World Threats

In August, an Iranian-sponsored terror plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. was foiled. The plot, the severity of which the media’s headlines consistently failed to capture, involved blowing up a restaurant. The plotters also discussed setting off bombs at the Saudi and Israeli embassies in D.C. and Buenos Aires. Now, a Hezbollah (read: Iran) terror plot in Thailand has been prevented.

It is thought that an Israeli site, or a more general Jewish site, was the target. On Monday, the Thai police seized two stockpiles of bomb-producing chemicals near Bangkok. The authorities originally said that the ingredients were to go to another country, as the suspect had contacted a shipping company to send the materials outside of Thailand. Stratfor believes this is the case. On the other hand, the plot was foiled because the Israelis provided Thailand with intelligence about a Hezbollah plot to attack tourist sites in Bangkok that was about to happen.

Ha’aretz reports that on December 22, the Israelis gave the Thais information that three members of Hezbollah had entered their country to carry out terrorist attacks. Around the same time, the U.S. also gave the Thais information about the plot that said Western and U.S.-related sites were to be attacked. More specific intelligence was provided on January 8, which determined that this weekend was the launch date. The Israeli paper’s source claims that the plot was supposed to happen around the anniversary of the killing of Imad Mughniyah.

On Thursday, the Thais arrested Atris Hussein at the capital’s airport as he tried to get out of the country, apparently realizing that his gig was up after his bomb ingredients were found. A second suspect is at large. Ha’aretz says that, according to its source, Atris Hussein told his interrogators that the cell was going to attack Israeli tourists in Thailand. Other reports indicate that Hussein is adamant that the bomb ingredients were being moved outside of Thailand and that the country was not the target of any operation.

The New York Times reports that, in the past, Hezbollah has conducted surveillance in Thailand on El Al Airlines, the Chabad house in Bangkok, and places often visited by Israeli tourists. In 1994, an Iranian terror cell was stopped before it set off a truck bomb near the Israeli embassy.

Let’s think of some of the terror plots that we know Iran was involved in somehow.

• The bombings and hostage-takings in Lebanon in the 1980s
• The bombings in Argentina in the early 1990s and the 1994 bomb plot in Thailand
• The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia
• The 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa
• The attacks of September 11, 2001
• Countless attacks in Israel, Iraq & Afghanistan
• Probably the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri
• The 2007 JFK Airport bomb plot
• The 2009 bomb plot against the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan
• The 2009 proxy war in Yemen
• The 2010 plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in D.C. and possible embassy attacks in D.C. & Argentina
• The 2011 bomb plot in Thailand

And I’m sure there are many that I have missed. Now, ask yourself: Is this the type of regime that should be allowed to achieve the capability to quickly produce nuclear weapons?