Israeli prime minister blames Iran for Bulgaria bomb

[X Factor 1,112]

Pics of suspect:

Looks like he has the bomb in his back pack

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Looks like he has the bomb in his back pack

Well... at least it looks like he has a backpack.

Swedish officials are denying he was at Gitmo:

Swedish officials are denying Bulgarian news reports that say that the suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists yesterday has been identified as Mehdi Ghezali, a Swedish citizen who spent two years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. The news agency Sofia says he was identified after fingerprints found at the scene were submitted to the FBI and Interpol. There was no official comment or confirmation from the local authorities, however, the story was being reported in Israeli media.

This 2009 story by Michael Moynihan in The Weekly Standard provides more details on Ghezali background and arrests. Ghezali was well know to American intelligence officials ever since he was first captured during the Battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in 2001. After spending two years in the Cuban prison, the Swedish lobbied for his release, arguing that he was just a confused student of Islam in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was turned over to the Swedish government on promises that he would not be watched over, but he was never charged with a crime. However in 2009, he was arrested again while trying to sneak into Pakistan with several others who were carrying cash, maps of Western targets, and explosive belts. The arrest was seen as a warning that some Gitmo detainees were being released only to return to fold of terrorist organisations.

The man who was believed to be Ghezali was seen on security camera footage inside the Burgas airport, shortly before going outside and detonating his bomb next to a bus filled with Israeli tourists. The suspect was also accused of carrying a U.S. passport and a Michigan drivers license, though both were considered forgeries. Israeli government leaders have blamed the attack on Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/07/report-bulgarian-bomber-identified-former-guantanmo-detainee/54793/

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Reports said the suspect was carrying a fake Michigan driver's license with the name Jacque Felipe Martin:

The address shown is reportedly that of a casino in Louisiana called The Belle of Baton Rouge.

Bulgarian media reported that the man had been in the country between four to seven days, and was about 35 years old.

Bulgarian police said they believed the suspect was the suicide bomber because his body sustained the most damage in the explosion.

The Bulgarian police said that footage from airport security cameras captured the suspect roaming the airport for at least one hour, the Novinite Daily reported. According to the report he was a long-haired Caucasian in sportswear.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/bulgarian-media-name-swedish-citizen-and-former-guantanamo-detainee-as-burgas-suicide-bomber-1.452282

Might get even murkier now...

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Bulgarian bus bombing the work of suicide bomber, minister says

(CNN) -- A bus bombing which claimed the lives of five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was likely carried out by a male suicide attacker with a fake Michigan driver's license, Bulgaria's interior minister said Thursday.

For the rest of the article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn,_Michigan

In 2005, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) opened in Dearborn, the first museum in the world devoted to Arab-American history and culture. Most of the Arab-Americans in Dearborn and the Detroit area are ethnic Lebanese, who immigrated in the early twentieth century to work in the auto industry, like many immigrants to the area. They have been joined by more recent Arab immigrants from other nations.

As of 2010 the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and ethnic composition was 86.7% Non-Hispanic whites (including Arabs), 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0% reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[12] 41.7% were of Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data).[13]

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn,_Michigan

In 2005, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) opened in Dearborn, the first museum in the world devoted to Arab-American history and culture. Most of the Arab-Americans in Dearborn and the Detroit area are ethnic Lebanese, who immigrated in the early twentieth century to work in the auto industry, like many immigrants to the area. They have been joined by more recent Arab immigrants from other nations.

As of 2010 the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and ethnic composition was 86.7% Non-Hispanic whites (including Arabs), 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0% reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[12] 41.7% were of Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data).[13]

That's nice. Perhaps you should now study this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy

[mawilson 2,133]

Swedish officials are denying he was at Gitmo

Ha! That would make them look really bad.

"The Swedish lobbied for his release, arguing that he was just a confused student of Islam in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was turned over to the Swedish government on promises that he would not be watched over, but he was never charged with a crime. However in 2009, he was arrested again while trying to sneak into Pakistan with several others who were carrying cash, maps of Western targets, and explosive belts. The arrest was seen as a warning that some Gitmo detainees were being released only to return to fold of terrorist organisations."

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

That's nice. Perhaps you should now study this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy

Is it coincidence that Michigan has by far the largest Muslim population in the US and that bomber just happened to have a fake Michigan drivers license? I think not. I bet there's at least a few terror cells in Dearborn that the FBI has their eye on.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Ha! That would make them look really bad.

"The Swedish lobbied for his release, arguing that he was just a confused student of Islam in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was turned over to the Swedish government on promises that he would not be watched over, but he was never charged with a crime. However in 2009, he was arrested again while trying to sneak into Pakistan with several others who were carrying cash, maps of Western targets, and explosive belts. The arrest was seen as a warning that some Gitmo detainees were being released only to return to fold of terrorist organisations."

If this person was actually at Gitmo, the U.S. would have his fingerprints. And the Bulgarian news report said the suspect was ID'd via fingerprints. We'll see what kind of details drip out next...

Is it coincidence that Michigan has by far the largest Muslim population in the US and that bomber just happened to have a fake Michigan drivers license? I think not. I bet there's at least a few terror cells in Dearborn that the FBI has their eye on.

Wow Barney Fife has nothing on you !

[Ban Hammer 13,724]

Is it coincidence that Michigan has by far the largest Muslim population in the US and that bomber just happened to have a fake Michigan drivers license? I think not. I bet there's at least a few terror cells in Dearborn that the FBI has their eye on.

unrelated to the topic and dangerously close to stereotyping.

[mawilson 2,133]

unrelated to the topic and dangerously close to stereotyping.

Is stereotyping a bad thing?

[Ban Hammer 13,724]

Is stereotyping a bad thing?

read the tos and you tell me.

[mawilson 2,133]

read the tos and you tell me.

The tos and fros?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Now Bulgarian officials are denying the earlier Bulgarian media reports:

‘Bulgarian officials deny bomber is Mehdi Ghezali’

ABC News claims government sources say bomber’s identity still not public

America’s ABC News on Thursday reported that Bulgarian officials denied Bulgarian news reports that the Burgas bomber was identified as Mehdi Ghezali. The Atlantic Wire also reported Swedish officials issuing a similar denial.

Earlier on Thursday Bulgarian media had named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Ghezali.

The bomber reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five days before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported. He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided.

There was no independent confirmation of Ghezali’s identity, which surfaced in Bulgarian media reports on Thursday afternoon. The reports emerged soon after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly accused Hezbollah, directed by Iran, of responsibility for the bombing. The Prime Minister’s Office made no comment on the reports.

The Bulgarian reports, rapidly picked up by Hebrew media, posited various versions of how the bomber had detonated the bomb, including the suggestion that the bomber had not intended to die in the blast, but may have wanted to place the bomb on the bus and flee.

Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He was held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.

Following a lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson, Guantanamo authorities recommended Ghezali be transferred to another country for continued detainment, and he was handed over to Swedish authorities in 2004. The Swedish government did not press charges.

A 2005 Swedish documentary about the Guantanamo Bay detention camp starred Ghezali, who detailed his experience in American custody.

He was also reportedly among 12 foreigners captured trying to cross into Afghanistan in 2009.

Earlier on Thursday the Bulgarian police released a brief video clip that claimed to show the suicide bomber, responsible for Wednesday’s terror attack on a tour bus full of Israeli citizens, walking around shortly before the blast at Burgas International Airport.

The Bulgarian news agency Sofia reported that the bomber was carrying an American passport and Michigan driver’s license, both believed to be forgeries.

Sofia also reported that the Bulgarian Interior Ministry managed to recover the fingerprints of the bomber, which they submitted to the FBI in the United States and the international police organization Interpol. The FBI and CIA joined Israeli and Bulgarian officials in investigating the attack.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Sofia that DNA tests were being run to determine the identity of the Caucasian man, who the minister described as casually dressed with nothing suspicious about his appearance to set him apart from the crowd of people at the airport.

The ministry did not indicate how the police came to the conclusion that the man caught on airport security cameras in the clip was the suicide bomber.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/bulgarian-officials-deny-bomber-is-mehdi-ghezali/

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Now Bulgarian officials are denying the earlier Bulgarian media reports:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/bulgarian-officials-deny-bomber-is-mehdi-ghezali/

Boy, them Persians are really crafty to get the best of the Bulgarian press.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Boy, them Persians are really crafty to get the best of the Bulgarian press.

Plus using a fake U.S. passport and a fake Michigan driver's license to try to cast suspicion on the Arab community in Dearborn - pure genius !

No other country in the Middle East could come close to such amazingly skillful deceits.