe me, come to Long Island city NYC and try to buy anything with a 20 dollar bill in a Korean store. 10000% guaranteed you will be short changed. And when you alert them to it, they wil scream bloody hell that YOU are trying to rip them off.


5 posted on 09/13/2004 6:48:38 PM PDT by Imaverygooddriver ( What`s the difference between a car alarm and John Kerry? Car alarms sometimes do their job.)
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To: wagglebee

Yet another reason we can't allow the DemocRATS to run our country. Truly scary.


6 posted on 09/13/2004 6:53:19 PM PDT by TripsN1
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To: wagglebee

Say it ain't so?

Just because Maddie danced with kimchia, and klintOOn tried to appease the communist bastard by making a deal with him, who in return laughed at him and kept developing the nuke thingy, does NOT mean that klintoon knew of this nuke thing, Right? Right?


7 posted on 09/13/2004 7:20:28 PM PDT by Chong (God Bless and Protect our Troops.)
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To: Chong
BJ Klintoon was busy with other things . . .


8 posted on 09/13/2004 7:25:26 PM PDT by wagglebee (Benedict Arnold was for American independence before he was against it.)
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To: wagglebee

When did clintoon send in the jack of all failures (outside of clintoon)--Jimmah Carter--to negotiate the stupidest, most asinine treaty?


9 posted on 09/13/2004 7:26:41 PM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: wagglebee

Waaay to thin to be Monica...


10 posted on 09/13/2004 7:29:07 PM PDT by HRoarke (Dan Rather--Ass Clown)
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To: BenLurkin

"Traitor with Lunatic"


11 posted on 09/13/2004 8:33:24 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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To: sheik yerbouty

It kills me when the idiotic Dems cry Why Iraq and not North Korea? We paid the crazy North Koreas nearly a Billion in foriegn aid NOT to build Nukes and they did so anyway. Dubya put the kibash on the payments his first year in office.

The other part of the Clinton Albright legacy were the surprise Nuclear programs in Pakistan, Libya and Iran.

At least we took out Sudan's aspirin factory and bombed Iraqi WMD sites during his two terms.


12 posted on 09/14/2004 5:10:34 AM PDT by Wristpin
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