Who Do You Think Is Responsible For The Bangkok Bombing?

[Coss]

You always try and get a red edge in there, and frankly, supporting the yellows as you obviously do, look where that got Thailand Captain Herr Coss!

 

Ahh fuc* it - I'll no more mention reds, to keep you happy.

 

I'm not pro or anti anyone in Thailand except Takky and he's not even there, I dislike him with a vengeance and the whore he rode in on. As far as the rest go, red/yellow/black/white/green and inebriated in the gutter, they are all worthy of derision and ridicule.

 

I've met many that are normal, educated and sensible, I'm playing part time host to some here in NZ now. But the ones that make the news in Thailand are the funniest entertainment I've ever seen.

 

You may have noticed me taking the piss out of some Thais who are part of the current establishment. I think these are the opposite of the colour I may no longer mention, in case I am seen to be getting an edge in there. Are the current establishment out of bounds for me to attempt to ridicule?

 

I now you are pro red, good on you, and in a liberated LOS, I'd be too. But as I say, I'm beige and my only real dislike is the Takky himself.

 

Sorry to have offended you.

 

 

Common gossip in Thailand is it's all related to promotions. And who didn't get promoted.

Who knows? None of us!

 

Quite.

[My Penis is hungry]

I think Cav nails it best

[Coss]

Police drop plan to send a team to Malaysia as it may be pointless

 

 

The National Police Office has dropped its plan to send a police team to Malaysia to find out more about three suspects held by the Malaysian police regarding the bombing incidents in Bangkok.

 

The national police chief Pol Gen Somyot Poompunmung told a press conference on Friday that he was informed by Pol Gen Chaktip Chaichinda, the deputy national police chief in charge of overseeing the bombing case, the plan was off because it might be pointless as the main suspect, the yellow-shirted bomber, was believed to have slipped out of Malaysia already.

 

Pol Gen Somyot admitted that, so far, it was still unclear whether the three suspects – two Malaysians and one Pakistani – had any linkages to the bombing suspects in Thailand and, hence, it was doubtful what would have gained if a police team had been dispatched to Malaysia.

 

Earlier on Thursday, Pol Gen Chaktip blamed the extensive reportage of the bombing case by the media for having alerted the bombing suspects of the police movements and prompted their exit out of the country.

 

http://englishnews.t...ay-be-pointless

[YimSiam]

It's just staggering what these guys feel comfortable saying and doing publicly, so lacking in logic or consistency. It amazes me that trains run on time and the water and electricity are reliable in that country, when the public faces of the government suggests they must have had help tying their shoes in the morning. And yet - developing country, good income, plenty of great food, big industries, and tons of consumption. Odd.

 

Maybe it's just clash of civilizations with these investigations - for them, finding a putting away a culprit is always a show and guilt/innocence not as important as visible outcome - but then, these big cases are conducted in front of audiences that expect something different, a type of rational approach that does not come easy - so then it looks like chaos and incompetence. But they're competent at doing it their way, it's just not our way...

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Earlier on Thursday, Pol Gen Chaktip blamed the extensive reportage of the bombing case by the media for having alerted the bombing suspects of the police movements and prompted their exit out of the country."

 

Of course. It can't possible be the fault of the police.

 

Sanuk!

[baa99]

The police are too busy spending the reward money.

[Coss]

Twists and Turns in Thailand's Bombing Case

 

Thai authorities claim progress, but many observers are dubious.

 

By Joshua Kurlantzick

 

More than a month after the deadly bombing at central Bangkok’s Erawan shrine, the Thai authorities have made two arrests in the case, and issued at least seventeen arrest warrants overall. On Monday, the Thai police announced that one of the men in custody was the person caught on closed circuit television on the day of the bombing in August—the man who appeared to be leaving a bomb at the shrine. But some Thai commentators remain doubtful that the government has gotten closer to actually solving the case.

 

The lack of trust that the Thai authorities have arrested the actual perpetrators stems from several factors. First, in recent years the Thai police and security forces have demonstrated a pattern of problematic investigations of major crimes, whether the 2006 New Year’s Eve bombings in Bangkok, or the 2014 Koh Tao murder case, in which two foreign tourists were killed on the resort island. In the Koh Tao case, the police initially announced that two indigent Burmese migrants, who are now on trial, confessed to the crime, but the two later recanted their confession and claimed that they only confessed after being tortured. They are now standing trial, but there are significant amounts of evidence that call their guilt into question. Most recently, Thailand’s most prominent forensics investigator announced that DNA on the Koh Tao murder weapon does not match the DNA of the accused migrants. According to Time, “The [Koh Tao] prosecution’s case rests on DNA samples found on [one tourist’s] body that investigators say match the defendants. Defense lawyers had asked for the samples to be retested but police said the evidence had been ‘used up.’â€

 

As commentator Saksith Saiyasombut notes, the Thai police also continue to use methods that seem, at the least, outdated. They continue to have people arrested for crimes appear in public to “re-enact†the alleged criminal acts. In early September, Thai police led one of the Erawan suspects, Yusufu Mierili, around central Bangkok, where he went through the steps he supposedly took on the bombing day, with reporters there to cover the re-enactment. Such re-enactments, one would think, would make it more difficult for the alleged criminals to have a fair trial, though what they say at the re-enactment is theoretically not usable in court. In addition, Saksith notes, re-enactments do not further the investigation, and at times they have led to mobs of people attacking the suspect right after the re-enactment.

 

The Thai police also sometimes receive large, publicly announced, rewards when they apparently make breakthroughs in cases, an unusual practice in law enforcement. In the bombing case, the Thai police already have twice announced that they will be keeping two rewards. The first reward, as the Associated Press reported, was originally “offered to the public for tips leading to the arrest of suspects†but police gave it to themselves. Then, earlier this week Thailand’s police chiefs announced the police were awarding themselves a second reward, essentially for making substantial progress in the investigation. The police chiefs brandished thick stacks of cash for the media earlier this week to demonstrate how much money they were getting.

 

Third, there have been a range of inconsistencies in the statements of the people arrested, and in the statements of Thai authorities about those arrested and about the reasons for the attack. The Thai government has at times suggested the bombers acted to avenge a crackdown on their human trafficking network, to take revenge for Thailand’s deportation of a group of Uighurs back to China in July, to strike a blow for the insurgents fighting the Thai government in the deep south, or even for reasons related to Thailand’s domestic politics. At various times in the investigation, government officials have said that one of the men in custody, Adem Karadag, was not the man who planted the bomb; now, government officials say he is. The government also has tried to implicate a range of other suspects in the bombing, mostly local opponents of the military regime.

 

Finally, more than a year in the Thai junta’s rule, the level of popular distrust in the government generally has risen; this distrust carries over to the government’s handling of the bombing case. Opaque policymaking and crackdowns on dissent remain the norm. Earlier this month, prominent journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk, an outspoken critic of military rule, was taken to a Thai army base for an “attitude adjustment†in a tiny cell. After his stay at the army base, he quit his job at The Nation, a prominent Thai paper, apparently under pressure from some of his colleagues.

 

http://thediplomat.com/2015/10/twists-and-turns-in-thailands-bombing-case/

[Flashermac]

I recently met a Thai nurse in the States, happily married and settled here for good. But she told me she detested the Shinawatras and had taken part in the PDRC protests 2 years ago. When she asked if I knew about them, I started singing the protest song. She joined in, then hugged me. I asked her what she thought of Suthep. She frowned and said, "I used to like him, but not now ... because he's working with the military government." She said she wanted the Shinawatras out, but she wanted democracy, not a military junta in power. So even some of the whistle blowers aren't happy with the outcome.

[cavanami]

The whistle blowers were tolls used, maybe their dim bulbs are starting to glow a bit...

[Coss]

Bangkok bomb: Has the case been solved?

 

By Jonathan HeadSouth East Asia correspondent

 

Image copyrightAssociated Press

 

Twenty people died and more than 120 were injured in the horrific bombing on 17 August in central Bangkok at the Erawan shrine. But the investigation into who perpetrated the attack has seen conflicting statements and perplexing developments. Here are the twist and turns that took police from knowing very little after the deadly blast, to claiming to have identified their main suspect six weeks later.

 

The immediate aftermath: conflicting statements

 

On 18 August, a day after the bomb, another explosion in a canal sent a huge column of water over passers-by, but caused no injuries. Later police identified it as caused by a bomb similar to the one at the shrine.

 

On 19 August police showed CCTV video, taken from the shrine and surrounding area. In it a man in a yellow shirt, with long hair and thick-framed spectacles, leaves a black backpack beside a bench at the shrine, and walks out just before the bomb explodes.

 

Image copyrightThai Police HO via AP

 

The police can ascertain nothing about his identity from the grainy images, and have no information after he was dropped off by a motorbike taxi about a kilometre from the shrine.

 

On 22 August new CCTV video shows another man kicking a bag into the canal where the 18 August explosion occurred. This took place just 30 minutes after the first bomb.

 

The police now know they are dealing with a network. But their often conflicting statements undermine public confidence in their competence.

 

On 24 August the investigation stalls. Police complain that inconsistent witness testimony and broken CCTV cameras are hampering their work.

Image copyrightAFPImage caption

 

Soon after this image from CCTV, police lose track of the suspect's location

 

"We have to use our imagination," admits police chief Somyot Poompunmuang. He says they do not know whether the perpetrators are still in Thailand or not.

 

Arrests are made: 'But main suspect not caught'

 

On 29 August there is a breakthrough - police and military officers detain their first suspect, a foreign man carrying a fake Turkish passport, found surrounded by potential bomb-making materials in an apartment north of Bangkok.

 

The following day they find more materials in another apartment. A Thai Muslim woman and her Turkish husband are also named as suspects. Both are believed to be in Turkey.

 

On 31 August Chief Somyot brings out a stack of cash - 3m Thai baht ($82,000; £54,000) offered as a reward for information leading to arrests - and gives it to his own officers.

 

On 1 September the second suspect is detained, after being handed back across the border by the Cambodian authorities.

 

Image copyrightAssociated PressImage captionYusufu Mierali - a muslim from Xinjiang -is identified as a key suspect

 

He is carrying a Chinese passport that identifies him as Yusufu Mierali, a Muslim from Xinjiang where the Uighur minority lives. Police believe he may have assembled the bomb. They think the yellow-shirt bomber is still at large.

 

By 5 September a total of 10 arrest warrants have been issued.

 

Perpetrators are foreign: 'People smugglers are to blame'

 

On 9 September police identify a man named "Izan" they believe organised the bombing, who left Thailand for Bangladesh the night before the attack. With the help of Bangladesh they trace his movements via Delhi and Abu Dhabi to Istanbul.

Image copyrightEuropean Photopress Agency

 

His passport shows his real name as Abudusataer Abudureheman, a Muslim Chinese citizen from Xinjiang. There is still confusion over whether Thailand has requested any help from Turkey. The Thai police have insisted all along that foreign assistance is not needed.

 

By now it is clear most of the plotters are foreigners. Both suspects in Thai custody are Muslim Uighurs from China's Xinjiang province, as is "Izan", the man the Thais believe was the ringleader.

 

Sources who have met the suspects say they speak of repression in Xinjiang and appear to have been radicalised. But the police continue to maintain the bombing was not an act of politically-motivated terrorism, but the work of people smugglers annoyed by Thai anti-trafficking operations.

 

This despite the growing conviction among terrorism experts that it was most likely retribution for the Thai decision to forcibly repatriate 109 Uighur asylum-seekers to China in July.

 

Yellow-shirt bomber: 'We had him all along'

 

Police on 25 September say they now believe that the first suspect they detained, Bilal Mohammed, is the yellow-shirt bomber. They say he confessed to being the bomber on 23 September and that this is supported by new CCTV video and photographs from Yusufu Mierali's camera.

 

Bilal had until then insisted he was just being smuggled to Malaysia using a false Turkish passport. His unexpected confession was made in military custody, without his lawyer. A source who has seen him tells the BBC he believes Bilal was coerced into confessing.

 

Image copyrightAFPImage captionPolice announce the case is solved

 

A total of 17 arrest warrants have been issued for suspects carrying Chinese, Turkish, Thai and Pakistani passports. Fifteen are still at large, probably outside Thailand. It is not clear what the Thai authorities are doing to track these suspects down.

 

Outgoing police chief Somyot announces on 28 September that the case is solved, they have the main perpetrators in custody. He displays the 3m baht reward again.

 

Image copyrightReuters

 

He also suggests for the first time that there are links with a "political group", and names a man loosely affiliated with the red-shirt movement loyal to ousted Prime Ministers Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra, who is wanted in connection with two smaller explosions in 2010 and 2014.

 

It turns out this man has been living outside Thailand for more than a year, and Gen Somyot backtracks. But other senior officials say they are still looking for him.

 

On 30 September chief Somyot retires after a year in the job. He still insists the motive for the Bangkok bombing is anger among people-smugglers, not retaliation by militants for deporting Uighurs.

 

Outside the police very few people are persuaded by Gen Somyot's theory. The two suspects in custody have yet to be charged. When they are, they face trial in a military court, which human rights groups have warned would not be equipped to judge a complex case like this.

 

http://www.bbc.com/n...d-asia-34409348