US Army MAJ Jeffrey Brown was found guilty of rape:

A U.S. Army major found guilty of raping one young enlisted service member and maintaining a sexual relationship with another was sentenced late Tuesday to four years in prison.

Brown also was found guilty of violating a lawful general order for breaking the military curfew in June. He is to forfeit all pay and allowances and be dismissed from the Army as part of the sentence.

This guy is found guilty of rape and other offenses and receives only 4 years in prison? Now compare this with the 1-43 ADA private who raped a fellow soldier in the Suwon barracks that received a six year sentence. Can a lawyer please tell me how this works out? It seems to me that an officer would receive greater punishment for the same offense than a private. This case comes on the heels of the lenient punishment given to 1LT Davis last month. USFK says their against sexual assault and rape yet lightly sentence those who commit it. This major just like the Suwon private are both dirt bags that should be doing at least the same amount of hard time for their crimes. I’m sick of these scum bags smearing the rest of us that are over here doing the right things and staying out of trouble.

Seoul’s Cheongyecheon stream restoration will air on the Discovery Channel:

Seoul City’s restoration of the Cheonggye stream will be broadcast by the Discovery Channel, the global documentary broadcaster, to 53 countries, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced yesterday.

The hour-long documentary, titled “Man-Made Marvels, Seoul Searching,” has been under production since December of last year with the support of Seoul city, according to the city government. The documentary, which includes historical research and computer -generated images to illustrate the process of the project, will be broadcast from Nov. 6 to 16. In Korea, it will air at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 6 p.m. on Oct. 30.

It is good to see Seoul and Korea air on international TV for something other than North Korea and anti-American protesters. Hopefully this will help improve the image of the city and the country.

Speaking of Cheongyecheon I went down to Seoul recently to take a few night shots of the stream and to see if the cleanliness of the stream is being maintained.

This is a shot of the stream looking North towards the start of the creek.

I’m happy to report that the stream is still immaculately maintained and clean. I didn’t see soju bottles, trash, or cigarette butts all over the place, at least not yet. We’ll see if this level of cleanliness is maintained over the long term. For now enjoy this additional picture I took:

This picture of the stream is looking towards the South with a full moon in the background hovering over the city.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Korean defensive officials have agreed to “appropriately accelerate” the operation control of the ROK Army issue:

Korea and the U.S. have agreed to “appropriately accelerate” discussion on the return of wartime operational control, which currently rests with the U.S. It was one of 13 points agreed at the 37th annual bilateral Security Consultative Meeting here headed by Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld speaks at a press conference after the annual Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting at the Defense Ministry in Yongsan, Seoul on Friday.

To an official request from Korea for the return of wartime command, Rumsfeld said he agreed with Seoul but cautioned matters must proceed to ensure they help peace on the Korean Peninsula. Sources close to the talks said the joint statement pledged to “appropriately accelerate” discussions. Asked what that meant, Rumsfeld told a joint press conference after the meeting, “It’ll take place at the moment when the Republic of Korea and the United States of America decide it’s appropriate.”

Notice he doesn’t say when this acceleration is going to take place. He only says when appropriate. The whole issue of the Korean government taking operational control from the United States during war time is nothing but an empty slogan to play to Korean nationalism since President Roh Moo-hyun’s approval ratings are in the twenty percentile range.

Think about this logically. If Korea takes operational control during a conflict with North Korea do you for one minute think that the US government will allow ROK Army generals to command US stealth fighters, tomahawk cruise missiles, submarines, AEGIS destroyers, B-52’s, etc. during a war? The ROK Army generals are fine infantry, land warfare commanders for their theater of operations here on the Korean peninsula but, they are not trained or have the war time experience to properly implement the the combined arms fight that the US military can bring down on an enemy.

If Korea wants operational control they may just end up regretting it if the US military pulls out of Korea. Not that the ROK Army cannot win a war with North Korea because it most probably could, however victory is not certain without the US militaries involvement. The ROK military does not have the capability to conduct critical war time missions such as precision bombing over North Korea’s rear areas or collecting usable signal intelligence. These lack of capabilities even if the ROK military were to win a war would make any war here longer and more devastating than it needed to be. Is national pride worth the stategic consequences? For President Roh, that is a yes.

I’m actually for pushing this issue of the ROK military getting operational control because that would force them to buy capabilities they need to replace some of those currently provided by the US military. For every capability replaced by the ROK military that means a US military capability is then open to be used elsewhere to support the GWOT.

I wonder if Rumsfeld cook this whole idea up as a way to get troops out of Korea? Anyway, Korea likes to let the world know that they have the world’s 11th largest economy, so it is time to start using that affluence to buy the capabilities that they would lose once they do get operational control. If they don’t and the US military leaves, I sure hope for all the citizens here that the Sunshine Policy works because a war here would be absolutely devastating.

However, keep in mind that if a war were to occur on the Korean peninsula these same people crying about operational control now will be the same people begging the US military to come back and fight in a second Korean War. Hopefully it doesn’t come down to that.

Update: Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a great post describing exactly what happened that day as explained by an embedded reporter who was there when the tank commander fired on the Palestinian Hotel. The charges brought against the NCO, his commander, and battalion commander are even more ridiculous after reading the account from the reporter who was there. Truly a witch hunt going on here, but I’m sure the people conducting the witch hunt figure the embedded reporter is probably just part of the secret CIA conspiracy theory.

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Here is a perfect example of why the US will not ratify the UN’s International Criminal Court:

A Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant Wednesday for three U.S. soldiers, charging them with murder for the death of Spanish TV cameraman Jose Couso in Baghdad, Iraq.

Couso, who worked for Spain’s Telecinco network, died at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, as U.S. forces advanced to take control of the city in April 2003.

Investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz of the National Court will seek the extradition of the soldiers to Spain, a court spokeswoman told CNN.

They are wanted for “murder” and “a crime against the international community,” according to the warrant, a copy of which was viewed by CNN partner network CNN+.

The US won’t sign on to the International Criminal Court because of the fear that US soldiers will be arrested for political reasons which is exactly what this case is about. The cameraman was killed by a tank shell that struck the Palestine Hotel where journalists were staying at. The tank commander said he was shooting at what he though was an Iraqi spotter that had been calling in artillery grids. The Spanish media believes that he was deliberately targeting journalists.

They got another kook CIA conspiracy theory that the US forces in Baghdad were intentionally targeting specific journalists to silence them and Mr. Couso was one of them. I’m just trying to picture this scenario. You have an E-6 tank commander who has been in three weeks of sustained combat, he and his crew are going through the fight of their lives in Baghdad, and then this E6 receives a call from his CIA handlers to target the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel to take out Mr. Couso who has been reporting negative war coverage and who is conveniently pointing his camera right out the window at them.

The military’s position seems much more plausible that the NCO thought he was firing at an Iraqi soldier calling in artillery grids. Should he have known that the building had journalists staying in it? It is easier said then done. When I moved through Baghdad with my unit during the war, we were given no grids to where all the journalists were staying at. We were more worried about detailed grids of where the enemy was at. Imagine that in a war. Plus detailed maps were in high demand at this time and the NCO may not have had a very detailed map to begin with.

Should he have fired at the building? It wasn’t a wise choice from the perspective of someone sitting on their couch, but you got to figure this guy had been getting fired at from roof tops for the past three weeks not to mention the fact mortar rounds are now landing all around him. If this E6 had to stop and ask permission to fire at someone on a rooftop every time he sees a possible threat, this guy probably wouldn’t have survived the war long enough to get indicted for war crimes.

However, the Spanish public in their anti-American, CIA conspiracy theory fury are demanding action from their politicians and how better to respond then to issue an arrest warrant, which the authorities know will have no success, and then tell your citizens we tried to arrest these criminals but the big, bad US imperialists won’t give them up to us.

What I find interesting is that these same people so enraged at these US soldiers are not as outraged or don’t demand indictments of terrorists that deliberately target, murder, behead, and video tape civilians and journalists in Iraq. That is why their claims ring hollow and the International Criminal Court rings even hollower.

This whole incident reminds me a lot about SOFA cases here in Korea, most notably the 2002 armored vehicle accident. The public is outraged and in an anti-American fury, fueled by kook conspiracy theories, and the politicians in their best effort to appease their constituents, issue arrest warrants knowing full well the US military will not hand over the soldiers to begin with. The politicians just want to pass the buck and blame everything on the big, bad, bully Americans instead of looking at other causes for the accident which I have long chronicled here such as sidewalks so pedestrians don’t have to walk in the road.

In the Spanish journalist’s case, why was he sticking a large video camera that could be mistaken for an RPG, out the window directly at a tank pointed right at him? Especially when he knew other cameramen pointing cameras had been mistaken for Iraqi soldiers before? Tough questions that nobody wants to answer.

It is also ironic that a country like Spain is demanding the arrest of US “war criminals” when they won’t even face up to their own past war crimes.

This is another one of those only in USFK stories:

Did U.S. Army Maj. Jeffrey L. Brown rape a private first class and then have consensual sex with her friend ?another 19-year-old soldier ?on the same night in September 2003? And did he maintain a six-month sexual relationship with the friend?

Brown pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

This is what MAJ Brown said his intentions were:

He said his client did nothing more than help the women: from offering them a place to sleep when they were too drunk to return to their camp one night to baby sitting one’s dog and ?later ?helping her seek to abort a baby fathered by another man.

Even if his side of the story is true, he is still guilty of stupidity, unprofessional conduct, and fraternizing. Officers especially field grade officers do not have young female soldiers sleep over at their home even if he only has good intentions. It creates a perception of fraternization with enlisted troops that is contrary to good order and discipline. Also if these soldiers were so drunk they couldn’t get back to camp he should of contacted the soldiers’ commander or first sergeant to come pick them up, instead of letting them sleep over at his place. Then to volunteer for dogsitting duty and helping with an abortion later on is even more ridiculous and unprofessional.

Sexual assault cases similar to this usually involving NCO’s and soldiers seem to happen here regularly. This one is a little bit different since it involves a field grade officer, never the less it is still a black eye that USFK has not been able to shed here in Korea. Hopefully justice will be served in this case, but rest assured there are going to be plenty more of them.

Aid sent from South Korea to Iraq was recently seized according to the JoongAng Ilbo:

A total of 14 South Korean vehicles carrying aid shipments for the Iraqi people have been seized by armed Iraqi militants since last month, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

However, no South Korean nationals were captured or detained during the seizures, the ministry said, adding that all 14 vehicles belonged to the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
“The South Korean vehicles were seized by armed Iraqi militants on two occasions, Sept. 19 and 21, while transporting aid materials from the Jordanian port of Aqaba to Baghdad,” the ministry said.
The KOICA is a foreign ministry-affiliated organization that provides humanitarian assistance and other support to underdeveloped and developing countries.

According to Reuters the stolen aid was mainly computer equipment:

Armed Iraqis stole millions of dollars worth of personal computers and Internet equipment donated by South Korea while it was being transported near Baghdad late last month, a South Korean official said on Tuesday.

The Korea International Cooperation Agency, a government-linked aid agency, supplied the equipment for use in Iraqi universities, the official from the South Korean foreign ministry said.

Here is what bothers me about these news articles. First of all, don’t call these thugs militants or militia they are criminal gangs. At least the articles didn’t call them Iraqi resistance fighters like many other news media articles do. Many of the so called Iraqi resistance are in fact mafia style gangs using the flag of jihad as cover for their criminal activities to make themselves rich.

These gangs need to keep Iraq unstable in order to continue their business enterprise. So these gangs that do heists like this one and kidnapping for profit will also pay “insurgents” on the side to put out road side bombs and take pot shots at soldiers in order to keep the perception of instability. Criminals thrive in an unstable environment that keeps foreign aid coming in to hijack, foreigners to kidnap, and citizens terrified.

Here is the second thing that bothers me. Everyone knows that the highway running between Jordan and Baghdad is a haven for kidnappers and hijackers; why wasn’t the aid convoys protected? Especially after the first convoy was hijacked on 19SEP, why in the world wasn’t the second aid convoy on 21SEP protected? The Korean government and media always make a big deal about how Korea is the third largest troop contributor in Iraq yet they can’t send one platoon of soldiers to defend these aid convoys? This is one of the things soldiers do, they defend convoys. If Korea is not willing to defend their own international aid it may be time to get out of Iraq.

However international aid is not the primary concern of the Korean government; the government is more concerned about preventing soldier casualties than ensuring Iraqi aid is protected and distributed. The Korean government keeps the ROK Army soldiers quarantined on their compound outside of the friendly Kurdish city of Irbil doing nothing more than distributing toilet seats and playing Starcraft in their on post PC Bang.

To be fair the ROK Army is more than capable of conducting convoy security missions. They are also capable of doing much more in Iraq than the current mission they are tasked with. So I by no means blame the ROK Army for the predicament they are in, in Iraq. The lack of political will and leadership by their own government has made the proud ROK military look like a window dressing coalition army, while criminal gangs are stealing Korean aid meant for the Iraqi people. The ROK Army deserves better then this. Iraq deserves better then this.

Spam is a food that has taken on a life of it’s own here in South Korea as is described in this LA Times article:

“Spam really is a luxury item,’’ said Han Geun Rae, 43, an impeccably dressed fashion buyer who was loading gift boxes of Spam into a cart at Shinseyge department store in advance of the recent Chusok holiday.

The mystery of the success of Spam in Korea as described in the article is attributed to the post war years here in Korea:

Not coincidentally, Spam also is popular in Hawaii, the Philippines, Owinaka, Guam and Saipan, all places with a history of U.S. military presence. The “Miracle Meat in a Can,” as it was touted after its launch in 1937, was a staple of the military diet during World War II and later the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It is harder to explain Spam’s popularity today in the world’s 11th-largest economy, where there is no shortage of fresh meat and things associated with the U.S. military are considered low-class.

Low class? How does the LA Times explain all the black marketing of US military commissaries and PX’s? They aren’t black marketing only Spam but lots of other “low class” American products.

Then:

Dongnipmun Gate (Independence Gate) was constructed in 1898 by Dr. So Jae-pil who prior in 1896 founded Korea’s first private newspaper the “The Independence”. Dr. So built the gate on the site of the Yongunmun Gate, which was the gate that emissaries of the Korean government would meet Chinese delegates and offer Korea’s yearly tribute to the Chinese. Dongnimmun Gate was constructed to resemble Paris’ Arch of Triumph. Years later in the vicinity of the “Independence Gate” the Imperial Japanese colonizers of Korea built the Soedaemun Prison to incarcerate Korean independence fighters.

You can see that 80 years ago the Dongnimmun Gate was in the vicinity of huts and open land. The large home in the background is where the Korean dignitaries would meet and entertain the Chinese delegation that came for their yearly tribute..

Now:

Today you can see that the old Dongnimmun Gate is surrounded by freeways and heavy traffic. It also located adjacent to a popular local park that is also home ot the Soedaemun Prison Museum.

It looks like this group of mostly Canadians didn’t take my advice seriously:

In an ongoing investigation of forged diplomas, prosecutors have busted some 70 people including unqualified English language instructors and the brokers who supplied their fake documents.
Southern Seoul prosecutors arrested a Korean-American identified as Kang on suspicion of brokering the jobs and an accomplice identified as Kim for forging certificates. They also booked two Canadians without detention. They are among approximately 70 people who have been deported or are currently in the protection of the Seoul Immigration Bureau.

(…)

Canadians made up the bulk of the unqualified teachers (62) due to a visa exemption treaty that ensures a steady stream of travelers between the two countries. The others were four Australians, three Britons and three Americans. Starting next March, native foreign language instructors are to be sent to schools across the country, and Korea has had a bad reputation as a haven for unqualified English teachers, a prosecution source said. The large-scale bust will be a good deterrent to curb the influx of unqualified instructors.”

Should of got a haircut and a black backpack.

Our buddies the French are at it again:

A French-led cultural diversity pact transparently designed to stem U.S. cultural hegemony is likely to be ratified by an overwhelming majority at UNESCO’s 33rd plenary meeting opening this Friday. But in an echo of the Kyoto treaty on climate change, the U.S., which rejoined the UN cultural agency only two years ago, is miffed because it believes the pact would allow countries to erect trade barriers against lucrative American exports like Hollywood blockbusters.

The draft pact draws attention to the “distinctive nature” of cultural goods and services, and gives countries a right “to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory” when they feel that diversity is under threat. It aims to acknowledge each country’s uniqueness in the face of globalization.

Basically what this is saying that a country now has the right to ban American products in their country for “cultural diversity” reasons. In reality this is just a way around fair trade laws to prevent US companies from entering foreign markets. However, if a country tries to block US imports under this law I would expect the US to go to the WTO to fight it.

I look at this way, if you don’t want your people watching Hollywood movies than make better domestic movies. Korea has done this very well. That got a booming domestic film market that is competing strongly with Hollywood films. With the crappy movies coming out of Hollywood now a days, it is not that hard to make a better movie. If your country cannot make a better movie than the Fantastic Four, your country has got bigger problems than a UN “cultural diversity” law will be able to solve.

It is the same thing with Coke. Make your own domestically produced soda. How hard can it be to make soda? Develop your own domestic capabilities instead of blaming the US for destroying “cultural diversity”. If the domestically produced products were better and cheaper people would buy them.