Posted on 12/14/2001 10:34:47 PM PST by spycatcher
Last spring, President George W. Bush faced his first major foreign-policy challenge when an American EP-3E surveillance plane was hit by a Chinese fighter and forced to land on Hainan Island. Tensions flared even further as China detained the 24 American crewmen for 10 days, the standoff eventually resolving after both plane and crew were finally released. Still, U.S.-Sino relations remained ominously chilly throughout the year, until they were overshadowed by the events of Sept. 11.
Post 9-11, the Bush administration's focus has, of course, been riveted on the terror war, and China has gone off the main radar. But despite Beijing's public support for the coalition's war on terror, regular rumblings of Chinese complicity with the terrorists have surfaced. Among them was a WND report of some Chinese fighters assisting the Taliban.
Now, author Gordon Thomas has written a book claiming that Beijing had an actual role in the Sept. 11 attack on America. In "Seeds of Fire," Thomas purports to show how Beijing is positioning itself to become America's "new major enemy."
An investigative journalist from Ireland and author of 38 books, Thomas points out that on Sept. 11, a transport plane from Beijing landed in Kabul. A Chinese delegation had gone to Afghanistan to sign a deal with the Taliban – reportedly brokered by Osama bin Laden – to provide the Afghans with missile-tracking technology, state-of-the-art communications and air-defense systems. In return, says Thomas, the Taliban would order Muslim separatists in northwest China to stop their activities.
In a Sept. 13 report, the Washington Post confirmed that Beijing had just signed a deal with the Taliban to provide Afghanistan "with much needed infrastructure and economic development assistance."
Due to the fall of the Taliban at the hands of opposition forces and the United States, however, "the goods were never delivered," Thomas told WorldNetDaily.
The delegation, says Thomas, included senior officers of the People's Liberation Army and the Bureau of State Security, as well as managers from two of China's leading defense contractors.
In his book, Thomas contends that hours after the plane landed in Kabul, CIA Director George Tenet received a coded "red alert" message from Israeli Mossad agents that presented a "worst case scenario" – that China would use a surrogate, bin Laden, to attack the United States.
Thomas also claims that the head of Pakistan's intelligence service was in Washington to meet with Tenet on Sept. 11, and that he briefed Tenet that day on the links between bin Laden and China.
The intelligence agent "told [Tenet] that China had made a decisive decision," wrote Thomas. "It was prepared to infuriate America and its allies in supporting bin Laden and the Taliban because Afghanistan fitted into China's own long-term strategic plans."
Saying that bin Laden has traveled to China numerous times to meet with officials there, Thomas contends that "almost certainly he talked to them about obtaining" material to build weapons of mass destruction.
China's President Jiang Zemin, adds Thomas, waited three days to contact Bush about the Sept. 11 attack and told the U.S. president that, vis-à-vis the war on terrorism, China would find itself in a "difficult situation, given our well-known position of opposing any interference in the internal affairs of any country."
Washington sources say that Bush "gritted his teeth and said he would push on without China," Thomas wrote.
The author also cites what he calls the "happy parties in the streets of Beijing" following the 9-11 attacks. "They're selling videos there with commentary saying, 'America had it coming,'" said Thomas. "Their message is: 'America can be defeated.'"
On another note, Thomas believes President Bush's decision to pull out of the ABM treaty will cause Russia and China to strengthen their ties – to the detriment of the United States. "It's in China's interest to see the U.S. destablilized," he added.
I suggest that you contact some REAL victims of some REAL bullies: Afghan women, who have suffered terribly under the Taliban for the past few years. Then ask THEM if they think that the US is being a "bully" in Afghanistan.
Your critical statements therefore are much too harsh and un-justified IMHO.
And when Americans call Afghani's "Rags" and that using them like toys is "Strategy" and "Excellent"
And this from someone who likes to brag about how he went to seminary and was a heartbeat from the priesthood. Utterly depressing, though to be fair he is no worse than the other wannabe Osamas here.
Do you deny the fact that the Northern alliance does not want us in their country anymore that the Taliban does?
Not at all. I am very much aware of that fact. And it is troubling.
Not troubling at all. Delightful. I say we give them their wishes and exit the country at once.
Where did I say that?
There are no stories about civilian casualties because there are few civilian casualties!
The NA is doing the fighting because it's their country. If they had stood aside, you can be sure the U.S. would have put 100,000 troops on the ground.
War with China won't be like in a Clancy novel. It will be nasty and tremendously destructive. There is also nothing in China that anybody wants. Lose-lose.
I don't "brag" about it; I mentioned it twice in four years.
Utterly depressing, though to be fair he is no worse than the other wannabe Osamas here.
The only Osamas around here are you and Demigod and tex-omar, who want to handle murdering terrorists with kid gloves.
Another brain-dead observation. Peacenikspeak.
Concern over the lives of God's creations, particularly the most helpless and vulnerable, is not "peacenikspeak." It is the mark of civilization. Only barbarians cut from the same cloth as those who bombed our innocents would delight in their misfortune.
But then again, I guess he's just a "rag" and deserves to be blown up for nothing.
False. I want to handle terrorists by unleashing the unpoliticized dogs of constitutional vengeance on them through letters of Marque and reprisal.
Like the Branch Davidians and Randy Weaver?
False. I want to handle terrorists by unleashing the unpoliticized dogs of constitutional vengeance on them through letters of Marque and reprisal.
Amen! Someone finally said it! This would have been the very best way to catch and punish the scumbags who attacked us. It really is simple with M&R: scumbags: dead. Innocents: spared.
But there is much more profit in "nation-building" and securing pipelines through occupation of foreign territory.
Marque and Reprisal would have been the absolutely very best way to go after this human garbage. Yet supporting such an EFFECTIVE way to get rid of this scum makes one a "terrorist" in the eyes of most people here.
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