I thought China shooting missiles into the air to prevent rain was about as weird as the Olympics could possibly get, but I was wrong. Incredibly wrong.
As many of you know, China wants the Olympics to go perfectly, and the last thing they’d want to have happen during the Games is a terrorist attack. So, in order to prevent that from occurring, China has apparently made a deal with Al-Qaeda so that the terrorist organization does nothing during the Olympics.
Wait, what? This has to be some conspiracy theory, right?
Actually no, not at all. A respected French journalist, Roger Faligot, who has written more than 30 books on contemporary history and spycraft, and is fluent in Mandarin, has said this actually happened in his just released book. In the book, The Chinese Secret Services: From Mao to the Olympic Games, Faligot says that General Chen Xiaogong, the new coordinator of military intelligence for China, negotiated with Al-Qaeda to prevent terrorist attacks during the Beijing Olympics back in 2006 in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province.
In case you’re still wondering about Faligot’s credentials, in 1990 he wrote the definitive book on China’s secret service.
The relationship between China and the Islamist movement began at the end of 1979 beginning with the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. Despite also being a communist country, China was far from friendly with the Soviets and decided to help the Mujahideen (just like us). Beijing provided Simonov sub-machine guns and Kalashnikov assault rifles, which had the advantage of using the same ammunition as Russian weapons. And one of the main suppliers to the Islamists was none other than Mao Zedong's grandson.
China has never cut off that connection, even after 9/11.
Of course, the real question is - does this mean anything? On one level, it's a rational decision by China. On another level, it's fraught with complications. After all, this is likely to be a somewhat politically charged Games - regardless of how much China tries to prevent that from happening.
I’m just wondering what the hell China promised Al-Qaeda for not committing any terrorist attacks at the Olympics.
By the way, here’s what Faligot had to say about that. “What has China promised to prevent a suicide bomber from blowing himself up during the finals for the 100-meter dash? And most importantly, what confidence can we give any commitment undertaken by Osama bin Laden?”
Suddenly, I'm not so sure I want to go the Olympics anymore.
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