FBI INVESTIGATING CHINESE ATTACK ON FALUN GONG WEB SITES
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CRACKDOWN ESCALATES AS JIANG ZEMIN BUYS WEAPONS IN ISRAEL
As Chinese President Jiang Zemin visits Israel to purchase weapons, bold non-violent protests rock the center of Beijing sparking 200 new arrests. Reports the Associated Press Thursday April 13: "At least 200 members of the banned Falun Gong group were arrested today during a protest of official efforts to destroy the meditation movement, a human rights group said. Protesters in and around Tiananmen Square unfurled Falun Gong banners, and police quickly arrested them, beating some, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. Reporters near the square saw police pushing people into two vans and driving them away. The Falun Gong members were protesting official efforts to prevent them from marking the first anniversary of a demonstration that led to a crackdown on the group, the Information Center said. On April 25 a year ago, about 10,000 members stood silently around the Communist Party leadership compound in Beijing to protest criticism of the group by the state press. The government says Falun Gong is an evil cult that led to the death of 1,400 followers and caused great harm to society. The ban "actually protected China's human rights," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said today. Many western governments and human rights groups have documented systematic human rights violations against Falun Gong spiritual practitioners.
FBI ALERTED TO CYBER-WAR "HACK ATTACK;" WARNING RECEIVED BEFORE SITES CRASHED
The FBI and other government agencies have been asked to investigate a rash of attacks that disabled all Falun Gong/Falun Dafa websites worldwide April ll. Agence France Press reports from BEIJING, April 13 (AFP) - The Chinese authorities have hacked into Falungong websites causing them to crash as part of a new crackdown on the banned movement, US-based group members told AFP on Thursday. Starting on Tuesday at least five Falungong web sites, three in the United States and two in Canada, were attacked simultaneously with an overload of carefully-prepared information, said group spokeswoman Gail Rachlin. Falungong practitioner Yuan Li, a computer expert, said the group's main website www.Falundafa.org received an anonymous tip-off on April 12 warning of an imminent attack. "We received an anonymous e-mail from a Chinese computer employee on April 12 warning us that the police software security bureau had offered to pay the computer company money to hack into our sites," said Yuan. He said the messages were sent to the Falungong's websites from China using US-based e-mail site Yahoo.com "They used a method called ICMT Packet flooding which is a way of overloading websites with too much information," said Yuan. "This type of computer hacking requires a lot of effort and preparation. They must have been studying our sites for a long time."
Practitioners who run several sites say: "We have no way to confirm the information in the warning message, except the fact that the attack is now happening, and at a sensitive time because of two Falun Gong related issues: 1) The UN resolution on China (which condemns the persecution of Falun Gong in China) will soon be voted at the United Nation's Human Rights Commission. 2) The anniversary of the April 25th Falun Gong Beijing incident is approaching. Another practitioner offered this background: "There had been several severe attacks to Falun Gong websites since last July. The first big attack happened on the same day Chinese government officially banned Falun Gong activities. This attack was traced back to Xinan Beijing, an affiliate of the Chinese security department. Only one month ago, when the Chinese people's parliament conference was held in Beijing, a second vicious attack brought the Canada based Falun Gong news site minghui.ca down for a week. In that attack the hackers used a "Smurf" method, the same used to bring down yahoo.com. It seemed that the hackers had learned from the previous lesson, the "Smurf" method cunningly obscured the hackers' identity... While no voice of Falun Gong practitioners is allowed to be heard in China, the Falun Dafa web sites in North America have been an important place to communicate the truth about the brutal persecution and torture of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners to the [rest of the] world."
MEANWHILE IN GENEVA: CHINA HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION FILED BEFORE UN BODY
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States put forward a resolution at a U.N. forum Tuesday denouncing political and religious repression in China, U.S. diplomats said. Voting is set for April 18.'' It also rebukes China for ``severe measures taken to restrict the peaceful activities'' of Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement banned last July. Beijing's delegation has been lobbying hard to marshal support for its motion, whose adoption would quash all substantive debate on the U.S. text, Western diplomats say. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in March: "We owe it to the Chinese people and to the credibility of this commission and its members not to shy away from the whole truth, or to hide behind procedural motions." The European Union has yet to say whether it will co-sponsor the U.S. text.
MEDIA LEAKS AND RUMORS: IS CHINA'S ATTITUDE SOFTENING OR HARDENING?
Susan V. Lawrence of Dow Jones, cites unnamed sources in an April 12th Far East Economic Review story reporting that there is a new debate in the highest circles in China about government policy towards Falun Gong. "A person close to China's military says, for example, the party has targeted the crackdown too broadly. "A lot of Falun Gong practitioners were not originally in opposition to the government," he says. "They are now...The government drew a line, and they were on the other side of it." The doubts aren't sufficient to threaten Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin. But they are denting his authority at a time when he badly needs support to push through painful economic restructuring and sell an increasingly skeptical nation on the benefits of Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization." This same article offers unsubstantiated rumors and editorialized speculation on conflicts within Falun Gong, suggesting, without hard proof, that there is a "dark evolution" underway."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Appeal to President Jiang Zemin from Shan Luo, age 19, from Shi-Gang, Xin-Jiang. "We merely tried to practice some exercises, keep ourselves healthy and become a good person. We never did any bad things, yet we were arrested from home and detained willfully. Our legitimate rights guaranteed by the Constitution are deprived without a reason, and our personal freedoms have no guarantee. The police arrest good people as bad people as they wish. A happy family is broken, the children lost their parents, lovers cannot see each other, no job, no house, our family savings are lost, and we are over our head and ears in debt. How can a 19-year-old undertake such a heavy burden?"