The Snowden files have revealed that the US National Security Agency has been secretly monitoring the phone conversations of 35 world leaders. So far only one has been identified – the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Intense media speculation surrounds the identity of the remaining 34.
While Germany has been incandescent over this incident, and most national leaders are hoping not to appear on any such list, in Thailand the reaction has been somewhat different.
There have been persistent rumours that Thailand is not in fact on the list of 34 and that no recent Thai Prime Minister has been under secret US surveillance. But politicians and government officials here have interpreted this as a slight on the country, implying that Thailand is not worth spying on.
Officially, Thai state agencies have been huffing and puffing and warning the US not to carry out any illegal phone tapping operations on Thai soil. But behind the scenes, they have been working furiously to counter the malicious gossip that Thailand is too insignificant to eavesdrop on.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the state agency most attuned to foreign perspectives on Thailand, has been advocating a low-key ‘neither confirm nor deny’ approach.
This allows their ambassador and chargés to then give off-the-record briefings that say ‘Yes of course we were bugged’ to those countries we want to impress (Lao PDR, perhaps), or ‘No, we are such good friends with the US that of course we haven’t been bugged’ to those states we want to placate (like the US itself). Thai foreign service personnel are rigorously selected and trained to be well versed in such diplomatic double-speak.
Other state agencies, especially those linked to the military, have taken a more predictably aggressive stance.
The National Security Agency has been reviewing their list of top state secrets in order to select the ones which they think would be of most interest to US intelligence (and which haven’t already been leaked to the Thai media). The strategy would be to drop hints here and there, rather like a fisherman dropping bait in the water, in the hope that this would provoke the interest of the US spy agencies sufficiently to put the PM’s mobile number on their list and restore the nation’s respectability.
Unfortunately the sailing plans of the country’s greatest military asset, HTMS Chakri Naruebet (also known as the world’s smallest aircraft carrier) are unlikely to interest anyone’s intelligence service. The vessel is occasionally used to transport the Royal Family and has been deployed as a response to natural disasters, but its operations otherwise consist of a single day’s sailing per month for training purposes. This intelligence can easily be gleaned just by joining the tourists on one of the frequent open days and chatting to the visibly bored crew members.
Likewise the top-secret briefing documents for the team negotiating peace talks with the BRN separatists in the south have thought to have little espionage value. ‘The instructions change every week, depending on which military faction can wrest control of the talks,’ explained an inside source. ‘Besides, it’s far from clear that the BRN are the real problem.’
Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has roundly condemned the current administration for the humiliation heaped on the nation by this state of affairs. Abhisit is well-known for his interest in security ever since he wrote his PIN on his ATM card and gave a domestic the opportunity to bilk him of thousands. ‘It is clearly the government’s responsibility to ensure that the nation is properly spied on,’ he told this newspaper. ‘The Yingluck administration is blatantly failing to maintain a correct relationship of mistrust with foreign powers, especially the United States.’
When it was pointed out to him that the Snowden files show no evidence that Thailand was under surveillance during his premiership, he countered that this was more Thaksin-instigated propaganda. ‘I am sure I was spied on while I was Prime Minister,’ he argued.
He claimed that the Red Shirts seemed able to predict every move he made. ‘Somehow they always knew what we were about to do,’ he said. ‘And it is a well-known fact that Thaksin has been a paid informer for the CIA ever since he studied there.’
When questioned about the effect on Thai-US relations, a leading member of Thailand’s intelligence services, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that there would be no real damage done. ‘The US still thinks of Thailand in the same way. We are sure of that.’
Asked how he could be so sure of this, his answer was convincing. ‘We know because that’s what the Ambassador said when he last called the State Department in Washington. We’ve put a bug on his phone, you see.'
About author: Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).
