Red Shirt Leaders Flee As Thai Forces Surround Hotel

[10027586]

Stupid thing is education's the only thing that can get this country moving forward. It's the ONLY solution long-term to all this crap.

[SiangDeeMahk]

Well.. ok.. IT FINALLY HAPPENED.

Seemingly, Mother Nature has finally had enough, and at 4:45 AM.. let loose a respectable display of lightning and thunder, and now at 5AM, it's totally freakin PISSING rain down, here in Bangkok. Pretty strong winds, too.

I really wonder just how much more of these 50+ year olds we'll be seeing at these puppetshow protests, now that the skys' tore open on them as they slept out on the streets (while the fresh images of their far-from-skinny leaders being hoisted out of 4star hotel rooms still plays in their minds).

This isnt a summer sprinkle.. it's REALLY raining, hard.. for like 20+ minutes already now. I know these are weather-hardened country folk, but even they don't sleep out on the ground at night in a driving rainstorm. I imagine there's basically pandemonium breaking out right now at the Red encampment. All manor of folk, desperately trying to gain some sort of sheltered access to all the malls they've caused the closures of. How poetic.

Please, please, let this seasonally early practical warning from the gods of the sky chase most of them away, making the next scheduled "military crackdown" (expected to be bloodier than the last) only a small scale bloodless excercise of easing the last few scraglers back off the streets?

Please? It'll be so much better if that's how it ends.

Edited April 16, 2010 by SiangDeeMahk

[on-on]

I dunno, if I'd spent the last month sleeping in the 100 degree Bangkok heat on hot pavement I'd probably be okay with sleeping in the cold driving rain, heh. Still, who knows. I'm enjoying the rain (from indoors).

[tonywebster]

the guy wearing the plastic britsh policemans helmet in that video, hilarious

Inept from top to bottom, either that or the police had no intention to arrest them and just went through the motions. Maybe the Government should recruit the yellow shirts that post on here, they seem to be the only ones with the vitriol to follow through, although they would probably not be so brave without the anonymity the computer gives them.

being against the anarchy that the red shirts offer, does not a yellow shirt make

in fact i have no idea what a yellow shirt stands for, and i do not need educating, thank you

i am sure there are many on here who would take care of business for the government if the price was right

some are so inflamed by these developments i suspect they would do it for free and maybe a Thai elite card

where is Sifu McInnes when you need him?

i bet his blood is boiling right now, the keys to the yellow Hummer gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for the phone to ring.....

Well I never quoted you are named you, or indeed named any posters, why so defensive? maybe that cap fits......

tonywebster is such a hypocrite that its not even worth feeding the troll ... you cannot have a mature debate with someone who claims to use his brain and yet speaks like he has only half a braincell or maybe he is totally brainwashed by his issan wife.

shut up you fool, my wife is not issan, in fact i don't think she has ever been, she is from nakhorn nayock, but don't let facts get in the way of your pathetic rambling. also look up the word hypocrite

[Phuket_Brad]

why don't they arrest the owner and staff of the hotel for adding and abetting a wanted person?

[iwad2010]

As I said in the other closed thread....

Don't any of the security forces own a Helicopter???

Why wasn't the arrest and capture carried out by landing a Helicopter on the Roof???

Why weren't these guys taken out by AIR so as to avoid any confrontation with the crowd?

Why aren't all these incompetent watermelons FIRED immediately???

CS

Did you see the list of captured weapons?

If you mean the reds had these weapons. Think again! It's just a sting & not a very sophisticated one at that!

The 'Government' are sinking to all time lows...terrorists, arms caches,....what next?

One of them was an anti-aircraft gun. Maybe they are afraid of being shot down.

Come on, why would the army bring in anti-aircraft guns to control protesters? Don't tell me the red protesters have F16 fighter jets?

[hextac]

Come on, why would the army bring in anti-aircraft guns to control protesters? Don't tell me the red protesters have F16 fighter jets?

Maybe Batman has changed allegiance?

[hextac]

why don't they arrest the owner and staff of the hotel for adding and abetting a wanted person?

Maybe they have no evidence of that?

[ovaltina]

Well.. ok.. IT FINALLY HAPPENED.

Seemingly, Mother Nature has finally had enough, and at 4:45 AM.. let loose a respectable display of lightning and thunder, and now at 5AM, it's totally freakin PISSING rain down, here in Bangkok. Pretty strong winds, too.

I really wonder just how much more of these 50+ year olds we'll be seeing at these puppetshow protests, now that the skys' tore open on them as they slept out on the streets (while the fresh images of their far-from-skinny leaders being hoisted out of 4star hotel rooms still plays in their minds).

This isnt a summer sprinkle.. it's REALLY raining, hard.. for like 20+ minutes already now. I know these are weather-hardened country folk, but even they don't sleep out on the ground at night in a driving rainstorm. I imagine there's basically pandemonium breaking out right now at the Red encampment. All manor of folk, desperately trying to gain some sort of sheltered access to all the malls they've caused the closures of. How poetic.

Please, please, let this seasonally early practical warning from the gods of the sky chase most of them away, making the next scheduled "military crackdown" (expected to be bloodier than the last) only a small scale bloodless excercise of easing the last few scraglers back off the streets?

Please? It'll be so much better if that's how it ends.

"Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets."

Robert DeNiro/Travis Bickle/"Taxi Driver"

[jucel]

I wonder if the 6 PAD guards who were caught with a fair few guns and ammo are being treated as 'terrorists'???

[jucel]

why don't they arrest the owner and staff of the hotel for adding and abetting a wanted person?

Maybe they have no evidence of that?

there's nothing in thai law to prosecute anybody for harbouring a fugitive. Not the same as western laws!

[ovaltina]

Hey I got a question..

Some news articles say there was as many as 30,000 + reds in town a few days ago..

but, now they say there are only 3,000-4,000.

Is this true? did so many really leave, and, if so - why?

to enjoy Songkran with their families?

Perhaps this is why they were being moved on by Police (because they are currently low in numbers)

So, what is the deal?

Are the reds waiting for more of their people to come back into town or is nobody else coming?

I'm just interested in hearing from someone who knows these sort of details.

If there is only 3 or 4K they should get 50 000 troops

Move in and retake the area

Move in armed to the hilts ... see a red with a weapon

shot him or her on the spot!! We know reds do not play

fair ...

We all know this has no happy ending ... git'er done

Incredible .... Fascisme

You said the right word for it.

You like short answers don't you. Its easier to avoid complexities and un-simple things like 'truth' and 'reality' when you just post a few propagandist words that in situ are meaningless.

Fascism is a big word, and deserves to not be thrown casually around. It is also multifaceted.

Fascism can, for example, be citizen-on-citizen fascism, something that is often overlooked by the Che Guevara-poster-on-the-wall, Crayola colouring-book school of social commentary.

Fascism, for example, might be that inflicted on a little florist lady who owns a small flower-shop in the city, who is trying to pay the rent, feed her kids & pay for their learning etc. when suddenly a gang of drunken yaba-snorting people in red shirts arrive and blockade all the local roads, stop supplies coming in, throw grenades around, tip buckets of HIV+ blood on the pavement, stab un-armed policemen with sharpened sticks, stockpile automatic weapons etc.

From the point of view of the little florist woman, as she watches this horror, and watches her customers vanish, and watches her income vanish for 5 weeks, she is watching a *fascist* red mob of oppressive thugs.

You don't see that though, do you.

[hextac]

Well.. ok.. IT FINALLY HAPPENED.

Seemingly, Mother Nature has finally had enough, and at 4:45 AM.. let loose a respectable display of lightning and thunder, and now at 5AM, it's totally freakin PISSING rain down, here in Bangkok. Pretty strong winds, too.

I really wonder just how much more of these 50+ year olds we'll be seeing at these puppetshow protests, now that the skys' tore open on them as they slept out on the streets (while the fresh images of their far-from-skinny leaders being hoisted out of 4star hotel rooms still plays in their minds).

This isnt a summer sprinkle.. it's REALLY raining, hard.. for like 20+ minutes already now. I know these are weather-hardened country folk, but even they don't sleep out on the ground at night in a driving rainstorm. I imagine there's basically pandemonium breaking out right now at the Red encampment. All manor of folk, desperately trying to gain some sort of sheltered access to all the malls they've caused the closures of. How poetic.

Please, please, let this seasonally early practical warning from the gods of the sky chase most of them away, making the next scheduled "military crackdown" (expected to be bloodier than the last) only a small scale bloodless excercise of easing the last few scraglers back off the streets?

Please? It'll be so much better if that's how it ends.

"Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets."

Robert DeNiro/Travis Bickle/"Taxi Driver"

Not today cowboy.

[SabaiBKK]

shut up you fool, my wife is not issan, in fact i don't think she has ever been, she is from nakhorn nayock, but don't let facts get in the way of your pathetic rambling. also look up the word hypocrite

don't feed the troll.... don't feed the troll .....

you are an hypocrite when you say you never called "yellow" people who don t think like you

ouch .... i said don't feed the troll .... i know .... but you are sooo cute when you are cornered and the only answer is to call others fools, or yellow .... but its clear that you have no clue whatsoever about the current situation and are making an ass of yourself with every comment you write.

so long little troll ...

[OzMick]

I refer to post #562, the open letter from UDD - they claim (for what it's worth) a membership of 14,000,000 or around 20% of the population, trying to enforce their political will on the majority. THAT'S DEMOCRACY?

BUT, we are assured that they will win in the next election. Gonna have to throw a lot of B500 notes around boys.

[Bagwan]

Brain? Brain? Mai mee.

You are modest to a fault sir.

Many that come here would have scribed 'Brane? Brane? Mai ow'.

[Bagwan]

Brain? Brain? Mai mee.

You are modest to a fault sir.

Many that come here would have scribed 'Brane? Brane? Mai ow'.

[rixalex]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll keep that in mind in the future. I can't be imagining the memory I have of numerous past posts where people have complained they can ONLY post from the Nation. I guess that's where I derived the belief, since nobody ever corrected these other individuals.

Perhaps a more general lesson might be derived?

Indeed.

The way in which FreedomDude was so easily misled into believing something patently untrue simply because certain posters repeated the lie over and over again is very telling.

[rabo]

I would just like to mention that not a single English international news source has adopted the word "terrorist" to refer to the redshirts. Many have mentioned that Abhisit referred to them thusly but none has adopted the word to refer to the reds outside of the references in Abhisit's speeches.

3 examples (now that I know we CAN actually link to other sources besides the Nation, Yay!)

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63F0CX20100416

"The government has promised to crack down on what it terms "terrorists" whom it blames for Saturday's killings"

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/world/asia/17thai.html

"Mr. Abhisit said the move was necessary because the protesters had been infiltrated by what he called terrorists who were threatening national security. "

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8625847.stm

"He had announced that the police were there to take "decisive measures against terrorists" - the government's word for an alleged protest hard core."

That's probably because the red's are not the terrorists, they are rural farming people. That's understood here in Thailand and I assume the savy international media would follow suit.

The reference to terrorists applies to Taksin's militant wing trained under Gen. Khattiya and maybe others we don't know about. These are the ones that have threated to "hunt down" Abhisit and the ones that tried to blow up the primiary electical pylons feeding Bangkok, a *real* terrorist attack that would have led to significant loss of innocent life. How many hospital emergency rooms are there in Bangkok?

And there is still the open question of who planned and executed the assassination attempt on Sonthi L. - not that I'm in any way a fan of the man or his agenda. The weapons came from Lopburri.

That's a good point and a key point in trying to understand what forces are really at play now. However, Sondhi himself says he knows who did it. Again there is the question of how much you can trust anything, but this is a strong "data point". From a page on wordpress. You can easily find the page by googling any group of about 8 to 10 words.

People's Alliance for Democracy, or PAD, leader Sondhi Limthongkul said the mastermind and moneybag of his assassination attempt is someone who lives abroad, with some people in the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI, and the military hiring the assassination team, which is made up of three soldiers and one policeman.

He said most of the soldiers involved in the plot are from the Special Warfare Unit in Lop Buri and they want to silence him for his efforts to expose corruption.

[ianh68]

In amongst all the sound and fury, did anyone pick up on the fact that hotel staffs are employed on daily contracts?

[ovaltina]

Well.. ok.. IT FINALLY HAPPENED.

Seemingly, Mother Nature has finally had enough, and at 4:45 AM.. let loose a respectable display of lightning and thunder, and now at 5AM, it's totally freakin PISSING rain down, here in Bangkok. Pretty strong winds, too.

I really wonder just how much more of these 50+ year olds we'll be seeing at these puppetshow protests, now that the skys' tore open on them as they slept out on the streets (while the fresh images of their far-from-skinny leaders being hoisted out of 4star hotel rooms still plays in their minds).

This isnt a summer sprinkle.. it's REALLY raining, hard.. for like 20+ minutes already now. I know these are weather-hardened country folk, but even they don't sleep out on the ground at night in a driving rainstorm. I imagine there's basically pandemonium breaking out right now at the Red encampment. All manor of folk, desperately trying to gain some sort of sheltered access to all the malls they've caused the closures of. How poetic.

Please, please, let this seasonally early practical warning from the gods of the sky chase most of them away, making the next scheduled "military crackdown" (expected to be bloodier than the last) only a small scale bloodless excercise of easing the last few scraglers back off the streets?

Please? It'll be so much better if that's how it ends.

"Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets."

Robert DeNiro/Travis Bickle/"Taxi Driver"

Not today cowboy.

Lol I wish I was a cowboy when I walk past reds mob in evenings, instead of single white girl. Cowboys have guns & testosterone & stuff that keep them safe, I've just got my office-bag and a beeper & I get scared by them tbh. Especially when theyre drunk &loaded.

Re; the storm itself, it was very pretty & more like the October storms in sort of just crashing around in the sky going blam for ages. Where I live is 2 derelict high-rise opposite, and the lightning was flashing allover it before daybreak, looked like a sort of gothic citadel with bits of metal and turrets.

[tonywebster]

shut up you fool, my wife is not issan, in fact i don't think she has ever been, she is from nakhorn nayock, but don't let facts get in the way of your pathetic rambling. also look up the word hypocrite

don't feed the troll.... don't feed the troll .....

you are an hypocrite when you say you never called "yellow" people who don t think like you

ouch .... i said don't feed the troll .... i know .... but you are sooo cute when you are cornered and the only answer is to call others fools, or yellow .... but its clear that you have no clue whatsoever about the current situation and are making an ass of yourself with every comment you write.

so long little troll ...

read the comments again you fool, then I will happily accept your apology, who are you anyway? Why do you feel the need to abuse people with a different opinion? Were you bullied as a child? Maybe you are still bullied, is this your power trip, abusing people on an Internet forum?

How about if you want to continue this abuse you do it via pm rather than clog the thread with your vitriol, there's a good boy, hey maybe we can even arrange a meeting and we can talk about your abusive nature over a pint, I won't hold my breath though. Quite were you got the idea that I am a troll heaven only knows, maybe you confuse me with someone else, but one thing is clear, shouting troll over and over makes you look like a little whinging ponce.

[tonywebster]

I refer to post #562, the open letter from UDD - they claim (for what it's worth) a membership of 14,000,000 or around 20% of the population, trying to enforce their political will on the majority. THAT'S DEMOCRACY?

BUT, we are assured that they will win in the next election. Gonna have to throw a lot of B500 notes around boys.

20% of the poulation may be correct, but what % of the voting population are they? It is no food working on the premise of the whole population because come election time half of the population can't vote.

We all know will win an election, abhisit knows as well and that is why he is trying to cling to power, if he was so confident he has the people on his side he would put it to the vote now and secure 4 more years.

[Mario2008]

And that was enough trading personal insults. The next one will earn a suspension.

[rixalex]

We all know will win an election,

Actually, nobody knows. We can only guess. Looking at the last election results, it seems likely that nobody will win.

abhisit knows as well and that is why he is trying to cling to power, if he was so confident he has the people on his side he would put it to the vote now and secure 4 more years.

You seem to forget he is already in power and has over a year on his term remaining. The only reason for him to go to the polls early is if he wishes to cave in to the demands of mobs on the streets who are funded by an on-the-run criminal. Doesn't seem like a great reason.

[jayboy]

You seem to forget he is already in power and has over a year on his term remaining. The only reason for him to go to the polls early is if he wishes to cave in to the demands of mobs on the streets who are funded by an on-the-run criminal. Doesn't seem like a great reason.

Just adding to your interesting and intelligent comment, he would also be following the rather firmly expressed advice of the General Anupong, the Commander of the Royal Thai Army.

Edited April 17, 2010 by jayboy

[chadintheusa]

Arisaman, Arisaman,

Does whatever a spider can

Spins a web, full of lies,

Attracts fools just like flies

Look Out!

Here comes Arisaman.

Is he strong?

Listen bud,

He's got jugs of pigs blood.

Can he swing from a thread

Take a look overhead

Hey, there

There goes the Arisaman.

In the chill of night

At the scene of a crime

Like an urban blight

He arrives just in time.

Arisaman, Arisaman

Frightening neighborhoods Arisaman

Wealth and fame

He's on board

A pardon is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up

Whenever there's a hang up

You'll find Arisaman.

[way2muchcoffee]

You seem to forget he is already in power and has over a year on his term remaining. The only reason for him to go to the polls early is if he wishes to cave in to the demands of mobs on the streets who are funded by an on-the-run criminal. Doesn't seem like a great reason.

Just adding to your interesting and intelligent comment, he would also be following the rather firmly expressed advice of the General Anupong, the Commander of the Royal Thai Army.

You mean the erroneous and misunderstood advice that was retracted and clarified the next day?

Edited April 17, 2010 by way2muchcoffee

[Bagwan]

Cretins.

The Government has managed to find a few top cops that will obey its rules.

The rank and file however are having second thoughts.

Like the Italians in the last war, they are capable of more fight than this. Trouble is, the rank and file are mostly red, their families are mostly red.

So much for the offer of talks. No more talks I say, starve the business community out now. All the yellow supporters backers are now loosing big money.

Obama was so concerned yesterday with the Thais running round screaming "Terrorist" that he held a press conference.... and announce a mission to Mars!

You have evidence to support your contention? From what I have seen of the RTP over a good number of years they appear to be a bunch of bananas. Yellow and come in bunches. It needed 50 plus of them to shoot up an elderly couples refrigerator remember? They will support any party that allows them to carry on being a national disgrace with the reputation of being the largest organised crime syndicate in the world.

Plenty mate, Look around and you will see corruption in every corner of every walk of life here. Thaksins been gone 4 years!

Lucky they shot the fridge. The army managed to kill a few people on live tv last weekend. Suppose as you didn't think is fit your argument that you didn't see it.

You intellegent falangs think you have answers with your glib replys. you don't even know the questions to begin with.

1. You are somewhat presumptious if you think that I am your mate. I already have a mate - and I'll wager that most would agree that she is easier on the eye than you and, more importantly, considerably closer to touching reality in relation to the current crisis.

2. You may not be aware, amongst other things, that corruption has been around these parts since the year dot. It isn't unknown in any part of the world. My beef with Thaksin is that he transformed it into an industry - with him and his wife's family as the main beneficiaries and thus ignored the pressing needs of the majority of the populace. Do you really expect Abhisit in his short tenure to date to eradicate what is ingrained into the psyche of most Thais and make corruption merely a distant memory?

3. So Thaksin, the criminal fugtitive, has been gone for four years. Do you hold that his influence and ability to get others to act on his behalf is not still with us? I suggest that anybody with that point of view is terminally stupid.

4. Your comment regarding the refrigerator is crass in the extreme. Two innocent elderly people were terrified by a trigger happy police mob led by one of Thaksin's lieutenants - well gofer really. I suppose you write that off as 'a misunderstanding'. By making such an idiotic comment you have displayed a warped sense of humour whereas the more sensible generated thoughts of a Wild West lynch mob.

5. My post attacked Thaksin and the RTP and not the Army. Permit me to appraise you that the Army are an entirely different body of men. Let me remind you that a number of soldiers died too, one a senior officer, was assassinated. That doesn't fit in too well with 'peaceful demonstrations'.

6. I would propose that intelligent farangs have the intelligence to know that they do not have all the answers but then apparently neither do any Thais. Perhaps you could let us have your opinion on what the unintellgent farangs think should be done for peace to break out? Since you seem to think that you are not 'an intelligent farang' but somebody a little higher up the evolutionary scale maybe you can let us know what the questions are?

[rixalex]

You seem to forget he is already in power and has over a year on his term remaining. The only reason for him to go to the polls early is if he wishes to cave in to the demands of mobs on the streets who are funded by an on-the-run criminal. Doesn't seem like a great reason.

Just adding to your interesting and intelligent comment, he would also be following the rather firmly expressed advice of the General Anupong, the Commander of the Royal Thai Army.

I'm sure Abhisit takes on board advice from many respected quarters, but hope that it is advice rather than interference. I'm sure you agree we wouldn't want that.