Bin Laden: How They Got Him — And What Happens to al Qaeda Now

View Original Source:  http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/05/02/bin-laden-how-they-got-him-and-what-happens-to-al-qaeda-now/

Posted by Mark Thompson Monday, May 2, 2011 at 1:39 am

The reports started coming in more than a month ago: Osama bin Laden was on the move, and the U.S. had its eye on him. Stressed by the turmoil sweeping his part of the world – tumult he had no roll in sparking – bin Laden was trying to bolster al Qaeda’s credibility as young people Tweeted and Facebooked about a future that didn’t involve him, or al Qaeda.

Surprisingly, he didn’t die a standoff death from an unseen Predator drone, as most would have expected. Instead, a team of U.S. special-operations forces helicoptered into a high-walled compound deep inside Pakistan and killed him and four others in a firefight, including a son of bin Laden and a woman allegedly being used as a human shield.

Dispatching a joint Navy SEAL-CIA team of four choppers into Pakistan makes two things crystal clear: the U.S. believed its intelligence was solid, and it wanted proof he was dead; they wanted his corpse. One of the choppers involved in the raid malfunction and was destroyed; no U.S. personnel were injured in the operation, which lasted about 40 minutes.

The whereabouts and fate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy, remain unknown. Whether bin Laden’s death sparks a spasm of violence – or marks the end of al Qaeda as a potent terror force – also remains unclear. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born doctor, recently encouraged Muslims to fight the U.S. and its allies in Libya. “I want to direct the attention of our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries, that if the Americans and the NATO forces enter Libya then their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia and Algeria and the rest of the Muslim countries should rise up and fight both the mercenaries of Gaddafi and the rest of NATO,” Zawahri said, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. (More on Time.com: See photos of bin Laden’s family album)

There was a quiet giddiness among U.S. military personnel late Sunday as word began to spread that Osama bin Laden had been killed. This is scant consolation to the survivors of the 3,000 killed that late summer day, but it represents sweet vindication nonetheless.

U.S. intelligence had learned that bin Laden might be holed up in a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, some 50 miles northeast of Islamabad, last August. Basically a suburb of the capital, the well-to-do city is home to many retired Pakistani military officers as well as Pakistan’s military academy. That may explain the extraordinary secrecy surround the operation: few top officials in the U.S. government knew such an operation was afoot, and news of it wasn’t shared with any allies, including Pakistan. How bin Laden was able to reside in a posh compound for months, if not years, surrounded by former Pakistani military officers remains unknown.

A U.S. official said a key clue to tracking bin Laden down was learning the name of a trusted courier, which led U.S. intelligence to the compound raided on Sunday. After noting the compound had few electronic links to the outside world – and incinerated its trash, rather than putting it out to be picked up – Obama gave the go-ahead on Friday for a helicopter raid into the compound, after rejecting the idea of a bombing attack. Bin Laden “did resist the assault force,” the U.S. official said, but was shot in the head and killed “as our operators came into the compound.”

It would be churlish, but accurate, to point out that he had eluded a worldwide manhunt for close to a decade after eluding a tightening, but fraying, U.S.-Afghan net at Tora Bora on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in December 2001. As hundreds crowded around the White House to celebrate bin Laden’s demise, it’s also relevant to note that bin Laden’s impact peaked on 9/11, and has dwindled ever since. Nonetheless, the symbolic impact of his death cannot be under-estimated, either in the war on terror or on Obama’s re-election prospects. (More on Time.com: See the top 10 defining moments of the post 9/11 era)

The Pakistani firefight only codified what a younger generation, where women are playing a major role, has made clear: OBL was a force in a region ruled by autocrats in the 20^th Century; he had much less resonance among the younger cohort now taking over.

Pentagon officials have said that al Qaeda has played only a minor role in Afghanistan in recent years. The Americans and their allies there are primarily fighting the Taliban, an indigenous force of Pashtuns whose homeland straddles the Af-Pak frontier.

Bin Laden’s death only excises a tumor. The cancer that he represented remains in wide swaths of the world where local populations have been forced into have-not-dom while their leaders have lived well. Whether his demise marks the end of a particularly virulent strain, or will trigger a violent recurrence, remains unknown.

The Secret Team That Killed Osama bin Laden

Elite Navy SEALs spent months training for yesterday’s raid

May 2 2011, 10:20 AM ET

View Original Source:  http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/05/the-secret-team-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/238163/

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap — boom, boom — to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.

Were it not for this high-value target, it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.

This HVT was special, and the raids required practice, so they replicated the one-acre compound at Camp Alpha, a segregated section of Bagram Air Base. Trial runs were held in early April.

DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives. Though the general public knows about the special SEALs and their brothers in Delta Force, most JSOC missions never leak. We only hear about JSOC when something goes bad (a British aid worker is accidentally killed) or when something really big happens (a merchant marine captain is rescued at sea), and even then, the military remains especially sensitive about their existence. Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story — generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That’s the code.

How did the helos elude the Pakistani air defense network? Did they spoof transponder codes? Were they painted and tricked out with Pakistan Air Force equipment? If so — and we may never know — two other JSOC units, the Technical Application Programs Office and the Aviation Technology Evaluation Group, were responsible. These truly are the silent squirrels — never getting public credit and not caring one whit. Since 9/11, the JSOC units and their task forces have become the U.S. government’s most effective and lethal weapon against terrorists and their networks, drawing plenty of unwanted, and occasionally unflattering, attention to themselves in the process.

JSOC costs the country more than $1 billion annually. The command has its critics, but it has escaped significant congressional scrutiny and has operated largely with impunity since 9/11. Some of its interrogators and operators were involved in torture and rendition, and the line between its intelligence-gathering activities and the CIA’s has been blurred.

But Sunday’s operation provides strong evidence that the CIA and JSOC work well together. Sometimes intelligence needs to be developed rapidly, to get inside the enemy’s operational loop. And sometimes it needs to be cultivated, grown as if it were delicate bacteria in a petri dish.

In an interview at CIA headquarters two weeks ago, a senior intelligence official said the two proud groups of American secret warriors had been “deconflicted and basically integrated” — finally — 10 years after 9/11. Indeed, according to accounts given to journalists by five senior administration officials Sunday night, the CIA gathered the intelligence that led to bin Laden’s location. A memo from CIA Director Leon Panetta sent Sunday night provides some hints of how the information was collected and analyzed. In it, he thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for their help. NSA figured out, somehow, that there was no telephone or Internet service in the compound. How it did this without Pakistan’s knowledge is a secret. The NGIA makes the military’s maps but also develops their pattern recognition software — no doubt used to help establish, by February of this year, that the CIA could say with “high probability” that bin Laden and his family were living there.

Recently, JSOC built a new Targeting and Analysis Center in Rosslyn, Va. Where the National Counterterrorism Center tends to focus on threats to the homeland, TAAC, whose existence was first disclosed by the Associated Press, focuses outward, on active “kinetic” — or lethal – counterterrorism missions abroad. Its creation surprised the NCTC’s director, Michael Leiter, who was suspicious about its intent until he visited.

That the center could be stood up under the nose of some of the nation’s most senior intelligence officials without their full knowledge testifies to the power and reach of JSOC, whose size has tripled since 9/11. The command now includes more than 4,000 soldiers and civilians. It has its own intelligence division, which may or may not have been involved in last night’s effort, and has gobbled up a number of free-floating Defense Department entities that allowed it to rapidly acquire, test, and field new technologies.

Under a variety of standing orders, JSOC is involved in more than 50 current operations spanning a dozen countries, and its units, supported by so-called “white,” or acknowledged, special operations entities like Rangers, Special Forces battalions, SEAL teams, and Air Force special ops units from the larger Special Operations Command, are responsible for most of the “kinetic” action in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials are conscious of the enormous stress that 10 years of war have placed on the command. JSOC resources are heavily taxed by the operational tempo in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials have said. The current commander, Vice Adm. William McRaven, and Maj. Gen. Joseph Votel, McRaven’s nominated replacement, have been pushing to add people and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technology to areas outside the war theater where al-Qaida and its affiliates continue to thrive.

Earlier this year, it seemed that the elite units would face the same budget pressures that the entire military was experiencing. Not anymore. The military found a way, largely by reducing contracting staff and borrowing others from the Special Operations Command, to add 50 positions to JSOC. And Votel wants to add several squadrons to the “Tier One” units — Delta and the SEALs.

When Gen. Stanley McChrystal became JSOC’s commanding general in 2004, he and his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, set about transforming the way the subordinate units analyze and act on intelligence. Insurgents in Iraq were exploiting the slow decision loop that coalition commanders used, and enhanced interrogation techniques were frowned upon after the Abu Ghraib scandal. But the hunger for actionable tactical intelligence on insurgents was palpable.

The way JSOC solved this problem remains a carefully guarded secret, but people familiar with the unit suggest that McChrystal and Flynn introduced hardened commandos to basic criminal forensic techniques and then used highly advanced and still-classified technology to transform bits of information into actionable intelligence. One way they did this was to create forward-deployed fusion cells, where JSOC units were paired with intelligence analysts from the NSA and the NGIA. Such analysis helped the CIA to establish, with a high degree of probability, that Osama bin Laden and his family were hiding in that particular compound.

These technicians could “exploit and analyze” data obtained from the battlefield instantly, using their access to the government’s various biometric, facial-recognition, and voice-print databases. These cells also used highly advanced surveillance technology and computer-based pattern analysis to layer predictive models of insurgent behavior onto real-time observations.

The military has begun to incorporate these techniques across the services. And Flynn will soon be promoted to a job within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he’ll be tasked with transforming the way intelligence is gathered, analyzed, and utilized.

Thousands fill streets for return of soldier’s body

View Original Source:  http://www.salisburypost.com/News/050111-shue-in-concord-kannapolis-qcd

Published Saturday, April 30, 2011 11:00 PM

By Joanie Morris

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April 30, 2011: Throngs of veterans, citizens and politicians crowd downtown Concord during a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

For the Salisbury Post

Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground

Ye must not slumber there,

Where stranger steps and tongues resound

Along the heedless air.

Your own proud land’s heroic soil

Shall be your fitter grave;

She claims from war his richest spoil –

The ashes of her brave.

— Theodore O’Hara

1847 Excerpted from “Bivouac of the Dead”

CONCORD — You can only speculate about the last moments of a Vietnam soldier killed in action. Imagine the choking clouds of dust followed by a heavy pattering of rain, those adrenaline-filled heartbeats of a soldier, ready to do what his country asked him to.

Imagine that soldier, fingering a lucky Zippo lighter in his pocket, another touching a cross nestled around his neck, all of them checking their weapons.

April 30, 2011: The hearse carrying the remains of former Concord and Kannapolis resident Donnie Shue, accompanied by the Rolling Thunder and Patriot Guard Motorcycle clubs, travels north on Highway 49 past Harrisburg to a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

They take fire, three don’t make it out.

Things similar to these may have happened during the last moments of Sgt. First Class Donald “Donnie” Monroe Shue. Shue, an Army Green Beret, was serving with two others when they went missing on a mission Nov. 3, 1969. Shue, Staff Sgt. William Brown and Staff Sgt. Gunther Wald were last seen wounded 30 miles inside Laos, near Ban Chakevy Tai in Saravane Province. According to military documents, Shue and the other two men — as well as several men who escaped — were attached to a unit performing highly classified maneuvers throughout Southeast Asia.

The family was notified and Shue was listed as missing in action. On Jan. 15, 1979, he was classified as killed in action, and a military marker was put above an empty grave at Carolina Memorial Park.

Saturday, Shue finally came home.

His remains were found after lines in Southeast Asia were redrawn and the location where Shue, Brown and Wald were last seen was shifted to Vietnam’s control. The U.S. sent a recovery team into the area. According to military records, the team found a Zippo lighter with Shue’s name engraved on it in the remains of the three men, discovered on a farm. The men were found two years ago.

Saturday, Shue made his way slowly from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport behind a procession of police officers, motorcyclists and military escorts. Behind him, the family cars, followed by nine miles of motorcyclists — members of the Patriot Guard, Rolling Thunder, Ghost Riders and more.

“Donnie left behind grieving parents,” said Concord Mayor Scott Padgett, addressing a crowd packing the streets in downtown Concord. Padgett added that he left behind loving sisters and lifelong friends. “He left behind others who never met him but wore his bracelet.”

During the somber ceremony in Concord, American Red Cross workers handed out water and snacks, and employees of the city of Concord’s Buildings and Grounds Department volunteered to hand out small American flags to the crowd.

Flags billowed in the breeze of the afternoon, teasing the arms and necks of people close enough to feel them. Concord resident Laura Raynor performed “God Bless America” as birds sang along, continuing to be heard throughout the ceremony.

Danny Plyler, of Kannapolis, held up a sign through the entire ceremony. Written on it, “Welcome home Donnie! We love you Betty!” Though his arms may have tired, Plyler held the sign high, which had little American flags taped to it and was decorated with hearts.

“We know the sisters, Betty and Peggy,” said Plyler. “We’re here to finally give closer to them.”

First Lt. Michael Kluttz, a member of the N.C. National Guard and currently working at the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office, attended the service with his brother Capt. Todd Kluttz, who is serving on active duty at Fort Bragg.

“Our father served in Vietnam and was in high school with Sgt. Shue here in Concord back in the ’60s,” said Lt. Kluttz. “When we came home from Iraq, there was a big welcome home. These guys never got that. We’re here for him and all the vets who never got a welcome home.”

Andrew Cave, of Charlotte, is also stationed at Fort Bragg.

“My dad has a friend that was a friend with him in high school,” said Cave when asked why he attended the ceremony. “I figured I’d come out and show my support.”

The stories of why people came continued. At least half of the people in attendance could claim some connection to the U.S. military — their son or daughter serves in Iraq now, they have served or one of their parents or siblings served.

April 30, 2011: Members of the Rolling Thunder and Patriot Guard Motorcycle clubs, travels north on Highway 49 past Harrisburg to a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

Mike Gearing, a special forces Army veteran from Lincolnton, served in the same unit as Shue, though he never met the young man.

Christina Kazakavage, of Harnett County, attended the event in support of the family. A Gold Star Mother, she lost her son, Tech Sgt. Adam Ginette in Afghanistan in January 2010.

Maj. Gen. Gregory Lusk, of the North Carolina National Guard, spoke briefly at the service on Shue’s sacrifice. He described Shue and the men who served with him as having backbones of steel and wills of iron.

“There are no amount of flowery words that will ease the pain of the loss of a loved one,” he said, addressing sisters Betty Jones and Peggy Hinson. “He will forever be that young man with the infectious smile.

Addressing the hearse carrying the flag-draped casket of Shue, Lusk was brief.

“I now ask you Sgt. First Class Shue to rest,” he said. “You have been relieved of your duty. You gave all of your tomorrow so we may have today.”

Jeff Phillips, president of Rolling Thunder N.C. Chapter 2, spoke on the men and women still missing in action from war.

“We could very well be doing this next week,” said Phillips, gesturing to the crowd packed onto Union Street. “Only one third of Vietnam veterans are alive today. If there are any POWs still alive (over there), they don’t have much time.

“We want them home,” he shouted to the crowd. “Nothing less.”

He suggested that anyone kin to anyone who is missing in action contribute DNA to the proper authorities. There are bodies still unidentified at Pearl Harbor, where

April 30, 2011: Well wisher's honor Donald Shue during a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

Shue’s body was held before flights brought him home Saturday.

“We want our boys home,” he said. “We will not stop until it happens.”

Lou Deseta rode his motorcycle from New Castle, Del., to help welcome Shue home.

“I served in Vietnam in the same unit as Don,” said Deseta. Though he left before Shue got there, he feels a connection. “I want to give honor to him and see this beautiful town. It’s a great honor to be here with the family.”

For Doug Letourneau, of Nashville, Tenn., the homecoming of Shue was bittersweet.

“Donnie replaced me on the team,” said Letourneau. “He took my bed, and all my gear out. We are connected that way.”

He knows it could just as easily have been him who died on that remote farm in Laos.

It could have been, but it wasn’t.

Those young soldiers who died on the field of battle on Nov. 3, 1969, died doing what they loved.

As was said more than once during the day Saturday — gone but not forgotten.

“At last we welcome home our native son,” Lusk said. “The circle is now complete.”

The motorcycle procession travels through Main Street in Kannapolis. Photo by Tyler Buckwell, for the Salisbury Post

April 30, 2011: Members of the Rolling Thunder and Patriot Guard Riders pause for a prayer during a ceremony for Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

April 30, 2011: Army veteran Barton Gilliam of Concord waits for the procession to leave downtown Concord during a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

April 30, 2011: Kannapolis Mayor Bob Misenheimer hands a city declaration to sisters Betty Jones and Peggy Hinson honoring their brother Donald Shue during a ceremony for Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

April 30, 2011: Veterans and citizens stand for the Pledge of Allegiance during a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

April 30, 2011: Donald Shue's sisters, Betty Jones and Peggy Hinson look over plaques received during a ceremony honoring Sergeant First Class Donnie Shue whose remains were returned from Laos after being killed in action during the Vietnam War. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

CK: Xayaburi still on course – Firm confident in soundness of EIA

Help Us Save The Mekong

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View Original Source:  http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/234896/ck-xayaburi-still-on-course

• Published: 2/05/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Business

Ch Karnchang Plc (CK), Thailand’s second-largest contractor, insists that banks and the government of Laos remain committed to the Xayaburi dam the company plans to build on the Mekong River.

Laos has given no indication that it plans to review the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the US$3.8-billion project, said Anukool Tuntimas, a company director and executive vice-president for human resources and general administration.

“We’ve been assured our EIA report has followed all the correct procedures,” he said. “If we had not compiled the report properly, the Lao government would not have okayed our doing this project.”

Even if Laos did review the EIA, it was doubtful any major changes would be made, said Dr Anukool.

“The [four] banks we’ve asked for loans to finance the Xayaburi dam also remain committed to us. Nothing has changed,” he said.

Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur recently quoted Viraphonh Viravong, director-general of the Electricity Department of the Lao Energy and Mines Ministry, as saying his country would review the EIA of the hydroelectric dam that is opposed by downstream nations.

“We will hire an international consulting firm to review the comments made by our neighbours,” said Mr Viraphonh.

“And then we will see how serious it is and what the mitigation measures might be, and we will decide whether to go ahead.”

No timeframe was set for the review process.

“The Lao government will take as long as it likes to review its concerns,” he said. “If it takes years, it takes years, if months, months.”

Mr Viraphonh represented Laos at the April 19 meeting in Vientiane of the Mekong River Commission, at which Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam called for a delay and review of the Xayaburi dam.

Environmental groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature claim the EIA jointly conducted by the Lao government and CK did not meet international standards.

Dr Anukool maintained there was no concern so far about whether the Xayaburi project would be allowed to proceed.

CK remained confident of signing loan agreements for it within the next 30 days, he said.

“However, we are not basing our entire future on this Xayaburi dam. We have many projects under development,” he said.

He said that even with the project not being signed yet, the value of CK’s contract backlog had doubled to 30 billion baht this year.

Vasin Vanichvoranun, executive vice-president for corporate business at Kasikornbank, said that the bank was awaiting a clearer EIA report for the project because it had strict social and environmental guidelines for financial support.

CK must strictly follow all EIA requirements, he said.

Mr Vasin also pointed out that the project was still undergoing due diligence, and any loan agreement would have to await the results.

Apisak Tantiworawong, the president of Krung Thai Bank, said KTB was awaiting completed documents including the EIA report, so a loan contract had not yet been signed.

However, KTB stands ready to provide financial support to the Xayaburi project if everything is in order, he said.

KBank and KTB are two of the four banks that have promised financial support for the project with a combined 80 billion baht in syndicated loans.

The other two are Siam Commercial Bank and Bangkok Bank.

About the author

Writer: Nareerat Wiriyapong & Somruedi Banchongduang

Ch Karnchang sees way clear for Xayaburi dam

Help Us Save The Mekong

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View Original Source:  http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/233291/ch-karnchang-sees-way-clear-for-dam

• Published: 23/04/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

Thailand’s second-largest contractor is pushing ahead with the controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos despite concerns voiced by environmental activists.

Ch Karnchang (CK), hopes to sign construction and power purchase contracts for the 110 billion baht project within 30 days.

CK’s Chief Executive Plew Trivisvavet said the Lao government has already decided to build the dam, and brushed aside speculation the project could be scrapped amid concerns voiced by other countries in the region about the potential impact on the Mekong River ecosystem.

“We expect to receive an official notification from the Lao government within one to two weeks to carry on with the project,” he said at CK’s annual shareholders meeting yesterday.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has expressed concerns about the possible environmental effects of the Xayaburi project, but acknowledges that the final decision will be made by Laos.

Lao officials for their part have passed on MRC concerns to CK, but the firm says environmental issues have been fully taken into account in the design of the “run-of-river” dam.

“The MRC does not yet have a say on whether the project will proceed or not,” Mr Plew said in Bangkok.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is expected to take up 95% of the power generated by the Xayaburi project. CK has committed to sell power from the 1,280-megawatt hydroelectric plant at a price of 2.19 baht per kilowatt-hour.

“We are aiming to sign the power purchase agreement and construction contracts worth 76 billion baht, as well as loan agreements with banks to finance the project, within 30 days. After the signing, we will begin construction immediately,” Mr Plew said.

An investigation by last week’s Sunday Post found CK trucks and labourers already were working at the site despite the lack of formal approval for the project to proceed.

Mr Plew acknowledged that road construction at the site, located 80 kilometers from Luang Prabang, had already started.

He added that CK would build a new town for villagers in the area, including hospitals and schools.

Of the total project cost, up to 8 billion baht has been budgeted for work to minimize the environmental impact of the dam, including 4 billion baht for fish ladders to enable migration and boat locks.

Somkuan Watakeekul, managing director of South East Asia Energy, the company overseeing the engineering work, said it will pay around one billion baht to 424 households forced to relocate.

He denied reports villagers were being paid compensation of just 450 baht to leave the area.

“We have paid around one billion baht as compensation. It is the responsibility of the Lao government to manage the compensation programme,” Mr Somkuan said.

“Apart from fish, the run-of-the-river design will mitigate any impact on other parts of the environment, such as the forest. And money will be spent on improving the well-being of the local community.”

About the author

Writer: Nareerat Wiriyapong

Position: Business Reporter