Here is the most pathetic attempt I have seen yet to discredit General Petraeus.  I can only imagine what the leftists are going to come up with next.

Note to anyone thinking of committing BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) fraud, IT DOES NOT WORK especially if you put San Francisco down as the home of residence:

A staff sergeant formerly assigned to Kunsan Air Base was sentenced to six months confinement and given a bad-conduct discharge earlier this month for housing allowance fraud and related charges.

Staff Sgt. Gwenda Z. Guika, 27, was court-martialed from Sept. 4 to 8 at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. She also was given a reduction in rank to E-1 and forfeiture of all pay.

Guika was charged with larceny of basic allowance for housing, seven counts of making false official statements and two specifications of dereliction of duty. Guika claimed her minor daughter was living in a suburb of San Francisco, and collected a housing allowance for that area. Her daughter actually was living in American Samoa, where housing allowances are lower, said Capt. James Lischer of Kunsan’s legal office.

Guika stole a little more than $2,600 between May 20, 2005, and April 25, 2006, Lischer said. She was stationed at Kunsan from April 2003 to April 2004, and again from May 2005 to June 2007, including 14 months when she was on administrative hold. [Stars & Stripes]

She is an airman so I’m not sure what inprocessing procedures they have but the last time I was stationed in the 2nd Infantry Division when I inprocessed they had a finance person give a briefing and then had everyone fill out their housing forms.  He gave a five minute brief that anyone that puts down an area that has a high BAH rate will be investigated by CID.  Especially if you put down San Francisco since it has the highest BAH rate in the country.  Yet despite being briefed people still commit BAH fraud and get booted from the military and get bad conduct discharges for stealing just a few thousand dollars.  It is not worth it.

If Moveon.org’s attempt to slime General Petraeus wasn’t bad enough, now the left’s desperation to slime him has reached even new lows with the Daily Kos claiming the general is wearing a fraudulent medal:

Resolved: General Petraeus is a Phony and a Propagandist

If the Army put out a phony story to make David Petraeus look like a combat hero, then he knew about it or he damn well had the responsibility to know. For a General to allow a sham story of combat valor about himself to be circulated is to counterfeit his own honor – and debase the coin of courage.

Without honor, he is not a soldier but a fraud, a scandal, a dishonest civil servant with a gun. His medals are lies – particularly and especially any medal for “valor”.

I don’t know General Petraeus. I have no malice against him. I wish he was just a soldier. I could thank him for his service and respect him. But I cannot help but conclude that David Petraeus has sold that service cheap – for ambition and Bush. [HT: LGF]

(more…)

UPDATE #1:  Michelle Malkin is reporting that high level talks between North Korea and Syria are occurring in Pyongyang:

North Korea and Syria held high-level talks Friday in Pyongyang, the North’s state media reported, amid suspicions that the two countries might be cooperating on a nuclear weapons program.

The talks took place between Choe Tae Bok, secretary of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, and Saaeed Eleia Dawood, director of the organizational department of Syria’s Baath Arab Socialist Party, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The two sides discussed ways of improving friendship and cooperation and other issues of bilateral interest, KCNA said, without elaborating.

I think we all know what their bilateral interests are. 

____________________________________

I just saw on Fox News that the US government is going to impose increased sanctions on North Korea in regards to proliferating missiles as well as possible nuclear technology in regards to the Israeli’s airstrike in Syria two weeks ago.  No links yet available on the internet but I will update when some are available. 

I did find this report with more details about the Israeli strike in Syria:

Israel reportedly warned the United States that North Korea might be sharing nuclear know-how with Damascus before it carried out an air strike deep inside Syria.

Washington was "deeply troubled" by the Israeli intelligence showing North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, but US President George W. Bush decided against an immediate response out of concern it could derail delicate talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its own nuclear program, the Washington Post said, citing unnamed US officials.

After Israel shared its intelligence with the Bush administration in recent months, which included satellite imagery, the United States provided Israel with some confirmation of the original information before Israel went ahead with the night air raid on September 6, the Post reported.

The quality of the Israeli intelligence, the nature of North Korea’s assistance and the seriousness of Syria’s atomic activities remained uncertain, the Post wrote. [AFP]

If this report it is true it shows that Israel warned the US government but in order to keep The Myth of Progress and the Six Party Charade alive on the Korean peninsula the US government ignored the warning.  The Israelis must have some very good evidence to now get the US government to implement increased sanctions on North Korea which will threaten the "progress" of the Six Party Talks. 

The North Korean fifth column, Hanchongryon have now found their latest anti-US cause:

As many as 1,000 anti-American protesters are expected outside Camp Casey on Sept. 29, police officials confirmed this week.

Part of the protest centers on a 2nd Infantry Division soldier who was investigated in connection with a May 19 beauty shop fire outside the Camp Hovey gate. Uijeongbu prosecutors said this week that they don’t have enough evidence to charge Pvt. Dustin T. Roper with arson but that the Ministry of Justice likely will charge him for destruction of property and breaking and entering.

Roper also will appear in South Korean court on Oct. 8 for an unrelated assault trial, according to defense attorney Jung Jin-sung.

Anti-U.S. groups have noted on the Internet that no arson charge was filed and held a small protest rally in August. [Stars & Stripes]

Some of you may remember my earlier postings on the Beauty Shop Bandit which included a video of the son of the beauty shop owner protesting in front of the Blue House.  So what do these people want since the accused is being charged and investigated by the Korean authorities?  None other than the usual leftist talking point of changing the big bad SOFA Agreement:

“What I want is very clear,” said Choi Kang-sung, 31, the owner’s son. “Put [Roper] in Korea detention and get him a fair punishment.”

Choi said he also wanted a public apology, compensation and revision of the status of forces agreement.

He said he is a member of the minority, leftist Democratic Labor Party, which generally opposes U.S. presence in South Korea.

First of all why the heck is Choi and your leftist goons protesting in front of Camp Casey than?  Shouldn’t they be protesting in front of the police station or the Dongducheon city hall who are responsible for the charges and investigation?  Secondly, what does this have to do with the SOFA Agreement?  The soldier is being tried in Korean court.  Choi and his leftist goons will only be happy when the SOFA Agreement is changed to where every GI bastard accused of offending a Korean in anyway is sent to jail without trial.  Notice that Choi makes no demands for a fair trial.  He just wants the soldier thrown in jail and USFK to show him the money.  In short he wants the North Korean system of justice to prevail in South Korea which is no surprise coming from these leftist goons. 

You can read more over at Lost Nomad.

These words were uttered by none other than anti-Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung:

According to the testimony of North Korean defectors, one side of the May Day Stadium where the performance takes place often smells of urine. That’s because students are not allowed to leave their positions while practicing the flash card performance. So they simply urinate while sitting down in their seats. Many children are said to end up getting bladder infections. One wrong move and children are clubbed and punished in groups. Kim Hyun-sik, former professor at Kim Hyung Jik College of Education, said the Arirang performance was “soaked with the blood and tears of the North Korean people.”

Regarding questions as to whether the South Korean president should attend such a performance marred by allegations of child abuse, South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung retorted whether the lengthy training of South Korean children for a play or sports event could be viewed as abuse was uncertain. Regarding North Korea’s human rights violations, Lee pretended not to know, saying human rights issues should be interpreted according to the unique circumstances of a particular society. He added that there was no concrete evidence of human rights violations in the North.  [Chosun Ilbo]

Absolutely and utterly unbelievable.  This is on par with denying the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, but he is denying the North Korean Holocaust instead.  If letting hundreds of thousands to millions of your population to starve to death while you expand your military is not a human rights violation than I don’t know what is.  Has Lee ever read anything from Kang Chol-hwan or any of the other North Korean defectors? 

How does Lee explain the gulags?:

I would love to see Lee Jae-joung tell this woman there are no human rights violations in North Korea:

Few things have pissed me off more than what this morally corrupt North Korean apologist has stated.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the South Korean government believes no human rights violations are occurring inside North Korea when these are the same people who could care less about the current mass sexual slavery of North Korean women in China and has allowed the North Koreans to kidnap and keep hundreds to thousands of South Koreans.  The rescue of these South Korean citizens are left to average people such as this 66 year old grandma to undertake while the Korean government obstructs her. 

I’m willing to bet if you ask Lee Jae-joung he would be willing to condemn Japan for human rights violations committed on the Korean peninsula by the Imperial Japanese 60 years ago, but he is not willing to condemn far worse human rights violations being committed against Korean people now.  These comments are the greatest indication yet of the Moral Bankruptcy of the Korean government.  I guess it is only fitting these people will be watching a bunch of abused children perform for them next month in Pyongyang.  I hope they enjoy the smell of urine. 

I think North Korea has now officially gotten away with proliferating nuclear technology to Syria:

US President George W. Bush said today he expects North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program and not allow other countries to gain its know-how on producing such technology and weapons.

"We expect them to honour their commitment to give up weapons and weapons programs," Mr Bush said. "To extent that they are proliferating, we expect them to stop their proliferation."

Mr Bush’s comments came after he declined to answer questions about reports from the US intelligence community of concerns that North Korea may have helped Syria with nuclear activities.

North Korea said on Wednesday that such allegations were groundless conspiracy fabricated by those who oppose the North’s improving ties with Washington.  [Herald-Sun]

"To the extent that they are proliferating, we expect them to stop their proliferation"?  WTF?  President Bush admits the North Koreans are proliferating and yet this does not affect all the aid and compromises the US government is giving to North Korea?  It appears that the Syrians and North Koreans calculated correctly that the world community and the United States would not respond in any meaningful way even if they were caught proliferating nuclear technology.  The world community simply does not care because after all a nuclear Iran or Syria would only be used to threaten Israel which many in the world community would not mind. 

The United States is now to invested in keeping the appearance that the diplomatic process has been successful on the Korean peninsula before confronting Iran on their nuclear program.  The US governments desperation to perpetuate the "Myth of Progress" is truly astounding.  I really hope the "Six Party Charade" and the sell out of a sound North Korea policy is worth the setting of conditions to bomb Iran.

If you haven’t already make sure to read Joshua’s interview of Dr. Andrei Lankov. A fascinating must read for anyone remotely interested about affairs on the Korean peninsula.

Crackdown time again, this time it is on sex tourism:

South Korea Wednesday announced a crackdown on its nationals evading the country’s tough anti-prostitution law by buying sex abroad instead.

The government will revise the law so that its citizens caught buying sex in foreign countries will have their passports confiscated, the gender equality ministry, the justice ministry and the foreign ministry said in a joint press briefing.

An inter-ministerial team has also been formed to clamp down on brokers who help South Korean girls obtain visas to sell sex abroad and travel agents who arrange sex tours for South Korean men, they said.

“The government agencies share the view that the country’s image is being damaged greatly by the purchase of sex (by South Korean travellers) in overseas countries and decided to step up crackdowns on sex trafficking here and abroad as well,” they said. [AFP]

Any bets on how long this crackdown lasts?

So any guesses on who said this?:

“It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers. In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I am readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I will, in turn, do my best for the Cause by writing editorials – after the fact.”

Answer Below the Fold:

(more…)