Police Dogs on the Skytrain

[StoneSoup]

Well, in the "you see something new every day ahead of APEC" category, it was interesting to note a pair of black lab police dogs and their blue-unifoirm police handlers manning the Siam Interchange Station of the BTS yesterday. I was headed toward Onnuch, and one team got onto my car (from the rearmost entrance) and proceeded to move the length of the train while it was moving. No talking at all - everyone just sort of parted ahead of the dog (who was on a lead chain of perhaps one meter), who seemed to know that he was supposed to move the lenth of the train.

 

I have to assume that these were not drug dogs, but instead explosives/gunpowder sniffing dogs.

 

Hey, no problem - I can live with tight secuitry for the next week, if it makes it harder for the bad guys to get a foothold.

 

Good-looking, muscular dogs, too.

 

So - what's next?

 

Be alert. Bangkok needs all the lerts it can get, these days.

Stone Soup

[Guest]

Hmm, that's cool. There's been increasing chopper activity over the city too. I see blackhawks in formation going over slowly now and again. They seem to have police rather than military coloring. Don't see any door guns or any other signs of offensive capability. Definitely not the (yellow) airport vip choppers.

 

[Guest]

There are reports of ground to air missles installed at the airport as well.

 

And from the news:

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Writer

 

BANGKOK, Thailand - Pacific Rim officials met under tight security Wednesday to discuss a range of mutual political and trade worries and acknowledged a sad fact of the early 21st century: Terror threatens economic growth.

 

 

Host government Thailand insisted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping was not being transformed into "a security forum."

 

 

"Leaders must address these security issues to ensure that we can trade freely and safely," said Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai. "We have to admit that security issues, terrorism and transnational crime are important issues affecting our economies."

 

 

Laying the groundwork for next week's annual summit of APEC leaders, representatives from 21 regional economies approved an action plan for improving regional counterterrorism measures and agreed to discuss banning the production, transport and sales of manned portable, shoulder-fired air-defense systems.

 

 

Delegates also agreed Wednesday to set up a task force, headed by a U.S. official, to improve health security in the region that was hit hard by the SARS crisis.

 

 

The concern was over not just "natural diseases, but man-made ones," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said. "We need to strengthen the capacity of countries in the region to deal with these diseases."

 

 

The security action plan presented to the delegates, and posted on APEC's Web site, will be presented to regional ministers and then to leaders in summit talks next Monday and Tuesday. President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will attend.

 

 

The plan includes wide-ranging suggestions for improving security for passenger and cargo transport, energy and food supplies; efforts to fight rampant piracy in Asian waters and computer crimes and work on cutting off financing for terrorist groups.

 

 

Bush has been urging APEC members to boost support of the war on terrorism, and the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis was likely to be a focal point for the summit that ends Oct. 21.

 

 

While addressing the broader strategic issues, pushing for freer trade remains the top concern in Bangkok, particularly given the collapse of World Trade Organization negotiations just over a month ago in Cancun, Mexico.

 

 

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said APEC leaders would "give priority" to restarting the WTO talks "because the world is watching what APEC can do after the Cancun failure."

 

 

APEC's stated goal is for free trade and investment among developed members by 2010, and among developing economies by 2020. The grouping has typically voiced support for WTO moves to reduce barriers to global commerce.

 

 

Though the regional summit gives leaders a chance to emphasize their agreement on key issues, both Hu and Koizumi are likely to face heavy pressure from Bush on currency valuations that Washington contends give their nations unfair trade advantages.

 

 

"Markets ought to be determining respective currencies," Bush said in an interview with Asian journalists Tuesday, on the eve of a nine-day trip through Asia.

 

 

APEC members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

Seems not all members are 'Asian Pacific' IMO......US, Canada, Mexico, Chile ....well Pacific I guess anyway.

[sky brow]

I left Thai on Tuesday night :(Don Muang has a noticible amount of increased security.All bags going through xray at 3 points.A lot more security guards and some serious military security in full combat fatigues carring some small but very lethal looking machine guns and side arms.Also our flight was delayed for 40 mins while security ejected a drunken guy causing some kind of trouble.For anyone living in bkk I think the road closures are going to be the biggest pain.Unless you get those days off,like a lot of govt workers have.

 

 

cheers sky brow(still recovering.)