VA scandal is Obama's latest headache

• VA scandal joins Obamacare, Benghazi, IRS targeting as latest Obama headache


• The string of crises includes major missteps and politically contrived controversies


• Obama's style: keep quiet and wait for the investigation results


• GOP critics call the President out of touch and ineffective

Washington (CNN) -- It's become a familiar pattern in Washington.

A new controversy emerges. Media reports raise questions, and Republican critics hurl accusations. President Barack Obama stays hidden from scrutiny, leaving spokesman Jay Carney to bob and weave like a cornered boxer in the White House briefing room.

Only under heightened public anger and political pressure does Obama emerge, such as Wednesday's hastily arranged news conference intended to tamp down a growing uproar over allegations of sometimes deadly waits for care at Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Read the story that helped expose the problem

The result? A growing perception of a White House under siege as Obama's presidency approaches its two-thirds mark, struggling with a litany of problems that overwhelm any administration successes.

Some involve serious missteps, like the dysfunctional Obamacare website last fall that temporarily undermined progress on the President's signature achievement.

Rep Cole: "Admin. caught napping"

Who's to blame for VA scandal?

Rep. Cole: VA not a Congress problem!

Shinseki not offering resignation

Others are more politically contrived controversies made more prominent in an election year, such as Republican hounding over the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack and IRS targeting of groups seeking tax exempt status.

The GOP seeks to portray Obama as ineffective and even negligent, with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell complaining Thursday that "the most powerful man in the free world always seems to be the last to know about what's going on in his own administration."

Meanwhile, Democratic colleagues who face tough congressional elections in November distance themselves from a President with negative approval ratings.

Here are the major controversies that have confronted the Obama administration, with a look at how we got here and what they mean:

Veterans Affairs: A long-time problem getting worse

As a U.S. senator, Obama sat on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and campaigned for president on resolving problems faced by returning soldiers.

Now he finds himself under heavy criticism for what critics call a delayed and weak response to excessive and sometimes deadly waits for care at VA hospitals and alleged practices to cover them up, as uncovered by a CNN investigation.

The VA has acknowledged 23 deaths in several states due to delays in care, and sources told CNN that as many as 40 veterans died under similar circumstances in Phoenix.

Such problems touch on an emotional topic -- caring for America's military veterans, many of whom served in war -- and the revelations of scheduling tricks and secret lists to hide months-long waits sparked outrage across the political spectrum.

Lawmaker: VA wait-list, cover-up allegations 'tip of the iceberg'

So far, Obama ordered his deputy chief of staff, Rob Nabors, to review what was happening at the VA. Robert Petzel, a VA undersecretary for health care, was forced out shortly before his planned retirement this year, and the department's inspector general has launched an independent investigation.

Obama stands by V.A. secy.

How should Obama handle the VA?

Aiken: Buck stops with Obama

House passes VA accountability bill

Republicans, veterans groups and some Democrats say that's not enough, with increasing calls for Obama to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki as part of a broad housecleaning.

In his first public remarks on the matter in weeks, Obama on Wednesday continued to back Shinseki while promising punishment for any proven misconduct. Wait until we have the facts before deciding on how to proceed, he urged.

Obama noted his administration's efforts to provide veterans with expanded services, access to education and help finding jobs, but his remarks disappointed critics.

The American Legion called Obama's decision to keep Shinseki in office "unfortunate," while Republican leaders said the President must address systemic problems at VA that involve much more than the possible removal of the Cabinet secretary.

"The general can leave and we can wait around for months to go through a nomination process and we get a new person, but the disaster continues," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters on Thursday.

The GOP-led House passed a bill giving Shinseki greater authority to fire top managers, and some in Congress urged Obama to delegate such power by executive action to speed the process.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who pushed Thursday for an immediate Senate vote on the House measure, said: "I don't think that any of us want to go home for the Memorial Day recess and when we are asked `what are you doing on this issue?' our answer is `well, in about 15 days we are going to have a hearing on this crisis.'"

Doctor: Phoenix VA ignores mandate to prioritize Iraq, Afghanistan vets

Obamacare: the GOP's boogeyman

Socialism! Death panels!

For four years, Republicans mustered unrelenting and vitriolic attacks on Obama's signature health care legislation that passed with no GOP votes in 2010.

From presidential nominee Mitt Romney on down, Republicans made repeal of the Affordable Care Act a major issue of the 2012 election and continued efforts to undermine its implementation even after Obama won a second term.

The GOP efforts appeared increasingly negligible until the Obamacare website meltdown.

What should have been the crowning moment of the reform process -- the October 1, 2013, rollout of exchanges for uninsured people to buy newly affordable health coverage -- became a full-blown crisis when the government website didn't work.

Republican critics regained their vigor, insisting the episode showed the Obamacare reforms as a whole didn't work. Carney came under withering questioning, while Obama dispatched a top White House aide to get the website functioning properly.

The President also backed Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the administration's focal point for implementing the reforms, at least until the website got working again and the sign-up period concluded at the end of March with enrollment exceeding goals.

Then Sebelius stepped down.

Sebelius had 'toughest job in Washington'

Benghazi: A "twofer" for Republicans

A tragedy in which four Americans died in a terrorist attack now symbolizes the political dysfunction in Washington.

In the midst of the 2012 presidential election, the assault on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, became a campaign flashpoint.

Obama was running on foreign policy credentials burnished by the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, boasting al Qaeda was "on the run."

His administration initially blamed the Benghazi attack on a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video made in the United States, rather than the seemingly planned assault by well-armed terrorists, some with al Qaeda affiliations.

Republicans led by Romney immediately accused the Obama administration of misleading the public on what happened to hide a major security breakdown that signaled the broader failed policy in the region.

A special review board set up by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton determined flaws in security planning and made recommendations adopted by the State Department.

However, neither the review board nor multiple investigations by congressional committees uncovered the kind of damaging revelation sought by Republicans to hurt both Obama and Clinton, the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 if she decides to run.

Now, House Republicans have formed a new select committee to keep public focus on an issue that resonates with conservatives ahead of the November congressional elections. The special investigative panel also offers a continuing attack route against Clinton, with expectations she will be called to testify.

Democrats initially balked at being part of the select committee, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday named five members to join seven Republicans on the panel.

Dianne Feinstein on Benghazi panel: 'It's a hunting mission for a lynch mob'

IRS: An easy target

Everybody hates the tax collector, and revelations of political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service gave conservatives even more reason to pile on.

Republicans have tried to maintain public focus on the evolving IRS targeting scandal, inferring it could reach to the top levels of the Obama administration.

No evidence so far from several congressional investigations has revealed direct political motivation or any involvement from outside the IRS. Both liberal and conservative groups were flagged when assessing their eligibility for a tax break available to social welfare organizations.

However, only conservative groups faced delayed processing and inappropriate questioning about political activity that would make them ineligible, according to IRS officials.

The focus on tea party affiliated groups stoked conservative anger and a GOP talking point that lumps the controversy with others during the Obama presidency.

"From the Obama administration's IRS scandal, to its Obamacare website fiasco, just about every time the president claims to be in the dark until the wrongdoing surfaces on its own usually in the press," McConnell said Thursday.

Government goes back to the drawing board on regulating controversial tax-exempt groups

Ukraine: measured response labeled weakness

It all happened so fast -- a Russian incursion in February that seized control of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

The expansionist move by Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately set up a "Russia versus the West" showdown, pitting Moscow against the United States and its European allies.

Preceding all that was a veritable coup in Ukraine driven by pro-European populism that ousted the pro-Russian prime minister. Putin acted amid the political chaos in the former Soviet satellite to annex Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population and hosts Russia's vital Black Sea fleet.

Despite calls by conservatives for arming Ukraine, Obama acted in concert with NATO allies in Europe, imposing sanctions but ruling out a military response over Crimea.

However, he and his NATO counterparts declared they would uphold their treaty obligation to protect any alliance member from a similar Russian push, and they boosted military exercises in the region.

No matter the foreign policy issue, Obama comes under criticism for policies that seek to reduce the U.S. military footprint abroad and promote collaboration with allies instead of the American "first in" approach of the past.

Longtime foes such as Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina complain such a measured response weakens the nation's standing in the world.

Obama argues his way avoids mistakes such as leaping into a war in Iraq over the false perception that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we've just gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and to our budget?" he asked during a trip to Asia last month. His approach may not bring dynamic results, he added, "but we steadily advance the interests of the American people and our partnerships with folks around the world."

Poll: Growing concern over Ukraine but little support for military action

Syria: Whose red line?

If Obama regrets anything, it is probably his declaration in 2012 that the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against its own people would cross a "red line" for a U.S. military response.

The phrase has become synonymous with empty threats, and analysts say Obama's failure to follow through on his warning against President Bashar al-Assad's regime undermined confidence by U.S. allies around the world that Washington would have their back in a crisis.

In the end, though, Obama appeared to get what he wanted without putting any U.S. troops at risk, as Syria -- under pressure from ally Russia -- handed over more than 90% of its declared chemical weapons arsenal to the international community.

Talks with Russia and Syria continue on eliminating the rest by a June 30 deadline, a target that analysts believe is unlikely to be met.

Critics contend the President's stance has failed to curb the al-Assad regime or stop the civil war blamed for more than 100,000 deaths. In particular, some lament the lack of a U.S. military response to chemical weapons attacks in Syria last year.

Secretary of State John Kerry argued last month that the U.S. approach emphasizing diplomacy yielded a better result.

"Would you rather drop a few bombs, send a message, and then have him (al-Assad) still with the weapons and capacity to deliver them?" Kerry asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he used to chair. "Or would you rather get all of them out?"

Setback for ending the 'never-ending' war

Shinseki in firestorm

• Eric Shinseki says he's committed to improving VA system


• Department, boss under fire for wait list, cover-up allegations


• Shinseki, a man of few words, was in spotlight during prep for Iraq War


• Observers say his analysis then proved correct

(CNN) -- Those who know Eric Shinseki chuckled when their laconic friend began his Army retirement speech in 2003 with this: "'My name is Shinseki, and I am a soldier."

It was pure Shinseki, longtime friend Rollie Stichweh thought.

Shinseki, ending his Army career that day as chief of staff, had always been a man of few words.

"Ric is quiet, low-key," said Stichweh, who graduated from West Point with Shinseki in 1965. "He's never been an extrovert. He hates being the center of attention."

More than a decade later, Shinseki is very much the center of attention as calls for his firing as Veterans Affairs secretary amplify by the day.

Shinseki not offering resignation

This week, President Barack Obama summoned Shinseki, 71, to the White House as allegations mounted that some VA health care facilities covered up long patient wait times for veterans.

CNN reported exclusively last month that, according to sources, at least 40 American veterans died while waiting to be seen at the Phoenix VA. CNN also obtained an e-mail that an employee at a Wyoming clinic of the VA wrote saying that employees were instructed to "game the system" to make the clinic appear more efficient.

As of Thursday, more than two dozen facilities across the nation were reportedly under investigation.

Doctor says Phoenix VA ignored mandate

The VA has weathered other scandals since its creation in 1930. But veterans say this one puts the department at a crossroads.

Will the revelations lead to substantial housecleaning at the sprawling bureaucracy charged with caring for injured warriors, many part of a generation that has been battered by more than 12 years of nonstop war?

Some lawmakers have called for Shinseki to be fired. Highly respected veterans groups, such as the American Legion, have demanded answers and called for his resignation.

The focus on Shinseki has also given way to a larger discussion about the VA system overall.

"I have not called for Gen. Shinseki to resign, although I have to admit I am getting a little closer," House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. "But here is the point: This isn't about one person. This isn't about the secretary. It is about the entire system underneath him."

Should Shinseki go? Vets, lawmakers split along party lines

'Anguished'

But as every military member knows, the buck stops at the top.

Obama nominated Shinseki in 2008, saying that the decorated Vietnam War veteran and former Army chief of staff was a man who "always stood on principle."

The Senate confirmed Shinseki in 2009.

At the confirmation hearing, lawmakers had mostly praise for Shinseki, who was known in Washington circles for his valor and for his long commitment to service in the Army.

Shinseki promised then he would come up with a "concise strategy for pursuing a transformed Department of Veterans Affairs," vowing to make the VA a "people-centric, results-driven, forward-looking" institution.

Skip to Wednesday after Obama's meeting with the secretary.

The President called a news conference, which generated much buzz that he was about to dismiss Shinseki.

Instead, Obama promised accountability and stressed that no decision would be made until an inspector general's investigation on the scandal was complete.

"We are going to fix whatever is wrong," the President said.

Shinseki has given a few brief interviews since the scandal broke, mostly promising to find out whether the allegations are true. He hasn't spoken to CNN despite the network's numerous requests.

In testimony last week, Shinseki told the Senate it was too soon to cast blame.

The general also displayed a rare moment of emotion.

"Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell," he said.

On Thursday, Shinseki announced an independent review and nationwide audit and told veterans the department was "redoubling its efforts, with integrity and compassion, to earn your trust."

Stichweh told CNN that he and Shinseki have talked about how the controversy has affected him, but Stichweh felt it would be a betrayal of Shinseki's trust -- and the privacy the general cherishes -- to share any of that with CNN.

"He is anguished over this, I can tell you that. He feels it," said Stichweh, a retired business consultant who lives in Connecticut. "There is nothing he cares about more than veterans."

Words fail him

Words are not enough for veterans groups. There must be systemic reform at the VA that goes beyond a single person, they said. But it has to be coordinated by one person, and some doubt that it should be Shinseki.

He just isn't candid enough, said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq war veteran and the executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The organization that serves 2.8 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has been trying for years to get Shinseki to talk frankly with them about a variety of veterans' needs, Rieckhoff said.

"We've tried nonstop to get him to talk to us, but it appears he's not interested in hearing us, and that's too bad because we've wanted the secretary to succeed," he said.

The veterans' group has not made a statement about whether Shinseki should lose his job.

"But there's no doubt he's let the relationship with veterans fall apart over the years," Rieckhoff said, pointing to the VA's disability backlog problem that CNN and other outlets have covered in recent years.

This week, The Washington Post reported that almost half of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are filing for disability benefits when they leave the military. The VA is saddled, the Post reported, with a backlog of 300,000 cases, some of which are taking months to process, others more than a year.

"Shinseki appears to be overwhelmed. We need a younger person in that role, an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran," said Rieckhoff, 39. "I know about Shinseki's military career and it is admirable. He had a wonderful military career, but that's the past. We are living too much in the past."

The American Legion's national commander, Dan Dellinger, called for Shinseki's resignation as well as those of Undersecretary of Health Robert Petzel and Undersecretary of Benefits Allison Hickey.

The American Legion hasn't called for the resignation of a public official in 30 years, he said, but VA leaders were failing badly to respond to questions.

"Senior VA leaders have isolated themselves from the media and, more importantly, from answering to their shareholders, America's veterans," Dellinger wrote in an online note to members.

He's received a "massive amount" of e-mail from American Legion members describing their own long waits to be seen at the VA, he told CNN.

Dellinger also said he felt Shinseki's testimony was "lackluster."

"I thought he was ill-prepared or advised not to answer questions," the 64-year-old Army veteran said. "I felt sorry for the man."

Petzel resigned last week. But that in itself caused a stir.

The VA said last year that Petzel was expected to retire in 2014 anyway.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America blasted Petzel's exit in a statement: "We don't need the VA to find a scapegoat; we need an actual plan to restore a culture of accountability throughout the VA."

From the jungle to the capital

There are two moments in Shinseki's public life that have come to define him.

One took place in the jungle of Vietnam.

Another played out in the battlefield of Washington, just before the Iraq War.

Shinseki was born in Hawaii to Japanese-American parents less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Despite hostility toward Japanese-Americans, three of Shinseki's uncles enlisted in the Army and served in Europe in the all-Japanese-American 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Stichweh recalls meeting Shinseki and wanting immediately to ask why Shinseki would want to serve in the military, given the time when Shinseki was born and raised, his family's background and the fact that some Americans were still, at that time, not particularly warm to people of Japanese descent.

"I asked 'Gee, why would you want to be an officer?' And he told me about his family and what that history meant to him," Stichweh said.

A Boy Scout, Shinseki was raised to understand the importance of order and discipline. He also was an early achiever. He was the student body president at Kauai High School, according to U.S. News & World Report.

He married his high school sweetheart, Patricia. They have two children.

After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1965, Shinseki and Stichweh served in Vietnam. Stichweh left the service after fulfilling his mandated term because he disagreed with President Lyndon B. Johnson's war strategy.

Shinseki did two combat tours. In 1970, during a fierce gunbattle, he stepped on a landmine and blew off half of his right foot.

Even after that harrowing experience, he lobbied to remain in the Army.

"Ric persuaded the powers that be to let him stay," Stichweh said. "He nearly died, but he wanted to keep serving."

Shinseki was awarded a Purple Heart and other honors for his valor.

He returned to active duty in 1971.

Read Shinseki's official VA bio

The general and Iraq

While working his way up the Army career ladder, Shinseki got a master's degree in English at Duke University and went back to West Point to teach. He took important posts at the Pentagon. In 1991, he was promoted to brigadier general, became the commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1994, and then was named commander in chief of U.S. Army forces in Europe.

Shinseki led NATO land forces in central Europe and commanded a NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina after that conflict.

In the summer of 1999, under President Bill Clinton, Shinseki became Army chief of staff.

The lessons he learned in Bosnia informed the second most-significant -- or at least publicly talked about -- chapter in Shinseki's career.

In 2003, a month before the United States invaded Iraq, he testified before Congress it would take "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" to secure the country. That was reportedly about double what the George W. Bush administration proffered would be necessary.

Days after Shinseki's testimony, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discounted that figure, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told lawmakers that Shinseki's estimation was "wildly off the mark."

Nicolaus Mills, an American history professor at Sarah Lawrence College, said that Shinseki was merely using a formula developed by the nonpartisan think tank RAND Corp. The formula was applied during an international peacekeeping mission in Bosnia during the 1990s, Mills said, saying it required one soldier for every 50 civilians to keep the peace after a war.

"He was simply doing the math for Iraq, and we know he turned out to be right," the professor said.

March 2003 saw a ground invasion force of 145,000 troops, Mills wrote on CNN in March 2013, 10 years after the start of the war.

A month after the invasion, "mobs began looting government buildings and hospitals," and "there were not enough American soldiers to stop them," Mills wrote.

A "surge" of troops had to be sent to Iraq during the war to tamp down on insurgents who were attacking U.S. troops and allies. In January 2007, Bush addressed the nation saying, "It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq."

The United States completed its withdrawal of military personnel in 2011.

When Shinseki retired in June 2003, he was the highest-ranking Asian-American service member.

Former White House adviser and senior CNN political analyst David Gergen said this week that the idea of Shinseki as a person who spoke truth to power has persisted in Washington for years.

Gergen said Shinseki may have gotten the VA post in part because the Obama administration wanted to show he, rather than others, was right about Iraq.

Gergen also stressed that it was his recollection that soldiers revered Shinseki, mostly for his valor in Vietnam.

"But I'm not sure there was anything particularly distinguishing about him (to) lead a bureaucracy" the size of the VA," Gergen said.

In 2006, Newsweek asked Shinseki, then in retirement in Hawaii, how he felt about the criticism that he should have pushed harder for more troops at the launch of the Iraq War.

"Probably that's fair," he told the magazine. "Not my style."

Puerto Banus stag do ends in drowning

A British holidaymaker has drowned in the Costa del Sol’s Puerto Banus while on a stag do.

A police diving team pulled the 37-year-old out of the water in the upmarket resort of Puerto Banus early yesterday morning (Friday).

The man went missing on Thursday night at around 2am while he was with friends in the port.

It has also emerged that police are questioning a man over the incident on suspicion of failing to aid a person in distress.

The Guardia Civil have confirmed that the incident is “under investigation”.

An autopsy is set to take place in Malaga.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of the death of a British national in Puerto Banus on May 23.

“We are offering consular assistance to the family.”

Military summons 35 more people

• Military calls on Saturday for 35 more people to appear before its council


• Source: Ex-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at a military compound in Bangkok


• The Thai military imposes a travel ban on scores of people


• Anti-coup protesters demonstrate in central Bangkok; military keeps a distance

CNN TV has been taken off air in Thailand. The people of Thailand deserve to know what is happening in their own country, and CNN is committed to telling them. Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter, and share your updates from Thailand via CNN iReport.

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- The Thai military continued to hold former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Saturday, a source close to her told CNN.

She was ordered to report a day earlier to the junta that has taken charge of the country.

The National Peace and Order Maintaining Council summoned 35 more people on Saturday to report by 1:00 p.m. local time, a military spokesman told reporters.

The list included many academics and one of Shinawatra's chief opponents, Yellow Shirt movement leader Sondhi Limthongkul. The politician suffered a gunshot wound to the head during unrest in 2009 but later recovered.

Some of the people the NPOMC summoned have yet to heed its call. The council on Saturday gave them another chance to do so and announced that those who did not comply would be taken in by "law enforcement."

The military has banned more than 150 prominent figures from leaving the country and threatened to arrest politicians who disobey its orders.

The armed forces seized power in a coup on Thursday after months of turmoil that paralyzed much of the government and caused deadly clashes in the streets of Bangkok.

It has imposed martial law, which includes a curfew, and shut out independent media reporting. CNN International's broadcasting has been blacked out in Thailand.

Security forces have arrested "many people" suspected of possessing "military grade weapons and explosive devices," officials said.

I'm in #Bangkok where the military has summoned foreign diplomats, bans 155 politicians and activists from leaving the country tune in #CNN

— Saima Mohsin (@SaimaMohsin) May 23, 2014

The United States and other countries have criticized the military's intervention, the latest in a long list of coups in Thailand, and called for the swift restoration of democracy.

Yingluck, whose government was in power when the unrest began in November, was removed from office this month by the country's Constitutional Court over the appointments of top security officials.

Prominent people summoned

Thai Ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra detained

Some Thai free-to-air channels return

Thai soldiers patrol near government buildings in Bangkok on Friday, May 23. Thailand's army announced the previous day that it has taken control of the country in a coup, just days after it surprised the government by declaring martial law. See the Thai army impose martial law before the coup.

A pro-government protester points at a soldier as people clean up a demonstration site on the outskirts of Bangkok on May 23. Both pro- and anti-government camp sites have been cleared away in the capital city since the coup.

Buddhist monks help dismantle a shade net at an anti-government camp occupied for months in Bangkok on May 23.

A police dog searches a tent at the pro-government demonstration site outside Bangkok on May 23.

Thai soldiers patrol the streets of Bangkok on May 23.

Students and activists hold anti-coup signs during a brief protest near the Democracy Monument in Bangkok on May 23.

Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrives to report to Thailand's ruling military in Bangkok on May 23.

Thai soldiers and military police try to block media as Yingluck arrives at a military compound on May 23.

A soldier stands guard on Thursday, May 22, in Bangkok.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is told to move while reporting outside the venue for peace talks between political groups in Bangkok on May 22.

A member of the press takes a selfie with soldiers on May 22 in Bangkok.

Commuters wait for taxis after a curfew was imposed in Bangkok on May 22.

Anti-government protesters celebrate after Thailand's army chief announced that armed forces were seizing power in Bangkok on May 22.

A tourist sits in a Thai army vehicle as soldiers deploy on a downtown street after martial law was declared on Tuesday, May 20.

Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the Thai military, gives a traditional greeting on May 20, the day he declared military rule over Thailand. He has assumed the powers to act as prime minister until a new one takes office, the military said.

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Yingluck arrived around noon Friday at a military compound in Bangkok with one of her sisters and was still there hours later, a source close to the former leader told CNN. The military on Thursday summoned Yingluck and three other members of her politically powerful family to report to authorities.

It has also called on more than 100 others, including prominent figures on both sides of Thailand's political divide, to come to military facilities. Those who don't report, it has warned, will be arrested.

Military officials haven't provided much explanation about the reasons for the summonses, saying it's necessary "to ensure smooth operation of restoration of peace and order."

Yingluck was being detained at a military barracks outside Bangkok, the Thai government's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut, said late Friday. Paradon said Yingluck was detained for her own safety along with and former ministers and one-time members of her Cabinet.

The junta on Thursday detained some of the leaders of the country's deeply polarized political factions. Some of those held, including opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and members of Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party, were later released.

Constitution ditched, curfew imposed

Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, the head of the military, has assumed the powers to act as Prime Minister until a new one takes office, the military said Thursday.

Life under martial law in Thailand

Bangkok park at center of protests

How the government will operate remains unclear, given that the military also has thrown out the constitution it drew up in 2007 after a previous coup, except for Section 2, which acknowledges that the King is the head of state.

The last six months have been marked by large-scale protests, both by those backing Yingluck's government and those opposed to it. There have been periodic outbursts of deadly violence in the streets.

Protest camps of both sides in Bangkok have been cleared away since the coup.

Under the new order, schools will be closed nationwide between Friday and Sunday, the military said. A curfew is in place between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. And all state-run, satellite and cable TV providers have been ordered to carry only the signal of the army's television channel; CNN is among those networks that have been taken off the air.

In Thailand, TV channels including CNN have been replaced with this: http://t.co/IJDcAGA9xP #ThaiCoup http://ift.tt/1kvOLdB

— CNN International (@cnni) May 23, 2014

The military warned against posting misleading or critical comments on social media platforms.

In a speech Thursday, Prayuth explained that these actions were necessary to restore order and push through reforms.

In Bangkok, calm and a cleanup

The day after the coup, a peculiar calm had settled on the streets of much of the Thai capital, which has been the focal point of political unrest.

A few hundred anti-coup protesters gathered in central Bangkok, some cheering and whistling and others holding banners saying "no to coup," but members of the military kept a distance.

A few demonstrators from rival camps argued among themselves, but police tried to calm both sides down. The crowds were thinning out by early Friday evening.

Life in most of the city's center appeared normal during the day, with shops open and people going to work.

In the area by the Democracy Monument, where anti-government protesters had camped out for months, work had begun to clear up the detritus that had been left behind.

Dozens of people were dismantling large tents, cleaning and sweeping. Trucks and cranes were pulling down the infrastructure the protesters had put up at the camp.

Yellow shirts protest camp was there for months. Like a city within a city. It will take time to clean up #ThaiCoup http://ift.tt/1t1H0wI

— Paula Hancocks (@PHancocksCNN) May 23, 2014

The military presence around the city remained subtle, with few soldiers in view, except outside the Defense Ministry and military sites.

"The situation in Bangkok is quite calm at the moment, but obviously we're all watching very, very closely to see what happens next," Kristie Kenney, U.S. ambassador to Thailand, told CNN.

Kenney said she would not be attending a briefing Friday that the Thai military was holding for diplomats but would send someone from the U.S. Embassy.

Her comments came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that there was "no justification" for the military coup.

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok has updated its guidance for Americans traveling to Thailand. It "recommends that U.S. citizens reconsider any nonessential travel to Thailand, particularly Bangkok, due to ongoing political and social unrest and restrictions on internal movements, including an indefinite nighttime curfew."

The question many analysts are asking is how the popular "Red Shirt" movement, which supports Yingluck and her exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra, will respond to the coup.

The Red Shirts, whose support base is in the rural north and northwest of Thailand, were already angered by Yingluck's ouster this month, a move they viewed as a judicial coup by Bangkok elites.

Senior Red Shirt leaders, as well as prominent figures from the anti-Yingluck protesters, were still being held Friday by the military, according to Paradon, the national security adviser to the government.

Thaksin, a business tycoon who built a highly successful political movement through populist policies benefiting the rural masses, was deposed as Prime Minister in a military coup in 2006.

In 2010, when the pro-Thaksin party was out of power, the Red Shirts mounted large protests in the heart of Bangkok. An ensuing crackdown by security forces resulted in clashes that killed around 90 people.

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CNN's Kocha Olarn and Paula Hancocks reported from Bangkok, and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Paula Hancocks, Simon Harrison, Neda Farshbaf and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.