TNT Bomb Discovered Near Thaksin's Residence

[bazmlb]

Police defuse bomb near residence of Thai prime minister

ITV reported that the vehicle was driven back and forth near Thaksin's residence and a security guard of the prime minister urged police to chase and stop it.

The Nation

Blame it on the farang school teacher for not showing him how to read a map properly, whats that "X" mean? Oh i was meant to park there and set it off.

I know no prizes for second

.

Edited August 24, 2006 by bazmlb

[slimdog]

The embattled general said Thawatchai used to be a sergeant when he was serving as his official driver when he was the secretary to the Defense Council. Thawatchai was only a sergeant at the time. Pallop did not explain about his promotion to the rank of a lieutenant.

The Nation

Looks like the guy just got promoted....

Army officer says denies parking car near Thaksin's house

Lt Gen Thawatchai Klinchana, who was arrested in connection with alleged assassination attempt against the prim minister, denied he had driven the car to the PM's house.

A police source quoted Thawatchai as claiming that he was hired Bt200 by someone to pick up the car, which was already parked there.

Thawatchai told investigators that he hired a taxi motorcyclist to pick up the car and he was arrested when he opened the car's door.

The Nation

[John K]

Ok I am only going to make one comment (hopefully) on this. I know someone who lived in the same general neighborhood. In a previous conversation not related to this thread he told me that there are always about 5 police near the entrance of the neighborhood. That started with the PAD rallies. Even a jogger with dogs is stopped before passing. They check the jogger and dogs. If the car was past that check point then you already know how it got there.

My gut feeling is not unlike Thaksin to set this up. Think of the content of his letter to George Bush and what the underlying reason were. He wants people to feel sorry for him. This is very typical for people who have done wrong. If any of you know someone in law enforcement they will identify with this behavior as it is seen in some suspects when they are cornered as they try to solicit pity.

On the bright side this is a sign of desperation meaning Thaksin has few other options. Paper has been replaced with fists and bombs.

Seeing that beating up protesters seems to have backfired on to plan “B” assassination attempts on my life.

A few points, from what I know bomb crews send only 1 person to deal with a bomb. A thought about the Darwin awards came to mind when looking at the photos seeing men all around the car. I don’t know the time frame of the photo but the thought did occur.

As for assassination attempts looking at events of the last week, I would say there is more of a chance one of the PAD core members getting assassinated by Thaksin. That too is well within Thaksin’s methods. He just keeps hitting harder and harder until he gets what he wants. Keep in mind all he is doing is looking for excuses to make changes that benefit him. His first court deadline is less than 3 weeks away on September 11 (how ironic) so look for significant things to happen between now and then.

The admitted car bomber assassin in post #34, was he following the John Karr saga by any chance? One of the copy cats looking for their moment of fame?

Post #40 Thaksin talking to the media when just yesterday he admitted he does not trust them to be hones and avoids journalists all together.

I am sorry but I have seen better “B” movies than this facade, but it may play well in Isaan.

So is this another step closer to martial law? The need for complete control to quench the violence.

For Thaksin and violence I can well imagine him thinking ‘If you want something done right you simply need to do it yourself.’

[Thaising]

A professional assassin would not drive his car around the PM vicinity just to create suspicious and waiting to be caught for nothing. Whoever the mastermind, they should know well ahead how tight the security is, since Thaksin already make known his lives is in danger of an assassination. And coincidently, Thaksin happened to leave his house much earlier. How could this be a possibility?

By sacking General Pallop, Thaksin is using this opportunity to get rid of him, just because General Pallop does provides some security to Major General Chamlong during the PAD demonstration as well the Krue Se mosque incident that had created a very bad name for Thaksin.

All this distraction is to lure the media to make up his already bad images stories

Edited August 24, 2006 by Thaising

[jltheart]

Hmm Maybe a English Teacher did this. Can I have the car once they are finished putting the fertisiler back in Taskin flower beds. His wife was pissed.

[Tony Clifton]

For attempts to harm him, Thaksin mentions "incidents" at military airports (are journalists allowed there?), the car crash recently in his security convoy (how fast and carelessly does his convoy fly by?) and the "bomb" on the plane in 2001 which turned out to be a faulty air conditioner. This bomb threat definitely smells like him.

It also seems that today's events and conclusions, including the almost immediate sacking of Gen. Pollap, have unrolled in record time, just like it all had been planned ahead. I'm not sure if they were previously opponents, if not, Pornlap may also be playing along with him, simply another paid actor in the Thaksin soap opera that never ends.

Edited August 24, 2006 by Tony Clifton

[hammered]

Oddly enough I havent yet met a Thai person who believes the bomb story, and I dont live in Bangkok.

[Rhys]

WAD..DA NADA A Honest Mistake.. 555555555

[Tony Clifton]

Au

*edit (don't know what happened there)

August 24, 2006

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai police defused explosives found in a car near the house of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday after it was abandoned following a chase.

The car, loaded with TNT, fertilizer and C4 explosives, was left at an intersection about a kilometer (half-a-mile) from Thakin's house after the chase in northwestern Bangkok.

"We found TNT weighing five pounds, 10 bags of fertilizer mix with gasoline and three sticks of C-4 explosives," Police Colonel Sathorn Saisomboon told AFP. "All were ready to be activated," he said.

The car was parked near Thaksin's home before police pursued it to the Bangplad intersection and defused the explosives in its trunk.

They're tripping all over their cover- up already

Edited August 24, 2006 by Tony Clifton

[stumonster]

as the final peanuts fall out of his top gallery , who is the next poster to line up and tell me he is a smart boy ?

[mitrapaap]

-one driver

-then 2

-car was turning around

-then car was parked

-but if car was parked, then why drivers ?

-0.4 kilo

-then 4-5 kilos explosives

-dynamite

-then TNT, or C4 or C5, or X15

-inside the compound

-then 400m away

-fake ID card, but real ID

-no detonator

-then "magic button"

-driver of General Panlop

-then... ladyboy dancer at Alcazar ?

I mean : overhall they are not mastering the art of communication.

they still follow the old slogan: amazing Thailand

[John K]

If I was behind it, I would not have missed. : Pallop

Sacked Internal Security Operation Command's Deputy Director Pallop Pinmanee denied he is behind the assassination plot against Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, saying if he was, he would not have missed.

Thaksin sacked Pallop, retired army general, after an Isoc army officer, Lt. Thawatchai Klinchana, was arrested and charged with possessing explosive materials, including TNT, without a permit.

Thawatchai's car, which had a significant amount of explosives, was found parked not far Thaksin's residence on the route through which the premier's motorcade normally passes.

"You know me. If I was behind it, I would not have missed," said the shaken Pallop. "I wouldn't have sent Thawatchai to drive around, as reported, the Prime Minister's residence. It would have just set it off without giving away any prior warnings."

Pallop also pointed out that the explosive devices were not assembled and therefore was not ready to be detonated. "The explosive was being transported, not assembled to be detonated," he added.

The embattled general said Thawatchai used to be a sergeant when he was serving as his official driver when he was the secretary to the Defense Council. Thawatchai was only a sergeant at the time. Pallop did not explain about his promotion to the rank of a lieutenant.

He added that about three months ago, he reassigned Thawatchai to the restive South to work with for Isoc as an intelligence officer.

The Nation

[Plus]

The real reason for sacking Pol. Gen. Cods. Wallop was his total incompetence in assassination attempts. "Even those stupid muslims make better bombs" - Thaksin was heard as muttering while signing dismissal papers.

....

Freelancing for Bangkok Herald

If Thaksin seriously thinks that motorcycle crash in his motorcade on the way to Burma was an assassination bid he should immediately see a psychiatrist. It's definetely paranoia.

[libya 115]

ACM Kongsak: the bomb hidden in the car is a TNT type

thank goodness it wasn't the explosive type!

Well its a little less damaging than compound 4 (C-4) but you can't eat it, while C-4 is...

But TNT is more dangerous than C-4 which is absolutely harmless without detonator

TNT and fertiliser (ammonium nitrate) mix would be the the old-fashioned explosive called 'amatol': a stable explosive requiring detonators.

Mercury fulminate, is the old fashioned choice of detonator, I would imagine that modern bombers would use zinc azide these days.

However, whoever this mad bomber was, the more I think about it, the more mad he must have been, from photographic evidence, so far.

[Canadianvisitor]

It sounds VERY fishy to me.

What about the accused, Is he a married man with children?

or is he a single guy that the accusation of would seem to benifit or at least not ruin him?

Will he "dissapear?"

Sounds like a cheap election ad.

Any media coverage is good media coverage.

[Ricardo]

The government security forces are to be congratulated on the speed of their investigations, since the car-driver's 3-months-previously boss has already been sacked, within a few hours of the finding of the ingredients for a bomb. I wonder what evidence will emerge, when he is brought to trial, to implicate him in the plot ?

Would that they could have the same success, in finding the bombers of General Prem's house, or any of the other similar events over the past several months.

Meanwhile the story has successfully taken centre-stage in the media, from other recent events, which might have been far more damaging to TRT and the acting caretaker PM, in the upcoming election. So that's all right then.

[sriracha john]

It sounds VERY fishy to me.

What about the accused, Is he a married man with children?

or is he a single guy that the accusation of would seem to benifit or at least not ruin him?

Will he "dissapear?"

Sounds like a cheap election ad.

Any media coverage is good media coverage.

This is the accused guy:

Policemen escort Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana (center) after a search at his house in a military barracks in Bangkok August 24, 2006. Thai police said on Thursday they had thwarted an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who promptly fired a top security aide whose driver they said was caught in a car with the makings of a huge bomb. Thawatchai, who according to police identified himself as the driver for General Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the powerful Internal Security Operations Command, was detained. He has been charged with illegal possession of explosive materials. Police quoted Thawatchai as saying he had no idea what was in the car and was driving it to an address nearby at the request of a friend. REUTERS

[Maejo Man]

He has been charged with illegal possession of explosive materials. Police quoted Thawatchai as saying he had no idea what was in the car and was driving it to an address nearby at the request of a friend.[/i] REUTERS

Probably closest to the truth. The poor guy was looking for an address. Smacks of nasty set up to me

[Tony Clifton]

So, now, how long until army trucks and tanks roll onto and around his property in the early hours of the morning, taking him abruptly away still wearing his pyjamas and facial cream?

"Honeyyyy! Can you get the door? I can't see a thing."

Edited August 24, 2006 by Tony Clifton

[tracer0]

So you pack a bunch of fertilizer into a can and throw a couple os sticks into the back of your car. But you dont bother assembling the device. Then you drive repeatedly around the house of your target. That target is a very high profile person and there are securtiy guards around his residence. Hmmmm sounds exactly how an expert would conduct a bombing!

By the way any mention of detonators?

why< as its a fake detonation why would you need them?? (g)

[animatic]

There is an ancient chinese curse.

"May you live in interesting times."

Edited August 24, 2006 by animatic

[John K]

So you pack a bunch of fertilizer into a can and throw a couple os sticks into the back of your car. But you dont bother assembling the device. Then you drive repeatedly around the house of your target. That target is a very high profile person and there are securtiy guards around his residence. Hmmmm sounds exactly how an expert would conduct a bombing!

By the way any mention of detonators?

why< as its a fake detonation why would you need them?? (g)

I see you hit on the political side of this. Thaksin does not like educated people, and his voter base (at least he hopes) will not figure that out. This is all to get and keep sympathy from the uneducated voter base.

[animatic]

Yes and no.

it is MORE likely a prelude to a crack down on freedoms,

because he is "at risk"...

Of copurse this wil be ther freedoms of people

who read the newspapers,

and have un-cowed inteligence on display.

Quivering yes men and farmers waiting for a handout,

have little reason to dissent.

Of course it was a juinor army officer

being completely ignorant about how to wage war...

What the Thai army can't train him better than that.. yeah right.

His motus operandi is totally lame.

But it opens the possibility to blame army factions

who are not cooperating with him.

The small number of mall protesters were merely using their voices,

his security beat them senseless. He says NOTHING.

As Henry Hobson said "Let's keep sense of propoortion."

Hubris is a heady drug...

Edited August 24, 2006 by animatic

[sriracha john]

Marcos declared a nation-wide martial law in the Philippines after several similarly staged "attempts" on his life... which were later found to be totally bogus and involved his own goons acting out roles as "communist" agents....

History DOES repeat itself.

Edited August 24, 2006 by sriracha john

[John K]

Yes and no.

it is MORE likely a prelude to a crack down on freedoms,

because he is "at risk"...

Of copurse this wil be ther freedoms of people

who read the newspapers,

and have un-cowed inteligence on display.

Quivering yes men and farmers waiting for a handout,

have little reason to dissent.

Of course it was a juinor army officer

being completely ignorant about how to wage war...

What the Thai army can't train him better than that.. yeah right.

His motus operandi is totally lame.

But it opens the possibility to blame army factions

who are not cooperating with him.

The small number of mall protesters were merely using their voices,

his security beat them senseless. He says NOTHING.

As Henry Hobson said "Let's keep sense of propoortion."

Hubris is a heady drug...

Yes , I am afraid you are right on the freedom part. I made an initial post in another thread a few days ago hoping I was wrong, but it looks more and more like it will be that way. It is about the only card he has left to play. Probably one of the first things to go will be The Nation newspaper and the PAD leadership arrested.

[farang prince]

First it's a "TNT type bomb" then it's a fertiliser bomb. With an unassembled bomb the bomber drives past his target multiple times!! No mention of how he was going to detonate it.

Diversionary tactics, it's all smoke and mirrors

This is almost laughable it is so transparent. Thaksin obviously believes that you can fool some of the people all of the time.

[sriracha john]

'Bomb plot to kill Thaksin foiled', questions linger

Explosives 'ready to be detonated near motorcade'; Army officer held for questioning

A car loaded with explosives that was intercepted by police early yesterday morning was possibly to be used in an attempt to kill caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was travelling in his motorcade, National Intelligence Agency director Jumphol Manmai said yesterday.

The police general said he learned that the bomb, containing 14.23 pounds (6.5 kilograms) of a combination of TNT and C-4 composite explosive as well as a type of 64.57 blasting agent, was ready to go off. He said he did not know who was behind the possible assassination plot.

Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Lt-General Wiroj Jantharangsee said the explosives in the sedan were completely assembled, equipped with a remote unit sensor and ready to be detonated, and that it would have a radius of impact of around one kilometre.

Five uniformed police officers pulled over the silver Daewoo sedan at the foot of a flyover on Borromratchonnani Road near Bang Phlad Intersection and arrested the driver, Army Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, who said he was paid Bt200 by a man to drive it to an area called Suan Oy.

Thawatchai, initially charged with having explosives in his possession, was later brought to the Crime Suppression Division compound for questioning, with two military officers present, after police searched his official residence near the First Military Precinct headquarters, where police found and seized two licence plates and a personal computer.

A police team later searched Thawatchai's own home in Nonthaburi's Bang Bua Thong district and found no illegal items. A Thai Rak Thai Party blazer was found there.

A police barricade was set up around the car and a large crowd was herded away to a 400-metre radius from where it was parked. A team of police ordnance experts were called in to examine the car. They neutralised some of the explosives on the front passenger seat by using a high-powered water gun to disassemble what appeared to be cloth bags with something inside.

Police discovered later that the sedan's licence plate Thor Santhan-Chor Ching 3085 BKK was registered to a woman and had already been classified void. An investigation was underway to find out how the invalid licence plates came to be attached to the car and what the car's body serial number, which had been scratched out, was.

At a press conference later on, the officer displayed a number of items he said were retrieved from the sedan. Explosives-related items included TNT sticks weighing 10.73 pounds in total, a number of C-4 explosive sticks weighing 3.5 pounds and a combination of blasting agents identified as Anfo (ammonium nitrate-fuel oil) contained in 13 lubricant plastic cans.

Wiroj said such types of explosives were the same as those used in terror bomb attacks in the restive South by insurgents, and that the impact would have been massive. "Nobody within the lethal radius of 30-40 metres would have survived and buildings within the range would be destroyed completely, including the flyover," he said.

The officer said it was possible the car was intended to attack the motorcade of Thaksin, which regularly uses the route to take him from his home in nearby Charansanitwong Soi 69 to Government House.

- The Nation

[sriracha john]

Doubts over Thaksin's lucky escape

News about an assassination attempt against caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was greeted with some suspicion as security and intelligence officers said there were too many questions to support such a claim.

All sorts of conspiracy theories were floated as news reports unfolded to the public about how an Army lieutenant was planning to use 67 kilograms of explosives to assassinate Thaksin.

Former security tsar Prasong Soonsiri said the incident was a set-up to divert attention from the political turmoil the government is experiencing.

He said the incident could lead to the issuing of the controversial Emergency Law to clamp down on the government's political opponents.

Others believe the incident will give the premier the needed bargaining chip to put his supporters in key security positions at the upcoming annual reshuffle.

Thaksin said it "was his lucky day for leaving home earlier". He claimed to have been heading to an emergency meeting on the flood crisis in the North, which he had called for an hour ahead of his scheduled appointments, the times of which are usually made known in advance.

The assassination claim highlighted the statement made on Sunday by Thai Rak Thai Party executive Pairote Suwanchawee, who used the term "suicide bomber" to describe tactics employed by a handful of anti-Thaksin protestors at the Siam Paragon shopping complex in Bangkok.

Making such a comparison without explanation baffled many people, with claims it was an irresponsible statement that could have caused grave misunderstanding among the public and international community.

In what was seen as an unprecedented act, Thaksin's security people were extremely helpful with the media, providing photographers with pictures of Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana and the explosive materials found in the vehicle.

Thaksin said yesterday that he had been the target of failed assassination plots on at least two occasions in the past two weeks. He claimed one happened when he was getting off his official plane at the Don Muang airforce base, but he did not elaborate.

The premier has made similar claims over the past six years, although none has been proven.

A military strategist also pointed out that the explosive devices in the car yesterday were not assembled or ready to be detonated.

Conflicting statements were issued throughout the day. Initially, investigators on the ground said the bomb was not assembled, but the chief of the Metropolitan Police, Lt-General Wiroj Jantharangsee, told a press conference in the afternoon that it was assembled and ready to be set off. yeah, once they got all their versions of the story lined up....

Wiroj paraded all the evidence to the media while National Intelligence Agency chief General Chumpol Munmai concluded that the devices were meant to assassinate the premier.

There were no word on who was the suspected mastermind of the plot.

But the military strategist pointed out that if the devices were meant to explode as Thaksin passed by, they should have been assembled so that they could be set off instantly. He said it would take at least an hour to assemble all the devices.

"If somebody wanted to kill Thaksin with that amount of explosives, all they had to do was park their car next to the front of Thaskin's residence and jump on a waiting motorbike before detonating the bomb from a distance," he said.

He dismissed suggestions that Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) Deputy Director Pallop Pinmanee was behind the plot, saying Pallop had always been close to Thaksin.

Pallop was immediately sacked without any real investigation.

Lt-General Pirat Sawamiwat, a former classmate of Pallop, said if the ousted deputy ISOC chief was behind any assassination attempt, the victim would not have survived.

Moreover, if the vehicle was in fact a car bomb, why did the driver repeatedly circle around Thaksin's residential area during the rush-hour, making the vehicle noticeable and creating suspicion?

Thawatchai, who built his career as an Army intelligence officer, said he was paid Bt200 by an unnamed friend to deliver the car from the spot where he was arrested to nearby Soi Suan Oy, according to a police source.

Thawatchai's knowledge of ordnance is still not known.

Yesterday's incident came amid mounting demands on the government for an explanation after it was revealed that two petty criminals who carried out the beating of anti-Thaksin demonstrators at the Central World shopping complex were in fact political thugs.

The news effectively pushed aside the previous contentious headlines - from the fist fight at Central World to the probe into the Kularb Kaew controversy.

The Commerce Ministry has yet to make a decision on whether Kularb Kaew was an alien company or a nominee for Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean government's financial arm that took over Shin Corp Plc.

- The Nation

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

The Circus of the Absurd... gets more absurd-er

[animatic]

I try to read both the Bangkok Post AND The Nation,

and then read between the lines.

The truth flits about in between the two, if you are discerning.

It is drole that he might imagine shutting the Nation,

would do him any good,

or would effect the local voting patterns ;

All Thai Voters MUST read Thai.

The horse has bolted the stall,

Elvis has left the building,

the cat is out of the bag,

The milk spilt and Humpty Dumpty

is not gonna get back in his happy self-blinding shell.

The approaching end game should prove high theater,

and low comedy at the same time.

[sriracha john]

'Car bomb' a govt ploy, ex-security chief alleges

Government critic Prasong Soonsiri said yesterday that the arrest of a man allegedly driving a car laden with explosives near caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's home was set up to give the government the opportunity to declare a state of emergency and uproot political opponents.

Prasong said it was an obvious set-up due to conflicting evidence given by witnesses. Circumstantial evidence also made it unbelievable that this was a real assassination attempt on Thaksin, he said.

Prasong, a former National Security Council secretary-general, said the "bomb" had not been assembled and that the military official who was arrested was an administrative soldier who knew nothing about it [making bombs].

"The set-up was timed to coincide with the rumours spread by the Thai Rak Thai Party over the past month," he said.

He said that Thaksin did not trust the Internal Security Operation Command deputy director, General Pallop Pinmanee, because Pallop was protecting Chamlong Srimuang, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), and a long-time friend.

Prasong said that Thaksin's dismissal of Pallop and his attempts to interfere with the military reshuffle might cause a confrontation between him and the military.

Prasong warned that the political situation was reaching breaking point after Thaksin announced he would wipe out his political opponents after the general election.

"The set-up of the 'car bomb' plot may lead to the declaration of a state of emergency. Incidents like these can be handled without passing through normal legal procedures," he said.

PAD coordinator Suriyasai Katasila also said it was possible that the "car bomb" was a state set-up because police gave conflicting and suspicious statements.

- The Nation

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

more absurdity as the Circus rolls merrily along...........

Edited August 24, 2006 by sriracha john