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COMMENTARY
Thailand: Terrorists and
spin doctors
Perhaps encouraged by
mounting evidence that the United States and United
Kingdom concocted a disinformation campaign about the
Iraqi "threat" to global peace to justify their invasion
and occupation of that oil-rich country, Southeast Asian
countries - most recently Thailand - are still using the
"war on terror" as a public relations exercise.
Thailand, whose prime minister just a few months
ago was accusing "crazy people" of concocting
"ridiculous" charges that his country was a haven for
radical Islamic terrorists, is now making global
headlines for apparently uncovering plots to blow up
embassies in Bangkok and to construct a "dirty bomb"
with a highly radioactive substance called cesium-137.
Thailand does have a functioning intelligence
apparatus, and it is probably true that the recent
arrests of would-be terrorists were indeed the result of
a months-long investigation based on information from
neighboring agencies. All of said agencies have long
suspected - or known - that Islamic extremists, under
the gun in their own countries since the Bali bombings
of last October 12, have been hiding out in Thailand, a
predominantly Buddhist country that has a sizable and
disgruntled Muslim minority in its south.
So the
fact that there are terrorist cells in Thailand is not
really a surprise, and it's only a minor surprise that
Thai law-enforcement officials have actually nabbed some
of their suspected members. What would be a real
surprise would be to discover that the timing of these
arrests, coinciding with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra's visit to Washington this month in a belated
effort to get onside with the US "war on terror", was
not manipulated in any way.
To some
observers, it's all too convenient. When what's important is
to attract woo the tourists scared away from Bali by
the October 12 bombings, there are no terrorists in
Thailand. When it's important to cozy up to George W Bush,
the kingdom is crawling with 'em.
The dangerous
game of spinning the terrorist reality in Southeast Asia
for political or economic gain is not unique to
Thailand. Indonesia had been victimized by Islamist
violence long before the al-Qaeda-style enormity of the
October 12 events finally made Jakarta's policy of
denial completely unsupportable. The Philippines has
worked overtime to play down the violence that plagues
that country, while failing to deal with the fundamental
injustices that for decades have fueled both Islamic and
communist insurgencies, or to tackle the US-style gun
culture that adds to the carnage. Malaysia, meanwhile,
has cynically used "homeland security" as a tool to
crush non-violent reform movements, muzzle the media and
jail the politically incorrect.
None of this
comes as a shock to Asians themselves, of course. In
Thailand, for instance, no one trusts or believes anyone
in authority, usually with good reason. The police are
corrupt and incompetent, the military answers to no one,
and the government winks at it all until it finds it
politically expedient to go on a hyped-up "cleanup"
campaign, shoring itself up in the polls while getting
rid of people it didn't like much anyway.
Having
said that, it would be going way to far to suggest that
the Thai authorities' allegations of the multiple bomb
threat is completely bogus. The details that have been
released, both of the alleged plot itself and how it was
uncovered, indicate that the threat was frighteningly
real.
This month, police arrested three Thai
nationals in the country's south and accused them of
plotting car-bomb attacks on five embassies in Bangkok,
namely those of the United States, Australia, the United
Kingdom, Israel and Singapore. Police said the trio,
allegedly members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the pan-Islamist
group that has been linked to the Bali bombings, also
planned to hit targets in the Thai capital's backpacker
quarter around Khao San Road and in Pattaya and Phuket,
two of Thailand's most popular foreign-tourist resorts.
The attacks, it is charged, were to take place
next October during the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit in Bangkok, to be attended by the
heads of state of APEC members, including US President
Bush.
The audacity and enormity of this alleged
plot certainly have the hallmarks of the kind of brutal
crimes perpetrated in the past few years by major
international terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda
and probably Jemaah Islamiyah, reportedly an al-Qaeda
client. The timing is also interesting: It would have
occurred approximately one year after the Bali tragedy,
which occurred one year, one month and one day after the
infamous September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City
and the Pentagon.
More bizarre, however, is the
case of Narong Penanam, a Thai school principal from the
northeastern city of Surin, who was allegedly caught in
Bangkok this month with 30 kilograms of cesium-137, a
radioactive substance. Thai authorities charge that
Narong tried to sell the material to undercover agents,
and that it could be used to build a so-called "dirty
bomb" - one that wreaks some of the
radioactive-contamination havoc caused by a nuclear
explosion without the physical devastation of such a
blast.
Eyebrows have been raised about some
aspects of this case, including how a schoolteacher in a
remote Thai city would happen to have in his possession
such a large quantity of such a volatile material.
Naturally a political spin has been put on this story as
well, with Laos being fingered as the source of the
cesium-137. The Laotian authorities have angrily denied
that any of this substance exists there; meanwhile the
US-based Fact Finding Commission, which opposes the
communist government in Laos, has suggested that the
regime has been using cesium-137 on its own people,
noting that some have come down with symptoms similar to
those caused by radiation poisoning of this type.
It could turn out, of course, that everyone is
correct. While cesium-137 is not available at every
corner store, it is widely used in industry and
medicine, and its theft has been a problem since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, whose former republics are
notorious for the lack of security surrounding nuclear
materials, either from dismantled weapons or decrepit
reactors. The Soviet Union, as it happens, was also
indirectly responsible for some cesium poisoning when
quantities of the isotope were blown into the atmosphere
by the Chernobyl disaster, and nuclear explosions -
planned or otherwise - have in fact been a primary cause
of cesium-137, which is a byproduct of nuclear fission,
entering the environment.
Cesium is an element
having both stable and radioactive forms. The cesium-137
isotope, discovered in the late 1930s, is highly
radioactive, which is why it is favored by industry and
medicine (for cancer treatment) and by those with less
benign motives. According to the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), "cesium-137 is one of the most
common radioisotopes used in industry. Thousands of
devices use cesium-137:
"Moisture-density gauges, widely
used in the construction industry.
"Leveling gauges, used in
industries to detect liquid flow in pipes and
tanks.
"Thickness gauges, for measuring
thickness of sheet metal, paper, film and many other
products.
"Well-logging devices in the drilling
industry to help characterize rock strata."
Terrorists would have other uses in mind. When
deployed in a device that uses conventional explosives
to distribute the poisonous isotope, cesium-137 could
contaminate an area of several hundred square meters.
Those immediately exposed to it could get badly sick or
die, although nuclear scientists suggest that the most
potent effect of such a device would be the fear it
generates, not its actual destructive power.
According to the EPA: "If exposures are very
high, serious burns, and even death, can result.
Instances of such exposure are very rare. One example of
a high-exposure situation would be the mishandling a
strong industrial cesium-137 source. The magnitude of
the health risk depends on exposure conditions. These
include such factors as strength of the source, length
of exposure, distance from the source, and whether there
was shielding between you and the source (such as metal
plating)." Cesium-137, like all radioisotopes, is also a
carcinogen.
The Thai case is not the only one
connecting cesium-137 to a possible dirty bomb.
Officials in the Caucasian republic of Georgia claimed
this week that a routine police search of a taxicab in
Tbilisi on May 31 found quantities of cesium-137 and
strontium-90 (also a byproduct of nuclear fission),
possibly meant for a dirty-bomb attack.
The point, once we wade through the politicking and
spin-doctoring, is that people do exist who are willing
to use such devices to further their fanatical causes,
and it is foolish to deny that such people cannot work
their foul deeds in tropical paradises like Thailand.
Last October 12, Indonesia learned the high price of
playing games with terrorists and of refusing to
acknowledge the threat posed by extremists.
This
month's arrests might mean that Thailand has woken up in
time, and has gotten serious about catching the
terrorists who roam the kingdom, rather than playing the
issue for political or economic gain or to oppress
minorities. But for now, it has to deal with a serious
credibility gap.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact
content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication
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