This Is No Time For Thailand To Let Down Its Guard

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

This is no time for Thailand to let down its guard

By The Nation

The discovery of a Bangkok forgery ring with alleged links to international terrorists shows that we still need to remain vigilant on security matters

At least ten people have been arrested in Thailand and Spain in connection with a ring of counterfeiters that provides fake passports, travel documents and identification. It is alleged the clients of the group include international terrorists.

Spanish officials reportedly said that an 18-month international investigation showed that the network had branches in Brussels and London, and was directed by a Pakistani national, Muhammad Athar Butt, 42, who was arrested in Bangkok along with others, including a Thai woman, Sirikallaya Kitbamrung.

Some of Butt's customers are said to include al-Qaeda members; Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger separatists; members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist group behind the brutal attack in Mumbai, India in November 2008, a massacre that took the lives of more than 160 people. Police searched Butt's Bangkok apartment and came across materials used in the production of fake passports and immigration stamps, fake credit cards, information relating to arms trafficking, e-mails containing orders for forged passports, and a package originating from Spain.

Police in Spain, in a similar raid in the Raval district of Barcelona, discovered a computer and 50 cellphones. The place is where Spanish authorities in January 2008 arrested 14 men accused of being part of a vast, coordinated suicide-bomber network.

While the evidence discovered by the police is enormous, this is no time to be complacent, because this is obviously only the tip of a big iceberg. If a small forgery ring like this can have such a wide reach, as the authorities have indeed indicated, imagine how many other outfits with better organisational structure are currently operating undetected. True, many of these forgery groups may not be operationally linked, and the individual culprits may not harbour any specific political ideologies or violent intentions. But the fact that they allow international terrorists and criminals to tap into their services is a cause of great concern. Disrupting their operations may slow them down, but only until the clients can find a replacement service-provider. And it seems that many are willing and able to provide such services

Counter-terrorism experts have repeatedly said that terrorism and criminality are two sides of the same coin. The raids in Bangkok and Spain are examples of this.

In the aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings, Thailand took a very selfish attitude, insisting that the country had no terrorist cells operating on its soil. The local authorities spoke as if foreign terrorists and criminal syndicates respected political borders. But all that changed when Bali bombing suspect, Hambali, was arrested just north of Bangkok.

If anything, Hambali's arrrest, along with the recent shutdown of this fake passport ring, is a clear indication that Thailand is not out of the loop. This means that Thai law enforcement agencies will be watched even more closely to see if they are letting their guard down when it comes to international criminal syndicates.

The end result for the authorities is that selective enforcement and the kickbacks that come with turning a blind eye will not be as easy as before. One can argue that criminal syndicates and terrorism are two separate entities. But these arrests in Thailand and Spain are proof that their lines do cross at times.

Today, the Thai police and security forces give the clear indication that they are playing from the same sheet of music as their international counterparts. Let's hope that this is not a one-off show for some brownie points from an entity that doesn't usually come across as a source of comfort for the general public.

-- The Nation 2010-12-07

[Piengrudee]

International Terrorists? Thaksin is a Montenegrin, hence this phase applies.

[kuffki]

Considering that getting a visa takes few minutes in the airport and hardly any checks are done, i am surprised to read that Thailand actually really believed there are no terrorists living here or hiding here

[bangon04]

Quite right - it would be wrong for Thailand to let its guard down. Who else would be able to blow a whistle at the entrance to the car park.....