Mood:  irritated

(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

"Our mission was a peaceful mission," says former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who was aboard the Dignity.

3 of 3

CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed. It was flying the flag of Gibraltar.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists from the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

Also on board was former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

Penhaul said an Israeli patrol boat shined its spotlight on the Dignity, and then it and another patrol boat shadowed the Dignity for about a half hour before the collision.

One patrol boat "very severely rammed" the Dignity, Penhaul said.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities, the captain said.

But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the patrol boat had warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.

Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision. Watch Penhaul describe the boat damage »

The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations "absurd."

"There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody," Palmor said.

"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is," McKinney said after the boat docked in Lebanon. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side. Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision »

"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military," she said.

The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. Israel controls the waters off Gaza's coast and routinely blocks ships from coming into the Palestinian territory as part of an ongoing blockade that also applies to the Israel-Gaza border. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel supplies.

Tuesday's collision was so severe, Penhaul said, that the passengers were ordered to put on their life vests and be ready to get in lifeboats. The Dignity began taking on water, but the crew managed to pump it out of the hull long enough for the boat to reach shore.

"It could have ended with people drowning if they hit us more square on," Dignity's captain, Denis Healey, said. "It could have gone down in minutes."

Palmor said the vessel refused assistance after the incident.

The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory that has been subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign since Saturday.

Israel Tuesday lambasted McKinney -- the Green Party's 2008 candidate for the U.S. presidency and a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia -- for taking part in the maritime mission.

In a written statement, the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast, based in Atlanta, Georgia, said McKinney "has taken it upon herself to commit an act of provocation," endangering herself and the crew.

"We regret that during this time of crisis, while Israel is battling with the terrorist organization of Hamas and defending its citizens, that we are forced to deal with Ms. McKinney's irresponsible behavior," the statement read.

The trip was the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement's sixth in as many months.

Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Saturday in what Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an "all-out war" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007. The Israeli military says its goal is to stop a recent barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel »

The Palestinian death toll has topped 375, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said.

Hamas has pontinued to fire rockets at southern Israeli towns since the airstrikes began, Israel says. Six Israelis have been killed -- five of them civilians.

Hamas has vowed to defend Gaza in the face of what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which formally expired December 19, but had been weakening for months.

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All About Gaza • Israel • Cynthia McKinney

Posted by Joe Anybody at 6:22 PM PST

Updated: Friday, 2 January 2009 6:39 PM PST

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Housing is a Human Right

Posted by Joe Anybody at 2:34 PM PDT

Updated: Saturday, 4 October 2008 2:40 PM PDT

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http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/09/379445.shtml?discuss 

Iraq child bombing victim arrives in Portland - Media are silent

I was at the Airport. At the end, when media were packing up I spoke up for the first time and simply said "thanks to the media for showing up". The crowd cheered. Sadly I came home and watched most TV stations and saw nothing. KOIN showed dragon boats, a car crash, car vandalism. KGW, a fire, a giant lizard, a martial arts guy dies. KATU grass fire, teen driving age, ford recall, car windows smashed. KPTV feces in a garden, Hurricane IKE, teen robber gets 8 years in jail. Kudos to the Oregonian. To the others... MLK said "there comes a time when silence is betrayal" Signed, Joe Rowe Here is the story of Mustafa  http://nomorevictims.org/mustafaabed.php Blow is the link to the story in the Oregonian  http://tinyurl.com/mustafa by Katy Muldoon, The Oregonian Tuesday September 09, 2008, 10:00 PM Well-wishers turn out Tuesday at Portland International Airport to welcome Mustafa Abed, 5, and his father, Ahmed Mohammed (in tan shirt). Mustafa was 2 when he lost his leg and suffered severe internal injuries during a U.S. missile attack in Iraq. Portlanders raised money to bring the child to Oregon for the medical care and prosthetic he needs. When the air raid began, Nidhal Aswad gripped her child in her arms and ran, but she couldn't escape the nightmare that her boy's world would become. A U.S. missile struck a nearby building, knocking the two to the street in Fallujah, western Iraq. When Aswad regained consciousness, she heard her 2-year-old, Mustafa Ahmed Abed, screaming. Shrapnel had severed his bowel, left leg and most of his hip. That terrible day in November 2004, Aswad couldn't have imagined that nearly four years later, strangers from the same country that fired that missile would donate money and medical expertise to help her child heal. She couldn't have dreamed, in other words, of the scene that unfolded Tuesday at Portland International Airport, after her husband and son touched down. "Imagine if this was your child and a community reached forward to do this," Maxine Fookson said Tuesday. "Your heart would swell." Fookson and her husband, Ned Rosch, are ringleaders in the effort to bring Mustafa, now 5, to Portland. Medical teams at Shriners and Doernbecher children's hospitals expect to fit the boy with a prosthetic leg and explore whether they can improve his abdominal wounds. He will be the fourth child from Iraq or Afghanistan to be treated at Portland Shriners Hospital for Children since the war began. Fookson and Rosch had their radio tuned to 90.7 FM, KBOO, one day last October when they heard an interview with Cole Miller, a California screenwriter who in 2002 co-founded No More Victims. The nonprofit, nonsectarian, humanitarian group advocates for peace and brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical care they can't get in their own struggling country. The interview hit the Southeast Portland couple right where their passions live: Fookson, 55, is a pediatric nurse practitioner with the Multnomah County Health Department. Rosch, 58, is director of the Northwest Osteopathic Medical Foundation. Both are active in Portland's peace movement. Fookson said she remembers thinking: "It was our tax dollars that bought the bombs. Why isn't it our volunteer dollars that do the healing?" They called Miller at No More Victims and started a Portland chapter, one of more than 20 nationwide. "Portland is a city with a very large heart and wonderful pediatric resources," Fookson and Rosch wrote in a November appeal to colleagues, friends and acquaintances. "We'd like to put these into action by banding together. ... We are reaching out for your help." Responses poured in. Churches passed collection plates for No More Victims. Neighbors raised money at potlucks and poetry readings. The metro area's Muslim community offered help. Franklin High School students spent the summer stitching a welcome quilt for Mustafa. The group raised about $20,000 and will continue fundraising, Fookson said. While No More Victims arranges donated medical care, the group estimates it costs $17,000 to $25,000 to bring an Iraqi child and one of their parents, usually the father, to the United States. Because fathers typically are the family wage earner, the nonprofit also provides Iraqi families a stipend while the father is away. In addition to his mother, Mustafa has a younger brother and sister at home. When he's not hospitalized, Mustafa and his father will live at Ronald McDonald House. Until they examine him this week and next, doctors won't know what surgeries Mustafa needs or how long he might have to stay in Portland. It could be four to six months, Fookson said. Doctors know the boy uses a colostomy bag but don't know the extent of his internal injuries; medical records from the war zone are more scant than the medical care available there. Because he lost his leg so high on his hip, fitting him with a prosthetic will be challenging. Kay Weber, a spokeswoman, said difficult cases such as Mustafa's are Shriners' specialty; the nonprofit hospital, which provides free care to needy children, has the region's largest pediatric orthopedic medical staff. About 100 Oregonians bearing balloons, flowers and warm smiles turned out at PDX on Tuesday to greet Mustafa and his father, Ahmed Mohammed. Among the welcoming party, of course, was Fookson, who sounded nearly breathless with anticipation, her hopes high for the child she called "a little ambassador of peace." -- Katy Muldoon;  katymuldoon@news.oregonian.com Categories: Breaking News Comments

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:15 AM PDT

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http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oilchange/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=16174&t=wide.dwt

http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/action/action.html

Chevron's Pipeline

Is The Burmese Regimes Lifeline

October 3, 2007

Courtesy of Alternet

The barbarous military regime depends on revenue from the nation’s gas reserves and partners such as Chevron, a detail ignored by the Bush administration.

The image was stunning: tens of thousands of saffron-robed Buddhist monks marching through the streets of Rangoon [also known as Yangon], protesting the military dictatorship of Burma. The monks marched in front of the home of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was seen weeping and praying quietly as they passed. She hadn't been seen for years. The democratically elected leader of Burma, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since 2003. She is considered the Nelson Mandela of Burma, the Southeast Asian nation renamed Myanmar by the regime.

After almost two weeks of protest, the monks have disappeared. The monasteries have been emptied. One report says thousands of monks are imprisoned in the north of the country.

No one believes that this is the end of the protests, dubbed "The Saffron Revolution." Nor do they believe the official body count of 10 dead. The trickle of video, photos and oral accounts of the violence that leaked out on Burma's cellular phone and Internet lines has been largely stifled by government censorship. Still, gruesome images of murdered monks and other activists and accounts of executions make it out to the global public. At the time of this writing, several unconfirmed accounts of prisoners being burned alive have been posted to Burma-solidarity Web sites.

The Bush administration is making headlines with its strong language against the Burmese regime. President Bush declared increased sanctions in his U.N. General Assembly speech. First lady Laura Bush has come out with perhaps the strongest statements. Explaining that she has a cousin who is a Burma activist, Laura Bush said, "The deplorable acts of violence being perpetrated against Buddhist monks and peaceful Burmese demonstrators shame the military regime."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said, "The United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place." Keeping an international focus is essential, but should not distract from one of the most powerful supporters of the junta, one that is much closer to home. Rice knows it well: Chevron.

Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma's natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.

The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.

Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."

The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.

Rice served on the Chevron board of directors for a decade. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her. While she served on the board, Chevron was sued for involvement in the killing of nonviolent protesters in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Like the Burmese, Nigerians suffer political repression and pollution where oil and gas are extracted and they live in dire poverty. The protests in Burma were actually triggered by a government-imposed increase in fuel prices.

Human-rights groups around the world have called for a global day of action on Saturday, Oct. 6, in solidarity with the people of Burma. Like the brave activists and citizen journalists sending news and photos out of the country, the organizers of the Oct. 6 protest are using the Internet to pull together what will probably be the largest demonstration ever in support of Burma. Among the demands are calls for companies to stop doing business with Burma's brutal regime.

SEND YOUR MESSAGE HERE 

http://www.peacemajority.us/BoycottChevron.htm

Posted by Joe Anybody at 8:26 PM PDT

Updated: Tuesday, 12 August 2008 8:30 PM PDT

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Hello Z3 Readers I copied this from Portland Indy Media today:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/07/377610.shtml

Fannie,

Freddie,

Food

and Fuel

The financial crisis deepens with the nationalization of IndyMac and the likely bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie May by the US taxpayer. The financial crisis has company as inflation, and in particular huge increases in global food and energy prices, enters the fray. The American economic model has been discredited and the American century has lasted but a few decades. These developments have and will further open up a new period in the struggle between capital and labor on the world stage and the US working class will have a major role to play as it re-connects with its militant traditions.

 authors homepage: http://www.myspace.com/unionguy510

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:12 PM PDT

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Update: Jury finds for homeless woman in excessive force case against Gresham officer

Posted by

Brad Schmidt, The Oregonian

April 30, 2008 21:00PM

"The Swamp" is a swath of land along Springwater Corridor in Gresham that's frequented by homeless campers. It reeks of human waste. People there sometimes have knives and drug paraphernalia.On the morning of April 7, 2006, Gresham police Officers Jeffrey Durbin and Ted Van Beek went to work early to remove people illegally camped there. By the time they left, Mary Catherine MacQuire had been arrested, punched in the gut, thrown to the ground by the hair and shocked four times with a Taser.Durbin, a 15-year Gresham veteran once named officer of the year, said he used a justifiable level of force because MacQuire was uncooperative. But MacQuire said he used excessive force and violated her civil rights.

 

Today, at the end of a two-day trial in U.S. District Court, jurors sided with MacQuire and awarded her $80,000 in damages -- $10,000 more than sought. MacQuire said she hoped to inspire others who think they've been wronged but are scared to come forward. "I am one girl. I'm homeless. I don't have a job," said MacQuire, 24, represented by the Oregon Law Center. "And these are police officers."

According to testimony, the incident unfolded like this:About 7 a.m., Durbin and Van Beek went to a campsite with several tents. They announced their presence and told campers to come out. Greg Schultz, a friend of MacQuire's, approached Durbin and began yelling.Durbin and his partner are certified drug recognition experts. Both said MacQuire and Schultz looked and acted as if they were high on methamphetamine. But the two denied using drugs.

 

MacQuire, upset with how Schultz was being treated, eventually ran toward Durbin, who grabbed her left arm. But she resisted being handcuffed, he said, and she kicked him. Durbin said he made three to four "focused blows" to her stomach. Then he grabbed her hair and pushed her to the ground.Durbin, who in uniform weighs between 260 and 280 pounds, said he used his knee and part of his weight to keep MacQuire on the ground. He said she tucked her right arm underneath her body and continued to resist.

 

But MacQuire said Durbin did more than hold her down -- he repeatedly jammed his knee into her back. She said he placed so much weight on her that she could not move her right arm.Durbin warned MacQuire he would use his Taser if she didn't cooperate. "She dared me to," he testified.Fifty thousand volts spread through her body each time she was shocked.

 

At one point, Durbin said, he could feel electricity transmitted from her left hand through his left hand.MacQuire's right arm came out after the fourth shock, and she was arrested. MacQuire said Durbin put his hands on her neck and choked her."I thought he was going to kill me," MacQuire testified. Durbin vehemently denied choking her.Police backup arrived soon after.

 

Prosecutors charged her with resisting arrest and obstructing an officer, but she was found not guilty in a criminal trial in November 2006.

 

Durbin left the courtroom quickly today. "We told the truth," he said.

 

 

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/04/the_swamp_is_a_swath.html

Posted by Joe Anybody at 7:47 PM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, 21 May 2008 7:54 PM PDT

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 BULLSHIT CHARGES used on Camping Homeless in Portland

There is lots of double meaning word games going on in regards to the police harassment on the protesters the charges that I have seen that allot are getting "ARE NOT FOR SITTING OR SLEEPING" <??????>

They get ticketed for interfering with a police officer's business<?> 

I feel there is a sneaky court-padding way to charge these homeless protesters and in doing so they overt the "bullshit" sit-lie law that they (police/city) claim they are enforcing. 

I say if they are going to <sic>arrest for the Sit Lie No Camping then do so ....But as Wesley Flowers points out on Indy Media they charge them with other types of charges..... there is some legal shifty bull shit going on... this is fuck you latter in court type of organizing by the police that is going on....

Legal Scholars should look into all these BULLSHIT charges 

I wouldn't doubt "great minds in the legal department of City Hall have concocted a way to fuck these people with evasive jargon and trumped up charges" which they will see when their day in court comes...If they violated the "<sic> Sitting-Camping" laws ...then why doesnt ’the tickets that those protesting are getting...  show that as their <sic>crime" ???

.......... I cry "BULLSHIT" 

Look at all these arrest and see the charges that are mounting ..... something suspicious is going on! Not all are interfering with police business...that I am quite sure of!

More on this subject being discussed here on

Portland Indy Media

Posted by Joe Anybody at 2:54 PM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 18 May 2008 5:15 PM PDT

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THE FOLLOWING I RECIEVED BY EMAIL TODAY 4/16/08

Despite a dramatic last-minute diversion of the Olympic torch route in San Francisco last week, the spectacle of thousands of human rights protesters jamming city streets was truly an awesome sight! Hearing and seeing such impassioned support for the long-suffering people of Tibet and Darfur showed the power of peaceful protest - and strengthened my belief in the possibility of change.

Stand up for human rights in China by making a gift to Amnesty International today.

When China bid for the Olympics in 2001, it promised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that as host, Beijing would enhance "all social conditions, including education, health and human rights" and "give the media complete freedom" to report news in China in the lead-up to the Games.

But with less than four months to go, Amnesty has concluded in a new report that the current wave of repression by Chinese authorities is occurring not in spite of the Olympics, but because of the Olympics.

Beijing has hit back at Amnesty International with the charge that we've "politicized" the Olympics. To this we say, human rights are not political - arresting human rights activists and charging them with 'subversion' is.

Prominent and peaceful human rights activists are being rounded up and jailed. Tibetan protesters are met with intimidation, arbitrary detentions and in some cases lethal force. Web sites are being blocked. TV broadcasts are being censored and foreign journalists are denied access to Tibet altogether - as part of a massive pre-Olympics 'clean up.' We cannot let this insult to basic human dignity go unchallenged!

Your gift today will help Amnesty International to free those wrongly detained for acts of peaceful self-expression and intensify our campaign to push for progress on human rights in China in the critical months leading up to the Summer Olympics. In the coming weeks, our campaign will meet with corporate sponsor Coca-Cola and the U.S. Olympic Committee, and organize a global week of action on China and the Olympics.

You and I must hold China accountable for its abysmal record and make sure the Chinese authorities understand that there are consequences for a lack of progress on human rights - before the Games begin. Failure to speak out now is to miss a unique opportunity to push for progress on human rights in China.

Thank you for your continued commitment to defending human rights in China and around the world.

Sincerely,
Larry Cox
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

P.S. To read more about China's human rights record in the lead-up to the Olympics, check out Amnesty's new report, The Olympics countdown: Crackdown on activists threatens Olympics legacy

Posted by Joe Anybody at 4:59 PM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 5:01 PM PDT

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  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/07/france.olympicgames2008/print

Olympic torch

relay cut

short amid Paris

protests

The Olympic flame relay in Paris ended in farce today when police cut the event short after protests forced officials to repeatedly extinguish the torch.

It was a second day of severe embarrassment for Beijing following similar skirmishes in London yesterday as activists demonstrated against China's recent violent crackdown in Tibet.

The Paris stage of the relay ran into trouble immediately after leaving the Eiffel Tower at lunchtime, even though hundreds of riot police and security officials flanked the torch bearers.

With only 200 metres of the planned 17-mile journey to the Charlety stadium on the edge of the city completed, the scale of the demonstrations meant officials had to extinguish the torch and seek shelter on board a bus.

The torch was relit and handed back to the French athletes carrying it through the streets, but it soon had to be extinguished again.

After this had happened for a fourth time, and with the procession hopelessly behind schedule, police decided not to go ahead with its second section.

Instead, the torch was again loaded onto a bus and driven to the stadium, arriving at around 5.30pm local time (1630 BST).

By the time the relay was abandoned, a planned ceremony to greet the torch outside the French capital's city hall had already been cancelled as members of the Green party hung a giant Tibetan flag from the building.

Despite the huge security presence, at least two activists got within little more than an arm's length of the torch before being stopped.

One protester threw water at it, but failed to extinguish the flame and was carried away.

Police grappled many other demonstrators to the ground, using tear gas to disperse those blocking the relay's route. They said 28 people were arrested.

While the turbulent scenes were a blow for the Beijing organisers, the Olympic flame remained alight at all times in an enclosed lantern used to preserve it on planes and overnight during the 85,000-mile journey from Olympia, in Greece, to China.

Wang Hui, the media head for the Beijing Olympics organising committee, today condemned what she called a "few separatists" involved in the protests, insisting the relay would continue as planned.

"The smooth progress of the torch relay cannot be stopped and will definitely be a big success," she added.

The flame was more heavily guarded than it had been in London. It was barely visible inside a 200-metre cordon shielding it from protests as it left the Eiffel Tower, flanked by riot officers and other police on inline skates.

Along the route, some cheered and waved Chinese flags but many others chanted pro-Tibet slogans.

Around 500 protesters congregated at Trocadero Square, which faces the Eiffel Tower.

One torch bearer, the double French judo gold medallist, David Douillet, told RTL radio he regretted the choice of China to host the games "because it isn't up to snuff on freedom of expression, on total liberty, and of course, on Olympic values".

Demonstrations are also expected in San Francisco and New Delhi, India on the torch relay's 21-stop, six-continent tour before it arrives in mainland China on May 4.

The flame's progress through London yesterday was slow, violent and occasionally farcical as protesters repeatedly attempted to disrupt the relay.

China faced already a distinctly chilly official reception in France.
When asked whether he hoped there would be a major protest in Paris, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said he wanted "people to be informed" about Tibet.

Following reports at the weekend that the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was still considering a boycott of the opening ceremony, Kouchner said "all options" remained open.

China had hoped the flame relay – the longest in Olympic history - would mark the start of a triumphant coming-out party for the world's most populous nation, marking its emergence as a major economic and political world power.

However, existing concerns over its human rights record were exacerbated following major anti-Beijing protests in Tibet, in which exiled Tibetan leaders claim up to 150 people were killed.

MORE NEWS

UPDATED

4-7-08

3:30pm PST

******

---

Paris protests

force cancellation

of torch relay

Security officials

call off final section

after huge pro-Tibet

demonstrations 4-7-08

PARIS - Paris’ Olympic torch relay descended into chaos Monday 4/7/08, with protesters scaling the Eiffel Tower, grabbing for the flame and forcing security officials to repeatedly snuff out the torch and transport it by bus past demonstrators yelling “Free Tibet!”

The relentless anti-Chinese demonstrations ignited across the capital with unexpected power and ingenuity, foiling 3,000 police officers deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and even inline skates.

Chinese organizers finally gave up on the relay, canceling the last third of what China had hoped would be a joyous jog by torch-bearing VIPs past some of Paris’ most famous landmarks.

Thousands of protesters slowed the relay to a stop-start crawl, with impassioned displays of anger over China’s human rights record, its grip on Tibet and support for Sudan despite years of bloodshed in Darfur.

Five times, the Chinese officials in dark glasses and tracksuits who guard the torch extinguished it and retreated to the safety of a bus — the last time emerging only after the vehicle drove within 15 feet of the final stop, a track and field stadium. A torchbearer then ran the final steps inside.

Outside, a few French activists supporting Tibet had a fist-fight with pro-Chinese demonstrators. The French activists spat on them and shouted, “Fascists!”

In San Francisco, where the torch is due to arrive Wednesday, three protesters wearing harnesses and helmets climbed up the Golden Gate Bridge and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables. The banners read “One World One Dream. Free Tibet” and “Free Tibet.”

The 17.4-mile route in Paris started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-Elysées toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.

Throughout the day, protesters booed trucks emblazoned with the names of Olympic corporate sponsors, chained themselves to railings and hurled water at the flame. Some unfurled banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral. Others waved signs reading “the flame of shame.”

The Interior Ministry said police made 18 arrests.

Officers sprayed tear gas to break up a sit-in by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the route. Police tackled protesters who ran at the torch; at least two activists got within arm’s length before they were grabbed by police. Near the Louvre, police blocked a protester who approached the flame with a fire extinguisher.

One detained demonstrator, handcuffed in a police bus, wrote “liber” on her right palm and “te” on the other — spelling the French word for “freedom” — and held them up to the window.

With protesters slowing down the relay, a planned stop at Paris City Hall was canceled. Earlier, French officials hung a banner declaring support for human rights on the building’s facade.

A spokesman for the French Olympic Committee, Denis Masseglia, estimated that a third of the 80 athletes and other VIPs who had been slated to carry the torch did not get to do so.

On a bus carrying French athletes, one man in a track suit shed a tear as protesters pelted the vehicle with eggs, bottles and soda cans.

The chaos started at the Eiffel Tower moments after the relay began. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torchbearer, former hurdler Stephane Diagana, shouting “Freedom for the Chinese,” before security officials pulled him back.

“It is inadmissible that the games are taking place in the world’s biggest prison,” Garel said later.

Outside parliament, as the torch passed, 35 lawmakers protested, shouting “Freedom for Tibet.”

“The flame shouldn’t have come to Paris,” said Carmen de Santiago, who had “free” painted on one cheek and “Tibet” on the other.

Pro-Chinese activists carrying national flags held counter-demonstrations.

“The Olympic Games are about sports. It’s not fair to turn them into politics,” said Gao Yi, a Chinese doctoral student in computer science.

France’s former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, stressed that though the torch was extinguished along the route, the Olympic flame itself still burned in a lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights. A Chinese official said that flame was used to re-light the torch each time it was brought aboard the bus.

Pro-Tibet advocate Christophe Cunniet said he and other activists were detained after they waved Tibetan flags, threw flyers and tried to block the route. Cunniet said police kicked him, cutting his forehead. “I’m still dazed,” he said.

At least one athlete, former Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec, was supportive of the demonstrators. “I think it is very, very good that people have mobilized like that,” she told French television.

But other athletes and sports officials were bitterly dismayed.

“A symbol like that, carried by young people who want to deliver a message of peace, should be allowed to pass,” said the head of the French Olympic Committee, Henri Serandour. “These games are a sounding board for all those who want to speak about China and Tibet. But at the same time, there are many wars on the planet that no one is talking about.”

 

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies agreed. “We respect that right for people to demonstrate peacefully, but equally there is a right for the torch to pass peacefully and the runners to enjoy taking part in the relay,” she said.

Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists and 37 people were arrested.

Beijing organizers criticized the London protests as a “disgusting” form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.

“The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular,” said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. “It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that was still the case.

Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

The round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and is meant to highlight China’s rising economic and political power. Activists have seized on it as a platform for their causes.

The relay also is expected to face demonstrations in New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.

 http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/23978408/

Solidarity For Tibet

 

Posted by Joe Anybody at 2:58 PM PDT

Updated: Monday, 7 April 2008 3:43 PM PDT

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