How did Thaksin Shinawatra get his one-year residency visa from the German immigration in Bonn when he turned up on Dec 29, last year, in Germany's former capital?
Well,according to various sources, including the German daily that broke the news -- Sueddeutsche Zeitung -- Thaksin was accompanied by four big-wigs, all German.
One was a well-known German lawyer. Another was Gerd Steffen, the retired commander of Bonn's police criminal investigation department. The other guy gave his name as Richard Nelson. The immigration official at the desk thought he had heard this man say that he was somehow connected to the BND -- Germany's foreign-intelligence agency.Then, there was also the fourth person -- a feelance troubleshooter named Werner Mauss.
The German paper said the discovery that a Bonn immigration office had issued Thaksin a permit triggered inter-agency suspicions in the German federal government. But it turned out that neither the Foreign Ministry nor the BND foreign-intelligence service had known about the permit.
A follow-up investigation found that the BND wasn't really involved with Thaksin. Some "misunderstanding" had taken place. Angry German diplomats who learned about that later quickly took action to have Thaksin's residence visa cancelled which took place on May 28.
Nobody knows where Thaksin is now.
Today, PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thaksin could have used another name to seek a new passport and visas.
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3 comments:
He was only accompanied by three persons - Richard Nelson is an alias name for Werner Mauss, who did not use his legal name to introduce himself to the officer. The article in Sueddeutsche also isn't clear about whether he hinted his connection to the BND or not - the officer claims so, but Werner Mauss never openly talked about his connections.
as Andy pointed out, "Richard Nelson" is an alias used by Werner Mauss.
but Andy is wrong, very off mark wrong, to deny relations between Werner Mauss & BND.
if you're journalist in germany & if you hear "Werner Mauss" a lot of alarm-signals will ring, immediately. it's amazing that Thaksin finally comes to employ people like him; this man is dangerous.
also, "Richard Nelson" is an alias that had been used before --- when Werner Mauss acted on behalf of bnd. in days gone by, issue was only whether he really _was_ employed as an agent of bnd... or whether he acted as an "outsourced" "freelancer" 555 ;)
it's amazing to see whom Thaksin has on his payroll these days...
also, residency-address in germany as supplied by thaksin supposedly is a bnd-address. no doubt, if that would be true --- it would enrage foreign ministry staff.
finally, thaksin provided nicaraguan passport.
i guess we'll hear more about it. Werner Mauss is not just some guy. somehow he had been present at some of the most strange political/criminal incidents in last decades. he's a dangerous man.
Of course, many here who follow the news know Werner Mauss (though it has become quiet about him) and his work for the BND, though his alias names are much less well-known. What I meant was that even though it is an open fact Mauss works or worked for BND, he himself never openly admitted this. And that's what the article says, it is strange that the officer says Mr. Nelson hinted his connections to BND, as that's nothing Mauss would normally do. Nevertheless it's interesting to see Thaksin and Mauss connected with each other.
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