July 18, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) - Protesters today at Bangkok's Democracy Monument were promoted and led by US government-funded individuals and organizations.
Among them is Anon Nampa of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) and "independent" media platform, Prachatai.
Organizations provided advice on how protesters should dress and tactics they could employ.
Luckily very few attended the protests with violence limited to mobs manhandling the small group of police deployed who quickly retreated. For a "dictatorship," the protesters were given freedoms by the Thai government the US sponsoring the mob do not afford demonstrators in America.
Anon Nampa's TLHR was created in cooperation with the US Embassy in Bangkok in 2014 and funded by them since.
Prachatai, iLaw, and many other alleged "independent" media organizations seen promoting today's protests are also funded almost exclusively by the US government and US and European based corporate-funded foundations like Open Society.
Neither TLHR nor media platforms like Prachatai and iLaw would exist without US government funding and political backing. According to Prachatai's own 2011 disclosure (the only disclosure they ever made and only in English, not Thai) a tiny percentage of their annual budget comes from readers actually residing in Thailand. It is also very likely these protests and the political parties they support would also not exist without extensive foreign backing.
Protesting for What?
While protesters today rallied for a handful of ambiguous causes including "democracy," "freedom," and "human rights" - it is abundantly clear that the ultimate goal is regime change if possible - returning US proxy Thaksin Shinawatra and his political allies including Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his defunct Future Forward Party back to power.
Otherwise, protests simply seek to create instability and deny Thailand as a stable, valuable political and economic partner for China. By setting back an increasingly important ally of China the US hopes it will in turn set China back as well.
This explains why the US is so deeply invested in these protests and why they are increasingly mirroring those the US organized in Hong Kong - and why there are an increasing number of "synergies" between them.
In other words, protesters at Democracy Monument are protesting to simply destabilize Thailand. They do so at a time when much of the nation is struggling to recover from the global COVID-19 crisis. Protest leaders are disconnected entirely from the chaos they seek to create since they depend on foreign government funding, not economic conditions inside of Thailand.
Thailand's "student protesters" not only mirror mobs that torched Hong Kong recently, but also mobs that led to violence and even war in places like Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ukraine - all places the US also funded protesters through organizations like NED and Open Society. While Thailand has dealt well with protests in the past - the results of other episodes of US-backed destabilization around the globe leave no room for complacency.
Among them is Anon Nampa of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) and "independent" media platform, Prachatai.
Organizations provided advice on how protesters should dress and tactics they could employ.
Luckily very few attended the protests with violence limited to mobs manhandling the small group of police deployed who quickly retreated. For a "dictatorship," the protesters were given freedoms by the Thai government the US sponsoring the mob do not afford demonstrators in America.
Anon Nampa's TLHR was created in cooperation with the US Embassy in Bangkok in 2014 and funded by them since.
Prachatai, iLaw, and many other alleged "independent" media organizations seen promoting today's protests are also funded almost exclusively by the US government and US and European based corporate-funded foundations like Open Society.
Neither TLHR nor media platforms like Prachatai and iLaw would exist without US government funding and political backing. According to Prachatai's own 2011 disclosure (the only disclosure they ever made and only in English, not Thai) a tiny percentage of their annual budget comes from readers actually residing in Thailand. It is also very likely these protests and the political parties they support would also not exist without extensive foreign backing.
Protesting for What?
While protesters today rallied for a handful of ambiguous causes including "democracy," "freedom," and "human rights" - it is abundantly clear that the ultimate goal is regime change if possible - returning US proxy Thaksin Shinawatra and his political allies including Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his defunct Future Forward Party back to power.
Otherwise, protests simply seek to create instability and deny Thailand as a stable, valuable political and economic partner for China. By setting back an increasingly important ally of China the US hopes it will in turn set China back as well.
This explains why the US is so deeply invested in these protests and why they are increasingly mirroring those the US organized in Hong Kong - and why there are an increasing number of "synergies" between them.
In other words, protesters at Democracy Monument are protesting to simply destabilize Thailand. They do so at a time when much of the nation is struggling to recover from the global COVID-19 crisis. Protest leaders are disconnected entirely from the chaos they seek to create since they depend on foreign government funding, not economic conditions inside of Thailand.
Thailand's "student protesters" not only mirror mobs that torched Hong Kong recently, but also mobs that led to violence and even war in places like Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ukraine - all places the US also funded protesters through organizations like NED and Open Society. While Thailand has dealt well with protests in the past - the results of other episodes of US-backed destabilization around the globe leave no room for complacency.
