From the Stars and Stripes:
A South Korean man who lives near Camp Humphreys told local police a bullet from the installation struck his house last week, police said Tuesday.
Police in Pyeongtaek said they found a hole about 4 inches in diameter in the side of the house. But they turned up no evidence it had been produced by a bullet or other projectile. The house is in Pang-sung, a section of Pyeongtaek City that includes Anjung-ri, where Camp Humphreys is located.
(…)
Police said Lee told them a loud explosion shook his house Feb. 9 around 4 a.m., and he thought his boiler had burst. He later discovered the hole, he said, and believed it came from a weapon fired inside Camp Humphreys, police said.
Of course no evidence of an actual bullet hitting the house existed:
U.S. Forces Korea said in a written statement Tuesday that South Korean police on the afternoon of Feb. 9 “conducted an investigation of a possible stray bullet from Camp Humphreys.
“Investigators found no evidence of a stray bullet or believed that any damage was caused by the U.S.,†the statement read.
This is absolute BS that will be used to help drum anti-American support against the Camp Humphreys expansion even though there is no truth to it.
The funniest commentary on this I have read is from Nomad’s site where commenters were wondering where Dick Cheney was, at the time or if 35th ADA Brigade was trying out new potato guns. LOL.
Another Iraqi man has been killed by a soldier from the ROK Army’s Zaytun unit in Iraq due to a traffic accident:
An Iraqi local government official has been killed in a traffic accident by a Korean military truck, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) office said Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Korean driver, a corporal only identified by his family name Song, was trying to avoid a car which had cut in front of him on a street in downtown Irbil when he hit the 53-year-old Iraqi official, the office said.
Let’s use the uproar over the tragic 2002 US Army traffic accident that killed two Korean girls as a model of how the Korean government should handle this accident. First of all the soldier should be handed over to the Iraqi authorities for trial because I’m sure whatever SOFA Agreement Korea has with Iraq is unfair and unjust. Then the candle light vigils should be sweeping the country as I write this. Then President Roh should issue a weeping apology on national television followed by all his ROK Army generals to the people of Iraq due to this attack on the Iraqi people. Then a massive compensation package should then be handed over to the victim’s family.
Listed above is what many in Korea expected the US to do after the tragic accident of 2002, so what are the chances they will do the same when the tables are turned? Don’t hold your breath to long because I still haven’t seen an apology from President Roh or a massive candle light vigil for the man killed when a ROK Army soldier accidentally shot and killed an Iraqi soldier last year.
Just for the record the US military did have a candle light vigil, USFK Generals apologized after the accident and US President George W. Bush apologized a few months after the accident, and the victims families were compensated as well. Will the same happen in this case? No because this story is already buried in the media.
Hat Tip: Flying Yangban
Some of you may be familar with the current controversy in the US over allowing a Dubai based company to operate major US coastal ports:
“We’re calling for the full six-week investigation. It’s a serious investigation and the reason why this is critical is while maybe there’s nothing wrong with this company, how do we know they’re not infiltrated?” asked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “The United Arab Emirates has had people involved in terrorism. In fact, some of its financial institutions laundered the money for the (Sept, 11) terrorists. And to just blithely go ahead and treat this as another economic transaction is all wrong.”
Currently, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the fourth largest port operator in the world, runs the six ports. But the $6.8 million sale of P&O to UAE-owned Dubai Ports World (DPW) would effectively turn over North American operations to the government-owned company in Dubai.
If the approval is unchallenged, Dubai Ports World would run the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
Interestingly enough the United States is not the only country with a Dubai based company managing port operations:
Al-Bayan newspaper reported on the opening ceremony for the new Busan Port in South Korea held in mid-January 2006 with the participation of a delegation from the Dubai International Ports Company.
This ceremony celebrated the completion of the first stage of work to develop this port, including developing the container terminal of the port. Taking part in the Dubai delegation were Assistant Manager for Operations of the Dubai International Ports Company Sultan bin Salim, Deputy Chairman of the Board Jamal bin Thanya, Operations Manager Muhammad Sharaf, and Assistant Manager for Financial Matters Hamid Ahmad Kadhim.
I for one do not believe that something as sensitive as US port operations should be handled by any foreign country much less one from the Middle East.
The Japanese government has begun a crackdown on businesses exporting possible WMD technology to North Korea. The first raid was of a company suspected of exporting nuclear technology to North Korea:
Investigators raided the headquarters of Mitutoyo Corp. on Monday morning, according to a company official who refused to be named, citing internal regulations. The official said she could not provide further details, but said the company was “cooperating fully” with investigations.
Mitutoyo Corp. is suspected of exporting two three-dimensional measurement machines that can be used for uranium enrichment — a technology that can produce nuclear fuel or bombs — to subsidiaries of Japanese firms in China and Thailand in 2001, according to a report carried Sunday by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest daily.
The second raid involved raiding companies involved with providing biological weapon technology:
The companies allegedly exported freeze dryers that could be used to cultivate germs or other pathogens for possible weapons, Kyodo News reported, citing police.
The companies are suspected of shipping the equipment to North Korea through Taiwan in September 2002, Kyodo said.
Japanese officials even raided Yamaha over selling remote controlled helicopters:
Late last month, police raided the headquarters of Yamaha Motor Co. on suspicion it illegally exported to China remote-controlled helicopters that could be diverted to military use.
The motorcycle and engine producer was accused of selling restricted materials without receiving approval.
It is interesting that this current crackdown in Japan is coming at about the same time that the US has begun a financial crackdown on North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering operations. I don’t think the combined pressure from the two countries’ crackdowns will be enough to collapse the North Korean regime, but it is in my estimation greatly annoying them by how loud the regime has been condemning the US financial sanctions. Now if only South Korea would do something as well.
What happens when bloggers attack? Well find out here:
The government concluded its “Cyber Storm” wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers.
Bloggers?
Participants confirmed parts of the worldwide simulation challenged government officials and industry executives to respond to deliberate misinformation campaigns and activist calls by Internet bloggers, online diarists whose “Web logs” include political rantings and musings about current events.
If the US government is so concerned about a blogging insurgency, why don’t they just shut down blog sites like Korea and China have done before? Goodbye insurgency.
Hat Tip: Coming Anarchy
US and Canadian authorities have busted another human trafficking ring operating across the Canadian border:
“We are alleging that over the last two years, this group was responsible for the majority of migrants that were smuggled into the U.S. (from Canada),” said Michele Paradis, a spokeswoman with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“They were being hidden in trunks of cars, they were being put on railway cars, they were put in the backs of transport trucks and there were occasions where small boats were used.”
Paradis said the illegal migrants were from China, Korea and Eastern Europe. Twenty-four were arrested while trying to enter Canada from the States, and at least 74 were caught trying to cross into the United States.
“The smugglers themselves are not the least bit concerned for the safety of the migrants at all,” Paradis said. “They’re only concerned about one thing, and one thing only, and that’s the amount of money they can make.”
Army transformation continues in South Korea:
For South Korea, a key change will come this summer with the creation of the 501st Sustainment Brigade, Parker said. The brigade will be the first operational unit of its kind in the Army and will be responsible for one of the major missions here: reception, staging, onward movement and integration.
Other changes involve how the Army runs its personnel offices worldwide, Parker said. Eventually, there will be no personnel offices in South Korea other than each unit’s individual human-resources office, usually known as the S-1 office. Decisions like assignments and questions about pay will be directed to two human-resources offices worldwide, he said.
The way the Army conducts troop rotations will also affect soldiers assigned to South Korea.
Soldiers attached to stateside-based brigade combat teams will rotate to South Korea together on a one-year, unaccompanied tour. Other support staff will come to South Korea on accompanied tours for as long as three years, much like in Germany.
If brigade are going to be rotated into Korea that would mean then that the 1st Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division would at some point in the near future either redeploy to the United States or even Iraq, much like what 2nd Brigade, 2ID did. If the 1st Brigade, 2ID gets redeployed from Korea, that would mean there would be no need for the division headquarters to be located in Korea either with all of the division’s combat units in the United States. I would then expect the division headquarters to move to probably Ft. Lewis, WA where 3rd BCT, 2ID is currently located.
However, like any changes in Korea, I will have to see it happen before I believe it, because of the highly politicized nature of removing troops from Korea, especially a division headquarters.
Apparently the Korean military is looking to purchase the most advanced US PATRIOT missile system:
South Korea requested the United States send pricing and availability data for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile systems of Lockheed Martin for its surface-to-air missile procurement project, a military source said Monday.
The Air Force asked Lockheed Martin for the pricing and availability data in mid-November and the U.S. company plans to give the price information by next month, the official at Lockheed Martin’s office in Seoul said.
The U.S. government is reviewing the data before sending it to Seoul, she added. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, in charge of the country’s arms procurement affairs, also confirmed it.
(…)
Under the $1 billion project, code-named SAM-X, South Korea plans to buy 48 advanced Patriot missile interceptors to replace aging Nike Hercules missiles against the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles.
To tell you the truth I really hope the South Koreans do not get the PAC-3 because I would be seriously concerned that the sensitive data about the PAC-3 would end up in the hands of the North Koreans in addition to China. Edit this Post | Delete this Post
Valentine’s Day is a day that means lots of chocolate for the ROK Army:
Valentine’s Day in South Korea is a time when the attention of the country’s massive army turns to romance and a mission to spread love via military transport.
Under the Valentine’s Day tradition in South Korea, women give chocolates to men. And with compulsory service of two years for young men and a military of almost 700,000 troops, that translates into a lot of sweets.
South Korea’s military last week completed its annual delivery of chocolate from women to their boyfriends in uniform. The sweets are sent to regular post offices and the military sends its trucks to pick up the parcels and take them on base.
