Man Arrested With Weapons Cache Acknowledges Training With Mossad, Writing Hateful Messages Targeting Jews

This is buried in the NY/region section of today's NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/nyregion/21cnd-weapons.html?hp

Gun Wound Leads to Weapons Trove

By KAREEM FAHIM and MICHAEL WILSON

Published: January 21, 2008

A 37-year old man who was storing weapons, including pipe bombs, crossbows, guns and silencers, in his Brooklyn Heights apartment was also responsible for writing a rash of hateful messages aimed at Jews in his neighborhood last year, the police said.
The man, Ivaylo Ivanov, was arrested on Sunday after he approached police officers and told them he had been shot in the index finger on a Brooklyn street. As the police investigated his claim, they came upon the cache of weapons in his house, including six or seven pipe bombs and tools used to make them.
The police determined that Mr. Ivanov had shot himself, probably while cleaning a gun. He was arrested and charged with weapons possession, unlawful wearing of a body vest and reporting a false incident.
During questioning, Mr. Ivanov acknowledged that he was responsible for anti-Semitic messages that had been spray-painted on surfaces or written on fliers at more than dozen locations in Brooklyn Heights in September, the police said. Investigators had questioned Mr. Ivanov about the messages before, and they had even taken a sample of his handwriting, but had not been able to conclusively link him to the graffiti and flyers.
It was not immediately clear how Mr. Ivanov’s collecting of weapons related to his spraying of the hateful words. He has told investigators he kept the weapons for personal protection, according to a police official, who said he made other claims as well, including that he had been trained by the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Mr. Ivanov will be arraigned later on Monday. He is expected to face additional charges because of the messages, including criminal mischief as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime, according to a spokesman for Charles. J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney.
The discovery of the arms cache early on Sunday morning led to a predawn evacuation of the building at 58 Remsen Street. The building’s residents huddled in a nearby diner for several hours while the bomb squad searched the building. Nearby buildings were also evacuated after the weapons were discovered.
In all, officers found said they found the six or seven pipe bombs, a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun, two pellet rifles, a crossbow with arrows, silencers, ammunition, a bulletproof vest and a machete, the police said.
The events rattled residents on the block of brick and brownstone homes in this historic area of Brooklyn Heights as the police banged on doors at 3:30 a.m.
“They asked us all to leave the apartment building because they were investigating explosives or something,” said James Robinson, 45, a resident of the building. “It’s such a quiet street. It’s all kind of surprising to us that this was going on.”
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.
Mr. Clatts was not charged with any crime on Sunday, and neighbors said he traveled frequently and was not seen during the evacuation. He has been teaching at the University of Puerto Rico recently. Messages left at a telephone number listed for the apartment were not returned on Sunday.
Neighbors said that Mr. Ivanov, known as Ivo, and Mr. Clatts had lived there for several years. “He seems like a really nice guy, a really gentle person,” Mr. Robinson said of Mr. Ivanov.
Alan Brasunas, another neighbor in the building, said he was awakened by “a dog barking and neighbor shouting at a police officer in the hallway.” He said Mr. Ivanov was personable. “I know him in passing,” he said.
The neighbors were permitted back into their apartments around 11 a.m. on Sunday, they said.

Kate Hammer and Bruce Lambert contributed reporting.