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.)