<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4e57a796-4128-4bba-b88d-f9ee2ee8142d/A509036F-4BE3-4179-A95F-0DC8DD1B84B0/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/" href="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/" style="font-size: 11px;">rokdrop.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/">The US, he said, does not have any independent confirmation of what happened leading to the detainment.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/"><P>Earlier the State Department had told ABC News that the pair were in China when they were detained and brought into <A target="external" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/Politics/story?id=6913045&page=1">North Korea</A>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/"><P>“We are aware through reliable channels on the morning of March 17, that two American citizens were taken into custody across the Tumen River from China into North Korea by what appeared to be North Korean border guards,” said State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside.  [<A target="_blank" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7121015&page=1">ABC News</A>]</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/20/confirmed-american-journalists-laura-ling-euna-lee-detained-by-north-korea/"><P>I think this is becoming pretty clear that the North Koreans knew who these journalists were and ordered their kidnapping in order to further raise tensions and use these two as bargaining chips.  Expect the North Koreans to demand an apology from the US and then hold on to them both until after they test their missile. Notice how they were kidnapped on the same day the US successfully <A href="http://rokdrop.com/2009/03/19/us-military-announces-successful-flight-test-of-thaad-missile-defense-system/">tested the new THAAD missile defense system</A>.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/A509036F-4BE3-4179-A95F-0DC8DD1B84B0/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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