Quote:PM calls urgent meeting of 20 ministry-level agencies, security agencies

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont Monday morning called an urgent meeting of heads of 20 ministry-level and security agencies at Government House.
The meeting started at 10 am.

Seaking to reporters before attending the meeting, Surayud said the meeting would be held on security affairs related to the responsibility of the Internal Security Operations Command.

He said the agencies would be asked to help the ISOC to solve the security problems in the deep South.
"The military cannot act alone on the problems. The country does not belong to only one person," Surayud said.

The Nation

Quote:Plot to assassinate Thaksin Shinawatra

ISOC Deputy Director Pallop Pinmanee was sacked from his position after Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, his driver, was found driving a car containing 67 kilograms of explosives around the residence of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Pallop denied all involvement, noting that "If I was behind it, I would not have missed."[7][8] Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Lt-General Wiroj Jantharangsee noted that the explosives in the car were completely assembled, equipped with a remote unit sensor and ready to be detonated, and would have a blast radius of around one kilometre.[9]

Post 2006-coup ISOC

Thaksin planned a major restructuring of the ISOC prior to the coup which overthrew him in September 2006. Soon after the coup, the junta released three of the Army suspects in the car bomb plot.[10] Junta leader and Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin appointed himself head of the ISOC (its previous head had been the Prime Minister) and transformed the ISOC into a "government within a government", described as being equivalent to the US Department of Homeland Security. The ISOC was given wide-reaching authority over the National Counter Corruption Committee, the Department of Special Investigation, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office. The new ISOC was criticized as being a shadowy puppet master pulling strings among existing agencies, answerable to no one but its leader.[11]

To protect people in the south of Thailand from insurgency-related violence, the ISOC produced Jatukham Rammathep amulets for distribution to the Buddhist minority. The renowned animist amulets were believed by some to have magical powers to protect there holders from violence and large sums are paid for them. The plan was developed by Colonel Manas Khongpan, deputy director of the ISOC in Yala province.[12]