(WMR)—WMR’s sources in Bangkok, the Thai capital, report that the recent U.S. and Israeli alert that a Lebanese man, said to have links with Hezbollah, was planning a terrorist attack in Thailand, is the result of Israel and its diamond business attempting to shut out Lebanese Shi’ite competitors who are in Thailand and are competing with the Israelis for access to Southeast Asian gems. Israeli diamond merchants also compete with Lebanese Shi’ites for access to diamonds and other precious gems in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Thai police arrested Atris Hussein, a Swedish national of Lebanese descent who was traveling on a Swedish passport. Police later discovered urea and ammonium nitrate in a building known to Hussein in the town of Samut Sakhon, near Bangkok. Hussein said the materials were intended for use in a third country, possibly Cambodia or Burma, where such agricultural-grade explosives are used to extract diamonds and other rare gems. Thai police said they were looking for an accomplice of Hussein. In tandem, the United States and Israel warned that “foreign terrorists” were planning attacks in Thailand “in the near future.” WMR’s Thai sources say the threat is completely bogus.
Our sources in Bangkok say that the United States and the Thai government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra were misled by Israel in an attempt to put Thailand and surrounding Southeast Asian nations, known to have diamond and other rare gem deposits, off limits to Lebanese Shi’ite competitors. The “intelligence” provided about Hussein and Hezbollah to Thailand and the United States came from Mossad. In Thailand, Bangkok’s Chabad House of Lubavitch Jews was at the heart of spinning the Hezbollah “threat” in Thailand. Chabad Houses around the world serve as virtual safe houses for Israeli intelligence operatives. The Chabad Houses are also involved in the smuggling of weapons, drugs, diamonds and other precious gems, indentured servitude prostitutes, and human organs.
The Israeli-manufactured Hezbollah “threat” in Thailand comes at the same time that Britain’s ambassador to Thailand, Asif Ahmad, who reportedly has ties to MI-6 run Islamist radical groups in Pakistan and elsewhere, has suggested an “R2P” program for southern Thailand, where an Muslim ethnic Malay insurgency has been ongoing for decades. Asif is believed to maintain strong links to the government of Qatar, which has been at the forefront of Arab states that are behind R2P interventions in Libya and Syria. It is believed in Thailand that Britain, Israel, and the United States would like to establish a Kosovo-style provisionally-independent Muslim-governed state in southern Thailand’s Patani region, with the Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO), the largest of the separatist groups, becoming the governing party. PULO would enjoy the same support from the West as afforded to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo.
PULO and other Patani separatists wear black uniforms and are well-financed. It is believed that much of the financing of the Patani separatists now comes from Qatar in anticipation of an “Arab Spring” R2P operation in southern Thailand. Prime Minister Yingluck is attempting to implement a program of national reconciliation with the southern Muslims and the victims of the 2010 Bangkok massacre by the previous military-backed government but the interference of the Israelis, British, Americans, Qataris, and Saudis threaten her program.
In the past, PULO received much of its funding from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The rebel group was founded in 1968 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia with the blessing and support of the Saudi government. In 1991, the various Patani rebel groups, including those more radical and violent than PULO, united to form the United Front for the Independence of Pattani” or “Bersatu.” Younger members of the group have received Wahhabi Salafist religious training in madrassas in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the UAE.
Although the Thai government has conducted secret peace negotiations with all the coalition members of Bersatu in Bahrain, Stockholm, and other cities, no substantive progress has resulted. There is one radical Islamist group—Runda Kumpalan Kecil (RKK), or “Small Patrol Group,”—which continues to conduct attacks against Thai government targets in the south. RKK and other militant Patani groups allegedly receive terrorist support from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Britain. The Patani groups carefully avoid striking targets such as bars, night clubs, and American iconic businesses like McDonald’s and Starbucks, where Western and Arab Middle Eastern tourists gather, especially in Phuket.
By suggesting that Hezbollah was behind an attempted terrorist attack in Thailand, the Qataris and Saudis are trying to eliminate Shi’ite influence in Thailand in order to maintain the Salafist control of Thai Muslim groups in the south. Israel benefits by eliminating Lebanese Shi’ite influence in the diamond and other rare gem trade in the country.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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