January 21, 2008, - 2:12 pm
The Brooklyn Pipe Bomb Guy; UPDATE: Confesses to Swastika Incidents; Islamic Terrorist?
By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE #2: He confesses to the swastika hate crimes. So, what is his religion, ethnic back ground? Why isn’t that being reported? Weapon count upped, too: SEVEN pipe bombs in his apartment. ****
**** UPDATE: Now, I’m really suspicious of Ivanov’s background (and what his religion is). The New York Post reports he is a suspect in the New York Synagogue Swastika vandalism. (Thanks to Reader Rochel for the tip.) And not only did he have more weapons than earlier reported, but he claims to have served in BOSNIA. Hello . . .?:
When cops searched his fourth-floor apartment, they found six pipe bombs, sniper rifles, a handgun, shotguns, a crossbow with arrows, silencers, bomb-making equipment and other weapons. . . .
He was questioned by the joint FBI-NYPD terrorism task force. . . .
Local residents said he would spin colorful tales about his past, including that he is of Russian and Bulgarian descent, a former army sniper who served in Bosnia.
He has been on the NYPD’s radar at least since September, when he became a suspect in a slew of hate crimes in the area that included swastikas painted on synagogues and cars.
****
The story of Ivaylo Ivanov amuses me. He’s the guy who had three pipe bombs and other weaponry (lots of guns and a crossbow) in his Brooklyn apartment. And he wore a full-body vest. We don’t yet know why. His Slavic last name certainly piques my interest. Could he be Chechnyan? Kosovar? Bosnian? You know what I’m wondering (bring it, Nazi-financed Media Matters). And why did he have multiple pipe bombs and weapons in his home? To protect his balcony greenhouse tomato garden in the middle of winter? The illegal bullet-proof vest was a . . . fashion statement?
But then there’s the reason he got caught. Early Sunday, he went to the hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound–he shot himself in the finger (good aim). Like several Muslim terrorists, this guy isn’t exactly Einstein. More like prime Darwin Award candidate:
Police went to Ivanov’s home to investigate after he checked himself in to Long Island College Hospital to be treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Then there’s the usual quote you hear in every one of these stories . . . where clueless neighbors say what a nice guy he was. It’s just like a former female Nazi guard in California I wrote about. Her neighbors said the same thing about her. And I’m sure Jeffrey Dahmer’s neighbors said he seemed like such a nice, quiet herbivorous vegan:
“He seems like a really nice guy, a really gentle person,” said James Robinson, 45, a resident of the same building as Ivanov, in Monday editions of the New York Times.
Yup, reeeeeally gentle.
Tags: Bosnia, California, Debbie Schlussel, Federal Bureau of Investigation, guard, James Robinson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Long Island College Hospital, New York Post, prime Darwin Award candidate, the New York Post, The New York Times
Apparently, as per the NY Sun, the person he was rooming with, and who the home belonged to was an AIDS reseracher at Columbia University (where else). Re your prior post, I would say that at least for professors at Columbia, none of their information should be private, what with making pilgrimages to Iraq, and now having roommates with aresnals, and who knows what else?
c f on January 21, 2008 at 3:07 pm