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Two thwarted attacks reported by Chinese authorities over the weekend appear at first glance to be isolated incidents, but they both originated in a region where Beijing has been battling a terrorist movement with ties to al-Qaida, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.One attack reportedly was slated for the Beijing Summer Olympics. In the other, an airliner flight crew prevented an apparent attempt to crash a jetliner.According to news reports, the plotters of the alleged Olympics attack were "separatists" from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Beijing's term for Chinese Turkestan. The jetliner took off from the region's capital, Urumqi.In the Muslim-populated region, China has been battling an al-Qaida-linked jihadist group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The ETIM is recognized by the U.S., China, Kazakhstan, and the U.N. as a terrorist group.The U.S. State Department stated in its 2005 annual report on terrorism that ETIM that al-Qaida provided the group with training and funding.In 2002, the Chinese government claimed that the group's founder, Hasan Mahsum, met with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and received funds from the terror leaders. The Chinese also claimed that bin Laden exported dozens of terrorists to China to assist ETIM efforts.In the alleged Olympics plot, investigators found "extremist religious ideological materials."As in the days of Noah....
