Atlas Shrugs

Jihad in China: 21 dead in Xinjiang Muslim terrorist 'clash'

Islamic jihad is hardly the fault of America, as the left loves to posit. It is not our fault. Uygurs are attacking China, the Chechens Russia and Boko Harem Africa. The only thing Russia, China, the USA & sub-Saharan Africa have in common is not being Muslim. 

The predictable oafs at CBS describes the jihad as a "clash."

21 dead in Xinjiang terrorist clash: Xinhuanet News (hat tip Tom)

URUMQI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A violent clash between suspected terrorists and authorities in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has left 21 people dead, including 15 community workers and police officers and six of the suspects, local authorities said on Wednesday.

The attacks happened around Tuesday noon in a town of Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, some 1,200 km southwest of Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang.

Three community workers discovered suspicious individuals and knives in the home of a local resident. They then reported the situation to their supervisors via phone, but were seized by the suspects who had been hiding in the house.

Police officers and community officials from the township rushed to the scene, but were attacked and killed by the suspects, who also killed the three community workers they had seized earlier and burned the house.

Other police officers who arrived at the scene shot the suspects and got the situation under control.

Two other people from the authorities were also injured in the clash, and eight terrorist suspects were captured.

An initial investigation has indicated that the suspects are all terrorists who were planning on violent attacks.

Further investigation into the case is under way.

 

#MyJihad in China: 20 Muslims get prison for jihad plotting in Xinjiang

You'll recall that Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) were the first jihadists released from GITMO under the twisted catch and release program:

#MyJihad in China: 20 Muslims get prison for jihad plotting in Xinjiang Jihadwatch

Others say that the Chinese are trumping up the whole problem. Funny how everyone seems to imagine a jihad problem, yet no one really has one. "China jails 20 on jihad, separatism charges in restive Xinjiang," from Reuters, March 27:

(Reuters) - Chinese courts have sentenced 20 people to up to life in jail on charges of separatism and plotting to carry out jihad in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, the government said on Wednesday.

The courts in Kashgar and Bayingol said the 20 - all ethnic Uighurs judging by their names - had had their "thoughts poisoned by religious extremism", and used cell phones and DVDs "to spread Muslim religious propaganda", the Xinjiang government said on its official news website (www.ts.cn).

Some of them bought weapons to kill policemen as part of their jihad and spread propaganda related to the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the report said, a group which China says wages a violent campaign for a separate state.

Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to Xinjiang, chafe at Chinese controls on their religion, language and culture.

China has blamed violence in energy-rich Xinjiang - strategically located on the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia - on Islamic separatists who want to establish an independent East Turkestan.

Some Chinese officials have also blamed attacks on Muslim militants trained in Pakistan. But many rights groups say China overstates the threat to justify its tight grip on the region.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said the 20 were actually guilty of no more than listening to the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and using the internet to discuss the importance of religious and cultural freedom.

"Giving heavy sentences to Uighurs (on the excuse) of terrorism is China's special way of carrying out suppression," he said in an emailed statement.

In December, a Xinjiang court sentenced three men to death and another to life in prison for attempting to hijack an aircraft in June.

 

Two jihadists dead in hijack attempt on passenger jet in China

Beijing (AP) — Two men who allegedly tried to hijack a plane in far west China by battering the cockpit door with a crutch and trying to set off explosives have died, state media said Monday...

... "The state-run Global Times newspaper reported that two of the suspects had died in hospital from injuries sustained in the fight with passengers and crew... (SF Gate)

Good news, infidel justice for the jihadists. Here's the back story:

Crew members and passengers thwarted the murderous jihadis. Bravo. "China says plane hijack attempt thwarted," from AFP, June 29: (hat tip Jihadwatch)

Six members of China's Uighur minority tried to hijack a plane flying from a restive city in the far-western Xinjiang region on Friday but crew members and passengers thwarted them, authorities said.

The plane returned safely to the airport in Hotan city -- which has seen a spate of violent clashes between mainly Muslim Uighurs and police due to simmering ethnic tensions -- and the suspects were detained, authorities said.

"The six hijackers are Uighurs," Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the government of Xinjiang told AFP.

"For the moment, we don't know the purpose of the hijack. It's still under investigation," she said, adding at least seven crew members and passengers had been injured in the incident....

Uh, maybe jihad? Naaah. That couldn't be it.

China calls for closer ties with Islamic countries

Now the fun begins.

Chinese political advisor calls for closer ties with Islamic countries English.news.cn

Jia Qinglin (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 28, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin on Thursday called for closer ties between China and Islamic countries.

Jia made the remark while meeting with Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at the Great Hall of the People.

Hailing the state of relations between China and the Islamic world, Jia said China and Islamic countries are political partners with mutual support, economic partners with reciprocal cooperation and cultural partners with mutual exchanges.

The two sides should strengthen communication and coordination, promote dialogue and map out the future development of their relations from a long-term perspective, said Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Jia said he appreciates the support given by Islamic countries on issues concerning China's core interests. He also spoke highly of the efforts made by the OIC in consolidating and promoting China-Islam relations.

Ihsanoglu, who is in Beijing for a seminar on Chinese and Islamic civilizations, said Islamic countries attach great importance to their relations with China.

He said the OIC is ready to strengthen communication and cooperation with China in order to boost bilateral ties and cooperation.

Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN

What is the goal of Obama's State Department whose mission is statecraft and crafting policy, not for today, but for 20 to 20 years from now? If you can't overthrow them all, why Mubarak and not Ahmadinejad? Why Qaddafi and not Assad? What is the strategy? What is the statecraft objective?

Here again is further proof of the uselessness (and worse) of the United Nations. Whatever sway or swagger American had in that collective negation of humanity has withered under the effete Obama. This is further proof of Iran's growing influence (Syria is a vassal state, a proxy of Iran).

"When an institution reaches the degree of corruption, brazen cynicism and dishonor demonstrated by the U.N. in its shameful history, to discuss it at length is to imply that its members and supporters may possibly be making an innocent error about its nature—which is no longer possible. There is no margin for error about a monstrosity that was created for the alleged purpose of preventing wars by uniting the world against any aggressor, but proceeded to unite it against any victim of aggression. The expulsion of a charter member, the Republic of China—an action forbidden by the U.N.'s own charter—was a 'moment of truth,' a naked display of the United Nation’s soul.

 

What was Red China's qualification for membership in the U.N.? The fact that her government seized power by force, and has maintained it for twenty-two years by terror. What disqualified Nationalist China? The fact that she was a friend of the United States."

 

Ayn Rand (1972) ["The Shanghai Gesture—Part II," The Ayn Rand Letter, Vol 1, No. 14]

Asked in a 1964 interview for Playboy magazine if she would "favor U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations," Ayn Rand answered:

 

"Yes. I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members. The notion of protecting rights, with Soviet Russia among the protectors, is an insult to the concept of rights and to the intelligence of any man who is asked to endorse or sanction such an organization. I do not believe that an individual should cooperate with criminals, and, for all the same reasons, I do not believe that free countries should cooperate with dictatorships."

Here are the Drudge headlines today. Funny, although no one in media speaks of it (including Drudge), it's all jihad. All of it.

China, Russia veto UN resolution on Syria...
Clinton and Lavrov square off...
400+ SLAUGHTERED...
'I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads, beheaded'...
12 dead in latest Egypt clashes...
Iran begins new military exercises...
Ayatollah Khamenei threatens Israel...
Libyan militia pull toenails off diplomat...

Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN Report by the pro-Islamic BBC

An Arab and Western-backed resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria has been vetoed at the UN Security Council by Russia and China.

The two permanent council members rejected the draft resolution, which came hours after activists accused Syrian security forces of killing at least 55 people at Homs.

The US ambassador said the vetoes were "shameful", Britain was "appalled".

China and Russia defended their move, saying the draft was "unbalanced".

Russia says the draft resolution had singled out the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and did not containing measures against armed opposition groups.

But proposed Russian amendments to the text were described as "unacceptable" by the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to have talks with Mr Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

'Craven tyrant'

The draft resolution, supported by all 13 other members of the Security Council, had adopted an Arab League call for a "Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system".

Ms Rice condemned the joint veto as "shameful". It showed, she said, how Russia and China aimed to "sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant".

"Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands," Ms Rice added.

Britain was "appalled" by the veto, said its UN envoy, Mark Lyall Grant.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud said: "It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for all Syrians, and a sad day for democracy."

Mohammed Loulichki, Morocco's ambassador to the UN and the sole Arab member of the current council, voiced "great regret and disappointment" that Moscow and Beijing had struck it down.

But Russia's ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, insisted the draft resolution had lacked balance.

"Some influential members of the international community unfortunately... have been undermining the opportunity for political settlement, calling for a regime change, pushing the oppositionists to power," he said.

Beijing's ambassador to the UN, Li Baodong, said the resolution would have been counter-productive.

US Ambassador Susan Rice: "For months this council has been held hostage by a couple of members"

"China maintains that, under the current circumstances, to put undue emphasis on pressuring the Syrian government... or impose any solution will not help resolve the Syrian issue," he said.

Pro-Assad residents in the Syrian capital Damascus welcomed the Sino-Russian stance.

"I believe there are more important issues for the Security Council to take care of... such as the starvation in Somalia, and Gaza," one told BBC News.

"Isn't there anything else apart from us for the Security Council to deal with?"

Early accounts of the casualties in Homs talked of as many as 200 deaths, but one of the main activist groups later revised its confirmed toll down to 55.

Homs appears to have come under a "pretty relentless" bombardment, which targeted areas outside government control, the BBC's Paul Woods reported from just outside the city, where he was travelling with fighters from the Free Syria Army.

Homs was one of the first cities to join anti-Assad protests, and became one of the focal points of dissent after government forces fired on crowds in April last year. Many army defectors have sought refuge in the city.

State media dismissed the Homs casualty reports as a "hysterical campaign of incitement" by armed gangs designed to influence the UN.

International media outlets are restricted in Syria, making it difficult to verify the claims of either side.

Tunisia moved to sever relations with the Assad government following the Homs violence

Activists have been attacking Syrian embassies around the world in response to the violence in Homs.

Syria has been gripped by nationwide protests against Mr Assad's government for almost a year, in a struggle that has claimed at least 5,400 lives, according to the UN.

Another Oministration Sellout of American Technology and Ingenuity to China

China REQUIRES all foreign investors to give up their technology to them for the "right" to build goods there. Obama-seized GM can deny it till the cows come home, but it's still a lie.

Dismantling America, chunk by chunk, piece by piece.

Anybody see the tyrant-in-chief's body language, facial expressions and hand gestures, not to mention his words, at his Ohio press conference today? He simply can't hide his hatred for America.

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America -- read it.

GM deal moves electric car development to China -- a 'shakedown'? USA Today (hat tip Van)

General Motors agreed in Shanghai today to develop an electric vehicle platform with longtime Chinese partner SAIC. It effectively moves GM's future electric vehicle development to China. Unclear is whether this would also lead to assembly of future EVs for the U.S. market in China.

The deal came as the Chinese government is pushing foreign automakers to give Chinese companies EV technology they lack, according to an Associated Press report. U.S. lawmakers have complained that China is "shaking down" GM to get Volt secrets. Electric vehicle development in the U.S. has been developed with extensive U.S. taxpayer funding.

Details of the plan were not provided, and GM has denied it will involve handing over intellectual property underlying the Volt.

Islamic Honor Killing in China: Husband Beheads Wife Because She lived "against Islamic law"

China?

Oh yes, we have been hearing about the Uighurs (the Muslims in China) who have been agitating and creating civil unrest. It is the pattern for Muslims in non-Muslim countries to impose, agitate, and force Islam on the secular public square. Here are remarks from an Atlas reader living in China:

The Muslims are on the increase in Hong Kong. We have had spates in the past, they have been calling on the government for Muslim holidays,  Islamic banks so far falling on death ears (no other ethnic group has done this.) They even protested on a street name in Chinese which they said was derogatory. It is becoming a joke to watch how they are chipping away at our freedom
Recently notices in religious section of the SCMP promoting people to understanding Islam.

Mind you, the article below was the only Chinese newspaper account that reported motive. Here was the typical Chinese news report -- they, too, appear to be adhering to a sharia-compliant standard, save for the below report (and there was nothing in the Western news outlets about it).

The body of a 35-year-old South Asian woman, who was almost decapitated, was washed up on the beach. The body, with deep cuts to the neck, was clothed only in underwear when it was found by an elderly woman on Friday morning...........

Suspect hits death beach The Standard

An asylum seeker from Pakistan, accused of killing his estranged wife because she had lived "against Islamic law," will appear in Kowloon City Magistrates' Court today charged with murder.

A hooded and handcuffed Tahir Nawer, 38, was yesterday lunchtime taken by police to an area near 230 Tung Chau Street where, with the help of an interpreter, the crime was reconstructed.

The group then went to the nearby Tung Chau Street Park and then to a bus stop in Cheung Sha Wan Road. Two hours later they were at a beach near Sham Tseng in the New Territories.

Tahir was remanded in police custody.

The naked body of the woman, 35, was found on Tsing Lung Tau beach on Friday morning. Her throat had been slashed.

Tahir was arrested on Saturday morning, about 19 hours after the body was found.

According to reports, Tahir allegedly told police he gave his wife a drug-laced drink in the park. They then took a 52X bus to Tsing Lung Tau beach near 44 Castle Peak Road.

At the beach he allegedly stripped her to humiliate her, slashed her throat and threw the body on the ground. He buried her belongings behind a bush. In the beach reconstruction, police used a dummy and a mobile phone charger with wire cord attached. The suspect made gestures during which he used the cord to strangle the dummy before using a plastic knife to cut its throat.

According to a source, the suspect is a devoted Muslim who became critical of his wife - a non- believer - who refused to dress in

Muslim garb after the couple arrived in Hong Kong as asylum seekers a few years ago.

They were receiving welfare and lived in a subdivided unit in Nam Cheong Street, Sham Shui Po. They separated after the suspect was accused of beating his wife.

He then became acquainted with a woman from India who he now considers to be his second wife. She gave birth to a girl a month ago.

The suspect is said to have been in constant contact with his estranged wife and became dismayed at the life she was leading.

More Jihad in China: Muslims shouting "Allah is the only god" hack security guard to death, murder three others, occupy police station

I don't think China will submit like the West has......

China: Muslims shouting "Allah is the only god" hack security guard to death, murder three others, occupy police station Jihad Watch

Still more Islamophobia. "14 rioters shot down in Xinjiang attack," from Xinhua, July 20 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

HOTAN, Xinjiang - Police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday, a Communist Party official in Hotan said Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be named, said the attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. At least three others were injured.

Rioters hacked security guard Memet Eli to death while they were trying to break into the Na'erbage police station shortly after 12 pm Monday, said Ablet Metniyaz, chief of the police station.

"He is just 25. He planned to get married in September," said Abliz, an officer of the police station.

In addition to Eli, an armed police and two civilians died in the incident, according to Metniyaz, 38, who has been serving as chief of the police station for three years.

The rioters had taken six civilian people and some police staff hostage, and set fire and smashed things in the police station, leaving damaged computers, printers, furniture and clothes scattered around, Metniyaz said.

Shouting frantic religious slogans like "Allah the only God", the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said an anonymous policeman with the police station.

When the attack took place, most of the police station's staff were following Metniyaz to visit local residents in an effort to seek their opinions about safeguarding public security.

The rioters had occupied the police station when Metniyaz led his team back.

"I shouted in Uygur language, asking the rioters to stop doing things that run against the law and to settle disputes in peaceful way. But they kept casting gasoline bottles and rocks to us," said Metniyaz.

"I saw the rioters hacking innocent people, some of them got injuries on their faces, noses and ears."

Rioters also attacked the adjacent industrial and commercial bureau, injuring two staff there....

Jihad in China

Everywhere Muslims live in non-Muslim countries, there is conflict and agitation, the level of which is determined by their numbers.

Once again the sharia compliant media never mention Muslims or Islam. This is a BBC story, and they are the most irresponsible and reckless when prostrating themselves before allah. The Uighurs are Muslims. Different countries use different euphemisms for Muslim. In the UK, "Asian" is used in place of Muslim. In France, "youth" or "immigrant," or "immigrant youth." "Moroccan" is big in Southern Europe; "North African," too.

In China, it's the Uighurs.

The Uighur detainees at Gitmo were released to the pink, sandy beaches of Bermuda; remember that?

The Uighur Muslims attacked the Chinese embassies in The Netherlands and in Germany after the July 2009 deadly rioting by Chinese Muslim Uighurs.

Xinjiang police attack was terrorism, China says BBC

Obama's War on America: China and Russia Quit the US Dollar

This is no accident. Obama is presiding over, aiding and abetting the decline of America. He is destroying this country. Read this: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America

China and Russia Quit the Dollar China Daily

St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
 
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

[..]
Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".

Obama's Post-American Vacuum: China, Iran, North Korea Form Strategic Alliance for Missile and Nuclear Development

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. Ayn Rand

Report: China, Iran, North Korea Have Formed A Strategic Alliance for Missile and Nuclear Development…

TEL AVIV — China, Iran and North Korea have established a strategic alliance that focuses on missile and nuclear development, according to a new report.

The report said that Beijing, Pyongyang and Teheran were helping each other in missile and nuclear programs. The report, titled “China, Iran and North Korea: A Triangular Strategic Alliance,” by Israel’s GLORIA Center said China and North Korea were the key suppliers of Scud-based ballistic missiles to Iran’s military, the target of Western sanctions.

“This flurry of activities underscored the growing proliferation threats posed by DPRK [North Korea] assistance to Iran’s missile capabilities, which has also led to collaboration in the nuclear realm,” the report, published in the Middle East Review of International Affairs, said.

Rest here »

Nuclear Iran: China Will Do Nothing

 

In other words, Obama is a fulla shitnik. Yet again. Conning the America people,  job #!!

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: (hat tip Rut)

Correction: April 14, 2010

A headline in some copies on Tuesday about China’s position on possible sanctions against Iran if it does not curb its nuclear program overstated a promise that President Hu Jintao of China made to President Obama in a meeting in Washington on Monday. As the article noted, Mr. Hu said that his country would join negotiations over the sanctions. He did not say that China supports such sanctions.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 13, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

 

Obama's Foreign Policy More Brutal, the Deeper the Bow: China

Perhaps The Most Important Photo In The History Of The Decline Of The United States

Obama bowing to Chinese 2010

WH Makes Dalai Lama Leave Through Trash Door 

Ertwinger wrote, "I think we can safely say the left has ceded their moral superiority on human rights. Afraid of offending their Chinese baker friends, they block the press from their meeting and then send their holy guest out the side door where the trash is sent."

Evolving in the science of bows. Below he was much less subtle.

Obama bowing to Muslim king.

Another Obama Spectacular Failure: "Barack Obama's first visit to Asia since his inauguration was one of the most disappointing trips by any U.S. president to the region in decades"

Obama shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

Another trip, another spectacular Obama failure. He is consistent in his impotence, is he not? And he will use any excuse to back away from his failures. When it comes to failing America, Obama never disappoints.

I find Axelrod's plea for taking "the long view" really rich, like we did for President Bush, right? The Bush doctrine needed the long view. The long view on fighting jihad perhaps but for sucking up and standing down on American hegemony. I think not.

And still Obama pimps for "climate change" hoax, which has bee exposed as the largest fraud ever committed in human history.

White House: We’re Not in the “Immediate Gratification Business” J Tapper, ABC

President Obama has spent a week in Asia, with high level meetings across four countries. But critics argue all that time and jet fuel has not been well-spent. The President leaves South Korea today with arguably little show for it.

After Obama's joint press conference with President Lee Myung-Bak, White House senior advisor David Axelrod defended the visit to reporters in the hall of the Blue House.

"This not an immediate gratification business. I understand that Washington's in the immediate gratification business," Axelrod said, "We made solid progress on climate change that's been reported. We've helped him clarify understanding on security issues and obviously on economics. But nobody came expecting that all of these things would be resolved on this trip, this is part of laying the foundation."

But the list of disappointments is long:

-   official news from the Danish Prime Minister that the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen will not yield a binding international agreement.

-   Chinese President Hu Jin Tao made no commitments on balancing the yuan, and his government refused to broadcast live Obama's town hall on state television.

-   Despite a personal appeal from President Obama, President Hu also continued to oppose economic sanctions on Iran.

-   A key meeting in Singapore with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev yielded official confirmation that US/Russian disarmament negotiators will not reach a new agreement before the START treaty expires on December 5^th.

Ambassador John Bolton nailed him on this trip here:

President Obama Didn't Impress Asia

China and others know exactly how to take advantage of a 'post-American' President.

Barack Obama's first visit to Asia since his inauguration was one of the most disappointing trips by any U.S. president to the region in decades, especially given media-generated expectations that "Obamamania" would make it yet another triumphal progression. It was a journey of startlingly few concrete accomplishments, demonstrable proof that neither personal popularity nor media deference really means much in the hard world of international affairs.

The contrast between Asia's reception for Obama and Europe's is significant. Although considered a global phenomenon, Obamamania's real center is Europe. There, Mr. Obama reigns as a "post-American" president, a multilateralist carbon copy of a European social democrat. Asians operate under no such illusions, notwithstanding the "Oba-Mao" T shirts briefly on sale in China. Whatever Mr. Obama's allure in Europe, Asian leaders want to know what he means for peace and security in their region. On that score, opinion poll ratings mean little.

What the president lacked in popular adulation, however, he more than made up for in self-adulation. In Asia, he labeled himself "America's first Pacific president," ignoring over a century of contrary evidence. The Pacific has been important to America since the Empress of China became the first trading ship from the newly independent country to reach the Far East in 1784. Theodore Roosevelt created a new Pacific country (Panama) and started construction on the Panama Canal to ensure that America's navy could move rapidly from its traditional Atlantic bases to meet Pacific challenges. William Howard Taft did not merely live on Pacific islands as a boy, like Obama, but actually governed several thousand of them as Governor-General of the Philippines in 1901-1903. Dwight Eisenhower served in Manila from 1935 to 1939, and five other presidents wore their country's uniform in the Pacific theater during World War II—two of whom, John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush, very nearly perished in the effort.

But it was on matters of substance where Mr. Obama's trip truly was a disappointment. On economics, the president displayed the Democratic Party's ambivalence toward free trade, even in an economic downtown, motivated by fear of labor-union opposition. On environmental and climate change issues, China, entirely predictably, reaffirmed its refusal to agree to carbon-emission limitations, and Mr. Obama had to concede in Singapore that the entire effort to craft a binding, post-Kyoto international agreement in Copenhagen had come to a complete halt.

On U.S. national security, Mr. Obama came away from Beijing empty-handed in his efforts to constrain both the Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons programs, meaning that instability in the Middle East and East Asia will surely grow. In Japan, Mr. Obama discussed contentious issues like U.S. forces based on Okinawa, but did not seem in his public comments to understand what he and the new Japanese government had agreed to. Ironically, his warmest reception, despite his free-trade ambivalence, was in South Korea, where President Lee Myung-bak has reversed a decade-long pattern by taking a harder line on North Korea than Washington.

Overall, President Obama surely suffered his worst setbacks in Beijing, on trade and economics, on climate change, and on security issues. CNN analyst David Gergen, no conservative himself, compared Mr. Obama's China meetings to Kennedy's disastrous 1961 encounter with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, a clear indicator of how poorly the Obama visit was seen at home. The perception that Mr. Obama is weak has already begun to emerge even in Europe, for example with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and if it emerges in Asia as well, Obama and the U.S. will suffer gravely.

Go. Read the whole thing.

The Needle Jihad: Syringe Stabbing

Remember the Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) released from Gitmo here and here? Just an FYI.

Syringe Jihad in China. "China: Demonstrators demand security after needle attacks," from CNN, September 3 (thanks to all who sent this in): Robert has this

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Thousands of Chinese demonstrators crowded the streets of Urumqi in western China on Thursday to protest what they say is a lack of police protection, witnesses said.

Over the past month, more than 400 ethnic majority Han Chinese have been stabbed with tainted syringes by Uyghurs, the Muslim minority, according to local news reports. The stabbings fueled Thursday's protests by Han Chinese in the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Many of those attacked with the hypodermic needles were hospitalized, but there have been no reports of deaths, the reports said.

Fifteen suspects have been detained for allegedly carrying out the stabbings, a senior official said Wednesday, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. Of the 15, four have been formally charged, Xinhua reported.

A source told CNN that "countless" police and soldiers have deployed to Urumqi and so far, the demonstrations have been peaceful.

A local woman told CNN that the stabbings were ethnically motivated and that government text messages to citizens have warned that the syringes contained an unknown disease....

Not "ethnically."

Previously at Atlas: The Netherlands: Muslim [Uighurs] Attack Chinese Embassy (Germany ...

The Netherlands: Muslim [Uighurs] Attack Chinese Embassy (Germany too)

The ummah (worldwide Muslim community) "responds" to the Muslim revolt in China. Has anyone asked the Muslim Uighurs who were released from GITMO for a statement?

DUTCH TO PAY FOR CHINESE EMBASSY REPAIR

HE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The Dutch government said Tuesday it will pay for repairs to China's embassy in The Hague, which was damaged in a protest against Beijing's crackdown on separatists in Xinjiang province.
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen apologized to China's top diplomat in the Netherlands for the violence by the protesters, mostly members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic group living in the Netherlands.
"Demonstrating is a basic right, but violence is always unacceptable," Verhagen said.
Verhagen also used his meeting with the diplomat to express his concern at the violence in Xinjiang.
"Unfortunately, information out of the region is very restricted and transparency is very important in this situation," Verhagen said. He urged the Chinese to restore communications with the area and allow foreign journalists to work there.
Police arrested 142 demonstrators Monday when they stoned the embassy and tried to clamber up the railings that surround the building. Most were released late Monday but police kept 39 in cells overnight.
Police cordoned off the area in front of the embassy Tuesday. Many of the building's front windows were smashed.
Also Tuesday, Uighur [Muslims]  and Turkish [Muslims] protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Embassy in Turkey and threw eggs at the building.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the Dutch protesters were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group Beijing accuses of having links to al-Qaida. He said the Chinese consulate in Munich, Germany, also was attacked with a Molotov cocktail and slightly damaged.

The Dutch protest came after reports that street battles have killed dozens and injured hundreds in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit China's western Xinjiang region in decades.
Gheyretjan Rozi of the Dutch Uighur Support Group said Monday's demonstration was peaceful until protesters saw somebody taking photos of them from inside the embassy. Rozi said 450-600 Uighurs live in the Netherlands.

DEADLY RIOTING BY CHINESE MUSLIMS IN CHINA, 156 DEAD NEARLY 1.000 DEAD OR INJURED

UPDATE 11:20 pm: Nearly 1,000 dead or injured as Chinese crush Uighur riots (hat tip Jane)
UPDATE 9:52 pm: VIDEO: Muslims rioting in China

Remember the Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) whom Obama released from GITMO to the beautiful pink beaches of Bermuda (on your dime)? Here are pictures of the Chinese Muslims in Bermuda, on your dime. Their "brothers" in China are violently rioting and destroying.

Excerpts:

"Hundreds of rioters have been arrested, the official Xinhua news agency reported, after rock-throwing Uighur people took to the streets of the regional capital on Sunday, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of anti-riot police."

hmmm -rock throwing, car burning, ... just like muslims in "Palestine", Paris, Pakistan, India,

China says 140 dead in Xinjiang riot, blames separatists Yahoo (hat tip Choi)

Deadly Riots Erupt in Western China (hat yip John J)

China (July 6) - Riots and street battles killed at least 140 people in China's western Xinjiang province and injured 828 others in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit the region in decades. Officials said Monday the death toll was expected to rise. Police sealed off streets in parts of the provincial capital, Urumqi, after discord between ethnic Muslim Uighur people and China's Han majority erupted into violence. Witnesses reported a new, smaller protest Monday in a second city, Kashgar.

[Musim[ Rioters on Sunday overturned barricades, attacked vehicles and houses, and clashed violently with police in Urumqi, according to media and witness accounts. State television aired footage showing protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces.

There was little immediate explanation for how so many people died. The government accused a Uighur [Muslim] businesswoman living in the U.S. of inciting the riots through phone calls and "propaganda" spread on Web sites.

Exile groups said the violence started only after police began cracking down on a peaceful protest demanding justice for two Uighurs killed last month during a fight with Han co-workers at a factory in southern China.

Thousands of people took part in Sunday's disturbance, unlike recent sporadic separatist violence carried out by small groups in Xinjiang. The clashes echoed the violent protest that rocked Tibet last year and left many Tibetan communities living under clamped-down security ever since.

This is NOTHING like the Tibet unrest. The Dalai Lama said that his homeland was in serious peril and called for an investigation into what he called "cultural genocide." Tibet wants to be free; Muslims want to take over.

Tensions between Uighurs [Muslims] and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, a sprawling region rich in minerals and oil that borders eight Central Asian nations.

Many Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) yearn for independence and some militants have waged a sporadic, violent separatist campaign.

Uighurs [Muslims] make up the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but not in the capital of Urumqi, which has attracted large numbers of Han Chinese migrants. The city of 2.3 million is now overwhelmingly Chinese — a source of frustration for native Uighurs who say they are being squeezed out.

Kakharman Khozamberdi — leader of a Uighur political movement in Kazakhstan, where the Uighur minority has its largest presence outside China — said machine gun fire was heard all night long....

UPDATE 3:47 pm: Video: Islam in action

From Russina reporting: The situation is -for now - under control (hat tip Choi)

Death toll -as a result of "rioting" (Muslim war inside China) is now 156 with 828 wounded.

Chinese police have arrested 10 (or more) persons whom the authorities consider to be the instigators of the violence and who have connections with (US-based) World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and its leader Rebia KADIR (a woman and that's a muslim name).

Furthermore - China has deemed the "Eastern Turkestan" organization as an extremist group as a terrorist organization, operating within its Uyghur-Autonomous region of Tsin-Tszyan and active in a movement to set up a pan-islamic government, consisting of a number of regional muslim groups (i.e. the central asian area of global dar al islam). The communist Chinese have also linked the "Eastern Turkestan" extremist muslim-supremacist-terror organization with al Qaeda.

Article from RIA Novosti in English on the Uyghur problems and what it means for Russia and the USA

The Russian (who aren't totally PC'd yet) give some truthful analysis on the situation (i.e. Muslims with very large and powerful global backing are responsible)

"There are many possible links apart from the U.S.-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC)."

"Riots broke out in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur province in northwest China, on July 5. They were organized by Uyghurs and were foreseen to claim lives."

"Second, I cannot imagine anyone setting fire to a shop with a lighter. You need at least a canister of gasoline to do that". 

"Like many other similar organizations operating in the United States or any other country, Uyghurs are financed by American NGOs. This is an element of the U.S. policy that has failed, even though the new administration has not yet officially disavowed it".

Besides, leaving such organizations to their own devices could be dangerous, as proved by the example of Al Qaeda."

While it has a Ruskie spin ........... it is more than you'll ever get from Western media.

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid

Today's fresh hell ............if they knock out our electrical grid, we go from the technological age to the pre-industrial age in a nanosecond.

These occurences must be related.

Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies WSJ

WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the Russians."

The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn't target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. "There are intrusions, and they are growing," the former official said, referring to electrical systems. "There were a lot last year."

Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet.

Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior intelligence official said. He added, "If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on."

Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also were at risk.

"Over the past several years, we have seen cyberattacks against critical infrastructures abroad, and many of our own infrastructures are as vulnerable as their foreign counterparts, " Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair recently told lawmakers. "A number of nations, including Russia and China, can disrupt elements of the U.S. information infrastructure."

Officials cautioned that the motivation of the cyberspies wasn't well understood, and they don't see an immediate danger. China, for example, has little incentive to disrupt the U.S. economy because it relies on American consumers and holds U.S. government debt.

But protecting the electrical grid and other infrastructure is a key part of the Obama administration's cybersecurity review, which is to be completed next week. Under the Bush administration, Congress approved $17 billion in secret funds to protect government networks, according to people familiar with the budget. The Obama administration is weighing whether to expand the program to address vulnerabilities in private computer networks, which would cost billions of dollars more. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday the Pentagon has spent $100 million in the past six months repairing cyber damage.

Overseas examples show the potential havoc. In 2000, a disgruntled employee rigged a computerized control system at a water-treatment plant in Australia, releasing more than 200,000 gallons of sewage into parks, rivers and the grounds of a Hyatt hotel.

Last year, a senior Central Intelligence Agency official, Tom Donohue, told a meeting of utility company representatives in New Orleans that a cyberattack had taken out power equipment in multiple regions outside the U.S. The outage was followed with extortion demands, he said.

The U.S. electrical grid comprises three separate electric networks, covering the East, the West and Texas. Each includes many thousands of miles of transmission lines, power plants and substations. The flow of power is controlled by local utilities or regional transmission organizations. The growing reliance of utilities on Internet-based communication has increased the vulnerability of control systems to spies and hackers, according to government reports.

The sophistication of the U.S. intrusions -- which extend beyond electric to other key infrastructure systems -- suggests that China and Russia are mainly responsible, according to intelligence officials and cybersecurity specialists. While terrorist groups could develop the ability to penetrate U.S. infrastructure, they don't appear to have yet mounted attacks, these officials say.