October 13, 2001

3:11 AM

This NY Observer articlegives some insight to the validity of Debka as a news source. It fails to confirm or deny the site's legitimacy either way, but it does mention that some of its reports later showed up in mainstream media. While the owners of the site admit that Debka has an Israeli bias, they go on to say, "You can imagine that officials in Israel, who are in charge of whatever they call it, information, propaganda or whatever, they don’t like us very much." Has China really sent 15,000 troops to afghanistan to fight on the side of the taliban? I guess we'll find out sooner or later.
posted by rabbit (9 comments total)

China appears to be quite friendly with the Taliban, according to this guy (J.R. Nyquist- never heard of him).

Frankly, I'd never heard of "Chinese Muslims" either til just a few minutes ago, but then again you never stop learning.
posted by Jack Torrance at 4:11 AM on October 13, 2001

China is not liely to send in Chinese soldier that are muslims to help the Taliban. China would send in Chinese troops if it wanted to help the Muslims that are Taliban.
ButChina is protecting its borders and not sending in troops as they did in Korea or they would be there already since the Taliban is losing some ground lately to the Northern alliance. Debka is wrong on at least that one issue, though on a number of others they seem looking back to be on track.
Debka is a money making service (subscription for the whole thing) and not an arm of the govt though as stated a pro-Israel bias becasue it is owned by and run by two former Israeli military men and is, I believe, published out of Israel. In sum: interesting outfit but to be taken with a few grains of salt. But then, speculative sources usualy should be.
posted by Postroad at 4:42 AM on October 13, 2001

here is the Chinese position (extracted)

Counsellor He Yafei of the PRC embassy in the United States said: The official meeting between President Jiang Zemin and President George W. Bush that will take place during the informal sessions of the APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation] leaders to be held in Shanghai very soon is of tremendous significance in promoting further improvement and development of Sino-US relations in the new century. At present, the two sides are actively laying down the groundwork. He said: The government and people of China are opposed to all forms of terrorism. We support the related resolutions adopted separately by the UN General Assembly and by the Security Council, and we also support the actions against terrorism.
posted by Postroad at 4:47 AM on October 13, 2001

I know I am a pian on this. But here are the overly flashy headlines for Saturday in Debka and this is list contains not a thing I did not know some two or more days ago or from the news sourcezs of today:
Saturday, October 13, 2001



Suspect Envelope in NBC Anthrax Case Was
Addressed to TV Anchorman Tom Brokaw
Indicating Possible Terrorist Targeting of US Media
Three Florida Cases Also Occurred in
Newspaper Office
First Anthrax Case in New York Developed
Ten Days Ago But Not Disclosed Till Friday
Woman NBC TV News Worker Contracted
Skin Anthrax – Possibly from Mail - Is Responding
Well to Antibiotic Treatment
Third Floor of NBC Building Quarantined
FBI Opens Fourth Investigation, Finds No Link Between
New York Case and Three Florida Respiratory Anthrax Cases
High Preparedness in Israel for
Biological Weapons Attack
Anti-US Demonstrations Surge through Middle East,
Hitting Turkey for First Time
Pakistan Rocked by Riots
Anti-US Demonstration in Ramallah
Uzbekistan Grants US Use of
Air Base and Infrastructure
US State Department Refutes Claims of Any
New US ME Peace Proposal - “Other than Mitchell”
Har Adar West Of Jerusalem Comes Under
Palestinian Fire for First Time
Palestinian Mortar, Grenade, Explosive Device
Incidents in Gaza Strip
Chinese Army Chiefs Carry out Ongoing Tours of
Inspection, Raising to Full War Level Preparedness of
Heavy Military Concentrations
Along Afghan
posted by Postroad at 5:30 AM on October 13, 2001

This front page post appears to be a recap of things discussed in this thread.
posted by D at 8:48 AM on October 13, 2001

The Chinese Muslims they would be talking about would be people from the "Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region" which is the part of China that borders Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afganistan, Pakistan and Kashmir. It also borders Tibet and Mogolia. It's mostly populated by the Uygur people (in much the way that Uzbekistan is populated mostly by Uzbeks). All of the 'Stans', including this province of China are referred to as Turkestan (the people are all of Turkic origin).

See, you did learn something today.
posted by QrysDonnell at 8:53 AM on October 13, 2001

More than I bargained for, but thanks.
posted by Jack Torrance at 9:01 AM on October 13, 2001

Extracted from Debka.com's 13 Oct story entitled, "AMERICA’S WAR ON TERROR -- Part I: The War Re-Tilts World Balance"

For the first time, China opened its airspace to Taiwani air traffic, even though its aircraft are armed with the latest US technology. This gesture is a powerful indicator of the changing winds considering that only seven months ago, the Chinese deliberately shot down a US spy-plane for venturing too near, not even inside, its airspace.

Okay, last I heard there was a collision between the US plane and an overzealous Chinese fighter. Does anyone know what Debka's take on this was back when it happened? Is this an example of lazy language or do they have some "information" that wasn't so widely reported?
posted by rocketpup at 9:30 AM on October 13, 2001

Debka makes ananova look legit.
posted by euphorb at 6:31 PM on October 13, 2001