Thai soldiers in Iraq (AFP)
More fallout from the Spanish appeasement.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Thailand's embassy in Sweden has received a letter threatening the Southeast Asian country with attacks like those on Spain in retaliation for sending troops to Iraq, Thai and Swedish officials said on Wednesday."Since Thailand has cooperated with U.S.A., the Satan's states, and have interfered in the concern of Iraq by sending 443 Thai soldiers to the occupied land, we have our duty to inform you that Thailand is one of our targets after Spain," reads the letter, in ungrammatical English and dated March 31.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed the text of the letter, which concludes with the Muslim phrase "Insha Allah" or "God be willing" and the phrase: "Peace be upon those who follow the guidance."
Thai officials said it was signed with the Arabic name Al Bashir al-Makkawi.
"We are aware of this and we are working on it," said a senior officer at Sweden's Sapo security police.
"An investigation is under way into where it came from and who sent the letter," Bengt Berglund, an inspector at Stockholm police's diplomatic unit, told Reuters. It was the first such threat reported by any embassy in Stockholm since the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, Berglund said.
Thailand has about 440 medical and engineering troops in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, 60 miles south of Baghdad, but the Thai Foreign Ministry said that they were not involved in military operations.
In Bangkok, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters Thai troops were only in Iraq for humanitarian reasons.
"I can assure you that nothing will happen. Muslims know that Thais go there to help them, not to kill them," he said.
Two Thai soldiers were killed in a truck bomb attack in Kerbala in December last year.
The deaths shocked many Thais and sparked criticism that the government had failed to explain to the public the risks of deploying troops, even on a humanitarian mission, to Iraq.
Bangkok has forged closer ties with Washington since the arrest in Thailand last year of Hambali, the suspected mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings and operations chief for the al Qaeda-linked militant group, Jemaah Islamiah.
Thailand and the United States have been sharing intelligence on a spate of violence in Thailand's largely Muslim south, where about 60 people have been killed since January.
Thai security officials blame Muslim separatists, renegade officials and local mafias for the violence. But some senior officials have said they suspected the local separatists might have received support from foreign militant groups.
ADDENDUM: "Allah" has alerted me to this IHT article, which makes it quite clear that appeasement is indeed what the Spanish want, and why they elected Zapatero. In other words, the opinions of many analysts — that the Spanish election results were caused by anger at outgoing Prime Minister Aznar's initial blaming of ETA for the Madrid bombings — is dead wrong.
"This is all the fault of the United States; they got us into this," said Santiago Ruíz, a 55-year-old electrician who lives in suburban Leganés, a block from where the four suspects killed themselves and a police officer on Saturday. "The way to combat terrorism isn't the way Bush has done. Spain is paying the consequences of its solidarity with the United States."In the city center, Alejandro Rodríguez, 36, agreed: "We should withdraw from Iraq right now. Why wait until June? Do we want to wait for more attacks?"
Pointing to the bloody clashes in Iraq between Spanish troops and local Shiites in recent days, Rodríguez said Spanish soldiers were creating enemies.
Thousands of people have taken to Madrid's streets over the past two days, protesting against terrorism and decrying Spain's involvement in Iraq. Many banners focused on the war, reading "Get the troops out of Iraq now" and "No more blood for oil."
"There is a growing feeling in the population that there is a direct link between our troops in Iraq and the terrorist threat - it's an emotional reaction," said Araceli Mangas, professor of political science at the University of Salamanca. "It's irrational and incoherent, but it's real. The new government needs to explain very carefully why it is pulling troops out, if it does."
Did someone say Spanish appeasement?
Queen Isabella must be spinning at warp speed in her grave. That lady and her forebearers knew the score after spending almost 800 years in the process of repelling Iberian Islam, el-Andalus.
Certainly we now understand the animus they held toward Muslims and the deserved distrust that they had for those that stayed behind as "converts" to Christianity, as many secretly not only practiced Islam, but conspired as some Muslims do to overthrow the Christian monarchs and return Spain to Islam. We also can now understand, though we might not condone, the actions of the Inqusition that was first invited in to question the loyalty of these people. Unfortunately, as history has demonstrated, the Inquisition devolved into something else.
It is amazing to compare the progress that Christianity has made in the past 600 years in comparison to that of Islam which still remains rooted in the Middle Ages.
Spain will embrace its Muslim past perhaps because Islam never really left the Spanish psyche.
The funniest thing about the article--and by "funniest" I mean "most sickening"--is that many Spaniards now want to retreat more quickly than Zapatero does. At last check, he was open to keeping Spanish troops in Iraq if the UN took on a greater role. According to the article, 42% of Spaniards now say even that isn't good enough. They want to cut and run, and the sooner the better.
The Spanish socialists are proving themselves worthy of the next rough treatment they soon will be receiving from the Islamofacists. Since these socialists don't believe in God it will not be surprising when they nominally endorse Islam as the religion of Spain under threat of additional attacks. I wonder how many attacks it will take to convert Spain to Andulusia under sharia law.
So much for the Matadors......get ready for the "Running of the Camels"
Well, I'm spanish. You people must understand that about 50% of all the media here is controled by the socialists, through Polanco's PRISA group. The other major media outlets are scared to death about contradicting them or acusing them of manipulation. You only hear the socialist's side of the story over here, and the socialists story is whatever damages the Popular Party. If the socialists had been in gobernment these last years, they would have turned the masses into demanding imidiate retaliation, while praising th US for it's eforts against war.
It's something you should know, half the population is just a mindless drone that is instructed to give power, and thus great cuantities of money, to the socialists.
Look up 'Polanco' and 'PRISA' if you want to learn more. It's a manipulation machine Stalin would be proud of.
Alex, I wish Spain the best, but your people need to stamp these Muslim Extremists into the soil. I hate the thought of all those beautiful Spanish women being covered up with Hijabs, Burkas, and sheets......Islamist Jihadis don't respect women, or anyone else for that matter. Take them out.
Don't worry that much. Zapatero's a fool, he depends on separatists and comunists to remain in power, and he'll be quite unpopular once Spain spirals down in deficit and interest rates hit the roof. The first things every good socialist does when ataining power are: Give themselves a nice payrise, no leser than 80%; put family members, friends and buissnes men in high places; and ignore their electoral program.
He might not even last these four years.
how ironic, the spanish word for i wish is ojala. its easy to see that arabic once polluted their country.
Alex - Spaniards have to stand up for themselves before its too late. You will return to the state your ancestors worked so hard to overcome - dhimmitude. No one deserves that fate.
Does anyone else think appeasers deserve what they get?
Allah, please bless these people with some spine, so that they may stomp a hole into the jihad.