Internal Security Operations Command

Internal Security Operations Command (; ) or ISOC (; ) is the internal security agency and political arm of the Royal Thai Armed Forces. It was responsible for the suppression of leftist groups from the 1960s to the 1980s. During this period it was implicated in atrocities against activists and civilians. ISOC was implicated in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

After Thaksin was deposed by the 2006 Thai coup d'état, the junta transformed ISOC into a government within a government, giving it wide-reaching authority over the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO). The junta also authorized it to help provincial authorities in marketing OTOP products.

In June 2007, the junta approved a draft national security bill which gave ISOC sweeping powers to handle "new forms of threats" to the country. The ISOC revamp modelled it after the US Department of Homeland Security and gave ISOC sweeping new powers to allow the ISOC chief to implement security measures, such as searches without seeking prime ministerial approval.

History

Mission and organization

ISOC's mission is to suppress threats to national security, counterintelligence, information and psychological warfare, defend the monarchy, promote unity, and protect the public from harm. Nominally a civilian agency, ISOC operates under the aegis of the Office of the Prime Minister. Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha is director of ISOC. Deputy director is army chief General Narongpan Jitkaewthae.

ISOC's FY2019 budget is 10,240.1 million baht. ISOC has about 5,000-6,000 staff nationwide, excluding those working in the south, and there are 500,000-600,000 internal security volunteers, as well as tens of thousands of people in its information network.

Communist Suppression Operations Command

The Communist Suppression Operations Command (CSOC) was established in 1964 with the assistance of the United States, with the aim of coordinating counterinsurgency operations.

Following the 17 November 1971 coup by military dictators Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphas Charusathien, Praphas appointed himself interior minister, chief of police, and head of CSOC.

The CSOC was implicated in several atrocities in its 1970s war against leftist groups. This included the Red Drum Massacre, the mass murder of southern Thai activists by burning them alive in gasoline drums.

Student leader Thirayuth Boonmee showed evidence that the destruction of Ban Na Sai village, Bueng Kan District, Nong Khai Province (, Bueng Kan Province) in northeast Thailand was the handiwork of the CSOC. The military had earlier claimed that the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) was responsible for the village's destruction.

CSOC's name was changed to ISOC in 1974.

Operations during the 1970s

ISOC conducted operations in cities and the Thai countryside to subvert leftist groups through propaganda and violence. In 1973, the ISOC commenced a bombing campaign against hill tribe villages in northern Thailand. To prevent guerrillas from using their forest bases, the ISOC destroyed nearly of forest annually between 1973 and 1978.

Prime Minister to-be Prem Tinsulanonda was a senior officer of the ISOC.

ISOC's role declined starting in the early-1980s after the downfall of the CPT. However, it still had great influence. On 1 April 1987, after Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj claimed that ISOC had been brainwashed by communists, over 200 Thai Army Rangers attacked the prime minister's residence.

Political intervention

Plot to assassinate Thaksin Shinawatra

ISOC Deputy Director Pallop Pinmanee was sacked after Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, his driver, was found driving a car containing 67 kilograms of explosives near the residence of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Pallop denied all involvement, noting that "If I was behind it, I would not have missed." A government spokesperson stated that the explosives in the car were completely assembled, equipped with a remote sensor ready to be detonated, and would have had a blast radius of around one kilometre.

Information Operations

In a parliament debate in February 2020, Future Forward MP Viroj Lakkana-adisorn presented a document revealing the percentage of the Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) budget dedicated to counterintelligence, human development, humanitarian aid, and information and psychological warfare operations in Thailand's three southern provinces of Narathiwas, Songkhla, and Yala. Three additional documents detailed Defense Ministry orders to conduct information warfare against opposition parties and politicians, including specific budget details for the internet and mobile phones and the internet. As ISOC reports directly to the prime minister's office, General Prayut denied all the allegations and promised to investigate.

In October 2020, Twitter took down a "low-intensity" Royal Thai Army information operation apparently designed to stifle and influence democratic opinion on social media regarding Army scandals and democratic processes in the country, as part of a major wider investigation by Facebook and Twitter into attempts to influence the 2020 US Presidential Election.

ISOC with Thailand's coup

Post-2006 coup ISOC

ISOC received a boost when the 2006 coup installed the government of General Surayud Chulanont. His government passed the Internal Security Act, 2008, granting ISOC the status of a state organization reporting to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Thaksin planned a major restructuring of the ISOC prior to the coup which overthrew him in September 2006. Soon after the coup, the junta released three army suspects in the car bomb plot. Junta leader and Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin

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