photojourn

The massive weapons cache's suddenly being found by government sources defies belief. I followed the SWAT team through the temple with two dogs. There was a third dog working in a separate part of the temple. I watched the SWAT team check every monks quarters and clear them. I watched them clear each part of the temple. By the time the temple had been declared "cleared" they had found a bucket of slingshots, and a handful of ping-pong "bombs" and fire crackers.

By the time I left the temple they had had not searched the well though and it is claimed some munitions were found there. As to that point I cannot comment as I did not look in the well.

However, having also searched very thoroughly prior to the SWAT team arriving I am amazed at the hundreds of rounds of linked ammunition claimed to have been found.

Personally I saw handguns on two occasions - once at San Liame Din Daeng in the hands of local hoons and once at Lumphini Park in the hands of a black suited red-shirts guard.

The vast majority of the "arts and crafts" munitions displayed by CRES is designed for machine guns. The red-shirts had no machine guns. It should noted that the ammunition displayed shows every fifth round as being a tracer round.

I also very thoroughly searched the backstage area on Wednesday night prior to the army arriving (did not arrive until Thursday afternoon) and found no weapons or munitions of any kind. My search included the leaders rest room, the VIP area and under the stage.

During the army advance into the red-shirt protest area I spent considerable time at Sarasin Rd. There were no sounds of machine gun fire or M79 or M67 grenades exploding. During the military advance I only once saw a person with a handgun (as noted above). I also walked through and inspected many of the tents along Rajadmiri Road leading back to the stage and found only a few shell casings in the medical tent at Sarasin Rd. The casing indicated they were from the Thai Army comprising 5.56mm rounds and the distinctive opaque 00-buckshot cartridges being used.

While I won't say the red-shirts did not have any weapons, the great lie being told by the Thai government now should be recognized for what it is.

Hotel 27 in a sub soi on Sukhumvit 22 opposite Queens Park Plazza beer bars. Clean, air conditioned, hot water, cable TV, towels, soap included. No internet. 24-hr. coffee shop with good meals at reasonable prices.

1 x dbl bed room Bt350/night.

2 x dbl bed rooms Bt450/night.

Old hotel but clean. At those prices you can probably splurge and get two rooms.

These are the three army water canon trucks that have been stationed at Nana BTS for about 10 days. Suspect they moved them into Soi 2 to help with traffic along Sukhumvit Road. They are back on Sukhumvit in the afternoons.

I've found these shops to be great rip-offs while the attitude of the staff at FotoFile in particular has gotten worse.

Try shopping online at these sites: Most are in Thai but Google translator is your friend.

I've had no problems with any of the gear I've bought through these sites.

http://www.thaidphoto.com/forums/

http://www.taklong.com/marketplace/index.php

http://www.camera2hand.net/under_construction.htm <--- currently being reconstructed

I tried various solutions and the one that works straight out of the box is the iMic from Griffin technology. Order it by mail and have its mailed not FedEx'd. Don't even contemplate other work arounds because they'll cause you more grief than you can imagine.

iMic by Griffin technologies

PS. You might even be able to buy it through one of the BKK Mac distributors.

Pandemic (H1N1) or pandemic A(H1N1) is the official name for the virus as ascribed to it by the worlds peak medical body, the World Health Organization - not influenza, not flu 2009, not swine flu or anything else.

As for sriracha john, go out and buy a dictionary before opening your big mouth. Last week you couldn't differentiate between a minus sign and a hyphen and now this load of tripe. The word author refers to the person who wrote the letter.

You seem to have significant problems with understanding basic English.

My journalism coach was perfectly correct all those years ago when he said "when you sit down to write a story consider that the average mentality of your reader is that of a six-year-old". You do his words proud.

That's the new form but it prints a little bit smaller than the original. Try centering and printing at 118 percent. The printing on the back is the same as on the old form.

They will not accept the old form.

Who is John Le Fevre and what is a loose job? It doesn't sound very secure in the first place.

John,

Since I see you are reading this thread at the moment, are you able to confirm if you have spoken directly with the officials mentioned to get these comments or have you pieced this together from other media sources. Since none of this appears to be in the mainstream english language press and they are clearly sensitive issues i, and i am sure others, would be interested to know what verification process you have gone through on this.

Many Thanks

Orac

The information on people being intimidated and told to meet signature quotas came from talking to civil servants employed in the north and northeast of Thailand. Other events are reported from having spoken to and in some cases obtained written accounts of events from eyewitnesses to those events.

Thanks for reading

Thanks Churchill.

Thaivisa News tried to obtain the full report but the links on the Ecpat website for the full report or summary don't work.

We'll attempt to provide a more complete report on this vital issue when they fix their website.

Happy Birthday Queen Sirikit and best wishers to all the people of Thailand for their "mother" achieving the age of 77. May she enjoy many more.

America dismayed and disappointed at Bout extradition snub

By John Le Fevre

James Entwistle, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Bangkok has said the US Government is "disappointed and mystified" by a Thai court's decision to reject a request for the extradition of Russian alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Entwistle said, "we are disappointed and mystified by the court's ruling. We think the facts of the case are relevant to Thai laws".

Earlier today a Thai court said that it did not have the authority to punish "actions done by foreigners against other foreigners in another country."

However, Entwistle disputed this and said, "our bilateral extradition agreement fully supports the extradition of Mr Bout".

The decision though has pleased Russia, with foreign ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov telling RIA Novosti: "With satifaction we welcome the decision of the court in Thailand and hope he will soon be able to return home".

Bout was arrested in a sting operation at the five-star Sofitel hotel after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles to US agents posing as guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

While the court acknowledged that FARC had been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and the United States, it has not been designated such by Thailand meaning that as far as Thailand was concerned it was a political movement.

Bout's arrest involved not only the Royal Thai Police and the US Drug Enforcement Agency, but also the Romanian Border Police, the Romanian Prosecutor's Office Attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Korps Politie Curacao of the Netherlands Antilles and the Danish National Police Security Services.

Last week Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva repeated statements he has made a number of times that Thailand will not allow anybody to use the country to destabilize other countries.

Bout's freedom is not guaranteed though as Entwistle said the US government, "will consult closely with the Thai government. We understand they will make clear their intention to appeal the decision and we will support that in any way we can," he said.

-- thaivisa.com August 11, 2009

Breaking News:

Thailand rejects US extradition request for Russian 'arms dealer'

A Thai Court today rejected a bid by the US Government to extradite alleged "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout. The US had been seeking the extradition of Bout over the sales of weapons to groups, including to Al-Qaeda, that were used in some of the world's most violent conflicts.

Bout was arrested at the five-star Sofitel hotel after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles to US agents posing as guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

ENDS:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 004

PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS

ISSUED AT 2211Z 10 AUG 2009

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.

... THE TSUNAMI WATCH IS CANCELLED ...

THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY

NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE

DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND

ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1956Z 10 AUG 2009

COORDINATES - 14.1 NORTH 93.0 EAST

LOCATION - ANDAMAN ISLANDS INDIA REGION

MAGNITUDE - 7.7

EVALUATION

SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE THAT A SIGNIFICANT TSUNAMI WAS NOT

GENERATED. THEREFORE THE TSUNAMI WATCH ISSUED BY THIS CENTER

IS NOW CANCELLED.

THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI

WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION...THE

MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has just removed the tsunami alert for the Indian Ocean

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has retracted it's initial observation that a tsunami had been generated in the Indian Ocean but maintains an tsunami watch alert for the region.

Possible tsunami arrival times from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center showed that a tsunami, if generated, could reach the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India within one to three hours. Indonesia, according to the Reuters news agency, had no reports of a tsunami but said it was monitoring the Aceh area.

The Japan Meteorological Agency and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center confirmed that a tsunami had been generated. It reportedly had a height of about two feet and struck the coasts in Omaezeki and Yaizu. Smaller tsunamis were also detected at the observation sites in Numazu-shi Uchiura, Shimizu, Shimoda-ko and Yaizu.

ETA of any wave to reach Phuket is 5.44am local time

ETA Phuket 5.44am

A tsunami has been generated in the Indian Ocean as a result of the Andaman island earthquake. USGS and PTWC say the size is unkonwn.

Regional Tsunami Alert issued for Asia

By John Le Fevre

A regional tsunami alert has been issued for India, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangledesh by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center following an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 this morning off the coast of India.

The quake occurred in the Indian Ocean near the Andaman Islands at 19:55 UTC at a depth of 33.1km (20.6 miles) 365 km (225 miles) southwest of Pathein (Bassein), Burma and 825 km (510 miles) west of Bangkok, Thailand.

The center said it did not know whether a tsunami had been generated as a result of the quake, but warned that quakes of this magnitude have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and occasionally a destructive regional tsunami.

The center also warned that the initial wave may not be the largest and that successive waves can be between five minutes to one hour later.

The following initial wave arrival times was issued by the center. All times are in UTC. Thailand is plus seven hours ahead of UTC.

LOCATION FORECAST POINT ARRIVAL TIME

-------------------------------- ------------

INDIA

NORTH ANDAMAN 2021Z 10 AUG

LITTLE ANDAMAN 2053Z 10 AUG

PORT BLAIR 2121Z 10 AUG

GREAT NICOBAR 2136Z 10 AUG

KAKINADA 2205Z 10 AUG

BALESHWAR 2231Z 10 AUG

MYANMAR

PYINKAYAING 2047Z 10 AUG

CHEDUBA ISLAND 2100Z 10 AUG

SITTWE 2135Z 10 AUG

MERGUI 2243Z 10 AUG

YANGON 2321Z 10 AUG

INDONESIA

BANDA ACEH 2204Z 10 AUG

THAILAND

PHUKET 2244Z 10 AUG

KO PHRA THONG 2257Z 10 AUG

KO TARUTAO 0012Z 11 AUG

BANGLADESH

CHITTAGONG 2340Z 10 AUG

-- thaivisa.com August 11, 2009

The next generation of world leaders is not coming out of Malaysia - the country with one of the highest rates of homosexual rape in the world.

FYI - The author of this article, John Le Fevre, is a well known red shirt sympathiser. Previously known on here as Photojourn.

Facts quoted in the OP to be taken with as much salt as a recent Bangkok Post poll.

/edit - attach best image I can find:

Then you clearly haven't read enough of what I've written. :D

Yeah, I had problems getting past the one titled "Thailand Prime Minister dead man walking as Asean leaders flee Pattaya"....

What next? Suthep Swims With The Fishes For Taking Leave...?

Which was pretty similar to what everyone else in the world wrote after Pattaya. But hey, if you think he was at his pinnacle then who am I to disagree with such a dyed in the wool government supporter.

Now I'm waiting to see the host of a G8 summit run away and leave the remaining seven behind because it's so good for their career prospects.

If you're choosing to use only 5 grades, then the "-" should be dropped entirely and only "D" used.

It was the inaccuracy of reflecting a 69 as a D- and not the correct the D+ that I was addressing in the thread title.

Apologies for wishing to have accuracy reflected in the news.

Ummm, it's a hyphen

FYI - The author of this article, John Le Fevre, is a well known red shirt sympathiser. Previously known on here as Photojourn.

Facts quoted in the OP to be taken with as much salt as a recent Bangkok Post poll.

/edit - attach best image I can find:

Then you clearly haven't read enough of what I've written.

Thai Government scrapes a D-grade for first 6 months

resulting in an average 6.93 out of 10 for its work

By John Le Fevre

Classical five-point discrete evaluation with grades is the system most commonly used in the United States,

Grade Percentage GPA value

A 90-100 3.5-4.0

B 80-89 2.5-3.49

C 70-79 1.5-2.49

D 60-69 1.0-1.49

F 0 - 59 0.0

Using the scale provided and considering the government just narrowly missed getting a C-, would suggest the thread title be correctly renamed for improved accuracy:

Thai Government scrapes a D+grade for first 6 months

Then it wouldn't be a five graded system would it?

But hey, lets move away from the KISS principle.

If you're so keen to pat the government on the back why not split the A grade into A++, A+, A, A-, A-- and say they got an A-?