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Old 11th April 2017, 11:45 AM   #1
Garrison
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Champions League team hit by bombing

Just in the last hour the team buss of Borussia Dortmund was caught up in a bomb attack near their hotel while heading to their match. Reports have one person injured ATM:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/38347121
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Old 11th April 2017, 11:57 AM   #2
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What location in what country?
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Old 11th April 2017, 12:13 PM   #3
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Dortmund Germany.
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Old 11th April 2017, 08:04 PM   #4
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Were British soccer fans involved?
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Old 12th April 2017, 06:22 AM   #5
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Currently major news here in Germany.

- It happened just before the match Borussia Dortmund vs. AS Monaco, in Dortmund.
- The bus just turned into a driveway/parking lot in front of a hotel when three devices exploded. They were filled with metal pins. One motorcycle policeman escorting the bus and a team member were injured (both not critically). The devices had been hidden under/behind/within a hedge which may have contributed to the lack of impact.
- The match has been re-scheduled for tonight (they're on an awfully tight schedule for the Champion's League, and most people agree to not let the terrorist win by waiting a lot longer. As one Dortmund fan put it: "They can lick my arse.")
- There have been reports of a fourth, not-exploded, device been found at the scene.
- Three identical letters claiming an islamistic background have been found. Unusual for that are concrete demands (removing German Air Force fighter jets doing recon in Syria out of Incirlik, Turkey). There's been another letter posted online (already removed, AFAIK) claiming a radical-left background, criticizing the "politics of Borussia Dortmund". There's doubt about the authenticity of the letters both by the press and authorities; the language, lack of symbols, and concrete demands don't fit with the claimed background. There's been speculation that the letters are false flags.
- There are already two suspects. Both of their living accomodations have been searched, one of the suspects is in custody. No word about their background yet.

Last edited by elgarak; 12th April 2017 at 06:24 AM.
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Old 12th April 2017, 08:25 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by elgarak View Post
...
- There have been reports of a fourth, not-exploded, device been found at the scene.
Apparently not a malicious device.

Originally Posted by elgarak View Post
- Three identical letters claiming an islamistic background have been found. Unusual for that are concrete demands (removing German Air Force fighter jets doing recon in Syria out of Incirlik, Turkey).
This is at least a possible demand. The second demand in that letter is that the US air base at Ramstein be closed - this is less realistic than demanding that the Statue of Liberty be replaced by a giant golden Q'uran.

Originally Posted by elgarak View Post
There's been another letter posted online (already removed, AFAIK) claiming a radical-left background, criticizing the "politics of Borussia Dortmund".
The backstory to this is that the city of Dortmund as well as the "ultra" fan base of the football club Borussia Dortmund ("BVB") are notorious for their small but very well organized and visible share of neo-nazis. Few German football clubs have yet developed a pratical and successful strategy to lock out such groups while not alienating the less radical portion of the fanbase.

Originally Posted by elgarak View Post
There's doubt about the authenticity of the letters both by the press and authorities; the language, lack of symbols, and concrete demands don't fit with the claimed background. There's been speculation that the letters are false flags.
The islamist letter currently seems to appear more credible, but doubts prevail. One commentator ("terrorism expert") on public-law news TV program "Tagesschau" says it occurs as unusual to him that the IS would leave a confessional on paper at the scene or show an interest in Ramstein.

Originally Posted by elgarak View Post
- There are already two suspects. Both of their living accomodations have been searched, one of the suspects is in custody. No word about their background yet.
One man from Iraq has been taken into custody. A second suspect is a German citizen. Nothing more is known yet, except that either suspect may have been near the crime scene.


One player has been injured: Marc Bartra (Spain) suffert a broken radius (lower arm) and intrusion of several objects (glass shards, I'd guess). Has successfully undergone surgery.
A police man, who excorted the team bus on a motobike, suffered barotrauma and shock.


One official of the club has said that Dortmund players free to decide if they play tonight if they truly feel unable to play after the shocking experience yesterday.
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Old 19th April 2017, 10:21 AM   #7
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A week later, still no clear lead on whodunnit.

Just watched the "Heute" news on the second German (national public) TV channel, ZDF. Investigators recreated the crime with a stand-in bus at the original scene and found that the football team was lucky - had the three bombs been exploded one second earlier and aimed a tad lower, there would have been a lot more damage, injuries, and possibly death.

In the meantime, a third written claim of responsibility has surfaced - this time pretending to come from some neonazi background. Investigators doubt the veracity of all three testimonials and consider an Islamist background more and more improbable: The letter found at the scene is just wrong in style, adornment, goals. Anything seems possible at this point: Some extreme ultra "fan" group (either BVB's own crazy ultras, or from sonme rival team); the international betting mafia; ...

Borussia Dortmund lost the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against AS Monaco at home 2:3, less than 24 hours after they suffered the bomb attack. The second leg will be played tonight at Monaco.
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Last edited by Oystein; 19th April 2017 at 10:23 AM.
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Old 21st April 2017, 01:06 AM   #8
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Financial Terrorism.

Quote:
Frankfurt: German police arrested a man on Friday who is suspected of planting explosives targeting the bus of soccer team Borussia Dortmund last week, the office of the German federal chief prosecutor said.

The 28-year old man, a dual German and Russian national identified as Sergei V., had bought options on Borussia Dortmund's stock before the attack, hoping to make a profit, it said in a statement.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/ma...21-gvpwsb.html
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Old 21st April 2017, 07:35 AM   #9
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According to an AP article, he took out a five-figure loan to buy thousands of shares in the team using a "put option".

Quote:
Buying "put options," as the bomber allegedly did, gives the trader the right to sell a stock at an agreed price. So if the stock drops, the trader can use the option to sell the shares at the higher price. By then buying them back at the lower price on that day, he earns a profit.

He apparently bought the shares the day of the bombing, using a computer at the hotel where the team was staying. Criminal mastermind.
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Old 21st April 2017, 07:40 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Armitage72 View Post
According to an AP article, he took out a five-figure loan to buy thousands of shares in the team using a "put option".




He apparently bought the shares the day of the bombing, using a computer at the hotel where the team was staying. Criminal mastermind.
Isn't this the plot from casino royale?
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Old 21st April 2017, 09:09 AM   #11
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The Russians are honest-to-God Bond villains.
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Old 21st April 2017, 11:19 AM   #12
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The current summary on the German Wikipedia - my translation:
Originally Posted by de.wikipedia
On April 21, 2017 the GSG 9 [special police unit] arrested a suspect, suspected to be guilty of 20 counts of attempted murder, effecting a detonation of explosives, and causing dangerous injury. He is the 28-year old Sergej W. of Freudenstadt, who hold German and Russian citizenship, has finished vocational training in electronics, and worked most recently in Tübingen in a heating plant. The investigators surmise that the motive is greed.

According to media reports, the investigators had already observed the suspect since April 13, after an informant from the finance sector as well as a money laundering notice by a bank had informed the officials. [The club] Borussia Dortmund, too, received a notice from a finance service provider about an unusual deal in derivatives of the BVB stock. According to investigators, the suspect had bought 15,000 put options on the club stocks in the late morning of the day of the incident, termed to June 17, 2017. He'd have wanted to exact a plunge in the stock price and earn a fortune on the sell-options, which gain greatly when stocks drop. He is said to have financed the purchase of the options with a five-digit consumer credit. According to calculations by [economics weekly journal] Wirtschaftswoche, the maximum profit was 75,000 Euros, while other media report a six-digit amount. W. reportedly conducted the purchase on the day of the attack from the hotel where the team stayed; additionally, it's considered certain that W. had stayed the night at the hotel. He's said to be very adept with detonation technology.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschl...d.C3.A4chtigen
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