CFR to Thailand: Accept US-Stooge or Else

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Bangkok, Thailand July 14, 2011 – The corporate-funded, corporate-serving unelected arbiters of US domestic and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations have recently written an article titled, “Is Thailand Headed for Another Coup? What Should the United States Do About It?” Considering Thailand is a sovereign nation, the obvious answer as to what the US should do is mind its own business. However CFR shill Joshua Kurlantzick, a “Fellow for Southeast Asia” suggests otherwise.

Kurlantzick first misleads a readership he must regard with utter contempt by stating, “Thailand’s voters decisively backed the populist Puea Thai Party,” in recent July elections. In reality, of the 74% of Thais that turned out to vote on July 3, only 48% actually cast votes for Peua Thai (PTP). Of all eligible voters, that is a tenuous 35% mandate, hardly what can be called “decisively backed.” While Kurlantzick states, “Thaksin, who faces a jail term in Thailand on charges of corruption and has lived in exile since the coup, seems to have had his revenge: His sister, Yingluck, whom he has called “his clone,” runs Puea Thai, and she appears poised to become Thailand’s first female prime minister,” he utterly fails to point out how Thaksin literally runs the party by proxy from abroad, with the party’s slogan being “Thaksin thinks, Peua Thai does.”

Photo: Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra, long time servant of the global elite, sits before the Council on Foreign Relations on September 18, 2006, the day before the Thai Army removed his autocratic, foreign-serving regime from power in a peaceful military coup.

Aside from the slogan’s overt admission to his role, Thaksin has also contributed to PTP’s recent campaigning activities by conducting video call-ins to political rallies and using his image upon PTP campaign signs to bolster support for PTP candidates. In essence, a convicted criminal, overtly admitting to running a proxy political party, has taken part in the campaigning activities of an opposition political party contesting a national election. Illegal in any nation, such activity is also specifically prohibited by Thai law. Despite this, CFR’s Kurlantzick suggests that if Thailand’s establishment attempts to address this overt criminality, “Washington must take action.” He goes on to say, “To help put Thai democracy back on track, Washington should make clear that the U.S. would no longer tolerate meddling by the Thai establishment,” and that “the Thai people should have the right to choose the leaders they want,” apparently, it would seem, with complete disregard for the rule of law.

Photos: Thaksin, a convicted criminal evading a 2 year jail sentence, indisputably still runs Thailand’s opposition party by proxy. His image is used on PTP campaign posters, he regularly calls into political & campaign rallies, and PTP’s campaign slogan literally is, “Thaksin Thinks, Peua Thai does.” PTP executives regularly fly to Dubai, Cambodia, Brunei, and Hong Kong to consort with the US-backed fugitive regarding political affairs.

While Kurlantzick disingenuously portrays the US response to Thaksin’s ouster in September 2006 (a day after Thaksin had spoken before the CFR in New York City) as one of indifference, the reality is that America’s corporate establisment have been supporting and working with Thaksin vigorously ever since. Thaksin has been represented by this monied elite via their lobbying firms, including Kenneth Adelman of the Edelman PR firm (Freedom House, International Crisis Group, PNAC), James Baker of Baker Botts (CFR), Robert Blackwill of Barbour Griffith & Rogers (CFR), Kobre & Kim, and currently Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Peroff (Chatham House). The above mentioned Edelman, it should be noted, is also a sponsor of the US State Department’s project, Movements.org which is on record training the Egyptian April 6 Movement that triggered the now admittedly US-engineered “Arab Spring.”

Meanwhile, Thaksin’s street mobs dubbed the “red shirts” have received rhetorical support by US-funded NGOs like Prachatai which received 1.5 million baht from the Neo-Con lined National Endowment for Democracy. Prachatai has also received funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society, and the Sigrid Rausing Trust (who also funds the International Crisis Group) via the Global Human Rights Fund (2008). Additionally, a recent addition to Thaksin’s red shirt mob’s leadership includes Sombat Boonngamanong who has spent a lifetime in the service of UN projects and Fortune 500-funded foundations like “Ashoka.”

Kurlantizick, to address Thailand’s rejection of a US-backed convicted criminal and his illegitimate proxy-party, suggests that the US should cut its military aid to Thailand as well as applying sanctions that would cut off military transfers. He also suggests that Congress begin subjecting Thailand to the same “scrutiny’ applied to other Asian nations. Kurlantzick also suggests that Thailand is drifting toward “civil war” and that “the U.S. must do its part to ensure that this doesn’t come to pass.”

In reality, Thaksin’s proxy party failed to garner support from more than 35% of Thailand’s eligible voters. In the past, Thaksin’s attempts at triggering violent uprisings yielded only a small group of hardcore supporters willing to commit to such violence, augmented by a paltry 300 armed mercenaries, put down by the Thai military two years consecutively. While PTP will undoubtedly attempt to bring in more arms and spill more blood, and while CFR is clearly signaling the US elitist establishment will throw its full weight behind PTP, recent election results lays bare the true moral and political bankruptcy of Thaksin’s proxy movement. Any violence they now commit to, they do so in a climate of complete illegitimacy. With revelations regarding pro-Thaksin, pro-PTP, pro-red shirt propaganda outlet “Prachatai” and their wall-to-wall United States foundation funding, Thais must decide for themselves whether they sort out their own problems inwardly and work pragmatically to improve their nation’s future, or invite in the self-serving meddling of the US and their stooge Thaksin Shinwatra via his proxy party PTP.

Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at 
Land Destroyer Report.