San Francisco relay descends into farce

The Olympic torch relay completed its journey through the streets of San Francisco yesterday but the ceremony descended into farce shortly after the flame was lit. Within a few minutes of having posed for cameras the first runners disappeared out of sight as the procession ran into a warehouse. As media helicopters searched for the procession speculation mounted as to what the authorities had decided. The San Francisco Chronicle said the torch may complete its journey by boat and cameras were trained on a number of boats situated by the river bank. After twenty minutes it appeared there was a convoy of vehicles on the move through the streets and the media attention was soon fixed on the dozen or so vehicles that wound their way through the back streets of the city. Eventually the convoy stopped and it became evident the torch had travelled with it as two runners stood waiting in the street surrounded by a large police presence. But after nearly an hour after the initial lighting of the Olympic torch, the relay was finally underway. However the security was extremely tight. Around a pair of torch bearers were two Chinese ‘flame attendants’ joined by several members of the San Francisco Police Department dressed in similar attire. Running either side was a line of police with nightsticks who again were straddled by police motorcyclists. And both in front and behind the group a cortege of police vehicles, buses and cars slowly travelled with the relay. The flame was carried for a few hundred metres before a change over whereupon the motorcyclists and police runners would tighten around the group forming a human barrier. Pictures from the ground were almost non-existent due to the late change in schedule and video was instead relayed by the several media helicopters that followed the relay on its 3 hour journey.

The television coverage in the UK started at 20:00 GMT [13:00 local time in San Francisco] with BBC News 24 and CNN giving the most coverage. Wolf Blitzer described the torch as being chased by a “public relations nightmare”. Ted Rowlands, reporting for CNN at the start of the relay at the AT&T ballpark, said that there had already been some trouble as protesters attacked a bus carrying officials and that others had made booby trap devices consisting of nails and wooden planks to thwart any convoy of vehicles. At around 13:12 the torch was finally brought out but it was a further 10 minutes before it was lit. With the Olympic song “One World, One Dream” playing over loud speakers the first torchbearer then ran into a warehouse followed by the security detail. There then followed confusion amongst the media as to what was happening. Cameras mounted on helicopters were franticly panned around the area looking for signs of the Olympic torch. The BBC commentary described the situation as an “absolute face”.
“We thinks it’s on a boat but no-one knows anything ...What point is there in this, is there any point?” And the BBC commentator, James Pearce, continued to ask what might be going through the mind of the IOC President Jacques Rogge to see the farcical scenes displayed on millions of TV screens around the world. The commentator said the Olympic brand was turned into “a complete laughing stock” by the events displayed in San Francisco.

At 13:42 a small contingent left the warehouse and boarded a bus and was soon followed by a fleet of other vehicles which drove off through the streets of San Francisco. The BBC described the continuing scenes as being “beyond parody” as Sky News briefly started to provide Live coverage of the convoy travelling through the city. Meanwhile CNN were discussing the possible boycotts of the opening ceremonies that might take place. Tony Blankley, of Edelman PR, said, “Whether it’s Brown in Britain, Merkel of Germany or Bush, there’s a big business calculation as well. The Chinese will not forget which country embarrassed them. So you can bet today that with Brown announcing that he‘s not going to attend, the British Shanghai Chamber of Commerce is probably not very happy right now. ”
“The Chinese government can make it easier or harder for Americans and Europeans to do profitable business in China. This is their moment to shine, the countries that give them a black eye will have a more difficult time conducting business. This is a real calculation that leaders of each of these countries have to make because it’s money, it’s jobs, it’s employment, it’s productivity for each country, so it matters” Tony Blankley added. BBC meanwhile talked to Mia Farrow who has waged a continual propaganda campaign against China particularly with the country’s role in Sudan.

KGO radio reporter Claudia Lamb told the BBC she nor any of her affiliates knew where the torch was. She said that there had been a situation she’d never seen before as news organisations called each other asking whether or not they’d seen the torch. Already the route had been cut from 8 miles to 6 miles and later to 3 miles, and now it had apparently dissolved into nothing. “It makes you wonder why they bothered” Claudia Lamb said. David Willis reporting for the BBC in San Francisco said he was also in the dark as to where the flame was, when suddenly a picture broadcast from one of the many helicopters showed two Olympic runners holding a torch. “There it is” exclaimed the studio presenter.

Finally at 13:59 the beginning of the relay appeared to be starting, but it had taken nearly an hour to place the convoy on this new route. The runners stood in the street between two amphibious DUKWs as police armed with nightsticks and others riding motorcycles gathered around them. As the relay set off at 14:05, John Vause reporting Live from Beijing described it as being like a new Olympic event; the “three mile Olympic relay obstacle course”. He said it was “hugely embarrassing for the Chinese government” and “not like they’d hoped it would play out”. The CNN correspondent said that many Chinese saw the events in London, Paris and now in San Francisco as being a “personal attack on every Chinese person here, and so there’s a great deal of anger here now in China at members of the West including the media and international coverage of these events are intent on taking away China’s moment of glory and trying to ruin this coming out party”.
Besides the bizarre scenes and the security overkill, the San Francisco authorities had managed to avoid the disgraceful scenes of violence seen in London and Paris in the last week. But the IOC have said the Olympics are in crisis and there were further calls of world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies of the August games. Angela Merkel of Germany has already ruled out going to the Olympic games, as has Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Nicholas Sarkozy of France has suggested he may not attend the opening ceremonies. And yesterday the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would not be attending the opening, though his spokesman insisted it was “not a boycott”. Even the US President George W Bush is under pressure to pull out of the games from both Democratic party contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

CNN's Dan Simon stood at the end of the route where a party had intended to welcome the torch. But there were many disappointed party goers after the torch relay finished just short of the Golden Gate Bridge, boarded a bus and headed instead to the airport. And after an impromptu end ceremony the flame was on its way to the next stop in its epic journey, Buenos Aires [BBC / CNN / Sky News].

The farce of the Olympic relay is only one issue China has to tackle as the games approach. On Thursday it was reported that Chinese authorities had arrested 35 people in a bomb plot which was aimed at targeting the August games [CNN]. It is the third such plot that Chinese authorities say they have thwarted in the last few months. However, not even the crackdown on terror plots have come without criticism from some groups. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have raised concerns about China's crackdown on Muslims in the region. "China continues to use the 'war on terrorism' to justify policies to eradicate the 'three evil forces' -- terrorism, separatism and religious extremism -- allegedly prevalent among Uighurs," Human Rights Watch recently stated.