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An American Hero

daedong

New member
Maybe I missed it but no one seems to have posted anything about this great American. So I thought I would carry the flag for you folks on this one!
Give the man a clap,:applause::applause:

y ANDY BARR | 8/6/09 6:51 PM EDT

090804_clinton_prisoners_ap_297.jpg
Bill Clinton boards a plane in North Korea heading back to the United States with Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two imprisoned American journalists he went to retrieve. Photo: AP


Former President Bill Clinton offered very few additional details Thursday on his trip to retrieve two American journalists who had been captured and detained by North Korea.

Speaking at a Clinton Global Initiative event in New York, his first public appearance since the plane carrying the former president and the two journalists landed in Los Angeles, Clinton said that it would be “wrong” for him to say anything more about the trip.

“My job was to do one thing, which I was profoundly honored to do, as an American and as a father. I wanted those young women to be able to come home,” Clinton said. “Anything I say beyond that could inadvertently affect the decisions and moods either here or in North Korea, or the attitudes of our allies, and I have no business doing that. I’m not a policymaker anymore.”

Clinton said he has spoken briefly about his experience with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his wife. But he said he had not yet fully debriefed either of them or other top government officials.

“It would be wrong for me to say any more,” Clinton said. “I have an obligation to report to my government and otherwise to say nothing that in any way might tip the balance of any decisions that might, or might not, be made. I just can’t do it.”

Clinton did offer some details on the return trip back for the two journalists, who he said “were delightful on the plane trip home.”

“They were happy, and they tried to sleep and couldn’t,” the former president said.

Upon landing at an American military base in Japan so the plane could refuel, Clinton said the two journalists “got their first real, old-fashioned American breakfast: huevos rancheros.”

“They had to be careful, since they had been on a radically different diet
for almost five months, to measure their intake,” he added. “It was basically a lovely thing.”



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25896.html#ixzz0NSAoxmZB
 

California

Charter Member
Site Supporter
:applause::applause: :applause::applause: :applause::applause:

I love it!

This is an instance of subtle diplomacy attaining the desired result. I doubt he had much to do with the negotiations but he was the perfect envoy to send over there for the release ceremony. Not-quite an American official, so the State Department (ie Hillary) can still claim or repudiate anything he might have said. And he has enormous credibility with the North Koreans based on past negotiations.

I hope similar efforts can be applied effectively on larger issues, for example calming down Palestine and Israel. I have great hopes for this administration.
 

jpr62902

Jeanclaude Spam Banhammer
SUPER Site Supporter
Vin, thanks for posting this. Finally, Slick Willie has been of some use!

All kidding aside, I think this is a good event. I've heard some pundits voice fear that this effort is tantamount to appeasement, but there hasn't been any evidence of a concession on our part.

Perhaps the baby brat (Kim Jong II) with a big stick just wanted some attention?
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
:applause::applause: :applause::applause: :applause::applause:

I love it!

This is an instance of subtle diplomacy attaining the desired result. I doubt he had much to do with the negotiations but he was the perfect envoy to send over there for the release ceremony. Not-quite an American official, so the State Department (ie Hillary) can still claim or repudiate anything he might have said. And he has enormous credibility with the North Koreans based on past negotiations.

I hope similar efforts can be applied effectively on larger issues, for example calming down Palestine and Israel.
Well said Chris!!!!! :tiphat: :agree:

Though I don't belive our current administration had much to do with it other than allowing it to happen. N. Korea asked for Bill Clinton and got a meeting with Bill Clinton. Obama okayed it but that's about it from what I've heard on the news.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
This is my take on it:
Remember when North Korea were threatening us/the world via launching missiles?
Just my opinion, but I think right now a lot of the citizens on planet earth hold a declining trust for what's going on with this administration.
So what happens in this case?
Send Clinton. Awesome.
Nice photos. Good job Bill. Good coverage.
Clinton said he was honoured to do it.
This was a humanitarian mission.
McCain has shouted propoganda.
The Secretary Of State must surely be proud of her hubby, eh?

At the end of the day, the entire thing doesn't change our sense of security as a nation ONE iota!
 

California

Charter Member
Site Supporter
PG if nothing has changed aside from getting those two women out - then that's something.

I loved Clinton's comment on these two California Girls' first American breakfast in 6 months:

Huevos Rancheros!!! :biggrin:
( Cal-Mex for scrambled eggs in ketchup.)

Welcome home, you two sweethearts.
 

jpr62902

Jeanclaude Spam Banhammer
SUPER Site Supporter
This is my take on it:
Remember last month when North Korea were threatening us?
Just my opinion, but I think right now a lot of the citizens on planet earth hold a declining trust for what's going on with this administration.
So what happens in this case?
Send Clinton. Awesome.
Nice photos. Good job Bill. Good coverage.
Clinton said he was honoured to do it.
This was a humanitarian mission.
McCain has shouted propoganda.
The Secretary Of State must surely be proud of her hubby, eh?

At the end of the day, the entire thing doesn't change our sense of security as a nation ONE iota!

But aren't there 2 U.S. citizens home safe now? Has there been some quid pro quo beyond just givin' Lil' Kim some luvin'? Nope.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
My pleasure
You need to learn to deduct serious matter vs personal points of view on this board.
Often I say things from the heart, just to get another POV.
A lot of times, I say things (like you) to stir shite up.
So the red booger was most welcome. You're only the second person to ever have done that, and might I say.. you are in good company.:smile:

Now then, Madeleine Albright shoulda been called on to attend to this , as long as someone had to do it.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Still kind of interesting how "staged" the whole thing seemed to be.

I wonder if there was a behind the scenes cash or goods transfer to facilitate this. I suspect we'll never get the true story.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08062009/news/nationalnews/bills_hwood_blockbuster_183236.htm


BILL'S H'WOOD BLOCKBUSTER

MOVIE MOGUL, P.R. FIRM STAGED RETURN 'SPECIAL'


By GEOFF EARLE, Post Correspondent


Click for photo gallery


CUT! Former President Clinton (right) with movie mogul Steve Bing at yesterday's event, engineered by Bing's Tinseltown firm.

Last updated: 10:13 am
August 6, 2009
Posted: 2:36 am
August 6, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton's triumphant return from North Korea with two rescued US journalists had Hollywood written all over it -- from the Burbank airport to the big-time producer who bankrolled the expedition to the celebrity public-relations firm that orchestrated the homecoming.
A key player in Clinton's high-flying diplomatic mission to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee was entertainment mogul Steve Bing, a longtime "Friend of Bill" who lent the ex-president his private Boeing 737.
The multimillionaire mogul paid about $200,000 in fuel and other costs that came with the trans-Pacific flight.
Bing's Shangri-La entertainment firm also funded a major logistical effort to carefully showcase Clinton's arrival in Tinseltown -- which featured Ling lauding the former president while almost in tears.
The company knows a blockbuster when it sees one, having produced Tom Hanks' "Polar Express," "Beowulf," starring Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese's 2008 Rolling Stones rock-umentary, "Shine a Light," filmed at Clinton's 60th birthday bash at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side.
Hollywood p.r. firm Rogers & Cowan, which represents Bing along with a bevy of A-list celebs, began organizing the arrival ceremony after it got word Tuesday morning -- while Clinton was still on the ground in Pyongyang -- to get ready, according to a Hollywood source.
The firm chose as its venue Hangar 25 at Bob Hope International Airport in Burbank, a solar-powered facility that has hosted other press events.
Bing is a major financial backer of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and environmental causes, and has a business constructing environmentally friendly hangars. He also made news over a dispute about whether he fathered British actress Elizabeth Hurley's child, which was revealed to be the care.
Staffers put together three press risers to accommodate more than 100 media and TV crews, and contracted an in-house photographer to capture the event.
The p.r. firm closely coordinated with Bill Clinton's foundation, which worked with former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV to have family members on hand for the homecoming.
The journalists were working for Gore's company when they were captured along the North Korean/Chinese border.
When Lee stepped off the jet before 6 a.m. yesterday morning, she was greeted by her husband, Michael Saldate, and 4-year-old daughter, Hana, whom she hugged. Ling embraced her husband, Iain Clayton, amid a crowd of tearful family members.
Stepping before the cameras, Ling -- who, like Lee, had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor -- fought back tears as she described the moment when she first saw Clinton.
"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea," she said. "We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard-labor camp. Then, suddenly, we were told that we were going to a meeting.
"We were taken to a location, and when we walked through the doors, we saw, standing before us, President Bill Clinton.
"We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here home and free."
Ling -- who praised Bill Clinton and his "super-cool team," which included his former top aides John Podesta and Doug Band -- said she was looking forward to eating fresh fruit after subsisting on rice with rocks in it during her 140 days in captivity.
Her sister, TV reporter Lisa Ling, said, "We always maintained our hope and knew in our hearts that we would see Laura again; we just didn't know when."
Clinton hugged Gore when he emerged from the jet, and Gore twice thanked his former boss in his own remarks.
President Obama, appearing outside the White House, called Clinton immediately after his arrival and thanked him for his "the extraordinary humanitarian effort."
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
Still kind of interesting how "staged" the whole thing seemed to be.
A key player in Clinton's high-flying diplomatic mission to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee was entertainment mogul Steve Bing, a longtime "Friend of Bill" who lent the ex-president his private Boeing 737.
The multimillionaire mogul paid about $200,000 in fuel and other costs that came with the trans-Pacific flight.
Bing's Shangri-La entertainment firm also funded a major logistical effort to carefully showcase Clinton's arrival in Tinseltown -- which featured Ling lauding the former president while almost in tears.



Clinton said that it would be “wrong” for him to say anything more about the trip.


At least this explains where the funding came from. :brows:
 
Last edited:

jpr62902

Jeanclaude Spam Banhammer
SUPER Site Supporter
Vin, if you're spreading red boogies about PG's "Hillary" post, it seems your own sense of humour is lost on you.

Back to the original topic ...

Who cares who funded the flight to N. Korea? If it's some calculated move by a lefty to garner favorable popular opinion, so what?

Just say, "It's nice they're back home" and move on.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
Vin, if you're spreading red boogies about PG's "Hillary" post, it seems your own sense of humour is lost on you.

Back to the original topic ...

Who cares who funded the flight to N. Korea? If it's some calculated move by a lefty to garner favorable popular opinion, so what?

Just say, "It's nice they're back home" and move on.

It's nice, they are back home.

:US_flag: :thumb:
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
A little more truth behind the facade . . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...reater-danger-sharing-plane-Bill-Clinton.html

In peril in Pyongyang? How jailed female journalists were in greater danger sharing a plane with Bill Clinton


By Sharon Churcher and Caroline Graham
Last updated at 1:34 AM on 10th August 2009



article-1205224-05FAA6E0000005DC-285_233x463.jpg
Taking flight: Bill Clinton greets the women as they board his plane at Pyongyang airport

The story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster. Two beautiful girls in peril, an evil North Korean dictator holding them captive and, riding to the rescue, Slick Willy himself, former President Bill Clinton.

As journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee collapsed, sobbing tears of joy, into the arms of their relieved families after being pardoned from a sentence of 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea, their palpable relief was perhaps enhanced by the flood of lucrative film, book and interview offers that came pouring in.

The pair had been arrested on the North Korea-China border last March, accused of illegal entry and spying.
Then, last Wednesday, the silver-tongued Clinton burst back on to the global political scene by flying to the world’s most secretive state for what its regime described as ‘sincere and exhaustive discussions’ with leader Kim Jong Il.

Little over 24 hours later, the diplomatic mission apparently a huge success, Clinton was on a flight back to California with the women in tow to be greeted by the world’s media.

As of last night, the bidding war for the first interview with the two heroines had reportedly reached ‘the mid six figures’. Book publisher HarperCollins is said to have offered a cool $1million for a ‘warts and all’ account of their life during 140 days ‘behind enemy lines’.


A movie deal will surely follow. Laura’s Scottish husband Iain Clayton, a 35-year-old mathematician turned financial analyst, told The Mail on Sunday from the steps of their modest ranch-style home in the less than salubrious suburb of North Hollywood: ‘I’m afraid I can’t say anything. No one is allowed to talk. We are in the process of doing deals and I don’t want to mess anything up. Everything is being handled by our media adviser.’

article-1205224-05F5D19A000005DC-861_468x610.jpg
Time to celebrate: Laura Ling, top, and Euna Lee arriving back in California


Emotional: Freed journalist Euna Lee, left, is embraced by her husband Michael Saldate and daughter Hannah safely in California

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Applause rings out: Bill Clinton claps as freed Laura Ling is hugged by former Vice President Al Gore at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California

Most of the breathless accounts of Clinton’s mercy dash to North Korea – aboard a luxury Boeing 737 jet belonging to Liz Hurley’s billionaire ex, Steve Bing – have taken up the story from the moment Laura and Euna were imprisoned back in March.

But who are these two fresh-faced women? What were they doing in North Korea, undoubtedly one of the most dangerous and repressed places in the world, and how on earth did they get themselves into what a friend jauntily described on one website as ‘a bit of a disastrous pickle’?

A Mail on Sunday investigation has unearthed some rather surprising facts about the pair – facts that show they were hopelessly ill-prepared for their ‘mission’ to the Chinese-Korean border, that they were working for a minor television organisation run by a former ambulance-chasing lawyer and, while they no doubt did not intend to be captured, the hapless twosome ended up as valuable pawns in an international game of bluff and double bluff.
Indeed, from the whole tawdry affair only one clear winner has emerged – an exuberant Bill Clinton – even if, according to an insider, ‘the joke in the White House was that the girls were safer in North Korea than on the plane going home with Bill’.

Yet much of the pressure for their release was generated in the UK by the family of Laura’s husband Iain. A letter-writing campaign was co-ordinated by his older brother Charles Clayton, who lives in Oxford. Other family members appealed to the North Koreans through their London ambassador.

Laura, 32, describes herself as a ‘Chinese American’, but a friend said: ‘She was brought up as a true Valley girl [an upper middle-class girl]. She’s about as Chinese as the cuisine at Chin Chin [a popular Californian-Chinese restaurant chain].’

Laura is said to be the duo’s ‘driving force’. Euna, 36, who had little journalism experience and counted making a yoga video as a career highlight, was her devoted lackey, who reportedly held the video camera as Laura ‘danced around’ on the North Korean side of the border.

For Euna, who was born in South Korea but moved to California when she was a university student, it was her first overseas assignment. The trip was Laura’s second ‘dangerous’ foreign job for Current, a Left-wing cable television network based in San Francisco that rather grandly aspires to ‘democratise’ the news.

Fronted by Clinton’s former Vice-President Al Gore, now a bona fide green activist, the station is the brainchild of Joel Hyatt, a fabulously wealthy 59-year-old lawyer who made his fortune running a chain of store-front legal offices.

In television adverts, he offered to launch massive lawsuits seeking compensation for the poor, saying: ‘I’m Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it.’ Critics, however, denounced him as a ‘shameless ambulance-chaser’.

The two women were sent to China in March to do a report about North Korean refugees pouring over the border. A source familiar with Current said: ‘It was the sort of bleeding-hearts liberal story that would play well to their target market. But then Laura decided to take it a step further.’

A hug for mum: Euna Lee is swept off her feet by Hannah and husband Michael Saldate
Laura, who is fiercely ambitious, has spent her life in the shadow of her more successful older sister, Lisa Ling. Both were raised by Doug Ling, a 72-year-old Chinese immigrant, in the middle-class, mostly white, mid-Californian city of Sacramento.
Lisa went from an early job in children’s television to an illustrious national career, co-hosting The View, the US equivalent of Loose Women, seen by 24million viewers a day.

She has been asked by talk-show doyenne Oprah Winfrey to host her own daytime show, due to start next year, and is married to a wealthy oncologist, Dr Paul Song. Their wedding was reported in the celebrity-obsessed People magazine as ‘Lisa Ling marries her Dr McDreamy’.

Jim Jordon, the sisters’ former high-school English teacher, said Laura was a scrupulous student who set her heart on following Lisa into journalism. ‘Laura worked on the school paper but she was just different from her sister,’ he said. ‘And more determined, in a sense.’

Relief: Laura Ling, top, and Euna Lee disembark from the plane that brought them, along with Bill Clinton, back from North Korea

Enlarge Reunited: Euna Lee, followed behind by Laura Ling, runs towards her family, front right, as Laura bursts into tears on sight of her husband Iain Clayton, back right

The Mail on Sunday has spoken to a long-time Democratic Party insider, who is a confidant of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, now President Obama’s Secretary of State.
‘Laura is sweet but not very street-smart,’ said the insider. ‘She was sent to China to make a routine programme about refugees crossing the border from North Korea but, according to Kim Jong Il’s people, she was walking across the border and leaping about.

‘The official North Korean report said Euna was holding the camera. Of course, there was speculation they were working for the CIA. Forget that. This has been a farce. It couldn’t be more embarrassing for Obama and the agency. No one hired these girls. No one in Washington had ever heard about them until they were captured by the North Koreans.

‘From everything I have heard about Laura, she is a Valley girl who wanted to play in the big league.

I think she did this as a stunt to compete with her sister. Lisa Ling works with people like Oprah. Laura earns peanuts at a network no one has heard of. This was her big chance.’

On March 17, Laura and Euna were arrested by North Korean soldiers after they ignored orders to stop filming. Then they vanished into the maw of the most isolated nation on Earth.

Warm reception: Laura Ling, front left, speaks into a microphone as former President Bill Clinton, back left, looks on with former former Vice President Al Gore, right, who has his arm around Ling's fellow journalist Euna Lee

Don't let go: Still clutching Hannah, Euna Lee gets a hug from Al Gore
Kim Jong Il has ruled it with absolute authority since 1994. He was born in the Forties, but his exact birthday is asecret. He wears platform shoes and a teased hairdo and is reputed to have had a string of lovers, both male and female. His hobby is watching old Hollywood movies including Rambo, Friday The 13th and James Bond.
When the girls were taken into custody, he was preparing to test a ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

A US State Department source said: ‘These two naive girls became useful pawns in a much bigger chess game. The North Koreans’ idea was to put them on trial, sentence them to prison camp and offer to free them for concessions.’

In fact, their ‘ordeal’ appears to have been far from tough. According to Professor Han Park, an American academic who was visiting North Korea at the time, they were housed in a guest villa designed for foreign visitors outside the capital of Pyongyang.

Professor Park said that Korean officials laughed at any suggestion that the women were receiving harsh treatment. ‘We are not Guantanamo,’ he was told.
The women were allowed to receive daily letters from their husbands and parcels from home.

Euna is married to struggling actor Michael Saldate, who has been in such B-movie classics as Absolute Debauchery and Man, Moment, Machine. They have a five-year-old daughter, Hana.

Laura’s husband, Iain, said he sent her ‘things she loved, like dried squid and beef jerky’.

In a letter dated May 15 – read aloud at a candlelit vigil for the two women, the organisers of which included a Broadway theatre publicist – Laura related that her routine included yoga and meditation. She said: ‘I breathe deeply and think about positive things that happened in the day.’
article-1204518-05F5E517000005DC-58_468x256.jpg
Jet-set: The private plane paid for by billionaire businessman Steve Bing, a friend of Clinton's, which brought the journalists back to the Bob Hope Airport in California

Indeed, her worst complaint was that her rice tasted like ‘rocks’.
The Clinton confidant said: ‘The women were a prize. Most people in North Korea would be lucky to be treated the way those girls were.’

For Bill Clinton, it was an easy mission. In a phone call to her husband a month ago, Laura said that if Clinton turned up, she and Euna would be granted amnesty.

The Clinton insider said: ‘Obama’s people suggested sending Al Gore, but Kim Jong Il only wanted Bill.

He idolises the former President because he thinks he is a virile stud with influence in Hollywood.’

Just as Laura fretted she was being overshadowed by her sister Lisa, Bill Clinton has found it increasingly hard to reconcile himself to life on the sidelines. When asked to undertake a ‘sensitive’ mission to ‘rescue’ the pair, he jumped at the chance.


More...



He was picked up at an airport near his home in the bucolic New York suburb of Chappaqua by a private jet laid on by the Dow Chemical company. It flew him 3,000 miles to Burbank, California, where he boarded a Boeing 737 provided by Steve Bing, one of his best friends and a generous contributor to the Clinton Foundation, the charity with which he has been occupying his post-Presidential years.

On arrival in North Korea, he was chauffeured to the Presidential Palace, where he was photographed posing alongside a triumphant Kim Jong Il. According to an observer, no words were exchanged. The women walked in, weeping, as they were told that they were being released.

The Clinton confidant said: ‘This wasn’t about the women – this was about a PR coup.

Barack Obama may have defeated Bill’s wife but this is the Clintons’ revenge. The North Koreans are talking about nuclear disarmament but they say they will talk only to Bill. It’s a win-win situation for everyone except Obama.

‘Two greenhorn journalists stand to make a financial killing. And Bill is on a roll now that everybody has bought into the official story.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...sharing-plane-Bill-Clinton.html#ixzz0NkD2VZSb
 

California

Charter Member
Site Supporter
Aw you're just jealous! :D

This was indeed Valley Girl Plays Nancy Drew. Cept she got busted. She probably was clowning around at the border checkpoint. She's cute; nobody ever called her bluff before. California is full of cuties like her. Now she's a celebrity!

I think this more a feature story for People Magazine, than significant international diplomacy.

And thanks to Bill for going over there. Who knew Jong had such a ****** for him!
 
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