There are hints all around that the current action by exile-Tibetans and some folks in Tibet is, at least partly, a U.S. financed attempt of another 'color revolution.' Some of the clues are collected below. Please add to them.

The current protest around Tibet in connection with the upcoming Olympics in China was planed and discussed at a conference in New Delhi in June 2007:

On the concluding second day early morning, over two hundred Indians and Tibetans listened to Jamyang Norbu, noted Tibetan writer and veteran activists for Tibet’s independence, as he explained how the next two years are crucial for Tibet, and how the Olympics could provide the one-chance for Tibetans to come out and protests “like one mighty force”. He noted that unless a mass protest occurs, Tibet would continue to slip out of the world map, leaving very little to protest for.

The strategy calls for world wide protests, a march of exiles from India to Tibet and for protests within Tibet.

While that conference was ongoing the U.S. ambassador to India was confering with the Dalai Lama:

US Ambassador to India David Mulford is on two days visit to Dharamsala beginning yesterday where he met with the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile (Kalon Tripa), Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche.

According to a report, the US officials call the trip part of their periodic contacts with the exile Tibetan government, although the primary purpose of the visit could not be ascertained so far.
...
The latest visit by the US official quickly follows the U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky’s similar visit to Dharamsala last November.

Paula Dobriansky is Under-Secretary of State for Democracy & Global Affairs and a member of the neocon PNAC. She has been involved in the color revolutions in eastern Europe and coined the phrase "Cedar Revolution" for the Lebanese quagmire.

In January several organisations announced the currently running protests:

Five leading Tibetan organizations calling on exile Tibetans to take a protest march to Tibet ahead of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games today released a two-page registration-cum-declaration form to formally start registering people taking part in it.
...
When asked about the likely response from Tibetan inside Tibet, Mr Ngawang Woebar, president of the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (Ex-political Prisoners’ Association) said, “Their determination to sacrifice for the freedom of Tibet is unquestionable and even more resolute than us”.

Their declaration does not call for Tibetan autonomy but for independence:

The 2008 Olympics will mark the culmination of almost 50 years of Tibetan resistance in exile. We will use this historic moment to reinvigorate the Tibetan freedom movement and bring our exile struggle for freedom back to Tibet. Through tireless work and an unwavering commitment to truth and justice, we will bring about another uprising that will shake China’s control in Tibet and mark the beginning of the end of China’s occupation.

In further preparation, "training sessions" were given in February by several of the NGOs that called for the protests:

Forty grassroots activists representing twenty-five Tibetan communities all over India were given an Advanced Training on Grassroots Activism and capacity building from February 15-17, 2008 at Lower TCV School, Dharamshala. This workshop strengthened the coordination of the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement organized by five leading Tibetan NGOs; Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women's Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet, and Students for a Free Tibet (India).

Besides the heads of the five Organizations, the 3-day workshop was also deliberated by Mr. Karma Yeshi, Member, Tibetan Parliament in Exile and Editor in Chief, Voice of Tibet, Ven. Lobsang Jinpa, Editor, Sheja (Tibetan Newsletter), Mr. Tendor, Deputy Director, SFT Headquarters, New York and Mr. Lobsang Yeshi, Former Vice President, Tibetan Youth Congress. The training subjects include the Importance of Co-ordinated Movement, Contemporary Chinese Political Scenario, Strategy and Vision, Situation inside Tibet, Olympic politics, Media and Messaging, Non-Violent Direct Action and Fund-Raising Strategy.

We will come back to some of the organisations mentioned above. But note these training sessions and how they seem to be a copy of those done with student movements during the color revolutions. As wikipedia notices:

Activists from Otpor in Serbia and Pora in Ukraine have said that publications and training they received from the US based Albert Einstein Institution staff have been instrumental to the formation of their strategies.

The Albert Einstein Institute has translated its two main 'color revolution' instruction books into Tibetian. One has a foreword by the Dalai Lama.

In 1959 the CIA organised and financed the uprising in Tibet and the Dalai Lama escape. The CIA program ended in the late 60s, but under Reagan a new initiative was started and since then the U.S. governments sponsors so called Non-Governmental Organizations which have funded many of the Tibetan exile organisations. Most of these efforts are branded as 'humanitarian' or as 'democracy promotion'.

A 2007 report (pdf) by the Congressional Research Service lists various U.S. organisations that currently provide U.S. taxpayer dollars to Tibetan exile organisations. The summary says:

United States foreign operations appropriations for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) primarily support democracy-related programs, particularly rule of law training, and support Tibetan communities. The U.S. Congress has played a leading role in providing funding for such programs, which has grown from $10 million in FY2002 to $23 million in FY2006.

Under Key Actors the report lists the State Departments Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). That Bureau is part of Paula Dobriansky's organization.

Congress has supported increased funding for DRL’s Human Rights and Democracy Fund (HRDF). Appropriations for HRDF grew from a yearly average of $13 million in FY2001-FY2002 to $33.7 million in FY2003-FY2005. Congress provided $63 million for HRDF in FY2006. China programs account for about 25% of spending from its Democracy Fund. Most DRL funding goes to U.S.-based NGOs, including universities, while some subgrants go to PRC “partner NGOs.”

A footnote explains:

Because of political sensitivities, DRL does not disclose the names of its grant recipients.

Another Key Actor listed is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED):

NED was created by and obtains nearly all of its funding from the United States government. [...] During the FY1999-FY2003 period, about 38% of U.S. government funding for democracy-related programs in China was allocated through the Endowment

It is hard to decipher where all this money is going to. The NED website lists some of the recipients of its 2006 grand programs. These include:

Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet - $40,000
International Campaign for Tibet - $53,000
Tibetan Women's Association - $30,000
Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet - $15,000
Voice of Tibet - $35,000

Note that these organisations are the same that have called for and organized the current uprising.

(For some additional bits on NED's meddling take a look at this South Asia Analysis Group report).

While these groups seem to differ with the Dalai Lama in that they call for independence while the Dalai Lama offically only calls for autonomy, that may not really be so. All the above organisations claim to be endorsed by the Dalai Lama. They get money from the same sources the Dalai Lama gets his check from.

One of the Dalai Lama's central financial source seems to be the New York based Tibet Fund. In its 2002 report the Fund declared:

In 2002 the Tibet Fund became a registered USAID PVO (Private Voluntary Organization). Since none of the funds appropriated under the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act may be made available to any PVO that is not registered with USAID, this important step makes us now eligible to apply for USAID assistance resources, including grants, cooperative agreements and subventions.

The Funds latest available budget report is from 2005 (pdf). In it the Fund lists $2.5 million of U.S. government grants in total revenues of just $5 million. Most of these grants are from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration which is also part of Dobriansky's organization. The fund itself spend 2.7 on grants and contracts to other organisations and gave $500,000 to the 'office of the Dalai Lama'.

There is a lot of propaganda involved in the numbers and 'facts' thrown around about Tibet. In 2000 an long Indian magazine piece took much of these apart. I recommend to read it to understand that there is at least an alternative view to what the U.S. financed Tibetan exile NGO hodgepod claims.

The current protests by Tibetan exiles and in Tibet are at least partly financed with U.S. governent money and have similarities with the color revolutions. Unlike those they are likely to fail. The Indian government stopped the exile-march and the Chinese will make sure that any protest in Tibet will be supresses.

The U.S. for many years supports "His Holiness the Dalai Lama", a colorful but theocratic figure. It is one of its trump card to put pressure on China whenever it feels that such is appropriate.

Now explain to me again how that in any way relates to Gaza?

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