Olympic torch protesters, rallied by Net, challenge China

Protesters gather in front of San Francisco's City Hall on Tuesday to protest the Olympic torch's arrival in the city and oppose plans to carry it through Tibet.

(Credit: Hanna Sistek/CNET News.com)

SAN FRANCISCO--Wearing T-shirts reading "Free Tibet," hundreds of protesters raised their fists here Tuesday to protest the Beijing Olympic torch relay's arrival to the city. Most were from the Bay Area, but some came all the way from New York and Canada to mark their opposition to the Chinese government's plans to carry the torch through Tibet and to the summit of Mount Everest.

SF Team Tibet, a coalition of Tibetans and human-rights supporters that organized the event, is calling on corporate Olympic sponsors Samsung, Lenovo, and Coca-Cola to withdraw their support of the torch relay. The organizers are also calling on international governments to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics "to show they do not endorse the Chinese government's brutal actions in Tibet."

Some of the groups in the coalition support the Olympics being held in China as long as the games result in dialogue.

Organizers of Tuesday's protests, which are expected to continue full force Wednesday, are, not surprisingly, using the Web as a tool at the site SFTorch2008.org. Not only is the site being used as a rallying point for information and photos, the organizers are signing up people to receive e-mails on events in the area and asking for donations.

Protester Thupten Dhondup, 40, was born in Nepal to Tibetan parents.

(Credit: Hanna Sistek/CNET News.com)

The protesters are hardly the first to use Web sites. The massive rallies prior to the Iraq War--and flash mob-like protests in cities such as San Francisco--were largely organized through the Web and other electronic communications such as texting.

At Tuesday's protest, some demonstrators held up red signs reading "Made in China" to bring attention to Americans' use of goods made in the country. Last year, U.S. trade with China amounted to $322 billion in imports and $65 billion in exports, according to figures from the U.S. Census bureau. Twenty-seven percent of the imports from China, or $88 billion worth, were "advanced technology products," according to the Census Bureau, while one-third of the exports to China fell into that category. This includes computers, biotech products, solar cells, and fiber-optic cable.

Among the speakers Tuesday were representatives of Students for a Free Tibet, the Tibet Association of Northern California, and Regional Tibetan Youth Congress. Protester Thupten Dhondup, 40, was born in Nepal to Tibetan parents. "I came here today because I support the suffering Tibetans," he said. "So many people are being killed and nobody knows what is happening in Lhasa now; nobody is allowed in."

Also at the rally, Tibetan monks released 50 white doves in a scene framed by a forest of colorful Tibetan flags brought by the crowd.

At the rally, monks release 50 white doves as a sign of the Tibetan quest for freedom. 'We should express our views peacefully, in a dignified way,' Tenzin Chonden, North American representative to the Tibetan government, later said onstage.

(Credit: Hanna Sistek/CNET News.com)

[letfreedom ring]

Let Freedom Ring - Peacefully!

America is a country founded on protestors who were not happy with and under the rule of the country they emigrated, and or 'fled' from. To date, we have many nationalities, and peoples whose children are now in the country that opened its doors so they could live in peace and the comforts they live in today. All the peoples who are advocating and working to protecting today is that for the countless millions who are and remain in occupied control under Communist domination, that they are granted the sameness of independence and freedoms, freedoms of faith, surely safety from torture, violence, abuse, rape, slave labor camps, incarceration, or their organs and tissues not stolen from them, as are their lives when robbed outright of their very life. Unless you have endured any of the above, or your family members, and have had to flee from your homelands, then you really do not know 'fear', and certainly not under Communism. I believe any person in a freedom loving country whose families, friends, or country has been stolen from them as their liberties, has every right to make visual and audible points peacefully. Yes, 100% it is to capture everyone's attention, so that talks will ensue, and many more millions of lives able to live without further threat to their everyday lives. That is what freedom is all about, and what many of us fail to appreciate in freedom loving countries we reside in. Can you understand anyone being tortured or placed in jail for a photograph of the Dali Lama, or receiving a phone call to talk about what is transpiring in your neighbor hood, or home? Freedoms and liberty mean the same to these peoples. Hope must never die for them! I know many of you would be out in the street if your independence and liberties were being stolen as are theirs. We have to care, because peoples with heart and care do just that! I know about communism because my own father was in a concentration camp gulag as a teen and survived a firing squad. He lost all members of his family. Communist prisons, concentration camps, or prisons are no ?home sweet home? for any human being, any age.

As a disabled advocate/activist for 35 years, in and from the Heart of San Francisco Cradle of the Universal Human Rights, I feel it is very important to address these most important issues of the Olympics 2008 in China. It is important to note that as the Chinese Communists walk around with puffed up chests pleased with their supposed accomplishment at hoodwinking citizens around the world, in snagging the Olympics, so have they also left extreme shambles of lives and nations; forever disabling lives and ways of lives that were enjoyed by peoples, until the brutal and unwanted, unwelcomed Chinese Communist occupation. The Chinese Communists have used the Olympics to cover their monstrous crimes, past, presently, and show no let up, nor conscience to their outrageous crimes against humanity. Look how many nations and peoples have and continue to be affected by their horrible crimes against humanity. We need to speak out and let them know, truth will not be hidden, and they must in the end be brought to justice for their crimes.

The proud peoples of Tibet, the nuns, monks have every reason to be alarmed voice their complete opposition against these Chinese Communists dominators, continuing to extinguishing free speech, religion, of their everyday lives. The harsh, inhumane torture, harvesting of organs and tissues, surgeries, in addition to the Communist Chinese 'banking on their victims very organs' - shows how low they are on the scale of 'human rights'. They are a leadership without conscience. Those who support such atrocities names, persons will be marked for history as enablers of the most evil form of leadership and government on the globe. Human Rights are not for some peoples, but for all peoples around the globe. The Olympic Torch must not be used by the Chinese Communists as a support tool for their needs. This symbol belongs to all free peoples globally.

As one person has stated already to the global press, about the Olympic Games and of reason why it was created: To those who would argue that politics has no place in the Olympics, they need only look back at a reason that the Olympics were created in 1896, which was to ?to show a common purpose of humanity. You cannot say that the Olympics are not political, when they were created for a political purpose
Mrs. Tatiana A Klimenko-Kostanian
MHONA International
Proud Advocate/Activist Since 1962 For Disabled Rights - Human Rights
In Membership of:
San Francisco Mayors Disability Council
San Francisco Armenian National Committee
Commission Investigating The Persecution Of Falun Gong

[S Sandoz]

Olympics & Tibet

A beautifully written piece of work, however, why does anyone believe that boycotting the Olympics is the best way to communicate to China? Personally, I believe it will only worsen the situation. Our political leaders apparently do not have the finesse to speak to China in its own cultural terms. Has anyone researched ways that China has resolved similar situations peaceably in its historical past? Or discovered why China considers The Dali Lama to be a threat? Is it possible to assist China to move forward in Human Rights by taking smaller, negotiative steps - perhaps by first acknowledging the Dali Lama as a religious figure and receiving similar acknowledgement from Tibet that the Dali Lama is not a political leader and removing any reference to leadership with the agreement that they may live peaceably together and China then tolerate any "unofficial" leadership from the Dali Lama, provided Tibet agrees not to threaten China's sovereignty? America was not built overnight, nor was Rome. Yes, this would be a concession and not entirely "right", but a huge step in the right direction. There are cultural aspects that must be considered in any communication. China's culture is not America's culture, nor is Tibet's. We must not forget that China is now producing close to 90% of the world's manufacturing - a huge contribution that deserves appreciation and dignified, respectful communication more appropriate to its culture. We can't possibly know all aspects of this based on media releases. Do we have ANY competent negotiators anywhere in the industrialised nations that we can put forward to speak to China in a way that will be heard and understood?

[jlc112800]

Too much exaggeration

The so-called Tibetan exiles exaggerate the death toll and made up the stories. Unbelievably, media simply report with substantiation just because it is China. The majorities of the toll are actually Han Chinese killed by Tibetan riot. China is entitled to use force bring the stability just as US did in LA riot. Because of the Olympic PC, China actually restraint surprisingly.

I think China SHOULD crackdown the rioters violently and forcefully just an sovereign country should do. These rioters are criminals. If these riots are linked to the Tibetan exiles, China should treat them as terrorists. Dalai should forget about negotiation. As for the self-righteous activist to boycott Olympics, I would say "bring it on". BTW, I am an U.S. citizen and I am sick of the excessive bias.

[lovetechnow]

Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA

Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA
By Richard M Bennett

Given the historical context of the unrest in Tibet, there is reason to believe Beijing was caught on the hop with the recent demonstrations for the simple reason that their planning took place outside of Tibet and that the direction of the protesters is similarly in the hands of anti-Chinese organizers safely out of reach in Nepal and northern India.

Similarly, the funding and overall control of the unrest has also been linked to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and by inference to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because of his close cooperation with US intelligence for over 50 years.

Indeed, with the CIA's deep involvement with the Free Tibet Movement and its funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia, it would seem somewhat unlikely that any revolt could have been planned or occurred without the prior knowledge, and even perhaps the agreement, of the National Clandestine Service (formerly known as the Directorate of Operations) at CIA headquarters in Langley.

Respected columnist and former senior Indian Intelligence officer, B Raman, commented on March 21 that "on the basis of available evidence, it was possible to assess with a reasonable measure of conviction" that the initial uprising in Lhasa on March 14 "had been pre-planned and well orchestrated".

Could there be a factual basis to the suggestion that the main beneficiaries to the death and destruction sweeping Tibet are in Washington? History would suggest that this is a distinct possibility.

The CIA conducted a large scale covert action campaign against the communist Chinese in Tibet starting in 1956. This led to a disastrous bloody uprising in 1959, leaving tens of thousands of Tibetans dead, while the Dalai Lama and about 100,000 followers were forced to flee across the treacherous Himalayan passes to India and Nepal.

The CIA established a secret military training camp for the Dalai Lama's resistance fighters at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, in the US. The Tibetan guerrillas were trained and equipped by the CIA for guerrilla warfare and sabotage operations against the communist Chinese.

The US-trained guerrillas regularly carried out raids into Tibet, on occasions led by CIA-contract mercenaries and supported by CIA planes. The initial training program ended in December 1961, though the camp in Colorado appears to have remained open until at least 1966.

The CIA Tibetan Task Force created by Roger E McCarthy, alongside the Tibetan guerrilla army, continued the operation codenamed ST CIRCUS to harass the Chinese occupation forces for another 15 years until 1974, when officially sanctioned involvement ceased.

McCarthy, who also served as head of the Tibet Task Force at the height of its activities from 1959 until 1961, later went on to run similar operations in Vietnam and Laos.

By the mid-1960s, the CIA had switched its strategy from parachuting guerrilla fighters and intelligence agents into Tibet to establishing the Chusi Gangdruk, a guerrilla army of some 2,000 ethnic Khamba fighters at bases such as Mustang in Nepal.

This base was only closed down in 1974 by the Nepalese government after being put under tremendous pressure by Beijing. After the Indo-China War of 1962, the CIA developed a close relationship with the Indian intelligence services in both training and supplying agents in Tibet.

Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison in their book The CIA's Secret War in Tibet disclose that the CIA and the Indian intelligence services cooperated in the training and equipping of Tibetan agents and special forces troops and in forming joint aerial and intelligence units such as the Aviation Research Center and Special Center.

This collaboration continued well into the 1970s and some of the programs that it sponsored, especially the special forces unit of Tibetan refugees which would become an important part of the Indian Special Frontier Force, continue into the present.

Only the deterioration in relations with India which coincided with improvements in those with Beijing brought most of the joint CIA-Indian operations to an end.

Though Washington had been scaling back support for the Tibetan guerrillas since 1968, it is thought that the end of official US backing for the resistance only came during meetings between president Richard Nixon and the Chinese communist leadership in Beijing in February 1972.

Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer has described the outrage many field agents felt when Washington finally pulled the plug, adding that a number even "[turned] for solace to the Tibetan prayers which they had learned during their years with the Dalai Lama".

The former CIA Tibetan Task Force chief from 1958 to 1965, John Kenneth Knaus, has been quoted as saying, "This was not some CIA black-bag operation." He added, "The initiative was coming from ... the entire US government."

In his book Orphans of the Cold War, Knaus writes of the obligation Americans feel toward the cause of Tibetan independence from China. Significantly, he adds that its realization "would validate the more worthy motives of we who tried to help them achieve this goal over 40 years ago. It would also alleviate the guilt some of us feel over our participation in these efforts, which cost others their lives, but which were the prime adventure of our own."

Despite the lack of official support it is still widely rumored that the CIA were involved, if only by proxy, in another failed revolt in October 1987, the unrest that followed and the consequent Chinese repression continuing till May 1993.

The timing for another serious attempt to destabilize Chinese rule in Tibet would appear to be right for the CIA and Langley will undoubtedly keep all its options open.

China is faced with significant problems, with the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province; the activities of the Falun Gong among many other dissident groups and of course growing concern over the security of the Summer Olympic Games in August.

China is viewed by Washington as a major threat, both economic and military, not just in Asia, but in Africa and Latin America as well.

The CIA also views China as being "unhelpful" in the "war on terror", with little or no cooperation being offered and nothing positive being done to stop the flow of arms and men from Muslim areas of western China to support Islamic extremist movements in Afghanistan and Central Asian states.

To many in Washington, this may seem the ideal opportunity to knock the Beijing government off balance as Tibet is still seen as China's potential weak spot.

The CIA will undoubtedly ensure that its fingerprints are not discovered all over this growing revolt. Cut-outs and proxies will be used among the Tibetan exiles in Nepal and India's northern border areas.

Indeed, the CIA can expect a significant level of support from a number of security organizations in both India and Nepal and will have no trouble in providing the resistance movement with advice, money and above all, publicity.

However, not until the unrest shows any genuine signs of becoming an open revolt by the great mass of ethnic Tibetans against the Han Chinese and Hui Muslims will any weapons be allowed to appear.

Large quantities of former Eastern bloc small arms and explosives have been reportedly smuggled into Tibet over the past 30 years, but these are likely to remain safely hidden until the right opportunity presents itself.

The weapons have been acquired on the world markets or from stocks captured by US or Israeli forces. They have been sanitized and are deniable, untraceable back to the CIA.

Weapons of this nature also have the advantage of being interchangeable with those used by the Chinese armed forces and of course use the same ammunition, easing the problem of resupply during any future conflict.

Though official support for the Tibetan resistance ended 30 years ago, the CIA has kept open its lines of communications and still funds much of the Tibetan Freedom movement.

So is the CIA once again playing the "great game" in Tibet?

It certainly has the capability, with a significant intelligence and paramilitary presence in the region. Major bases exist in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and several Central Asian states.

It cannot be doubted that it has an interest in undermining China, as well as the more obvious target of Iran.

So the probable answer is yes, and indeed it would be rather surprising if the CIA was not taking more than just a passing interest in Tibet. That is after all what it is paid to do.

Since September 11, 2001, there has been a sea-change in US Intelligence attitudes, requirements and capabilities. Old operational plans have been dusted off and updated. Previous assets re-activated. Tibet and the perceived weakness of China's position there will probably have been fully reassessed.

For Washington and the CIA, this may seem a heaven-sent opportunity to create a significant lever against Beijing, with little risk to American interests; simply a win-win situation.

The Chinese government would be on the receiving end of worldwide condemnation for its continuing repression and violation of human rights and it will be young Tibetans dying on the streets of Lhasa rather than yet more uniformed American kids.

The consequences of any open revolt against Beijing, however, are that once again the fear of arrest, torture and even execution will pervade every corner of both Tibet and those neighboring provinces where large Tibetan populations exist, such as Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan.

And the Tibetan Freedom movement still has little likelihood of achieving any significant improvement in central Chinese policy in the long run and no chance whatever of removing its control of Lhasa and their homeland.

Once again it would appear that the Tibetan people will find themselves trapped between an oppressive Beijing and a manipulative Washington.

Beijing sends in the heavies
The fear that the United States, Britain and other Western states may try to portray Tibet as another Kosovo may be part of the reason why the Chinese authorities reacted as if faced with a genuine mass revolt rather than their official portrayal of a short-lived outbreak of unrest by malcontents supporting the Dalai Lama.

Indeed, so seriously did Beijing view the situation that a special security coordination unit, the 110 Command Center, has been established in Lhasa with the primary objective of suppressing the disturbances and restoring full central government control.

The center appears to be under the direct control of Zhang Qingli, first secretary of the Tibet Party and a President Hu Jintao loyalist. Zhang is also the former Xinjiang deputy party secretary with considerable experience in counter-terrorism operations in that region.

Others holding important positions in Lhasa are Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of the Central Public Security Ministry and Zhen Yi, deputy commander of the People's Armed Police Headquarters in Beijing.

The seriousness with which Beijing is treating the present unrest is further illustrated by the deployment of a large number of important army units from the Chengdu Military Region, including brigades from the 149th Mechanized Infantry Division, which acts as the region's rapid reaction force.

According to a United Press International report, elite ground force units of the People's Liberation Army were involved in Lhasa, and the new T-90 armored personnel carrier and T-92 wheeled armored vehicles were deployed. According to the report, China has denied the participation of the army in the crackdown, saying it was carried out by units of the armed police. "Such equipment as mentioned above has never been deployed by China's armed police, however."

Air support is provided by the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment, based at Fenghuangshan, Chengdu, in Sichuan province. It operates a mix of helicopters and STOL transports from a frontline base near Lhasa. Combat air support could be quickly made available from fighter ground attack squadrons based within the Chengdu region.

The Xizang Military District forms the Tibet garrison, which has two mountain infantry units; the 52nd Brigade based at Linzhi and the 53rd Brigade at Yaoxian Shannxi. These are supported by the 8th Motorized Infantry Division and an artillery brigade at Shawan, Xinjiang.

Tibet is also no longer quite as remote or difficult to resupply for the Chinese army. The construction of the first railway between 2001 and 2007 has significantly eased the problems of the movement of large numbers of troops and equipment from Qinghai onto the rugged Tibetan plateau.

Other precautions against a resumption of the long-term Tibetan revolts of previous years has led to a considerable degree of self-sufficiency in logistics and vehicle repair by the Tibetan garrison and an increasing number of small airfields have been built to allow rapid-reaction units to gain access to even the most remote areas.

The Chinese Security Ministry and intelligence services had been thought to have a suffocating presence in the province and indeed the ability to detect any serious protest movement and suppress resistance.

Richard M Bennett, intelligence and security consultant, AFI Research.

(Copyright 2008 Richard M Bennett.)

[eye-on-torch]

Who is being violent?

Too many of the IOC's defenders and commentators - even newsreaders - complain of 'violence' by pro-Tibetan protesters. But they are overwhelmingly non-violence protests AGAINST violence, and none have attacked anyone physically as far as I can see from all the footage. Not
so the British and French police, whose institutionalised use of force overstepped the bounds and became unnecessarily tough violence causing visible bodily harm. How such a parody of democracy could take place as allowing all those Chinese goons (and they have earned this epithet
fully) shows how our politicians allow a parody of democracy in the name of political correctness and fear of the Chinese government's economic and other reactions)sses?). Bravo to the Japanese, who are banning these foreign bouncers from their area of jurisdiction. Violence and murder are vastly more evident by the Chinese authorities in their repression of not only Tibetans and other large ethnic societies within China, but even of peaceful bloggers and critics in their own country.

[sangos]

Its a symbolic achievement for a great nation - China, and we in India congratulate you!
Honestly all the reasons for controversy surrounding the torch is China's internal matter. Since I dont live in China I am not qualified to comment on whats going on in China. Its easy for me to comment and be judgemental which is unfair sitting here in India. Someone might say ' But we live in an electronic age where it does not matter where you stay on the planet.' Let me tell them believe me but there is a HUGE difference between experiential and intellectual knowledge. Its like describing a piece of cake and eating it. The two are incomparable. China is best experienced by the Chinese people, and they decide whats best for them. Who the hell am I to tell them. Paradoxical but where is the modern world freedom we so much cherish, when every joe is telling China what to do. Come on man would you like to be told the do and donts inside your own house. Are we really practicing 'FREEDOM'. I think this is worse behavior control than the so-called 'controls' of the Chinese government, which is just a reaction to the constant prying by the 'International Community' into China's house. And you know what that is called, 'an invasion of privacy' on a world scale. And I am sure any reasonable freedom of whatever loving person would agree. So folks lets leave China to decide what to do with China and lets take part and share in their great moment of achievement and glory.

@Chinese people - You may have misgivings about India helping Tibetans. That is understandable. Let me try to give you an ordinary Indian's perpective and understanding of the situation: Tibetans have been granted asylum in our country because they came here because of trouble in their homeland. We have given them shelter, because we understand that like in a family members fight but finally unite, Tibetans will return to China. Its good that China is talking to the Dalai Lama. He is after all still an important member of your family.

And it is my firm trust that India and China can live in peace as neighbors with a negotiated and settled boundary! There are exciting times ahead for us both!! Lets not miss it!!!