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.
This statement just begs for a second opinion. Sorry, but you ARE a pathetic troll. Don't take this personally, it's just objective reality.
The only problem with this one is that we have been looking the other way for at least a decade while the Turks < scoff> our allies < /scoff> have been committing genocide on the Kurds. And we of course, during our support of Iraq (after screwing over Iran and deciding to retaliate against them because they had the audacity to get upset about our meddling in their affairs) we looked the other way while they committed genocide on the Kurds with weapons we provided them.
There aren't enough left to pull it off.
Excellent! Less American casulties to rid the world of trash.
CHINA IS OUR FRIEND AND MOST
ACTIVE TRADING PARTNER.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE EGG ROLLS
YOU FRIKIN' LUDDITES...
They're probably aging hippies, the pony-tail in the back merely accentuating the refulgence of the rest of their pates. :o)
You're worse than a troll.
You're an android terrorist symp who gives aid and comfort to those who would kill my family.
Who's George Michael? Some girly-man who didn't ask you for a date?
The only problem with this one is that we have been looking the other way for at least a decade while the Turks < scoff> our allies < /scoff> have been committing genocide on the Kurds.
I have a general rule of thumb: when in doubt and needing insight on the enemy of freedom, read either Orwell, Solzhenitsyn, or Lenin. Here I would look at Animal Farm. Clearly some "oppressed minorities" are more equal than others.
Not at all. Apparently though, you are willfully blind to America's harboring of these terorists for years. In fact, during the war with Serbia, we supported explicitly Al Quaeda-trained thugs and terrorists and even helped them create yet another Islamic state in Kosovo.
We were paying Afghanistan to the tune of 125 Million of your dollars (American Tax dollars) annually. Thus we were supporting terrorists.
In 1996 when the Sudan offerred to extradite bin Laden to us, we said no thanks and they evicted him to go live in Afghanistan. We responded by bombing some of their Camels and tents along with an aspirin factory.
And before you tell me this is all Clinton's fault, I'll remind you that in June of this year, Colin Powell himself, with George Bush's tacit approval, sent the Taliban 43 Million dollars of our money.
Cowardice.
Strategy.
Their agenda is increasingly obvious.
Yes. Whether it is particularly "American" or just remains to be seen. It's an extreme form of racism and shows a disregard for human life other than your own. It's rooted in politics rather than anything resembling honor or justice.
But then that is the mark of Empire. Wars fought for political strength rather than for freedom.
Orwellian.
Their soldiers are subhuman and can be expended without so much as a thought.
Afghanistan now cleared for the pipeline, now on to Iraq and the world's second largest oil reserves (Kosovo having also been prepared for the Caspian-Adriatic pipeline). The world's poor (including our own army) are being forced to fight and die for the wealthy. Of course the geniuses here would call me leftist for even daring suggest this, but this was exactly Stalin's policy when swallowing up Central Europe. Then he needed Czech industry to process Russian raw materials, etc. but the approach is the same. Privatize profits, socialize losses (including human ones).
Cowards who are more concerned with the political ramifications of their actions than of the lives they are sacrificing to meet the so-called "objective."
The Cowardice is in the policy. Cowards should never run the military.
Yeah. We's white boys was just foicin' them brown Nothen 'liance to whup up on them othu brown Taliban boys.
You're a hoot Demigod. A real hoot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.