China: Terrorists Targeted Olympics
BEIJING - Chinese police killed alleged terrorists plotting to attack the
Beijing Olympics, while a flight crew managed to prevent an apparent
attempt
to crash a Chinese jetliner in a separate case just last week, officials
said Sunday.
Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of
Xinjiang, said materials seized in a January raid in the regional capital,
Urumqi, had described a plot with a purpose "specifically to sabotage the
staging of the Beijing Olympics."
"Their goal was very clear," Wang told re****ters in Beijing.
Wang cited no other evidence and earlier re****ts on the raid had made no
mention of Olympic targets.
Speaking at the same meeting, Xinjiang's governor said a flight crew
prevented an apparent attempt to crash a China Southern flight from Urumqi
on Friday. Nur Bekri did not specifically label the incident a terrorist
act, saying it remained under investigation. No passengers were injured
and
police were investigating, he said.
China has ratcheted up anti-terror preparations ahead of the August Games,
with the nation's top police official last year labeling terrorism the
biggest threat facing the event.
Police found guns, homemade bombs, training materials and "extremist
religious ideological materials" during the Jan. 27 raid in Urumqi, in
which
two members of the gang were killed and 15 arrested, according to earlier
re****ts.
Chinese forces have for years been battling a low-intensity separatist
movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and
ethnically distinct from China's Han majority. Iron-fisted Chinese rule
has
largely suppressed the violence, however, and no major bombing or shooting
incidents have been re****ted in almost a decade.
Wang said the group had been trained by and was following the orders of a
Uighur separatist group based in Pakistan and Afghanistan called the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM. The group has been labeled a
terrorist
organization by both the United Nations and the United States. East
Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.
China says its main terror threat comes from ETIM. Although the group is
not
believed to have more than a few dozen members, terrorism experts say it
has
become influential among extremist groups using the Internet to raise
funds
and find recruits.
Wang said security forces would take pro-active measures to crush
terrorism,
religious extremism, and separatism.
"These guys are fantasizing if they think they can disrupt the Olympics,"
said Wang, known for his hardline stance on cru****ng dissent. "They don't
have the strength."
Few details were available about the alleged attempt to crash the China
Southern Airlines flight that left Urumqi at 10:35 a.m. on Friday.
Bekri, the governor of the Xinjiang region, indicated that more than one
person was involved, but did not specify who was suspected to be behind
the
attempt, saying it remains under investigation.
"From what we presently know, this was an attempt to crash the plane,"
Bekri
said.
Bekri said the crew responded and brought the plane to an emergency
landing
in the western city of Lanzhou at 12:40 p.m. No passengers were injured
and
police were investigating, he said.
He said it continued to its original destination, Beijing, after about one
hour.
A man who answered the phone at China Southern's Urumqi office said the
the
incident was under investigation and he had no further details. He hung up
without giving his name.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/09/china-terrorists-targete_n_90591.html
I wouldn't be surprised if these acts weren't perpetrated from the WH to
embarrass the Commies.
Yep, that's the kind of trash we have running America.
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