DTN News - THAILAND UNREST: Protesters Vow To Annul Thai Vote, Step Up Rallies

Defense News: DTN News - THAILAND UNREST: Protesters Vow To Annul Thai Vote, Step Up Rallies

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth & POTH
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 3, 2014: Thai protesters vowed Monday to stage larger rallies in central Bangkok and push ahead their efforts to nullify the results of elections that were expected to prolong a national political crisis.

Despite fears of violence, voting proceeded peacefully in 90 percent of polling stations Sunday. The protesters forced polling booths to close in Bangkok and southern Thailand, disenfranchising millions of registered voters. As a result, not all Parliament seats will be filled and a series of by-elections are required to complete voting, extending political paralysis for months.

After disrupting voting, protesters say they will fight the election on several grounds including that it is required by law to be held on one day. The opposition Democrat Party, which backs the protesters and boycotted the vote, said Monday it was studying other legal justifications to invalidate the vote.

The struggle to hold the polls was part of a 3-month-old conflict that has split the country between supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and opponents who allege her government is too corrupt to rule.

Demonstrators have occupied major intersections in Bangkok and forced government ministries to shut down and work elsewhere.

“We are not giving up the fight. We still keep fighting,” protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said. “Our mission is to keep shutting down government offices, so don’t ask us to give those back.”

Suthep, a charismatic speaker and former opposition lawmaker, said the movement was closing two of its Bangkok protest sites and asking crowds to consolidate at five other locations, mostly in the business center of the capital.

The new plan was bound to cause more disruption in the center of Bangkok, where protesters have shut major intersections in the Silom and Sukhumvit business districts and Ratchaprasong shopping district, where the city’s upscale malls are located.

The protesters want to suspend democracy and are demanding the government be replaced by an unelected council that would rewrite political and electoral laws to combat deep-seated problems of corruption and money politics. Yingluck has refused to step down, arguing she was elected by a landslide majority and is open to reform but that such a council would be unconstitutional and undemocratic.

The protesters are a minority that cannot win through elections, but they comprise a formidable alliance of opposition leaders, royalists, and powerful businessmen who have set their sights on ousting the government. They have won past battles — by ousting Yingluck’s brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, in a 2006 army coup, and by forcing out two Thaksin-allied prime ministers through controversial legal rulings.

Many believe another so-called “judicial coup” will bring down Yingluck’s government.
Suthep’s public assurance to followers that the ballot will be nullified leaves “no doubt” that the Constitutional Court will end up hearing a case to annul it, and Verapat Pariyawong, an independent Harvard-educated lawyer.

If the ballot is nullified, Verapat said there will be “more blood on the streets,” a reference to the expectation that government supporters in the north are unlikely to sit idle.

Before Thaksin was deposed in 2006, the Constitutional Court nullified a vote won by his party a month earlier. The ruling partly found that the positioning of ballot booths had compromised voter privacy.

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DTN News - THAILAND UNREST: Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra Dissolves Parliament

Defense News: DTN News - THAILAND UNREST: Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra Dissolves Parliament

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 9, 2013: Desperate to defuse Thailand's deepening political crisis, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Monday she is dissolving the lower house of parliament and called for early elections. But the moves did nothing to stem a growing tide of more than 150,000 protesters vowing to overthrow her in one of the nation's largest demonstrations in years.

Analysts said the steps come too late and are unlikely to satisfy opponents who want to rid Thailand of her powerful family's influence. The protesters are pushing for a non-elected "people's council" to replace her democratically elected government.

In a speech late Monday, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban lashed out against Yingluck, calling her administration "corrupt" and "illegitimate" as crowds of supporters cheered.

The man behind Thailand's latest political upheavals
Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra pleads for end to protests
The protest movement does "not consent to allowing the dictatorial majority … to betray the people, to destroy the balance of democratic power," Suthep said. The people must use "their rights as citizens to take back their power," he said.

Thailand has been plagued by major bouts of upheaval since Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled in a 2006 army coup that laid bare a deeper conflict between the elite and educated middle class against Thaksin's power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.

An attempt by Yingluck's party last month to pass a bill through parliament that would have granted amnesty to Thaksin and others triggered the latest round of unrest. Thaksin fled overseas in 2008 to avoid a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.

Emotional address

"After listening to opinions from all sides, I have decided to request a royal decree to dissolve parliament," said Yingluck, her voice shaking as she spoke in a nationally televised address that broke into regular programming. "There will be new elections according to the democratic system."

Yingluck's ruling party won the last vote two years ago in a landslide, and is likely to be victorious in any new ballot.

Government spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi said the cabinet had proposed a new vote be held Feb. 2. The date must be approved by the Election Commission, and electoral officials will meet with the government in the next few days to discuss it, said Jinthong Intarasri, a spokeswoman for the commission.

Yingluck said she will remain in a caretaker capacity until a new prime minister is named.

As Yingluck spoke Monday, long columns of marching protesters paralyzed traffic on major Bangkok boulevards, filling four-lane roads as they converged from nine locations on Yingluck's office at Government House. Suthep spoke on a stage erected nearby.

Many feared the day could end violently and more than 60 Thai and international schools closed as a precaution. But the marches were peaceful and no violence was reported.

Resignation not enough, protesters say

Suthep has repeatedly said that calling new elections and even Yingluck's resignation would not be enough to end the conflict.

Protesters agreed.

"We will keep on protesting because we want her family to leave this country," said Boonlue Mansiri, one of tens of thousands who joined a 20-kilometre march to Yingluck's office.

The sentiment was the same across town, where protesters filled a major four-lane road in the city's central business district, waving flags, blowing whistles and holding a huge banner that said, "Get Out Shinawatra."

Asked about the dissolution of Parliament, one middle-aged woman in the crowd said, "It is too late" and "It's not enough."

"At the end of the day, we are going to win," said the woman, who identified herself as Paew. "What happens now? Don't worry. We will figure it out."

Suthep's supporters on Monday appeared to abandon the two places they had occupied for more than a week — the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex.

The country's political standoff deepened Sunday after the main opposition party resigned from the legislature en masse to join the anti-government demonstrations. The minority Democrat Party held 153 of the 500 seats in the legislative body, according to the latest figures on their website.

The Democrats — who are closely allied with the protesters — have not won an election since 1992, and some of their leaders appear to have given up on electoral politics as a result.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader of the Democrats and a former prime minister, led one of the marches through Bangkok on Monday. He declined to comment on whether the party would participate in the next election.

Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and at least 289 injured. Violence ended suddenly last week as both sides paused to celebrate the birthday of the nation's revered king, who turned 86 Thursday.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth 
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DTN News - CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR: Chinese Dancers Perform For Lunar New Year North of Bangkok

Defense News: DTN News - CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR: Chinese Dancers Perform For Lunar New Year North of Bangkok

Source: DTN News 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 9, 2013: Traditional Chinese dancers wait to perform in a preview event for the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Suphan Buri province, north of Bangkok. 

The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, begins on February 10 and marks the start of the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac. 

Photograph: Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources DTN News 
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DTN News - ISLAMIC MILITANTS: A Hezbollah Threat In Thailand?

Defense News: DTN News - ISLAMIC MILITANTS: A Hezbollah Threat In Thailand?

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Stratfor  

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 19, 2012:  On Jan. 12, Thai authorities arrested a man they say was a member of the Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah who was plotting an attack in Bangkok. In uncovering the plot, Thai police cite cooperation with the United States and Israel going back to December 2011. Bangkok is indeed a target-rich environment with a history of terrorist attacks, but today Hezbollah and other militant and criminal groups rely on the city as more of a business hub than anything else. If Hezbollah or some other transnational militant group were to carry out an attack in the city, it would have to be for a compelling reason that outweighed the costs.

The suspect was identified as Atris Hussein, who was born in Lebanon but acquired Swedish citizenship and a passport after marrying a Swedish woman in 1996. Hussein was arrested on immigration charges as he was trying to board a plane at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok's main international airport. Police said another suspect is still at large and possibly already out of the country. Hussein's arrest on Jan. 12 was followed by a statement the next day from the U.S. Embassy warning U.S. citizens in Bangkok of the potential foreign terrorist threat in the country and encouraging them to avoid tourist areas. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Israel, issued similar warnings. Thai police have responded by increasing security in tourist areas like Bangkok's Khao San Road and the island of Phuket.

Then, on Jan. 16, some 200 Thai police officers searched a three-story commercial building in a town along the coast 32 kilometers (about 20 miles) southwest of Bangkok. Information on the location and contents of the building was said to have been provided by Hussein after two days in custody. On the second floor of the building, officers found 4,380 kilograms (about 10,000 pounds) of urea-based fertilizer and 38 liters (about 10 gallons) of liquid ammonium nitrate -- enough materials to construct several truck bombs comparable to the one detonated at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad in 2008. Urea fertilizer can be used to manufacture the improvised explosive mixture urea nitrate, which was the main charge used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The compound is also frequently used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq and to some extent in Afghanistan. On the ground floor of the same building, police found reams of printing paper and 400 electric table fans in cardboard boxes.

The following day, a Bangkok court charged Hussein with illegal possession of explosive materials. As in many other countries, a permit is required for handling such large amounts of fertilizer in Thailand.

Since Hussein's arrest and the police raid, a flurry of statements from Thai authorities have given contradictory accounts of what happened. Gen. Yuthasak Sasiprapha, Thailand's defense minister, seemed comfortable connecting the U.S. and Israeli warnings to the arrest and seizure, stating that Hussein and other conspirators were linked to Hezbollah and had chosen Bangkok as part of a plan to retaliate against Israel. The general speculated that the Israeli Embassy, synagogues, tour companies and kosher restaurants could be targeted.

The defense minister's speculations are logical. In 2010, Thailand received 120,000 Jewish tourists, and Bangkok itself has a large Jewish community, complete with a Chabad house (a Jewish cultural center and one of the targets in the 2008 Mumbai attacks). According to its website, the Israeli Embassy is located in a commercial office building with (from what we can tell from photographs) relatively little perimeter security. Hundreds of thousands of Americans also visit Thailand each year. At the same time, the United States and Israel are engaged in a covert war with Iran that has most recently seen the assassination of an Iranian scientist allegedly involved in the country's nuclear program. Since Hezbollah has been considered a proxy of Iran, the United States and Israel have long anticipated reprisal attacks from Iran via Hezbollah against U.S. or Israeli targets around the world.

While there are certainly plenty of U.S., Jewish and Israeli targets in Thailand in general and Bangkok in particular, other officials have given different accounts of the alleged plot that add more nuance. According to National Police Chief Priewpan Damapong, Hussein insisted that the materials seized were not intended for attacks in Thailand but were going to be transported to a yet-to-be-named third country (a Stratfor source has cited the Philippines as a logical destination). He also allegedly told authorities that, although he was a member of Hezbollah, he was not a member of the group's militant arm. A Hezbollah official in Beirut, Ghaleb Abu Zainab, told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. that Hussein was not a Hezbollah member, while Stratfor sources have told us that he was. Our sources also have confirmed Hussein's reported confession to police that he was on the business side of things -- likely involved in procurement and logistics -- rather than the militant side, which involves such things as bombmaking or operational planning. As a Swedish passport holder, Hussein would have much more access to business connections, so it makes sense that Hezbollah would want to compartmentalize his skills.

Most other official statements since Gen. Sasiprapha's have focused on softening the threat and mitigating the damage done to Thailand's tourism industry. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has called on the United States to revoke its warning, saying it will damage the country if it is prolonged. Hence, it is not surprising that tidbits released from Hussein's purported interrogation have moved the spotlight away from the domestic threat and focused more on targets abroad.

The historical record shows ample precedent for attacks by foreign extremists in Bangkok. In 1972, members of Black September took over the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok and held diplomats hostage there for 18 hours. In 1988, Hezbollah gunmen hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 422, which was departing Bangkok for Kuwait City, in an effort to coerce the Kuwaiti government to release the "al-Dawa 17," a group of Shiite militants being held in Kuwait. And in 1994, a truck laden with explosives was en route to attack either the U.S. or Israeli Embassy (the investigation did not yield conclusive results) when a traffic accident disrupted the plot. Bangkok has long been on the map for terrorist operational planners.

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Hezbollah and other groups conducted dozens of attacks targeting Jews, Israel and Israel's allies around the world. However, over the past decade, Hezbollah has become a more serious political party in Lebanon, and while its international network is still in place, its activities are increasingly focusing on illicit business ventures rather than terrorist attacks. The shell corporations and drug-smuggling networks that for years provided the means to fund ideological terrorist operations have, in many ways, become the end itself. Hezbollah members who have grown rich off the international network are more interested in spending the cash from the network and building up political patronage at home than in provoking powerful enemies abroad. For example, Bangkok is a hub for acquiring counterfeit documents, which are a lucrative commodity around the world and part of Hezbollah's criminal enterprise. Conducting an attack in Bangkok would likely disrupt a node in the network and ultimately affect the group's bottom line.

Thus, Hezbollah's profile and set of interests support Hussein's reported claims that the bombmaking materials that police found were being moved out of the country and were not intended for use in Bangkok or other tourist locations in Thailand.

Other details from the case support this scenario. The fertilizer was to be hidden in the 400 table fan boxes found in the same building, a move conducive to smuggling the fertilizer, not constructing explosive devices. The sheer amount of fertilizer (nearly 5 tons) is a wholesale amount. The largest vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in recent history have contained about a ton of fertilizer. The device used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing consisted of about 1,300 pounds of urea nitrate. Constructing and delivering bombs larger than that tends to create technical and logistical hitches. It is much more likely that such a large amount of fertilizer would be meant for multiple smaller or medium-sized devices.

While urea-based fertilizer and ammonium nitrate are key ingredients for the main charge of a VBIED, many more materials are required to make it a viable device, including nitric acid, which must be mixed with urea-based fertilizer to make urea nitrate. (Urea nitrate is highly corrosive and has typically been mixed and held in plastic industrial chemical drums. While cardboard boxes would be fine for holding the urea-based fertilizer, they certainly would not be heavy-duty enough to contain the urea nitrate mixture.) In the Bangkok case, there has been no mention of other important bombmaking components such as fuses, timing mechanisms or detonating charges or of a competent bombmaker to put it all together.

In other words, while some of the materials to make a bomb were present in the commercial building that police raided, there was no viable device there. Nor has there been any mention of weapons such as rifles, handguns or grenades, which are often (although certainly not always) involved in terrorist attacks. Some media sources alleged that Hussein was plotting a "Mumbai-like" attack, which would have required a stash of automatic rifles, ordnance, communication devices and other tactical tools that have yet to surface.

Just as Bangkok is an attractive business hub in Southeast Asia for legitimate businessmen, it is also an attractive hub for illicit businessmen. In 2008, Thai police arrested Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout after agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group trying to negotiate a deal to buy weapons, incriminated Bout during a meeting in Bangkok. It appears that Hussein's role in this case would have been an administrative one similar to Bout's: sourcing the fertilizer, finding a place to stockpile it and concealing it in innocent-looking fan boxes. This would not make him any less guilty of assisting a militant group, but it would deflate the theory that Hezbollah was plotting to use this material in an immediate attack in Bangkok.

This is not to say that Hezbollah or some other militant group will not conduct an attack in Bangkok in the future. But it would take a lot to convince group leaders that the financial pain of an attack in the city would be worth the ideological gain. And the recent alleged plot should remind investigators and policymakers to remember the financial bottom line as well as the ideological bottom line when assessing future terrorist threats.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Stratfor

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DTN News - THAILAND DEFENSE NEWS: Thailand ~ Joining The Crusade Against China

Defense News: DTN News - THAILAND DEFENSE NEWS: Thailand  ~ Joining The Crusade Against China
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Page

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 4, 2012: In the south, security forces chip away at the criminal infrastructure that supports the smugglers and Islamic terrorists. The smuggling has long been a major part of the economy, and local culture. The government generally tolerated it as long as the gangsters were discreet. Radical Islam is something that was always just beneath the surface. In the last few decades, Islamic radicalism became fashionable and found material, if not moral, support from the smuggling gangs. That made the Islamic terrorists much more difficult to find and catch. The terrorists are being protected by the same loyalties and secrecy that has long protected the criminal gangs. But even some of the gangsters are getting tired of all the violence, and additional security forces, the Islamic terrorism has brought to the neighborhood.

In addition to making peace with Cambodia, the government has hustled of late to improve diplomatic and economic relations with the newly elected government of Burma. Although army officers still appear to be calling the shots in Burma, there is also some reform. Thailand hosts over 150,000 refugees from Myanmar (Burma) in Thailand, nearly all of them from tribes that have been fighting the Burmese government for centuries. But recently, the Burmese government has made peace deals with most of the tribes. The government is also developing military links with India, which is part of the movement by China's neighbors to create an alliance that can limit any possible Chinese aggression. The growth of Chinese military power, and claims on neighboring territory has made all this coalition building popular.

The days before and after New Years Day are occasions for lots of celebrations. This involves a lot of driving and drinking. Therefore much of the army was assigned to monitor traffic and try to catch drunk drivers before they killed someone. About half the 300 people killed during these holidays are the result of drinking. Some ten times as many people are injured. This is a problem even in the Moslem south, where Islamic conservatives discourage the use of alcohol.

January 1, 2012: In the south, two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.

December 30, 2011: In the south, several attacks (using bombs, grenades and gunfire) left seven troops wounded and one local security volunteer shot dead by terrorists.

December 21, 2011:  Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to withdraw troops from the border after the International Court of Justice establishes where the border actually is. No date was given for when the withdrawal was to take place, because the international courts tend to take a while to complete their work.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Page
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DTN News - EADS NEWS: Airbus Military And The Royal Thai Police Join Forces To Help Thailand

Defense News: DTN News - EADS NEWS: Airbus Military And The Royal Thai Police Join Forces To Help Thailand

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources EADS

NSI News Source Info) KOTTAKKAL, Kerala, India - October 22, 2011: The Royal Thai Police and Airbus Military have used a C295 aircraft for the transport of 12 people and 4.3 tonnes of humanitarian provisions, such as water and tents, to the province of Nakhorn Sawan, affected by the recent floods.

The mission with the C295 was initially planned just as a demonstration flight, but after these terrible events, it was changed to aid the local population. The C295 put to good use its capabilities to operate in rough environments and short and unprepared airstrips, with limited or no ground aids.

Thailand has been suffering floods and heavy rain since the end of July. The Government already indicated that over 270 people have died and more than three million people have been affected by the floods.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources EADS

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