Thailand Identifies the Enemy

Thailand is beginning to catch on to who the enemy is and identify them. The United States doesn't seem to have come to terms with that yet. War, by definition means someone has enemies and a war can't be fought without identifying them.

On Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were bombed by terrorists, leaving 258 people dead and more than 5,000 injured

On June 25, 1996, a terrorist truck bomb exploded outside the northern perimeter of the U.S. portion of the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The explosion killed nineteen servicemen and wounded hundreds of others, including civilians of several nationalities.

On Thursday, October 12, 2000, 17 young lives were taken in a terrorist attack on the USS Cole, docked in the port of Yemen to take on fuel

On February 26, 1993, a car bomb was planted by the Islamist terrorists in the underground garage below Tower One.The bomb exploded in the underground garage at 12:17 P.M., opening a 30 meter wide hole through 4 sub levels of concrete. The bomb generated a pressure of more than 70,000 kilograms per square inch. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 feet per second. The cyanide gas that Ramzi Yousef put in the bomb burnt up in the explosion. Yousef entered the United States with a false Iraqi passport in 1992.

However, only six people were killed and at least 1,040 were injured. The towers were not destroyed like how Yousef envisioned it to be. Yousef had escaped to Pakistan several hours later.

A granite memorial to the six victims of the bombing was erected between the Twin Towers, directly above the site of the explosion

This granite memorial erected in memory of the first attack was obliterated during the destruction of the towers in 2001.
[World Trade Center Bombing 1991]

What's next ? A poisoned water system of a major city ? Knocking out a power grid or a dam ? More airliners full of innocent passengers being flown into building full of even more innocent people ?

All of these things have been intercepted by intelligence services while in the planning stage. The probability of an event of the magnitude of the above , or worse, is very high unless we do something about it. We can't do anything about it until we identify who the enemy is.

There are people being killed all over the world in the name of "jihad". The common thread is Islamists. Islamists are not to be confused with Islam. I don't advocate outlawing a whole religion, just identifying those radical groups within it and dealing with them. If martyrdom is their goal we should give them all of the help they need to achieve that end.

---Larry Everett

"Thais threaten to close 21 Islamic schools
Owners and teachers are told to stop 'fostering militancy' or face jail and fines

By Nirmal Ghosh

BANGKOK - The Thai authorities have threatened to shut down 21 Islamic schools in the country's deep south and jail their owners if they do not stop 'fostering militancy' and indoctrinating students with anti-government sentiments.
The schools in southern Thailand have often been blamed for encouraging militancy. -- REUTERS

Owners and teachers at two schools in particular had been identified as having indirect but clear links with some of the violent incidents which have torn the region since January, Deputy Education Minister Sutham Saengprathoom was quoted as saying in a report in The Nation daily newspaper.

'Within a couple of days, the ministry will summon owners and teachers of the two schools first, and the other 19 will be called later when we find clear information,' he said.

A ministry spokesman told The Straits Times that one of the schools was a private Islamic school and the other a ponoh, one of the religious schools which generally provide free schooling to local children and teenagers.

Five of the schools are in Yala, eight in Pattani and eight in Narathiwat.

Mr Sutham said the Education Ministry would demand that the schools' owners and teachers cooperate in the detection of militant movements among their students.

If they did not, they would be imprisoned for six months or fined 50,000 baht (S$2,110), or both, he said.

The threat came after an extensive government exercise in evaluating and registering more than 200 Islamic schools and ponohs.

The Interior Ministry has acknowledged that the fact the schools did not need to be registered earlier had rendered the government unable to monitor what was being taught in them.

While some taught a mix of Islamic religious teachings and the government's official curriculum, some ignored the curriculum and concentrated on religion, officials said.

The schools have often been blamed by government officials and ministers for allegedly inciting anti-government sentiments and encouraging militancy

[snip]

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, a powerful politician from the south, told journalists: 'The government is now seeing a clearer picture of the situation in the deep south, and its root causes, and is moving in the right direction to solve the problems.

'So I expect tension in the southern border region will ease soon.'

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