WikiLeaks cable reveals US role in 2006 Thai coup

[Hannah Bell]

Diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks reveal that the US essentially approved the military coup that toppled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19, 2006, while publicly distancing itself from the takeover. The cables shed further light on the anti-democratic activities of the US and other major powers behind the cloak of secret diplomacy.

The documents also show that US officials have worked closely with the military and the Thai monarchy in the period since the 2006 coup, discussing how to deal with subsequent pro-Thaksin governments.

Within Thailand, the revelations are so damaging for the royal family that the present military-backed government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has sought to block their publication. Yesterday an article on the web site of the Bangkok Post was removed within hours of being posted. The cables shatter the long-cultivated myth that the monarchy is neutral and above politics—a myth that has enabled the monarchy to directly intervene in crucial periods of political crisis.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/thai-d18.shtml

[Tunkamerica]

1. but it's so hard to topple democratic governments with wikileaks!

[Selatius]

2. Like the people of Iran, the people of Thailand will not forgive the US easily for this atrocity.

In the end, with Thailand controlled by pro-US elements, it ensures continued access to their ports on the shipping lanes to India, and India is a huge source of cheap labor for American corporate interests.

[malaise]

7. I only have one question

So what's new?
I guess we now have evidence.

[truedelphi]

3. All that sunlight - tomorrow the president will ask that

Congress somehow put together a nuclear winter scenario before the Blinding Light of Truth wakes us all up.

"The Future's So Bright - We Gotta Wear Shades!"

[Norrin Radd]

4. kr

[Dash87]

5. Does anybody else find it 'funny' that the US, "the beacon of freedom,"

Has not liberated one country since WWII? Instead, we take over Democracies and install harsh dictatorships. The US doesn't care about freedom, even for its own citizens.

[Selatius]

8. It depends on the definition of the word "liberated."

If, by "liberated," you mean install on top of the local inhabitants a pro-US dictatorship or oligarchy that is friendly to American business interests and is vehemently opposed to the local labor movement or any notion of independence from foreign interference, we've liberated quite a large number of countries since the end of World War 2, with a few exceptions like South Viet Nam. That country fell to the Communist Party. I mean, as the saying goes from the 1950s, "Better dead than Red," right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Link to cable here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/79101