Manama: A disgruntled American is behind the spate of hoax bomb calls that gripped Kuwait in the past few weeks, a Kuwaiti paper said.
Orlando Turner, a former resident of Kuwait, said that the threats were meant to put pressure on Kuwaiti authorities to speed up the settlement of divorce proceedings with his soon-to-be ex-Filipino wife who wants custody of their 11-month-old daughter, Al Watan Daily reported on Sunday.
First revealing himself on a YouTube video under the name ‘jackofalltrades98', Turner claimed to know the truth about the bomb threats that had caused several buildings in Kuwait to be shut down and evacuated.
Turner said that he was behind nine of the ten bomb threat calls in 2010, but he did not claim responsibility for the Kuwait Stock Exchange hoax call, the paper said.
"The first location was the Sultan Centre in Salmiya," he said, before mentioning Johnny Rockets in Salmiya, the Al Manshar Hotel in Fahaheel, the Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait City, the Philippines Embassy, Kuwait International Airport, a Ruby Tuesday's in Mahboula, and a Mr Baker in Mahboula.
Over an internet phone call, Turner explained his actions as driven by as an attempt to see his daughter, at the centre of a custody battle with his wife, whom he met and married in Kuwait, as they go through divorce proceedings in Kuwait.
Turner's marital problems appear to have started when the couple took in a runaway maid to help his wife who was pregnant with their baby.
The maid later accused Turner of offering her 40 Kuwaiti dinars (Dh507) in exchange for sex.
Although Turner denied the charge, the couple proceeded to separate.
His situation was compounded when he lost his position as a supervisor for American contractor CSA Kuwait, and he had to leave Kuwait to take up a new position in Texas, while a divorce case was filed, Al Watan Daily said.
"This is not a political statement, and it is not a terrorist threat or anything like that. I just want to see my daughter, who has been hidden away from me by her Filipino mother," Turner said.
However, Turner offered divergent explanations for the hoax bomb threats.
He said that stress had built up because his legal representative in Kuwait had told him that the case would need at least three months to be finalised, "and I don't have three months" to spend as an unemployed person in Kuwait.
