U.S. reporter faces possible expulsion

U.S. reporter faces possible expulsion

THAILAND: A Thai government committee concluded on Thursday that
an article published last week in the Asian Wall Street Journal
on alleged terrorist activity in Thailand was "exaggerated", a
ruling that could lead to the expulsion of an American reporter.

The chairman of the committee, National Police Special Branch
Bureau chief Maj. Gen. Tritot Ronnrativichai, said a letter would
be sent on Friday to the Journal's editor and to the Far Eastern
Economic Review's Bangkok bureau chief, Shawn Crispin,
complaining about the article.

Crispin, an American, was the only Bangkok-based reporter
contributing to the story. The Journal and the Far Eastern
Economic Review are both owned by the U.S.-based AP Dow Jones
Company.

The offending article, which appeared in the Journal on Nov.
7, quoted intelligence sources as saying members of an al-Qaeda-
linked militant group, Jama'ah Islamiyah (JI), had used southern
Thailand to plan the deadly Oct. 12 bombing on the island of
Bali. --DPA