News of the Day (April 8)

"Terror" raid in occupied East Turkestan is "news to residents": A supposed Communist raid against terrorists in the Happiness Garden apartments of Urumqi, East Turkestan never actually happened, according to residents interviewed by Agence France Presse (h/t Uyghur American Association). Tellingly, even an ethnic Chinese apartment dweller contradicted the Communist account (local police refused to talk to AFP). Still, the phantom terror raid was a wonderful excuse to crack down on Uighurs in both occupied East Turkestan and China proper (Wall Street Journal via UAA).

As for actual terrorists, the cadres gave Iranian nuclear info to change the subject from Tibet: The cadres apparently decided that admitting to helping Iran become a nuclear power would get them better publicity than the Tibetan bloodshed (Epoch Times). Sadly, it actually worked for a few days - to this day, no one has called the Communists to account for their long-time alliance with the mullahcracy. Meanwhile, said mullahcracy is charging ahead with their nuclear ambitions (Bloomberg).

Communist China is helping its colonial Korean regime avoid U.S. and UN sanctions by allowing Stalinist firms to due business in Communist China - even setting up accounts in Communist Chinese currency for them. One Free Korea explains how this basically makes any international sanction against Stalinist North Korea's nuclear ambitions utterly useless.

Other news on "another Chinese province": Christopher Hill has more talks with the Stalinists, and more happy words after (BBC); James Zumwalt praises South Korea for standing up to the Stalinist North (Washington Times); and the Stalinists resort to public executions - again - to terrify the populace (OFK).

More espionage arrests: Chao Tai Wei and Guo Zhiyong were charged with trying to ship hi-tech, dual-use cameras to Communist China (Newsmax).

Okinawa furthers Japan's claim to the Senkaku islands with a goat cull, of all things (Weekly Standard Blog).

Protesters force Olympic torch relay in Paris to shut down: In a further sign of the deep revulsion to the Communist Olympiad, anti-Communist protesters in Paris were so numerous that the torch route had to be shortened (BBC, Boycott 2008, and Sky News). The Int'l Olympic Committee is even considering dropping the entire international part of the relay (Times of London - h/t Andrew Stuttaford), but Communist China insisted the spectacle must go on (BBC and CNN). Meanwhile, the presence of Communist Chinese "security" during the British leg of the relay angered many Brits, including 2012 Olympic organizer Sebastian Coe (Curly's Corner Shop and Epoch Times).

Will Canada stay home? That is still a possibility, according to CTV. Edward Greenspan (Toronto Sun) and Steve Janke support the idea; Johann Hari (Independent, UK via Boycott 2008) and apparently, President Bush (World Net Daily), do not.

More Olympic news: As the torch reached San Francisco overnight (Washington Post), politicians across the spectrum called on President Bush not to attend the opening ceremony - Senator Hillary Clinton (Jim Geragthy) for the Democrats, and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (Human Events) for the Republicans.

Leading lawyers in Communist China offer to help Tibetan detainees: Eighteen lawyers have signed on so far. One of them, Wen Haibo, explained his motives to the Epoch Times, "We believe Tibetans may encounter greater cultural and legal difficulties. With these considerations in my mind, I feel, as a lawyer, I have the obligation to provide some free legal assistance to them." Thus is Shakespeare refuted.

More on Tibet: The Dalai Lama takes (rhetorical) aim at the propagandists in Beijing (National Post, Can.), as does Sushil Seth in the Taipei Times (h/t Boycott 2008).

Daughter of "Taiwanese spy" says her father "could have been forced to confess": Ran Chen is trying to save her father's life (BBC). Wo Weihan was convicted of being a Taiwanese spy, but her daughter is certain he is innocent, and "has not received a fair trial."