June 26, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
38:27
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| Thanks, Johnny Donovan. | |
| It's a pleasure to be here. | |
| Mike Mamon running the controls and H.R. Kit Carson, executive producer is off today. | |
| But Bo Snurdly is here at the soggy East Coast branch of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, where there is never a final exam, but we are tested every day. | |
| And I am fellow student, Paul W. Smith, merely a teaching assistant at this August institution. | |
| Happy to tell you that Russia returns to this chair and Golden EIB microphone tomorrow. | |
| The conversation continues. | |
| Your calls always very important to us at 1-800-282-2882. | |
| That's 1-800-282-2882. | |
| You can also go to RushLimbaugh.com for a variety of reasons, not the least of which would be to talk to us. | |
| Happy to uh continue the education uh Professor Bill Gertz is with us. | |
| He is defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times, and we're about to be schooled on all things national security-wise, whether it be on North Korea, Iraq, and Iran, and it is a pleasure. | |
| Uh Bill, Paul W. Smith, nice to have you on. | |
| Hi, Paul, good to be with you. | |
| Well, there's a lot going on. | |
| In fact, uh, we've got leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee saying yesterday that the administration should talk one-on-one directly with North Korea as uh concerns grow over a possible test launch of a missile that could reach the U.S. Senators rejecting the idea by a former defense secretary that the U.S. make a preemptive strike against a North Korean missile or even shoot one down. | |
| Today, uh there's a lot more going on, trying to use diplomacy to halt North Korea's apparent launch. | |
| Uh we've got uh Japan saying that all options would be considered, including oil and food sanctions if the communist country tests that missile that could reach the U.S. And we've got uh South Korea's foreign minister heading to China, key U.S. lawmakers calling for these direct talks, as I mentioned. | |
| What do you say about all this, Bill? | |
| Well, it's a uh it's kind of a bubbling crisis uh with this pending missile test. | |
| Uh I've talked to people at the Pentagon who are pretty convinced that uh the North Koreans are going to go ahead and and uh launch this tapodong at some point, uh, probably over the next five to ten days, although uh the thinking uh among the uh policy people is that this is brinksmanship on the part of the North Koreans uh to try to wrest some concessions, uh like direct talks that uh some of the Democrats are calling for. | |
| Uh I don't think that's gonna happen. | |
| Uh the U.S. position is sure. | |
| We'll talk to uh uh North Korea, but it's got to be part of the six-party talks, which North Korea uh walked away from recently. | |
| And and this concern about doing one-on-one now to try to stave this off, saying that the United States has a specific interest because we're talking about this missile being able to reach us, holds no water with you. | |
| Uh well, you know, I think we trumped them on that. | |
| Uh the activation of our missile defense system uh really was uh a signal to the North Koreans uh hey, if you want to try to launch this missile, uh expect that it could be shot down in space. | |
| Would you think that that's a good thing? | |
| Do you think if they do launch a test, in fact, uh Bill Gertz, we should shoot it down, or is that the I think it would be a tremendous signal, not just to North Korea, but to countries like Iran and uh even China that uh uh we now have the capability to defend our territory from a missile attack, which a lot of countries are investing huge amounts of money in long-range missiles in order to be able to reach out and hit the United States. | |
| Uh, on the other hand, God forbid if we missed or failed, that really would send a message we don't want to send either. | |
| Well, uh I would just uh point out that General Trey Obring, the head of the missile defense agency, said last week it he's highly confident. | |
| Uh I've studied our missile defense uh system in depth. | |
| It is rudimentary, it is in the early stages, but uh we have eleven interceptors, and uh I can tell you that we we wouldn't need all of them to shoot down one of these uh North Korean tapodong warheads. | |
| So you're not going to look for uh first of all, you're not gonna look for the uh Bush administration to talk directly with North Korea without our partners, without Japan, uh South Korea, Russia, China, etc. | |
| Uh, and you would look for if in fact the missile launch, if the testing goes through that we would shoot it out of the sky. | |
| Any chance of shooting it off the launching pad? | |
| Yeah, I don't think that's an option. | |
| And the reason is is because that's uh even though using the missile defense system is somewhat uh uh unusual, uh taking preemptive action on North Korean territory is a different story and the problem there is that you have this million troop army of North Korea uh most of its forces deployed uh within sixty miles of the demilitarized zone uh that's the kind of thing that could touch off another Korean war so that's very unlikely but | |
| uh if they were to shoot it we have this system in place where first a satellite would detect it then ships and other radar would track it and if they get the they can tell right away where it's headed and if it's headed for Japan or for Hawaii or Alaska or the continental U.S. Uh the President has about oh twenty minutes, twenty to thirty minutes to say hey let's take it out. | |
| They they can tell right away where it's headed that's amazing. | |
| Yes uh the the thing about these kind of ballistic missiles is they don't change course uh they don't have the capability to change course and if they do they they c they can change they can still detect it uh of course the last stage is the most critical here that's the uh the reentry vehicle and again it's moving at you know a bullet speed and so you have interceptors that have to go just that fast and they crash into it and that's how they destroy it. | |
| This is your excellent opportunity to speak directly with Bill Gertz defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times one eight hundred two eight two two eight eight two one eight hundred two eight two twenty eight eighty two we'll get your calls here in just a moment. | |
| Bill also the author of a number of books including Treachery how America's friends and foes are secretly arming our enemies. | |
| What's the what would be the list of our friends and foes that secretly helped North Korea get to this point. | |
| Well clearly uh the Chinese have been covertly helping the North Koreans. | |
| We know that that they've provided missile technology uh the Russians have been doing that as well. | |
| Uh we also know that the uh uh AQ Khan network that is the covert nuclear supplier group uh the Pakistani group uh has supplied uranium enrichment technology which really touched off the whole uh standoff and led to the six party talks do do either of those since you mentioned uh the Chinese and the Russians do do either of them have they said oops maybe we shouldn't have done that are they regretting their moves now? | |
| No actually I my view is that those uh states are actually engaged in kind of a a a covert anti US uh uh policy especially the Chinese they see helping America's enemies as a way to undermine the United States. | |
| They don't like the idea that we're the only superpower and they're uh publicly they like to trade they're they're all smiles and handshakes but behind the scenes uh they're working to help our enemies just uh two weeks ago the State Department sanctioned China a number of Chinese companies for selling missile technology to Iran. | |
| And so this is a huge problem and uh we haven't seen the Chinese government come out strongly to say to tell North Korea don't conduct this test. | |
| And I think that was really very telling showing where the uh uh uh China the Chinese government's uh true sympathies lie. | |
| Before we move on to Iran and Iraq let's let our listeners uh weigh in to the Rush Limbaugh show and Paul in Hollywood Florida you're up first and uh say hello to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. | |
| Paul? | |
| Oh hi Paul Hi. | |
| Uh I'm calling to comment on the North Korean missile and it's kind of like the uh I think the average man in the street would agree that here's a here's a s situation where we have a chance to flatten the bully. | |
| We all know that you have to stand up to a bully to back him down. | |
| So this guy is is uh threatening us with the missile launch the insanely it of North Korea. | |
| Why don't we act like a superpower and I saw uh expert on TV here the other night it it would be like a dunk shot of couple of Polaris missiles from the submarine and that missile is out. | |
| And we've we have a chance to bat to back Iran down because Iran is in there kinda double teaming us with North Korea now. | |
| Well let's let uh let's let uh Bill I think he knows what you're talking about and what your feelings are about standing up to the bully. | |
| Let's let Bill give his opinion on that. | |
| Um the big problem here is South Korea. | |
| South Korea is engaged in kind of a pro North Korea engagement uh policy known as the Sunshine Policy, and they're uh trying very hard to it's it's almost borders on appeasement in in many ways. | |
| That has really complicated efforts to get tough with North Korea. | |
| On the other hand, you have the Japanese, which uh, you know, are totally reliant, or not totally, but I'd say ninety percent reliant for their defense on the United States, and they're very worried about North Korea. | |
| Um I think there is a uh a link uh with Iran. | |
| Uh the fact that the uh Europeans uh with the uh acquiescence of the United States uh made some concessions to Iran and basically agreed to talk to them. | |
| And I think that that was uh quickly noticed by Kim Jong-il, the uh the dictator in North Korea, and he figures if uh if those nations are willing to make concessions that he can get some concessions out of the U.S. as well. | |
| Let's do a quick uh check with uh Jeff in Warren, Michigan, uh my uh hometown area. | |
| Jeff, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh show. | |
| Thank you, Paul. | |
| Mega Detroit Tiger Ditto's to you. | |
| How about them tigers, huh? | |
| It's been a long time. | |
| You know, my concern is everybody is all up in arms about a test firing of this missile. | |
| Shouldn't we in fact be concerned that they have the missile in the first place? | |
| Well, you know, that's what I was gonna that's what I was gonna say to Paul in Hollywood, Florida, but you make a very good point to Jeff. | |
| They all all they're saying right now, all they're threatening right now is the testing of the missile, and they claim just like we have a right to test missiles, they have a right to test missiles. | |
| But let's hear what Bill Gertz says. | |
| Yeah, this is a very interesting question. | |
| You know, most nations with long-range missiles or even space launchers, when they conduct a test, they announce it well in advance, and they also issue what they call notice to mariners and notice to airmen. | |
| Basically it says don't travel in these areas uh during a certain time period. | |
| The North Koreans didn't didn't do that the last time they tested a missile in 1998 that went uh several thousand miles. | |
| Uh you add to that the fact that uh North Korea on a daily basis issues the most vitriolic uh rhetoric against the United States, threatening to turn countries into a sea of fire. | |
| Uh there's no way you can tell whether the missile is a test missile or an actual launch. | |
| Excellent point. | |
| That's an excellent point. | |
| And I'm Jeff, I'm glad you brought that up from Warren, Michigan. | |
| That's an excellent point. | |
| We'll continue that thought. | |
| These excellent thoughts from Bill Gertz, Defense and National Security Reporter for the Washington Times here on the Rush Limbaugh program. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith. | |
| Well, I'm enjoying our conversation with Bill Gert's defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times. | |
| He is an expert in all these areas. | |
| Uh enemies, how America's foes steal our vital secrets, a number of books that he's written, The China Threat, How the People's Republic Targets America, breakdown how America's intelligence failure led to September 11th betrayal, how the Clinton administration undermined American security. | |
| So we get to learn a lot from a specialist like you, Bill, and I'm glad you're sharing your talents with our Rush Limbaugh listeners who are calling in at 1800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882 on this, their favorite radio station that gives them a chance to speak with luminaries such as Bill Gertz. | |
| And that includes Victor in Silver Spring, Maryland. | |
| Victor, welcome. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Uh Mr. Gertz, my um question to you is how come the administration won't do anything about the liberal uh drive-by media, especially the New York Times, that constantly um give our secrets away to our enemies. | |
| The latest would be how the administration uses bank records to track our enemies. | |
| They seem to to really uh jump up and down for joy every time they give away one of our secrets. | |
| If this had happened during World War II, we would have lost. | |
| Well, you know that we spoke with uh Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez about this last hour and former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, and they have to be somewhat restrained in their opinions, but I don't think you have to be, Bill. | |
| Sure. | |
| Well, you know, I have a uh an interesting view on this. | |
| First of all, uh I'm no fan of the New York Times or the Washington Post, but I am a newspaper reporter. | |
| And I do do know that the it's interesting that the Bush administration uh has a problem with the press. | |
| They don't like the press, they don't get good coverage, and and and it it's it's a really a tough situation, and I think that part of that ends up being that there's no cooperation when there needs to be on something like this uh financial uh operation as well as on the NSA. | |
| Uh that's just the nature of government press relations. | |
| Um it's not good that it came out, but on the other hand, I would make the point too that uh having this financial program or even the NSA program is not going to stop the next Al Qaeda attack. | |
| It really highlights the need for better human intelligence. | |
| That is spies who can get inside or get close to this group and its affiliates, and we haven't been able to do that. | |
| We're very good at the technical spying, very bad at the human spying. | |
| Uh as one intelligence uh official put it to me, you can sum up uh the CIA today in two words no spies, at least no spies where we really need them. | |
| So that's kind of my view on it. | |
| And it kind of ties in with the next question, I think that Tim has from Northburg in New Jersey, uh, who is joining us on the Rush Limbaugh program. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith along with Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. | |
| Is this kind of in line with what you're asking, Tim? | |
| Seems to be, yes, I think so. | |
| And that is uh the question is whether or not we know or can we surmise that the technology deployed in the North Korean missile, particularly in the guidance systems, is a result of that Lorale flap from the Ron Brown Clinton administration uh, I I thought you were gonna I thought you were getting to the point of the fact that the CIA and uh and all of our national security was decimated during the Clinton administration. | |
| I'm sorry, I that's a that's what I thought you were getting at. | |
| Well, I mean that that's a that's obviously a follow-up point. | |
| But I guess more directly uh I I recalled that the Loral flap and there was technology that that was moved from the purview of the Defense Department to Blacklist off to the Commerce Department. | |
| Um and I wondered whether or not that's the technology that's in that missile that's sitting on the pad today. | |
| Bill? | |
| Well, the uh the the simple answer is we don't know. | |
| Now it probably is. | |
| Now if if you recall, the Laurel Hughes scandal was when during the Clinton administration, they really let down their guard on the transfer of sensitive technology. | |
| Uh and uh Chinese missiles were blowing up on the launch pad uh at a pretty good rate, and uh the US was launching satellites on those boosters and uh uh there wasn't con there weren't good controls, and as a result they they passed the most sensitive technology uh you can. | |
| It was electrical related, and it made sure that those Chinese rockets didn't blow up on the launch pad. | |
| What these companies failed to realize, and they were fined millions of dollars later, was that the same technology that improves space launchers is also used to improve their uh uh long range ballistic missiles. | |
| In the case of North Korea, we've got a liquid fueled missile. | |
| The interesting thing is liquid fuel missiles and China has those as well, uh, but they're moving to solid fuel. | |
| With a liquid fuel missile, it takes several days to get the fuel into the fuel tanks of these missiles, so it gives you some warning time. | |
| With solid fuel, uh they're ready to go at really a moment's notice. | |
| Uh the last time North Korea tested a missile was August 1998. | |
| Uh we know from intelligence that they have been continuing to develop that tapodong missile. | |
| They've had eight years. | |
| So we really don't know how much better uh how much of a longer range, how much more accurate this uh latest missile is. | |
| You know, it occurs to me when you say that, and Tim, good question. | |
| Uh you're you're mentioning Chinese rockets blowing up on the launch pad. | |
| When you said earlier, Bill Gertz, that uh last time they did a test, nineteen ninety-eight, North Korea did a test, they gave no warning. | |
| I'm thinking they gave no warning because they had no idea what might happen, and if they didn't announce it and then fail, it wouldn't look like they failed. | |
| That is true, yes. | |
| And uh the analysis, the intelligence analysis of that original tapodong launch uh was that they they defin demonstrated some fundamental long range missile capabilities, namely the ability to put several boosters together and have those boosters separate. | |
| That's really one of the key elements of a long range missile. | |
| Uh the next step after that is you've got to be able to put a uh a heavy enough warhead on it. | |
| Uh in the case of North Korea, the obvious need there is that they want a nuclear warhead. | |
| And we do know from uh the Libyan disarmament that China supplied Pakistan with design information on how to make a small warhead. | |
| And documents on that turned up in Libya. | |
| And the question then is uh did Iran and North Korea, who were both recipients of the AQ Con network, get the same data? | |
| And the thinking is yes. | |
| So that's really the question. | |
| Not just can they launch a long-range missile and have it travel, but can they match it up with a nuclear warhead, which North Korea claims that they already have uh a small number of nuclear weapons. | |
| Dennis is listening to the Rush Limbaugh Show on his favorite station here in St. Louis. | |
| Dennis, say hi to Bill Gertz. | |
| Hey, Bill, how are you? | |
| Thanks for uh taking my call. | |
| Uh my question to you, Bill is uh how far do you think Israel will let Iran go before they they take some type of print of against their nuclear capabilities if the U.S. isn't willing to take any, you know, uh action against them. | |
| Do you think Israel will act alone and how do you see that whole scenario playing out? | |
| And um one quick question, maybe I don't know if I've ever heard you address this before. | |
| Do you think there is any credibility to the nuclear suitcases that you hear that are spread out throughout the world or in the United States? | |
| Maybe if you have a second you can touch on that, I'll hang up and listen to your answer. | |
| Okay, sure. | |
| On the first part, um uh the Israelis have a very good uh capability, uh air strike capability, but I think that Iran and the Iranian nuclear facilities are probably outside of their uh basically aircraft range. | |
| Now they could do it if the U.S. were to help them uh with landing and so forth, but the U.S. doesn't want to do that. | |
| Right now we're in the diplomacy mode. | |
| Uh the Israelis again are uh very, very worried about the Iranian nuclear capability. | |
| We know they have six hundred and twenty mile range Shahab III missiles, uh, and they're working on getting a warhead for that. | |
| Again, the small warhead design information found in Libya probably went uh to Iran. | |
| So that's a big uh concern, but I don't think they have the legs to be able to conduct something unilaterally, so it'll be a while. | |
| Plus the the Israelis also believe that it's gonna be probably another few years before the Iranians actually have a bomb, probably uh uh two thousand nine. | |
| From North Korea to Iraq and Iran, he's an expert in all of these areas, and he's sharing his expertise with us, Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. | |
| As we continue on the Rush Limbaugh program. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith. | |
| It's a Rush Limbaugh program. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith, Rush back in the chair tomorrow. | |
| 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882. | |
| If you'd like to speak with Bill Gertz, Defense and National Security Reporter for the Washington Times, based on some of the things we've been talking about. | |
| I think many of you would be interested in the uh specific book, Betrayal, how the Clinton administration undermined American security, but all of his books are are very good. | |
| Uh and uh his columns also in the Washington Times. | |
| And uh taking your calls and uh getting his opinion on some of your thoughts and your opinions as well. | |
| Mike is on the line and uh Mike is uh checking in with Bill Gertz right now. | |
| Hello, Mike. | |
| Hi, I'm calling from El Segundo, California. | |
| Um thank you very much, Chelma. | |
| I'd like to first thank Bill for his excellent books and Washington Times articles, and it's unfortunate that most of the news media is too incompetent to provide us with the excellent information that you, Bill and the Washington Times, do provide us with. | |
| Okay, on to my question. | |
| Um Bill, do you think it's possible or probable that North Korea is now in um threatening to launch this missile acting as a surrogate for China, hoping that we will try to knock it down with our missile defense system so China can collect valuable um radar frequency and performance data to try to use to overcome our missile defense system. | |
| Wow, what another good, excellent question. | |
| These Limbaugh listeners, Bill, as you know, are uh top notch. | |
| Uh that is a good question. | |
| Unfortunately, uh Chinese intelligence gathering has been so successful that I'm sure that they have a pretty good understanding of our uh current ground-based interceptor missile defense system. | |
| Um so I don't think that they really need it. | |
| This would be a real world test of uh our missile defense system, which is a little different than some of the uh the organized tests that we have. | |
| The Chinese do not like missile defense because they've made a huge investment in long-range ballistic missiles. | |
| Uh the latest uh Pentagon report on the Chinese military highlights this that They have uh three uh new long range missiles that are being deployed within the next few years, including uh at least two that can hit the United States. | |
| One of them is a submarine launched missile, and uh they have been uh very loudly agitating uh along with the Russians uh uh against missile defenses, which is kind of unusual when you think about it because a missile defense system is purely defensive, and yet they make uh kind of a tortured argument that uh missile defense is is merely going to enhance uh U.S. offensive missile capabilities, which really haven't developed uh much since the Cold War. | |
| How many um Chinese spies do you think there are in the U.S.? | |
| I read that there are supposedly about two thousand in Canada alone. | |
| There are a huge number. | |
| And uh in fact, just on Friday, I uh w reported exclusively in the Times that a former defense intelligence agency analyst pleaded guilty uh to one count of illegally withholding documents. | |
| Ronald Monteperto? | |
| Yes, and as part of the plea agreement, he admitted passing both secret level and top secret level uh classified information to Chinese intelligence agents. | |
| The amazing thing to me is that there hasn't been almost any other press that's reported this, and this was a uh you know, a published uh court case. | |
| Good questions, uh, Mike and El Segundo, thanks for checking in. | |
| Wally's in Lubbock, Texas on the Rush Limbaugh Show. | |
| Wally? | |
| Yes, sir. | |
| Uh my question for y'all was uh I know y'all said chances of us missing are slim to none, but what happens if we do miss? | |
| What kind of message will that send to everybody else? | |
| Well, um, you know, it's possible, sure, uh, that it couldn't work, but like I say, with we have eleven interceptors, and probably I'd say, you know, ninety per se percent of them have been put on uh operational mode. | |
| And uh, you know, we could hit it with one, we could it might take two or it might take three, but uh the fact that we would miss, I don't think we would miss because uh that being the case, we it it would send a message. | |
| That said, uh the Pentagon has made no uh bones about the fact that it's a very fundamental and it's in the early stages of deployment and it's going to get better and better. | |
| In fact, uh they're negotiating right now to put a a third interceptor site in Europe, either in Poland or Britain or uh Romania, and that would be provide the continent with protection against Iranian missiles. | |
| All right, uh Wally, thanks. | |
| Ben is in Madison, Wisconsin on the Rush Limbaugh Show with Bill Gertz, Defense and National Security Reporter for the Washington Times. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith, Infor Rush. | |
| What's on your mind, Ben? | |
| Hi, gentlemen. | |
| Um I've always been intrigued with the uh e-bomb. | |
| Uh, we didn't use it in the last Gulf War. | |
| But wouldn't that have the capability of frying the avionics of an ICBM either in its silo or out, and therefore be a non-lethal form of uh uh interdiction other than a couple uh pacemakers? | |
| That's a good question. | |
| Um you're referring to electromagnetic pulse weapons, which are kind of on the drawing board at this point, is my understanding. | |
| I know we've used some of them, we have used them in past conflicts, more uh tactical devices, things that spread chaff and can disrupt communications and electronics, but I'm not sure that they have uh uh uh electromagnetic uh pulse weapon that could knock out uh uh uh a missile. | |
| Uh because once the thing's launched, again it becomes a lot of people. | |
| I was thinking on the ground. | |
| Excuse me? | |
| I was thinking while it was still on the ground. | |
| Well, we did discuss earlier, Ben, maybe you didn't hear uh how that would not be a particularly good idea right now. | |
| Yeah, but even that might yeah, uh that might work if we had it. | |
| We have a number of ways of getting it while it's still on the ground. | |
| Sure, they could use uh J Dams for that matter, but again, it's just a little bit beyond the threshold of uh the risk they want to take in terms of uh the standoff between North and South Korea. | |
| Appreciate the uh the call, Ben. | |
| And uh Bill Gertz wrote in his Washington Times uh story just the other day that the Pentagon, of course, as we've been talking about, activated the new U.S. ground-based interceptor missile defense system, but that the intelligence officials say preparations have advanced there in North Korea to the point where a launch in fact could take place within several days to a month. | |
| What's your best guess? | |
| Well, um it's hard to say. | |
| Uh you know, uh someone mentioned to me that there is a precedent where the North Koreans had actually fueled up a missile and then defueled it and basically stood down from the test. | |
| Um the problem is to defuel a missile is a very complicated and hazardous uh thing, and uh you really can't do it without basically ruining the entire missile. | |
| So if they don't have a lot of these tapodongs uh lying around in caves up there, and and there's a good chance they they may, uh they're not going to want to uh risk defueling it. | |
| So the the thinking is they could uh test launch it. | |
| Like I say, uh the people at the Pentagon uh think that this is part of uh Brinksmanship by the North Koreans and and that they may in fact go ahead with a launch. | |
| A nuclear game of chicken potentially. | |
| Uh Steve is in Tom's River, New Jersey and on the Rush Limbaugh show. | |
| Steve. | |
| Is there uh uh I want to ask if there's any known or suspected connection between uh the Iranian government and the insurgency that is giving uh so much trouble in Iraq. | |
| And secondly, I've heard that the uh our government has the ability to uh detect uh these spinning centrifuges for enriching uranium from space, but uh the Iranians I want to know if the Iranians are working on a way to uh uh protect themselves from being heard. | |
| Uh okay. | |
| Uh on the first point, it's very clear uh to U.S. intelligence that the Iranian government through its Ministry of Intelligence and Security, known as MOIS, and it's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the IRGC, and they have a special division. | |
| They are very, very active uh in in the tens to scores of uh agents providing uh direction, providing money, uh mainly to the Shiites who are part of the uh insurgency there. | |
| Um they have a vested interest in trying to uh keep uh Iraq uh unstable and and that's a big problem. | |
| And uh the Bush administration really hasn't come to grips with that. | |
| They they've kind of issued kind of threats to the Iranians, but uh not much is being done. | |
| On the centrifuge issue, um I'm not aware that they can detect centrifuges from uh with uh satellites. | |
| There may be some other technical means of doing that, but the big problem with the centrifuges in both uh Iran and suspected uh in uh uh North Korea is that all of these things are being done in underground facilities. | |
| Now they've located and identified probably seven or eight of the main Iranian nuclear facilities, and they have obviously have uh gun sites or missile sites or bomb sites on those targets, but uh the Iranians haven't been fully cooperating with what they have. | |
| Bill, can you stick around just a little longer? | |
| A lot of people want to speak with you. | |
| Sure. | |
| We'd love that. | |
| Bill Gertz, Defense and National Security Reporter for the Washington Times. | |
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| As we continue the Rush Limbaugh show. | |
| I'm Paul W. Smith. | |
| You know, uh all of us of a certain age remember the air raid drills where we used to get under our desks in our classrooms or in the lunchroom. | |
| I think I've tried I remember at St. Mary's Grade School or Catholic Central now, St. Mary's Catholic Central in Monroe, Michigan. | |
| I think we got under the tables in the lunchroom as if that was gonna help us if uh hellfire came raining down from the sky. | |
| But I want to ask Bill Gertz, because he's the expert, defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times. | |
| What is our worst case scenario here? | |
| Are we going back to those times when we have uh real fears or at at times they were imagined, but real fears of uh of a real Holocaust with these missiles coming down? | |
| Yes, it's uh it's certainly uh an interesting uh phenomenon the fact that uh a country like North Korea that's uh a totalitarian communist dictatorship that starved its people and yet has managed to produce and test in the past a a long range missile that can hit the United States. | |
| Uh it has a certain uh chilling effect and focusing uh the mind on the problem of long range missiles and uh and if there's anything good to come out of it I think that's it. | |
| But yeah it's my my brother who lives on the West Coast called me and he said hey can this thing hit the West Coast and I said well you know uh it can but the question is what kind of warhead is on there. | |
| They've done analyses at the Defense Intelligence Agency that say that if you put a small enough warhead, say, with some kind of biological or chemical weapon, you could reach the continental United States with this Taepodong. | |
| And, you know, of course, you couldn't do perhaps widespread damage. | |
| But, again, there's a lot of unknown questions about North Korea's weapons capability. | |
| So it's definitely raising the question of a new kind of Cold War long-range methodology. | |
| missile threat something to definitely take very seriously Matt is in Freeport Maine on the Rush Limbaugh show with Bill Gertz. | |
| Hi Mr. Gertz and hi Paul um very interesting topic it's something I haven't thought about uh I've been a great deal since I was a teenager um but something has occurred to me and you almost got on the topic was uh submarine launches what would happen if uh Korea was helped by China for example to get a submarine close to the shore and then launch uh a short range missile or even a long range missile uh would our interceptors catch it then good question um at this | |
| point, it doesn't look like North Korea has a ballistic missile, submarine ballistic missile capability. | |
| The Chinese do. | |
| They have one, what they call a Shia-class submarine. | |
| It's kind of outdated, and it hasn't left port for a long time. | |
| They are building a brand new submarine-launched missile and a new submarine to carry that, so they have that, but the North Koreans don't. | |
| That said, there is a real concern that they could, say, take a a freighter and put one of their scud missiles on it keep it wrapped up or disguise it as some kind of freight uh on a on a ship and uh get close to U.S. shores and then fire one off. | |
| Uh and that is a real danger. | |
| In fact uh there is intelligence that Iran's government has done that uh that they've actually test fired a scud type that is a three hundred mile range ballistic missile from the deck of a uh a merchant vessel. | |
| Very quickly to Bruce in Greensboro, North Carolina. | |
| Bruce you're with Bill Gertz. | |
| Thank you so much for taking the call. | |
| Sitting here listening to your discussions of the Korean motivations and the way they go about things, I was very concerned or curious about your impression as to whether the Koreans might have in the back of their mind that they might destroy the missile themselves on the site in a fake launch and claim we did it in order to provoke some type of | |
| confrontation, Or if the missile were to fail upon launch, they would also claim that we had destroyed it. | |
| Wow. | |
| That's entirely possible. | |
| Uh the North Koreans are very good at deception and those kind of strategic deception operations. | |
| In fact when they did the 1998 tapodong launch uh the the last stage of it failed to enter orbit and they which is what they claimed was a satellite that they were actually trying to launch a satellite. | |
| And there is a strong belief that if they conducted a missile test this time uh that they could try to disguise it as some kind of a uh commercial space launch or a satellite launch. | |
| But uh nothing you can't uh really figure out the North Korean regime. | |
| Uh there's a lot of dynamics going on there that we don't fully understand. | |
| There's a military that's really uh hardline left over from the uh Kim Il-sung era that's Kim Jong il's father uh we know that their economic system is in a total shambles but yet they have a uh an incredible internal security uh system um the the real solution to North Korea is quite simply regime change. | |
| Uh they've got to change the regime and uh get some kind of a democratic uh uh regime in there. | |
| Quick uh question from uh Bruce in Greensboro, North Carolina Bruce, you there? | |
| I'm sorry I'm sorry Terry Terry in Cincinnati, Ohio. | |
| Sorry Bruce Yes, Terry real quick. | |
| Yeah it's got a question. | |
| Don't we have a responsibility to let China and the other world leaders know that if Korea sends this missile towards our country, we don't know where it's going, we don't know how far it goes, uh we don't know what's on it, and our missiles cannot shoot it down, and it does strike the United States. | |
| Shouldn't we have a uh submarine uh positioned off Korea? | |
| Um if it if it has um a nuclear warhead on it, then we have to strike back. | |
| We don't know how many more they're gonna be sending. | |
| Don't we have a responsibility to tell the Chinese and the other world leaders, hey, we may be gone to DEVCON one if these guys shoot and hit us. | |
| And we're gonna be launching back. | |
| That's uh that's a very interesting question. | |
| Um and I'm sure that uh they have a number of military scenarios, and that would be done at the U.S. Pacific Command based in Hawaii. | |
| Uh and they have all kinds of scenarios for this, for a Korean conflict or a Chinese conflict. | |
| In fact, there just uh recently were some disclosures about uh plans for defending Taiwan. | |
| Um but that would be kind of down the road, I think. | |
| And I think the U.S. it uh in response would really have uh uh a conventional response, and we we do have submarines. | |
| We have submarines deployed in Hawaii, we have them at Guam, uh, and we have them in uh in basically in the Western Pacific that have missiles. | |
| In fact Bill, we're we're past our break time. | |
| I hate to interrupt you. | |
| I I could listen to you on these uh issues all day and uh and and we're well past our breakdown. | |
| But I still have to ask you the question, even if Mike Mamone is gonna throw things through the window at me. | |
| How much warning time would we have if a missile were coming our way? | |
| How much time would we have to do whatever we had to do? | |
| I'd say twenty to thirty minutes. | |
| Okay. | |
| Thanks for being with us, Bill. | |
| We appreciate it, and always look for you online and all your books. | |
| Bill Gertz, Defense and National Security Reporter for the Washington Times on the Rush Limbaugh Show. | |
| Our next guest is uh concerned that we're going to have a Carified America. | |
| That is the Democrats are advocating all the policies that have brought Europe to the brink of collapse and bankruptcy. | |
| He is from the Chicago Sun Times, Mark Stein. | |
| And I think you like him a lot. |
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