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Thanks for pointing this out. Of course Therdpoum’s status as key member of the PAD is relevant to the story. Barnes and the editors of Asia Times Online know this but chose to characterize him instead as a colleague of UDD leaders. Why? It wouldn’t have made the story less interesting or informative to include the pertinent information about Therpoum’s PAD association.

thanks, this gives some perspective indeed

I also had the honor of being quoted by the author. I indeed criticized the UDD stage proceedings. However, I had done so in the context of a comparison with the same approach that had previously been used by the PAD at Government House (and that the UDD later adopted). It seems that critical mention of PAD activities on Sondhi’s Asia Online must be edited out. Obviously, this leads to a distortion of the facts. By the way, I did not, as far as I remember, say anything about the “volume.” Even now I think that the volume was just normal for such occasions, and not any different from that at the PAD rallies.

Asia Times published an “interview with UDD blackshirts” recently… since we are all keen to nail down this intuitively false premise that the UDD has an armed wing we read the article it seemed too plauisble

and then someone alerted that Asia Times is part of Sondhis Manager media group

so now we know its a setup… they have just confirmed that the blackshirts are NOT part of the UDD and the redshirts

the probability that the M79 bombings, etc were a Newin/Sondhi spoiling operation has increased to a near certainty

Thanks for digging up the reference.

The Barnes article in question Thai power grows from the barrel of a gun doesn’t hold up at all even to a cursory reading. Barnes must be a mercenary. He attempts to fob off Therdphum Jaidee as an “insider”, the confidante of the Red shirt leadership. His does so indirectly, by implication, relying upon a very, very careless reader to make the connection. I found the article insulting, and not to be taken seriously.

I was surprised when the PPT did so, devoting a lot of criticism to something that was undeserving of their time.

Asia Times Online is Sondhi’s publication. It’s class of propagandist has been dropping. This is trash.

I am at a machine now that allows me to read your challenge. It is impossible to prove that I am humanoid on my usual machine as your challenge is dull and illegible.

In fact I am not humanoid. I am a human being.

Therdpoum Chaidee’s comments are vindicated as are most of the articles that appear in Asia Times, through any objective comparison of evidence and international media reports which not only collaborate Chaidee’s claims that there is an armed militant wing, but that there is also Maoists on stage using Maoist ideology to manipulate the protesters. You could just have gone out amongst the crowd and see the communist red stars starting to balance out the Thaksin portraits amongst the protesters.

So you can say what you will about Asia Times being connected to Sondhi, but appears that its still objective, factual, and now thoroughly vindicated. I can’t say the same for everyone that shows up on “The Manager.”

Maybe its time for some of these die hard Thaksinites and “reds” to consider the possibility, if only briefly, that while the current government is corrupt and in need of a real opposition to hold it accountable, PTP, Thaksin, and the red shirts represent a greater and more real threat to Thailand and its sovereignty at the moment.

I don’t know if that comment got through or not. No positive feedback. Why did you switch to this bargain-basement venue?

John Francis Lee: you seem to be lacking in a certain understanding of Thai society. Rivalries and loyalties shift here like dunes in the desert.

Nothing he says can’t be verified by direct quotes from Thaksin, his various minions, PTP cronies, and UDD lackeys on stage. If you need further proof, simply get a back log of this year’s “Truth Today” and Voice of Taksin” publications. Everything he says is backed up 110% percent by the UDD itself.

His connections arouse healthy suspicion, but don’t preclude he is telling the truth based on his connections alone. To discredit this excellent article just on those grounds is a bit lazy, perhaps dishonest on your part.

David Brown, your analysis is really in a special class!

To answer the intellectual or purposefully lazy BP, you need only check out the unmitigated nonsense spewing from card carrying Thaksinites like Giles Ungkaporn or any one of the idiots rambling on stage to see if the shoe fits.

Of course, the Maoist angle fits perfectly – and your knee jerk reaction not to trust PAD, or to assume being PAD automatically makes you a compulsive liar and a sociopath is what we’ve all come to expect from BP.

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