Bus with Israeli tourists on way to airport in Bulgaria bombed.

[Magda Hassan]

No sign yet of the reported US one. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3882[/ATTACH]

[Magda Hassan]

From Twiiter of Swedish journo

[URL="https://twitter.com/CFKlebergTT/status/225992944035971073"]
[/URL]

Carl Fridh Kleberg‏@CFKlebergTT

Follow

Reports identifying Swede as behind#[B]Bulgaria suicide bomb incorrect, secret service tells TT: "We can confirm he is not the suicide bomber"[/B]
https://twitter.com/CFKlebergTT/status/2...4035971073

And from SAPO Swedish secret service as reported by Expressen

SAPO dismisses rumor of suspected Swedish

It circulates information in Bulgarian media that the bombing of a tourist bus in Bulgaria was conducted by a named Swedish.
It is rejected by the Security Service.

- We reject this name. I can not develop it more, says Claes Ohlsson, duty officer at SAPO.
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sapo-avf...kt-svensk/

[Magda Hassan]

Lot's of warning about Israeli targets in Bulgaria but still it happened....Like so many before..... Though Bulgaria's President says that there was no warning from the Mossad of an imminent attack when they met approximately a month ago. Close ties to Israel and the US and NATO make it a target for some as well. Is this a ploy to get NATO involved some where because one of their member states has been attacked?

Several warnings of possible attacks on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria did not prevent the bombing in Burgas on Wednesday. The criticism of Bulgarian security forces has now become much louder.Wednesday's bombing of the bus containing Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian coastal town of Burgas, in which at least seven people were killed, should not come as a surprise. There have been several indications in recent months that such an attack would occur.
In January, Israeli security forces warned their Bulgarian counterparts of the possibility of Islamist terrorist operations against Israeli tourists. "In the last few years, we have received about 15 indications and foiled several attacks," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov confirmed.
Warnings from Israel
There have been many bilateral talks between Bulgaria and Israel on the issue. In January, Bulgaria's official press agency BTA quoted Israeli sources saying that a terrorist attack on Israeli tourists had recently been thwarted. A suitcase containing explosives had been discovered aboard a bus full of Israeli citizens travelling to a winter holiday in Bulgaria.
Borisov rejected criticism of Bulgaria's security forces

The Israeli warning was then repeated at the start of the summer season. Indeed, only last month a Mossad representative expressly flagged up the danger to Bulgarian authorities.
Bulgariais a popular holiday destination among Israelis, and the number of Israeli tourists rose by ten percent this year. With Turkish-Israeli relations increasingly strained, more and more Israelis are preferring Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Bulgarian resorts are also seen as a gambler's paradise for many Israelis, and travel agents claim that the country has become a huge party destination for young Israelis - indeed many young people were on board the bus hit on Wednesday.
Bulgarian authorities slammed
But Bulgarian security precautions have come increasingly in the firing line. Former Deputy Prime Minister Dimitar Ludzhev, who used to be responsible for national security, believes that Bulgaria is simply not prepared for such attacks. "We have not done enough to ensure the safety of Israeli tourists," he said. "Up until this year, only Israeli airlines flew to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and there were always Israeli security personnel who literally escorted passengers from the planes to their hotel. But in this case, it was a Bulgarian airline, Air Via, and there were no security measures at all. It is a sign of the deficiency of the Bulgarian security forces."
"Where were the Bulgarian security services, which are always supposed to accompany Israelis?" asks Bulgaria-based Middle East expert Mohamed Halaf. Even Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has expressed his concerns about the authorities' capacities in the past.
Passy thinks Bulgaria needs the support of NATO and the EU

Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov reject the criticism. "This attack could have happened anywhere," said Borisov. "But it happened in Bulgaria."
Prime suspect: Hezbollah
Bulgarian Middle East expert Vladimir Chukov suspects the Islamic Hezbollah militia of being behind the attack, and diplomatic sources in Sofia indicate that Bulgarian authorities agree with him.
Some analysts have speculated that the attack is connected to the meeting of Syrian opposition forces two months ago, but Israeli terrorism analyst Boaz Ganor thinks either Hezbollah or Iran are responsible. A Hezbollah fighter was arrested in Cyprus a few days ago suspected of planning a similar attack. "That may have been a parallel operation, and probably not the last," said Ganor. "It looks like Hezbollah, Iran, or a joint operation between the two."

Solomon Passy, former Bulgarian Foreign Minister and national security specialist, is convinced that Bulgaria is now dependent on the support of NATO and the European Union. Bulgaria's European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has also called for intensive cooperation with the EU and Europol to investigate Wednesday's attack.

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16110179,00.html

[Carsten Wiethoff]

[Jan Klimkowski]

Magda - excellent gathering of primary source material.

Thank you.

[Magda Hassan]

This is apparently who they are looking for now. They look nothing like the man in the fake US drivers licence nor the man in the video walking to and fro. But we are not shown a live Mehdi Ghezali or told his current whereabouts despite denials it was him from Sweden and Bulgaria. He hasn't popped up on any tv shows with comments about his well being or about the event. The story seem to alternate between this man in the drawing being a second man who was helping the bomber or that the man in the video was wearing a wig and this is him. Surely they can tell if the remains of the man on the bus was wearing a wig or not if it were him. The man in the sketch is said to have been talking to people at the beach last week, a group of tourists from Holland, and told them that his mother was Dutch and his father was Iranian. Surprise. The Israelis are saying it is Hezbollah (with Iranian direction) but the US is still cool on that saying that Israel offered no concrete evidence tying the bombing to Iran, and Bulgarian officials cautioned that it was too early to attribute responsibility. Bulgarians have sent samples for DNA testing but there are no results yet....Also of interest to me is that the bomber was described as 'Caucasian' and 'white' not 'of Middle Eastern appearance'. And the man in the driver's licence and in the terminal fits that description of Caucasian best. The Louisiana address on the Michigan drivers licence is that of a casino. I wonder who the owners are of that casino and their friends? The Bulgarians don't know when he came into the country or how long he had been there. He tried to hire a car but was rejected because of the discrepancy in his appearance with the short hair and his licence which shows a long haired person. But it is interesting that some one has been making themselves known to the tourists and business in Bulgaria and mentioning he is part Iranian. Shades of the second Oswald.

[Magda Hassan]

Ynet adds:

The Bulgarian media reported Sunday morning that an autopsy conducted on the bomber's remains bore out the theory that he had help. The pathologist told one television station that "The bomber had light skin, light eyes, and brown hair" a description that supports witness' reports of another individual, described as "short, Arab-looking."

…According to reports, the bomber was assisted by a person who had been seen in the resort town of Varna, another popular tourist destination for Israelis. He reportedly had documents that identified him as a US citizen named "David Jefferson," and a composite sketch has already been made public. Unconfirmed reports say that the man was captured on camera at the Varna airport at the end of June.

The current theory is that the accomplice, not the bomber, was the one who tried to rent a car to go the airport, since the person spotted was considerably shorter than the bomber himself.

Sofia News Agency reports:

The suicide bomber, who killed five Israelis and a local bus driver in Bulgaria's Burgas, received guidance by an accomplice based in the other major coastal city of Varna, media reports say. The presumed accomplice, who is believed to be a US citizen named David Jepson, was captured on CCTV footage at Varna airport at the end of June, according to unconfirmed information.

The man reportedly spent a few nights at a hotel near the Festival Congress Center in downtown Varna, but investigators find it impossible to track him down after the day of the terror attack in Burgas.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_23/Burgas...ian-media/

The suicide bomber who attacked a bus with Israeli tourists in Bulgaria's Burgas Airport entered through Romania, spoke Russian fluently and was accompanied by a woman, a Bulgarian TV channel cited a source close to the investigation as saying.

According to investigators, the terrorist stayed at a three-star Varna hotel called "Perfekt" with an unidentified woman, who the police believe to be acquainted with the bomber's accomplice.
The information that the bomber suspect showed a "good command of Russian" came from a taxi driver, who gave him a lift not far from the airport.
Bulgarian authorities refused to comment on the investigation, letting only know the attacker was around 36 years old, had an American driver's license and wasn't a Bulgarian citizen.
Previously, the police published a video footage of the alleged terror suspect a long-haired Caucasian in sunglasses wearing a rucksack and holding a bag.
The man is believed to have arrived in Bulgaria at least four days before the attack. He had a driver's license issued to the name of Jacques Philippe Martin from Michigan and a US passport, the validity of which the Bulgarian police are now probing into.
Interfax

[Magda Hassan]

Update[B]: Sofia News Agency [B]reports that "One of the main versions in the investigation of the July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Burgas is that the alleged suicide bomber was not aware he had explosives on him, according to unconfirmed reports in the Bulgarian media." The Bulgarian outlet continues to report that "Bulgarian and international investigators are said to be investigating a version in which the alleged suicide bomber was in fact a victim of the terrorist. He is believed to have been deluded, and to have been forced to smuggle into Bulgaria what he thought was a shipment of drugs."[/B][/B]

[Jan Klimkowski]

Update[B]: Sofia News Agency [B]reports that "One of the main versions in the investigation of the July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Burgas is that the alleged suicide bomber was not aware he had explosives on him, according to unconfirmed reports in the Bulgarian media." The Bulgarian outlet continues to report that "Bulgarian and international investigators are said to be investigating a version in which the alleged suicide bomber was in fact a victim of the terrorist. He is believed to have been deluded, and to have been forced to smuggle into Bulgaria what he thought was a shipment of drugs."[/B][/B]

An exploding patsy.

A spooky wet dream.