Arrest of ji in bangkok

[Bintang]

From The Australian Newspaper- Sydney

Arrests uncover embassy bomb plot

By Kimina Lyall, Southeast Asia correspondent, Bangkok

June 11, 2003

ARRESTS by Thai police have revealed that Jemaah Islamiah resurrected its Singapore plans to bomb an Australian embassy, this time moving the location to Bangkok.

The Australian understands the Australian embassy was one of five missions targeted in the Bangkok plan, which involved senior Singaporean and Malaysian JI members who were also plotting to target tourists in the Thai tourist resorts of Phuket and Pattaya.

The revelations yesterday came as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Washington on a five-day official visit, during which he is expected to stress Thailand's commitment to the war on terrorism.

Since September 11 and again after the Bali bombings, Mr Thaksin denied terrorists were operating in Thailand.

But in recent weeks evidence that Thailand has become a new hub of JI activity has mounted.

In mid-May, the Thai Special Branch arrested 42-year-old Singaporean Arifin bin Ali, also known as John Wong Ah Hung, a senior JI leader who was wanted by Singapore for his involvement in a 2001 plan to bomb embassies.

Thai police yesterday arrested three men in southern Thailand who were connected with the embassy plot, and, The Australian understands, with a Cambodian cell broken up by Cambodian police last month.

Soon after Arifin's arrest, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revised its travel warning regarding Thailand, adding the popular seaside town of Pattaya to its list for the first time and specifying that the Australian embassy in Bangkok had increased its security. The Singapore Government issued a statement saying Arifin had been sent to Singapore, where he has been detained under its controversial Internal Security Act. Describing him as a "senior member" of JI, it said he trained in explosives in the notorious Abu Bakar training camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern Philippines in 1999.

After the arrests of JI members in Singapore in December 2001, Arifin fled to Malaysia and then travelled with other JI members to Thailand.

There, they resurrected the foiled Singapore plan to bomb Western embassies and the Israeli mission, and also planned to hijack a plane in Bangkok and crash it into Singapore's Changi airport.

"Arifin has disclosed . . . that he is involved with a group of like-minded individuals in planning terrorist attacks against certain targets in Thailand. Five foreign embassies, including the Singapore embassy in Bangkok, were among those targeted," the Singapore statement said.

[flackjacket]

Lets be thankful that Thailands security forces arrested the JI member in time. It has been in the news that they have been plotting a series of raids in Singapore, thankfully thwarted.

Remember Bali, now think what a suicide bomber could do in the Nana Plaza. It does not bear thinking about.

On tonights BBC news, reporting on the Bali trial, the accused said he wanted to kill all Whites(now that is racist) but would pray for the Balanese. Think how many Thais would be killed in the Nana!!!

Another of their aims is to cripple a countrys economy, so tourists and Expats still come to LOL but keep your eyes open.

These people want do dominate the Far East with their brand of "religion", dont let it happen.