Just briefly: I neglected to mention that a Wall Street Journal “House of the Day” feature I wrote about a unique villa in Cambodia ran last month.
It’s called “Over the Water, on a Private Island in Cambodia.” Give it a look.
On a related note, I noticed that the Phuket sea-side villa I wrote about in Sept. made it onto Scene Asia’s Asia Houses of the Year list.
A few stories to note today:
The Bangkok Post reports:
A detained Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist suspect was part of a planned attack on the Chabad Jewish community centre near Khao San road in Bangkok, according to a news website which specialises in intelligence reporting.
Debkafile said on Tuesday that its sources confirmed that Hussein Atris, who was arrested by Thai police at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday night, was part of a planned attack along the lines of al Qaeda’s attack on the Mumbai Chabad [Jewish] centre in 2008, involving the taking of hostages and blowing up the building. Eight Jews were killed in the attack.
The DEBKAfile story, for the record, says:
The Thai police’s capture of a Lebanese-Swedish Hizballah suspect, who was charged Monday, Jan. 16, thwarted a terrorist attack on Bet Habad in Bangkok, involving the taking of hostages and blowing up the building. It was to have followed the same lines as al Qaeda’s 2008 assault on the Mumbai Habad center which killed 8 Israelis and Jews – only more ambitious. The Habad Bangkok is much larger: its hostel has rooms for dozens of lodgers. A second team was to have hit the Khao San Road restaurants popular with Israelis and Americans in a coordinated operation.
I am unfamiliar with DEBKAfile, but as I mentioned on Twitter earlier, this report relies exclusively on anonymous sources. Just noting it for the record. I have heard no official comment along these lines.
More info on Debka is available on their site. There’s also a Wikipedia page with more info on the site.
Meanwhile, CNN.com reports:
Thai police said Tuesday that they would seek court permission to extend the detention of a Lebanese man they have charged with illegal possession of explosive materials.
The move comes amid tension after the United States and Israel warned their citizens in Bangkok on Friday of the possibility of an imminent terrorist attack.
The police charged the man, Atris Hussein, on Monday after finding “initial chemical materials that could produce bombs” in an area just outside Bangkok. The police said Hussein, who also holds a Swedish passport, led them to the location.
(All emphasis mine.)
(Thanks to @benjalord for pointing out the DEBKAfile story.)
Image via CNN.com
Last post of the day on this topic, I promise.
I wanted to point out an interesting Bangkok Post story from this afternoon. It includes some details on the materials seized by police:
More than 200 police raided a three-storey commercial building in Mahachai area after Atris Hussein, a Lebanese man carrying a Swedish passport who has suspected links to the Hezbollah militant group was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday evening. He confessed that explosive ingredients were hidden there, Pol Gen Priewpan said.
He said 4,380 kilogrammes of urea based fertiliser, 260 litres of ammonium nitrate and 400 electric fans were found on the second floor of the building. The police also discovered many pairs of slippers, A4 paper and 400 table fans on the ground floor.
The terror suspect told investigators that the terrorist group had not been planning attacks in Thailand. It just wanted to hide the components in Thailand. They were then to be concealed inside table fan boxes and shipped to other countries, according to the suspect, Pol Gen Priewpan said.
And then there’s this quote:
“Mr Atris wanted to tell the Thai people that they should not be worried as there will be no terrorist attacks in Thailand, definitely,” said the police chief.
(All emphasis mine.)
On that note, I’m off to bed.
Hasta mañana.
Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay (@wayne_hay) has a video package summing up the latest in the Bangkok terrorism threat story.
The report includes some pictures of police carting away the suspected bomb making materials. Worth a watch.
The YouTube video is embedded above and online here.
Here’s the latest on the Bangkok terror alert story, which I blogged about earlier.
Bloomberg reports today:
Thai police charged a Swedish- Lebanese man suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Bangkok after finding bomb-making materials in a building on the capital’s outskirts.
Atris Hussein, 47, was charged with possessing illegal substances after being detained on Jan. 12 in connection with a plan to attack tourist sites frequented by Americans and Israelis, said Charamporn Suramanee, the assistant police chief. Thai police have linked him and a second suspect still on the run to the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement.
“We are monitoring the situation and have increased forces to look after public areas,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters today. “The situation is under control. There is no problem.”
And:
About 200 policeman surrounded a building in Samut Sakorn province on Bangkok’s outskirts today and found fertilizer and ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound used in explosives, Charamporn said. Police spokesman Piya Uthayo yesterday said a second suspect was being sought.
The U.S. said in a Jan. 13 “emergency message” to citizens that “foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future.” Embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler today said the warning remains in effect.
Police Chief Priewphan Damaphong told reporters that he believed Thailand was not the intended target of the attackers. Two days ago, he named the tourist area of Khao San Road and the downtown street Sukhumvit 22 as potential targets.
The suspects may have planned to use a car bomb at the Israeli Embassy, Jewish places of worship, tourist companies or restaurants, Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha told reporters on Jan. 13.
The AP says:
A foreign suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah militants led Thai police Monday to a warehouse filled with materials commonly used to make bombs, as Thailand and the U.S. disagreed over whether Bangkok was the target of a terror plot.
Police confiscated more than 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) of urea fertilizer and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate during the early morning raid of a warehouse in Samut Sakhon, on the western outskirts of Bangkok, according to police and media reports.
And:
The raid came after the U.S. Embassy issued an “emergency message” Friday warning of a possible terror threat against Americans in Bangkok, and Israel sent out a similar warning to its citizens. A dozen other embassies have since urged their citizens to exercise caution.
The warnings come during heightened tension over U.S. and Israeli responses to the prospect that Iran is moving ahead with its nuclear program.
Thai authorities were caught off-guard by the U.S. announcement, hastily revealing they had detained a Swedish national of Lebanese origin with alleged links to pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants on Thursday and that intelligence indicated a plot could be carried out between Jan. 13 and 15. The defense minister said the news was not released earlier to avoid panic that could hurt Thailand’s tourism industry, one of the country’s biggest revenue earners.
Damage control continued Monday, with the prime minister calling for calm.
And finally:
The U.S. Embassy said Monday it stood by its warning of a possible attack in Bangkok.
“Whenever we have specific, credible, not-counterable threats, it is our responsibility to inform Americans in Thailand,” said embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler. “That’s what we did Friday. We issued an emergency message, and that remains in effect.”
(All emphasis mine.)
To follow up on my last two posts…
The AP reports:
Thai police were on Friday questioning a Lebanese man with alleged links to Hezbollah militants as the U.S. Embassy warned of a “real and credible” threat of a terrorist attack against American citizens in Bangkok.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said Thai authorities received a tip-off before New Year’s of a planned attack, which was said to target Israelis.
“At first we were told the Palestinians were behind it but it turned out to be the Hezbollah,” he told The Associated Press.
He said police detained on Thursday a Lebanese suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah, an avowedly anti-Israel militant group.
Bloomberg says:
Thailand said it arrested a Lebanese terror suspect less than three hours after the U.S. warned of a possible attack in Bangkok and urged citizens to exercise caution in public areas.
Thai police arrested a suspect linked to Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung told reporters. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra confirmed that police had made an arrest.
“The situation is normal,” Police Chief Priewpan Damapong told reporters. “There is nothing to worry about.”
(All emphasis mine.)
A quick update to my previous post: Bloomberg reports:
The threat is “generic” and likely related to U.S. moves to sanction Iran over its nuclear weapons program, according to Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based analyst at IHS Jane’s.
The U.S. is “looking at pro-Iranian groups that might possibly react to what may very well go down in the Straits of Hormuz and possibly beyond,” Davis said. “It seems unlikely that terrorist attacks would be launched before the situation in the Middle East has escalated significantly.”
Tensions over the ratcheting up of sanctions led Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi to threaten on Dec. 27 that Iran may block the Strait of Hormuz, the transit for about a fifth of the world’s oil, if the European Union bans exports from the Islamic Republic.
(Emphasis mine.)
An emailed alert from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok at 1:40 p.m. local time today warned of a “possible terrorist threat” here in the Thai capital.
The statement, now available on their Web site, says:
Emergency Message to U.S. Citizens: Possible Terrorist Threat
This message alerts U.S. citizens in Thailand that foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future. U.S. citizens are urged to exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather in Bangkok.
U.S. citizens are encouraged to maintain a heightened awareness when out in public; be alert for unattended packages/bags in public/crowded places and report any suspicious behavior to the nearest law enforcement personnel. We also encourage you to keep a low profile in public areas, particularly areas frequented by foreign tourists.
Some citizens subsequently received a recall note, but that was apparently sent in error.
The end of the statement says:
Note: Due to a technical error, some recipients received this message – followed by a recall message – a few minutes later. Please disregard the recall message.
For ongoing updates, you can also find the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok on Twitter at: @USEmbassyBKK.
(Emphasis mine.)