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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Twitterers Break Silence on Tiananmen Square's 'Tank Man'

Twenty years ago he was the ultimate symbol of a peaceful democratic protest that went terribly, fatally wrong: a lone Chinese man in a simple white button-down shirt, carrying two plastic shopping bags, staring down a column of tanks.Tank Man — his identity has never been determined — shot to worldwide fame that day for stopping those tanks, hours after they had brutally crushed student-led protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Hundreds — possibly thousands — died in the early-hours protest on June 4, 1989, an event that still remains a forbidden topic in Communist-governed China.Pictures of Tank Man's courageous efforts and other information about the crackdown are still officially censored in China. But now, 20 years on, modern technology and the wide reach of social networking sites like Facebook are providing curious students with the information they were previously denied."In this, 20 years ago, China strove for democracy and freedom. The government killed our compatriots, university students and citizens," wrote a woman identifying herself as Bonnie Wong on the Facebook fan site Tank Man, one of several forums that have popped up ahead of the 20th anniversary of the crackdown."For 20 years, more than a few have entered the political arena who are the real villains, hypocrites who put on a false show of great peace and bury their consciences in a fiery pit. They control the government, they control media, they hold on to education, they control writing," wrote another Facebook member who calls himself Jonathan Siew.The vast majority of Chinese youth show no outward knowledge of what happened 20 years ago, a fact that pains the still-mourning relatives of those who were killed."This is a cruel reality — young people do not know the truth," said Ding Zilin, a retired professor whose 17-year-old son was shot dead that night. "The government hides the truth from children and keeps it as a sort of forbidden zone. It isn't taught in classrooms."But in the anonymity of the online world, Internet-savvy youths use mirror sites and proxy servers to explore alternative versions of the official history and to discuss their own frustrations with their government's clumsy efforts at censorship.China's censorship of Web sites deemed harmful to its government and security is known as The Great Firewall; this week it blocked access to Twitter, Bing.com, the photo-sharing Web site Flickr and, briefly, Hotmail. Other sites, including YouTube and blog providers like Blogspot and Wordpress, are routinely barred.But frequent Twittering and Facebooking from Chinese users on the eve of the June 4 anniversary proved there are many ways around the censors' efforts.One Twitterer, identified as freemoren, posted regular updates of what was happening exactly 20 years ago on the square; others shared links to Western documentaries and newspaper articles about the Tiananmen massacre; some even speculated about how many packages Tank Man held in his hands as he faced down the tanks.As in the West, there are few to no clues about Tank Man's identity and fate. Chinese users are reluctant even to express their opinions on his actions, or to reveal their real identities, in case they are tracked down and questioned by police."Everyone, be very safety conscious!" a Chinese Twitterer identifying himself as flypig warned. Code words abound; the government censors are known as "river crabs," and the anniversary itself is referred to as "TAM" or "ATM" or "8964."While information is available to those who seek it out, the next generation is still a long way from being able to express opposition to the Tiananmen massacre publicly. The square was under heavy security this week, and news crews were chased away. At least one prominent university's student association was reported to be advising students to stay home and resist any temptation to protest."Most people are certainly affected by the public opinion control. The effect is obvious," tweeted a Chinese user identifying himself as Hosven. "Few in our generation of people know about 8964. Those who understand its seriousness are less."

Barack Obama's Sensitive Blackberry Messages To Be Released

The president's Blackberry has been hacked! Cyber terrorist Kasper Hauser has accessed President Barack Obama's encrypted Blackberry messages and reprinted them in a new book being published by the complicit book publisher Little Brown on June 8, 2009. "Obama's Blackberry" features sensitive Blackberry messages from the Commander in Chief to Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger - even Nuclear Command Control itself. The future of Western Civilization could be jeopardized by the information enclosed in these sensitive electronic missives. Unless it's all ... a joke. Upon closer inspection, it turns out Kasper Hauser is not a cyber terrorist, but the name of a comedy group. And these text messages to and from the likes of the First Lady, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter — even former President George W. Bush — are not in fact breaches of national security. They are just quite funny.

Bin Laden Tells America to Be Ready for Revenge Against U.S. Policy

Usama bin Laden threatened Americans in a new audio tape Wednesday, saying President Barack Obama inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law there.Bin Laden claimed U.S. pressure led to a campaign of "killing, fighting, bombing and destruction" that prompted the exodus of a million Muslims from Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan.The message was broadcast for the first time on pan-Arab Al-Jazeera Television around the same time Obama touched down in Saudi Arabia at the start of a Mideast visit. He is trying repair relations with the Muslim world frayed under the previous Bush administration."Elderly people, children and women fled their homes and lived in tents as refugees after they have lived in dignity in their homes," bin Laden said. "Let the American people be ready to reap what the White House leaders have sown," he added."Obama and his administration have sown new seeds to increase hatred and revenge on America," bin Laden said. "The number of these seeds is equal to the number of displaced people from Swat Valley."

Race on to reach Air France wreck

Brazilian navy divers are on their way to reach the wreckage of an Air France jet in order to start the job of pulling debris from the Atlantic Ocean after the plane carrying 228 people went down.Four navy ships with recovery equipment and a tanker are headed for a 5km strip of water strewn with parts from the plane about 1,200km northeast of the coastal city of Recife.Three merchant vessels are already in the area after being diverted to help with the operation.Flight AF 447 was heading from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it went down early on Monday, in the worst loss of life in Air France's 75-year history.France held religious ceremonies to remember the missing on Wednesday, including one in Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral attended by Nicolas Sarkozy, the country's president. Three days of national mourning began in Brazil on Tuesday.

Obama on Mideast tour to improve ties with Muslim world

President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on a Middle East mission featuring a historic address to the Muslim world and a new US drive to invigorate regional peacemaking.Obama flew in aboard Air Force One to a red carpet welcome ahead of talks with King Abdullah as he seeks backing for an emerging US strategy of binding Arab states into a wider search for Israeli-Palestinian peace and to defuse regional tensions.He will then travel on Thursday to Egypt, another pillar of the Arab world, to deliver a personal appeal for reconciliation to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, and hold his first talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.King Abdullah has been seeking to relaunch a 2002 Arab-backed Middle East peace initiative, which has been praised by the Obama administration.But it was unclear whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough stand on settlements would scupper US hopes of convincing the Arab world to make concessions towards Israel to inject momentum into the process.Obama signalled in an interview with National Public Radio before leaving Washington that he would keep pressing Israel on the issue, despite an emerging rift between the two close allies."I've said very clearly to the Israelis both privately and publicly that a freeze on settlements including natural growth is part of those obligations."The Saudi initiative calls for full normalisation of relations between Arab states and Israel, a full withdrawal by Israel from Arab land, the creation of a Palestinian state and an "equitable" solution for Palestinian refugees.Obama was also expected to use the talks with King Abdullah, whose country is OPEC's top exporter, to push for stability in oil prices and production.