Chilling TV Coverage - Bombing in Khon Kaen

[StoneSoup]

Out tonight at the much maligned Soi Zero, I watched Thai TV coverage of a bomb detonation today inside a Thai police station in Khon Kaen. It was bizarre, by western standards. With live news cameras rolling, a group of Thai policemen participated in the opening of a suspected bomb package. Camera coverage started with the scene of a white package, about the size of a shoebox, set on top of the desk of a middle aged police sergeant, who was still wearing a reflective road vest. While three junior policemen all pressed down on the top of the package, the senior policeman cut into the side of the package, and started removing packing material. As he removed debris, he was carefully inspecting the inside of the package, looking in from the side. At one point, he clearly recognized that the package was in fact a bomb - because he said something, and one of the other policemen then began gesturing to camermen to leave the danger area. In the film sequence,a second cameraman is seen exiting in a hurry, and the lead camera is seen to displace, evidently into an adjacent hallway - the qulaity of the film image goes from crystal clear to grainy - evidently due to low light exposure from the hallway. The seated police sergeant is seen to continue exploring onto the package, with several other policemen still concentrated around the package, and all pressing down on the package top with their hands. A few seconds go by, and then - KAAABLLLOOOOOEY - there is a white flash,and the camera image disappears.

 

Follow-on shots are of policemen being carried out of station on stretchers, and then an inside shot of a demolished interior of station, and the lifeless body of the police sergeant, still wearing his traffic vest, sprawled on the floor next to the mangled desk.

 

Really chilling video - the only things in my experience that compare are the unforgettable images of the planes crashing into the WTC towers, and a remarkable film sequence of two heavily armored (and armed) bank robbers shooting it out in Los Angeles with an entire police force - circa 1997 or so.

 

Lesson to be learned - and this is common knowledge to well-trained military people - if you ever suspect that you have a bomb in hand, do not - repeat DO NOT - mimic hollywood and attempt to disarm the explosive (that you know nothing about) -particularly while your family or friends are clustered around the device. If you think you have a bomb - get the sucker to a remote place, and let someone specilaizing in explosives blow the sucker up. Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) guys NEVER attempt to disarm a bomb. They blow the sonofabitch in place - THAT is how to get rid of a bomb. Sure - a percentage of the time you are vaporizing a birthday gift, or a mail order appliance. But you live to tell the story of your folly.

 

I really felt a pang of sorrow for the poor police sergeant - one minute he is an on-camera fearless hero,and a couple of minutes later he is a sensational lifeless body on the floor of his office, broadcast to his entire country - and his family.

 

But - goddammit - there needs to bew some improved training for professional law enforcement types in Thailand. Only in hollywood does anyone who knows anything attempt to blindly disarm an explosive device. The correct answer is to remove the item to a remote space (or - if necessary - offer up your home or office to "remodeling") AND BLOW THE DEVICE UP with a remotely-triggered external explosive.

 

Never try to be a Hollywood Hero - real life doesn't work like that (as many a fool knows who has ever been naive enough to throw a solid "Hollywood" punch at the skull of someone else - guess what, folks - fingers and hands break a hell of a lot easier than skulls).

 

OK, off the soapbox. My sincere condolences to the family of the deceased police sergeant, and to the several junior police who lost hands and eyes. May the perpetrators be hunted down like dogs and machine-gunned in finest Thai execution style - amen.

 

Respectfully

Stone Soup

 

[whosyourdaddy]

I just watched the news ( ch 7) and they said it was a goverment office ( non -police) and that it was in nakon pratom.. Or has there been 2 bombings of the goverment offices?

[Hedonist]

International news agencies have this. I read Nakhon Pathom. It has international interest because of recent Bali bombing. The Thai government are trying to play it down, sayng it is not a terrorist attack, but a personal dispute.

[StoneSoup]

It appears that you are correct on the location. I was in a bar with a big screen TV, but with the sound turned off - so as not to interfere with the DJ's music. I set the scene into context on the basis of what the girls were saying - evidently the news reporter was reporting from Khon Kaen (maybe that was where the hospital was?).

 

I read the description of the event on lead page of Bangkok Post - in general it appears correct, but the idea that the grenade went of while they were just posing with the box is ludicrous - on the film, the Sergeant Major clearly broke into one side of the box, withdrew packing material from the box (actually several times), and then halted after looking into the space, to direct that the film crewback off. He was then killed after he went back to probing inside the box.

 

So much for the journalistic integrity of the Bangkok Post - they were clearly told a bogus story, and are standing by it - even in the face of clearly conflicting video. Maybe that's intended to reduce embarrassment to the family of the dead Sergeant Major?

 

I closed out my night last evening at Det 5 Sexy Night at Soi Zero, drinking beer with a US SF NCO who had recently had the sad task of escorting the body of SFC Jackson (the SF NCO killed in Zamboanga) back to the US. His unit had just finished a tour in the Philippines. He remarked at how freaked he gets when strange people enter a beer bar carrying a package - he indictaed that he literally pays up and leaves a bar if he senses a lax attitude. His buddy got killed eating lunch at a shopping center, by a package bomb. I understand there are now reports out of Bali that a lady witnesss saw someone enter a mens room at sari club carrying a large package, shortly before the blast there (although I also heard it was a car bomb).

 

Final note - the SF guy told me that all his buddies that regularly pass through Thailand all have reached the conclusion that the terrorist target of choice in Thailand would be the Tahitian Queen 2 in Pattaya.

 

Stone Soup

[Pescator]

If you think you have a bomb - get the sucker to a remote place....

---

 

hmmm, hopefully the bomb is not rigged in a way that removing it will trigger it. Booby traps are not unheard of or it could be a time bomb and explode while you "get the sucker to a remote place".

 

Hua Nguu.

 

 

 

[Guest]

"But - goddammit - there needs to bew some improved training for professional law enforcement types in Thailand"

 

Anybody remember the hostage situation outside MoChit BTS station a few months back??Police seemingly mishandled the situation and a 19 y o student girl was stabbed before the hostage taker was beaten to death by the crowd.Newspapers reports pointed that after the stabbing secourists(?) had visibly no idea of how to carry the girl away properly and she died.Not sure if she could have been saved anyway but another very chilling story,as this bombing mess ::

[steffi]

Interesting, Paranoia there. I go to the airport just about every day and there's the Bill Bently Pub (Terminal 2 4th Floor) on the second floor there. Anyway the whole pub is surrounded by glass and for about 3-4 hours a night it's packed full of foreigners. Usually because they are allowed to smoke in there. Anyway, nobody ever asks where the luggage they leave outside the glass comes from. They just leave bag after bag outside whilst they are drinking inside the bar. Anybody wanting to quickly get rid of 30-40 foreigners can easily do so there.

 

So hopefully someone at the airport will look into the lax of security.