© UnknownIran and Pakistan: Terrorism States or Victims of Terrorism?
Bangkok - Three Iranians detained after
accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats, Thailand's top policeman said Thursday in the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.
The allegation came after days of strong accusations by Israel that Iran was behind the botched plot as well as two others in
India and the former Soviet republic of
Georgia this week. Iran has denied the charges.
Citing
the similarity of bombs used in New Delhi and Tbilisi, national police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong said that Thai authorities now "know for certain that (the target) was Israeli diplomats."
"This issue was about individuals and the targets were specific," he said. "This was something personal."
Israel has accused Iran of
waging a covert campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has blamed the Jewish state for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and has denied responsibility for all three bomb plots, including an explosion Monday in New Delhi that tore through an Israeli diplomatic vehicle, wounding the driver and a diplomat's wife, and a foiled attempt the same day in Georgia.
Speaking in an interview with Israel Radio during a trip to Japan, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "It's clearer to more and more of the world that Iran, which is a veteran sponsor of terror, is trying to raise the bar even more, trying to harm diplomats around the world."
Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said security had been stepped up for its diplomatic staff abroad.
"Obviously, security is of the essence at times like this," Palmor said. "We are taking whatever measures are required to ensure that life and work can go on as usual."
The plot in Bangkok was discovered Tuesday only by accident, when explosives stored in a house occupied by several Iranian men blew up by mistake.
One of the Iranians, Mohammad Kharzei, was paraded before journalists Thursday wearing a striped short-sleeve shirt, his apparently handcuffed hands covered by a dark sheet.
Prewpan said Kharzei had "partially confessed" and had acknowledged knowing one of the other suspects, Saeid Moradi, whose leg was sheered off by an explosive he was carrying as he fled police in the Thai capital's busy Sukhumvit Road area.
Surveillance video released by police already links the suspects: it shows them leaving their destroyed house just after the first blast. Moradi was the last to exit, and as he walked out with a heavy backpack over his shoulder, a small crowd that had begun to gather backed away, clearly terrified.
Kharzei, grim-faced, did not speak as he stood before reporters, but Prewpan described him as "stressed out" and another official said he was having trouble eating.
The third Iranian, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, was detained in Malaysia and the country's federal police spokesman, Ramli Yoosuf, said he was being investigated for terrorism-related activities linked to the Bangkok blasts. The official could not say whether Sedaghatzadeh would be extradited to Thailand.
A Bangkok court has approved arrest warrants for all three suspects, as well as an Iranian woman named Leila Rohani who rented the destroyed house. However, Rohani has left Thailand and is now in Tehran, according to the top immigration police official, Lt. Gen. Wiboon Bangthamai.
All four now face criminal charges including possession of explosives, attempted murder, attempted murder of a policeman and causing explosions that damaged property. Prewpan said he believed there already was enough evidence to prosecute them.
The Israeli ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoham, declined to comment on reports his staff had been specifically targeted. He said the Israeli Embassy was open and functioning as normal.
Shoham told The Associated Press earlier this week, however, that
the similarity of the bombs found in Bangkok and New Delhi
had led Israel to believe the plots were linked.
Prewpan also said that two homemade "
sticky" bombs found at the blast site Tuesday matched the devices planted on Israeli diplomatic cars in India and Georgia a day earlier.
Thailand's acknowledgment that terror attacks were being planned on its soil stood in contrast to its denials of that last month, when police arrested a Lebanese-Swedish man with alleged links to Hezbollah. At the time, authorities insisted Thailand was only being used as a staging ground for attacks, but was not the target. The man led police to a warehouse near Bangkok packed with more than 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) of urea fertilizer and other materials that could be used to make bombs.
After that incident, Israel and the United States warned their citizens to be alert. The U.S. Embassy said foreign terrorists may have been looking to attack tourist areas in Bangkok and Thai media reported the attacks were aimed at Israeli targets, including the Israeli Embassy.
Thai officials say
it is not clear if the two incidents are connected.
Associated Press writers Todd Pitman in Bangkok and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
According to kosher terrorism script writers/advisers; an israeli diplomats wife was bombed in her car by some highly skilled well trained elite "Iranian" terrorists on a bike in the middle of New Delhi. And even though she sustained serious shrapnel injuries to her back and liver, somehow this brave woman managed to keep herself awake and fully alert to escape from her attackers and drive a burning car all the way back to the israeli embassy where she was transferred to a nearby hospital, only to be rescued by two israeli doctors, who arrived out of thin air to whisk her back to israel before they even thought of performing surgery on her [Link][Link].... In Tbilisi, an israeli driver discovers a sophisticated bomb stuck to the underside of his car, because he heard it rattling whilst he was driving away [Link]... Then we have some super secret "Iranian" agents running around in the middle of Bangkok with hand grenades and carrying Iranian passports as personal armour; one of the men throws a hand grenade at Thai police, which somehow bounces off a tree and blows his legs off. [Link]
What kind of idiots are they expecting to swallow this kind of nonsense? ... As i said previously [Link]this is just the izzy's playing their usual devious tricks... if we're naive enough to believe the complicit pathological liars of the international hasbara media network, then logically Iran and it's "alleged" proxy Hezbollah must be beyond pathetically stupid; as clearly they're not as skilful with their thinking let alone planning or execution of such self-defeating 'acts of revenge' as we're led to believe by the kosher clowns.....
Given the fact that Iran's leaders have demonstrated a policy of passive resistance going back decades against israel/us/et al, maybe one of the objectives might have been to implant the idea of Iran/Hezbollah targeting israeli/foreign ambassadors, as it wouldn't be the first time israel's done this. After all it was in June '82, after a year of sending israeli troops on the Lebanese border to provoke PLO fighters into an armed confrontation, only to end up having to recall them back over five times because Palestinians refused to supply the much need provocation, israel sent Abu Nidal along with some Arab "Revolutionaries" to assassinate its very own Ambassador in London, one mr shlomo argov. Like the false flags in India, and Bangkok, the "botched" operation lacked any of usual careful planning Abu Nidal's group's made, and "appeared" to have been thrown together at the last minute as no real provision were made for the hit team to escape. Since they were captured by British police shortly after the attack and paraded in front of the cameras, it was seen by many as evidence to justify israel's invasion of Lebanon, even though Abu Nidal’s organisation had nothing to do with Arafat’s PLO......
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* India's elite bomb investigation team not allowed to examine israeli diplomat's vehicle or collect vital forensic evidence.
A tale of two investigations [Link]
"The Delhi Police on Wednesday made little headway in the investigations into the bomb attack on the car of an Israeli diplomat in the national Capital's high security zone even as the National Security Guard (NSG) claimed that its elite bomb unit was not allowed to look at the bombed vehicle.
As the Delhi policemen continued to grope in the dark, nine Israeli officials visited the Special Cell office and examined the damaged Innova car. They also visited the crime scene....
As questions were being raised on the slow pace of investigations, NSG director general R.K. Medhekar said an NSG team was denied access to the crime scene, citing 'diplomatic reasons'." [...] [Link][Link][Link]
* Indian investigators don't believe Iranians are involved.
Attack similar to Jama Masjid blast [Link]
"Indian security and intelligence agencies are examining the similarities between the explosions in Israeli diplomat’s vehicle and the Jama Masjid shooting and blast in September 2010. Incidentally, it was the Israeli security experts here who first confirmed to the Indian agencies that use of remote control explosives in moving vehicles was common in their country and targeting Israelis across the world.
It is only then that the Indian security agencies started taking the theory of a motorcyclist chasing the vehicle and sticking a remote control device to the Innova vehicle more seriously." [...]
Bomber hired for Delhi's sticky-bomb attack may be of Indian origin, say sources: 5 big facts [Link]
Report: Mossad chief visited New Delhi days before attack on Israeli officials [Link]
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Mossad practicing its motto in bomb plots [Link]
"Thai sources also point out that Moradi is of Persian Jewish origin. A number of prominent Iranian Jewish families, some of whom are in exile in the United States, have the last name Moradi. In 2004, the Simon Wiesenthal Center posthumously honored Iranian diplomat Abol-Hassan Sardari, the Iranian consul in Paris during the Nazi occupation, for saving the life of an Iranian Jew named Ibrahim Moradi. Moradi is also a common name among Kurdish Jews who live in northern Iran." [...]
Report: Mossad continues to use foreign passports [Link]
Sukumpol rules out three explosions as terror attacks
[Link]
[20/01/12] Thailand recognizes Palestinian state [Link]
(Previous israeli setup last month) Thailand's Terror - This Fertilizer stink has been smelled before! [Link]
[20/01/2012] Atris swears he's innocent, accuses Mossad [Link]
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Who benefits from the alleged bomb attack in India? [Link]
"Iran and India have made a very sensible trade agreement between themselves... Indian and Iranian governments have worked out Rupee trade mechanism for payment of India's total crude imports from the latter in Rupees rather than convertible currency - the US Dollar normally used for such trade globally. The new mechanism is expected to be operational in two months....
Which surely had to have annoyed all concerned?
The US. Israel. Bankers." [...]
Oil imports: India-Iran work out rupee trade mechanism [Link]
Bombing puts India's trade ties with Iran to the test [Link]
Attack on Israeli may hurt Indian trade with Iran-rice trade chief [Link]
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* Recent crystal ball psychic pronouncements from kosher sources...
[15/01/12] Israelis warned to stay away from Bangkok [Link]
[16/01/12] Bomb-making materials found in Thailand, days after Israelis warned of possible attack [Link]
[31/01/12] (Abe Foxman) Iceland’s Foreign Policy: Alone and Adrift [Link]
"After Iceland's parliament voted to recognize the State of Palestine... Thailand also moved to recognize Palestine. It is regrettable that countries like Iceland and Thailand, with no diplomatic involvement in the peace process, have chosen to strike out on their own."
[03/02/12] Head of Shin Bet predicts Iran will attack israeli Targets in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Thailand. [Link]
[07/02/12] ‘Soft’ Target Threat Gets Community’s Attention [Link]
“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” read the memo, with soft sites interpreted to mean potential targets such as synagogues and other Jewish community buildings. The letter was circulated by the head of security for Israel’s Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States, ABC News said. [...]
'Israel warned India of possible terror plot' [Link]
"New Delhi media say Israeli intelligence forwarded list of 50 Iranian nationals to Indian counterparts two weeks before attack on Israeli embassy"
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Iran urges expanding ties with Pakistan [Link]
EU to ban Iran banks from financial network [Link]
Netanyahu: International sanctions against Iran not working [Link]