Wandering 'White Arab' Causes Alarm at Martial Court
By Khaosod English


This guy wandered around a military court in Bangkok for about 10 minutes. A day later staff raised the alert when they saw him on video. To military officers, he looked of Arab descent. A vice admiral thinks he was just a tourist looking for a toilet.

BANGKOK — A bomb scare briefly broke out at Bangkok’s military court after a man with a large backpack wandered in one day before the two men accused of staging last month’s bomb attack were scheduled to appear.

Security footage shows the unidentified man, described by military officers as khaek khao or “White Arab,” entering the court Friday afternoon and walking to the fourth floor, the rooftop, the third floor and finally exiting the building after having spent around 10 minutes there. His nationality and ethnicity are unknown.

It wasn’t until Saturday that anyone noticed the man’s wanderings, the same day two men – Bilal Mohammad Bilal and Yusufu Mieraili – were brought to the court to be formally charged with premeditated murder and other offenses for their alleged roles in the bomb attack at Erawan Shrine on 17 Aug., which killed 20 people and injured more than 150.

The military court is located a few hundred meters from Bangkok’s heavily visited Grand Royal Palace, and at least one official said he could have just been a tourist looking to satisfy a basic need.

“He may be a tourist .... People who walk past the building occasionally stop by and ask to use our restroom,” Vice Admiral Kritsada Charoenpanit said yesterday.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1443432876


-- Khaosod English 2015-09-28

No "PC" pussyfooting around here ...

The mystery deepens...................a bomber or just a botty problem?

Thai authorities admit to being baffled once again...............

Good thing he wasn't carrying a "clock" in a box ...

There you go , can't complain about security , there wasn't any.

"Khaek khao"? Incredible genius racial profiling going on in military and RTP these days. Whatever next? "Farang dam", "negro khao" or "jeen daeng".....The Thai establishment's inherent racism and nationalism ("no Thai person could ever do something as evil as this") is just so early 20th century, that one wonders how the press and media blithely carry on reproducing this ugly and utterly redundant profiling that leads to so much injustice, hatred and bigotry across the land. I guess the Thai media are still unable to shake off their shackles as handmaidens of the elite and old establishment, and whenever one journalist attempts it, he/she is quickly excommunicated and sent into the desert (a rule which can also sometimes extend to international correspondents - AGM anyone?).

I don't get this. I've entered a lot of courthouses in Thailand, and there is always a metal detector and security checkpoint at the building entrance, just like the west. How did they let this guy enter with that huge backpack? I get questioned when I enter courthouses just because I'm a farang, but they let this guy enter the military courthouse without a blink of the eye?

I hope this incident makes them realize that the military courthouse needs at least as much protection as the civil/criminal courts.

Made my day!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "kaek" is Indian, with possible connotations of being Muslim.

He's white, but I would not have guessed he's Arab or Indian.

2 days to realise he "cased the place out"? Great security. But since no bombs went off, I guess the duty guards' jobs are safe.

You've been warned........

If you look like your descendants ........

you might find yourself in deep, deep, deep ....... S#!T

"A day later staff raised the alert when they saw him on video."

What were they doing the day he was there????

Please tell us they combed the building with bomb sniffing dogs to make sure he didn't leave any time delayed "gifts" behind...

"Khaek khao"? Incredible genius racial profiling going on in military and RTP these days. Whatever next? "Farang dam", "negro khao" or "jeen daeng".....The Thai establishment's inherent racism and nationalism ("no Thai person could ever do something as evil as this") is just so early 20th century, that one wonders how the press and media blithely carry on reproducing this ugly and utterly redundant profiling that leads to so much injustice, hatred and bigotry across the land. I guess the Thai media are still unable to shake off their shackles as handmaidens of the elite and old establishment, and whenever one journalist attempts it, he/she is quickly excommunicated and sent into the desert (a rule which can also sometimes extend to international correspondents - AGM anyone?).

That's how thai language is like. Unlike say english where a new word is formed by adding say latin words together to form a new word. Can you imagine the same person who knows latin and greek seeing english words.

Anyway haha for a westerner commenting about pc-ness to thais.

No "PC" pussyfooting around here ...

Stupidity, on the other hand....

After ordering a Black Russian in my local bar I will order a White Arab just to see the reaction from the staff.

Wheres his camel then,does not look like an Arab to me.

regards worgeordie

Ali Express Delivery, obviously the ever alert security took his admission fee?

"A day later staff raised the alert when they saw him on video."

What were they doing the day he was there????

Don't ask don't smell

It would be nice if the authorities in the USA would stop with the pc. Muslims overwhelming plant bombs and are the primary source of terrorist attacks everywhere from Boko Haram to the groups in the Philippines. One remaining good thing about Thailand is no pc. If an Arab was walking around with that big backpack he deserves to be stopped and checked, full stop.

"Khaek khao"? Incredible genius racial profiling going on in military and RTP these days. Whatever next? "Farang dam", "negro khao" or "jeen daeng".....The Thai establishment's inherent racism and nationalism ("no Thai person could ever do something as evil as this") is just so early 20th century, that one wonders how the press and media blithely carry on reproducing this ugly and utterly redundant profiling that leads to so much injustice, hatred and bigotry across the land. I guess the Thai media are still unable to shake off their shackles as handmaidens of the elite and old establishment, and whenever one journalist attempts it, he/she is quickly excommunicated and sent into the desert (a rule which can also sometimes extend to international correspondents - AGM anyone?).

Khaek Khao isn't something the military and police just made up. It is a long standing Thai term. Khae refers to Indians, Kaek Khao is the lighter skinned version, ie light skinned Persians and Arabs.

Terms like this used to be more common in English too. Indian and red Indian for example.

Regardless that guy doesn't look remotely Arab, but a lot of Thais think all 'farang' have blonde hair and are confused by ones with darker hair.

It would be nice if the authorities in the USA would stop with the pc. Muslims overwhelming plant bombs and are the primary source of terrorist attacks everywhere from Boko Haram to the groups in the Philippines. One remaining good thing about Thailand is no pc. If an Arab was walking around with that big backpack he deserves to be stopped and checked, full stop.

I definitely don't agree with you about the PC thing.

Yes, one can say that the PC thing gets to be annoying sometimes, regarding freedom of expression. BUT, what I have noticed in various platforms is that a lot of right-wingers are creating a monster out of PC; and then using their arguments against this 'monster', in order to justify their bigotry towards certain groups.

Wandering Arab or wandering Jew? How would you characterize a guy trying to save two or three baht by using a free restroom in a court building? Maybe the moral of the story is more free public toilets to promote tourism?

The mystery man looks like a young version of "Mike" from one of the "picking" shows.

I think the people who are profiling should watch some more TV or travel a bit.

That guy does look suspicious. It`s the sun glasses that does it.

I heard he dropped 'a bomb' in the toilet. Apparently, Thai food didn't agree with him.

The guy is as white as white can get. How did they determine he is Arab? Was it because he was wearing a backpack?

"NCPO vows to maintain safety and security in Thailand"

I have always felt safe in Thailand, exercising my own judgement in evaluating the situations I encounter as you would anywhere.

These announcements set off alarm bells and some random guy wandering around the courthouse kinda shoots down the above headline.

To me he looks like he could just as easily be from Michigan or Oregon or Florida as from India or the Middle East. They're really guessing here IMO.

Going to the roof, though, is a bit sketchy....who puts a WC on the roof?

And no bag screening at the entrance of a court building? That might best be remedied....

"Khaek khao"? Incredible genius racial profiling going on in military and RTP these days. Whatever next? "Farang dam", "negro khao" or "jeen daeng".....The Thai establishment's inherent racism and nationalism ("no Thai person could ever do something as evil as this") is just so early 20th century, that one wonders how the press and media blithely carry on reproducing this ugly and utterly redundant profiling that leads to so much injustice, hatred and bigotry across the land. I guess the Thai media are still unable to shake off their shackles as handmaidens of the elite and old establishment, and whenever one journalist attempts it, he/she is quickly excommunicated and sent into the desert (a rule which can also sometimes extend to international correspondents - AGM anyone?).

Khaek Khao isn't something the military and police just made up. It is a long standing Thai term. Khae refers to Indians, Kaek Khao is the lighter skinned version, ie light skinned Persians and Arabs.

Terms like this used to be more common in English too. Indian and red Indian for example.

Regardless that guy doesn't look remotely Arab, but a lot of Thais think all 'farang' have blonde hair and are confused by ones with darker hair.

You and previous poster Howitzer have totally missed the point of my post. I was stating that such blatant racial profiling using derogatory terms like "khaek" or "farang" or jaek" is something that went out in the 70s in UK and would not be tolerated in modern political discourse. It shows that racism and nationalism run deep through the Thai body politik and are not even challenged by the mainstream media as retrogressive language. And no, he does not look remotely Arab, but the term "khaek khao" fits in with the current establishment-generated hysteria in Thailand about the Erawan bombing, doing people with similar features to the phantom bomber a disservice and probably causing a lot of innocent people to be targetted by the police for their usual harassment, perhaps leading to some horrendous miscarriages of justice. The guy in the screen grab could have come from any one of 200 countries worldwide, but he has now forever been tainted with a "khaek khao" label, whoever he is.

And for the sake of clarity, I didn't mean to write AGM, I meant AMM - or Andrew MacGregor Marshall.

Taking off his turban, you say "is this man a Jew?" -- The Clash, 'Working for the Clampdown"

Took the better part of 24 hours to detect the threat, I'd say the security procedures 'have issues.'