North Korea A Danger? Says Who?

The Bush administration is now leaking info that the second branch in that axis of evil -- North Korea -- sold processed uranium to Libya. This is extremely unnerving, important news since it would dramatically raise the stakes in the world's dealings with that Orwellian nightmare of a destabilized country.

There's just one problem -- I don't believe them. Or at least, I would find it very, very hard to believe them. Normally, if this sort of info was released by any government -- Democratic or Republican -- we would believe it. Doesn't mean we'd agree on what steps to take, but we wouldn't question that facts per se. Something this world-shakingly different simply wouldn't get out to the public unless it was rock-solid. (Doesn't mean we weren't cynical and didn't have to ask the right questions pre-9/11. We always did.)

But can we believe Bush? At least the papers will hopefully be a LOT harder in demanding proof. The NYT at least hinted at some of the past problems by wondering out loud what dissension if any there was in the gov't as to this analysis of the facts. (As we all now know, the rock-solid fact that Iraq had WMD wasn't the consensus and it wasn't even the majority opinion with a few vocal dissenters and it wasn't the majority consensus with some major disagreers on record. It was the tiniest of minority opinions with the vast majority of US and worldwide analysts saying there was no evidence to back the claim up.)

So do you believe them? Can you believe them? Will anyone believe them?