Re: [Marxism] U.S. House Speaker proves herself as Hypocritical as the Beijing Clique

[Saul Thomas <stthomas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> Since no one has a shred of evidence (except for 
> the US's support to the D.Lama who has been 
> doing his damnest to calm things down, it seems 
> from afar) as to "CIA" intentions, my guess is 
> that the US is doing what IT can to shut the 
> Tibetan's down by *any means necessary* so 
> that capital can continue to flow into China 
> and profits out.


I do not believe that the CIA has manufactured the current unrest in 
Tibet. And it is true that the US capitalist class as a whole is 
completely economically tied to China at this point. That said, it is 
the case that some far right elements within the US government continue 
to display a willingness to support nearly any incident that could not 
only, at the very least, humiliate the Chinese government, but also have 
the potential to cause unrest on a wider scale within China. A minor 
example of this proclivity was allowing President Hu Jintao to be 
heckled by the Falun Gong during a speech on the grounds of the White 
House in 2006. But this tendency goes as far as giving Uighur and 
Tibetan separatists a propaganda platform with Radio Free Asia, 
broadcast into China via shortwave.

In fact, the far right's commitment to promoting unrest in China goes 
even as far as supporting labor unrest--Radio Free Asia also hosts a 
workers rights program by Han Dongfang, the former head of the Beijing 
Autonomous Workersâ Federation set up during the Tiananmen protest in 
1989. Han was imprisoned after the protests were crushed in 1989, and 
then ejected to Hong Kong in 1993. He first started the very interesting 
and valuable China Labour Bulletin, and then began his show with RFA in 
1997 (Han was not ejected from Hong Kong after it was returned to 
Chinese control in 1997). Han has workers from all over China call into 
his show when they are engaged in protests or industrial actions, and 
offers encouragement and publicizes their actions. (Han is not a 
socialist, but something of an anti-communist pro-union liberal). I'm 
not saying that supporting workers protests in China is a bad thing, I 
am just pointing out that not all organs within the US government are of 
a single mind with regard to China policy.

I've pasted below an article from a website has collected some 
information on US funding of Tibetan exile organizations. Again, I am 
not saying that US interference is the cause of the current protests, 
and the following article might overstate the case, but it is a simple 
fact that some elements within the US government support Tibetan 
separatism. See the site itself for proper formatting and numerous 
embedded links:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/03/tibet-uprising.html#
----------------------------
March 17, 2008

Tibet Uprising and U.S. Government Grants

China Hand asks if the current protests around Tibet are an Tibetan 
Intifada. That comparison is pretty nuts in my view. Helena Cobban 
points out some differences.

But both seem to miss the main point.

There are hints all around that the current action by exile-Tibetans and 
some folks in Tibet is, at least partly, a U.S. financed attempt of 
another 'color revolution.' Some of the clues are collected below. 
Please add to them.

The current protest around Tibet in connection with the upcoming 
Olympics in China was planed and discussed at a conference in New Delhi 
in June 2007:

    On the concluding second day early morning, over two hundred Indians 
and Tibetans listened to Jamyang Norbu, noted Tibetan writer and veteran 
activists for Tibetâs independence, as he explained how the next two 
years are crucial for Tibet, and how the Olympics could provide the 
one-chance for Tibetans to come out and protests âlike one mighty 
forceâ. He noted that unless a mass protest occurs, Tibet would continue 
to slip out of the world map, leaving very little to protest for.

The strategy calls for world wide protests, a march of exiles from India 
to Tibet and for protests within Tibet.

While that conference was ongoing the U.S. ambassador to India was 
confering with the Dalai Lama:

    US Ambassador to India David Mulford is on two days visit to 
Dharamsala beginning yesterday where he met with the exiled Tibetan 
leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Prime Minister in 
exile (Kalon Tripa), Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche.

    According to a report, the US officials call the trip part of their 
periodic contacts with the exile Tibetan government, although the 
primary purpose of the visit could not be ascertained so far.
    ...
    The latest visit by the US official quickly follows the U.S. 
Undersecretary of State Paula Dobrianskyâs similar visit to Dharamsala 
last November.

Paula Dobriansky is Under-Secretary of State for Democracy & Global 
Affairs and a member of the neocon PNAC. She has been involved in the 
color revolutions in eastern Europe and coined the phrase "Cedar 
Revolution" for the Lebanese quagmire.

In January several organisations announced the currently running protests:

    Five leading Tibetan organizations calling on exile Tibetans to take 
a protest march to Tibet ahead of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games today 
released a two-page registration-cum-declaration form to formally start 
registering people taking part in it.
    ...
    When asked about the likely response from Tibetan inside Tibet, Mr 
Ngawang Woebar, president of the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet 
(Ex-political Prisonersâ Association) said, âTheir determination to 
sacrifice for the freedom of Tibet is unquestionable and even more 
resolute than usâ.

Their declaration does not call for Tibetan autonomy but for independence:

    The 2008 Olympics will mark the culmination of almost 50 years of 
Tibetan resistance in exile. We will use this historic moment to 
reinvigorate the Tibetan freedom movement and bring our exile struggle 
for freedom back to Tibet. Through tireless work and an unwavering 
commitment to truth and justice, we will bring about another uprising 
that will shake Chinaâs control in Tibet and mark the beginning of the 
end of Chinaâs occupation.

In further preparation, "training sessions" were given in February by 
several of the NGOs that called for the protests:

    Forty grassroots activists representing twenty-five Tibetan 
communities all over India were given an Advanced Training on Grassroots 
Activism and capacity building from February 15-17, 2008 at Lower TCV 
School, Dharamshala. This workshop strengthened the coordination of the 
Tibetan People's Uprising Movement organized by five leading Tibetan 
NGOs; Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women's Association, Gu-Chu-Sum 
Movement of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet, and Students for 
a Free Tibet (India).

    Besides the heads of the five Organizations, the 3-day workshop was 
also deliberated by Mr. Karma Yeshi, Member, Tibetan Parliament in Exile 
and Editor in Chief, Voice of Tibet, Ven. Lobsang Jinpa, Editor, Sheja 
(Tibetan Newsletter), Mr. Tendor, Deputy Director, SFT Headquarters, New 
York and Mr. Lobsang Yeshi, Former Vice President, Tibetan Youth 
Congress. The training subjects include the Importance of Co-ordinated 
Movement, Contemporary Chinese Political Scenario, Strategy and Vision, 
Situation inside Tibet, Olympic politics, Media and Messaging, 
Non-Violent Direct Action and Fund-Raising Strategy.

We will come back to some of the organisations mentioned above. But note 
these training sessions and how they seem to be a copy of those done 
with student movements during the color revolutions. As wikipedia notices:

    Activists from Otpor in Serbia and Pora in Ukraine have said that 
publications and training they received from the US based Albert 
Einstein Institution staff have been instrumental to the formation of 
their strategies.

The Albert Einstein Institute has translated its two main 'color 
revolution' instruction books into Tibetian. One has a foreword by the 
Dalai Lama.

In 1959 the CIA organised and financed the uprising in Tibet and the 
Dalai Lama escape. The CIA program ended in the late 60s, but under 
Reagan a new initiative was started and since then  the U.S. governments 
sponsors so called Non-Governmental Organizations which have funded many 
of the Tibetan exile organisations. Most of these efforts are branded as 
'humanitarian' or as 'democracy promotion'.

A 2007 report (pdf) by the Congressional Research Service lists various 
U.S. organisations that currently provide U.S. taxpayer dollars to 
Tibetan exile organisations. The summary says:

    United States foreign operations appropriations for the Peopleâs 
Republic of China (PRC) primarily support democracy-related programs, 
particularly rule of law training, and support Tibetan communities. The 
U.S. Congress has played a leading role in providing funding for such 
programs, which has grown from $10 million in FY2002 to $23 million in 
FY2006.

Under Key Actors the report lists the State Departments Bureau of 
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). That Bureau is part of Paula 
Dobriansky's organization.

    Congress has supported increased funding for DRLâs Human Rights and 
Democracy Fund (HRDF). Appropriations for HRDF grew from a yearly 
average of $13 million in FY2001-FY2002 to $33.7 million in 
FY2003-FY2005. Congress provided $63 million for HRDF in FY2006. China 
programs account for about 25% of spending from its Democracy Fund. Most 
DRL funding goes to U.S.-based NGOs, including universities, while some 
subgrants go to PRC âpartner NGOs.â

A footnote explains:

    Because of political sensitivities, DRL does not disclose the names 
of its grant recipients.

Another Key Actor listed is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED):

    NED was created by and obtains nearly all of its funding from the 
United States government. [...] During the FY1999-FY2003 period, about 
38% of U.S. government funding for democracy-related programs in China 
was allocated through the Endowment

It is hard to decipher where all this money is going to. The NED website 
lists some of the recipients of its 2006 grand programs. These include:

    Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet - $40,000
    International Campaign for Tibet - $53,000
    Tibetan Women's Association - $30,000
    Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet - $15,000
    Voice of Tibet - $35,000

Note that these organisations are the same that have called for and 
organized the current uprising.

(For some additional bits on NED's meddling take a look at this South 
Asia Analysis Group report).

While these groups seem to differ with the Dalai Lama in that they call 
for independence while the Dalai Lama offically only calls for autonomy, 
that may not really be so. All the above organisations claim to be 
endorsed by the Dalai Lama. They get money from the same sources the 
Dalai Lama gets his check from.

One of the Dalai Lama's central financial source seems to be the New 
York based Tibet Fund. In its 2002 report the Fund declared:

    In 2002 the Tibet Fund became a registered USAID PVO (Private 
Voluntary Organization). Since none of the funds appropriated under the 
U.S. Foreign Assistance Act may be made available to any PVO that is not 
registered with USAID, this important step makes us now eligible to 
apply for USAID assistance resources, including grants, cooperative 
agreements and subventions.

The Funds latest available budget report is from 2005 (pdf). In it the 
Fund lists $2.5 million of U.S. government grants in total revenues of 
just $5 million. Most of these grants are from the U.S. State 
Departmentâs Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration which is also 
part of Dobriansky's organization. The fund itself spend 2.7 on grants 
and contracts to other organisations and gave $500,000 to the 'office of 
the Dalai Lama'.

There is a lot of propaganda involved in the numbers and 'facts' thrown 
around about Tibet. In 2000 an long Indian magazine piece took much of 
these apart. I recommend to read it to understand that there is at least 
an alternative view to what the U.S. financed Tibetan exile NGO hodgepod 
claims.

The current protests by Tibetan exiles and in Tibet are at least partly 
financed with U.S. governent money and have similarities with the color 
revolutions. Unlike those they are likely to fail. The Indian government 
stopped the exile-march and the Chinese will make sure that any protest 
in Tibet will be supresses.

The U.S. for many years supports "His Holiness the Dalai Lama", a 
colorful but theocratic figure. It is one of its trump card to put 
pressure on China whenever it feels that such is appropriate.

Now explain to me again how that in any way relates to Gaza?

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