U.S Won't Win A Gold Medal For Human Rights At Olympics

[Better Believe It]

U.S. won't get a gold medal for human rights
By Pat LaMarche
April 16, 2008
Bangor Daily News

Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the spokesperson for the Evergreen Mountain Resort & Casino referendum campaign.


Are we really having discussions about whether or not to participate in the 2008 Olympics? Are people actually sitting in coffee shops discussing whether the civil rights violations in China warrant a U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies or even the games themselves?

Extraordinary men and women, the absolute cream of our athletic crop, who have — for likely as long as they’ve walked — trained for the moment when they could participate in the Olympic Games, have now become the political pawns of our human rights discussions. And I’m not just talking about discussions with China; but discussions about China by a country that has no right to talk.

Remember us? We invaded a sovereign nation and blew it to smithereens. And according to a BBC report last week we have more than 28,000 Iraqis detained without charges. An earlier report in the international journal The Guardian states that in 2006, "several detainees reportedly died … and some of their bodies bore injuries consistent with torture."

Yeah, let’s just preach to other countries about human rights.

Please read the entire articles at:

http://bangornews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=163055&zoneid=117

[Bonobo]

1. I don't even think we have someone entered in the race.

[PVnRT]

2. Who would?

[mainegreen]

3. You and LaMarche can take the stand China and US are morally equivalent.

I won't however.

PS:
Linking Pat LaMarche wont win arguments here.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Just FYI...

the OP is on a one-person pro-Chinathon here. So you know. ;)

[mainegreen]

5. Oh, I know.

I just enjoy poking him with a stick.

[Better Believe It]

6. They Can't Make Intelligent Counter-Points And Arguments

So far the last three posters have been unable to respond to the following three articles that they strongly disagree with. They just can't seem to articulate what it is they disagree with and why!!! Rather than engage in serious debate, they find it necessary to launch personal insults. The usual reason why some posters don't respond and engage in elementary school name calling is they find it impossible to effectively refute or challenge the content of those articles.

Isn't that right?

Some in fact have accused this poster and the writers they don't like with being super secret paid "communist Chinese spies and infiltrators" sent to post on DU!!!!!

They need to take their meds!

Here's three articles written by people they really hate and refuse to challenge .... because they lack the necessary tools .... like the truth, facts and logical arguments for example.

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Western "Free World Leaders" Lecture China On Non-Violence In Tibet

CounterPunch
Weekend Edition
March 29 / 30, 2008

China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
By WILLIAM BLUM

-William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.-

The Washington Post recently ran a story about how the Chinese people largely support the government suppression of the Tibetan protesters. The heading was: "Beijing's Crackdown Gets Strong Domestic Support. Ethnic Pride Stoked by Government Propaganda." The article spoke of how Beijing officials have "educated" the public about Tibet "through propaganda".

That's a rather interesting concept. Imagine the Post or any other American mainstream media saying that those Americans who support the war in Iraq do so because they've been educated by government propaganda. ... Ditto those who support the war in Afghanistan. ... Ditto those who supported the bombing of Yugoslavia. ... Ditto scores of other US invasions, bombings, overthrows, and miscellaneous war crimes spanning more than half a century.

Now Germany's foreign minister has warned China that its response to the crisis in Tibet may jeopardize the Summer Olympics in Beijing. "The German federal government is saying to the Chinese government: be transparent! We want to know exactly what is going on in Tibet." He also warned China to avoid any violent measures in its standoff with Tibetan protesters. Human rights organizations have demanded that Coca-Cola, Visa, General Electric, and other international companies explain their dealings with the Chinese government as it prepares to host the Summer Games. The French Foreign Minister floated the prospect of boycotting the Games' opening ceremony because of China's response to the protests. And the president of the European Parliament said European countries should not rule out threatening China with a boycott if violence continued in Tibet.

It's nice to see the West's conscience stirred up. They're real good about such things, when the target is not one of their own, particularly against a communist country. In 1980, 62 nations -- including the United States, Canada, West Germany, Japan, and Israel -- boycotted the Olympics in Moscow because the previous year the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan. Four years later, the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Not a single member of "The Free World" boycotted it, even though the previous year the United States had invaded Grenada and overthrown the government, with a lot less political justification than the Russians had for invading Afghanistan. The Grenada invasion was as much lacking in legality and morality as the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum03292008.html

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The Tibet Protests: An Excercise In Hypocrisy by Uri Avnery
CounterPunch
Apri1 7, 2008

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom.


LIKE EVERYBODY else, I support the right of the Tibetan people to independence, or at least autonomy. Like everybody else, I condemn the actions of the Chinese government there. But unlike everybody else, I am not ready to join in the demonstrations.
Why? Because I have an uneasy feeling that somebody is washing my brain, that what is going on is an exercise in hypocrisy.

I support the Tibetans in spite of it being obvious that the Americans are exploiting the struggle for their own purposes. Clearly, the CIA has planned and organized the riots, and the American media are leading the world-wide campaign. It is a part of the hidden struggle between the US, the reigning super-power, and China, the rising super-power - a new version of the "Great Game" that was played in central Asia in the 19th century by the British Empire and Russia. Tibet is a token in this game.

I am even ready to ignore the fact that the gentle Tibetans have carried out a murderous pogrom against innocent Chinese, killing women and men and burning homes and shops. Such detestable excesses do happen during a liberation struggle.

No, what is really bugging me is the hypocrisy of the world media. They storm and thunder about Tibet. In thousands of editorials and talk-shows they heap curses and invective on the evil China. It seems as if the Tibetans are the only people on earth whose right to independence is being denied by brutal force, that if only Beijing would take its dirty hands off the saffron-robed monks, everything would be alright in this, the best of all possible worlds.

Please read the entire article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery04072008.html

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Bashing China Is Not The Answer by Professor L. Ling-chi Wang
Cnn.com/Asia
April 9, 2008
Ling-chi Wang: "Humility and compassion, not hypocrisy and self-righteousness, is what is needed."

Bashing China is not the answer
Violent protests desecrate Olympics, insult the people of China
By Professor L. Ling-chi Wang
L. Ling-chi Wang is professor emeritus of Asian American & Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

The media, as usual, have seized the opportunity to pour fuel onto the fire. Politicians are tripping over each other in their eagerness to condemn China, to call for boycotts, and to claim the high moral ground, even though the United States has been treated as a rogue state worldwide because of our invasion of Iraq, and our unlawful detention, torture, rendition, etc.

Sadly, most Americans know little about international issues and for that matter, China, as demonstrated by the conspicuous absence of information regarding historical context and complexity. Instead, the media, politicians and organized groups prefer to use only sound bites and, frequently, disinformation to perpetuate ignorance, instill fear, and incite racial hostility, or worse, hatred toward China.

China, like many countries in the world, including the U.S., has problems. It has much to learn from the rest of the world. For example, China has yet to learn how to understand and treat its minorities -- such as Tibetans, Uighurs, Muslims, Hmongs -- as equals. In this respect, they are not that different from us. We are still learning how to treat minorities such as Native Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, Chinese-Americans and others as equals.

I am not opposed to free speech and legitimate protests against China's wrongdoings. However, I am opposed to using the Olympics to demonize China and its people and disruptive, confrontational, and violent tactics. Such actions have the effect of desecrating the Olympics and humiliating and insulting the people of China. No good can come of them.

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/09/commentary ....

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Professor Ling-chi Wang is a distinguished scholar and activist on Asian American issues. He was at the center of the struggles that shaped the creation of the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Berkeley, and has been an advocate ever since of the department’s social activist agenda, particularly in the wake of the Bakke court decision and other attacks on affirmative action. He has been centrally involved in activism, scholarship and dialogues about the rights of Chinese-speaking students in K-12 education, the housing crisis in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the 1996 campaign finance scandal, and, most recently, issues around the Japanese government’s responsibility to Chinese, Koreans, and other Asian targets of Japanese aggression during World War II. He played a key role as strategist and advisor during former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee’s battle against espionage charges. His recent publications in Asian American studies include "Being Used and Being Marginalized in the Affirmative Action Debate: Re-envisioning Multiracial America from an Asian American Perspective" in Asian American Policy Review and "Structure of Dual Domination" in Amerasia Journal.

[mainegreen]

9. You seem unable to get the argument that individuals do not give up the right to protest

even if their government is not as morally pure as the driven snow.

Also, it's a bit of a logical fallacy to draw a (dubious) connection between the CIA and the Dalai Llama and then use that to revoke the notion that Chinese brutality is no longer brutal.

[Better Believe It]

10. The Not So Dubious Connection Between The CIA And The Dalai Lama

mainegreen wrote: "Also, it's a bit of a logical fallacy to draw a (dubious) connection between the CIA and the Dalai Llama and then use that to revoke the notion that Chinese brutality is no longer brutal."

While I certainly haven't accused the Chinese race of brutality, I of course have indicated in other posts that I don't support the repressive measures of the China regime. In fact, if most Tibetans want more autonomy or independence I support their right to self-determination.

As far as the "dubious" connection between the CIA and Dalai Lama I urge you to read the following articles. And I have just one question for you. Do you think the Bush administrations CIA should resume (if it ever really quit) its bankrolling of the Dalai Lama and also fund "protests" in Tibet and elsewhere? If your answer is in the affirmative, will you be organizing a demonstration in Washington, D.C. anytime soon demanding that the CIA sponsor the Dalai Lama? It's something the CIA is very experienced in.

The CIA's Secret War in Tibet by
Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison
April 2002

Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America's Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet's revolt against China--and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. They provide the first comprehensive, as well as most compelling account of this little known agency enterprise.

The CIA's Secret War in Tibet takes readers from training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the scene of clandestine operations in the Himalayas, chronicling the agency's help in securing the Dalai Lama's safe passage to India and subsequent initiation of one of the most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War. Conboy and Morrison provide previously unreported details about secret missions undertaken in extraordinarily harsh conditions. Their book greatly expands on previous memoirs by CIA officials by putting virtually every major agency participant on record with details of clandestine operations. It also calls as witnesses the people who managed and fought in the program--including Tibetan and Nepalese agents, Indian intelligence officers, and even mission aircrews.

Conboy and Morrison take pains to tell the story from all perspectives, particularly that of the former Tibetan guerrillas, many of whom have gone on record here for the first time. The authors also tell how Tibet led America and India to become secret partners over the course of several presidential administrations and cite dozens of Indian and Tibetan intelligence documents directly related to these covert operations.

http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/concia.html

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From 1959 to 1964, Tibetan guerrillas were secretly trained at Camp Hale by the CIA

Camp Hale, between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley in Colorado, was a United States Army training facility constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. It was named in honor of General Irving Hale. Soldiers were trained in mountain climbing, skiing and cold-weather survival. When it was in full operation, approximately 16,000 soldiers were housed there.

From 1959 to 1964, Tibetan guerrillas were secretly trained at Camp Hale by the CIA. The site was chosen because of the similarities of the Rocky Mountains with the Himalayan Plateau. The Tibetans loved the surroundings so much that they nicknamed the camp, "Dhumra", the Garden. The CIA circulated a story in the local press that Camp Hale was to be the site of atomic tests and would be a high security zone. Until its closure in 1964, the entire area was cordoned off and its perimeter patrolled by military police. In the nearby mining town of Leadville, where instructors from Camp Hale occasionally went for rest and recreation, numerous rumors spread about the camp but no one guessed its real function.

The Tibetan project was codenamed ST Circus, and it was similar to the CIA operation that trained dissident Cubans in what later became the Bay of Pigs Invasion. In all, around 259 Tibetans were trained at Camp Hale. Some were parachuted back into Tibet to link up with local resistance groups (most perished); others were sent overland into Tibet on intelligence gathering missions; and yet others were instrumental in setting up the CIA-funded Tibetan resistance force that operated out of Mustang, in northern Nepal (1959-1974). After Camp Hale was dismantled in 1964, no Tibetans remained in Colorado.
From 1958 to 1960 Anthony Poshepny trained various special missions teams, including Tibetan Khambas and Hui Muslims, for operations in China against the Communist government. Poshepny sometimes claimed that he personally escorted the 14th Dalai Lama out of Tibet, but this has been denied, both by former CIA officers involved in the Tibet operation, and by the Tibetan Government-in-exile (Central Tibetan Administration).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hale

[Robb]

7. ...

[Better Believe It]

8. Thanks For Confirming What I Just Wrote

Do you have any original thoughts or ideas to refute the articles?

Probably not.

Am I right?