Dear Editor,
Earlier this week the Canadian Olympic committee said they would be very happy with a finish around 16th place. That's not much to be happy about . It lower than last place among the industrialized nations. As of today we don't even place in the top 33. Granted our "strong" points may still be up and coming but for what we spend on our vaunted Olympians this is a total disgrace. Perhaps it's time we set high standards for those who go to the Olympics. If you're not within 1/100 of a second or 1/4 of an inch of the record you don't go. We seem to have no problem finding the money to send these people to every competition around the world year in and year out yet recently another low costing service was cut from the local medical scene and dumped directly onto the handicapped as the Nova Scotia Government continues to nickel and dime its people to financial death.
There is a reality here, this type of event is passé. $40 billion cost in China yet the survivors of the earthquake are getting next to nothing. Millions of people thrown out of their homes as the Chinese Government razed three villages to build the facilities and a murder and other acts of terrorism already committed. London, $22 billion on the next summer games and rising yet they struggle under a tax load like ours.
Think of all the local affordable facilities that could be built for what egomaniacal governments dump into these two-three week elitist events. These local facilities would be a great asset to the health and physical condition of a country's population rather than sitting in front of a TV watching others perform.
The Olympics,along with other major international games, have become a security nightmare, a political circus, a potential terrorist target and a cost that burdens tax payers for decades. Its time it came to an end.
Bruce DeVenne

Edited by author 08-10-2008 12:09 PM
Please check out my blog www.bcandbeyond.wordpress.com

My latest post links anti-US sentiment with recent Olympic violence and wonders how John Furlong can continue to turn a blind eye to the mounting opposition to 2010.

Much more to come!

Are the Olympic Games
the Beginning of the End?
By Jay Weidner



"The age of iron has no other seal than that of Death. Its hieroglyph is the skeleton, bearing the attributes of Saturn: the empty hourglass, symbol of time run out …"

- Fulcanelli

 

Since the publication of my book, Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye: Alchemy at the End of Time, I have received many emails from around the world. Most of them are well intentioned and thoughtful, but very few of those writing have mentioned the many - and obvious - other clues embedded in the Cross that I have never mentioned.

For those uninitiated into the knowledge of this extraordinary and mysterious relic, here is a quick summary...

The Cross of Hendaye is a bizarre monument that sits in a church yard in Hendaye...a small village in the south west corner of France on the border with Spain.The world first learned of the Cross from the book Mystery Of The Cathedrals by an anonoymous alchemist who called himself 'Fulcanelli.'

In his book, Fulcanelli tells us that the Cross of Hendaye is the most important monument that he has ever seen. He writes that the Cross cross shows us the exact moment when the end of the age - the end of Time - will occur.

Wanting to know everything that I could about this odd monument, I've now spent over twenty years investigating and researching it.The overt conclusions I've come to are in my above-mentioned book but can all essentially be boiled down to this: The end of this Age - the end of this Time Period - will be one where the human race will be put through a terrible trial by fire. The time period for this massive event in human history stretches between the years 1992 and 2012.

About two weeks ago, I received an anonymous email from someone who calls himself 'Syphon.' This unknown writer is no ordinary emailer. He is obviously a learned man who knows his Latin and Greek, as well as French and English. He was well versed in the lexicon of alchemy and quite familiar with many prophetic traditions...running the gamut from Nostradamus to Li Chunfeng.

Without getting too deep into the details, Syphon had prepared another interpretation of the Latin inscription on the Hendaye cross that seemed to have a great deal of credibility.

The Latin inscription of the cross of Hendaye reads like this:

OCRUXAVES

PESUNICA

Syphon, using Greek and Latin broke down the inscription in a truly unusual and ingenious pattern. Without boring you with the details or betraying Syphon as a source, the Latin inscription on the cross ends up saying this:

When hundreds die at the Hecatomb
And the dead overcome their graves (death)
This is the sign and symbol to all
That the Autumn (hour) draws near
(When all will) perish and be destroyed.

“ Hecatomb” is a Greek word for sacrifice or slaughter.

What is interesting about this interpretation of the Latin inscription on the Hendaye Cross is how close this wording is to one of Nostradamus' famous quatrains...quatrain 10/74...

10 74
Au reuolu du grand nombre septiesme,
Apparoistra au temps ieux d'Hecatombe,
(He/or She will appear at the time of the games of the hecatomb)
Non esloigné du grand eage milliesme,
Que les entrez sortiront de leur tombe.

The year of the great seventh number accomplished,
It will appear at the time of the games of slaughter (Hecatombe):
Not far from the great millennial age,
When the buried will go out from their tombs.

Now we have two separate prophecies, both from the southern France region, both written within fifty to a hundred years of each other and both making very similar predictions.

Hendaye Cross:

When hundreds die at the Hecatomb
And the dead overcome their graves (death)
This is the sign and symbol to all
That the Autumn (hour) draws near
(When all will) perish and be destroyed.

Nostradamus:

The year of the great seventh number accomplished,
It will appear at the time of the games of slaughter (Hecatombe):
Not far from the great millennial age,
When the buried will go out from their tombs.

They are too close to each other for comfort.

Hopefully, none of this will come to pass any time soon, but just in case we are onto something, here is my interpetation.

Hendaye Cross:

When hundreds die at the Hecatomb
And the dead overcome their graves (death)
This is the sign and symbol to all
That the Autumn (hour) draws near
(When all will) perish and be destroyed.

There is going to be a sacrifice, near the time of Autumn. Many will be slaughtered.

Nostradamus 10/74:

The year of the great seventh number accomplished,
It will appear at the time of the games of slaughter (Hecatombe):
Not far from the great millennial age,
When the buried will go out from their tombs.

“The year of the seventh number” could be 2007. “The games of slaughter” could be the Olympics now going on in Beijing. “Not far from the great millennial age” can only mean the year 2000.

What is also interesting about quatrain 10/74 is that it is only two quatrains away from quatrain 10/72 - Nostradamus' famous quatrain about the 'King of Terror' coming from the skies in September of 1999.

We now know that this did not come about in 1999, leaving many Nostradamus fans in a quandary. However, world-renowned Nostradamus scholar John Hogue has come up with an explanation about quatrain 10/72 that makes perfect sense, and shows that, once again, Nostradamus was right.

Here is quatrain 10/72:

"In the year 1999
in the seventh month
from the sky will come the great King of Terror
bringing back to life the great King of the Mongols.
Before and after Mars to reign by good fortune."

Nostradamus never puts a date as exact as this in any of his other quatrains. Many experts believe that because he placed an exact date on this prophecy that this was an indication of the importance of this quatrain. But when 1999 came and went everyone wondered how Nostradamus could be so wrong.

But things are not so easy when it comes to Nostradamus. One thing that all experts agree upon is that Nostradamus did not want anyone to know about an event he predicted before that event occurred. Nostradamus apparently wants you to see that he was right only *after* the event occurred. This same line of logic applies to quatrain 10/72.

Nostradamus was not wrong in quatrain 10/72. He was only misinterpreted. Again, holding true to the logical pattern in Nostradamus’ work, no one would get the right interpretation, until after the event occurred. This holds for quatrain 10/72 also.

John Hogue has now shown that Nostradamus was right once again. But one can only get the date right by inverting the numbers of 1999. When one inverts the number 1999 it comes out to 9111...or September 11th, 2001.

Even the number of the quatrain,10/72, gets into the act. Remove the seven (which is Sept) and you are left with the three numbers 201. The year that the quatrain took place was 2001 so even the quatrain’s number is making you aware of Sept 2001.

Is this current interpretation of the Latin Inscription on the cross of Hendaye correct? Is Nostradamus’ quatrain 10/74 about to occur? We probably won’t really know until after the event has happened.

Soon, there will be four US Navy Aircraft Carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf, presumably to stop Iran from blocking the Straights of Hormuz should it be attacked by the US or Israel. However, it's hard to see why Iran would block the only tanker route it uses to deliver its oil and gas to foreign customers.

We appear to be on the brink of yet another major War and no one seems too interested in attempting to stop it. The New York Times recently published an editorial by Benny Morris of Israel, calmly telling us that Israel had the *right* to use nuclear weapons to incinerate Iran and kill its 70 million inhabitants.

As with all prophecy, we won’t know if these terrible predictions are true until after the events occur...if they do. There is one thing we can all agree upon, however: the situation in the world is looking increasingly precarious as the Olympic games continue.

Let’s hope the prophecies quoted above are just tricks of words and of the mind. Otherwise, we may be heading into a War where untold millions could perish.

Olympics Threat Coverup
By Jilinda
Documentary Filmmaker, Director Avante Films
Producer, ShadowPlay. 9/11 PuppetMasters
With Webster Griffin Tarpley
Historian, Author: 'Obama - A Post Modern Coup'
8-2-8
 

Lithuanian president, Valdas Adamkus, is the first to announce that he will not be attending the Olympic Games. As the PuppetMaster snaps his fingers, China and the culpable Western mainstream newsmedia cover up very serious threats to the Beijing Olympics that could potentially affect the safety and the lives of thousands, if not millions of people within a week's time, on August 8th.
  
Shifting shadows of deception, like veils fluttering with illusion delude the masses ­ keeping them distracted with bread and circuses while the sleight of hand goes unnoticed. Rapt in the circus of an "election" charade that laughingly poses as a model for world "democracy"- with TweedleDum and TweedleDumber sparring for first place in a rigged appointment of the next puppet figurehead, while the real play is hidden in plane sight.
  
And just when the tubby American telebaby has learned where Iraq is on the map, suddenly the scene shifts and the Puppet Theatre of war opens with a new act and different players on an entirely new front.
  
According to historian Webster Griffin Tarpley, it's already clear that the ascendent DarkLord holding the reigns of power in Washington right now is Zbigniew Brzezinski, with the NeoCon Bush/Cheney SocPuppets as little more than lame, criminal figureheads. Veteran Polish born Brzezinski was President Carter's National Security Advisor and is now foreign policy advisor to Presidential candidate, "Barky" Barack Obama. He has never wavered in his goal of fomenting war with both Russia and China in a last desperate attempt to secure the unchallenged reign of a flagging PaxAmericana.
  
Neither has he reneged on his open anticipation of another major false flag attack in order to trigger the war he so desires, to defang the currently powerful China/Russia alliance and brutally dismember China, by carving - as planned - that mighty imperium into many warring vassal states.
  
Significantly, it was this same Brzezinski who instigated the formation of the Mujaheddin, who were armed and trained by the CIA to fight Russia in Afghanistan. This murderous terror network was then used to carve up the former Yugoslavia. Serving as the Oilygarch's cat's paws, that same active network still continues to carry out dirty deeds under International Intelligence Agency control, and is cynically now known as Al CIA Duh!
  
As he explains in his influential book, The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski's devilish strategy is the Clash of Civilizations ­ provoking wars and creating the chaos out of which the elite Cabal of KingMakers intend to establish an Orwellian Plutocracy; a drab 4th Reich in a Fascist regime that nobody likes. The enticing grandeur of powerful delusion is grasped with a mighty iron claw that brutishly smashes all in its path in a vain attempt to maintain the reigns of global power firmly in the hands of an increasingly dysfunctional ruling Oilygarchy.
  
The barren wasteland in the northwestern region of Xinjiang Province of China is known as East Turkestan by local Uighuoor separatists. They've been dormant since the late 1990s, but the CCP claims to have just cracked their plot to blow up a football stadium in Shanghai during the Olympics next week. They say they've also busted 12 terrorist cells in Xinjiang and just foiled a airline hijack attempt on a passenger flight.
  
China's Ministry of Public Security says it has also recently uncovered a plot by the Turkistan Islamic Party to attack hotels, government offices and military targets in Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities, and to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and spectators at the Olympic games, starting on August 8th.
  
The prospect of another 9/11 ­ an event repeatedly heralded as "inevitable" by the American marionettes du jour ­ is something everyone fears, a fear that has been deliberately fed to ramp up waning support for genocidal wars. But that dread anticipation has got everyone twitchy, wondering just when the next shoe is going to drop.
  
Just as with the 9/11 false flag attacks, Brzezinski notes that this strategic attack on China needs another catastrophic and catalysing event ­a blood sacrifice to the hideous gods of war, to feed a frenzy of fear and terrify people into compliance. Just as on 9/11 - that horrendous self-inflicted wound - when a false flag act of state terrorism was masked by the duped circus of supposed kamikaze Arabs that couldn't fly a Cessna, so also the current prepared false flag provocation -the trigger event to advance the globalist world domination agenda in China, is prepared in advance and masked to hide the real perpetrators.
  
On July 25 ,a private American intelligence company called IntelCenter, with offices in Virginia, published the transcript of a 3 minute video with a stillshot of three masked men. The video, posted briefly on YouTube then removed, shows the group's young leader, Commander Seyfullah, Speaking the Turkestan language, Uighur, as he issues a final ultimatum to China that his group is ready and able to attack the Olympics Games and major Chinese cities using weapons of mass destruction.
Commandante Seyfullah says this:
'Despite repeated demands by the Turkestan Islamic Party, that China and the international community must cancel the 29th Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings. The Turkestan Islamic Party is prepared and has already started urgent actions. We will attack Chinese central cities severely, using new tactics that have never been used before.'
He strongly warned spectators and athletes - 'particularly Muslims' - not to attend the Games that are due to start in Beijing next week.
  
The Chinese government reports that the Turkistan Islamic Party receives money, weapons, and support from Al Cia Duh. But despite using all kinds of real and faked terror as a pretext to suppress political dissent in Xinjiang province, beef up the military, detain thousands of innocent people and restrict religious rights, China has made absolutely no mention of this very serious ultimatum. The grave warning was also barely heeded in the western puppet media.
  
Many eybrowraising questions and curious inconsistencies swirl around this upstart Islamic Uighur front group. Boy soldier Seyfullah, speaking in the video issued by a private international intelligence company, is a wide-eyed kid from the backwoods of Turkestan, who threatens China and triggers terrorist sleeper cells with the alert that they are now authorized to use biological weapons of mass destruction against athletes and visitors to the Olympics. And nobody says a word about it!
  
Could this be the next group of patsies set up for an imminent false flag attack? Here we see the CIA's latest fall guy ­ Seyfella what we tellya ­ the handsome young Uighur rebel without a cause ­ actually a broken ShadowPuppet who sadly believes he will ride to glory with a host of adoring virgins as he fronts for the threats, attacks, and provocations of the Al Cia Duh network of assassins, thugs and guns for hire.
  
Boy Sayfallah claims his group has had special training - (Al Cia Duh training is what he means) - and they have already begun operations against China, with bomb attacks on two busses in Shanghai in May and three busses in Yunnan in July. This masked fighter then makes entirely spurious claims, taking responsibility for several disparate acts of brutality that his group seems to have had nothing to do with, including a supposed attack on a plastics factory and an attack on police forces in Wenzhou with an explosives-laden tractor - that as it turns out, had already happened two months earlier and was actually carried out by a disgruntled gambler as revenge on a local gambling den.
  
SayFella also belatedly lays claim to an earlier, rather nasty YouTube video from Pakistan, showing three stripped naked Chinese men forced into what seems to be a criminal, heartless performance of humiliation and cold blooded assassination before the eye of the camera. Perhaps it helps bolster their emerging image as the new Al Cia Duh, to be seen with a substantial track record of grisley deeds.
  
Boy Sayfallah claims to represent the Voice of Islam Information Center of the Turkestan Islamic Party - acronym TIP - and the tiny "tip" that gives away the true origin of this fake group is the repetition of a little typo in the group's press information ­ issued, coincidentally, by the same private American intelligence company. In the press release of the supposed separatist Turkestan Islamic Party - Turkestan is not spelt as it should be with in "e", but is spelled with an "i" ­ "Turkistan", Written the way an Anglo pronounces the word, this is a typo that any true nationalist group would never ­ ever ­ make ­to spell the name of their country wrong!! This curious "slip" is also mirrored in comments on the LauraMansfield.com website, where analysis is made of the video statements of various terrorist groups, and from where these videos mostly seem to originate.
  
The number 888 may have little significance to some people except that it represents the 8th of August, 2008: 8/8/8.
  
Converging evidence tends to strongly suggest that the next false flag event may have been planned for that date. 888.
  
If the 9/11 false flag attack had not gone wrong ­ a plane shot down ­ a movement of Truthers able to ferret out the truth behind the blatant lies, and the ensuing military quagmire ­ then perhaps the Oilygarchs could have immediately imposed the fascist-communist regime of global domination they have long planned. Orwell's 1984 would already have become the acrid fulfilment of their widely published, Machiavellian vision of domination by deception.
  
We are able to know which acts they are responsible for, and when they are likely to act because their blueprint for global domination is tied to a grid of occult gematria. Even if we do not believe in the power of numerology, they do and they act accordingly.
  
Architects of Apocalypse always act according to the dominance of certain numbers which they believe gives them more power ­ especially the numerological signature of 11 and multiples of 11 ­as in 9/11 and the London 77 false flag attacks, and that is the most notable mark of their allegiance to the failed forces of the darker powers. They believe that the number 11, representing the doomed antichrist, empowers them. The numbers 3 ,6, 9, 13, and multiples are considered strong, so they always plan to carry out their devious deeds, overt or covert, on dates with the highest possible occult numerical significance: dates such as 911, 666, 777 and 888.
  
888 also happens to be the date of an ultimatum given by a hidden Asian Secret Society to the chief Oilygarchs through an intermediary, former Asia Bureau Chief for Forbes Magazine, the insightful economist Benjamin Fulford. The ultimatum, evidently backed by hoards of seriously dangerous Ninja Assassins, warns the Oilygarch Cabal to end their drilling and killing and do something helpful, rather than harmful for the future of humanity. Evidently preferring the Samson Option to sanity, the Architects of War appear, so far, to have ignored the ultimatum, which expires next week on August 8th.
  
August 8, 2008 ­ 888 - is the next very high occult day coming up, following a total solar eclipse seen over Russia and China on August 1. But this date is even more auspicious. As well as representing a high occult day, revered by the Luciferian cultists who play the political ShadowPuppets, the numerology of 888 also represents the Greek name of Yeshua, Jesus ­ and so perhaps we can hope that Higher Truth trumps Evil on this fateful day. And with the prayer of all people of goodwill, together with a widespread call for total Ghandian nonviolent non-cooperation with the DarkLords and OilyGarchs of death and destruction, then this impending catastrophic and catalysing event can perhaps, perhaps be forestalled.

Edited by author 06-25-2008 11:50 PM
Beautiful British Columbia – The Best Place on Earth?
By Concerned Citizen of Canada


     This year, British Columbia will celebrate its 150th year. It has been said that its beauty made it to be the best place on earth to live. Is this for real or just a fact?
     People came to Canada with full of dreams thinking that this is the land of promises. Promises that will give them chance to fulfill their aspirations in life. In reality, this is not the best place to live. Everybody here is busy making ends meat. Trees here are not bearing money to pick it up. In as much as possible you must have three to four jobs to pay your taxes, mortgages, car loans and others. You don’t even have time to enjoy. And mind you this situation will become worst after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. If you have heard and seen those statistical data through our modern technology such as; internet, television, radios and newspapers, those were just factual information that hasn’t been proven throughout the Olympic history. Many of those countries who’ve hosted this kind of event suffered from deep debts. To name a few are Montreal who just happened to pay their debt after three decades, Salt Lake City who’s until now on their way of solving the economic downfall, Turin, Italy and many others. It’s the taxpayers who are handling the problems created by bureaucracy and managed by the greediness of the government officials and the elite groups who happens to be part of the International Olympic Committee.
     What’s happening now to China is an eye opening for all nations. Demonstrations on streets can be seen around the world, mass killings and many others. These were the results of abusive empowerment of people in position. In Vancouver, you can see more of the result of the Olympic preparations in the east-side of the city with many homeless citizen. With these, people should be aware of the false impressions created by the VANOC officials on Olympic venue sites. Human deficit has been created by unscrupulous government officials of British Columbia who have failed in social policy on its inhabitants.
     People of all nations, it’s time for us again to fight back. We don’t need high explosives or heavy devices. We only need “MASS CONSCIOUSNESS”, the power of mind intent. This is the most effective way to prove our worth. This is a tool to change weather patterns. Yes, February 2010 will be rainy, foggy and windstorms may occur to southern coastal regions of British Columbia if we will join together using our mind. We could completely wash-out Olympic Organizers and its allies. This will be a great humiliation to the whole world.

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No way you'll see me there. I've got better things to do with my money than watching a bunch of elitist tax dollar burning athletes at play.
Bruce DeVenne
Stop the HRM Commonwealth Games (mission accomplished I'm happy to report and so are the HRM Tax payers)
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Vancouver 2010 - The Sea To Sky Games

Only 628 days to go!

See you there!!

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PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

OPPOSE THE OLYMPICS AT BRITANNIA - MOBILIZE FOR BRITANNIA MEETING!
  
Monday May 5th - 7 pm - Britannia Auditorium

We've just found out that the Britannia Community Centre Board has
 organized a
community meeting (on very short notice) for Monday May 5th (7 pm) in
 the
Britannia Auditorium to consult with the community about having
 Britannia as an
Olympics hockey venue. Given the short notice and lack of publicity
 from
Britannia, please call/email your friends, contacts, etc., and ask them
 to come
out and voice their concerns about Britannia as an Olympics venue.

VANOC is pressuring Britannia Community Centre to become an Olympic
 hockey
venue, regardless of how you feel about having your community centre
 taken from
you. Please come
 out and have your voice heard! The Britannia board
 will be
voting on whether or not to have the Olympics at Britannia after
 this
 meeting.

Sunday Action:

To let people know this is happening, we'll be having a creative
 theatre/street
action on Sunday May 4th (10:30 am) - meeting at Charles and
 Commercial. We've
done the action twice now, and it's been fun and people were supportive
 and
interested.

For more information:
thetorch@resist.ca

Concerns about the Olympics at Britannia:

Security and Surveillance:
 
More than 12, 500 police, military, CSIS, and private security will be
 used for
the 2010 Olympics (Globe and Mail) we are concerned about:
- increased police/military/security presence at and around Britannia
- the size of a
 "security perimeter" around the community centre
- the use of checkpoints, special ID passes and heavy surveillance

 including
closed-circuit cameras and satellite surveillance (Industry Canada
 website)
- that security would be set up at Britannia long before the actual
 Olympics and
remain long after
- the impact on homeless people including "sweeps" by police and
 harassment
- increased racial profiling and targeting of indigenous youth
- heavy weaponry (guns, lasers, tear gas, pepper spray, helicopters)
 near our
schools, libraries, and daycares
- the constant threat of police violence and repression of opposition
 and dissent

Community Values:

The Britannia Board represents our community centre, and
 demographically, this
community voted against the Olympics coming to Vancouver in the 2003
 referendum.
 If you voted "no" in the referendum, this process at Britannia is in
 essence
the same
 vote (referendum was "No to Olympics in Vancouver," this vote
 is "No to
Olympics" in our community centre). This
 project will take place on
 unceded
Coast Salish territory and will impact urban indigenous people.

Concerns include:
- security perimeters will cut off or severely restrict access for our
 seniors,
students and children
- increased in traffic and rents, due to the proximity of an Olympic
 venue, and
general increased gentrification
- That rink upgrades would be carried out at the expense of more
 pressing
upgrades at Britannia
- That needed upgrades shouldn't be tied to the Olympics. Britannia
 and its
strong community-based history should be a leader in demanding that
 community
centres need better funding and upgrades in general
- The Olympics machine (which includes corporate sponsors like
 MacDonald's)
targets youth and children with mascots, advertising, and school

 curriculum

Services Disruptions:

- lack of access to the rink and other services such as the seniors
 centre,
 the
pool, the library, teen centre, etc.
- possible room rental disruption at the centre
- disruption to surrounding services and their clients including the
 Kettle
Friendship Centre and REACH clinic
- the effects on bus routes/services, traffic, and pedestrians
- the displacement of kids and adults in the hockey and skating
 programs

Accountability and Transparency:

Although private talks have reportedly been held for close to a year
 between
Britannia and VANOC, the community has not been consulted about
 Britannia being
used as an Olympics venue. The details of these talks have not been
 made public
 We are concerned that:
- The use of the Britannia Community Centre was not included in the
 Olympic Bid Book
- VANOC has repeatedly been described in local media as
 "undemocratic"
- VANOC is not subject to freedom of information legislation
- VANOC holds meetings that are closed to the public and of
 which no
 official
minutes are kept

This week's intelligence briefing explains how the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco revealed the way that China's government and intelligence operations work.

April 23, 2008 The April 9 Olympic torch relay in San Francisco opened a window into the organizational capabilities of the Chinese government and its intelligence collection apparatus inside the United States. From the coordinating efforts of the city's Chinese Consulate, down through local Chinese business and social organizations, and on to the pro-China supporters who photographed the event, the operation showed an efficiency and organizational capability not seen among the anti-China demonstrators. The run also revealed a high level of sophistication, planning and control in the pro-China camp.

A Day of Confusion
The torch relay in San Francisco proved a mixed bag of anti-China and pro-China demonstrators, as well as spectators simply hoping for a glimpse of the symbol of the Olympic Games. Pro-Tibet and other demonstrators altered their tactics in San Francisco following clashes surrounding the torch run in London and Paris—where pictures of a protester with a Tibet flag trying to snatch the torch from a handicapped torchbearer left the protesters looking worse than China. As a result, the demonstrators in San Francisco planned to impede the progress of the relay rather than attempt to extinguish the torch or interfere with the actual torchbearers. The massive gathering at the beginning of the torch route, and the blocking of a bus carrying Chinese security officials and items related to the torch run, triggered the organizers of the relay to change the route completely. In part, then, the protesters interrupted the relay effectively, though not in the manner they had hoped.

The on-the-fly changes in the torch relay route, which left many spectators waiting down near the piers when the torch was running along the hills several blocks away, allowed the relay to progress relatively smoothly, interrupted only a few times by protesters attempting to block the route or by a few demonstrators bearing little sign of affiliation with the Tibetan or Darfur causes who threw water balloons at the torch. The heavy police and Diplomatic Security Service presence around the torch runners largely kept demonstrators on the sidewalks, while the moving roadblocks and the unclear torch route left demonstrators unsure of where they could amass to intercept it. The security organizers, then, were relatively successful in their efforts to allow all planned participants to carry the torch with minimal interference.

In the end, neither protesters nor security "won" the day. Amid the confusion, however, the groups that showed a very strong sense of organization and planning were the pro-China demonstrators. Their coordination demonstrated the ability of the Chinese government, via its local consulate and its association with overseas Chinese organizations, to rally and coordinate large-scale activities inside the United States—and to use these activities for intelligence collection.

Pro-China Preparation
By 8 a.m. April 9, the pro-China demonstrators were taking up positions along the planned torch relay route, pulling in groups carrying Chinese, U.S. and Olympic flags, and equipped with cases of food and water. However, these were not spontaneous gatherings of overseas Chinese supporting the motherland, as Beijing media have portrayed them. Rather, there was a coordinated effort between local Chinese business and social associations and the consulate to attract, equip, deploy and coordinate the large pro-China turnout. This is in contrast to the Free Tibet, Save Darfur and other anti-China protesters—who often seemed disorganized.

By some estimates, as many as 50 busloads of Chinese from other parts of California were brought to San Francisco. Many of them paid (by some accounts $300 each) to come out for the day in support of Beijing. They were placed in groups along the anticipated torch relay route and given Chinese and Olympic flags, as well as American flags (the latter a tactical move to show they were not anti-U.S., but rather pro-China—a distinction made all the more apparent by the fact that most anti-China protesters did not carry U.S. flags, and some also were critical of the U.S. government).

In addition to those bused in from out of town, many of the local Chinese business and social organizations were involved in fielding groups of pro-China supporters, and these were similarly equipped. Most groups also were supplied with cases of water and food—something not seen among the anti-China demonstrators, who appeared more a gathering of individuals than prearranged groups. One local Chinese organizer was overheard saying they had spent some $30,000 on food and water for the day of the torch run—perhaps not a large amount overall, but a clear investment to ensure that there was group cohesion among the pro-China demonstrators.

In addition to many older overseas Chinese posted along the route, there also were numerous Chinese of college age, many representing several overseas and mainland Chinese student associations. Some carried a large flag representing China's Tsinghua University, which produces many top Chinese officials, and among the others were local chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. During the run, some of these students challenged the American Free Tibet or Saver Darfur protesters to discussion, asking, for example, whether they had been to Tibet or diverting accusations of Chinese military support to Sudan with counteraccusations of U.S. military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan. In general, the Chinese side kept the confrontations rather civil, seeming to have been well prepared to respond (suggesting they had been provided with materials on how to respond in advance). On numerous occasions, however, the anti-China demonstrators in these one-to-one confrontations would resort to their own chanted slogans or just shout that the Chinese were liars.

The organization of the pro-China contingent was further demonstrated by its self-policing efforts. While the anti-China demonstrators ignored the barriers along the route and moved into the streets, far fewer pro-China demonstrators did so. When one did cross, the pro-China group would shout at them to return behind the barriers and "follow the rules." There was clearly a concerted effort to make the Chinese demonstrators appear as the more controlled, more peaceful and less confrontational participants—part of a broader PR strategy.When confronted by a large group of pro-Tibet demonstrators, for example, the Chinese often simply ignored the repeated cries of "China lies, people die" and instead broke into song, effectively ending the exchange.

Instigation and Intelligence Collection
There was at least one exception to the restraint shown by the pro-China demonstrators, however, suggesting they were not entirely the innocuous gathering they sought to portray. On numerous occasions, individuals or small groups carrying cameras would seek to incite the anti-China demonstrators to acts of confrontation or violence, frequently by parading through the middle of a group of Free Tibet or Save Darfur demonstrators with a large Chinese flag, walking back and forth through the group. In some cases, small scuffles broke out—and pictures were snapped—though the anti-China demonstrators soon deployed individuals to try to keep the two opposing sides separated. The same day, Chinese media ran photos of pro-Tibet demonstrators shoving pro-China demonstrators, "proving" their point that the Tibet supporters are violent.

It was no accident that the photographs appeared so quickly in the Chinese media. In addition to the demonstrators, numerous individuals were sent out with cameras. Although cameras are expected at such an event, many of the photographers were collecting images either for Chinese propaganda purposes or to identify anti-China demonstrators in order to identify pinpoint "troublemakers" who might be planning to attend the Olympics in Beijing. With their pictures on file, Chinese authorities can then either deny their visas or monitor them more closely when they arrive in China.

In addition, Beijing has been trying to locate the organizers of anti-China protests and demonstrations overseas, ones who may be planning action in China, in order to infiltrate their groups and gather intelligence on their planned activities. This is not new for Beijing—as the Chinese Embassy official who defected in Australia a few years ago demonstrated by revealing the details of Chinese infiltration of and spying on Falun Gong supporters in Australia. Beijing also has been seeking out U.S. and other foreign academics for their insights on potential demonstrations in Beijing, hoping to get information about individuals and tactical details of plans in order to pre-empt or at least effectively counter them.

In addition to the intelligence collection efforts and the careful organization and coordination of the pro-China demonstrators in San Francisco, electronic countermeasures also were used to disrupt the communications and activities of the anti-China demonstrators. In some cases, the cell phones of the anti-China organizers were spammed with prank calls and text messages in order to limit their effectiveness as a coordinating tool—particularly as the torch changed routes. There also were unconfirmed cases of limited cell-phone jamming, likely using the short-range cell-phone jammers that were popular a few years ago. These created intermittent and isolated interference with cell-phone reception, further deteriorating the communications and coordination ability of the anti-China demonstrators.

Beyond San Francisco
Furthermore, China did not limit its activities to San Francisco. It also organized a smaller response to the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle, Wash., a few days later. Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Gao Zhansheng sent a letter to University of Washington (UW) President Mark Emmert urging him and other UW officials to refrain from meeting with the Dalai Lama or from giving him a platform for political or "separatist" activities. Additionally, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association sent an open letter to the UW leadership and met briefly with Emmert and Provost Ed Taylor, asking them to limit the Dalai Lama's opportunity to use his visit for political reasons. Several hundred pro-China students also staged a demonstration outside the Dalai Lama's speaking venue in Seattle on April 14, using the Internet to coordinate banners, chants and actions.

Throughout the United States there have been reports of other group actions by Chinese students and activists, from Internet-based activity promoting boycotts of French goods following the Paris torch relay to a push to "correct" foreign media coverage of the Tibet riots and the Tibet issue overall. But there also have been more aggressive instances. For example, at least one Chinese student at Duke University received threats after attending a pro-Tibet rally, while others have had their personal information, including their phone numbers and Chinese identification cards, posted on the Internet bulletin board hosted by the university's Chinese Student and Scholar Association (the association denied responsibility, saying those postings were the actions of individuals). The students' concern, however, is that the information will get back to Chinese authorities and thus undermine their future prospects in China or even lead to further harassment of themselves or their families.

China has had a long reach into the Chinese community in the United States for quite some time, and frequently uses this community for espionage, both within the community itself and against American companies, the military and the technology and political spheres. Also, Chinese consulates in the United States have helped facilitate pro-China gatherings in the past. However, while it already was known that China was anxious to restore its image after the Tibet unrest and the trouble with the torch run in London and Paris, the effort and coordination Beijing exhibited in San Francisco, through the consulate and local Chinese business and social organizations, was rather impressive.

There are no estimates of the number of pro- and anti-China demonstrators at the San Francisco event, though the former easily totaled several thousand. Additionally, the actions of the pro-China camp, along with the supporters' placement along the anticipated route, demonstrated a much more centralized and coordinated organization than the anti-China groups—and revealed the depth to which the Chinese government can organize and deploy its overseas population, even in the United States.

Hey - all you Olympic supporters out there - YES we are getting the Olympics, thankfully we live in a country where we can still complain about things, even after it's a fait accompli.

We will hold accountable the NDP and the Liberals for bringing us the games and leaving us with a debt that we will pass on to our children.

It's your tax dollars at work [or not] folks, you should have a say in where those dollars get spent.

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Hey kr601 you're leaving Vancouver?

Not soon enough!

709 days to go. Big fat fuckin whooptii dooo!!!! As you can tell I'm not happy. I'm getting plans to go away in February 2010. Everyone is saying to me, "You're crazy to leave." Well maybe I am. I don't care anymore! More security tightness, more cost to the games just waisted on ads, would rather see summer games. I could go on & on about it. B.C. was a nice place to live. May as well stay in B.C. except in Vancouver & Whistler. I used to go in Whistler to ski from high school. Now I would rather wait until after the olympics. The NHL is on an olympic break to do their national team. Stick to the NHL, NOT OLYMPICS!!!!!! I disagree that the olympic is using GM Place as a standard NHL rink. It should be bigger. Let the women ski jump!!!!!! It's all about the gender problem!!!! It all comes down to the end that more & more events will be delayed or no go. February 1'st 2010, I'm leaving Vancouver.

Hey Larry, I gather we'll be seeing you at the Art Gallery this April 20th, say around 4:20p?

Vancouver 2010 - The Sea To Sky Games

Only 715 day to go!

See you there!!