Text 16361, 62 rader
Skriven 2005-11-16 19:41:22 av Peter Knapper (3:772/1.0)
  Kommentar till text 16299 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
Ärende: Plates
==============
Hi Roy,

 PK> As a tiny country we have more of a need to receive input from
 PK> whatever source we can get, whereas the US has generally indicated
 PK> that it prefers its own sources to that of others. I just found your
 PK> persepctive... interesting...

 RW> I see. Intelligence in the information age is shared among many allies
 RW> throughout the world. By intelligence, I mean information that is oft
 RW> times privy to such agencies as the CIA. It's analyzed by them and then
 RW> it's given to the Prez with their recommendation as to it's legitimacy.
 RW> This is where the WMD information came from and I presume that it was
 RW> gathered from various other information sources around the world.

A very recent query regarding the "closeness" of the US <> NZ relationship had
an "official" reply from the local US Embassy of "Very Very Good Friends".
However that friendship does not extend to the exchange of any intelligence
information that is not released for public consumption. The sole "sticking"
point in this relationship seems to be that nearly 30 years ago the NZ people
voted to prohibit visits from all vessels that may be carrying nuclear weapons.
As most Navies never disclose details of the carriage of any weapons, that
precludes any US (and other nations) military vessel of any sort. 

Never the less there are interesting "facilities" present in NZ that seem to
have close ties to various US "agencies".


 RW> Yeup. If you listened to SH, he was saying that there were no WMDs in his
 RW> country. But then, we did find evidence of chemical labs on wheels after
 RW> the invasion. WMDs aren't just nuclear weapons, they could be chemical or
 RW> biological weapons too. And Iraq was known to have used those before 1991.

Chemical or Biological "Weapons of Mass Destruction" would require quite large
"production" facilities to be considered as capable of making something
"massive". A Mobile Chemical Lab would not be able to produce a practical
weapon of any significant size and remain mobile...


 PK> The interesting part though is that it wasn't until those planes
 PK> struck their targets that the "post 9/11" events became such a
 PK> leading edge for the US response.

 RW> That would be the difference between leaders. Clinton knew of such things
 RW> and the WTC was bombed during his term as President. There was also the
 RW> incident where a big hole was blown into the side of a US vessel in an
 RW> arab port, which Clinton also did nothing about it.

I disagree on that, I think the difference was simply the size of the body
count afterwards.


 RW> Yeup. They have their faults, but they're still believable compared to the
 RW> others I mentioned. And I can even swallow their critiques of the US at
 RW> times.

Yikes, Roy Witt even put that in WRITING! Are you feeling ok today?

Cheers............pk.


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 * Origin: === Maxie BBS.  Ak, NZ +64 9 444-0989 === (3:772/1)