Tag: bangkok_terror_alert

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Thai politics Thailand

STRATFOR: “A Hezbollah Threat in Thailand?”

Global intelligence firm STRATFOR has this report:

On Jan. 12, Thai authorities arrested a man they say was a member of the Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah who was plotting an attack in Bangkok. In uncovering the plot, Thai police cite cooperation with the United States and Israel going back to December 2011. Bangkok is indeed a target-rich environment with a history of terrorist attacks, but today Hezbollah and other militant and criminal groups rely on the city as more of a business hub than anything else. If Hezbollah or some other transnational militant group were to carry out an attack in the city, it would have to be for a compelling reason that outweighed the costs.

(Emphasis mine.)

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Thai politics

TIME: “Vague Terrorism Alert, Arrests Put Bangkok on Edge”

TIME has this story, which sums up the situation:

Last Friday, just hours after the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok warned on its website of a “possible terrorist threat” in tourist areas of the Thai capital, Thai security officials arrested a Lebanese man suspected of being a member of Hizballah, the Iranian-backed militant group. After three days of interrogations, police seized more than 4,000 kg of bombmaking materials from the townhouse he rented in a Bangkok suburb. But instead of receiving praise their police work, Thailand’s government and security officials are being roundly criticized.

The scorn-filled and suspicious responses are the result of mistrust of the U.S., concern over lost tourism earnings, and the conflicting statements and shifting narrative of events by various government officials, all of whom are insisting tourists and locals have nothing to fear because they have the situation “under control.” As an editorial in the English-language Nation newspaper opined, “In Thailand we have a long history of politicians telling us half-truths and lies, especially when it comes to security matters. And so when they tell us to be calm because everything is under control, we have good reason not to trust them.” Ten nations aside from the U.S. have now issued terrorism alerts about Thailand to their citizens.

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Thai politics Thailand

Bangkok Terrorism Threat Update

A few stories to note today:

120116114839 thailand terror suspect story top

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

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Thai politics

Bangkok Terrorism Threat: Last Post of the Day

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.

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Thailand

Al Jazeera Video Report on Bangkok Terrorism Threat

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.

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Thailand

Bangkok Terror Alert Update: Suspect Leads Police to Ammonium Nitrate and Fertilizer

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.)

There are also stories from Reuters and CNN.com.