TIME has this story, which sums up the situation:
Last Friday, just hours after the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok warned on its website of a “possible terrorist threat” in tourist areas of the Thai capital, Thai security officials arrested a Lebanese man suspected of being a member of Hizballah, the Iranian-backed militant group. After three days of interrogations, police seized more than 4,000 kg of bombmaking materials from the townhouse he rented in a Bangkok suburb. But instead of receiving praise their police work, Thailand’s government and security officials are being roundly criticized.
The scorn-filled and suspicious responses are the result of mistrust of the U.S., concern over lost tourism earnings, and the conflicting statements and shifting narrative of events by various government officials, all of whom are insisting tourists and locals have nothing to fear because they have the situation “under control.” As an editorial in the English-language Nation newspaper opined, “In Thailand we have a long history of politicians telling us half-truths and lies, especially when it comes to security matters. And so when they tell us to be calm because everything is under control, we have good reason not to trust them.” Ten nations aside from the U.S. have now issued terrorism alerts about Thailand to their citizens.