Military staffer knew about attacks, but authorities claim bomber was 'unknown'
Somebody would have talked huh? — SnowCrash
Military staffer knew about attacks: report
The Local, December 12, 2010
Cached version
A Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) employee warned an acquaintance to stay clear of an area in central Stockholm on Saturday where, several hours later, two explosions went off in what is being called a terrorist attack.
“If you can, avoid Drottninggatan today. A lot can happen there…just so you know,” the message said, according to the TT news agency.
Armed Forces spokesperson Jonas Svensson told TT on Sunday he was unaware of the message.
“I haven’t heard about this at all. Now I’m going to check out the information,” he told TT when confronted with the news.
Later the Swedish military said it was now “preparing how the issue will be dealt with”.
“The Swedish Armed Forces did not know ahead of time about the plans or the circumstances surrounding the events which have taken place. If that had been the case, (Swedish security service) Säpo, which is the responsible agency in these types of cases, would have been informed immediately,” said military spokesperson Erik Lagersten in a statement.
Swedish intelligence agencies may have known that something was in the works, Wilhelm Agrell, a professor in intelligence analysis, told TT.
“A warning is a slippery term and nothing concrete. Warnings can consist of very precise information that can be acted on, but it’s common that warnings are more diffuse and can’t be acted on,” Agrell said.
On Saturday night, TT spoke with John Daniels, head of security for Swedish military intelligence agency MUST. But he refused to comment, instead directing all inquiries to Säpo.
Säpo said on Sunday it was taking over the investigation of the two blasts, which occurred within minutes of one another and about 200 metres apart on Drottninggatan, a busy shopping street in central Stockholm.
The agency considers the explosions to be a terrorist crime.
One man believed to be a suicide bomber was killed in the second blast, while the first explosion injured two others.
Shortly before the explosions, Säpo and the TT news agency received a message from a 29-year-old man from southern Sweden who claimed that the prophet Mohammed was being degraded.
TT/The Local/dl (news@thelocal.se)
Suicide bomber was 'unknown' to Säpo
The Local, David Landes, December 13, 2010
Cached version
Swedish intelligence officials on Monday said they are "98 percent" certain about the identity of the man who blew himself in central Stockholm on Saturday, adding he appeared to have three separate bombs.
According to chief prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand, the suspected suicide bomber was "completely unknown" to Swedish intelligence officials prior to Saturday’s blasts.
He added that evidence gathered so far suggests the man acted on his own, but that the investigation into possible ties continues.
"As it looks now, he was alone in carrying out the act. But experience tells us that there are usually more people involved," said Lindstrand.
While the suspect, identified in media reports and by an Islamist website as 29-year-old Taymour Abdel Wahab, is "98 percent identified," Lindstrand stopped short of making an official identification pending DNA analysis or an identification of the body by next of kin.
He added that while officials know the man was born in 1981 and gained Swedish citizenship in 1992, they remain uncertain of his country of birth, saying only it was "in the Middle East."
Lindstrand also confirmed that Abdel Wahab owned the car which exploded on the corner of Drottninggatan and Olof Palmesgatan, injuring two people.
"Yes, it can be tied to him," said Lindstrand, adding that the suspect had bought the car in November of this year.
The prosecutor described Abdel Wahab as "well equipped" with explosives, including a bomb belt and a backpack nail bomb.
"Where he was going, we don't know," said Lindstrand, but added it was plausible to speculate he was heading "someplace with lots of people."
"Maybe [Stockholm] central station. Maybe Åhléns [department store]."
The prosecutor confirmed as well that the threatening email received by the Swedish Security Agency (Säpo) and Swedish news agency TT just before the bombs exploded was sent by Abdel Wahab, explaining that it was sent from a "mobile phone or a mobile broadband device" from within Stockholm.
Shortly before the blast, Säpo and the TT news agency received an email containing audio files in Swedish, Arabic, and English which criticised Sweden for its military presence in Afghanistan and its acceptance of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who sparked a backlash in the Muslim world in 2007 by portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog in a cartoon.
The message warned that "now your children, daughters and sisters die like our brothers' and sisters' children die."
Speaking at Monday's press conference, Anders Thornberg from Swedish security service Säpo said his colleagues are "working around the clock" to process tips from the public as well as information gleaned from interviews and other sources.
He added as well that "there is no reason to worry" that another attack on Swedish soil is imminent.
"When it comes to our threat assessment, we review things hour to hour. For the present, we will continue with the elevated threat level," he said, referring to the threat level in place since October.
Earlier in the day, the Expressen newspaper reported that Swedish intelligence officials suspected Abdel Wahab planned to set off bombs at three different locations in central Stockholm.
The backpack found near his body and filled with nails and screws was to be detonated remotely, the newspaper reported.
The final bomb was a belt made up of 12 gas canisters which officials believe was attached to Wahab's stomach.
One theory being examined by investigators is that he was heading toward Stockholm's central train station and the Åhléns department store to set off two other blasts besides the car bomb, but that one of the explosive devices detonated ahead of schedule.
“In all likelihood, something happened or he made some mistake so that some of the explosives detonated,” Lindstrand told reporters.
According to Expressen, the explosion that killed Wahab at the intersection of Bryggaregatan and Drottninggatan was caused by one of the 12 gas canisters attached to a belt around his body. The remaining canisters failed to detonate, however.
A mobile telephone was also found near the scene of the blast which killed Wahab, leading intelligence officials to believe the three bombs were somehow connected and could have been detonated remotely.
Thornberg also labeled as a "rumour" a report from TT on Sunday night that a Swedish Armed Forces employee had warned an acquaintance hours before the twin blasts to "avoid Drottninggatan."
"We have no idea about that. There is nothing that points to it [being true] other than what is in the media," he told reporters, adding that officials continue to investigate the report.
David Landes
news@thelocal.se
+46 8 656 6518
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Amazing
Nearly every single "Al-Qaeda" attack seems to contain these sorts of discrepancies and smoking guns. How much longer can journalists pretend it's all blowback?
pathetic and transparent
Quite convenient for no one to have been killed except the bomber, to have also had a means to detonate remotely (despite also having bombs all over his body), and someone in the military knew in advance.
Oh yeah, and Julian Assange is supposed to be headed there soon for a show trial, with the whole world watching . . . so now the people of Sweden can be afraid of being blown up on the streets, just like they show all the 9/11 videos before the elections and Bin Laden comes out to coerce US voters in the elections . . . so isn't Julian Assange a terrorist? Wait, I thought it was that other guy who came from the UK . . . but isn't Julian Assange bringing terror to Sweden with his wikileaks . . . ? Wait, no, I think it's the troops being in Afghanistan . . . but . . .
Sounds like disinfo...
"A Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) employee warned an acquaintance..." - Who is this employee? Who is this "acquaintance"? Vague is an understatement!
"Thornberg also labeled as a "rumour" a report from TT on Sunday night that a Swedish Armed Forces employee had warned an acquaintance hours before the twin blasts..."
Unless more information surfaces, it looks like it's just a rumour. It's possible this is all true, but it sounds like the only way to confirm it is through the military, unless someone else comes forward.
I'd like to see updates on this story. Hopefully the "TT" have real journalists working for them..unlike here!
Nuance
I've deliberately included the other news report to provide the context and nuance you are requesting.
What do you think the Swedish authorities are going to say? "Yeah we knew, but unfortunately one of our insiders spilled the beans?" You don't think this is leverage for an extradition of Assange? After seeing Sweden charge a man with "rape" for having sex without a condom, I know what they're doing. They're up to their necks in this one. It's ridiculously transparent. They've set a ridiculously high bail in London and the Swedish are appealing. One of the 'victims' who filed a report, Anna Ardin, has now stopped cooperating and has fled to the Middle East.
This is why 911blogger exists: to make sure these 'rumors' aren't just labeled as such because we, on the basis of timid media reporting, think the official line put forward by the authorities of any country is the only reliable source.
As John Pilger says:
I think something similar exists in Sweden, too. Yes there is a possibility this is a rumor, but I've heard these 'rumors' one time too often now. Unlike some, I don't just go bananas every time I hear the name 'Rothschild'. This was reported in mainstream press, I found it, and I relayed it here. The next day, as the second article shows, the mainstream press relies on Swedish intelligence to 'dispel' this 'rumor'. And so it goes every single time. Intelligence services were incompetent and failed to 'connect the dots'. Those of us who then point out that this is a ludicrous excuse, are accused of 'hindsight bias'. Like Mike Ruppert says: "You fools, you buy the line every time, don't you."
I'm sure we'll never hear anything about this in the mainstream press again. Note that The Local doesn't even put the name of a reporter on the first report, but they do so on the second. That's how timid they are. If this was disinfo, which is deliberately false information, that doesn't quite improve things for Swedish authorities does it?
Let's look at an excerpt from the second report:
In other reports, Swedish authorities claim it's unlikely Wahab acted alone... I'm sure they'll soon say he did act alone. As always.
Detonated remotely? By whom? A mobile phone? Does this remind you of two other recent FBI entrapment cases? Who blew up Wahab? Did he dial his own backpack? How about pressing a button? I know what this is: such schemes are devised so that the executors of a suicide bombing attack don't 'chicken out'.
I have plenty of questions about this attack, with respect to motive, timing, prior knowledge, curiously conflicting media reports and technical execution. We shall see. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something.
I think I sounded ungrateful...
Re-reading my comment it sounds like my complaints are directed at you, but I was complaining about the shoddy reporting of the article. You are doing good work here. I apologize. You are absolutely right in looking deeper into this. Thank you!
I should have said it sounds like "possible" disinfo. But I didn't mean it was not worth looking into thouroughly.
And of course I don't expect the Swedish authorities to be honest!
Also I didn't think about the Assange angle.
Nah
I ramble a lot. My apologies. I'm pissed at the Wikileaks situation and our seeming inability to support something this important, over matters of trivial distrust. Assange may have made an unpleasant comment about 9/11 Truth, but at the same time, we owe him 9/11 pager data and support for Coleen Rowley.
What the US and the UK are doing, is stamping out dissent and free speech with horrifying precision. If the Swedish authorities set up this attack, knew about it or facilitated it in any way to manipulate political sentiment, that is beyond bedlam.
The discussion about the 9/11 Truth Movement's feelings about Wikileaks is fast becoming irrelevant in the face of this final showdown, this climatic search and destroy mission by Western powers of our last remnants and semblants of freedom. Everything is at stake here, including our ability to discuss, disseminate information and assemble online.
It's Cool...
I understand how you feel. I get that way sometimes. For instance, there's certain people that upset me. They're so eager to give up the rights our forefathers died for. I'd like to take them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them, but I try to keep it cool. But it's not easy!
more evidence of criminalized governments
I agree that this is more evidence of false flag terror action in an elitists' deceptive war against populations of our world. How will they decide to deal with a human's interests to protect loved ones that could possibly be in harms' way. If people don't catch on to this insane game of tyranny and financial global oppression, they will get better at their false war for terror. Thanks for posting this important leak.http://www.flybynews.com/ will be linking to this page. Thank you Snowcrash for posting.
Spoke to a Swede
... via chat... and he/she said MUST (Swedish military intelligence) debunked this as a baseless rumor in the days after it happened. Says it was indeed confirmed that "Säpo and the TT news agency received a message from a 29-year-old man from southern Sweden who claimed that the prophet Mohammed was being degraded." (shortly before the event)
Since MUST is obviously not a disinterested party in this issue, I will have to accept this with reluctance. A better debunking would be if we got to speak to the person at TT news agency who filed the news report. He knows his source.
P.S. I MUST say (pun intended) there's nothing really new here. This is a story that remains without closure.