[JimSEA]

This is good as it will force the Government to face the terrorist threat openly. PM Tahksin Shinawatera (sp?) has repeatedly denied the existance of JI in Thailand and has blamed the bombing of police stations, schools and temples as well as the assination of police and teachers on "bandits". Only about 4 or 5 % of the population are Muslim but they are center in the far south near Malaysia. However, in the last couple of years, we have noticed an increasing number of men with Muslim caps and full beards in Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) They do not mix much with the Bhuddist majority, so we don't hear much about them. Just after 9/11/01 however, they were tellin all who would listen that Bush's CIA and Isreal were behind the WTC.

[GOP_1900AD]

Not only is Shinawatra an overt spinner of events in the interests of economic PR, he is also a bootlicker of the PRC. His real surname is "Shin" and he is characteristic of the Thai Chinese merchants who have come to dominate not only the circles of power in Thai society but also the government, ever since the onset of "democratization" and the silencing of anti Communist, pro American forces there during the 1990s. Look I have some Chinese blood in my family tree so don't take this as an overall ethnic attack. However, I do see correlation between the rise of the Thai Chinese merchant class, and, Bangkok's increasing coldness to the US (and West in general) and her growing closeness to Beijing and Moscow. Bangkok is strategically blind, and might someday wake up to not only attacked by Thai Islamist factions, but also, nuclear explosions, biological attack and chemical munitions delivered by Myanmar, Pakistan, the PRC and Russia. Then, the millions of PLA and other Axis boots heading south. Not only Thais but Malays and Indonesians (not to mention Australians!) should think twice about the implications of current geopolitical events.