An Inept Bombing Attempt Or A Clumsily Staged Drama?

This morning, when I drove to work, there was a heavy traffic near the intersection that I needed to go through. I didn't think much of it at the time but I found out later that there was a car bomb clearing attempt nearby.

The Fearless Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin (FCPM) said "he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Thursday because he left his house earlier than normal." There was a man arrested and brought to a police station. He was found to be a former driver of General Pallop Pinmanee, a retired army general who is serving on a few military panels. General Pallop was fired in the after noon by the FCPM.

General Pallop had something else to say, however. "If I was behind it, I would not have missed.", he said. See this video of his interview (around 3 minutes into the video.)

I am very amused by these findings:

1. The car was driven round and round the narrow street which is more than a kilometer away from the FCPM's house, at least an hour after the FCPM left his palatial estate.
2. The car was finally parked, on the right lane, near the intersection, guaranteeing maximum traffic stoppage.
3. The trunk of the car was left open, showing miscellaneous bombing devices.
4. The bombing devices were not assembled, totally not ready to be detonated.
5. The driver parked the car, walked away somewhere (leaving the trunk wide open), then walked back to the car to be captured by the police.
6. The FCPM confidently, victoriously, and bravely proclaimed the various details of his would-be assassination attempt even though he was quite unsettled when a few middle-aged ladies shouted him down when he tried to have a bowl of noodle a few months ago. Note that the FCPM used to proclaim that there was a bomb on his plane a few years ago but later the Boeing's engineers found that the blast was caused by some air-conditioning malfunction.

There is an opinion (in Thai) from one of the guys who ran Thailand's intelligence service. Basically, his opinion is that this is bullshitake.

I notice that this super major news totally eclipsed the scandal about the FCPM's supporters, including police officers, assaulting some protesting elderlies and women when they showed up to protest the FCPM's too-lengthy stay in power on Monday. An educational video can be found here.

I think somebody is getting very desperate. I don't think it's the anti-Thaksin coalition though.