Hua Hin and Thailand bomb attacks

[Big Boy]

These guys are cowards - they don't want to be anywhere near the explosion when it happens.

[nil]

The checking is just for show, they won't currently have the training to really know what to look for. Hopefully they will capture the perpetrators soon. I would hate Thailand to turn into something like Israel with all the security checkpoints.

[hhinner]

The checking is for show. If they checked every vehicle entering MV thoroughly the queue would be back to Pranburi. Maybe they should get the GT200 bomb sniffers out; they worked so well in the south, and should speed things up.

[hhfarang]

The possibilities are numerous, If this weren't such a serious subject, I'd start a poll with the below suspects and see who gets the most votes:

"Thailand bombings: A look at who may have been responsible

BANGKOK

In the aftermath of a coordinated wave of bombings that shook tourist towns in Thailand this week, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's military government is scrambling to hunt down those responsible. The 11 explosions killed four people and injured dozens, including 11 foreign tourists.

The big questions now are, who did it, and why?

There has been no claim of responsibility, but there are plenty of groups unhappy with the political situation in the Southeast Asian nation. Prayuth came to power in a 2014 coup, and his junta faces opposition from political opponents and activist groups, as well as a long-running insurgency in the nation's largely Muslim south that has left well over 5,000 people dead since 2004.

A look at groups the government is likely investigating in the latest violence, or has ruled out:

FOREIGN MILITANTS

Thai officials say they don't believe international Islamic militant groups are responsible, calling the bombings "local acts of sabotage." The timing of the attacks gives credence to the theory that domestic dissidents were behind it: The explosions occurred several days after Thais approved a new constitution in a referendum that critics say will ensure the military's hand in politics for the foreseeable future.

Analysts say it was also no coincidence the attacks came on the eve and 84th birthday of Queen Sirikit. The army sees itself as the primary defender of the monarchy and has made clear that protecting it is a top priority. The king and queen have a large palace in the seaside resort of Hua Hin, where some of the bombings took place, and targeting that city has "symbolic implications," said Pongphisoot Busbarat, research affiliate at the University of Sydney's Southeast Asia Centre.

---

POLITICAL OPPONENTS

Thailand's military government will undoubtedly probe its primary political rivals, namely the opposition Pheu Thai party it ousted in a 2014 coup and their "Red Shirt" supporters in the north and northeast. A decade ago, in 2006, the army had also toppled their leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, triggering a decade of sporadic upheaval. The Pheu Thai party and its allies have denied allegations of involvement in low-level violence over the past decade, including grenade attacks and this week's bombings.

Anthony Davis, a writer for Jane's Defence Weekly, told The Associated Press that it's "difficult to give much credibility to the suggestion that this could be the work of disgruntled Red Shirt elements loyal to ... Thaksin Shinawatra. The Red Shirt movement as a whole has been under extremely tight military monitoring both before and since the military coup of 2014. The theory that they could have organized such a complex operation under the noses of the military government makes no sense."

---

STUDENT AND CIVIL ACTIVISTS

Student and civil society activists have been among the most vocal against the junta, which has clamped down hard on critics, regularly ferrying those who speak out to military camps for "attitude adjustment" sessions. The activists have staged small protests sporadically since the 2014 coup, but the demonstrations have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and few believe they have the capability or desire to instigate violence.

---

SOUTHERN INSURGENTS

Ethnic Malay militants fighting for greater autonomy in Thailand's far south have launched attacks there nearly every day for a more than a decade. Analysts say they are the only factions that have successfully staged sophisticated, coordinated assaults with improvised, remote-controlled explosive devices. Although their targets have overwhelmingly been confined to Thailand's three southernmost provinces, the militants have apparently carried out isolated attacks elsewhere — detonating, for example, a car bomb in the underground parking lot of a mall on the tourist island of Koh Samui in April 2015 that wounded at least seven people.

Thai police have not singled the militants out yet, but police spokesman Col. Krisana Patanacharoen said Friday that the latest bombings followed "a similar pattern used in the southern parts of the country."

Davis, the Jane's Defence Weekly writer, said the militants were the only "non-state actor in Thailand with the capability for a well-planned, well-coordinated operation like this." Don Pathan, a security analyst based in southern Thailand, said that the latest attacks didn't seem to fit the militants' traditional pattern of operations, but that if they were responsible, "it would definitely be a game changer" that could herald a new chapter in the conflict.

---

THE MILITARY ITSELF

Conspiracy theories are part and parcel of whodunits in Thailand, and a few have speculated the army or a faction within it might have planted the bombs as part of an internal dispute or a bid to justify military rule by showing threats remain. Asked by a reporter whether the attacks could have been an internal job, a junta spokesman dismissed the idea outright. Writing in the Nikkei Asian Review, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, said that "Thailand's governing generals have gained a limited mandate from the referendum, and would be unlikely to undermine their legitimacy by resorting to terrorism of this kind, whatever the skeptics may say.""

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation- ... 84962.html

[HHTel]

I remember the ineffective checks in MV last year. When my daughter fell of her bike trying to carry her helmet after being told to take it off, I complained to MV security and the practice was immediately stopped. I also remember at the time, when I was having a drink in the coffee shop, I asked one of the security men with his long stick with a mirror attached, what he was looking for. "Mai Leiu" he replied. Says he was just told to do it to every car. But he had no idea what he was looking for!!

As has been said, security is a joke.

[PeteC]

Apologies if this is already on here. The som tum vendor was not a som tum vendor. She worked in a massage place and was just happening to be walking by the cart when the explosion went off. Also indications her body was robbed after the fact causing a delay in making a positive ID of who she was. Her photo at link.

.....".....Hua Hin was shaken by the night before by a twin explosion in a tourist area which killed Sakonthat Deesukon, who was on her way home from work.

The 38-year-old, misidentified as a som tam vendor because her body was found in front of a food cart, was walking home after work at a nearby massage place, according to her brother, Jeerasak Deesukon.

Jeerasak lives in Chonburi province and only learned about his sister’s death Saturday.

“If all her stuff was not taken after the bombing, I believe police would have been able to contact me sooner,” Jeerasak said. He suspects someone robbed her body, leaving her without identifying documents or cellphone, as neither were found on her body."......

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crim ... -bombings/

[HHTel]

When my wife's first husband was killed in a road accident many years ago, his body was cleared by the volunteer 'Rescue Service'. When she went to identify him, he had no watch, no gold and no wallet. Seems they are known for robbing bodies while performing their 'act of charity'! Seems it may be still happening.

[Bamboo Grove]

OT but the last posts reminded me of an incident long time ago. In 1991, two years after moving to Thailand, I studied the language in a language school in Bangkok. At that time the Lauda Airlines plane crashed in Thailand. I remember the stories of the victims remains being robbed "Volunteer rescue teams and local villagers looted the remains of the flight, so relatives were unable to recover personal possessions." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauda_Air_Flight_004). I talked about this with my teacher, a young and beautiful lady from Suphanburi and she (to my disgust) said, that she was sorry she wasn't there as she would have had a chance to become rich by looting the remains. I have often thought about this and I think there was no malice in what she said, it was just the way people were thinking and obviously still are.

[HHADFan]

More suspects:

Thaksin via Chavalit (I may have the spelling wrong). Not the red shirts, but Thaksin.

The Thai Police.

As mentioned above, a different branch of the military. The Thai military is not like what we're used to at home.

Obviously the nightmare scenario is the southern insurgents breaking out, but it seems they would have either gone for more casualties, like in Hat Yai, or gone for police or army.

Red shirts, students, international terrorists - to me, none of those really fit.

False flag makes no sense, but competitors in the armed forces does.

[Name Taken]

Wow, "civil war" already. Country wide? Head for the hills, Thailand's burning!

OKAY EVERYONE TIME TO PANIC! RUN FOR THE HILLS!!


Just kidding, It's just a normal day in Thailand. Relacks.

[Name Taken]

My guess, flights out are going to be full this weekend.

GET TO DA CHOPPA!!

[Name Taken]

What a day. Here are some photos I took moving around Hun Hin on my motorcycle.

IMG_8172.jpg

Typical weekday in Hua Hin, all the old Golfers are out hitting the links.

[buksida]

Less juvenile commentary and please ...

Thai police dismiss reports of arrests, say bomb suspects are still at large
Thai police have clarified that earlier reports saying two suspects have been arrested in connection to the multiple bomb attacks yesterday are inaccurate, and confirm that the perpetrators are still at large.

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/08/ ... b-attacks/

[JamesWest]

My guess, flights out are going to be full this weekend.

GET TO DA CHOPPA!!

Well I don't know about a "choppa", but I did for about 10 seconds wonder what it costs to drive to Cambodia on my motorcycle and import it into the country.

I guess I will wait for someone to knock on my door first. Time for a massage.

[JamesWest]

this is interesting in light of recent events.