Bangkok police: Key blast suspect 'a foreigner'

[smedly]

Bet Jamie will stay clear of this thread with now "reds did it" nonsense.

If the bomber and accomplices were here that long then they would of left some evidence. I fear the net is tightening too late and they're gone though.

perhaps the person is from Dubai

This bomb required a level of skill to assemble, as the person is walking away he is seen seemingly using a mobile phone which was likely to detonate the bomb, that is quite sophisticated

it would not be beyond comprehension for someone to have been hired to carry out this attack

[smedly]

Not sure why the hurry to dismiss this as an act of terrorism from the religion of piece.

Most countries have seen increased activity as a result of ISIS and its followers returning to their version of Islam.

Does anyone remember the Iranians a few years back in BKK, bombs and grenades, C4, idiot blowing off his own legs

http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NB17Ae03.html

What about Hambali ? (Bali Bomber arrested in Ayutthaya)

And from a mate who works in intelligence, a plot many years ago to bomb Nana Plaza that was discovered in time.

Thailand has a history with Islamic nutters and won't be immune from these types of events moving forward.

the key fact you are missing is that terrorists have an agenda and will claim responsibility for their actions

[sfokevin]

If these guys have any clue, they will check all the cell phone towers in that area (the bomb location, as well as where the suspect was picked up / dropped off) for a given time period, which would log what device made what call to where. By using these towers, and analyzing the information of hand offs, it isn't very hard to track down the phone used.

I have seen it used first hand, it works......

You sir have been watching too much Blue Bloods...

[Time Traveller]

"A foreigner"....is this a joke? Great smokescreen guys, the whole of Thailand won't for a moment suspect the Thai miiitary of doing this will they. In fact, thais will love all of those new laws and removal freedoms you so desperately want. They'll never want elections again.

[HOAX]

These idiots from the police releasing photos of suspects without having sufficient evidence, as well as complaining about people spreading rumors, when the police themselves are the champions of rumor-spreading.

What do they need police schools for when there are no quality requirements, nobody being allowed to criticize, no non-biased body to investigate the police, and no consequences for not doing their job properly? It`s embarrassing how amateur the police in Thailand is, and when you mix that with corruption, greed and stupidity... then you`re left with many suffering citizens.

Edited August 20, 2015 by HOAX

[MartinBangkok]

Blocked by major Thai-newspaper

I have to laugh, the largest English-language newspaper in Thailand just deleted a comment I made on one of their articles. And they also banned my IP-address, så now I cannot read it anymore (or so they think, hehe).

My comment was a responce to this sentence from one of their articles:

"..Police also expanded on their description of Thailand's most-wanted man, saying the suspected bomber was "Caucasian, Arab or mixed race", aged 20 to 30 and about 170cm (5-foot-7) tall..."

My responce:
"Is this not just a typical xenophobic Thai response. After all, Koh Tao all taught us that it is impossible the perpetrator could be Thai. Just asking...."

This is the automated answer (reason for being banned) I got from the above mentioned newspaper:

Your account has been closed.‏

Request change user name ‘SMSinBKK ’, to an English language person name noun. No rude, implied rude, vulgar, too unconventional, dark, brand name(s). Thai words spelled in English with bad, vulgar association. Well-known associations, groups, political, implied political name / stance / reference, names/words/initials with connotations, well known commercialised initials names that could imply political stance through multiple postings, ‘thetruth’, ‘evilred’, ‘yellowone’, ‘newdawn’,’freeus’, ‘coupfree’, ‘thirdhand’, ‘fixit’ etc….. well-known people, slogans, famous character names, objects, construed as being, possibly associated with (deleted by me) and / or wording, etc… webmaster

Edited August 20, 2015 by MartinBangkok

[dino67]

'the key fact you are missing is that terrorists have an agenda and will claim responsibility for their actions'

And a lot don't. Depending on whose research you access it can range from 50 - 80% of incidents remain unclaimed. In some cases it can take months for someone to claim responsibility.

[cookee68]

The Police allege to have cctv footage of many movements of the "Suspect". So the question is why they do not have a clear facial image of the "Suspect".

Because it is the same RTP bullshit

[shaurene]

The 3 years statement is very telling. They have to know more than they are letting on. Could be silenced is even more telling..... Finally a little sense among all the waffle.....

If the Police know something for certain they should keep their mouthed closed bit stupid to let the guilty know what they know. Beet's me though how can they know the other 2 mapped out the place and the other escape route. They will get them.

[sambum]

Here we go again. First and foremost is to catch anyone quickly to save face, a non-Thai even better. There will be endless blathering from countless policemen because they all want to get in the spotlight, as always it will be a complete shambles.

Already starting to look that way - sweeping away the debris being the first "clanger".

(Or possibly it was all collected by the street cleaners and transported to the Bangkok Forensics Institute for examination by a team of specially trained coppers in "inactive posts"?)

Edited August 20, 2015 by sambum

[Nowisee]

One thing that is consistent in the comments and replies: there is question as to: why are the thai police doing this; why haven't they done this; why are they saying this, etc.

I believe there is one answer.

They simply are not trained and experienced in doing real police, criminal, detective, investigative work. Ok, sure they have a bomb squad, they have a forensic team, they have a ...., but do they have 1st world training, skills, knowledge, experience? I don't know, but from what I read, hear and see I'd so no.

If you have ever seen the FBI or even a good state or city agency work a crime scene, especially a scene like the BKK bombing, they work with precision and it often starts at the time of first responders in maintaining the crime scene. This is just not done here.

They have relied on a system that has worked for them for year during a time when they could get away with it... but now it is the real world, things are become seriously real for them and they do not have the knowledge and experience to deal with it in a 2015 way.
The smartest thing they could do is call on other countries to help them solve this.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Nowisee

[cmiuc]

They should be more specific than "foreigner" that could cause a mass culling of any foreigner living in this country... not to mention growing hatred for "suspected foreigners"...

[cmiuc]

One thing that is consistent in the comments and replies: there is question as to: why are the thai police doing this; why haven't they done this; why are they saying this, etc.

I believe there is one answer.

They simply are not trained and experienced in doing real police, criminal, detective, investigative work. Ok, sure they have a bomb squad, they have a forensic team, they have a ...., but do they have 1st world training, skills, knowledge, experience? I don't know, but from what I read, hear and see I'd so no.

If you have ever seen the FBI or even a good state or city agency work a crime scene, especially a scene like the BKK bombing, they work with precision and it often starts at the time of first responders in maintaining the crime scene. This is just not done here.

They have relied on a system that has worked for them for year during a time when they could get away with it... but now it is the real world, things are become seriously real for them and they do not have the knowledge and experience to deal with it in a 2015 way.

The smartest thing they could do is call on other countries to help them solve this.

very true...

but they are good at Tea Money, catching people without helmets, 2 am curfew calls, and grouping up around the police station...

[sambum]

One thing that is consistent in the comments and replies: there is question as to: why are the thai police doing this; why haven't they done this; why are they saying this, etc.

I believe there is one answer.

They simply are not trained and experienced in doing real police, criminal, detective, investigative work. Ok, sure they have a bomb squad, they have a forensic team, they have a ...., but do they have 1st world training, skills, knowledge, experience? I don't know, but from what I read, hear and see I'd so no.

If you have ever seen the FBI or even a good state or city agency work a crime scene, especially a scene like the BKK bombing, they work with precision and it often starts at the time of first responders in maintaining the crime scene. This is just not done here.

They have relied on a system that has worked for them for year during a time when they could get away with it... but now it is the real world, things are become seriously real for them and they do not have the knowledge and experience to deal with it in a 2015 way.

The smartest thing they could do is call on other countries to help them solve this.

Good post containing a great deal of truth! Your comments, however will not be acted upon for one very good reason, which has been quoted many times already on TV - FACE!

For the RTP, or the Government to ask for assistance in this case, or any other case is unthinkable, as it is tantamount to them admitting that they are incapable of doing their jobs, and that is never going to happen! Taking Koh Tao as an example, the British PM voiced his concerns personally to the Thai PM who was reported to have said that he would welcome assistance from Scotland Yard, but on his return to Thailand, there was suddenly a "mistake in communication" and it emerged that what he actually said was that the British Police would be welcome to "observe proceedings"

So in spite of the obvious blunders and c**k ups that happened at Koh Tao (and that is only the ones that we know about due to the efforts of the defence team) have the RTP learned anything? Are there any official acknowledgements of their mistakes (other than transferring the KT Chief of Police immediately following the arrest of the "actual" murderers? Have they learned how to secure and investigate a crime scene properly? Have they learned how to be more conservative with their statements to the media until they are more sure of certain facts? Have there been any improvements at all?

I will leave you to answer these questions yourself (I know what I think!) and after you have answered them, ask yourself what are the chances of "The smartest thing they could do is call on other countries to help them solve this." actually happening?

Until Thailand, (and by that, I mean the RTP, the Government, and the whole Thai people) realise that if they are unsure of how to approach a problem, it is not loss of face to ask someone to assist, but to look upon it as away to learn something new, and possibly both sides might benefit. Who knows, the West might learn something from Thailand! (such as how to achieve one of the lowest unemployment figures in the World)

[CLW]

It's getting more strange, just in from the German news:

-Thailand seeks help from Interpol

- Attack was not work of international terrorists

- Thailand working together with foreign intelligence agencies

- Network of around ten people accused of attack

There seem to come more and more questions about the investigation of the RTP.

Or are this all translations errors?

[steffi]

The suspect in the video looks very much like my son who is Thai/English, and the description fits him perfectly, although the sketch doesnt look much like him.

Which is why I fully expected we would be stopped and questioned when we left Bangkok via Swampy yesterday (now in the UK).

The fact we were not was a relief but very concerning from the point of view of the authorities actually having any determination to find the guy.

Yes but would immigration police assume the bomber is traveling alone? My guess is they probably would.

[Keesters]

I think the RTP would do best to look for someone who can be their one and only public relations officer and spokesman on major cases as this one. Qualification: must know when to keep mouth shut.

[Sure]

Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else:

https://www.facebook.com/richardlp/posts/10153567291945645

[mary wang]

The bombing must have been done by the East Turkestan Separatist to retaliate for the deportations of Uyghur people back to China the other day,meanwhile it is a demonstration of power to China by targeting Chinese tourists who frequent Erawan Shrine.