-Caveat Lector- http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5686727% 255E401,00.html
Knife attack unsheaths S Korean pulse By Charles Whelan in Seoul 16dec02 AN unarmed US army lieutenant colonel has been attacked by knife-wielding South Korean men outside a US army base amid simmering anti-US sentiment. Three South Koreans in their early 20s attacked the officer late Sunday as he left Yongsan, the main US military base in central Seoul, and was walking to his home. The officer was treated at a US army hospital for a cut on his left side and minor abrasions and bruises, it said. South Korean police were looking for the Koreans. The unprovoked attack came amid growing anti-US setiment sparked by the recent acquittal of two US soldiers charged over the deaths of two South Korean girls in a road accident involving a US military vehicle. Police held and questioned three US soldiers early Sunday over their skirmish with a tax driver and South Korean passengers near the Yongsan base. The target of Sunday's attack was Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan, the chief public affairs officer for the US Eighth Army, according to US army source. The attack began when the Koreans insulted the officer and cursed at him in English as they approached him in an underpass, according to the US military statement. The officer did not respond to the provocation, attempting to pass the Koreans peacefully, but they attacked him from behind. One of the Koreans then punched the officer between his shoulders, shoving him headfirst into the underpass wall, while a second man lunged at him, attempting to stab him in the stomach with a five-inch knife, it said. "He was able to twist away, but sustained a minor cut to his left side where the knife grazed him," it said. The attack ended when Boylan struck the knife-wielding attacker once in self- defense and left the scene, it said. Last month two US soldiers were cleared over the deaths of two 14-year-old girls crushed under a 50-tonne track vehicle, fuelling anti-US sentiment in South Korea, which hosts 37,000 US troops under a mutual defense pact dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War. Some 50,000 Koreans staged a candlelit march near the US embassy Saturday in memory of the girls, with radicals shredding US flags and demanding the soldiers be tried in a Korean court. Saturday's demonstration was the biggest to date, as anti-US sentiment once largely confined to radical student groups has moved into mainstream politics. In a telephone conversation with South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung Friday, US President George W. Bush conveyed his "deep, personal sadness and regret" over the deaths. But the apology did little ease the growing anti-US sentiment. South Korean officials and candidates competing in Thursday's presidential election have urged the United Sates to revise the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that governs the legal status of the US soldiers here. The anti-US protests coincide with growing concern over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program since Washington said in October Pyongyang had admitted running a uranium-based nuclear scheme. The North stepped up nuclear tension last week by saying it was reviving a separate plutonium-producing nuclear programme that had been frozen under a 1994 US-North Korean accord. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
