In China's ongoing efforts to secure the Olympics and guard against any political black eyes, the government has ruled nothing off the table as far as monitoring and spying on everyone, all the time.

There are obvious signs of government uneasiness and a growing sense of paranoia throughout China, as it takes on the daunting tasks of securing these Olympic venues.

The BBC is reporting that China's Olympic security operations appear to be aimed at "preventing political demonstrations as much as terrorist attacks."

China Might Bar Tiananmen Broadcasts

China might bar live television broadcasts from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics, apparently unnerved by the recent outburst of unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A ban on live broadcasts would disrupt the plans of NBC and other major international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Aug. 8-24 games and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the iconic square.

US Olympic tourists warned about monitoring in hotels

Americans traveling to China for the Olympic Games in August can expect their hotel rooms there to be monitored, the State Department warned on its website.

"All visitors should be aware that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations," according to the State Department site.

"All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant's consent or knowledge," it said.

It added that many hotels and apartment buildings may be poorly built, lack emergency exits, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide monitors and basic security like locks, alarms, and personnel.

It also said that the threat of terrorism appeared to be minimal, but urged caution nonetheless.

"The threat level for terrorism against Americans in China remains low. However, any large-scale public event like the upcoming Olympic Games could become the focus of terrorist acts or other forms of violence," it said.

"There is no reason to believe that US citizens are being targeted at this time," it said.

It also said crime rates were relatively low, with major metropolitan areas safer than similar sized cities in other developing countries.

But "while the overall crime threat is low, the number of criminal incidents, including those directed against Americans, continues to rise," it added.

The Olympic Summer Games will take place from August 8-24, followed by the Beijing Paralympic Summer Games 2008 from September 6-17.

This should proved to be very interesting. You never know what the Chinese government is going to do at the very last minute. Then come up with some hokey excuse afterwards.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: Travel information for 2008 Olympics

In a recent, inadvertently released Canadian training manual on "Torture Awareness," Canada has linked the United States and Israel among others like China, Syria and Iran as countries that have prisoner interrogation techniques that include Torture. The manual mistakenly came to light during an investigation of abuse by Canadian soldiers against prisoners in Afghanistan.

Canada puts U.S., Guantanamo and Israel on torture 'watch list'

Canada has put the United States and Israel on a torture watch list, according to CTV. A Canadian government document cites the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interrogation techniques that include "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation."
...

A Foreign Affairs Department training manual, titled "Torture Awareness Workshop Reference Materials," provides legal definitions of torture and instructs Canadian consular officials how to detect signs of abuse among detainees held abroad. It lists Guantanamo Bay and the United States, along with Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The manual was inadvertently released to lawyers working on a lawsuit involving abuse of Afghanistan detainees by Canadians, the Canadian Press reported.

One Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr, is due before a U.S. military commission in early February. The Pentagon has charged him with "murder by an unprivileged belligerent" for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadar was 15 at the time.

China has made it clear that Christians are NOT welcome in China, especially during the 2008 Olympics. Chinese officials have decided that athletes of the 2008 Olympics are not allowed to have a Bible with them. They are prohibited in the Olympic village.

A Chinese official, speaking to a reporter from Reuters claimed the restrictions on Bibles at the 2008 Olympics was intended "to prevent illegal vendors from driving up prices, which are kept extremely low by government subsidies." ... Are you kidding me?

Scroll down for update

The Bible among objects prohibited at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Organizes of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have published a list of “prohibited objects” in the Olympic village where athletes will stay. To the surprise of many, Bibles are among the objects that will not be allowed.

According to the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, organizers have cited “security reasons” and have prohibited athletes from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.

Other objects on the list include video cameras and cups.

The Spanish daily La Razon said the rule was one of a number of “signs of censure and intolerance” towards religious objects, particularly those used by Christians in China. Currently in China five bishops and fifteen priests are in prison for opposing the official Church.

Notice: The Qur'an/Koran is NOT on that list of prohibited items. ... of course not. Christians are not welcome... Muslim are.

UPDATE: 11/08/07 - China dismisses Olympics Bible ban as rumors

A year 2000 Congressional report on the "current and future military strategy of the People’s Republic of China," by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, summarized with:

China’s rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with global aspirations is an important element of today’s strategic environment – one that has significant implications for the region and the world.

However, much uncertainty surrounds the future course China’s leaders will set for their country, including in the area of China’s expanding military power and how that power might be used.

It's common knowledge that China has been pumping large amounts of money into their military for several years now and has been working on some very high tech projects of late. Now it sounds as if China is making a move to be a front runner in the next generation of military warfare. Cyber Warfare!

Remember the shocking episode of the shooting down of an orbiting satellite with a Chinese ballistic missile, back in January of 2007. This came just months after the U.S. announced the United States 8th Air Force would become the new Air Force Cyberspace Command.

This is a serious situation for the U.S. and the entire world. It very well may be the start of a Global Star Wars build up. The building of an anti-satellite shield? A satellite defense system in space? A missile defense system set up in one part of the world to simply take out an incoming or out going missile will not work, because satellites orbit the earth, which means it could be taken out when it is over a particular country.

Chinese Cyberwar Alert!

The Air Force has been tracking aggressive cyber incursions by computer technicians in China, primarily focused toward gathering information on military network infrastructure and American trade secrets, the Air Force's cyber warfare commander said this week.

"China has put a lot of resources into this business," said Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of Air Force Cyberspace Command. "China, at this point, is not interested so much in attack as they are in using the Internet to pull [industrial] data."

"They're interested in doing this in a way that they can be dominant without even having a fight," he added.

A recently-released Pentagon report on Chinese military development said Beijing is crafting an aggressive computer network operations strategy that the People's Liberation Army "sees as critical to achieving 'electromagnetic dominance' early in a conflict."

While his newly-established command is focused primarily on the defense of military information networks, communications nodes and command and control systems by "peer competitors" such as China, Russia and Iran, Elder told reporters during a June 13 breakfast meeting in Washington his cyber warriors don't see much of a threat from terrorist-initiated attacks.

"If you have a terrorist operating on their own they're going to have less capability than if they had nation-state sponsorship," Elder explained. "To seriously disrupt us, you're not going to be able to do this with a 'teenage hacker' capability."

Aside from the defense of Air Force cyberspace from would-be attackers, Elder said his command is focused on developing tactics to render adversaries' computer systems inoperable, dropping cyber bombs on enemy sensors, databases and battle management systems.

"Everything I talk about we're trying to do to an adversary we're trying to defend for ourselves," Elder said.

"We want to go in and knock them out in the first round," he added.

The Air Force formally established Cyberspace Command in November after the Pentagon-crafted Quadrennial Defense Review designated cyberspace as an emerging battlefield where American forces increasingly will have to fight in the future.

The vulnerability of networks and the disruption computer hackers can cause to a country's infrastructure was demonstrated in early May after cyber attacks on a wide range of civilian and government networks in Estonia crippled state-run banks, telecommunications companies and news organizations for weeks.

Estonian government officials allege the attacks were launched from state-owned networks in Russia, though the Kremlin denies they had anything to do with the computer assault. But the accusation raises questions about how Elder's command should respond to similar attacks against Air Force cyber infrastructure.

The service is working to develop doctrine on how to defend - and counter-attack - cyber adversaries who can potentially shield their identities or seek cover in networks that have no knowledge of the attack.

"We are looking to provide very precise effects - you want to minimize collateral damage," Elder said. "Would a civilian target be a legitimate target? Generally ... you don't go after civilian targets."

The Air Force has instituted security procedures to ensure individual workstations can't serve as gateways for an adversary into military networks, an effort Elder hopes will prompt Airmen to "recognize that this is not a safe neighborhood."

The Cyberspace Command has already begun to build its cadre of cyber warriors, drawing upon the nearly 45,000 Airmen already tasked with information technology-related duties in the service.

Air Force instructors will keep an eye out during initial training for potential cyber warriors to fill out the ranks, and Elder intends to establish a viable career path for his Airmen in hopes of keeping Cyberspace Command strong in the future.

"We're trying to get someone trained who can work on a production line who's an expert on doing their part, and over time you expand that," Elder said. "It's going to be really critical for us to be able to retain these people into continuing in the force."

ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS - Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2007

UPDATE: Aug. 29, 2007 - Chinese see military dependence on computers as weakness

UPDATE: Sept. 3, 2007 - Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

UPDATE: Sept. 4, 2007 - Pentagon: Chinese military hacked us