Daily Olympics Report : Security Heightened After Terrorist Attack Kills 16

As you might expect officials moved immediately to reassure competitors and visitors to Beijing they would be safe when the Games get under way on Friday.

The spokeman for the Beijing Ogranizing Committe, one Sun Weide, said "We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games,"

Considering it must have been in the thoughts of the IOC for years on end, ever since the start of the war on terror you'd think that the possibility of such a thing wouldn't be far from the thoughts of Olympics organizers, right? Yet this attack, which turned out to be a rather stunning embarrassment to the authorities (especially since they seemed to have intelligence that apparently warned of possible attacks this week), took place in Kashgar, a remote outpost of Chinese rule in the west of Xinjiang province not far from the border with Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. (If you heard of this place before now then you are far more worldly than I am.)

Of course it's not to say that there wasn't already a possibility of such an incident, as it seems the Xinjiang's Muslim (ethnic Uighur) population already has past rep for clashing with the authorities. However it hasn't been since the 90's that there had been any major confirmed terrorist incidents.

So what is to be made of this? According to the report from the telegraph I got this info from "The authorities have repeatedly warned of the risk of attacks on the Olympics by Islamic and "separatist" groups based in the region, though they also insisted that security in the region was under control. "
So... what? Too many times crying wolf, or not enough times emphasising the dangers?

According to the article from the telegraph, "Chinese state media said that two men drove a dump-truck at a group of policemen out for early morning exercise, crashed to a halt and threw grenades or home-made explosive devices. They then began slashing at survivors with knives before being overwhelmed and arrested.

Fourteen policemen died at the scene, two more died on the way to hospital, and 16 others were injured. Debris from five explosive devices was also recovered, the reports added."

Maybe it'd be safer if they just skipped morning exercise altogether and got all their police gym memberships.

At present the only frontrunner for "Worst People In The World" seems to allegedly be with a group calling itself the "Turkestan Islamic Party" (TIP). Why? Well it concerns a video put out on a website 10 days ago by said group, and a little bit of history as apparently the region tried to break away from China in the 40's and briefly called themselves "East Turkestan" before being retaken by then Chairman Mao's People's Liberation Army... who seemingly wasn't doing so much liberating as conquering... eh.

In this online video... which is odd since they all seem to hate Western technology and then smother themselves in Western technology to do their terrorizing... go figure. Anyway in the video one "Commander Seyfullah" claimed responsibility for a number of small lethal little bus bombings in China in recent months, and then went on to claim he's gunning for the Olympics and "critical points" of said Olympics. China, of course, denied the group claims and said there was still not evidence yesterday's attack had an Olympics connection.

Sorta true, the area is known for clashes, but considering the long length between bombings it has to be put on the table that there is some sort of viable connection.
The IOC is reported to have said it has confidence in Beijing's security prep for the games... because it's too late to pack up and go somewhere else it seems, so they better be damned confident in them because it's Beijing or bust (as it were).

Some, however, think the incident is being exaggerated (and thus manufacturing a terrorist threat to justify indiscrimiate arrests and repression in the region). Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, and is present only an allegation.
Additionally, a charge has been levelled against China that they provoked a response of such magnitude themselves through their own actions. Again, though, an allegation until proven one way or another.

However it seems as though the situation in the area is on it's way to a total breakdown in civility if China continues to oppress the Uighur people... Hmm... why did China get the Olympics again? Apparently it wasn't for some alturistic goal of making China a better and more honorable country (allegedly).

Another Uighur terrorist group, known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), (which may or may not be the same as the TIP), is accused by both the United States and China of links to al-Qaeda. Presently ETIM group numbers are unknown, and at one point it was thought put out of business after it's leader got the whammy while in Pakistan back in 2003... apparently not though as they've been brought up again.

Now while I like good news, let's hope this doesn't give people inflated heads. Apparently analysts say "no Uighur group is thought to be sophisticated enough to penetrate the ring of steel which the Chinese authorities have thrown around Beijing for the Games, deploying more than 100,000 security personnel". That's nice, but for the sake of all please don't lessen your watch on the games oh Chinese security!

Speaking of incidents, it seems a less violent incident recently took place over in Beijing itself as a small group of protesters clashed with police near Tiananmen Square. These turned out to be local residents who had been evicted from their homes just south of the Square to make way for a new shopping district... hmm... I wonder if this counts as part of the alleged 1 and a half million thrown out of their homes to build up the area for the Olympics? Hmmm...

On a plus note despite warnings that they wouldn't take protests lying down, the protesters were surrounded but not arrested by police, who are deeply sensitive about any form of demonstration on the Square (if you have your superiors yell at you everyday babout quelling demonstrations or else, mostly because their superiors and yelling at them and in turn their superiors are yelling at them, well then you'd be "deeply sensitive" too). Oh, and it helps that there's a ton of media hovering over everything though I can't remember hearing anything about this on the news or seeing any major coverage of this on any of the news networks.

Eventually they were led away by members of the local neighbourhood committee, the lowest reaches of the Communist Party.

And that, once again, is today's news spinning about the worldwide web... imagine what you will probably learn tomorrow.