Meanwhile, Back at the RanchNew York Times / May 27
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit last week to President Bush's ranch in Texas was punctuated by an unannounced, last-minute surprise: Mr. Bush invited his house guest to sit in on his highly classified morning intelligence briefing...And Mr. Koizumi's treatment was intended to give some more spine to a nation still struggling to reconcile its post-World War II aversion to confrontations of any kind with modern threats on its borders.
Introducing Mr. Koizumi to the distinctly American ritual of a morning intelligence briefing was particularly notable, because Japan has just launched its first spy satellite, with lenses that will be focused intensely on North Korea's nuclear and missile sites.
