Using words like "sabotage," "despicable" and "disgusting," Chinese authorities reacted in hurt and angry tones to the torch relay debacle of recent days. It isn't the "Journey of Harmony" they'd hoped for. Police phalanxes in London all but obscured the flame from public view; protestors were tackled and handcuffed. 

   In Paris 3,000 police on foot; riding bikes and motorcycles; mounted on horseback; aboard boats, wearing roller-blades, and even aloft in choppers failed to maintain order. After the flame was extinguished several times due to the crush of protestors, French torchbearers abandoned the route halfway. To the extreme embarrassment of of Beijing Games' organizers, the Olympic flame finished its French journey by bus.

     It isn't over yet. Next stop: San Francisco. The flame arrives imminently in the only North American city on the relay route.  Already pro-Tibet activists have draped huge banners off the Golden Gate Bridge, proclaiming "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet '08" -- a take-off on the Olympics slogan "One World, One Dream". 

     For now, the situation is more like one world, one nightmare -- of bad PR.  International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge in Beijng expressed "serious concern" about recent unrest in Tibet and "deeply saddened" by the torch relay pandemonium.  The Chinese government crackdown on Tibetan communities, which began March 14 in Lhasa, is just one of a number of human rights abuses being highlighted by China's international critics.

    Rogge is meeting in Beijing with representatives of National Olympic Committees, some of whom are so appalled at the televised scenes of chaos that they want to scrap the international segment of torch relays in future Games. (Even China's relentless TV censors haven't blacked out all the protest scenes in news footage from London and Paris.) Already, relay routes in San Francisco and New Delhi have been shortened by authorities jittery about their ability to contain the demonstrations.

    In particular, China's critics oppose plans to parade the Olympic torch through Tibetan cities -- and up Mt. Everest in early May -- despite the recent crackdown and continuing bloodshed in Tibetan communities. It looks increasingly like Tibet will have to be locked down totally to ensure safe passage for the flame. (From the start, the Everest leg of the relay was slated to be a highly restricted, invitees-only affair, due to limited facilities and the dizzying altitude).

    But Chinese authorities seem determined to keep Tibet within the torch's orb. "The torch relay is a grand sporting and cultural event approved by the IOC. We want all people around the world to share it with us," said Wang Hui, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Games organizing committee (BOCOG), "We will not change our plans."

     Beijing authorities blamed the protests on a small number of malcontents. And for the most part Chinese citizens were offended and hurt by the storm of criticism and protest that seemed to take relay organizers and police by surprise; the danger now is that angry Chinese may blame the torch fiasco on the West, further inflaming xenophobic sentiment. Wang Hui said "We strongly condemn the few separatists....They will be condemned by people all over the world and are doomed to failure."

      The gathering storm in San Francisco didn't look so easily dismissed. The city has seen four prominent groups of activists converging in one place to denounce Beijing's human rights violations. Darfur lobby groups oppose China's support for the Khartoum regime, which is stained by the genocide in Darfur. 

      Newly emboldened by their successful attempts to disrupt the London and Paris relays, Reporters Without Borders activists are rallying around their iconic black banners which show the Olympics rings transformed into handcuffs. They're protesting the imprisonment of more than 100 Chinese journalists, cyber-dissidents and Netizens.

     Relative neophytes on the scene are Turkic-speaking Uighurs, representing restive Muslim communities in China's remote Central Asian hinterland of Xinjiang, which has also experienced unrest in recent weeks. Exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, now based in the U.S. after spending years in a Chinese prison, is slated to join the demonstrations in San Francisco.  Not long ago she told Newsweek that Uighurs were mobilizing in sympathy with their Tibetan counterparts -- apparently in a bid to hitch Uighur protestors' wagon to the better-known cause of Tibet.

    The most high-profile players are Free Tibet activists, who've now added the Golden Gate Bridge to their resume of iconic protest sites. Last year they startled Chinese authorities by abseiling off the Great Wall with a huge banner, and mounting a high-altitude demonstration at the Mt. Everest base camp. While many wish to see Tibet as an independent nation, they also hold in deep esteem the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who insists he wants autonomy --not independence -- and protection for Tibetan culture, religion and environment.

     IOC and national Olympics committees' representatives are wrestling with the mounting recognition that bringing the torch to Tibet would simply fan the flames of unrest. In order to guarantee a submissive population, authorities reportedly have intensified their strident "patriotic education" campaigns in Buddhist monasteries, requiring monks to publicly denounce the exiled Dalai Lama and even stomp on his photograph. In other words, authorities' obsession with securing the torch relay route is actually increasing their repression.

     For the moment, Beijing appears to be digging in its heels and refusing to contemplate the huge loss of face it would mean for China to trim the 58-day, 137,000-mile relay through 21 countries. Like the Games themselves, the torch's odyssey was slated to symbolize Beijing's achievement of big-power status in the world, not to mention the vast reach of its latter-day empire. 

     Some friends thought I was over-stating the case when, just a day after violent riots in Lhasa were supressed on March 14,  I posted a blog predicting the torch relay would become a huge magnet for protest. That prophecy has come true -- and the maelstrom is even worse than I'd imagined. Those desperate scenes surrounding the torch relay have besmirched not only China's international image, but that of the Olympics brand itself.