Dude! Thai fighter jets forcing down a cargo plane?

[Chuck Bao]

This has got to be one of the strangest stories if it is true.

They are now saying that the cargo plane from North Korea that was found to be carry all those military arms for insurgents in Pakistan did not plan to land in Bangkok and the Thai Air Force at the request of the US forced the plan to land in Bangkok so tje arms could be confiscated.

That would be great if true. Forgive me for being a bit sckeptical though. The Thai government was previously so worried about expelled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra flying over Thai air space and taking up his new position of economic advisor to Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen. There is a credibility gap there.

[Okla-homey]

This has got to be one of the strangest stories if it is true.

They are now saying that the cargo plane from North Korea that was found to be carry all those military arms for insurgents in Pakistan did not plan to land in Bangkok and the Thai Air Force at the request of the US forced the plan to land in Bangkok so tje arms could be confiscated.

That would be great if true. Forgive me for being a bit sckeptical though. The Thai government was previously so worried about expelled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra flying over Thai air space and taking up his new position of economic advisor to Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen. There is a credibility gap there.

Those Thai fighter jocks were trained right here in the US. Wichita Falls and Vegas. They know WTF to take orders from in the final analysis. That's why we agree to train them.;)

[Chuck Bao]

I don't know but I read yesterday that Thai military planes forced the cargo -plane to land in Bangkk.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/29317/police-investigate-bout-link


Police investigate Bout link
Plane has long history of role in arms deals
Published: 16/12/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Investigators are convinced the massive arms shipment found on a cargo plane intercepted by Thai authorities on Sunday while refuelling at Don Mueang airport was headed for a Middle East country.

Even though one of the detained aircraft crew told investigators the Russian-made Ilyushin II-76 was en route from North Korea to Ukraine, with stopovers in Bangkok and Sri Lanka, investigators were not convinced. The crew could have changed the flight plan at any time, sources said yesterday.

The sources said the arms were not bound for Sri Lanka. The delivery location was a country in the Middle East but they refused to identify which one.

Related story: Arms seizure threatens Thai security
Police, air force officers, prosecutors and officers from the National Intelligence Agency yesterday carried out a detailed inspection of the 35 tonnes of weapons in 145 boxes and crates.

The arms are being kept at three depots at the air force's Wing 4 airbase in Takhli district, Nakhon Sawan.

Police will ask prosecutors to file further charges against the suspects after they have completed their inspection.

IIyas Issakov, Viktor Abdukkayev, Alexandr Zrybnev and Vitaliy Shunkov from Kazakhstan and Mikhail Petukou from Belarus have been charged with illegal possession of weapons.

Crime Suppression Division commander Supisarn Phakdinaruenart yesterday said they would also be charged with possessing explosives, a crime which carries a penalty of between two years in jail and the death sentence.

The investigators were trying to uncover a possible link between them and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison. The five foreigners are being held in the same prison but in different areas.

Mr Bout, dubbed the Merchant of Death, was arrested in Thailand in March last year. He is wanted in the US, which has been trying to extradite him from Thailand to face charges of supplying arms to rebel groups in different countries.

Pol Col Supisarn of the CSD said investigators were looking at the Bout case to see whether there was a connection with the five men arrested on Sunday.

Another link to Bout surfaced among details pointing to the plane's long history of making deliveries for arms dealers, said Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank tracking the arms trade and analysing military spending.

The crew's Thai lawyer said the plane was registered to Air West, a cargo transport company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Prior to that it was registered under a company named Beibars linked to Serbian arms trafficker Tonislav Damnjanovic, and before that with three companies identified by the US Treasury Department as firms controlled by Mr Bout, said Mr Griffiths, who is leading a project monitoring air cargo companies involved in arms trafficking.

"They are like flocks of migrating birds, these aircraft. They change from one company to another because the previous one has either been closed for safety reasons or been identified in a UN trafficking report," he said.

In this case, he said the arms dealers changed the plane's country of registration to Georgia because the European Union had banned all cargo carriers registered in Kazakhstan, where Beibars is registered and where four of the crew originate.

Mr Griffiths said the past owners of the aircraft had been documented by the United Nations as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. He said the plane also was used to ship arms from the Balkans to Burundi in October.

The plane has since continued to change hands.

Officials in Kazakhstan and Georgia said on Monday the Air West plane was leased recently to SP Trading for transporting cargo. The company operates out of New Zealand, said Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ilyas Omarov.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the seizure, saying it "shows that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of weapons and it shows that the international community when it stands together can make a very strong statement".

[Chuck Bao]

Those Thai fighter jocks were trained right here in the US. Wichita Falls and Vegas. They know WTF to take orders from in the final analysis. That's why we agree to train them.;)

You know that I like that a lot. I don't like the fact that the Thai military has staged about 20 coups over the last 80 years, like once every four-five years on average. I don't know what deal with the devil was made here and I really don't want to know. But, can I mention again how much I love and admire the professional men and women serving in our armed forces. God bless all of them.

[tidalmouse]

It said they were Re-fueling when the **** came down on them.Regardless it was a Great Job by the Thai Military.Whatever they did they acccomplished their mission.

[Chuck Bao]

It said they were Re-fueling when the **** came down on them.Regardless it was a Great Job by the Thai Military.Whatever they did they acccomplished their mission.

Yeah the Good Guys won on this deal.

[SpiderInMyPeanuts]

Actual footage:

http://www.vegatransports.com.au/starwars/OTC/tie_fighter_squardron5.jpg

[TMcGee86]

Heh, I was just about to say you spelled "TIE" wrong. :D

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Thailand has fighter jets? Wierd.

[OUDoc]

Well, just one.

[Chuck Bao]

Hey, I will have you know that Thailand has an aircraft carrier - a second-hand one. The Thai Navy cannot afford to take it out, so it sits at the dock and also serves as a tourist attraction.

The confiscation of that cargo plane is also working out well for the Thai military. The Thai government decided that it really didn't really need to destroy the armaments on board as per UN protocol and Thailand can use them. You know they are going to be very keen on intercepting the next cargo plane from North Korea.

[OUDoc]

Until North Korea gets tired of donating unarmed weapons to Thailand and decides to send an armed one over.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I'm surprised FoxNews isn't all over this. This is really fishy and the arms would seem to be a big red flag for the U.S. Going to Iran?

[Chuck Bao]

Until North Korea gets tired of donating unarmed weapons to Thailand and decides to send an armed one over.

North Korea is not about to start **** with Thailand. First of all they weren't flying over China airspace and that was probably for a reason. I'm guessing that the US provided the intelligence but I am also guessing that there were some phone calls made to Beijing before the Thai jets were given the go ahead to bring the cargo plane down in Bangkok.

Thailand is a buffer state and that has served Thailand very well over the last 300 years - British versus the French colonism in Burma, Malaysia Indochina, the Vietnam War and Cold War, and now as an independent state snatching a cargo plane from a rogue state like North Korea.

Yeah, this is fishy and probably pretty much a set up..