Israel's counter-terror unit canceled travel warnings to Thailand and Georgia weeks before the bombings

Bangkok warning was dropped in late January, following the arrest of a Lebanese-Swedish national with ties to Hezbollah

The government body charged with coordinating all counter-terror activities rescinded its travel warnings to Georgia and Thailand several weeks prior to the most recent attacks, further underscoring the impression that Israeli security authorities were caught by surprise by this week’s spate of terrorism.

The Counter-Terror Bureau operates out of the Prime Minister’s Office, along with the Mossad and the Shin Bet. The bureau’s role, designated by a cabinet decision in December 2005, is to coordinate the fight against terror. Its fields of activity, it states on its public website, include “improving the manner in which the state deals with the threats of international Jihad, improving the integrative intelligence picture, (and) dealing with threats of terror against Israelis abroad.”

The home page features a rippling flag, a watchful eye with the Star of David as a pupil, and a globe icon with a banner that says “For all warnings.” There are four recent updates: a renewed warning against traveling in the Sinai Peninsula; a November 2011 cancellation of the warning against traveling in Georgia; a January 13, 2012, warning against traveling in Bangkok; and a January 26 cancellation of that same warning.

The cancellation likely came in the wake of the January 16 discovery of mass amounts of urea-based fertilizer and liquid ammonium nitrate in an apartment near Bangkok. The seizure followed the arrest of a Lebanese and Swedish national with ties to Hezbollah. According to the Stratfor Global Intelligence group, the man, Hussein Atris, had amassed nearly 10,000 pounds of fertilizer and some ten gallons of ammonium nitrate, enough to construct several truck bombs similar to the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chalerm Yubamrung, indicated after Atris’s arrest that Thai security authorities had been working in collaboration with Israeli officials. The suspected targets were the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, synagogues, and other places where Americans and Israelis congregate.

Israeli government officials contacted Wednesday said they “could not comment at all” on the factors that trigger the declaration or cancellation of a warning to any specific country.

An operator at the Counter-Terrorism Bureau told a caller, also on Wednesday, that there was no problem going anywhere in Thailand and that when a problem or threat arose it would be promptly posted on the site.

Stratfor estimates that 120,000 Israelis and Jews visit Thailand each year.