IOC and China Olympics In Lose/Lose Situation With Flame of Shame World Tour

From the lighting of the Olympic Torch, through London, on into France, and already here in America, the Flame of Shame World Tour has been a disaster for the IOC, and for the Chinese Olympics as protestors have successfully stolen the show and focused the world's news spotlight on China's horrid Human Rights Abuses, their enslavement via force of the Tibetan people.

Arriving with NO FAN FARE, the torch is hidden away in San Francisco as security attempts to figure out this morning/afternoon's Flame of Shame visit to America, attempts to keep protestors from again stopping the flame...in some ways, the Students for a Free Tibet already won with their BRILLIANT Golden Gate Bridge Event before the Flame of Shame ever touched American soil!

If I were the protesters, I'd have the bridge from Oakland/Berkley covered, have massive crowds at the Ferry from Sausilito, the ability to converge on the Golden Gate Bridge covered, and be prepared to RUSH protesters into the Pier 39 Giradeli Square areas almost instantly, and then cover the area down by the Embarkedero's, especially close to the MAJOR hotel, and look for the city to attempt the event EARLIER in the day to catch everyone SLEEPING. In the meantime, give some consideration to trapping the flame in San Francisco...if they brought the flame into San Francisco, they have to get it back over the bridge and onto the airplane don't they?

After tomorrow's event the IOC is going to make a decision on the Flame of Shame moving forward, and the beauty is, both the IOC and the Chinese Olympics are in a Lose/Lose situation. Can the rest of the world stops, the protestors and Tibet win as the IOC and China will have capitulated to the protesters...continue the world wide Flame of Shame Tour, and the protests will esculate at each and every stop, with the attempt to carry the Flame of Shame through Tibet likely to be a public relations nightmare for the IOC and China...add to this the very real chance that you can bank on the Olympics being DISTURBED NOW at every step of the event, and the IOC might be better off cancelling the Olympics in China all together.

IOC considers abandoning torch relay's international route

Jeff Lee in Beijing, Aileen McCabe in Shanghai , Canwest News Service

Published: Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it is considering whether to abandon the international portion of the Beijing torch relay in the wake of violent protests in London and Paris.

An IOC official, Director General Urs Lacotte, also said the Olympic organization has been pressuring the Beijing Organizing Committee to redraw the torch relay to limit the potential for violence.

The IOC will step in, Lacotte said, the first time a torchbearer is injured or protests become unmanageable - that is the limit.

Tibet activists hang up banners on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, April 7, 2008. Three pro-Tibet activists scaled the cables of San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Bridge and hung banners to protest the arrival of the Olympic torch.

Reuters

"In London, where the torchbearer was accosted by a protester, well, that was very near the limit," he said.

On Monday torch relay organizers in Paris were forced to cut the relay short after protesters repeatedly tried to interfere along the route. Officials extinguished the torch at least three times and moved it along the route within the safety of a bus.

Now, the IOC is holding its collective breath as it awaits the Wednesday start of the San Francisco tour, an event that protesters have vowed to disrupt. On Monday protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a large pro-Tibet banner.

IOC president Jacques Rogge condemned the protests in London and Paris, which were organized by pro-Tibet supporters and human rights activists.

Rogge confirmed the executive board will review the torch relay when it meets Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Olympic torch was burning bright in San Francisco Tuesday, hidden away in what officials call a "secure" facility, out of the reach of pro-Tibet protesters and human rights advocates.

"We treated it like a head of state visit," airport spokesman Mike McCarron told the San Francisco Examiner.

The flame arrived from France before dawn Tuesday on a specially chartered Air China jet. There were no protesters nearby as it was whisked away to its hidden location, usually a hotel room guarded by Olympic staff.