| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"www.infowars.com" |
| Date: |
18 Oct 2006 11:29:23 PM |
| Object: |
Sun Myung Moon, North Korea & George Bush |
You forgot to mention that the Neocons (read Don Rumsfeld) sold the nukes
to North Korea.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Rumsfeld+%2B%22North+Korea%22+%2Bsells+%2BNuclear&btnG=Search
And George Bush's pal Moon (al la Washington Times fame) helped fund North
Korea.
Moon, North Korea & the Bushes
By Robert Parry
(Originally published on October 11, 2000)
Editor's Note: Given the nuclear crisis involving North Korea, we are
republishing, with minor revisions, this six-year-old article about millions
of dollars allegedly funneled from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon – The Washington
Times founder and a Bush family financial backer – to leaders of North
Korea's communist dictatorship in the 1990s:
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's business empire, which includes the right-wing
Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea's communist
leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign
currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency documents.
The payments included a $3 million “birthday present” to current communist
leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to “several tens of
million dollars” to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, the
documents said.
Moon apparently was seeking a business foothold in North Korea, but the
transactions also raised potential legal questions for Moon, who appears to
have defied U.S. embargos on trade and financial relations with the
Pyongyang government. Those legal questions were never pursued, however,
apparently because of Moon's powerful political connections within the
Republican power structure of Washington, including financial and political
ties to the Bush family.
Besides making alleged payments to North Korea’s communist leaders, the
86-year-old founder of the South Korean-based Unification Church has
funneled large sums of money, possibly millions of dollars, to former
President George H.W. Bush.
One well-placed former leader of Moon’s Unification Church told me that the
total earmarked for former President Bush was $10 million. The father of the
current U.S. President has declined to say how much Moon’s organization
actually paid him for speeches and other services in Asia, the United States
and South America.
At one Moon-sponsored speech in Argentina in 1996, Bush declared, “I want to
salute Reverend Moon,” whom Bush praised as “the man with the vision.”
Bush made these speeches at a time when Moon was expressing intensely
anti-American views. In his own speeches, Moon termed the United States
“Satan’s harvest” and claimed that American women descended from a “line of
prostitutes.”
During the pivotal presidential campaign in 2000, Moon’s Washington Times
alsoattacked the Clinton-Gore administration for failing to take more
aggressive steps to block North Korea’s military research and development.
The newspaper called the Clinton-Gore administration’s decisions an
“abdication of responsibility for national security.”
A Helping Hand
Yet, in the 1990s when North Korea was scrambling for the resources to
develop missiles and nuclear technology, Moon was among a small group of
outside businessmen quietly investing in North Korea.
Moon’s activities attracted the attention of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, which is responsible for monitoring potential military threats to
the United States.
Though historically an ardent anticommunist, Moon negotiated a business deal
in 1991 with Kim Il Sung, the longtime communist leader, the DIA documents
said.
The deal called for construction of a hotel complex in Pyongyang as well as
a new Holy Land at the site of Moon's birth in North Korea, one document
said. The DIA said the deal sprang from face-to-face negotiations between
Moon and Kim Il Sung in North Korea from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8, 1991.
“These talks took place secretly, without the knowledge of the South Korean
government,” the DIA wrote on Feb. 2, 1994. “In the original deal with Kim
[Il Sung], Moon paid several tens of million dollars as a down-payment into
an overseas account,” the DIA said in a cable dated Aug. 14, 1994.
The DIA said Moon's organization also delivered money to Kim Il Sung's son
and successor, Kim Jong Il.
“In 1993, the Unification Church sold a piece of property located in
Pennsylvania,” the DIA reported on Sept. 9, 1994. “The profit on the sale,
approximately $3 million was sent through a bank in China to the Hong Kong
branch of the KS [South Korean] company ‘Samsung Group.’ The money was later
presented to Kim Jung Il [Kim Jong Il] as a birthday present.”
After Kim Il Sung's death in 1994 and his succession by his son, Kim Jong
Il, Moon dispatched his longtime aide, Bo Hi Pak, to ensure that the
business deals were still on track with Kim Jong Il “and his coterie,” the
DIA reported.
“If necessary, Moon authorized Pak to deposit a second payment for Kim Jong
Il,” the DIA wrote.
The DIA declined to elaborate on the documents that it released to me under
a Freedom of Information Act request in 2000. “As for the documents you
have, you have to draw your own conclusions,” said DIA spokesman, U.S. Navy
Capt. Michael Stainbrook.
Moon's Right-Hand Man
Contacted in Seoul, South Korea, in fall 2000, Bo Hi Pak, a former publisher
of The Washington Times, denied that payments were made to individual North
Korean leaders and called “absolutely untrue” the DIA's description of the
$3 million land sale benefiting Kim Jong Il.
But Bo Hi Pak acknowledged that Moon met with North Korean officials and
negotiated business deals with them in the early 1990s. Pak said the North
Korean business investments were structured through South Korean entities.
“Rev. Moon is not doing this in his own name,” said Pak.
Pak said he went to North Korea in 1994, after Kim Il Sung’s death, only to
express “condolences” to Kim Jong Il on behalf of Moon and his wife. Pak
denied that another purpose of the trip was to pass money to Kim Jong Il or
to his associates.
Asked about the seeming contradiction between Moon's avowed anti-communism
and his friendship with leaders of a communist state, Pak said, “This is
time for reconciliation. We're not looking at ideological differences. We
are trying to help them out” with food and other humanitarian needs.
Samsung officials said they could find no information in their files about
the alleged $3 million payment.
North Korean officials clearly valued their relationship with Moon. In
February of 2000, on Moon's 80th birthday, Kim Jong Il sent Moon a gift of
rare wild ginseng, an aromatic root used medicinally, Reuters reported.
Legal Issues
Because of the long-term U.S. embargo against North Korea, Moon’s alleged
payments to the communist leaders raised potential legal issues for Moon, a
South Korean citizen who is a U.S. permanent resident alien.
“Nobody in the United States was supposed to be providing funding to
anybody in North Korea, period, under the Treasury (Department's) sanction
regime,” said Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary of state
handling international crime.
The U.S. embargo of North Korea dates back to the Korean War. With a few
exceptions for humanitarian goods, the embargo barred trade and financial
dealings between North Korea and “all U.S. citizens and permanent residents
wherever they are located, … and all branches, subsidiaries and controlled
affiliates of U.S. organizations throughout the world.”
Moon became a permanent resident of the United States in 1973, according to
Justice Department records. Bo Hi Pak said Moon has kept his “green card”
status. Though often in South Korea and South America, Moon maintained a
residence near Tarrytown, north of New York City, and controls dozens of
affiliated U.S. companies.
Direct payments to foreign leaders in connection with business deals also
could have prompted questions about possible violations of the U.S. Corrupt
Practices Act, a prohibition against overseas bribery.
(But in the six years since we disclosed the Moon-North Korean payments,
George W. Bush's administration has taken no legal action against Moon.
Meanwhile, Moon's Washington Times has been one of Bush's most consistent
and aggressive backers in the U.S. news media.)
Alleged Brainwashing
Moon's followers regard him as the second Messiah and grant him broad power
over their lives, even letting him pick their spouses. Critics, including
ex-Unification Church members, have accused Moon of brainwashing young
recruits and living extravagantly while his followers have little.
Around the world, Moon's business relationships long have been cloaked in
secrecy. His sources of money have been mysteries, too, although witnesses –
including his former daughter-in-law – have come forward in recent years and
alleged criminal money-laundering within the organization.
Moon “demonstrated contempt for U.S. law every time he accepted a paper bag
full of untraceable, undeclared cash collected from true believers” who
carried the money in from overseas, wrote his ex-daughter-in-law, Nansook
Hong, in her 1998 book, In the Shadows of the Moons.
Since Moon stepped onto the international stage in the 1970s, he has used
his fortune to build political alliances and to finance media, academic and
political institutions.
In 1978, Moon was identified by the congressional “Koreagate” investigation
as an operative of the South Korean CIA and part of an influence-buying
scheme aimed at the U.S. government. Moon denied the charges.
Though Moon later was convicted on federal tax evasion charges, his
political influence continued to grow when he founded The Washington Times
in 1982. The unabashedly right-wing newspaper won favor with presidents
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush by backing their policies and hammering
their opponents.
In 1988, when then-Vice President Bush was trailing early in the
presidential race, the Times spread a baseless rumor that the Democratic
presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had undergone psychiatric treatment.
The Moon-affiliated American Freedom Coalition also distributed millions of
pro-Bush flyers.
The elder George Bush personally expressed his gratitude. When Wesley Pruden
was appointed The Washington Times’ editor-in-chief in 1991, Bush invited
Pruden to a private White House lunch “just to tell you how valuable the
Times has become in Washington, where we read it every day.” [Washington
Times, May 17, 1992].
Moon's Vatican
While Bush was hosting Pruden in the White House, Pruden’s boss was opening
his financial and business channels to North Korea. According to the DIA,
Moon’s North Korean deal was ambitious and expensive.
“There was an agreement regarding economic cooperation for the
reconstruction of KN's [North Korea's] economy which included establishment
of a joint venture to develop tourism at Kimkangsan, KN [North Korea];
investment in the Tumangang River Development; and investment to construct
the light industry base at Wonsan, KN. It is believed that during their
meeting Mun [Moon] donated 450 billion yen to KN,” one DIA report said.
In late 1991, the Japanese yen traded at about 130 yen to the U.S. dollar,
meaning Moon’s investment would have been about $3.5 billion, if the DIA
information is correct.
Moon’s aide Pak denied that Moon’s investments ever approached that size.
Though Pak did not give an overall figure, he said the initial phase of an
automobile factory was in the range of $3 million to $6 million.
The DIA depicted Moon’s business plans in North Korea as much grander. The
DIA valued the agreement for hotels in Pyongyang and the resort in
Kumgang-san, alone, at $500 million. The plans also called for creation of a
kind of Vatican City covering Moon’s birthplace.
“In consideration of Mun's [Moon's] economic cooperation, Kim [Il Sung]
granted Mun a 99-year lease on a 9 square kilometer parcel of land located
in Chongchu, Pyonganpukto, KN. Chongchu is Mun's birthplace and the property
will be used as a center for the Unification Church. It is being referred to
as the Holy Land by Unification Church believers and Mun [h]as been granted
extraterritoriality during the life of the lease.”
North Korea granted Moon some smaller favors, too. Four months after Moon’s
meeting with Kim Il Sung, editors from The Washington Times were allowed to
interview the reclusive North Korean communist leader in what the Times
called “the first interview he has granted to an American newspaper in many
years.”
Later in 1992, the Times was again rallying to President George H.W. Bush’s
defense. The newspaper stepped up attacks against Iran-Contra special
prosecutor Lawrence Walsh as his investigation homed in on Bush and his
inner circle. Walsh considered the Times’ relentless criticism a distraction
to the criminal investigation, according to his book, Firewall.
That fall, in the 1992 campaign, the Times turned its editorial guns on
Bush’s new rival, Bill Clinton. Some of the anti-Clinton articles raised
questions about Clinton’s patriotism, even suggesting that the Rhodes
scholar might have been recruited as a KGB agent during a collegiate trip to
Moscow.
A Bush Salute
George H.W. Bush’s loss of the White House did not end his relationship with
Moon’s organization. Out of office, Bush agreed to give paid speeches to
Moon-supported groups in the United States, Asia and South America. In some
cases, Barbara Bush joined in the events.
During this period, Moon grew increasingly hateful about the United States
and many of its ideals.
In a speech to his followers on Aug. 4, 1996, Moon vowed to liquidate
American individuality, declaring that his movement would “swallow entire
America.” Moon said Americans who insisted on “their privacy and extreme
individualism … will be digested.”
Nevertheless, former President Bush continued to work for Moon’s
organization. In November 1996, the former U.S. President spoke at a dinner
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, launching Moon’s South American newspaper,
Tiempos del Mundo.
“I want to salute Reverend Moon,” Bush declared, according to a transcript
of the speech published in The Unification News, an internal church
newsletter.
“A lot of my friends in South America don’t know about The Washington Times,
but it is an independent voice,” Bush said. “The editors of The Washington
Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with
the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to
Washington, D.C.”
Contrary to Bush’s claim, a number of senior editors and correspondents have
resigned in protest of editorial interference from Moon’s operatives. Bush
has refused to say how much he was paid for the speech in Buenos Aires or
others in Asia and the United States.
Going After Gore
During the 2000 election cycle, Moon’s newspaper took up the cause of Bush’s
son and mounted harsh attacks against his rival, Vice President Al Gore.
In 1999, the Times played a prominent role in promoting a bogus quote
attributed to Gore about his work on the toxic waste issue. In a speech in
Concord, N.H., Gore had referred to a toxic waste case in Toone, Tennessee,
and said, “that was the one that started it all.”
The New York Times and The Washington Post garbled the quote, claiming that
Gore had said, “I was the one that started it all.”
The Washington Times took over from there, accusing Gore of being clinically
“delusional.” The Times called the Vice President “a politician who not only
manufactures gross, obvious lies about himself and his achievements but
appears to actually believe these confabulations.” [Washington Times, Dec.
7, 1999]
Even after other papers corrected the false quote, The Washington Times
continued to use it. The notion of Gore as an exaggerator, often based on
this and other mis-reported incidents, became a powerful Republican “theme”
as Texas Gov. Bush surged ahead of Gore in the presidential preference
polls.
‘Abdication’
Republicans also made the North Korean threat an issue against the
Clinton-Gore administration. In 1999, a report by a House Republican task
force warned that during the 1990s, North Korea and its missile program
emerged as a nuclear threat to Japan and possibly the Pacific Northwest of
the United States.
“This threat has advanced considerably over the past five years,
particularly with the enhancement of North Korea's missile capabilities,”
the Republican task force said. “Unlike five years ago, North Korea can now
strike the United States with a missile that could deliver high explosive,
chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons.”
Moon’s newspaper joined in excoriating the Clinton-Gore administration for
postponing a U.S. missile defense system to counter missiles from North
Korea and other “rogue states.” Gov. Bush favored such a system.
“To its list of missed opportunities, the Clinton-Gore administration can
now add the abdication of responsibility for national security,” a Times
editorial said.
“By deciding not to begin construction of the Alaskan radar, Mr. Clinton has
indisputably delayed eventual deployment beyond 2005, when North Korea is
estimated to be capable of launching an intercontinental missile against the
United States.” [Washington Times, Sept. 5, 2000]
The Washington Times did not note that its founder – who has continued to
subsidize the newspaper with tens of millions of dollars a year – had defied
a U.S. trade embargo aimed at containing the military ambitions of North
Korea.
By supplying money at a time when North Korea was desperate for hard
currency, Moon helped deliver the means for the communist state to advance
exactly the strategic threat that Moon’s newspaper chastised the
Clinton-Gore administration for failing to thwart.
That money bought Moon influence inside North Korea. The Korean theocrat
also appears to have secured crucial protection from George W. Bush's
administration, after investing wisely for many years in the President's
family.
[For more details on the Moon-Bush connection, see Robert Parry's Secrecy &
Privilege. To see two of the DIA documents, click below.]
http://www.consortiumnews.com/moondocs/index.html
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