Hi. I'm Newley Purnell. I cover technology and business for The Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. I use this site to share my stories and often blog about the books I'm reading, tech trends, sports, travel, and our dog Ginger. For updates, get my weekly email newsletter.
My newest story for the Wall Street Journal‘s Southeast Asia Real Time blog is called Thai Cheerleaders Documentary Draws Applause.
It begins:
A new documentary about the surprising international success of a Thai cheerleading squad is attracting attention in the Southeast Asian nation and abroad.
Please give it a read and share it online.
(Image: A Single Production Company..)
Some Thailand-related, some not:
(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)
ABC News has the images and reports:
Forensic photographs obtained exclusively by ABC News show an undetonated explosive device that was designed to be a part of a failed bomb plot in Thailand. Three Iranian suspects were arrested last week for their alleged involvement in the plot which fell apart when a similar device apparently exploded in an accident at the house where the Iranians were staying
Click through to see the pics.
To follow up on my previous post about the cryptic “SEJEAL” stickers:
The Bangkok Post reports today:
The mysterious stickers found posted along a road in Klong Toey district definitely belonged to the group of suspects believed to have been involved in the Feb 14 bombings on Sukhumvit Soi 71, police said.
Fifty-two stickers bearing the word “Sejeal” were found on electricity posts and signboards on Duang Phithak Road.
“We are sure they belong to the suspects, as we found about 300 similar stickers at a house rented by Leila Rohani, one of the five suspects,” said a police source inside the Metropolitan Police’s investigation team in charge of the case.
The officer said authorities believed the stickers were used to mark the escape route for the gang members after they completed a bombing mission, rather than marking potential target sites.
Examinations of the stickers found a phrase which indicated that they were produced outside the country, said the source. Investigators were trying to locate the sticker’s manufacturer.
“It is very likely that Ms Leila brought them in from a foreign country,” he said.
The AP has a story today summing up the last week’s events:
It began when three men blew up their house accidentally on Valentine’s Day in Bangkok. It ended with a gory scene that looked more like Baghdad: a bloodied, would-be bomber with severed legs moaning on a glass-strewn sidewalk after another botched blast.
Last week’s explosions in the Thai capital announced the apparent arrival of international terrorists in this Southeast Asian nation, revealing a plot allegedly aimed against Israeli diplomats. But big questions remain about who was behind the plot, and why.
There’s also this bit, which I haven’t seen reported elsewhere:
Moradi turned onto a main road as police began moving in. One of them, Sgt. Panphum Rakkuson, said the Iranian pulled a rectangular-shaped box out of his backpack and threw it toward the officers.
“We were stunned and couldn’t do anything but stand there,” Panphum said.
The bomb, though, got caught on something, and hit the ground next to Moradi and exploded, instantly shredding both his legs below the knee.
Panphum said Moradi reached out for a piece of broken glass from the sidewalk and drew it toward his neck, as if he was trying to kill himself.
Following up on a Tweet I sent last night:
Today’s Bangkok Post — a pic of the front page is above — has more on the “SEJEAL” stickers and the Iranian bombing suspects. The Post says:
City police are looking into possible links between last week’s central Bangkok bomb blasts and the posting of a string of stickers with an enigmatic message, a source said.
Fifty-two stickers bearing the word “Sejeal” were found posted along a road in Klong Toey district.
They were similar to stickers found at the house where the first of three blasts occurred on Sukhumvit Soi 71 on Feb 14, at another house on Ramkhamhaeng Road rented by suspect Leila Rohani, 31, and under the seat of a seized motorcycle believed to belong to one of the suspects.
The posted stickers were put up on either electricity posts or large signboards starting from an area under a footbridge on Duang Phithak Road in Klong Toey, which runs parallel to the expressway heading for southern Phloenchit Road.
The stickers’ trail ended at the mouth of Soi Ruam Rudi near Phloenchit BTS station.
The total coverage of the sticker-posting was about 1.5 kilometres.
The source said investigators believed the bombers used the stickers to mark spots where bombing attacks could be carried out.
And:
Police believed Israeli officials often travelled along Duang Phithak Road, which eventually leads to the Asoke area, where the Israeli embassy is based.
The word “sejeal” may refer to a passage in the Koran that tells of a miracle when birds from heaven dropped “sejeal stones” on an army riding elephants from Yemen who were attempting to kill Mohammed, scaring the animals and saving the prophet’s life.
Here are larger images from today’s paper:
And a pic of one of the stickers in question:
Elsewhere, a Google Image search reveals a few pics in the Thai media of a what looks like police examining several other “SEJEAL” stickers around Bangkok.
(All emphasis mine.)
(Images: Bangkok Post.)
The AP ran a story yesterday that said:
Unwinding with bar girls at a beach town came first. Building bombs was allegedly for later.
The three Iranians detained in Bangkok and accused of plotting to attack Israeli diplomats set priorities during their trip to Thailand. They spent several days at a seaside town in the company of prostitutes, soaking up the sun and sin that has attracted many of the world’s unsavory characters.
The “Land of Smiles” has long been a favorite haven for criminals — from Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to gangsters, drug smugglers and pedophiles — drawn by its open-door visa policy, lax law enforcement and huge variety of white sand beaches.
Thailand’s tourism industry rakes in more than $25 billion in revenue a year, accounting for more than 6 percent of the economy. But officials are now questioning if they should roll back the welcome mat a little.
And:
Within days of the terror scare, the Thai Tourism Ministry put on hold a plan to allow visas on arrival to citizens of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran.
Indeed, you can see the much-discussed image of the Iranian men hanging out with their Thai “escorts” — as the Bangkok Post put it — in Pattaya in my previous post.
Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday that police found a motorcycle — pictured above — they say was purchased by one of the Iranian bombing suspects:
Iranian bombing suspects may have been planning to use a motorcycle to attack their targets in Bangkok.
Police on Saturday found a motorcycle that had been left in Sukhumvit Soi 71 since Tuesday when three bomb blasts rocked the area.
(Image: Bangkok Post.)
Three stories to mention today:
1. Today’s Bangkok Post has this story and photo:
PATTAYA : Officials at the Immigration Department’s Chon Buri office yesterday identified a Thai woman in Pattaya who had escorted the Iranian bomb suspects during their stay in the resort town.
Her account, and photographs taken with her mobile phone, could help authorities confirm whether the suspects know one another.
2. In another story on Thailand’s international airports, the Post says:
Security is being beefed up at the country’s six international airports which could become possible new targets for acts of sabotage following a terror warning by Israel, national police chief Priewpan Damapong says.
Pol Gen Priewpan yesterday told the Transport Ministry to place the international airports, under the Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT), on high alert as Israel has warned terrorists may be targetting them.
A government source said Israel had advised police directly to boost security at airports, based on intelligence reports it had received.
3. And finally, The Nation says a bomb expert in his 50s could be connected to the men:
One of the four Middle East men captured by security cameras during the blasts in Bangkok on Valentine’s Day was suspected to be a bomb expert who passed on his bombmaking skills to the other three, police said yesterday.
And:
According to a source at the national security agency, prior to the first explosion at the suspects’ rented house near Sukhumvit Soi 71, witnesses said they saw an Iranian man in his 50s and 150160cm tall going out of the house with a large luggage case at about 7am.
(Image: Bangkok Post.)
The Bangkok Post reports this evening:
Police will seek an arrest warrant for a fifth suspect in Tuesday’s bomb explosions in Bangkok based on information from eyewitnesses and security camera footage, deputy police chief Pansiri Prapawat said on Thursday.
Pol Gen Pansiri said the fifth suspect was also a man of middle-eastern appearance. The other four suspects have been identified as Iranians, one of them a woman.
Police were checking if he was still in the country.
(Image: Bangkok Post.)
The Nation today says:
According to police sources, two improvised bombs found at the house were in the form of portable radios, stuffed with C-4 explosives. Hand grenades with the safety lever removed were inserted in the radio units to be used as the detonator.
Small metal balls were also put in the units intended as shrapnel. There were six flat round metal plates with a diameter of 2 centimetres attached beneath the radio bomb units, each weighing about 2 kilograms.
Contrary to media reports that Morabi used two hand grenades while on the run, police sources said he used two radio bomb units, out of a stock of five. One went off in the first accidental explosion in the rented house, two were used by him and two others were found in the house.
The radio bombs went off five seconds after their grenades were activated. They had a blast radius of about 40 metres and kill radius of about 3-5 metres, the sources added.