The Command Post - Iran, North Korea & Other Hotspots - 11 Nations to Discuss Blocking Shipments of Weapons Materials

June 13, 2003

11 Nations to Discuss Blocking Shipments of Weapons Materials

WASHINGTON — Officials from the United States and 10 other countries will meet in Madrid today to discuss how they can use or change international law to prevent shipments of weapons of mass destruction or their delivery systems.

The meeting is the Bush administration's attempt to create a multilateral setting — outside the United Nations — to explore ways to stop such countries as Iran and North Korea from importing or exporting nuclear materiel, ballistic missiles or other such weapons technologies.[...]

The Madrid meeting is a first, informal gathering of "a small group of like-minded countries" interested in expanding international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as part of the "Proliferation Security Initiative" proposed by Bush in a May 31 speech in Krakow, Poland, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

Full article here.

Posted by Venomous Kate at June 13, 2003 04:32 AM

Comments

YOU KNOW FOLKS - I suggested somethin' back a month and a half ago, that seemed pretty far-fetched, but I'm runnin' it by you one more time. That would be like firin' for effect...

Someone's got an embargoed DPRK ship, right? The one their mob was shippin' drugs on, right? How about this little scenario - We flush the drugs down the toilet, we take this damned ship back to the entrance of one of their fancydancy ports, we pull the bilge plugs, and sink it. Right there in the harbor entrance. That oughta keep 'em busy for awhile.

Posted by: Dave Dubé at June 13, 2003 01:29 PM

Dave,

While your idea has some panache, it is not a good idea for a simple reason. Sinking a foreign-flagged commercial vessel is an act of war. We have not reached that point just yet...

Posted by: guido at June 13, 2003 02:38 PM

True, but only because "International Law" dictates that we allow nations we KNOW are bad guys and KNOW have WMDs they fully intend to use if given the opportunity(excuse?) to first knock off a few thousand or a million of our citizens before we respond to their threat, and to carry on narcotics trafficking to their hearts' content so long as it doesn't do any serious harm to France, Germany, Belgium and the rest of that lot.
The UN tried to apply this to our Iraq policy, but luckily we have a President with a spine and it didn't wash.

Posted by: Wolf at June 13, 2003 04:15 PM

Good news for middlemen.

Posted by: romo at June 15, 2003 07:38 AM

Mothballin a ship in someones front yard may make some people take notice,and Dave;I'm all for it Heh Heh Heh,but I say hit em where it really hurts,in the wallet.Seize and confiscate all the illict goods and then auction them off;if they want to play hard ball,bring it on!Semper Fi.

Posted by: EDDY at June 15, 2003 08:39 PM

I think there is no way to prevent the export of dangerous materials short of acts of war. A naval blockade is and act of war, but even that wouldn't work. The Norks have already switched to shipping missiles by aircraft. It is rather difficult to board an aircraft in flight to inspect the cargo, and shooting it down is definitely going to cause a big flap.

Furthermore, North Korea has land borders with China and Russia through which it can smuggle enough material do do us terrible harm. And don't forget that they have the world's third largest submarine fleet!

Posted by: John Moore (Useful Fools) at June 17, 2003 09:30 PM