"...Negotiations?!?"

...1/9/03: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador, became a surprise intermediary between the US and N Korea, meeting in his state with two envoys from the communist country...

...Washington, DC politics come to New Mexico, but without the Commander in Chief...talks with N Korea are conducted by the Democratic Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, 9 days after he assumed his new office...the governor has been in constant contact with Sec'y of Defense Colin Powell...

...over & over we are reminded that this is not an official negotiation...all eyes of Washington, DC & the world are focused on New Mexico...N Korea, along with Iraq & Iran are the 3 countries in President Bush's axis of evil...but N Korea is in a listening mode (so is the US)...even Britain is willing to take the time to listen...but N Korea did pull out of the world wide nuclear treaty...

...N Korea does not want a non-agression treaty with the US...it wants nuclear power to produce electricity...but, it has also threatened a holy war with the US...

...these have also been identified as nuclear talks...the talks continue one day longer than expected...the Korean ambassador visited the Plaza in Santa Fe, as well as the Inn of the Anasazi...the restaurant could now be considered the place where ambassadors (or delegates or diplomats) meet...he dined on chili...this has been a low-key event in terms of media coverage...only 3 stations beside Channel 7 aired updates on the talks, which lasted more than 7 hours...the main purpose is to prevent the start of World War 3!...

...1/12/03: N Korea insisted that it never admitted having a secret nuclear program, sending another conflicting signal in the escalating crisis over its alleged plans to build nuclear weapons as a US envoy began talks in S Korea on the standoff...in October, the US said N Korea had admitted having a weapons program. That announcement touched off the latest standoff, which has led to N Korea's decision last week to withdraw from the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty...

...what has happened will hopefully help the state's economy & tourism...there were no problems or incidents or accidents during the entire 3 days of talks...it provided great exposure for Santa Fe & New Mexico...the center of peaceful negotiations & discusssions...

...these talks were considered unofficial, per Gov. Richardson, who was contacted by the N Korean government itself in DEC, 2002...he has spoken several times to Colin Powell...at the end of the talks, the governor actually used the word negotiations...

...Gov. Richardson stated that the N Korean start by issuing belligerent & harsh statements, then talk about them, to come to terms with the other or opposing side(s)...the fact that the talks took place is the important factor, not the outcome...tension still remains between the two countries...no official schedule for US/NK talks, so far...and again, the N Koreans want to start the nuclear power plant to generate electricity, not to make missles...

...the US is now willing to confer directly with N Korea...the global reaction is that talks should start now...they also express a desire to help this country with its energy problems...N Korea says it needs weapons to defend itself against countries like the US...N & S Korea will meet for discussions in Soeul...China will mediate talks between the US & N Korea...

...1/18/03: high-level US officials last month discussed the possibility of attacking N Korea because of its nuclear activities but later decided to seek a peaceful solution, S Korea's president-elect said...the remarks by Roh Moo-hyun, who was elected president on 12/19/02, shed light on an alleged debate within the US government over how to deal with the communist country after it declared it would reactivate old nuclear facilities capable of making bombs...1/19/03: but, the President-elect did not mean to suggest that US leaders considered attacking N Korea over its nuclear activities, a spokesman said, as diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff intensified...a top Russian envoy presented N Korean leaders with a plan to settle the dispute, and the US ambassador to S Korea said Washington would consider a wide range of aid to the impoverished, communist nation...

...1/13/03: top weapons inspectors said they need months to search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction but getting that time may depend on whether Iraq provides new evidence about its nuclear, chemical and biological programs...Chief UN inspector Hans Blix said Iraq must answer outstanding questions about its weapons programs or may face the possibility of war...Blix said he and Mohamed ElBaredi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will deliver this message to the Iraqi government when they visit Baghdad...We are perhaps 250 or 300 people on the inspection side. We cost about $80 million a year. If you take the armed path, you are talking about $100 billion, you're talking about 250,000 men, you're talking about a lot of people killed and injured, a lot of damage. So I think the whole world prefers a peaceful solution if you can have one that is credible ...Blix & ElBaradei reiterated Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration didn't contain any new evidence and although Iraq has cooperated in providing access to sites, it hasn't provided the information inspectors need to verify its claim that it has no banned weapons and long-range missiles to deliver them...

...so President Bush is in a bind...he cannot keep over 100,000+ soldiers deployed for an indefinite period of time...but he also cannot pull them out of the Persian Gulf until Saddam Husein is no longer in control of Iraq...stealth bombers are also being sent to that region, some stationed in NM...these jets have speeds of 700 mph...but war is not the best option, and our battle plans neeed to be more defined & planned...2 of the employees in the HCC building have sons who are being shipped to the Persian Gulf...the National Guard has also been called into action...

...1/15/03: Iraq has complained to the UN about a plan for using US spy planes to aid inspectors' search for illicit weapons, a top US military officer said...Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news briefing that the Bush administration had offered U-2s, which provide high-altitude surveillance, and Predator unmanned aircraft, which fly low and send live television images of surveillance targets to command posts on the ground...1/18/03: Turkey has downsized the number of US troops it will allow to be stationed there...Ireland does not want US jets refueling in Shannon, for fear of terrorist attacks...

...1/15/03: Bush is sick & tired of games & deceptions...he is losing patience, and time is running out for Iraq...stealth planes will be leaving from Holloman AFB...

"...On Heightened Alert!"

...1/18/03: protest rallies against the war in Iraq were held during the weekend celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr....locales include Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR; Indianapolis, Phoenix, Des Moines, IA; Lansing, MI & Venice, FL plus cities around the world, such as Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax, Nova Scotia...farther away, there were marches in New Zealand (people turned their backs to the US embassy, and signs indicated that America was a Rogue Nation & Global Cannibal), Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, India, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt; Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France & Belgium...

...1/18/03: marches were held in downtown ABQ (blocking Gibson), Corrales, Farmington, Las Cruces & Silver City...SunTran's routes bypassed Central Ave & headed west on Lomas...a passer-by informed Brad & I of this change, as we stood waiting @Copper near 5th...1/19/03: MLK, Jr march held; parade route followed MLK, Jr AVE to the Civic Center downtown...

...one protestor's remarks: So as they send the troops [war] there and surround Iraq, we're sending the troops [anti-war] into the streets of Washington, D.C., so to speak...

...and the president's comments: I think the president welcomes the fact that we are a democracy and people in the United States, unlike Iraq, are free to protest and to make their case known...

...1/16/03: casements found in Iraq...empty warheads = "smoking guns"...any comments, Saddam?...1/18/03: as an alternative to war, Arab governments are reportedly pressing for Saddam Husein to go into exile...and Defense Secy Donald H Rumsfeld said he would grant senior Iraqi leaders immunity from possible war crimes prosecution if it would clear the way for their exile...as he stated on ABC-TV's This Week, I ... personally would recommend that some provision be made so that the senior leadership in that country and their families could be provided haven in some other country, and I think that that would be a fair trade to avoid a war...Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says any war against the United States will be decided on the ground...but he acknowledged that Iraqi forces could be hurt by America's ability to fight from afar...these comments came in a meeting with his military leaders...1/19/03: as a sign that Baghdad might be more forthcoming, Blix said that the Iraqis told them during the talks that they had found four more empty chemical weapons warheads similar to 12 others discovered by UN inspectors at an ammunition dump south of Baghdad...the US military advantage: night vision & night weapons...

...1/19/03: Peter Jennings is reporting from Baghdad...Iraq may be intimidating its scientists to not volunteer for interviews...1/20/03: after two days of talks, the chief UN arms inspectors and Iraqi officials agreed on practical steps to greater Iraqi cooperation in the UN disarmament program, including Baghdad's encouragement of weapons scientists to submit to private UN interviews...1/20/03: Secretary of State Colin Powell implored other nations to face up to Saddam Hussein, saying the world body cannot shrink from its responsibility to disarm Iraq...We cannot be shocked into impotence because we're afraid of the difficult choices ahead of us, Powell told members of the UN Security Council....still; France, Germany & Russia oppose the idea of a war...

...1/20/03: in potentially important concessions, the Iraqis agreed to encourage weapons scientists to submit to private interviews with UN inspectors and promised to search their stocks for more chemical rocket warheads like the 16 empty munitions found in two Iraq locations in recent days...

...1/20/03: a top Russian diplomat said talks with N Korea's leader made progress toward ending the nuclear weapons crisis but warned a resolution would take time...

..1/25/03: the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration, under pressure from allies abroad and Democrats at home not to hasten into war, was expected to let UN inspections go on for several more weeks at least...more on these issues will be found in a notebook I''ve created...