They still do it with mirrors

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

The root of doubletalk squared ;)

Groet / Cees
	
Pyongyang: Cheonan was false-flag sinking
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LF04Dg02.html
By Kim Myong Chol Jun 4, 2010
(an "unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea)

With a huge electronic intelligence-gathering machine at its disposal,
the Chinese Navy keeps a close watch on the movements of the United
States Navy in the West Sea (Yellow Sea). China's emerging blue-sea navy
is confronted with the US Seventh Fleet across the West Sea, the East
China Sea and the rest of the Pacific.

It is no wonder then that the Chinese navy's intelligence arm could
piece together an accurate account of the sinking of the South Korean
corvette Cheonan with a loss of 46 lives in the early hours of March 26.

The Chinese findings may be one of the reasons why the Chinese
government has refused to support American and South Korean demand to
join in sanctions against North Korea.

Their leakage indicates that despite its present neutrality, less
prudent American or South Korean behavior may well prompt the Chinese
government to have the navy make a bombshell official announcement
implicating the US Navy.

In a highly significant development, the Chinese navy took the
extraordinary step of quietly letting two American Internet sites know
the findings of an independent technical assessment its naval
intelligence arm made of the corvette's sinking, which took place about
1 nautical mile (1.9 kilometers) off the south-west coast of Baengnyeong
Island in the Yellow Sea.

Chinese findings
One of the US websites was the Washington-based investigative Wayne
Madsen Report [1], while the other was New America Media, a
California-based website that is the US's largest coalition of ethnic
media with over 2,500 partners [2].

New America Media posted an article on May 26, "Did an American Mine
Sink South Korean Ship?". The Madsen Report article, dated May 28, was
entitled "Beijing Suspects False Flag Attack on South Korean Corvette."

The NAM story said: "In the recent US-China strategic talks in Shanghai
and Beijing, the Chinese side dismissed the official scenario presented
by the Americans and their South Korean allies as not credible."

The two articles basically agreed that a US mine ripped the Cheonan in
two and sent the hapless South Korean corvette down to Davy Jones'
locker. But they differed in two key aspects; one was the type of the
mine used in the friendly-fire attack - limpet or rising - and the other
was the nature of the friendly fire, deliberate or inadvertent.

These differences are probably due to Chinese-English translations,
identification of the blast or analysis of the motivations behind the
incident among Chinese experts.

The New America Media story identified the mine as a rising mine for
shallow water operations, calling its launch "an inadvertent release" of
a torpedo-firing mine. Rising mines lie on or under the sea floor and
are equipped with acoustic sensors so it can rise and explode if a ship
or submarine passes within range.

The Chinese term for a torpedo-mine is a "rising mine" and "rocket mine"
and the American "captor mine" (MK60 Captor or encapsulated torpedo for
deep-water operations) and "mobile mine" (MK67 for shallow water use).

The NAM article did not see any political purpose in the friendly fire
but stressed that "any attempt to falsify evidence and engage in a media
cover-up for political purposes constitutes tampering, fraud, perjury
and possibly treason".

In striking contrast, the Madsen Report version classified the culprit
as a limpet mine, as the name suggests attached to a target by magnets,
and defined the friendly fire as "a covert program" deliberately
intended to be "a false-flag attack designed to appear as coming from
North Korea".

The MS report made a stunning revelation: "A [US Navy] SEALS diver
attached a magnetic mine to the Cheonan, as part of a covert program
aimed at influencing public opinion in South Korea, Japan and China."

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on May 30 that a morning phone call from US
President Barack Obama two days earlier had induced the reluctant
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned on Wednesday, to
keep US Marine Corps air bases in Okinawa and dismiss Mizuho Fukushima,
the Social Democratic Party leader, from a cabinet post.

The MS report made the following observation:

     One of the main purposes for increasing tensions on the Korean
Peninsula was to apply pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama to reverse course on moving the US Marine Corps base off
Okinawa. Hatoyama has admitted that the tensions over the sinking of the
Cheonan played a large part in his decision to allow the US Marines to
remain on Okinawa. Hatoyama's decision has resulted in a split in the
ruling center-left coalition government, a development welcome in
Washington, with Mizuho Fukushima, the Social Democratic Party, leader
threatening to bolt the coalition over the Okinawa reversal.

The MS report wrote: "Beijing, satisfied with North Korea's Kim
Jong-il's claim of innocence after a hurried train trip from Pyongyang
to Beijing, suspects the US Navy's role in the Cheonan's sinking, with
particular suspicion on the role of the [USNS] Salvor."

The two American stories wrote that Chinese naval intelligence based
their suspicions on the following facts:

Fact One: Baengnyeong Island hosts a Secret Joint US-South Korean Naval
Base for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations. Absent civilian
traffic around it, "the noiseless conditions are near-perfect for
picking up the slightest agitation, for example from a torpedo and any
submarine that might fire it". The joint US-South Korean naval base is
staffed by American and South Korean naval special operation force
personnel.

Fact Two: An Aegis ship-led US flotilla was operating in the South
Korean waters in question at the time of the sinking of the South Korean
warship.

Fact Three: The US flotilla included a mine-laying USNS Savor, stationed
close to Baengnyeong Island.

Contrary to the belief that the ship was under the command of the
Seventh Fleet, the NAM story noted that the USNS Salvor was "controlled
by the innocuous-sounding Military Sealift Command and is closely
connected with the Office of Naval Intelligence since their duties
include secret operations such as retrieving weapons from sunken foreign
ships, scouting harbor channels and laying mines, as when the Salvor
trained Royal Thai Marine divers in mine-laying in the Gulf of Thailand
in 2006, for example."

Fact Four: The US Navy SEALs "maintains a sampling of European torpedoes
for sake of plausible deniability for false-flag attacks. Also, Berlin
does not sell torpedoes to North Korea, however, Germany does maintain a
close joint submarine and submarine weapons development program with
Israel."

Chinese findings carry clout
The Chinese findings goes a long way to explaining why Obama made an
April 1 phone call to offer South Korean President Lee Myung-bak the
privilege of hosting in Seoul in 2012 a second of the then nuclear
summit to be held in Washington April 12. (See See Pyongyang sees a US
role in Cheonan sinking, Asia Times Online, May 5).

The offer was aimed at appeasing the embarrassed South Korean premier
into covering up the truth of the US friendly fire sinking of the
corvette, in a bid to prevent a tsunami-like nationwide eruption of
anti-American sentiments and the resulting massive opposition to the US
bases in South Korea and Japan.

South Korea is in no way fit to host such a a nuclear summit. Any one of
the nuclear powers such as Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France
should have been invited to host this dialogue's second event.

The Chinese findings illustrate once again that two presidents, Obama
and Lee, have no care for human lives and show that Lee wept crocodile
tears over the death of his fellow countrymen sailors, using their loss
to become a "a favorite man of Obama" in the words of US Vice President
Joseph Biden.

The Chinese findings also explain why US Forces Korea Commander General
Walter Sharp unexpectedly attended the April 3 funeral of a South Korean
rescue diver, Han Ju Ho, who died while participating in the search for
missing sailors from the corvette. Sharp was seen consoling the bereaved
family in an unprecedented expression of sympathy.

Han Ju Ho was called a legendary veteran member of the South Korean
underwater demolition team that took part in the covert ASW program of
the joint US-South Korean base on Baengnyeong Island.

Now it is obvious why the US envoy in Seoul, Kathleen Stephens, and
Sharp went out of their way on April 7 to fly to a South Korean
amphibious landing ship to have a look at search and rescue operations
for the sunken corvette.

The two pledged total support to the rescue operations, but as it turned
out, the Americans showed how little the lives of South Korean soldiers
matter to the US. South Korean troops are useful to the Americans as
their cannon fodder, nothing more and nothing less.

The pro-American conservative South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo on April 1
wondered why the US SEALs aboard the USNS Savor did not join the South
Koreans in the search and rescue operation as of March 31.

The daily expressed what it termed as "speechless" dismay at the refusal
to dive by US SEALs who cited fast currents, low underwater
temperatures, and deep waters, while the South Korean rescue team was
left to struggle alone all the day against heavy odds.

The Los Angeles Times reported from Seoul May 28 on the South Korean
public skepticism to the May 20 final forensic report on the sinking of
the corvette: Younger South Koreans "see the Cheonan incident in less
threatening terms. They contend that for all its bluster, North Korea is
not an existential threat to their country. And they are suspicious of
the motives of a conservative government they regard as descendants of
the military regimes that ruled South Korea before it became a democracy
in the 1980s."

"The government is lying," a 17-year-old high school student, Kim
Da-yeon told the newspaper, wearing a Beatles T-shirt over her plaid
school uniform, as her friends nodded with enthusiasm.

"The girls had stumbled on the demonstration in front of City Hall on a
day off from school and picked Korean flags, but they said in unison
that they didn't agree with the anti-North Korean sentiment. "The North
Koreans are our friends, our family," they said, according to the
newspaper report. "We don't want to fight them.''

Notes:
1.) Beijing suspects false flag attack on South Korean corvette, Online
Journal, May 28.
2.) Did an American Mine Sink South Korean Ship? New American Media, May 27.
Kim Myong Chol is author of a number of books and papers in Korean,
Japanese and English on North Korea, including Kim Jong-il's Strategy
for Reunification. He has a PhD from the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea's Academy of Social Sciences and is often called an "unofficial"
spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.
=====================================================

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/05/did-an-american-mine-sink-the-south-korean-ship.php
BEIJING - South Korean Prime Minister Lee Myung-bak has claimed
"overwhelming evidence" that a North Korean torpedo sank the corvette
Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton claimed that there’s "overwhelming evidence" in favor of the
theory that North Korea sank the South Korean Navy warship Cheonan. But
the articles of proof presented so far by military investigators to an
official inquiry board have been scanty and inconsistent.

There’s yet another possibility, that a U.S. rising mine sank the
Cheonan in a friendly-fire accident.

In the recent U.S.-China strategic talks in Shanghai and Beijing, the
Chinese side dismissed the official scenario presented by the Americans
and their South Korean allies as not credible. This conclusion was based
on an independent technical assessment by the Chinese military,
according to a Beijing-based military affairs consultant to the People
Liberation Army.

Hardly any of the relevant facts that counter the official verdict have
made headline news in either South Korea or its senior ally, the United
States.

The first telltale sign of an official smokescreen involves the location
of the Choenan sinking - Byeongnyeong Island (pronounced Pyongnang) in
the Yellow Sea. On the westernmost fringe of South Korean territory, the
island is dominated by a joint U.S.-Korean base for anti-submarine
warfare (ASW) operations. The sea channel between Byeongnyeong and the
North Korean coast is narrow enough for both sides to be in artillery
range of each other.

Anti-sub warfare is based on sonar and acoustic detection of underwater
craft. Since civilian traffic is not routed through the channel, the
noiseless conditions are near-perfect for picking up the slightest
agitation, for example from a torpedo and any submarine that might fire it.

North Korea admits it does not possess an underwater craft stealthy
enough to slip past the advanced sonar and audio arrays around
Byeongnyeong Island, explained North Korean intelligence analyst Kim
Myong Chol in a news release. "The sinking took place not in North
Korean waters but well inside tightly guarded South Korean waters, where
a slow-moving North Korean submarine would have great difficulty
operating covertly and safely, unless it was equipped with AIP
(air-independent propulsion) technology."

The Cheonan sinking occurred in the aftermath of the March 11-18 Foal
Eagle Exercise, which included anti-submarine maneuvers by a joint
U.S.-South Korean squadron of five missile ships. A mystery surrounds
the continued presence of the U.S. missile cruisers for more than eight
days after the ASW exercise ended.

Only one reporter, Joohee Cho of ABC News, picked up the key fact that
the Foal Eagle flotilla curiously included the USNS Salvor, a
diving-support ship with a crew of 12 Navy divers. The lack of any
minesweepers during the exercise leaves only one possibility: the Salvor
was laying bottom mines.

Ever since an American cruiser was damaged by one of Saddam Hussein's
rising mines, also known as bottom mines, in the Iraq War, the U.S. Navy
has pushed a crash program to develop a new generation of mines. The
U.S. Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command has also been focused
on developing counterparts to the fearsome Chinese naval "assassin's
mace," which is propelled by a rocket engine.

A rising mine, which is effective only in shallow waters, rests atop a
small platform on the sea floor under a camouflage of sand and gravel.
Its detection system uses acoustics and magnetic readings to pick up
enemy ships and submarines. When activated, jets of compressed air or
solid-fuel rockets lift the bomb, which self-guides toward the magnetic
center of the target. The blast rips the keel, splitting the ship or
submarine into two neat pieces, just as was done to the RKOS Cheonan.

A lateral-fired torpedo, in contrast, "holes" the target's hull, tilting
the vessel in the classic war movie manner. The South Korean government
displayed to the press the intact propeller shaft of a torpedo that
supposedly struck the Cheonan. Since torpedoes travel between 40-50
knots per hour (which is faster than collision tests for cars), a drive
shaft would crumble upon impacting the hull and its bearing and struts
would be shattered or bent by the high-powered blast.

The initial South Korean review stated that the explosive was gunpowder,
which would conform to North Korea's crude munitions. This claim was
later overturned by the inquiry board, which found the chemical residues
to be similar to German advanced explosives. Due to sanctions against
Pyongyang and its few allies, it is hardly credible that North Korea
could obtain NATO-grade ordnance.

Thus, the mystery centers on the USNS Salvor, which happened to be yet
right near Byeongyang Island at the time of the Cheonan sinking and far
from its home base, Pearl Harbor. The inquiry board in Seoul has not
questioned the officers and divers of the Salvor, which oddly is not
under the command of the 7th Fleet but controlled by the
innocuous-sounding Military Sealift Command. Diving-support ships like
the Salvor are closely connected with the Office of Naval Intelligence
since their duties include secret operations such as retrieving weapons
from sunken foreign ships, scouting harbor channels and laying mines, as
when the Salvor trained Royal Thai Marine divers in mine-laying in the
Gulf of Thailand in 2006, for example.

The Salvor's presence points to an inadvertent release of a rising mine,
perhaps because its activation system was not switched off. A human
error or technical glitch is very much within the realm of possibility
due to the swift current and strong tides that race through the
Byeongnyeong Channel. The arduous task of mooring the launch platforms
to the sea floor allows the divers precious little time for
double-checking the electronic systems.

If indeed it was an American rising mine that sank the Cheonan, it would
constitute a friendly-fire accident. That in itself is not grounds for a
criminal investigation against the presidential office and, at worst,
amounts only to negligence by the military. However, any attempt to
falsify evidence and engage in a media cover-up for political purposes
constitutes tampering, fraud, perjury and possibly treason.

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********