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.
Afgahanis aren't pathetic simpering wimps so don't make the mistake of projecting your personality onto them.
Is your post satirization of something or other, or are you really a nutball?
Facts are facts no matter how much you whine about them.
Bin Laden sold/gave two US cruise missiles to China in 1999 that survivied the US cruise missle attack on Afghaistan in August 1998.
Bin Laden was in China last year just over the border (literally within a few miles) from Afghanistan meeting with a Bulgarian businessman trying to buy fissile materials.
CHina has tech espionage and intell and terror cells throughout the US who work closely with AlQaeda and other ME terror group cells. The cells use Chinese students attending Universities. On cell group of college students from Oklahoma State University stole/paid for the JSTARS look down radar from the US at Tinker AFB near OKC around 1994-1995. Senator Don Nickles of OK briefed George Tenet of the CIA last year on this but Tenet did nothing adequate about the problem.
Believe it or not the Israeli aircraft industry had a contract with the CHinese last year to install AWACS style radars in Russian aircraft that Israel was modifying for the Chinese. This was stopped last year in Israel by the US government once they found out that Charles Smith's stories on the subject were true.
Bush senior gave the US neutron bomb technology to the Chinese and French about ten years ago in an act of great treason.
I guess you missed the interview with the Afghani who's town was mistakenly hit and who's family died.
Oh, so there was only that one single incident of "collateral damage"? Well, never mind then.
So would the terrorist fear the mercenary holding a letter of Marque.
A letter in one hand and an automatic in the other. I met a guy who was ready to send his company in if the president decided to take this Constitutional path. Talk about a professional outfit. Osama and his little buddies would have been either dust or back in the US already. No doubt. It is also great propadanda value: no matter where you are, if you attack us we will find you. You won't know where or what the people who get you will look like. So look over your shoulder for the rest of your life, because a bounty hunter will likely be there to smoke your ass.
It's funny how people can't deal with the reality that we're heroes to all Afghanis except the totalitarian Taliban.
You just keep thinking that, pal. Isn't Geraldo or someone on just about now to tell you how good you should feel about obliterating a third world country?
Who's "delighting"? You're making stuff up.
But then again, I guess he's just a "rag" and deserves to be blown up for nothing.
The only "rags" are bin Laden and his followers and those who shield him.
The fact that they hide among civilian populations is further indication of how hideous they are and how every single one of them deserves to be destroyed.
You and ole Ron Paul really got a lot of support for that bit of doltishness, didn't you?
Does Ron suggest we use mercenaries to get Saddam Hussein too?
Yes we do. And so do the Afghan women, who are no longer being beaten for walking in public without a man at their side.
Why don't you poll the Afghan population to see if they'd like to have the Taliban back in power?
Absolutely not. Saddam hasn't inflicted any harm on the U.S. and thus there is no reason for us to go after him.
I'll bet.
Terrorists fear bombs, lots and lots of bombs.
Especially the kind that suck the air out their lungs and singe them irreparably so that they literally asphyxiate over several hours.
Yes we do. And so do the Afghan women, who are no longer being beaten for walking in public without a man at their side.
Don't know much about that glorious Northern Alliance, do you? When you get a break from spewing hatred for "ragheads" here, have a look at the 1992-1996 period in Afghanistan. You'll see why the entire population welcomed the Taliban with open arms. Now they're "our guys" though, so you will no doubt be attempting to shove that history down the memory hole. Afghan women are not so eager to do so. Have a look at some what they are saying about your Northern Alliance.
Bombs are less effective than humans. Especially humans operating covertly without warning.
If he's harboring terrorists (and he has), then he's inflicted harm on the United States.`
We're going to go after him, sooner or later, pal. You may as well get ready for it.
The Iraqis will be just as happy as the Afghans are now to be rid of a miserable tyrant like Saddam Hussein.
For their help, the Turks ought to get half of Iraq.
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.