Opposition still thinks Chen Shui-bian is a "dictator"

An arrest of the person who allegedly phoned in threats to the embassies of seven of Taiwan's diplomatic allies was made yesterday. 42-year-old Hsieh Hung-yi was taken in for questioning for allegedly "calling seven foreign representative offices and threatening their diplomats on April 16," according to an article in today's Taipei Times.

The details of the threats, missing from my last post, have now been revealed. Hsieh allegedly told the embassy employees that "their ambassadors would be assassinated if they attend[ed] Chen's inauguration."

The overused excuse of "unemployment made me do it" was invoked by the suspect, who at first denied the charges then subsequently admitted to making the threats. It just so happens that Hsieh used to work for the China Times (Taiwan, you stupid mofos), and has been married to two different wives from China.

It's also rather interesting that he returned to Taiwan from China less than a month ago. (I don't know if I'd be making too many international trips if I were unemployed.)

And while the blab shows on local TV tonight are "debating" whether President Chen is a dictator or not, Hsieh has already been released from police custody.

No weapons at the inauguration, please
In other news, arrests in the southern Taiwan port city of Kaohsiung earlier this year netted loads of weapons, including a rocket launcher which was smuggled out of a military base in nearby Pingtung. More arrests related to this case took place earlier this week. I can't find anything on the story in the English press, but an article in yesterday's Chinese-language Liberty Times describes some of the details.

According to my read of the article, Kaohsiung police arrested a group of people in early February of this year selling guns and drugs. Among the weapons recovered at that time was a "66" rocket launcher (M66?), a model used by Taiwan's military. As a result, the police formed a special investigative task force in cooperation with the military. Information obtained from one of the suspects in the February arrest led them to 2 others (Yang Chih-jen and Huang Teng-hui [sp?]) whose phones were then tapped in order to determine who their contact in the military was, but authorities were awaiting more results before going ahead with arrests.

However, due to the many threats related to the inauguration ceremony which is looming on the horizon (May 20) and information that the suspects who were still at large were about to have a rendezvous with their military contact (Tseng Pai-tung [sp?]), a 24-year-old assistant platoon leader ranked at sergeant in Taiwan's Air Force), police and MPs sped things up and moved in on Tuesday, arresting the 3 suspects. Arrested along with them were a Chang Hsing Elementary School disciplinarian (Chang Sheng-fang [sp?]) and the alleged courier, Huang Tien-szu (sp?).

More on "freedom of the press"
While simultaneously saying that "Taiwan's journalists enjoy a level of freedom that is rare in Asia," Reporters Without Borders' 2004 report on press freedom in Taiwan is itself full of falsehoods (I don't think Hung Che-cheng ever worked for the Taiwan Daily News, for example), distortions ("endangering public health" isn't included under the "freedom of the press" umbrella), misrepresentations, and unsubstantiated allegations. The report contains this bit of whiny nonsense:

[T]here are still laws in place that allow journalists to be imprisoned for defamation, revealing "state secrets" or publishing reports that jeopardise "national security." A journalist was sentenced to a year and a half in prison in 2003 for a report about military manoeuvres.

Well, duh! Is these any country on earth where one can legally -- and with impunity -- defame people or do things that endanger national security?

Who do these psycho legislators think they are when they say that arresting someone who has publicly threatened to kill an elected president counts as "making a fuss"?