Mercenaries: The King of Kawthoolei

[RYP]

A military 'Walter Mitty' in Myanmar's jungles
By Brian McCartan

MAE SOT, Thailand - Along Thailand's western border with Myanmar, this frontier town has long attracted a mix of idealists and mountebanks, hoping alternately to help or win fame and fortune. It also attracts men - and the occasional woman - who aim to be the next Che Guevara, arriving on the guerilla war scene with military skills to help bolster the insurgent Karen against their Myanmar army adversaries.

Since the early days of the Karen's armed struggle - now the world's longest-running insurgency - foreign fighters have been drawn to the remote jungle conflict. In the 1980s, several Frenchmen as well as a smattering of British, Americans, Australians and Japanese offered their personal military assistance. At least three Frenchmen, one Australian and a Japanese were killed fighting with the Karen in the 1980s and



1990s. In 1989, an American reporter with Soldier of Fortune magazine was killed while covering a firefight near the Thai border.
Some of these foreign fighters no doubt believed that they were doing the right thing, helping an underdog against an oppressor. Others no doubt simply saw the fight as a high-adrenaline adventure or a boost to their mercenary resume. Now there is 62-year-old Thomas Bleming, the latest addition to the long list of adventurers and would-be Guevaras.

An American citizen, Bleming told Asia Times Online that he heard about the Karen struggle in 2006 while watching an Australian documentary in the United States and decided to come to Thailand and see what the conflict was all about. Armed with the knowledge he received from another American who had written a news story about the Karen for Soldier of Fortune magazine and a Lonely Planet guidebook to Southeast Asia, Bleming made the trip from the US in February 2007.

Bleming said he first came to Southeast Asia as an American soldier with the 52nd Air Assault Company and fought in the US's conflicts in Vietnam and Laos. He makes frequent mention of his time in Vietnam in his book entitled War in Karen Country, a sort of memoir of his recent time with the Karen which was published in late 2007 by Universe in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also claims to have participated in at least nine civil wars and revolutions, spanning Africa and South and Central America.

That storied record may or may not be true. However, a 2003 article in the Panama News about Bleming claimed that he was "a US Army vet eventually diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and given full disability benefits".

Reluctant recruiters
The Karen have never actively recruited foreigners to serve in their armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). Most foreigners stumble across them either through military or mercenary contacts, through magazines such as Soldier of Fortune, or even simply while backpacking as tourists through Thailand. Most have fantasies of fighting on the frontline or leading troops into battle, but most are usually given training duties - often to simply keep them out of harm's way, according to Karen officials.

After almost 60 years of guerilla warfare in remote mountainous tropical jungle terrain, Karen soldiers have become proficient fighters and are now able to discern foreign professionals from wannabe adventurers. As one Karen officer commented, "We didn't want to turn them away, so the ones who had skills we needed we ask to teach us. The ones we knew didn't have special skills we ask to teach marksmanship."

Where Bleming fits into that continuum is unclear. He claims he was interviewed by a "KNLA official" who later put him in contact with Colonel Saw Ner Dah, a staff officer at the KNLA's headquarters. Retrieved from his tourist guest house in Mae Sot, Bleming was then taken to a KNLA military camp across the border in Myanmar where he stayed for three weeks, although with a several day hiatus to get a new Thailand tourist visa.

In an interview, Bleming refers to himself as "a revolutionary" and claims to have gone on a KNLA "combat patrol" in the Dawna, a mountain range along Myanmar's eastern border with Thailand. He also claims to have "fought" at Maw Kee, a village several kilometers from the border.

His book relates a slightly different version, revealing that the combat patrol involved riding in a truck for several hours to a village and then walking for a mile. After what he describes as a five-minute firefight, the patrol then moved on several kilometers. However, Bleming, was unable to continue due to dehydration and returned to the camp. The patrol, it seems, lasted only for one evening.

The rest of Bleming's stay with the Karen, as documented in his book, is spent mostly loitering around a KNLA camp. He tells with great pride of how the insurgent group let him carry an AK-47 assault rifle with a sniper scope, which he contends shows that the KNLA considered him one of them.

Such fraternity didn't always put his mind at ease. As he recounts in his book, he couldn't sleep for much of the time he was in the camp. He also details several incidents of imagining explosions and being surrounded by gunfire. At one point, during what he called an "100% alert", he took a carbine from a sleeping Karen major so that he could have his own weapon next to him while he slept.

Nonetheless, Bleming was full of bravado back in Mae Sot. In an interview he said he was prepared to go back to the "frontline". "I am committed to the destruction and bringing down of the military junta and the restoration of a democratic form of government [in Myanmar]. I will carry an AK-47 if able at 80 [years of age]." He does not see himself as a soldier of fortune, but rather "a citizen fighting for my adopted country".

Talk like this goes down poorly with the small pool of aid workers and human-rights monitors who regularly spend weeks or months inside Myanmar, much further into the considerably more dangerous interior, where they genuinely assist the Karen and the humanitarian crisis that they face. So, too, does his blatant lying and obfuscation.

Contested accounts
In his book he claims to be the only person to have chronicled the KNLA's fight, saying, "Never before has anyone been permitted to capture the everyday life of a Karen soldier. To be able to place those named within the pages of this book along with these photos, truly is a first of its kind ... For now this is the premier showing of the Karen National Liberation Army, and a story that has never been told." Detailed reports, articles and documentaries of the situation by relief agencies, human-rights groups and news agencies, of course, are readily available on the Internet.

Indeed, Bleming claims to be at the center of a growing foreign movement to assist the Karen. "I'm receiving e-mails from soldiers and others to come and fight. There are plans to form an International Brigade to come and fight. There are others coming this month from the US to join. They are ex-military. The new guys are Iraqi vets. They are coming to stake their futures." He does make it clear, however, that he did not recruit anyone. "They contacted me, I didn't recruit them."

He also claims that a new offensive against the Myanmar army is in the offing, to be backed by foreign fighters and new foreign weapons. "In the next few months, the Karen army will be very well equipped to fight in such a way that the Burmese will be begging for peace. In the next few months there will be additional men at the front from the States and equipment to take out targets that we plan to take out."

He claimed in an interview to have plans to add Stinger missiles capable of downing aircraft to the Karen's arsenal, saying, "We will send out notice internationally first before using them."

His announcement of a new foreign-abetted offensive against the Myanmar army came as a big surprise to several senior Karen officers. Western intelligence agencies take note: senior KNU and KNLA officials are adamant that they are not in the market for surface-to-air missiles and scoff at the idea as "ludicrous".

In fact, it is unclear who exactly Bleming plans to shoot down from the sky, since the Myanmar Air Force hasn't used its aircraft against insurgent targets since the early 1990s.

Bleming makes much of his contact with Colonel Ner Dah, who he refers to as the "provisional head of state of the Republic of Kawthoolei", bestowed on him the position of counsel general in the United States and that he would be granted a plot of land when the war is won as reward for his efforts. Ner Dah admits to have meeting Bleming, but has repeatedly denied his claims of granting him any honorary positions.

Sources in the Karen National Union (KNU) have likewise denied his accounts, saying that Ner Dah has no authority to appoint anyone and that the idea of forming a separate country goes against the Manerplaw Agreement signed by the Karen and other ethnic groups in 1992, in which they all gave up their separatist claims and agreed to form a federal union. The document was signed by Ner Dah's father, the late former leader of the KNU General Saw Bo Mya.

Me and my dog
Bleming said that he considers Kawthoolei a "heaven on Earth" and is making plans to stay. "When hostilities cease I am going back to get my dog, clear up business and head back over here to live in the Republic of Kawthoolei for the rest of my life." He also says he has big plans for his promised patch of an independent Karen state. "Ner Dah wants an international airport and casinos. We want to charge people to come and see the war. It will be for Walter Mittys."

Bleming fits that same profile and seems blithely unaware of the questionable legality of his actions. He told Asia Times Online he was not afraid of the Thai authorities arresting him for illegally crossing the border since, "I am a dual citizen and an official government representative. I have a legal right to go back to my home country." When asked about the possibility of problems with American authorities, Bleming replied, "The United States has recognized the Karen struggle. There is no law against US citizens fighting overseas, as long as they are not against the US."

The US Neutrality Act proscribes fines and lengthy prison terms for destroying the property of foreign governments and instigating or supporting military expeditions against foreign states with which the United States is at peace. Due to the US's broad definition of a terrorist organization, Bleming could also face charges under the Patriot Act. Moreover, Bleming seems unaware or unconcerned of the consequences his actions may have on the foreign aid and rights workers who are not in Mae Sot for an adventure holiday.

The military situation has changed from the more free-wheeling 1970s and 1980s, when the Thai government implemented a buffer state rather than engagement policy towards Myanmar and was often willing to look the other way at foreigners crossing the border to the camps of the Karen and other ethnic insurgent groups.

A senior Karen officer told Asia Times Online, "Now people like Thomas Bleming could make problems for us because the Thais will be unhappy. The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] can use this to pressure the Thais to pressure the KNU." Ner Dah said in an e-mail communication, "We don't need foreigners to fight for us. In the past we had some foreigners, but because we lacked the equipment and materials, we always ended up in conflict."

Another statement, purportedly issued on behalf of Ner Dah about Bleming appeared in the March 26 edition of the New Mandala blog, saying, "The Karen people are very warm-hearted and friendly. Therefore we treat anyone with respect and share the little we have with them. But we are not able to cure people who come to us with mental problems they got mostly during the war in Vietnam."

While Bleming seems well intentioned - he insisted on holding a large party for a Karen camp for his birthday, sent a truckload of non-lethal supplies for Karen soldiers when he left for the US, and claims to be donating all the royalties from his book to Ner Dah - his naivete and delusions are likely to cause more detriment than benefit to the Karen's cause. In the end, he cuts the profile of a lost, lonely and possibly deranged old man - similar in a poignant way to the lost and forgotten Vietnam war vets often seen carrying signs saying "will work for food" on the streets of American cities.
"I have gone from a soldier of fortune and Vietnam vet world traveler to accomplished author and representative of a foreign nation and head of state," he told Asia Times Online, "I feel half dead in the States. I have no say in government and no power in the US, but in Kawthoolei I do. They sit and listen to me. I would like to be remembered in Karen history books as someone who came over to help."

Brian McCartan is a Thailand-based freelance journalist.

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and

[flipflop]

A BTDT with PTSD, the silly old bugger - that said, you're never too old to live your dream

Cheers

[RYP]

I posted that just for you....

y DAVID MIRHADI
Star-Tribune staff writer

Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:01 AM MDT

LUSK -- Wyoming's most feared freedom fighter sits hunkered down over a bowl of lukewarm chicken noodle soup, slurping his words along with the broth in his spoon.

He once was a wide-eyed optimist, serving his country, fighting to eradicate communism both as an enlisted member of the military and as a mercenary-for-hire in the African jungle and the Panamanian rainforest, where he routinely stared down military men with more egos than ethos.

They blinked. In six decades of life, Thomas Bleming never has.

"I've lost count of how many wars and conflicts I've been in," he says, as if strapping on an automatic weapon and fighting for a cause were as common in Wyoming as climbing a drilling rig.

But as he sits in a ramshackle cottage bulging with the bric-a-brac of a cowboy from the Old West -- saddles, tack, leather vests, the requisite weathered cowboy hat and paint-by-numbers Western artwork -- Bleming isn't basking in his red-blooded American past.

In fact, he's willing to give it all up -- the medals and commendation he was awarded in Vietnam, the ranch he retired to in Lusk several years ago, even the last of a bowl of soup from a can -- for a chance to help another country gain the independence, freedom and, most of all, the way of life he said has been lost on Americans in a post-Sept. 11 world.

There are just a few loose ends Bleming must finish first.

Should he decide to leave his windswept, unfinished 8 Mile Ranch and a second in-town abode behind, Bleming will do so only after explaining his side of a story he has kept under wraps for a quarter-century.

Bleming has just finished a tell-all book about his time as a captor under dictator Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega that lays bare Bleming's thoughts about his fight for freedom against an oppressive leader of a banana republic in the early 1980s. The self-published book became available Friday for purchase.

"Panama: The Echoes From a Revolution" details how Bleming, on a mission to install a democratic government in the crook-shaped country, spent nearly two years as Noriega's captive and how, to this day, the former Panamanian strongman refuses to own up to his actions, even as he fights extradition to France after completing a prison sentence in Miami on Sept. 8 on drug-trafficking charges.

Once he has made his peace with the man, perhaps then Bleming can work on his newest crusade -- the fight for freedom in the jungles of Myanmar -- turn his back on the lifestyle that temporarily made him a 21st century cowboy, and return to the swashbuckling, battle-tested warrior without a country.

"I always wanted to be a cowboy, live my life on a ranch, under the stars," said Bleming, who grew up a half-hour north of Philadelphia and moved to Lusk in 1995, where in between trips abroad, he's building a log cabin ranch eight miles outside town.

For a while at least, collecting Western memorabilia and sharing a compound with his overgrown dog, Talon, wasn't a bad way to live out his retirement years. Heck, on any given day, Bleming, with a faded hat that recalls the kind once worn by former Gov. Mike Sullivan, looks as if he's a wizened old ranch hand.

"I know that dream will never be fulfilled, because I have a higher calling," he said.

Like it has so many times before, a revolution pulled the old rancher back into a fight for freedom.

"In Lusk, I feel like I'm half-dead," the old warrior said. "When I'm overseas, I feel like I have a purpose for life.

"Most people say 'Let's go to Disney World or Baja' for vacation," he said. "I say, 'Let's start a revolution.' ...There's something about those (Karen) people that has added years to my life. Some people take Geritol -- I take a trip to Asia and become a new man."

Journey to Myanmar

It's a long way from Lusk to the jungles of northeastern Myanmar, where the indigenous Karen people subsist in much the same way their ancestors did. Today, many carry semiautomatic rifles along with their rice bowls.

For six weeks this past spring, Bleming took a tourist entry card and burrowed his way from western Thailand into the Myanmar jungle, where he found himself comrades-in-arms with the people of the fledgling republic of Kathoolei, an area of eastern Myanmar bordered by Thailand. The Karen people have been burdened by autocratic rule living as they are in an area recognized as an independent country by exactly one other nation on the planet.

While there, he strapped on a rifle and brandished a machete, notebook in hand to document the five-decade plight of the people in the Karen state inside Myanmar for independence from the country known to most of the world as Burma.

It's a fight against a regime that, until the United States took notice recently, had been relegated the inside pages of papers like the American Free Press or a few Web sites. Searches for "Republic of Kathoolei" or Karen National Liberation Army, the military branch of indigenous people fighting for what they believe is their country, turn up little on Internet sites.

Only recently have the so-called mainstream media picked up on the fight between the multiple indigenous peoples inside Myanmar and the military junta that keeps a lid on dissent in the country.

Nevertheless, it's a fight Thomas Bleming now believes is his life's work and where he hopes to someday return.

In Myanmar, he says, "I can contribute. I feel totally alive over there, that I knew I had a purpose," he said, slowly peeling away the years of bitterness he feels because of what he says was his misguided tour of duty in Vietnam and the United States' current political tilt.

"I feel totally divorced from this country. I don't feel like I have a say in this country," he said.

In the nascent Republic of Kathoolei, where natives live under both thatched-roof huts and the constant watch of the dominant Burmese army, Bleming is a friend, confidant and chronicler of their 58-year struggle for independence.

Bleming's feelings bleed all over his spread in tiny Lusk, where his home is a shrine to the 7 million largely Christian-based people forging a new identity.

A giant felt flag with the Republic of Kathoolei's colors -- blue, white and red -- is tacked up on Bleming's living-room wall. He's fashioned his own "Karen National Liberation Army" coat of arms patch, stitched to an Army-green jacket he wears frequently. Medals and letters given to him by the on-field leader of the resistance movement -- a man who has become a dear friend -- litter a desk in his home.

It's an odd menagerie, situated as it is next to saddles, tack and cowboy hats in the main sitting room of his cottage in town.

"I can assimilate to (the culture of the Karen people) much more than they could ever assimilate to mine," Bleming joked.

After reading an article about the Karen people in the Casper Star-Tribune more than a year ago, Bleming said he felt compelled to travel there and did so without a detailed plan in February after spending a few days in Bangkok, Thailand.

For a man who sprung from a tour in the U.S. Army in Vietnam only to land in Rhodesia to unsuccessfully beat back a Communist uprising in the 1970s, this mission to the subtropical jungle served as a return to his mercenary roots.

He brought with him to the village of Mae Sot a compass, a pack of Swisher Sweets, binoculars, combat knives and 2 kilograms of pipe tobacco as gift to a man now leading a second generation of independence-seekers.

Mae Sot serves as the home base for the Karen National Liberation Army. Its field general is Col. Ner Dah Mya, an American-educated soldier with young children whose father led the fight for independence for several decades before handing the reins and a hungry, if callow, army to his son.

Many in the army wear combat boots. Some wear flip-flops. Some, said Bleming, are as young as 10 years old.

The colonel walks about with an assault rifle and a giant blade as his sidearm.

"I was just awe-struck by the charisma of the man," Bleming said. "The people I met there were very simple folk, but very attuned to the world stage."

"The Burmese are the oppressors of our people," the colonel told Bleming upon his arrival. "We'll never give up. We'll come back to reincarnate to fight them again and again."

The fight for a Karen state has become Burma's own Vietnam, Bleming says. From Feb. 13 until March 16, Bleming was, in a sense, reliving a similar quagmire he'd experienced 40 years earlier.

There is a difference in this battle, in the jungle, far from anyplace Bleming calls home.

"The reason why I don't think this battle is going to continue is because they've found Thomas Bleming," he said. "It's my duty to stop it."

Joining the battle

Bleming's comrade-in-arms is a 40-year-old, U.S.-educated Burmese national living in Thailand who attended college in California's Napa Valley at a tiny university run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Col. Ner Dah Mya of the Karen National Liberation Army took up the cause after his father, Gen. Bo Mya, effectively retired after decades on the front.

Bo Mya fought alongside the British in World War II and in Burma against Japanese occupation of the country. His son is a well-spoken representative of the movement that spans more than a half-century of battles.

"My hope for my children is to see freedom," the colonel said in a phone interview from his home base at the Thailand/Burma border. "Hopefully, in their time, we will see a democratic government in Burma."

The colonel knows well of Western ways, having lived in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1980s and early 1990s, graduating in 1994 with a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts from tiny Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif., nestled in the hills east of the Napa Valley where most of the people, adhering to religious doctrine, neither dance, drink or smoke.

Mya returned to Burma several years ago, he says, to pick up where his father left off.

Bleming has become a trusted friend and Mya's link to the United States. The two speak frequently on the phone and give updates about their struggles in their respective countries.

"The moment I met him," said Mya, who armed his friend with an M-16 and a combat rifle upon Bleming's arrival, "I knew he was willing to help.

"He did what he could. He encouraged the people to carry on. He's a motivator," Mya said in heavily accented but nearly flawless English. "He told them: 'I have a heart for you, and I will fight for you.'"

Bleming was generous, Mya said, bringing mosquito nets and hammocks for soldiers, in addition to the Swisher Sweets and three decades worth of combat expertise.

"He got along very well with us ... even though we didn't know him very well. In the end, it was like we'd known him for a long, long time," Mya said in a springtime telephone interview from his home in Thailand.

While he was there, Bleming often slept next to Mya, an assault rifle between the two.

The Karen people, Mya said, are not typically militant folk. They are a peaceful people who are struggling to diversify their agricultural-based economy and gain a sense of nationalism.

Education, the colonel said, is the key for his region's children to rise out of the jungle, away from the subsistence farming and fishing that serve as staples for the Karen people.

"We know that education is very important. We can do community development, but the problem is the political situation," Mya said. "All we want is to be free from the military dictatorship of Burma."

At night, Mya and his warriors sit under candlelight, knowing that opposing forces aren't far away.

When he was able, Bleming taught the Karen people how to place land mines and connected key Karen leaders with weapons suppliers.

For the Karen people, it's an uphill battle, literally and figuratively, out of the darkness of the jungle into the light of independence.

"Every day I was there, I heard gunfire and heavy explosions," Bleming said, noting that he was shot at once and another time, approached to within a half-mile of Burmese army lines.

Within days of arriving, the Burmese fired rifle shots into base camp.

"It was living life on the edge," he said. "For me, it was very demanding, physically and emotionally."

In early March, Bleming's camp suffered a bomb and mortar attack. In camp, attacks are intermittent, which permits the Karens to live their daily lives. "I've never seen so much positive in such a condition as we were in," Bleming said.

Often, when the day ended, Bleming and his comrades feasted on giant pots of rice cooked in the outdoor camps over an open flame.

Bleming's 61st birthday was a festive affair, with drinking, smoking, a roast and merriment in the battlefield.

"We always find the time to laugh," Mya said. "We don't have good medicine, so we make you laugh. Tom's a good man, and I believe we can work together and we can make a difference here."

Bleming is writing a second self-published book, "War in Karen Country: Armed Struggle for a Free and Independent State in Southeast Asia" about his experiences and says he would like to ask the United States to enter discussions with the Republic of Kathoolei about establishing some sort of formal relations.

To date, Norway is the only country on Earth that recognizes the nascent republic.

This summer, Bleming contacted the office of U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi in hopes of establishing a place of contact in tiny Lusk, where the Karen people might use Bleming's services as an agent of the region to pay for war bonds to finance the conflict.

Told that most people in the world -- let alone Wyoming -- have never heard of this fledgling country, Bleming hardly notices the comment. After all, this is a crusade 40 years in the making, after years of hopping from country to country, trying to inject himself into causes he sees as just.

So yes, Bleming is hoping for some kind of recognition for the region from someone in Wyoming.

Though it's a far-fetched idea, Enzi spokesman Coy Knobel said the senator sent a letter April 13 to the U.S. Office of Protocol, asking what needed to be done so that people over in Burma belonging to the Karen state could send money to benefit their cause.

Generally, the United States will not set up a consulate office unless it has formal relations with a country, Knobel said. The U.S. has a tenuous relationship with Burma, but not with the area described as the "Republic of Kathoolei."

That's of little consequence to Bleming, whose tired eyes sparkle at the mention of the place he considers his new home, where Ner Dah Mya has made him an honorary member of the 6th Brigade, Battalion 201, Company 3 in the Karen National Liberation Army.

As he dons the coat with the army patch, Bleming explains that his duty to fight for independence in a country recognized by almost no one mirrors that of revolutionary colonial forces fighting the British in America's drive for independence more than 230 years ago.

"In the end, the ones that won, they founded this country and were looked upon as heroes," he said, before quoting one of his own heroes, Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara: "When you fight to liberate people, you fight to liberate yourself."

"I'm trying now, at my age, to go and save a part of the world so that I might live there ... to guide them, so the mistakes that we are making as a nation now, they won't have to make," Bleming said.

He dismisses those who might think his ideas as crackpot dreams. They don't know the man or his new quest for freedom, halfway around the world.

After all, this is a man who speaks most fondly of a place almost no one has ever heard of. Of the new republic, he simply says, "It's my country now."

[RYP]

He is a "colorful" fella

The Thomas Bleming Case
Monday, March 27 2006 @ 09:30 AM EST
Contributed by: Don Winner
Views: 1,044
Law & Lawyers Thomas Bleming, the American military man who is suing Manuel Antonio Noriega for $21.5 million dollars in compensation for being tortured while held in Panamanian jails, says he does not want the money of the ex-dictator "would not accept it". What wants is honorary citizenship. The Vietnam vet said he was recruited at the end of the 70's by panameñistas with ties to the Cuban exile community in Miami. He said that Arnulfo Aryan knew the plan and that the Central Agency of Intelligence of the United States did not object to his participation in the Front for National Liberation. He said the panameñistas offered him $100,000 to kill Omar Torrijos and Noriega, land in Panama, and a position in the new Panamanian army that was to have been restructured after the fall of the military dictatorship. Bleming married a Panamanian who has family with the Torrijos family, and said he supported to Martín Torrijos in the last election.

TESTIMONIO DE EX MERCENARIO.

Caso Bleming contra Manuel A. Noriega
Estadounidense relata que los panameñistas lo reclutaron para matar a Torrijos y a Noriega.

CORTESÍA

Thomas Bleming653034
Redacción de La Prensa
panorama@prensa.com
Thomas Bleming, el militar estadounidense que reclama en juicio a Manuel Antonio Noriega 21.5 millones de dólares en compensación por las torturas de que fue víctima en las cárceles panameñas, dice que él no quiere el dinero del ex dictador y que "no lo aceptaría". Lo que quiere es la ciudadanía honoraria.

El ex combatiente de Vietnam dijo a este diario que fue reclutado a finales de la década de los 70 por panameñistas vinculados con la comunidad de cubanos exiliados en Miami. Asegura que Arnulfo Arias conocía el plan y que la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de Estados Unidos no objetó su participación en el Frente para la Liberación Nacional. Relata que por matar a Omar Torrijos y a Noriega los panameñistas le prometieron 100 mil dólares, tierras en Panamá y un puesto en el Ejército que sería reconstruido tras la caída de la dictadura militar.

Bleming se casó con una panameña que tiene parentesco con la familia Torrijos, y asegura que apoyó a Martín Torrijos en las últimas elecciones.

http://www.prensa.com/hoy/panorama/547179.html

[dgold0101]

Great articles, but don't know what to make of this dude. I support anyone trying to help the karen, but is this dude delusional or legit?

[RYP]

Most of these guys are half social retards, half delusional and the half pure bombast. But he is "colorful".

The "Support the Karen" thing was big in Soldier of Fortune days...most were professional war tourists. Same with Salvador, Sudan etc. The king of these guys is Rolf Steiner who was certifiable but did some interesting stuff in Biafra and Sudan.

[dgold0101]

Yeah, I always wondered what the deal was with mercenaries in places like Sudan. With all those funds being collected for darfur, why didn't someone just hire a few south african mercs and handle their shit? seems like 1 of them would be equal to 40 janjaweed. Was there a lot of mercenary activity in sudan in darfur, or was it concentrated in the south?

[RYP]

There is no mercenary activity in Sudan except Jihadis and paid militia like the janjaweed. Steiner went there in the 70's to help the anya nya and was arrested, tried and imprisoned.

"In 1978, Rolf Steiner, a German mercenary veteran of several wars, revealed in his book published that year, The Last Adventurer, that Alexander Gay, a British mercenary who worked for British Intelligence in Uganda and Sudan, ostensibly helping the Anya-Nya rebellion against the Sudanese government in 1969, had confessed to him, after a confrontation, that "the British government had no interest in supporting a southern Sudanese secession and was only using the Anya-Nya as cover for its plans for the future of Uganda".

In his book, Steiner said Gay had explained to him why Amin had been chosen: " The British knew Idi Amin well and he was their first choice because he was the stupidest and the easiest to manipulate."



Ramsey Gay was also the guy that Frederick Forsythe hired to overthrow Equatorial Guinea.

Small world ...

[Holland]

Its a fun area and I never felt uncomfortable around any Karen but they never gave me a gun either.

[dgold0101]

some more info on it: the comments are pretty intense

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala ... -in-burma/

[RAH]

I heard this piece might be coming and have been waiting. Bleming is said to be a decent fellow who means well but basically was a bit impressionable and got involved the midst of a very serious Karen factional fight. He has a video interview on Youtube with a Wyoming TV station.

There is a Karen crowd that split away (having lost influence in the KNU executive committee and wanting to keep their business deals intact) in early 2007 calling itself the KNLA/Karen Peace Council. This group is now very cuddly with Rangoon and include overseas supporters like this character Pastor Melton who may have been in contact with Bleming, not completely sure there.

http://www.pryorcreekcommunitychurch.org/index.php

Guy has a death meter on his website. Person he eulogizes at the top was assassinated recently, and was a founder of the Peace Council or over failed logging deals. Number 3 of the original KNU killed not long after, possibly tit fot tat.

Ner Dah, who I met a few times, is a headquarters battalion base commander (battalion 201) and not president of "Kawthoolei" or even of the KNU or KNLA (though his father who died late 2006 was General Bo Mya, the Karen mofo for some 20 years or more). He might be trying to straddle a bit between the factions. Along the border you get all sorts.

[dgold0101]

hmmm, the situation is a lot more complicated then I realized in Burma. Lets say the regime falls, does it lead to an all out civil war between the karen factions? what about the mon in the south? any thoughts?

[vagabond]

If the guy had some Karen language skills he could contract with hospitals. My friend tells me it's very difficult to find people to translate for the Karen immigrants at our big state hospital bc it's a pretty rare language, esp here in the South

[RAH]

Can't tell. A lot depends on how if and when it falls. assuming it does. Karen factions already fight each other. There are Mon factions but the main one NMSP (New Mon State Party) is fairly large and has less of a problem with splinters. There are also individual political entrepreneurs, economic ones (Thais CHinese, and locals)) plus conflict spoilers, and on top of that you would get returning IDPs and refugees, some to areas full of mines or of other populations moved in after they left or were pushed out. Potential for mayhem is immense but then you don't get anywhere unless a process starts. If you get UN etc involved in resettlement schemes there is a danger of militias using populations as aid magnets to enhance their own legitimacy and funding possibilities. That said a lot of smaller splinter factions are more about maintaining personal influence, retinues, and business deals and concessions than about nationalist grievance. If one knows what one is doing maybe those types can be handled.

[Charles F.]

I found this website while researching Burma. I joined it so I could provide you with some further information on Tom Bleming and his efforts to assist the Karen guerrillas.

Some of you that visit the New Mandala website, which has been referenced here, might recognize my name, or handle. I'm the guy that has posted several replies on New Mandala.

I'd like to discuss the hatchet job done on Tom Bleming by Brian McCartan, a freelance journalist (translate - barfly) in Thailand.
Almost all of what McCartan wrote is horseshit, pure and simple.
Tom did give McCartan an interview, but not nearly to the extent that is portrayed in the article.
I can assure you that Tom has been around the block enough times to know what to say, and what to avoid.

Before I go any further, I feel that I should point out that I have known Tom for over 33 years. He's one of my closest friends, and I would trust my life with him. In fact, I was supposed to accompany him to Burma, but was unable to get my finances in order in time. Shit happens.

Three negative articles have been written about Tom Bleming lately. All three articles came out one after the other - BAM-BAM-BAM. Just like that.
The people who wrote the articles had all been in Mae Sot, and had all been to the KNU (Karen National Union) headquarters at the same time.
And all three have previously written favorable articles about the KNU.
I guess that some of you see where this is going.

For those that don't, I'll fill in the blanks, then allow you to reach your own conclusions.
The Karenni resistance movement has two faces - one is the KNU, which is the political wing. They're the face to the world.
The other wing is the KNLA (Karen National Liberation Army) which is the military wing. The KNLA is subservient to the KNU, just as the pentagon answers to civilian authority in the U.S.

The problem at present is that certain members of the KNU are wanting to negotiate with the Burmese government (SPDC). I have said before that all they are doing is negotiating how tightly their chains will be placed.
The KNLA, being a fighting force, has no desire to negotiate a fucking thing. While being hard pressed on the battlefield by a numerically superior force (500,000 SPDC troops vs 10,000 KNLA) the KNLA enjoys a kill ration of somewhere between 20-1 and 30-1. The SPDC has the advantage in numbers and firepower - the KNLA suffers from 20 percent failure rate in their weapons. As an aside, the SPDC will not fight at night, if it's raining or the cock doesn't crow three times. The SPDC never goes anywhere with less than battalion strength. Sounds like the BATF doesn't it?

So, in steps Tom Bleming. He obtains a contact through an American church group (more on that in a moment) and makes a trip to Thailand, then crosses the border into Burma. He comes back and writes a book about his experiences.
All hell breaks loose.

The American church group is allied with the KNU faction that wants to negotiate peace with the SPDC. The pastor of the church is pissed off that Tom mentioned him by name in his book. Perhaps Tom shouldn't have mentioned the guy by name. But in his defense, the guy did use his own real name to write an article for Soldier of Fortune magazine. In addition, the guy publicly states that he's the real life guy that Rambo 4 is about. He even poses with Sylvester Stallone for a photo on the Thai set of Rambo 4.. Who's the publicity hound?

So Tom gets in touch with Col Nerdah Mya and they make plans. I was privy to most of those plans, and anyone who says that Nerdah Mya wasn't in on it is a fucking liar. As I stated previously, until I came up short financially, I was one of those that was going in. There were several of us, and that's as much as I'm going to say about that.
But Col. Nerdah Mya specifically told Tom Bleming that he was appointing him consul general for the Republic of Kawthoolei in the U.S. and he was Col. Nerdah Mya's representative. It was / is just that simple. There is no room for misinterpretation.

Now, if Col. Nerdah Mya is having a problem with the KNU over the division of responsibilities, that's just too fucking bad. He knows what he said in writing and face to face to Tom Bleming.

Two reporters have stated that Tom Bleming brought arms and munitions in to the Karen rebels. This is unadulterated horseshit, and anyone who is experienced in that area, or has ever been to Thailand knows it to be just that - Horseshit.
Those statements were intentionally made by McCartan and the other fellow , Mirhady, to bring Bleming to the attention of the Thai police and military. Their fervent hope is that Bleming would be arrested and given a severe tuneup by the Thai authorities, then deported.

Tom Bleming is not the most diplomatic person. But he also isn't a braggart or barroom commando.
He was awarded the Silver Star in Viet Nam ( more about that in a moment) , he was captured and tortured in Panama, fought in Rhodesia, the Sudan, Lebanon, and a half a dozen other places. He's been there, done that, and has the scars to prove it.
He's one of my closest friends, and I will defend his name against any of these hotel journalists who write stories for beer money.

Viet Nam and Rambo
Every single one of the journalists who has written a negative story about Bleming have two other things in common with each other. All of them have repeatedly stated in their articles that Viet Nam vets suffer from PTSD, alcoholism, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Fact is, they paint Americans and Viet Nam vets with a broad brush, and all of it is negative to the extreme.
They also portray Americans as Rambos, and a few of them have actually done reviews of the latest Rambo movie. Needless to say, they all panned it.
They are all of the opinion that the KNU should negotiate and that the KNLA should lay down its arms.
In fact, in his article, Brian McCartan makes reference to the Manerplow Accords, named after Manerplow, a town in Burma that was the headquarters of the KNU.
McCartan, being the dishonest weasel that he is, fails to tell his readers that the accords weren't worth the paper they were written on, and that almost before the ink dried, the SPDC overran and captured Manerplow, then burned most of it to the ground.

It's late and I'm tired and irritable. If any of you have more questions, or would like to discuss it further, feel free to contact me.
You can also watch me wage war on the New Mandala website.
For operational security concerns, there are some aspects of this I'm not at liberty to discuss.
Charles Foster
Triumph_Chopper_72@yahoo.com