Posted on 01/22/2008 9:13:49 AM PST by enough_idiocy
Police stumbled upon a bomb-making factory Sunday in the home of a Columbia professor who specializes in the spread of infectious disease - and are investigating whether he and his roommate have terror ties.
Cops evacuated the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood around the Remsen St. home of Michael Clatts, a medical anthropologist, after finding seven pipe bombs fitted with fuses in his flat, police sources said.
The frightening cache was discovered almost by accident - Ivaylo Ivanov, the man living with Clatts, accidentally shot off the tip of his left index finger and sought police help in the street about 1:15 a.m.
When investigators went to the 37-year-old Ivanov’s apartment, they found the bombs, already capped on both ends and filled with powder. One of the pipe bombs was inserted into a Nerf football, cops said.
A 9-mm. handgun, two ammunition magazines, a 12-gauge shotgun, silencers, a bulletproof vest, a crossbow and bomb-making equipment, including a drill and threading machine that could be used to make pipe bombs, were also recovered, cops said. Clatts cannot be located. Who is he?
Clatts is a medical anthropologist with a specialty in epidemiol.ogy - the spread of disease among large populations.
He is an associate professor in Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and holds a Ph.D. from the Ivy League school.
The senior director of communication for the school, Randee Levine, said she cannot comment on a police investigation.
Clatts’ exact relationship with Ivanov is unknown. Building residents said Clatts once described himself and Ivanov as roommates, nothing more.
Cops became suspicious of Ivanov because he first claimed he had been shot by a stranger but then admitted shooting himself. Fearing another person had been injured at the address, police went to the apartment and opened the door to the bomb factory. They immediately sealed the apartment while they got a search warrant, cops said.
Cops called the bomb squad, which evacuated the building and three others nearby and removed the materials. Residents were not allowed back inside for nearly 12 hours.
Police said last night they were uncertain whether all of the bombs were operative.
Ivanov has prior arrests for possession of drug paraphernalia, including hypodermic needles, a police source said. A man with the same name was deported from the U.S. a couple of years ago for drug dealing, but cops are unsure whether this is the same person, a police source said. The NYTimes reports on a bizarre twist in the case: Ivanov has confessed to a string of anti-Jewish vandalism incidents last fall. Ivanov, his lawyer told the media, is himself Jewish.
According to a law enforcement official, detectives are exploring the possibility that Mr. Ivanov had planned to use the pipe bombs against synagogues. The official said that Mr. Ivanov told investigators he intended to use the bombs for fishing; but, given his admission that he painted swastikas on synagogues, investigators became concerned he was planning violence. Detectives have seized his computers, and are searching them for clues, the official said.
He's not an anti-Seminite. He's a self hating Jew.
Gun Wound Leads to Weapons Trove
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1957679/posts
No mystery to me... He’s a professor at Columbia U, right?
Unbelievable. The SLIMES is completely calm about all those pipe bombs. Barely mentions them.
Roommate Clatts apparently writes articles about why men have sex with men in public.
The NY Times story in some ways is more informative. What any of this has to do with Mr. Clatts remains to be seen although it would be interesting to find out how these guys met and became roommates. If Mr. Clatts traveled alot then may be Ivanov took advantage of his absences to get his little munitions factory going.
“Neighbors said that Mr. Ivanov shared the apartment with Michael C. Clatts, 50, a medical anthropologist and researcher who is the director for the Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk at National Development and Research Institutes in New York. Mr. Clatts, who owns a unit in the building, according to property records, was commissioned by the Giuliani administration to study New York’s homeless teenagers.”
That explains why the NYT article doesn’t discuss him too much I suppose.
Which is bigger?
A weapons trove?
A weapons cache?
A hoard of weapons?
An arsenal?
A weapons stockpile?
Does the SLIMES put out guidelines on this?
The difference being?
If a Republican knew this guy in grade school the headline would be much different -
Man Republican Went to School with Arrested for Pipebomb Factory, Possible Terrorist Bombmaker Tied to Republican.
They had a homicidal homosexual in charge of "studying" homeless teenagers?
Good God, that could provide half a season's worth of CSI episodes.
Wonder if he has a license from the BATFE for that “drill and threading machine?
Notice that the prof is from the Mailman School of Public Health. Talk about going postal!
You've got that right. Everyone here should know Columbia's history, especially as it relates to The Frankfurt School.
“Everyone here should know Columbia’s history, especially as it relates to The Frankfurt School.”
Student waiting for the lesson, do tell...
There’s nothing wrong with how the New York Times reported the story.
The link you posted was to yesterday’s article. Malkin’s column is dated today. The Times has an update today, too, with much more information:
“The police had also not reached Mr. Clatts as of Monday night. He directs the organization’s Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk and is believed to be traveling, one official said. He could be in Puerto Rico, where he is a university professor, or in Vietnam, where he is conducting research on H.I.V. risk among young intravenous drug users, according to a colleague.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/nyregion/22arrest.html?ref=nyregion
This Ivanov character is obviously bad news. Guess we’ll know more about Clatts when they find him.
Really, really weird story. There are a lot of dangerous people out there.
Thanks for posting.
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