Bangkok Crimes

The Bangkok Post

Warning on militant groups

SOUTHERN INSURGENTS, INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS THOUGHT TO BE FORMING LINKS

JERUSALEM : Foreign security experts are warning Thai security authorities not to underestimate the link between insurgent groups in the deep South and international terrorist networks. [KC: There has been no solid evidence of any link between JI and Al Qaeda and the southern insurgency].

Jonathan Spyer, senior research fellow of the Global Research in International Affairs (Gloria) Centre, said international terrorists were trying to forge regional connections with like-minded groups.

“I cannot confirm whether insurgent groups in the deep south of Thailand have links with international terrorists, but al-Qaeda is clearly trying to reinforce its links with terrorist groups in Southeast Asia,” he said.

“Don’t forget that they are all Muslim brothers and will be part of a global jihad,” he told a recent security and terrorist forum in Jerusalem. [KC: 'They' are Muslim brothers and 'will' be part of a global Jihad. Spyer thinks all Muslim insurgents are international terrorists. In his view there are no local conflicts, separatist violence is linked to the perceived global rise in Jihadist ideology, the post-Cold War threat to US 'values' and hegemony. This view is rampant in the West and has been espoused with regard to Thailand's deep south by academics (Abuza et al.), terrorism experts and a whole catalogue of 'analysts' desperate to construct Jihadism as the new global threat].

Mr Spyer also suggested Thailand adopt a policy to meet the insurgents half-way, for example through partial introduction of the sharia (Islamic religious law), and concessions on official use of ethnic languages.

A link had been established between Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network and the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the group allegedly responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings. [KC: These two groups have been linked for nearly a decade].

JI leading member Hambali, arrested in Thailand, was linked to al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks in the US.

Meanwhile Abu Sayaff, the Islamist separatist group based in the southern islands of the Philippines, is linked to JI, and also received early funding from regional Islamic charities linked to Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, the brother-in-law of Bin Laden, he said.

Abu Sayaff was also suspected of planning attacks with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic group. [KC: Why? Where is the evidence of links between these two groups? This sounds like a total fabrication].

The link between the insurgency in southern Thailand and the global jihad was less clear, but authorities should not disregard it, said Mr Spyer.

James Busis, director of the Asia-Pacific Institute from the American-Jewish Committee, said modern communications technology made it easy for international terrorists to forge links with regional groups. [KC: No Shit!]

“Now they may only share the same ideology but in the near future, I believe they will be linked in the same terrorism networks,” said Mr Busis. [KC: Who shares the same ideology? All international terrorists? One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Are all international terrorists Muslims? In the eyes of James Busis and Jonathan Spyer, they are].

Supong Limtanakool, vice-president of external affairs at Bangkok University, said he hoped foreign groups would keep out of Thailand’s southern troubles.

“The more foreigners get involved, the more violence will increase,” he said.

An Israeli foreign ministry official said insurgent groups in Thailand might also attempt to forge links with JI regional terrorists in Southeast Asia.

KC: For years so called ‘experts’ have been trying to link Thailand’s southern insurgency with global terrorist networks, namely JI and Al Qeada, so far any links demonstrated have proved false or are based on anecdotal evidence. It is entirely possible for international terrorists to exploit the southern insurgency, but so far it is simply conjecture. As the Bangkok Post byline states: “Southern insurgents, international terrorists thought to be forming links”. These views come from the Global Research in International Affairs (Gloria) Centre based in Isreal and the Asia-Pacific Institute from the American-Jewish Committee and must thus be understood within the context of the neo-conservative political agenda pursued aggressively by the Bush administration. Bush, Cheney and their cohorts sought to construct Southeast Asia as the ’second front’ in the global war on terror and much effort has been made to understand local Muslim separatist conflicts as being part of a wider international rise in Islamic fundamentalism. It seems there may be a renewed push to understand the southern border region within this flawed framework and the Bangkok Post has no problem with presenting the speculation of disenfranchised neo-cons without question, criticism or understanding.