Sunday, August 16, 2020

As Protest Grows, Questions about Their Sponsors Grow with Them

August 16, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) - The Western media and their partners in Thailand have repeatedly claimed that anti-government protests in Thailand were "organic," "leaderless," and "spontaneous."




Today's protest, whether we trust pictures showing less than 5,000, media reports claiming "10,000-12,000" or the "students'" claims of over "20,000" it is obvious the protests are not "organic," "leaderless," or "spontaneous." They never were.

It was just months ago that the protests' billionaire sponsors - whose parties were disbanded after blatant election law violations - vowed to take their pursuit of power to the streets.

Thai PBS' article, "Thanathorn vows to bring people onto streets after rally in downtown Bangkok," would note as early as December 2019 that:
Addressing the demonstrators, Thanathorn said the rally was just a harbinger of more political activities against the Prayut government.  He threatened to “bring people to the streets...”
Now here they are.



Image: Not 20,000. Not even 10,000. Despite claims that the protest "swelled to over 10,000" aerial images clearly show nothing of the sort, even at night when the crowd supposedly grew. The media has consistently lied to the public about the sponsors, real agenda, and popularity of the protests. 

Image: "Student" protesters recreate the phone-torch stunt used by US-funded agitators in Hong Kong. The Western media refuses to report repeated visits made by Thai protest leaders to Hong Kong to meet with protest leaders there or the fact that the same US interest funding unrest in Hong Kong are also funding these protests in Thailand. 

The media has repeatedly failed to report on who leaders like Anon Nampa are - the fact he is not a "student" or the fact that his organization - Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) - is funded by the US government via the notorious regime-change front - the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).



The media has not mentioned that groups like iLaw petitioning for the rewriting of Thailand's constitution is also funded by the US NED.


The media has likewise failed to provide even the most basic background of "student" leaders like Student Union of Thailand (SUT) founder Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak - whose own public Facebook account reveals his ties to the billionaire-led opposition of Thaksin Shinawatra and Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, his visit to Hong Kong to meet US-funded agitators there, as well as his regular visits to Western embassies in Bangkok.



It is only through this concerted campaign of deception that the illusion of legitimacy and "grassroots" appeal can be maintained.

With protests being expanded by their billionaire and foreign sponsors - burning questions as to why their sponsors are not being mentioned by the media will continue to be raised. So to will demands that the government deal with criminal interests hiding behind "student" protests almost certainly bound to repeat the violence seen in 2009-2010 when their demands are not met.