NationStates Jolt Archive

Monsters and Critics.com quote Deutsche Presse-Agentur as saying witnesses on scene reported a plane flying over the town of Kuqa which was followed by 20 large "flashes", but "no fire or smoke" which was then followed by "sporadic" gunfire. According to Xinhua the explosions occurred at about 3:20 local time (19:20 GMT) and 4:00 (20:00 GMT). (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Several_large_explosions_reported_in_Xinjiang,_China)
This is going to leave a scar on the Olympics, I wonder if the Olympics will be struck next.

This is going to leave a scar on the OlympicsNot unlike the ones in peoples' lungs there. :(

Not unlike the ones in peoples' lungs there. :(

But do you really need lungs? True heroes have gills.

But do you really need lungs? True heroes have gills.

Exactly. Oxygen is for cowards.

True heroes have gills.
Kevin Costner is a true hero?
http://homepage.mac.com/ozarkmatt/fark/waterworld.jpg
Maybe in the Mr. Brooks fame .... *shrug*

Kevin Costner is a true hero?
http://homepage.mac.com/ozarkmatt/fark/waterworld.jpg
Maybe in the Mr. Brooks fame .... *shrug*

Brevious is my hero....but only if HE had gills. Darn.

Brevious is my hero....but only if HE had gills. Darn.Sorry to disappoint. I do have scales, of a sort, if that helps. :D

This is going to leave a scar on the Olympics, I wonder if the Olympics will be struck next.

I'd be surprised. Kuqa is way out west.

Exactly. Oxygen is for cowards.

Ignoring, of course, that gills are just another way of getting oxygen?

Exactly. Oxygen is for cowards.

Okay, but this might look odd in a leotard & cape ...
http://www.theguardians.com/Microbiology/gm_mbm04.htm#therm

Holger Jannasch leads a team of researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Holger is one of the world's leading experts on life around mid-ocean hydrothermal vents. The Woods Hole team found Pyrolobus fumarii, an Archaea, at the mid-Atlantic ridge in 1996. Living at a depth of 3600 meters, and at temperatures of up to 113 C (235 F) the microbe was able to survive both in the presence of oxygen and without it. It is a chemoautotroph, and survives with any intake of organic mater, on hydrogen, nitrates and sulfates. It is one of best examples, so far discovered, of a a microbe that can survive not just at one extremes but in a variety of conditions.

Ignoring, of course, that gills are just another way of getting oxygen?

pfft. Liberal propaganda, I say.

Ignoring, of course, that gills are just another way of getting oxygen?

oceans are going to get as polluted as the air anyway so i prefer to breath my precious oxygen from the air. access to the internet would be difficult if i was submerged anyway, electronics and water don't seem to go well together

access to the internet would be difficult if i was submerged anyway, electronics and water don't seem to go well together
Find a niche and fill it!

Back on topic.

TIP has said they'd carry out more Olympic attacks. Let's just hope we don't see Munich, round two.

Chinese Islamic group issues new Olympic threat

By WILLIAM FOREMAN – 2 days ago

URUMQI, China (AP) — A Chinese Islamic group that has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to avoid being on planes, trains and buses with Chinese at the games, a U.S. group that monitors militant organizations said Thursday.

The video was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks independence for China's western Xinjiang region, the SITE Intelligence Group said. The militants are believed to be based in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al-Qaida.

Last month, the militant group issued videotaped threats and claimed responsibility for a series of bus bombings in China. The new video, issued just ahead of Friday's opening of the games, features graphics similar to ones used earlier: a burning Olympics logo and an explosion imposed over an apparent Olympic venue.

The speaker in the six-minute video wears a black turban and covers his face. Gripping a Kalashnikov rifle, he speaks in the Turkic language of the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority in China's western Xinjiang territory. The Uighurs have with a long history of tense relations with the central government.

Urging Muslims to "choose your side," the man warns: "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are," according to a translation by SITE.

Ben Venzke, of Washington-based IntelCenter, another agency that monitors militant groups, identified the speaker as Abdullah Mansour from the group's religious education department.

"I think what they're doing is they're trying to capitalize on the buildup to the games," said Venzke.

Venzke said his group believes that based on the militant group's demonstrated ability to conduct bombings "and the apparent opportunity TIP believes the Olympic Games presents in terms of targeting and striking a blow to China, that the threat is credible and should be taken seriously."

He said the release of a five-page written threat, in conjunction with two videos over the last three months by the group "is indicative of an orchestrated campaign designed to fulfill jihadists belief that they should provide warning before launching a significant attack."

More than 100,000 soldiers and police are guarding Beijing and other Olympic cities. Terrorism experts say the heavy security would likely force attackers to target less-protected areas.

"I think the actual Olympics themselves, the venues, the guests, the athletes, are going to be safe," said Drew Thompson, director of China studies at the Nixon Center in Washington.

He added that Uighur groups haven't demonstrated any capabilities of attacking Beijing or other cities during the games. He also said there's nothing in the previous video that establishes conclusively that the Turkistan Islamic Party was involved in the explosions it claimed to have a hand in.

But he added, "There's obviously significant numbers of Uighurs ... with some sort of cause who have a grudge against ... Chinese authority and are prepared to use violence to seek whatever objectives they're seeking."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_fA5bjMZ6-RYv11uLlSCHMCdV6QD92DQ1BG3

So far, 2 Dead.

2 Killed in Explosions in Western China

By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page A14

BEIJING, Aug. 10 -- State media reported several explosions early Sunday morning in the restive Xinjiang region of far western China, where an attack last week left 16 border police dead.

The New China News Agency said two people were killed. The agency said witnesses saw "flashes of fire and heard sporadic gunshots after the explosions" in Kucha. The oasis city is on the northern rim of the Taklimakan Desert, about halfway between the region's capital of Urumqi and Kashgar, where last week's deadly attack occurred.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/09/AR2008080902055.html

Well if you have placed bet on the Olympics being attacked by Terrorist in the "Crap that can happen during the Olympics" pool, you may have won.

really, if people WERE'NT threatening to blow up the Olympics then it would mean the world had truly stopped giving a damn about it, so really we should be happy

really, if people WERE'NT threatening to blow up the Olympics then it would mean the world had truly stopped giving a damn about it, so really we should be happy

*bookmarks this for when they really do attack the Olympics instead of blowing smoke up our collective asses*

The Uygurs have already given the Chinese grief once during the run up to the Olympics. I doubt the government is going to do anything camera-unfriendly whilst the Olympics are in town, but my money is that once people drift off to start worrying about the Georgians, they will punish them hard, and if anyone actually gives a shit and questions it, will trot out the TWAT justification and carry on anyway.

The Uygurs have already given the Chinese grief once during the run up to the Olympics. I doubt the government is going to do anything camera-unfriendly whilst the Olympics are in town, but my money is that once people drift off to start worrying about the Georgians, they will punish them hard, and if anyone actually gives a shit and questions it, will trot out the TWAT justification and carry on anyway.

If the PRC is smart, they'll play these incidents as they've always done, that being, portray the bombings as the act of people who can't be negotiated with, are extremists, etc, etc, which may actually be true, while at the same showing a soft hand while the Olympic media is looking their way.

This way, the Uygurs only end up damaging their cause by squishing any legitimacy that their grievances might have had if they keep up the violence.