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With the 5th anniversary of 9/11 coming up are there any kooks who still think Bush, the CIA, or the Jews committed 9/11 after Bin Laden himself has released a video tape with him meeting with some of the 9/11 hijackers prior to the attacks:

For the first time, a video has been released showing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden meeting with suspected terrorist Ramzi Binalshibh, purportedly as they prepare for the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Al-Jazeera, which aired the tape Thursday.

Binalshibh is a Yemeni who allegedly admitted a role in planning the attacks. He was among 14 al Qaeda operatives that President Bush on Wednesday said had been transferred to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (…)

The video aired four days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

CNN was unable to independently verify whether the video, made by al Qaeda’s production company, Al Sahab, was made in 2001. But two of the men seen on it — Hamza Alghamdi and Wail Alshehri — were hijackers who died in the suicide missions.

Alghamdi was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center; Alshehri was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower.

Al Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, also is on the tape. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2001 in a U.S. missile strike.

Many of the faces in the video are pixelated to hide the men’s identities.

Let me guess the excuse will be that the CIA digitally created the tapes in a conspiracy with Hollywood to blame Bin Laden for the attacks.  Anyway the conspiracy theories are getting old and I wonder if people are still going to take the ridiculous Loose Change theory seriously after Bin Laden has released this tape taking credit for the attack with footage with him with the hijackers.  I can picture Bin Laden in his cave pissed off that the American leftists have been so successful in blaming Bush for ordering 9/11 when in fact he did it thus ordering the release of a tape with pictures of him with the hijackers to counter the leftists.  However, the American left is so unhinged that even this won’t change their minds from the belief that Bush ordered 9/11.

Is there any doubt the hand over will be 2009?:

The commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, Gen. Burwell Bell, said Thursday that South Korea will be able to exercise independent wartime operational control of its forces by 2009.

¿If a decision by our governments is made to proceed now, it is my military assessment that such a transition can be achieved, with assured continued deterrence and war-fighting readiness, over a three-year period of focused organizational activity, training and exercising,” Bell told a forum at a Seoul hotel. “This could result in executing the transition to [Korean] independent command in the year 2009.”

But in reiterating the Pentagon target of 2009 just one week ahead of the Korea-U.S. summit in Washington on Sept. 14, they augur tough sailing for Korea’s bid to take sole troop control only in 2012.

General Bell is making it pretty clear I think that the hand over will be 2009 and South Korea better start now trying to figure out how they are going to get ready for it:

Bell again stressed issues he raised in a talk to the National Assembly on July 13: the need for concrete decisions on the scope of U.S. military support after the transfer, U.S. contributions to ground operations, changes in the Korean government’s wartime goals and command relationships and the UN Command’s role.

Bell said the answers to these questions must be worked out before the change in the command relationship, adding that because it would be impossible to exercise military power in an effective way if these issues are left unclear, it is critical that solutions are drafted early to avoid chaos.

The general’s message appears to be that Seoul must be clear in advance whether its objective in the event of an invasion by the North would be to restore the present borders or advance to Pyongyang and overthrow the North Korean regime. Currently, under Operational Plan 5027 of Combined Forces Command, the goal would be to push back the line north of Pyongyang, crush the North Korean regime, and institute a military administration there.

It will be interesting to see if the South Korean government will be willing to make public proclamations that they would invade and occupy the north if attacked.  I know it is pathetic, but that is the state of the current South Korean government, they don’t even know if they would be willing to invade and occupy North Korea if attacked.  2009 will be here before they know it, they better make up their mind real quick.

I like Chinese food as much as the next guy, but this is ridiculous:

Fighting tooth and nail: Members of civic groups tear the Chinese flag in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, Thursday to protest China¿s claims that ancient Korea originated from China. Beijing recently claimed Mt. Paekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula, as its own as it lighted sacred fires for the 6th Winter Asian Games on Wednesday.

More on the flag biters exploits here and here.

The last Korea Finder people had some difficulting answering so this week here is one that should be easy to answer.  Who can name this building?

An absolute must read over at the Korea Liberator, concerning this report on South Korean food aid that was intended to go to the starving people of North Korea:

A film was found featuring a scene in which the North Korea military handled 400,000 to 500,000 tons of rice, originally supplied by the South Korea government every year since 2000.

The film, which was made on May 24, might bring about some arguments as it intimates that the rice supplied to support North Koreans who are suffering from famine may be used for other purposes by the North Korean military.

The 3-hour long film broadcasted in Weekly Donga which was published on September 5 shows that rice with the seal of the Republic of Korea was loaded by North Korean soldiers into trucks from freight cars parked in Danchon station, Hamgyongnam-do.

Moreover, it also shows North Korean soldiers conducting guard duty on freight cars filled with rice and lying down in the cars while on duty, but no evidence was found as to the destination of the rice shipment. The film was made by a North Korean defector who sneaked back into North Korea again, and is known to be currently staying in a third country.

I sure no one is shocked, I know Nomad isn’t, but I am sure the South Korean government will try and spin and deny this.  It should be fun to see Roh and his cronies squirm over this, but you know they won’t stop the food aid to the North Korean army.

What I do find interesting about this is that the truth is really a quite effective weapon against not only the North Korean regime, but their sunshine allies in South Korea as well.  The problem though is getting cameramen like this to film the truth.  Hopefully more brave North Koreans can smuggle more videos out of North Korea.  Instead of a revolution with guns, a revolution with cameras may be even more effective.

Korea is looking to find ways to stop draft dodgers by offering alternative service:

In Korea, all able-bodied men are required to serve for at least 24 months in the military, but some manage to avoid this by exploiting a number of minor loopholes.

Seoul plans to establish some guidelines by the end of this year for possibly running an alternative military system to accommodate those who are “conscientious objectors” for religious reasons. There is now an estimated 3,200 objectors. When they are called up for military service, they usually opt to serve a prison term.

In May 2000, Taiwan introduced a European-style alternative military system in which conscientious objectors are obliged to work for police, environmental protection or cultural, athletic and public administration services for at least 18 months.

“We have yet to have guidelines on the alternative system. We will gather public opinions and other data to establish some principles on the system by the end of this year,” an MMA official said.

How come I have a feeling the amount of “conscientious objectors” will go through the roof if the ROK Army offers this alternative service system instead of serving in conventional army and police units?  Korea may suddenly find themselves with an army of athletics directors and environmentalists.

I have a better idea for the Korean government, how about they actually pay these soldiers decent salaries and improve working and living conditions?  Maybe then people wouldn’t try so hard to avoid military service.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again, when will Koreans take personal responsibility for their own US visa problems?

Seventeen out of 22 students who were set to be educated in the U.S., including Lee, did not receive U.S. visas. Among them, 12 gave up going to the U.S. and are currently studying in other countries as Lee did.

It was identified that the U.S. Embassy in Korea did not issue visas for a number of college students who even had letters of guarantee issued by the Korean government.

The KITA stated on September 5 that the U.S. Embassy in Korea refused to issue visas for 17 Korean college students, who applied for visas for tourism (B1) to attend internship training in the U.S. as part of the KITA college student overseas training program, on the grounds that their documents were ¿not properly filled out.¿

Since 2000 when the training program was launched, a total of 227 students have received internship training in the U.S. until last year. This is the first time ever that trainees¿ visa applications have been rejected, said the KITA.

¿It is incomprehensible why the U.S. Embassy in Korea this year is suddenly refusing to issue visas to college students, whose return to Korea is guaranteed by the Korean government,¿ said a KITA official. ¿What makes us more frustrated is that they are not giving a clear reason for all this.¿

The US embassy did give you reason!  You filled out the wrong paperwork.  You can’t go to the US on a tourism visa and then expect to attend a college internship.  You need to fill out a visa application for a student visa.  It sounds like to me that whoever organized this internship program on the Korean side filled out the wrong forms so instead of accepting responsibility for the mix up it is easier to blame the Yanks with an outrageous conspiracy theory:

Some KITA insiders analyze, ¿As the visa waiver negotiations for Koreans have begun, the U.S. embassy might be stricter in applying the conditions for visa issuance so that they could maintain a visa rejection percentage of three percent.¿

In order to join the U.S. government¿s visa waiver program, a country needs to meet the condition that the visa rejection percentage for its people should be below three percent for two consecutive years.

Could it be that the reason Korea has such a high US visa rejection rate is contributed to idiots like this guy who can’t fill out the paperwork properly and instead of doing a self analysis and educating others about properly filling out the forms, it easier to blame everything on a evil US conspiracy theory to prevent Koreans from coming to the US.  People wonder why the US wants out of Korea, here is another example for you; the US is only willing to be a punching bag for every problem in Korea for so long.

Only the UN could be stupid enough to request Korean policemen:

The National Police Agency (NPA) said Monday it is planning to dispatch more than 100 police officers to East Timor next year in response to a UN request as instability grows in the Southeast Asian country. Once dispatched, it would be the country¿s largest deployment of police personnel ever to a foreign country.

An NPA officer Monday confirmed that the UN recently requested Korean government officials to send some of its police personnel to East Timor where concerns over public security are rising.

“The U.N. made an official request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade two months ago for the deployment of Korean police personnel in East Timor, on a scale of about a squadron, which is about 120 to 140 officers,¿¿ said the official.

I wonder if they will be required to do things like, uphold the law there?  Which is unlike what they do in Korea.  Also I wonder if they will drive around with their flashing lights on for no reason around East Timor like they do in Korea?

So says Oh My News:

The parliament’s budget office in South Korea pointed out on June 20 that the share taken up by defense expenses was much too high, given the limited economic size and financial structure of South Korea. The office added that the additional expenses already covered by South Korea were not recognized. It argued that its share should be decreased corresponding to reduced U.S. contributions to South Korean national security owing to strategic flexibility, while the burdens for security of South Korea have been increasing.

The government of South Korea has shared the defense expenses because U.S. forces functioned as a buffer against North Korea. If U.S. forces in South Korea were to confront not only North Korea but also China and Russia, however, the share could be reduced. The demands of the U.S. for increasing South Korea’s share of the expenses are nothing better than those of gangsters.

If equitable cost sharing is so expensive than go by your own stealth bombers, spy satellites, signal intelligence monitoring equipment, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, PATRIOTs, tomahawks, Apache attack helicopters, etc.  When put like that, USFK is an absolute bargain.

Sad News, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter has been killed:

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

Crew members aboard Irwin’s boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead a short time later, the statement said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword “Crikey!” in his television program “Crocodile Hunter,” which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

It is really too bad because I loved the Crocodile Hunter series.  Many people thought the guy was crazy doing what he did on the show, but I never thought the things he did with the crocodiles or the snakes would ever kill him.  He had the crocs figured out and I figured if he ever was bitten by a snake he would have anti-venom on the scene for whatever snake he was dealing with.  I always thought if the guy was going to be killed by his job, it would be by a shark.  He used to swim around with the sharks which I thought was stupid because it isn’t like you can swim away from a shark.  A pissed off crocodile you can run away from, a pissed off shark you have no chance.  I never would have thought he would have been killed by a stingray though.  Very strange incident, but I’m sure more info will come out about what happened.

Right now I just feel really bad for his family.  His wife is actually an American from Oregon which he had two children ages 8 and 3 with.  Terrible loss.