Gone with the Wind

I've mentioned the sudden loss from custody of Mas Selamat a couple of times so for the sake of closure for regular readers, you may be interested in the Government report on the escape.

In a nutshell, he prepared by wearing outside clothes underneath ths detention attire, popped into a closed toilet, changed, jumped out of the (un-barred) window and then bypassed 2 security fences by running along the roof of a covered walkway. The guards didn't and the CCTV was turned off. No-one is going to be disciplined for these lapses and it's up in the air where this falls on the complacent <-> incompetent continuum but the PM has said there shouldn't be a witchhunt.

As is often the case, the side stories catch my interest and the latest twist is that the resulting manhunt has also nabbed 66 illegal immigrants, some of whom were caught

"by a network of 'trip wires' set up by the authorities to snag the fugitive terrorist in case he takes cover in places like forests where the search forces have already combed.

Police operations director Wong Hong Kuan said the 'trip wires' included surveillance equipment and 'human eyes and ears' to ferret out the 47-year-old fugitive."

I thought that was a neat revelation of the search techniques used. They still haven't found him and the public line is that he hasn't left Singapore, though it's a mystery to me quite how they know where he isn't when they have no clue where he is. Mind you, in such games, perhaps it is in Singapore's interest to maintain a state of heightened alertness and in Selamat's interest to keep everybody guessing.