U.S. counterfeiting charges against N. Korea based on shaky evidence

[deminks]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, as he was ratcheting up a campaign to isolate and cripple North Korea's dictatorship financially, President Bush accused the communist regime there of printing phony U.S. currency.

"When someone is counterfeiting our money, we want them to stop doing that. We are aggressively saying to the North Koreans just that — don't counterfeit our money," Bush said on Jan. 26, 2006.

However, a 10-month McClatchy investigation on three continents has found that the evidence to support Bush's charges against North Korea is uncertain at best and that the claims of the North Korean defectors cited in news accounts are dubious and perhaps bogus. One key law enforcement agency, the Swiss federal criminal police, has publicly questioned whether North Korea is even capable of producing "supernotes," counterfeit $100 bills that are nearly perfect except for some practically invisible additions.

Many of the administration's public allegations about North Korean counterfeiting trace to North Korea "experts" in South Korea who arranged interviews with North Korean defectors for U.S. and foreign newspapers. The resulting news reports were quoted by members of Congress, researchers and Bush administration officials who were seeking to pressure North Korea.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/24521.html

[rodeodance]

1. WMD for Iraq, counterfit $ for NK & provacative boats for Iran-all the Axes of evils--see a pattern?

[truthisfreedom]

2. "When someone is counterfeiting our money, we want them to stop doing that. '

Hey bush...

"When someone is pretending to be president, we want them to stop doing that."

[madeline_con]

3. Touche! n/t

[jeff30997]

4. Well said Fred !

:)

[daleo]

5. North Korea's response:

Why would we want to devalue U.S. currency, when the Bush administration is doing it for us?

[rAVES]

6. lol

[politicallore]

7. who would actually conterfit the dollar anyway...

it isn't worth anything

[conspirator]

8. With the money that the Federal Reserve is printing to pay for the Iraq war

the dollar will be toilet paper soon anyway

[creeksneakers2]

9. Its nice to see a news organization

doing some real investigative reporting.