NSA: Greenwald to speak in L.A. (June 19)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; HaymarketBooks.org; KPFK.org

Sponsored by Haymarket Books, The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, Metropolitan Books, and KPFK FM (Pacifica Free Speech Radio, Los Angeles).

Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State

• Thursday, June 19, 2014 - 7:00 pm
• Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC)
• 244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 See map
• TICKETS only $6

Glenn Greenwald

In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet a source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels.
 

Read a chapter free (truthdig.org)

That source turned out to be the 29-year-old NSA spy, teacher, and Booz Allen Hamilton (mole) contractor Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency’s widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy.

As the arguments rage on and the government considers various proposals for reform, it is clear that we have yet to see the full impact of Snowden’s disclosures.
 

Best pres we never had: Emperor 0

In April 2014, Greenwald and his colleagues at The Guardian received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. See Greenwald live and in-person as he puts all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity 11-day trip to Hong Kong but more importantly examining the broader implications of state surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA’s unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.

Greenwald will be signing his new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Coming at a landmark moment in American history, No Place to Hide is a fearless, incisive, and essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.

• Part of the Glenn Greenwald Speaks: Edward Snowden, NSA, and US Surveillance State

(Iraq and Obama)(Ukraine)(Free your mind, the rest will follow?)(Soccer)

Seattle Campus Shooting, 6 Shot (video)

Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; KIRO 7; LAT

Was it proving his masculinity or subjugating her femininity, what drives a mass shooter?

Police State coming: Seattle versus World Trade Organization (freedomsphoenix.com)

Five percent or more of police are predators, according to a former San Diego police chief. How many more are sociopaths? When ununiformed criminals are induced, coached, and triggered, mayhem ensues. Police are deployed. We are locked down. Whole cities are put under martial law. The police rush in with orders to shoot anyone they see for our "protection." That's the plan. With protection like that, who needs a "lone gunman"/MC? The planners! (Occupy, Battle-of-Seattle, fromthevaultradio.org).

Multiple people were left wounded after a shooting this afternoon at Seattle Pacific University. The Seattle PD warned that they are dealing with conflicting reports, but confirmed at least three people were injured and transported to a local hospital. Other news outlets are reporting as many as six victims were hospitalized. Although there were reports that two people were arrested, police now say they only have one suspect in custody. According to the AP, police say they have stopped searching for a second gunman, who was described as a white male wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt. According to KIRO 7, the suspect's car was registered to the parent of a Seattle Pacific University student. Students told reporters they initially thought the gunshots were a science experiment until the school went into lockdown.

1 man dies, 5 others injured in Seattle college shooting
Maria L. La Ganga, Paresh Dave, Ryan Parker (Los Angeles Times)

Authorities respond to a deadly shooting at Seattle Pacific University on June 5. The university posted online that "the campus is in lockdown due to a shooting near Otto Miller Hall" (Dean Rutz/Seattle Times).

  

See wounded suspect and video below.

A man in his 20s died and at least three others were hospitalized after a shooting inside an engineering building on the campus of Seattle Pacific University [SPU, a Christian school] on Thursday [June 5, 2014] afternoon [about 3:00 pm], authorities said.

Map of vicinity (Paul Duginski/latimes.com)

A suspect was in custody. Seattle police had initially sought a second suspect [who was part of the false flag operation before they were keyed in and told to say there was only one shooter, the lone gunman, and we venture to guess it will be a white young man on antidepressants with a history of loving guns and not talking to his neighbors with a connection to psychiatric studies either through the military, the university, or Hollywood], but later said the person in custody was the only shooter.  

 

As many as six people were injured, according to the Seattle Fire Department. One woman suffered life-threatening injuries. Two men suffered minor injuries and were in stable condition.

Seattle Pacific Univ. Alert announces planned prayer vigil tonight at 7:00 pm (spu.edu)

 
Many students reported that the gunshots -- heard throughout the building -- sounded like a science experiment, maybe a helium balloon popping.

But when a student in Room 136 in Otto Miller Hall went into the hallway to doublecheck, she quickly came back and offered a terse statement, "I think someone got shot," according to Blake Oliveira, who was inside the classroom... More

(World Breaking News)

1 Dead, 3 Wounded In Shooting at Seattle College Campus
One person has died in the campus shooting at Seattle Pacific University, according to Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center. [Original story published at 8:11 pm ET and labelled June 6 world time] A gunman opened fired Thursday [June 5 local time] at Seattle Pacific [Christian] University, wounding four people before faculty and staff disarmed him, the Seattle Police Department said. The gunman was reloading when the staff stopped him, police reported on the department's official Twitter account. The accused shooter, whose identity was not immediately released, is in custody, and no outstanding suspects are being sought, police said At least two people -- one man and one woman -- suffered life-threatening injuries, police said. Another man and woman were in stable condition, they said. The shooting began inside Otto Miller Hall, which houses the university's science, math and engineering departments. Witness Briana Clarke told CNN affiliate KOMO she was in Otto Miller Hall when she heard shots and then saw students running. "I first heard two muffled shots that I thought were two helium balloons," she said. Then she said she saw between five and seven students who appeared to be injured. The school was locked down during the shooting, and it was lifted after police cleared all the buildings on the campus. "I'm in my office with four students with the blinds closed. We're sitting on the floor with the door locked, very scared," university counselor Karen Altus told KOMO. Seattle Pacific is a Christian university with a student population of 4,270. It is located in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood.

(ABC 7 Eyewitness News) Breaking news, Seattle Pacific University school shooting with multiple suspects converted into "a lone gunman" now in custody.

Guns, sexism, and killing (cartoons)

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com)

Maybe it's women. Maybe it's men. Maybe it's guns. Maybe it's Republican men with guns who hate women. And maybe it's unresolved mental issues in the psyche of post-slavery America.

Exploit the incident in Tucson, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Sandy Hook, Boston...?

Maybe the "solution" is to kill more people? *Irony* Because mass shooters, who shoot themselves (as programmed) after their shooting spree, would think twice about shooting anybody if they knew we would kill them. Uh, wait. Joe Blow McCain makes so much sense when he talks to Hillary about Ukraine, Benghazi, and golf, and POWs, and Big Government.

• VIDEO: Cartoon violence and the Other F Word
• MUSIC VIDEO: Don't blame sexy Katy Perry!
• VIDEO GAME: Don't blame violent video games! (Rated M)
• There really is an MK-Ultra that makes mass shooters
• CIA runs many programs like it: black ops, psy-ops, mind control, Monarch Project, Phoenix Program, assassinations, pretexts, Project Paperclip, NSA Gen. Michael Aquino...

PBS News Hour says consider blaming popular violent video games, mass media, and our modern American war/sex culture (after Newtown, CT and Adam Lanza)

Meeting NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman

 

Intercepting the National Spying Agency

In part two of Democracy Now's extended interview, Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald tells the inside story of meeting National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras were the journalists who first met Snowden in Hong Kong last June, going on to publish a series of disclosures in The Guardian, a venerable 190-year-old British newspaper, that exposed massive NSA surveillance to the world.

Host Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

Greenwald has just come out with a new book on the Snowden leaks and their fallout, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.

Recalling his first encounter with Snowden, Greenwald says: "The big question was: 'How are we going to know that it’s you? We know nothing about you. We don’t know how old you are, what you look like, or what your race is, or even your gender.' And [Snowden] said, 'You’ll know me because I’ll be holding in my left hand a Rubik’s cube.' And so he walked in, was holding a Rubik’s cube, came over to us, introduced himself, and that was how we met him." More

More from The Intercept

British spies face legal action over secret hacking programs

The United Kingdom’s top spy agency is facing legal action following revelations published by The Intercept about its involvement in secret efforts to hack into computers on a massive scale. Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, has been accused of acting unlawfully by helping to develop National Security Agency surveillance systems capable of covertly breaking into More

• British spy chiefs begged to play in NSA’s data pools

British surveillance agency GCHQ secretly coveted the NSA’s vast troves of private communications and sought “unsupervised access” to its data as recently as last year, classified documents provided NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal.

• Der Spiegel: NSA put Merkel on list of 122 targets

Secret documents newly disclosed by the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday shed more light on how aggressively the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have targeted Germany for surveillance.

• Inside the NSA’s secret efforts to hunt and hack system administrators

Across the world, people who work as system administrators keep computer networks in order – and this has turned them into unwitting targets of the NSA for simply doing their jobs.

• Foreign Officials in the dark about their own spy agencies’ cooperation with NSA (Glenn Greenwald)

Top political officials in other nations have repeatedly demonstrated, or even explicitly claimed, wholesale ignorance about their nations’ cooperation with the NSA, as well as their own spying activities. Were these top officials truly unaware, or were they pretending to be?

• How the NSA plans to infect "millions" of computers with malware

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

• The NSA has an Advice Columnist. Seriously.

An NSA official, writing under the pen name “Zelda,” has served as a Dear Abby for spies. One of her most intriguing columns responds to an NSA staffer who complains that his (or her) boss is spying on employees.

• New details of DRONE attack on Yemeni wedding prompt more demands Obama explain assassination policy

A new report on the U.S. drone missile strike that killed 12 members of a Yemeni wedding convoy has renewed calls for the Obama administration to make public its own investigations into the incident -- and explain how such strikes are consistent with international laws of war.

• UK Court: David Miranda [Greenwald's partner] detention legal under terrorism law

A British lower court has ruled that London police acted lawfully in employing an anti-terror statute to detain and interrogate David Miranda for nearly nine hours at Heathrow Airport last summer, even while recognizing that the detention was “an indirect interference with press freedom.”

• Snowden documents reveal covert surveillance and pressure tactics aimed at WikiLeaks and its supporters

Top-secret documents from the National Security Agency and its British counterpart reveal for the first time how the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom targeted WikiLeaks and other activist groups with tactics ranging from covert surveillance to prosecution.

• SHOW MORE TOP STORIES

Living arguments on gun control (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com); Kevin Uhrich (PW)

No walk on the beach

I'll kill ya...for pointing that at me

The sun had already started setting by the time a former girlfriend and I arrived at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades one night...

 

We were going to have dinner at nearby Gladstone’s Restaurant, where Sunset Boulevard ends at Pacific Coast Highway, but decided to first grab a blanket from the car and head down to the sand to watch the sun go down...

 

It was chilly that night, and few people were out there with us, except for one young man who stood just where the sand turned into parking lot, seemingly watching our every move.

(Comedy Central) We the U.S. are the problem, not our guns, as Canada demonstrates.

 

After a [while] I didn’t really think much of the guy, but I looked around just the same, to see exactly how alone we really were out there.

 

Looking back over my right shoulder, my eyes scanned the rest of the parking lot, then north, along the sand. That’s when I saw another young man, this one a short distance from us, walking slowly on the beach, not along the surf but toward the parking lot, all while looking intently at the two of us.

Tea Party Republican Libertarian Na...

He made some motions with his head toward the guy in the parking lot, who by this time was joined by a third man, and those two started making their way into the sand to meet their associate.

Gladstone’s was only about an eighth of a mile away, but it might as well have been miles if we had to run to it in the deep sand in order to get away. By this time, we had finished..., my friend seemingly oblivious to what was going on around us.

(Comedy Central, Daily Show, Part II) John Oliver vows that never again
will a political career end in a senseless act of meaningful legislation.

Let us prevent political suicide in the face of NRA lobbyists.

“C’mon, I think we better go,” I said, grasping the slender neck of the bottle, preparing myself to smash it across one of their heads, if necessary.

“What’s the matter?” she asked before turning around and suddenly realizing that our new friends were actually about to try something.

 

Guns don't kill people; bullets kill people.

With that, she stood up, faced the three guys and placed her hand inside of her purse, which she then raised up slightly at arm’s length with her other hand. A look of deadly earnestness crossed her face, but she didn’t say a word. They all seemed to understand that my girlfriend was armed with a gun, and, even better, that she at least appeared prepared to use it if need be.

(Comedy Central, Daily Show, Part III) John Oliver: it's pointless for US to

study Australian gun control because the situations are just too similar.

 

I gathered up our stuff and headed toward the car as she turned toward our potential assailants, never once taking her eyes off of them. They stood there frozen, apparently knowing better than to make any kind of move as we hustled back to the car, got in, and drove away. We never did go to dinner at Gladstone’s. More

My government killing me

Democide is a term revived and redefined by the political scientist R.J. Rummel as the murder of people by their government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder." He created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government-murder that are not covered by the term "genocide," and it has become accepted among other scholars in spite of the fact that the term democide was defined and used in English more than 40 years earlier by Theodore Abel. In the 20th century democide surpassed war as the leading cause of non-natural death... More

Guns: Are we pro or con?
Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)

Like Budai, let's throw away the AKs (CC)

We unanimously agree. Our position on guns is that they should ALL be gotten rid of. We cannot have police, the paramilitary, and military retain firearms and expect that citizens, protesters, and advocates of civil liberties would be safe from these deadly agents, who in the past have done so much to violate the Constitution, our rights, and the laws of the land with tacit approval of the court and manipulated juries. It would be Martial Law and oppression that perhaps is only staved off because the two sides, ordinary second-class citizens versus elites and their soldiers, have guns. So they should have access to the same terrible guns.

Killing is unskillful, unwholesome karma. And what excuses we make for this intentional action will do little to alter the bitter fruit of our deeds. Many are willing to kill -- whether motivated by fear, greed, delusion, or hatred. Because that is the subtle underlying motivation, the harm is there. Rationalizations that it is "self" defense or patriotism or attacking one group to defend another group does not change the personally verifiable fact that when it is being done, one of these for motivations is at work.

Nothing good will come of it when that karma ripens. Yet, there are many people willing to shoot and kill for pay, for pleasure, for peer pressure, or simply not knowing and not understanding karma.
 
We stand for life and for the right of living beings to live oppression-free. Guns are not the way to life or beneficial karmic results. Say no to guns in the hands of authorities or in the hands of second-class citizens. But when they are in the hands of one, it seems they have to be in the hands of the other. Put the guns down.

(Mental Floss) Don't expect "science" to solve the issue

• VIDEO: Ted Nugent is a racist, I mean a black guitarist
• VIDEO: Democide is when the state kills off its citizens
• VIDEO: Capitalists propose giving millions of small handguns to Indian women to kill men on buses and elsewhere who "Eve Tease" (sexually harass) them. What could possibly go wrong? It's not as if men and criminals can take or borrow the guns from their sisters, mothers, and daughters to kill, rape, rob, engage in a budding drug trade, or cause general mayhem for corruptible police in a post ahimsa world.
• VIDEO: We have a RIGHT to bare arms! And to bare legs, bare bellies, bare bottoms... so why not let ALL citizens go topless if they want?
• VIDEO: Ex-FBI Agent explains what to do if police abuse you and your rights (Make Yourself Arrest-Proof, Dale Carson)
• VIDEO: Police given right to shoot anyone by claiming they thought the "suspect" was reaching for a waistband. It also works if they shout, as they beat you, "Stop resisting!" Or they could make it all up. How would everyone having a gun to reach for help the situation? Does a citizen have the right to shoot police about to kill him or her when we don't even have the right to have one?
• VIDEO: Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan talks to Alex Jones

U.S. Government vs. Jon Stewart's Daily Show claim. See 5:10.

American judge rules against NSA spying

Wisdom Quarterly; TheGuardian.com; Mitch Jeserich, Larry Klayman (KPFA, Berkeley)

Larry Klayman, who successfully challenged the military-industrial complex's spying apparatus, the NSA, in civilian court was interviewed on Pacifica's "Letters and Politics." He says, "I challenged the NSA in court because it's a totalitarian attack on human rights. I'm pleased Judge Leon sided with the American people Monday by ruling that the NSA's actions likely violate the Constitution..."

 

Lead Plaintiff of NSA Ruling
Letters and Politics (Dec. 17, 2013, 10:00 am)

• LISTEN: PLAY NOW - download (MP3, 10.27 MB)

Larry Klayman, conservative (right wing) activist  (often applauded by the left), is the lead plaintiff in Tuesday's NSA ruling. He appears to talk about his case and his history of suing American presidents. Also: David Greene (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Ben Griffin...

[Mr. Klayman, what difference does it make if brave Judge Leon symbolically stood up to the powers that be if this ruling, which he himself placed on hold as soon as he ruled to allow the government to appeal his decision, will soon be overturned by FISA Court judges (15 of which have affirmed NSA crimes as acceptable) or corruption in the Supreme Court is exploited by the third Bush administration (now called the Obama administration)? It can be passed by executive order or sent back underground to be done illegally just as was happening before Edward Snowden blew the whistle and is being made an example slated for assassination on a JSOC/Obama-approved "kill list."]

American gov't crimes
Larry Klayman, The Guardian

Shortly after it was disclosed by then Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that the NSA was running roughshod over the constitutional rights of the American people, I filed two class action lawsuits, on behalf of myself and a client, Charles Strange, who lost his son, a NSA cryptologist, in the Afghan war. 

These lawsuits not only ask for large monetary damages, but also for an injunction against the US government spying on over 300 million citizens in violation of the Patriot and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts. The laws make it crystal clear that the NSA, CIA, FBI, or any other American government agency can only eavesdrop on persons who are under investigation for being in contact with foreign terrorists... More

• Sunday's NSA report confirms it: 60 Minutes spins
• I no longer get an orgasm from penetrative sex
• Murray-Darling basin: this gratuitous decision to reject science is disastrous
• NSA goes on 60 Minutes: the definitive facts behind CBS's flawed report
• Edward Snowden offers to help Brazil over US spying in return for asylum 
  VIDEO: How the Lords of Finance Caused the Great Depression and the Second World War (BNY Mellon) 
  Seumas Milne: Mission accomplished? Afghanistan is a calamity and our leaders must be held to account

Disturbing NASA document exposed (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Deborah Tavares, Trevor Coppola

(ADG); ADG Facebook/Twitter) Shocking firsthand evidence of war plans against Americans

 

Make funk not war (CP)

Earlier this year an alarming document was brought to the attention of Deborah Tavares. It was found on the official NASA website. It is the text of a Powerpoint presentation, a document that outlines WAR PLANS against American citizens. The plans were devised by the U.S. government, or some rogue element within our military-industrial complex. It was delivered by Chief NASA Scientist Dennis Bushnell at the Langley Center a few months before 9-11.

 

Review "The Future is Now"

This information -- exposing the purpose of chemtrails (micronized aerosol contaminants sprayed over large populations), cell towers, currency collapse, smart meters, HAARP, biological and frequency weapons, and so on -- is available so everyone can stay informed. Review the document (PDF). In this way every individual can make a decision to act on it or not. If "ignorance is bliss," that may not be everyone. More

• Propaganda on CNN? (stopthecrime.net)
• Population control: "Silent Weapons, Quiet War"

Split up NSA and Cyber Command leadership?

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Ellen Nakashima (mainstream media propaganda coverage from the Washington Post, 11-29-13)

Rand Paul to be discredited for taking a stand

Key senior administration officials have advocated splitting the leadership of the nation’s largest spy agency from that of the military’s cyberwarfare command as a final White House decision nears, according to individuals briefed on the discussions. At a White House meeting of senior national security officials last week, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said he was in favor of ending the current policy of having one official in charge of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, said the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Also, officials appear inclined to install a civilian as director of the NSA for the first time in the agency’s 61-year history. More 

• Duffel makes fun of military absurdities; Pentagon laughs
• FEAR: Feinstein, Rogers: Terrorism threat against U.S. is growing (So let's all PANIC and let pass whatever they want to pass to protect us, even if it means another Patriot Act!) Leaders of House and Senate intelligence committees warned of risks posed by a changing al-Qaeda.
• White House lobbies senators not to act on Iran sanctions
• The administration believes legislation could scuttle the interim nuclear agreement reached with Iran.
• Karzai’s recalcitrance brings U.S. closer to "zero option" - Officials contemplate costs if a new "security" pact with Afghanistan falls through
  
• 10 Reasons You'll Never Be Rich (Kiplinger) 
• NSA SECRETS Read all about the mainstream sanitized version of Edward Snowden's revelations about America's spying apparatus. This "full" coverage adds watered down debate surrounding National Security Agency surveillance programs. Don't read the accurate Guardian version. Oops, too late: Britain targets Guardian newspaper
• Senators work on Iran sanctions; WH lobbies them not to
• West Bank violence up, but this time it's more personal
• Mexican bishop takes on cultish cartel in drug war

China to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Reuters in Beijing, Staff Reporter (scmp.com, Nov. 2, 2013); NTDTV.com

The Dalai Lama jokes in response to a question about the Chinese government. Making gestures like horns, the Tibetan spiritual leader said, "Why the Chinese government is sort of afraid of me? The totalitarian government think of me as a demon" (10-21-09). He talked about the Four Noble Truths to thousands of Buddhists from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia who converged at Tsuglagkhang temple (demotix.com).

British: "China staged Tibet riots"

Magic Tibetan ritual (sacbee.com)

(NTDTV) The G2 Bulletin has just published an important update on the situation in Tibet. Britain's GCHQ monitors half of the world from space. They have confirmed the Dalai Lama's claim that CCP agents posed as Buddhist monks and triggered riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured. GCHQ analysts believe the Beijing leadership is behind the large riots as a way to provide an excuse -- or pretext -- to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region. The same has been confirmed by British intelligence officers in Beijing. Satellites orbiting the earth closely monitored the situation. The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation the CCP used agent provocateurs to start riots.

  

China to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet
Reuters in Beijing and Staff Reporter (scmp.com, Nov. 2, 2013)

The 14th Dalai Lama and actor/activist Richard Gere, D.C. (japanese-buddhsim.com)

  

Comedian Russell Brand and Dalai Lama

The government says it will confiscate illegal satellite dishes and increase monitoring of online content to keep his voice quiet in his homeland

Beijing aims to stamp out the voice of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Tibet by ensuring that his "propaganda" is not received by anyone on the internet, television, or other means, a top [Chinese] official said.
 

China has tried, with varying degrees of success, to prevent Tibetans from listening to or watching programs broadcast from outside the country, or accessing information about the Dalai Lama and the exiled government [of Tibet] on the Internet.

(Sky News) One hundred have died in riots in Tibet's capital against

Chinese authorities. Police used tear gas during clashes in Lhasa.

 

But many Tibetans are still able to access such news, either via illegal satellite televisions or by skirting Chinese Internet restrictions.

 

The Dalai Lama's picture and his teachings are also smuggled into Tibet but at great personal risk.

 

Writing in the ruling Communist Party's influential journal Qiushi, the latest issue of which was received by subscribers yesterday, Tibet's party chief Chen Quanguo said that the government would ensure only its voice is heard.

 

"Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda of the splittists from entering Tibet," Chen wrote in the magazine, whose name means "seeking truth." More

• Boy, 10, jumps to his death after Chinese teacher orders
• Tragic death of woman gives rise to anti-mainland Chinese
• Tragedy of stalked Japanese teenager forces police to act
• Asia gains unravel on China worries, dollar skids, jobs
• Scientist: Asia's lost continent, OK, shaped ancient China
• China's lunar probe a missed innovation

Chinese authorities invited journalists to Lhasa to interview Buddhist monks.

But during a visit to one of Lhasa's temples, a group of 30 monks stormed the

news briefing, accusing Chinese authorities of lying about violence and unrest.

Tibet is a plateau region north-east of the Himalayas. It was incorporated (i.e., forcefully invaded and occupied) by China in 1950 and is currently called an autonomous region in China, a growing empire of more than a billion Buddhist inhabitants ruled by the officially communist but actually capitalist dominant Han Chinese ethnic group. The conflict between many Tibetans and the Chinese [communist] government has been nonstop as many demand cultural autonomy, religious freedom, and basic human rights. In March, 2008, a series of protests -- using Chinese military agent provocateurs -- turned into "riots" in different regions across Tibet. The Chinese government used these as a pretext for Draconian measures of social control and genocide. Deadly Tibetan rioters were accused of attacking ethnic Han inhabitants and burning their Chinese-sponsored businesses.

Fire Under the Snow

Foreign delegate, GBC (Hindustan Times)

(2008) As the international debate over Tibetan freedom unfolds, the documentary "Fire Under the Snow" (see below) tells the story of a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese communist army for 33 years.

The Tibetan Buddhist monk still has eyes that smile serenely. But the lines on Palden Gyatso's face tell a different story, a story of torture and decades of imprisonment. Gyatso recounts his arrest in 1959 while he was peacefully demonstrating with thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns. The CCP put him in prison for 23 years where he was tortured and in labor camps for 10 years. He was finally released in 1992.

 

Siberian Buddhist from Russia at BGC (HT)

Japanese film-maker Makoto Sasa was drawn to Gyatso's story mostly because of his strong, unbroken spirit despite such soul-wrenching suffering. Makoto Sasa says: "He could have gotten out of the prison if he would have said -- 'Yes, Tibet belongs to China, so I agree with what the Chinese government says.' But he didn't do that because he didn't believe in it. And this spirit I think is what people feel most from the film. And with that, they can look at the Tibetans, the current situation in Tibet and I think that's what they are going to get from the film."

Palden Gyatso: "When I finally got to India, I felt that I had reached the land of freedom and I felt that the atrocities that I had experienced, the atrocities that my fellow prisoners faced in prison, I felt that I had the duty to tell about those atrocities to the outside world."
 

 

Heidi Minx interviews Palden Gyatso and asks why he was arrested. He was a political prisoner held by the Chinese in Tibet for 33 years. To read his tragic story, see Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk.