Update on Thai Passport Caper
By Bill West
Yesterday's arrest of an Algerian-born Brit in Bangkok while allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 450 forged European passports out of Thailand and into Scotland is raising the investigative interests of Scotland Yard. A Daily Mail report today indicates Thai police have learned the suspect, Mahieddine Daikh, was paid 15,000 pounds to deliver the false passports to "a contact" in Glasgow. He also allegedly told Thai investigators he paid a Pakistani man 3,000 pounds for the documents on the Thai resort island of Samui.
Daikh reportedly was granted asylum in Britain seven years ago and became a British citizen two years ago, meaning he could travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver program.
To date, we know several suspects in the 7/7 and 7/21 London terror attacks were second-generation Muslim British citizens, naturalized British citizens, or resident aliens in Britain who had been granted asylum there. At least one is reported to have originally entered the UK on false documents prior to being granted asylum as a fraudulently claimed Somali refugee. The London attacks have again demonstrated the linkage among immigration violations, false documents and terrorism. It remains to be seen if this Thai passport case has any connection to terrorism, but the elements that have surfaced so far are notably disturbing.
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