Lots of Videos of Chinese Flame Protection Unit in Action

And in the following video, which is entirely in French, it was not French officials who doused the flame and leaving the runners speechless--it was the Chinese. The broadcast is in French.



So much for unity. Sure looked like the Chinese vs. everyone else, including the London police and the French runners.

Japan and Australia Deny Entry of Chinese Flame Protection Unit: Finally, Some Credibility to This Fiasco

Japan and Australia have announced that they will not allow the Beijing Olympic Games "Sacred" Flame Protection unit to participate in any security proceedings when the Olympic torch arrives in those two nations.

Finally, some common sense!

This Chinese paramilitary unit has established themselves as a gang of troublemakers; fights and scuffles with street protesters in London and in Paris firmly established the true nature of these Beijing Olympic Games.

Good riddance to the Flame Protection Unit.

IOC Allows Disrupted Olympic Torch Relay Event to Go On Despite Protests: Will Reconsider It for Future Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has decided to allow China to continue it's highly disruptive international spectacle with the Olympic torch.

The Torch relay was disrupted in London and Paris, and officials in San Francisco changed the route of the torch to avoid tens of thousands of protesters that awaited it. Additionally, the flame was extinguished three times in Paris, which (supposedly) has never happened before. The flame is on it's way to Argentina, where there's not expected to be much of a protest.

I think the IOC should have canceled the rest of this ridiculous relay as China continues it's crackdown in Tibet and hasn't put any pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in Darfur, which in turn has turned the torch into a political target. It's not supposed to be that way, but China has done nothing to ratchet down the tensions.

Instead, they've sent Chinese military guards (in the blue and white jump suits seen above) to guard the torch and act like the thugs that they are. They're members of the 70-man Beijing Olympic Games "Sacred" Flame Protection unit; their division of the Chinese People's Armed Police are also responsible for the recent crackdown in Tibet. They've gotten into fights along the route with protesters and wore out their welcome in France and in Britain.

Hopefully some of the other nations on the route deny entry to these Chinese military guards as they are an insult to the Olympic spirit which China has been trumpeting about on their torch relay web site. And they continue to debase the word "sacred" while in context to the flame.

The IOC is going to look at future requests from host countries to do similar relays. These relays should be conducted in the host countries alone; they don't have a right to disrupt international cities as the Chinese have done in the last ten days.

Free Tibet Protestors Disrupt Olympic Torch Procession: Unfortunate Situation is Responsibility of Chinese Government

I see that protesters have disrupted the Olympic flame procession in Great Britain and in France, where the torch was extinguished three times. By Olympic tradition, the torch is supposed to be lit in Greece, then goes around the world before arriving in the host country. In this case, it's the People's Republic of China.

But their brutal suppression of the Tibetan people and the recent violence in that Chinese-occupied country has lead to worldwide protests, and protesters have targeted the Olympic torch.

It is most unfortunate that this tradition has been disrupted, but the sole responsibility for this fiasco lies with the people who are in charge in Beijing. It was their orders that sent their army in to put down a legitimate protest in a country that does not belong to China, with more than a hundred lives being lost. The Tibetan people have a right to practice their religious beliefs in spite of the heathen communists.

China is not being a good Olympic host.

And the IOC should put a stop to this fiasco before it gets any worse. They were opposed to this multinational torch tour in the first place; and where Tibet is concerned, the unity propaganda coming from the Chinese government rings hollow.

And for the Chinese foreign minister to call the Olympic flame the "holy flame of the Olympics" is just plain offensive. Communists don't believe in anything being holy. The Chinese government has also denied that the flame was put out in France at all, telling it's people in official Chinese news broadcasts and print media that the relay in France was "successfully completed." NOT!!

Just take the damned torch to China and let them parade it around there.

Tibetan Monks Strike at Chinese Propaganda Machine During Media Visit to Tibetan Capitol: Can We Ignore Their Courage?

Tibet's monks embarrassed China yet again by staging a demonstration in front of foreign journalists who were brought in by Chinese occupation authorities to show off the fact that Tibet was calm after a week of riots. The monks proved that theory wrong big-time.

That the Tibetans chose to break cover with a Chinese crackdown in progress is amazing. The talking heads and conventional wisdom was that the Chinese military had crushed the rebellion and Tibet's people were under Chinese control again. Everyone was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Are our political leaders going to allow such reckless courage to be ignored?

These people thought it was important enough to get the word of their revolt out that they placed their lives in mortal peril, demonstrating in the presence of the reporters and armed Chinese occupation forces who were probably pointing their guns at the demonstrators. They've probably all disappeared and are either in prison, or dead. That's how the Chinese government deals with their political opponents inside Tibet, Hong Kong, and within China itself.

It's too late to move the Olympics, so all that the world can do is decide whether their leaders will boycott the Opening Ceremonies. Politicians over here are pressuring President Bush to reconsider his intention to go to Beijing. And I hope he does. By attending the opening, it's sending a signal to those inside occupied Tibet and free Tibetans around the world that the United States isn't willing to stand up for them.

And we're talking about a political boycott, not an athletic one.

Prediction: Taiwan Will Declare Independence From China During Beijing Olympic Games

I'm going to make a prediction here, because in a way it makes sense:

Taiwan will declare independence from the People's Republic of China just before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing this August.

Just about every nation on earth will have Olympians at the Summer Olympics; and in the spirit of the games, 192 nations (every member state at the U.N.) have agreed unanimously to an Olympic truce through the United Nations. This truce is to be observed "individually and collectively." The Chinese Embassy to Jamaica even posted news of the truce on their web site.

But China has also said in the past that if Taiwan were to declare independence that it would attack Taiwan immediately and passed a law in 2005 that made war a mandatory requirement.

China has no more claim on Taiwan than it does on Tibet. But the Chinese are also bound to observe their own truce since they're hosting the games. Last week's riots in Tibet and the Chinese heavy-handiness in dealing with the situation were a major embarrassment to Beijing and highlighted the fact that they are still a violent police state, in spite of their claims to be a happy worker's paradise.

Taiwan is having important presidential and referendum elections on March 22nd. It's asking citizens if they should apply for membership in the United Nations as the Republic of Taiwan, and not the Republic of China. Both of the major presidential candidates have stressed the need for closer relationships with Beijing, but both have also said that Taiwan can govern itself without China's help.

There could be a lot of trouble going on by the time the Olympics roll around in August.