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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Bomb maker confesses to spray-painting swastikas around Brooklyn

BY ALISON GENDAR, MATTHEW LYSIAK and TINA MOORE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Tuesday, January 22nd 2008, 4:00 AM

Schwartz for News
Ivaylo Ivanov is escorted from the 84th Precinct stationhouse after the Brooklyn man was hit with bomb and hate raps.

A bizarre Brooklyn bomb-maker was unveiled as a hatemonger Monday and charged with a spate of crimes that shook his neighborhood's Jewish community last fall, cops said.

Investigators were questioning Ivaylo Ivanov about seven pipe bombs they found in a flat he shares with a noted Columbia professor when he confessed to spray-painting 23 swastikas on synagogues, private homes and schools in September, a police source said.

"We're very relieved and thankful that the man was found," said Rabbi Aaron Ruskin, whose synagogue, the Congregation B'Nai Avraham, was vandalized. "There's no question that this guy could have done a lot worse."

Ivanov bizarrely claimed that he fashioned the bombs to use while fishing, a source told the Daily News.

Cops are conducting forensic tests on his computer to make sure more sinister plans, like a possible attack on a synagogue, are not buried inside after Ivanov admitted scattering hateful flyers that screamed "Israel Land of Pigs" and "All Jews Die," the source said.

When investigators asked Ivanov why he drew the swastikas and created the flyers he said it was "bad judgment on his part," a police source said. Ivanov's attorney, Adrian Lesher, said last night his client claims to be Jewish.

The source said Ivanov was the prime suspect in the swastika case and that cops previously interviewed him at his Brooklyn Heights home about his interest in playing paintball. They did not see bomb-making equipment or guns at that time, the source said.

Cops found the seven live pipe bombs, bomb-making machinery and a trove of weapons - including a pistol, shotgun, crossbow and bulletproof vest - at his Remsen St. flat early Sunday.

Ivanov sought help from cops after he shot off his left index finger, police said. He lives with Columbia Prof. Michael Clatts, who specializes in the spread of infectious disease and was a prominent AIDS researcher in the 1980s. Investigators did not believe the 50-year-old was aware of the arsenal because he was away.

Penny Kauffman, who has lived in the building for 29 years, said Ivanov had a surveillance camera trained on the hallway outside his unit.

"He told me he was sick of all the Arabs coming in and out of the building," she said.

Ivanov rambled to cops that he was trained by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, and was also a trained sniper, a police source said.

"It is not that hard to make these kind of homemade bombs. He is hardly an expert at explosives," the source said.

Clatts' father, Russ Clatts, said he was unaware of his son's whereabouts.

"All I know is what I read on the Internet, I haven't spoken to my son in years," he said at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del. "I don't know who he lives with or what he does."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said cops were still investigating why Ivanov had the pipe bombs.

Bowing his head as he was led shackled out of the 84th Precinct stationhouse yesterday, Ivanov said he possessed the weapons for "self-defense."

Ivanov, charged with criminal possession of a weapon and 46 counts of hate crimes, was arraigned last night in Brooklyn Supreme Court. He was held on $300,000 bail. His next court date is set for Friday.

Cops said it was not clear if Ivanov was 31 or 37 years old. He was born in Sicily and raised in Bulgaria.

Cops said they confiscated the bomb-making equipment, including a drill and threading machine, from the home.

"I heard lots of drilling, lots of drilling," neighbor Roberta Weisbrod said. "And it wasn't the kind of drilling to put up a picture."

[email-masked]

With Adam Lisberg, Oren Yaniv, Mike Jaccarino, Xana O'Neill and Joe Gould

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Ivaylo Ivanov
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