Cheers. M.
—————-letter–

No inconsistency: David Matas

The Ottawa Citizen -Published: Thursday, August 16, 2007

Re: Former MP pushes for Beijing Games boycott, Aug. 9.

The Citizen reported that researchers for the U.S. Congress concluded that some of the key allegations in the report David Kilgour and I wrote on organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China “appear to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations.” Yet there are no such other investigations.

The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, which the article quotes, footnotes its conclusion. But the footnote cites the U.S. Department of State Country report for China for 2005, written long before our report was published.

The only studies or investigations independent from our own that have looked at the matter — those of Kirk Allison of the University of Minnesota and Tom Treasure, a British transplant surgeon writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine — have come to the same conclusion as we have; that this foul practice is happening.

David Matas, Co-author of Bloody Harvest
Winnipeg

Here’s what one of your links says:

“Independent of these specific allegations, the United States remains concerned over China’s repression of Falun Gong practitioners and by reports of organ harvesting, the State Department said”

“Fourthly, I do not want my words to be used by the Beijing authorities to conceal or lessen their evil deeds”

“The Chinese Communist Government is an evil regime that commits many atrocities including the persecution of the Falun Gong”

So your links cast doubt on just one aspect of the persecution story, and they all agree that China is repressive, guilty of persecution, and/or an evil regime.

And I’m not the only person she has accused of being a Chinese spy. I’ve tracked down two other bloggers.

Jana just attack people who disagree with her.

I stand by my research (US embassy report, Chinese dissident secret investigation) and welcome any correction.

“in one recent case allowing police to throw a journalist out of the room when a Chinese official objected to his presence.”

Ponderous and frightening.

This Chinese disinformation campaign is especially sinister because it is exporting repression into supposedly free countries like NZ. Dissident Chinese students and journalists in NZ are subjected to bullying and pressure by Chinese authorities already. But increasingly the NZ government is bowing to Chinese pressure and blocking anti-Chinese protestors, or even in one recent case allowing police to throw a journalist out of the room when a Chinese official objected to his presence. I note you’ve also commented on NZ mayors succumbing to Chinese “requests” to not attend an event including the Falun Gong. It’s a very worrying trend.

I thought you might be interested in reading this piece about Bobby Fletcher/Charles Liu who’s commented on your blog. He’s been all over the blogosphere discrediting the organ harvesting report. Have a look.

Western Standard (Alberta): Sowing Confusion; Embarrassed by reports of live organ harvesting, China’s sympathizers launch a high-tech disinformation campaign
http://organharvestinvestigation.net/media/WesternStandard_040907.htm

April 9, 2007 Monday
Final Edition

HEADLINE: Sowing Confusion; Embarrassed by reports of live organ harvesting,

China’s sympathizers launch a high-tech disinformation campaign

BYLINE: Kevin Steel, Western Standard

He posts his messages everywhere under several different names on Internet blogs and discussion groups. He writes letters to the editor anywhere and sends e-mails to anyone–anyone who might take seriously shocking evidence that the Chinese government “harvests” and sells live organs from political prisoners. His main message is that the Falun Gong–the group which first brought evidence of live organ harvesting to light–and the Epoch Times newspaper that broke that story are spreading propaganda against China’s Communist government. And he’s not even Chinese. He is Charles Liu, a 40-year-old Taiwanese-born technology consultant who lives in Issaquah, Wash., and does business in China.

Liu has been so active and so pro-Beijing in his writings that some Falun Gong supporters–in particular Epoch Times reporter Jana Shearer–have accused him of being an agent for the Chinese government, waging a disinformation campaign against them, trying to confuse people, and deliberately wasting everyone’s time.

It’s a charge that upsets Liu, who dismisses it as “a bunch of kooky friends making unfounded accusations. It’s just a bunch of blog BS.” As for why he devotes so much energy to attacking the Falun Gong and the organ harvesting allegations, he says, “My position is that I simply don’t agree with their brand of politics, because I observed their politics turning from anti-Communist party, to anti-China, . . . and recently it’s morphed into this anti-Chinese hysteria and that’s going to be hurting people,” he says. As an Asian-American, he says he decided to speak up.

He doesn’t really explain, when asked, why he started a blog last year called “The Myth of Tiananmen Square Massacre” under the name of Bobby Fletcher (one of his online aliases, which he also uses to comment on the Western Standard’s online blog). On that blog, he pushes the minimal 250 casualty figure that the Chinese government has always maintained died that night in 1989 (more reliable estimates put the figure at at least ten times that).

Liu’s actions mirror disinformation campaigns waged by the Chinese government in the past. Typically, these include the deliberate spreading of false or misleading facts to sow confusion or doubt among the conflicting accounts. The classic example is the Tiananmen Square massacre; the Chinese government has maintained that no one died in the square itself, that there was only pushing and shoving on the streets around the square, resulting in a few military casualties. Overseas, the CCP relies on its United Front Work department, part of the Chinese intelligence service, to propagate its message. During the Cold War, the Soviets employed many overseas flunkies through their Disinformation Department.

Former Canadian MP David Kilgour, who co-authored a report on China’s macabre organ harvesting industry, has received many propaganda e-mails from Liu. For instance, Liu has written repeatedly that a U.S. congressional committee looked into the organ harvesting allegations and found nothing.

“[David] Matas and I gave evidence to that subcommittee and got support from both the Republican chairman and the Democratic vice-chair,” says Kilgour. “I just came to the conclusion he was trying to waste my time, and I have other things to do.”

Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer, and Kilgour’s co-author, David Matas, really doesn’t know what to make of Liu. “I don’t know who he is, but what he does is spend a lot of time replicating nonsense to defend the Chinese government,” Matas says.

The only concern Matas has is that Liu seems to know who he and Kilgour met with in the United States to discuss their report. Matas discovered Liu had sent e-mails to politicians–and their staff–prior to the meetings. “The only people who would have that information would potentially be the Chinese government. I can’t imagine how Liu would know we were meeting with those people,” Matas says. “We’re not super-secretive, but you can’t find information on the Internet or in any public place about who we’re meeting with, where and when.” He himself has received at least 10 e-mails from Liu, all of which he’s ignored. Maybe Matas is onto something with that approach.

GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: CP, Dave Cahn; David Kilgour (left) and David Matas, co-authors of a report on China’s organ harvesting industry: How does Liu know who they’re meeting with?

LOAD-DATE: March 29, 2007

http://www.google.com/search?q=Jana+Shearer+Dafa

I’ll ask Jana again to provide the proof of her accusation against me.

Check out his site run by a non Falun Gong practitioenr who regularly posts many articles about China and the atrocities committed there.

http://coverforaction.blogspot.com/index.html

Regardless of the truth of those claims, and no matter if they are a weird cult or not, the Falun Gong have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of worship. That those rights are denied in China is shameful.