An Australian news report has pinned the Bangkok bombings on regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah. The Weekend Australian is citing Thai intelligence agencies as saying that a central figure from JI was involved with the planning of the New Year’s Eve bombings with the intention of heightening animosity between the old and new regime, thus giving new hope and strength to separatists. If this is true, then it has certainly worked, and a lot of people, including the government and the police, are being directly contradicted here. Thaksin must be laughing his head off on his globetrotting tour.

This comes from the news report:

The reports say a meeting in December between the head of JI in Narathiwat province and a representative from the Patani United Liberation Organisation made the final preparations. Bomb materials were to be supplied from Cambodia. "Masae Useng, the head of the Jemaah Islamiah in Narathiwat province and Ruslan Yumuraenae, the commander of the PULO Sabotage Unit had met in the (informant's) home in Kuala Lumpur towards the end of December 2006," the report says.

The meeting's purpose was to select personnel for deployment to Bangkok "where they would commit acts of sabotage aimed at intensifying the dispute between the Government and the former regime", it said. "Such attacks would provide a significant boost to Separatist Front morale and would put the Siamese infidels off balance."

The whole country is off balance at the moment. This is really big news if it turns out to be true. It means that Bangkok really is in the grip of terrorism and that this is creating the confusionism I talked about before. What I don’t understand is why an Australian news report has this before anyone else. I’ve not been able to check the Thai-language press (not that I can read it), but it will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next twelve hours. If this is the work of JI then Bangkok is in a very precarious position and the situation becomes about more than just Thailand’s petty internal squabbling. For information on JI and their previous movements, check out the Wikipedia article. From the Wikipedia article:

On 5 August 2006, Al-Qaeda's Al Zawahiri appeared on a recorded video announcing that JI and Al-Qaeda had joined forces and that the two groups will form "one line, facing its enemies."

I’m seriously hoping it’s not JI, but if it was then you would have expected something a lot more catastrophic aimed at more high-profiles places. But then, terrorism is not meant to follow patterns. It evolves. What are we seeing here?

To further confuse the issue, this came in from the Bangkok Post today:

Police will today search the houses of suspects thought to be linked to the New Year's Eve bombings, including homes of several senior military officers in Bangkok and Lop Buri. Council for National Security (CNS) chief Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said the government and the CNS were expecting a report on the progress of the investigation into the blasts from the police in the next few days. So far, the authorities have been unable to identify the suspected perpetrators of the blasts due to a lack of clear evidence, they say.

I’m as bewildered as anyone.

Addendum: Bangkok Pundit has informed me that the journalist who wrote the Australian article (Ron Corben) would most likely have had access to very good sources. BP also mentioned that it would have been like blowing up your own HQ if you were the newspaper that broke this story in Thailand. Check BP for a more accurate take on this. I guess it makes sense why everyone has waited for someone else to start the ball rolling.

Techno' tags: Terrorism in Thailand, Bangkok bombings, Jemaah Islamiah