tibet protesters disrupt olympic flame ceremony

from guardian: Pro-Tibetan protesters today disturbed a high security ceremony to light the Olympic flame in Greece. International dignitaries were gathered at Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics, when three members of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ran onto the field to disrupt a speech by Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organising committee and Beijing Communist party secretary. The demonstrator who got nearest to Liu Qi was carrying a banner showing the Olympic Rings as handcuffs but failed to unfurl it before being arrested.

ex-ccp official accuses china of staging violent riots
from paul joseph watson: A former Chinese Communist Party official has accused China of staging violent riots in Tibet in order to demonize Tibetans in the eyes of the international community, justify a brutal paramilitary police crackdown and force the Dalai Lama to resign. Ruan Ming, who was a speechwriter for top CCP officials during the 80's, now lives in Taiwan and serves as diplomatic advisor to President Chen Shui-bian. During his time in the Communist Party, Ming was admired by democracy activists as a reformer. In an interview carried on the Epoch Times website, Ming warns that the Chinese government is orchestrating some of the more violent riots in an attempt to demonize peaceful Tibetans and justify a greater crackdown. He blames the Chinese Communists for violence witnessed during the riots in Lhasa on March 10th and argues that a wider agenda is unfolding.

update: gchq confirms violent riots staged by chinese
from paul joseph watson: Britain's GCHQ spy agency has confirmed the fact that Chinese People's Liberation Army agents posing as monks staged violent riots in Tibet in order to justify a brutal crackdown, but that the demonstrations have now escalated beyond Beijing's control. According to a report in today's Epoch Times, "GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer."

china's weather control brigade

from danger room: By now, you may have heard about China's efforts to keep the Beijing Olympics from being rained out. Fox News visits the Chinese weather controllers. Despite their arsenal of 4,000 rocket launchers, 7,000 anti-aircraft guns, and 30 airplanes for reverse cloud-seeding, they do not sound too sure they can hold China's traditional monsoon season at bay. "We are pretty sure we can deal with those small clouds," Zhang Qiang, with China's weather modification office says. "But to deal with those big ones... to be honest we are not quite confident." Hey Beijing: If you guys really want to make sure the Olympics go smoothly, lay off Tibet.

flashback: china leads weather control race

china locks down as protests blow up

beijing sends in tanks as tibet erupts
from guardian: China flooded the streets of Lhasa with riot police, yesterday, as the international community urged an end to the bloodshed in Tibet that has already claimed at least 10 - possibly dozens more - lives... "The army and police forbid us from walking down the road, so our activity is confined to the hostel," said one traveller. He said tanks and soldiers were patrolling the streets and guarding junctions. Other witnesses reported troops setting up machine gun positions and there were unconfirmed reports of shooting.

china blocks youtube over tibet videos
from afp: Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site. The blocking added to the communist government's efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.

related: US drops china from list of top human rights abusers