Article

2002-11-01 Southeast Asia

Bali bombers 'were trained and sent by al-Qaeda'

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2002-11-01 10:14 am|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I used to live in Thailand and I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before Bangkok gets hit by these madmen. Southern Thailand is teeming with Muslims and Thai society is very open and tolerant, which makes things easy for the terrorists. Obviously they've been using the capital as frequent location for meeting and planning attacks. Bangkok has a LOT of western tourists and residents in certain districts and would be a "soft" target. I really hope I'm wrong, but....

Posted by Aracona 2002-11-01 11:30:51|| 2002-11-01 11:30:51|| Front Page Top

#2 I wouldn't panic just yet, Aracona. A Royal Thai Army colonel - a very senior one, too - is one of the co-moderators of a message board I frequent, and she (yes, she - Thailand has, to the surprise of a lot of Westerners, a long tradition of women warriors) says that the RTA has been on high alert for the last few weeks watching out for any attempt to do in their tourist meccas in the south of their country what was done in Bali. Not too many people may be aware of it, incidentially, but Thailand has been quite active in the war thus far, particularly in helping to shut down the money links, and they've been battling al Qaeda-backed separatists down near the Malaysian border for quite some time. The RTA gets a lot more of a workout than is commonly supposed, all in all; they've also been known to fight pitched battles with Burmese drug armies equipped with old tanks, and my colonel cut her teeth in combat with the Vietnamese on the Cambodian border back in the 1980's.

Posted by Joe 2002-11-01 17:37:33|| 2002-11-01 17:37:33|| Front Page Top