Posted by
Defend America on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 6:23:50 PM
 |
| Bill Clinton rewarding NKorea for bad behavior: Bolton |
 |
|
| Aug 4 12:06 PM US/Eastern |
The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.
John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton's mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
It comes perilously close to
negotiating with terrorists," Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill
Clinton's trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime," after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story.
"I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we
always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in
general, and that's encouraging their bad behavior," Bolton said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9ec248b23fc108b42c2d92e80c8dc595.3c1&show_article=1
More from Bolton:
While the United States is properly concerned whenever its citizens are
abused or held hostage, efforts to protect them should not create
potentially greater risks for other Americans in the future. Yet that
is exactly the consequence of visits by former presidents or other
dignitaries as a form of political ransom to obtain their release. Iran
and other autocracies are presumably closely watching the scenario in
North Korea. With three American hikers freshly in Tehran's captivity,
will Clinton be packing his bags again for another act of obeisance?
And, looking ahead, what American hostages will not be sufficiently
important to merit the presidential treatment? What about Roxana Saberi
and other Americans previously held in Tehran? What was it about them
that made them unworthy of a presidential visit? These are the
consequences of poorly thought-out gesture politics, however
well-intentioned or compassionately motivated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080401486.html?hpid=topnews