On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:27:39 -0700 (PDT), rst0wxyz
<rst0wxyz@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>As I have said from the very beginning of the Tibet riot, the CIA
>fingerprints were everywhere in Tibet.
>
>The CIA fingerprints were shown during the Tiananmen Square Massacre
>in the form of the "goddess of democracy".
True. Obviously, it's the reason why there are troop deployments
happening all over Tibet right now. Combing out a handful CIA agents
shouldn't be a difficult job for the Chinese government. Hope those
agents have enough supply to survive in their ice cold Tibetan caves.
>
>
>On Mar 25, 12:50?pm, Chen <c...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA
>> By Richard M Bennett
>>
>> Given the historical context of the unrest in Tibet, there is reason
>> to believe Beijing was caught on the hop with the recent
>> demonstrations for the simple reason that their planning took place
>> outside of Tibet and that the direction of the protesters is similarly
>> in the hands of anti-Chinese organizers safely out of reach in Nepal
>> and northern India.
>>
>> Similarly, the funding and overall control of the unrest has also been
>> linked to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and by inference to
>> the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because of his close
>> cooperation with US intelligence for over 50 years.
>>
>> Indeed, with the CIA's deep involvement with the Free Tibet Movement
>> and its funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia, it
>> would seem somewhat unlikely that any revolt could
>>
>> have been planned or occurred without the prior knowledge, and even
>> perhaps the agreement, of the National Clandestine Service (formerly
>> known as the Directorate of Operations) at CIA headquarters in
>> Langley.
>>
>> Respected columnist and former senior Indian Intelligence officer, B
>> Raman, commented on March 21 that "on the basis of available evidence,
>> it was possible to *****s with a reasonable measure of conviction"
>> that the initial uprising in Lhasa on March 14 "had been pre-planned
>> and well orchestrated".
>>
>> Could there be a factual basis to the suggestion that the main
>> beneficiaries to the death and destruction sweeping Tibet are in
>> Wa****ngton? History would suggest that this is a distinct
>> possibility.
>>
>> The CIA conducted a large scale covert action campaign against the
>> communist Chinese in Tibet starting in 1956. This led to a disastrous
>> bloody uprising in 1959, leaving tens of thousands of Tibetans dead,
>> while the Dalai Lama and about 100,000 followers were forced to flee
>> across the treacherous Himalayan p***** to India and Nepal.
>>
>> The CIA established a secret military training camp for the Dalai
>> Lama's resistance fighters at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, in
>> the US. The Tibetan guerrillas were trained and equipped by the CIA
>> for guerrilla warfare and sabotage operations against the communist
>> Chinese.
>>
>> The US-trained guerrillas regularly carried out raids into Tibet, on
>> occasions led by CIA-contract mercenaries and sup****ted by CIA planes.
>> The initial training program ended in December 1961, though the camp
>> in Colorado appears to have remained open until at least 1966.
>>
>> The CIA Tibetan Task Force created by Roger E McCarthy, alongside the
>> Tibetan guerrilla army, continued the operation codenamed "St Circus"
>> to harass the Chinese occupation forces for another 15 years until
>> 1974, when officially sanctioned involvement ceased.
>>
>> McCarthy, who also served as head of the Tibet Task Force at the
>> height of its activities from 1959 until 1961, later went on to run
>> similar operations in Vietnam and Laos.
>>
>> By the mid-1960s, the CIA had switched its strategy from parachuting
>> guerrilla fighters and intelligence agents into Tibet to establi****ng
>> the Chusi Gangdruk, a guerrilla army of some 2,000 ethnic Khamba
>> fighters at bases such as Mustang in Nepal.
>>
>> This base was only closed down in 1974 by the Nepalese government
>> after being put under tremendous pressure by Beijing.
>> After the Indo-China War of 1962, the CIA developed a close
>> relation****p with the Indian intelligence services in both training
>> and supplying agents in Tibet.
>>
>> Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison in their book The CIA's Secret War
>> in Tibet disclose that the CIA and the Indian intelligence services
>> cooperated in the training and equipping of Tibetan agents and special
>> forces troops and in forming joint aerial and intelligence units such
>> as the Aviation Research Center and Special Center.
>>
>> This collaboration continued well into the 1970s and some of the
>> programs that it sponsored, especially the special forces unit of
>> Tibetan refugees which would become an im****tant part of the Indian
>> Special Frontier Force, continue into the present.
>>
>> Only the deterioration in relations with India which coincided with
>> improvements in those with Beijing brought most of the joint CIA-
>> Indian operations to an end.
>>
>> Though Wa****ngton had been scaling back sup****t for the Tibetan
>> guerrillas since 1968, it is thought that the end of official US
>> backing for the resistance only came during meetings between president
>> Richard Nixon and the Chinese communist leader****p in Beijing in
>> February 1972.
>>
>> Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer has described the outrage many
>> field agents felt when Wa****ngton finally pulled the plug, adding that
>> a number even "[turned] for solace to the Tibetan prayers which they
>> had learned during their years with the Dalai Lama".
>>
>> The former CIA Tibetan Task Force chief from 1958 to 1965, John
>> Kenneth Knaus, has been quoted as saying, "This was not some CIA black-
>> bag operation." He added, "The initiative was coming from ... the
>> entire US government."
>>
>> In his book Orphans of the Cold War, Knaus writes of the obligation
>> Americans feel toward the cause of Tibetan independence from China.
>> Significantly, he adds that its realization "would validate the more
>> worthy motives of we who tried to help them achieve this goal over 40
>> years ago. It would also alleviate the guilt some of us feel over our
>> participation in these efforts, which cost others their lives, but
>> which were the prime adventure of our own."
>>
>> Despite the lack of official sup****t it is still widely rumored that
>> the CIA were involved, if only by proxy, in another failed revolt in
>> October 1987, the unrest that followed and the consequent Chinese
>> repression continuing till May 1993.
>>
>> The timing for another serious attempt to destabilize Chinese rule in
>> Tibet would appear to be right for the CIA and Langley will
>> undoubtedly keep all its options open.
>>
>> China is faced with significant problems, with the Uighur Muslims in
>> Xinjiang province; the activities of the Falun Gong among many other
>> dissident groups and of course growing concern over the security of
>> the Summer Olympic Games in August.
>>
>> China is viewed by Wa****ngton as a major threat, both economic and
>> military, not just in Asia, but in Africa and Latin America as well.
>>
>> The CIA also views China as being "unhelpful" in the "war on terror",
>> with little or no cooperation being offered and nothing positive being
>> done to stop the flow of arms and men from Muslim areas of western
>> China to sup****t Islamic extremist movements in Afghanistan and
>> Central Asian states.
>>
>> To many in Wa****ngton, this may seem the ideal op****tunity to knock
>> the Beijing government off balance as Tibet is still seen as China's
>> potential weak spot.
>>
>> The CIA will undoubtedly ensure that its fingerprints are not
>> discovered all over this growing revolt. Cut-outs and proxies will be
>> used among the Tibetan exiles in Nepal and India's northern border
>> areas.
>>
>> Indeed, the CIA can expect a significant level of sup****t from a
>> number of security organizations in both India and Nepal and will have
>> no trouble in providing the resistance movement with advice, money and
>> above all, publicity.
>>
>> However, not until the unrest shows any genuine signs of becoming an
>> open revolt by the great mass of ethnic Tibetans against the Han
>> Chinese and Hui Muslims will any weapons be allowed to appear.
>>
>> Large quantities of former Eastern bloc small arms and explosives have
>> been re****tedly smuggled into Tibet over the past 30 years, but these
>> are likely to remain safely hidden until the right op****tunity
>> presents itself.
>>
>> The weapons have been acquired on the world markets or from stocks
>> captured by US or Israeli forces. They have been sanitized and are
>> deniable, untraceable back to the CIA.
>>
>> Weapons of this nature also have the advantage of being
>> interchangeable with those used by the Chinese armed forces and of
>> course use the same ammunition, easing the problem of resupply during
>> any future conflict.
>>
>> Though official sup****t for the Tibetan resistance ended 30 years ago,
>> the CIA has kept open its lines of communications and still funds much
>> of the Tibetan Freedom movement.
>>
>> So is the CIA once again playing the "great game" in Tibet?
>>
>> It certainly has the capability, with a significant intelligence and
>> paramilitary presence in the region. Major bases exist in Afghanistan,
>> Iraq, Pakistan and several Central Asian states.
>>
>> It cannot be doubted that it has an interest in undermining China, as
>> well as the more obvious target of Iran.
>>
>> So the probable answer is yes, and indeed it would be rather
>> surprising if the CIA was not taking more than just a passing interest
>> in Tibet. That is after all what it is paid to do.
>>
>> Since September 11, 2001, there has been a sea-change in US
>> Intelligence attitudes, requirements and capabilities. Old operational
>> plans have been dusted off and updated. Previous assets re-activated.
>> Tibet and the perceived weakness of China's position there will
>> probably have been fully re*****sed.
>>
>> For Wa****ngton and the CIA, this may seem a heaven-sent op****tunity to
>> create a significant lever against Beijing, with little risk to
>> American interests; simply a win-win situation.
>>
>> The Chinese government would be on the receiving end of worldwide
>> condemnation for its continuing repression and violation of human
>> rights and it will be young Tibetans dying on the streets of Lhasa
>> rather than yet more uniformed American kids.
>>
>> The consequences of any open revolt against Beijing, however, are that
>> once again the fear of arrest, torture and even execution will pervade
>> every corner of both Tibet and those neighboring provinces where large
>> Tibetan populations exist, such as Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan.
>>
>> And the Tibetan Freedom movement still has little likelihood of
>> achieving any significant improvement in central Chinese policy in the
>> long run and no chance whatever of removing its control of Lhasa and
>> their homeland.
>>
>> Once again it would appear that the Tibetan people will find
>> themselves trapped between an oppressive Beijing and a manipulative
>> Wa****ngton.
>>
>> Beijing sends in the heavies
>> The fear that the United States, Britain and other Western states may
>> try to ****tray Tibet as another Kosovo may be part of the reason why
>> the Chinese authorities reacted as if faced with a genuine mass revolt
>> rather than their official ****trayal of a short-lived outbreak of
>> unrest by malcontents sup****ting the Dalai Lama.
>>
>> Indeed, so seriously did Beijing view the situation that a special
>> security coordination unit, the 110 Command Center, has been
>> established in Lhasa with the primary objective of suppressing the
>> disturbances and restoring full central government control.
>>
>> The center appears to be under the direct control of Zhang Qingli,
>> first secretary of the Tibet Party and a President Hu Jintao loyalist.
>> Zhang is also the former Xinjiang deputy party secretary with
>> considerable experience in counter-terrorism operations in that
>> region.
>>
>> Others holding im****tant positions in Lhasa are Zhang Xinfeng, vice
>> minister of the Central Public Security Ministry and Zhen Yi, deputy
>> commander of the People's Armed Police Headquarters in Beijing.
>>
>> The seriousness with which Beijing is treating the present unrest is
>> further illustrated by the deployment of a large number of im****tant
>> army units from the Chengdu Military Region, including brigades from
>> the 149th Mechanized Infantry Division, which acts as the region's
>> rapid reaction force.
>>
>> According to a United Press International re****t, elite ground force
>> units of the People's Liberation Army were involved in Lhasa, and the
>> new T-90 armored personnel carrier and T-92 wheeled armored vehicles
>> were deployed. According to the re****t, China has denied the
>> participation of the army in the crackdown, saying it was carried out
>> by units of the armed police. "Such equipment as mentioned above has
>> never been deployed by China's armed police, however."
>>
>> Air sup****t is provided by the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment, based at
>> Fenghuangshan, Chengdu, in Sichuan province. It operates a mix of
>> helicopters and STOL trans****ts from a frontline base near Lhasa.
>> Combat air sup****t could be quickly made available from fighter ground
>> attack squadrons based within the Chengdu region.
>> The Xizang Military District forms the Tibet garrison, which has two
>> mountain infantry units; the 52nd Brigade based at Linzhi and the 53rd
>> Brigade at Yaoxian Shannxi. These are sup****ted by the 8th Motorized
>> Infantry Division and an artillery brigade at Shawan, Xinjiang.
>>
>> Tibet is also no longer quite as remote or difficult to resupply for
>> the Chinese army. The construction of the first railway between 2001
>> and 2007 has significantly eased the problems of the movement of large
>> numbers of troops and equipment from Qinghai onto the rugged Tibetan
>> plateau.
>>
>> Other precautions against a resumption of the long-term Tibetan
>> revolts of previous years has led to a considerable degree of self-
>> sufficiency in logistics and vehicle repair by the Tibetan garrison
>> and an increasing number of small airfields have been built to allow
>> rapid-reaction units to gain access to even the most remote areas.
>>
>> The Chinese Security Ministry and intelligence services had been
>> thought to have a suffocating presence in the province and indeed the
>> ability to detect any serious protest movement and suppress
>> resistance.
>>
>> Richard M Bennett, intelligence and security consultant, AFI
>> Research.
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