546 foreigners nabbed in three-day crackdown

[george]

Foreigners nabbed

Tourist police have arrested 546 foreigners, most of them from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, ahead of the Apec summit.

Pol Maj-Gen Chatchawal Suksomchit, assistant chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the arrests were made in a three-day crackdown on criminals and illegal immigrants.

The crackdown was part of security for the Apec summit. Charges including causing annoyance to tourists, working without permits, illegal entry, prostitution and drug dealing were laid. Tourist police also arrested 27 guides for working without a licence.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/09Oct2003_news17.html

Man held on possible plan to harm Singapore PM

BANGKOK, Oct. 8 — Thai police have arrested a Singapore man on suspicion he may have been be planning to assassinate Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in Bangkok during the APEC summit.

A Thai special branch officer told Reuters the man was detained for questioning late on Wednesday after he apparently had sent e-mails showing his intention to harm the Singapore leader.

      ''We are investigating whether he has really intended to carry out his threat,'' the officer said. ''Maybe he's just a crackpot.'' He declined to elaborate.

      A member of the management staff at the apartment block in central Bangkok where the suspect had stayed since June said the man, aged about 50, liked to surf the Internet and send e-mails.

      Goh will be in Bangkok for the October 20-21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit due to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush and the Thai government says it has an elaborate security plan in place.

SOURCE: http://famulus.msnbc.com/Famulus....=PACRIM

[francois]

might be a poll topic here!

who think that we should stay "very correct and avoid government criticism" until APEC is over?

if email can drive you to jail might better to avoid some subjects by now, it's scarry, aren't we living in a free world?

oh, it was another illusion  

[Rambutan]

How could they read his email anyway?  ???

Fake?

[cathyy]

It's a computer program called Echelon, you can thank the US FBI.  It allows the screening of all email pretty much worldwide. It uses keywords to flag suspect email for reading, and can trigger surveillance in other ways.  This is legal in the US based on the Patriot Act. I don't know if the Thai Constitution has any right to privacy in communications explicitly defined; if it doesn't I see no legal problem with reading his email.  It is used worldwide as a counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence tool.  So sorry if this is a surprise to you. It's well-publicized in the US.  If you don't want your email read, encrypt it using something like PGP or GPG.