A bomb exploded on a bus in Bulgaria, killing six seven Israeli teenagers and wounding many more. No one has claimed ‘credit” but Israel is busy charging that Iran is behind the attack.
It bears watching. One thing I know – it was not Iran, nor Hezbollah. Contrary to various demonization campaigns, neither is in the business of deliberately blowing up civilians, much less children. That is an American/Israeli calling card. Beyond that, Iran’s leadership is not insane, nor is it suicidal. An act of no strategic value done at a time when the US is showing the flag and rattling sabers would be insanity.
I have my suspicions, if indeed this is an act of terrorism. I would immediately suspect either American or Israeli intelligence agents/provocateurs/terrorists. The reason is as old as time itself – when there is a need for war, there is a need for provocation. That’s why Hitler did Reichstag, and why the US attacked itself at Tonkin. If the reader might think that Americans and Israelis don’t kill children, millions of people would beg to differ. Start in Iraq.
Watch what follows: If the US resists the call to attack Iran, then it is Israel acting alone, trying to provoke the US. If the US jumps at the opportunity to attack Iran, using the bus explosion as casus belli, then it was likely American agents that planted (or authorized Israel to plant) the bomb.
Which reminds me – there was a suicide bombing yesterday in Syria, and several high-ranking officials were killed, including the defense minister. What I am looking for now are any American news sources who refer to this incident as “terrorism.” Glenn Greenwald did reproduce the tweet on the left from Keith Urbahn, Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff at the Pentagon.
As I’ve said many times before, I’d be content if the US would limit itself to mere double standards. Three, four, five standards are too hard to track.
Piece of Mindful 
Obama not going to attack Iran.
He won the Nobel Peace prize for gosh sakes.
LikeLike
Gee whiz – we’re in agreement. He’s about as Nobel-worthy as Gaddafi.
LikeLike
He did send them a drone to study.
Then asked them to send it back.
LikeLike
I think it is pointless to deal with you sometimes, as your mind is so focused on the insignificant minutia of politics. “He” is nothing more than a mirror we used like a narcissist. Even though we are weak and sagging and bald, the mirror tells us we look like an Olympic athlete. We are not a democratic country, our markets have failed, our government is run by the elite, we are diddled all day long with “news” of no content, and our military is scouring the globe for resources and killing anyone who gets in its path.
Care to think big for once? Is there a link out there somewhere about thinking big, and what a mistake it is? Bring it here, show it to us!
LikeLike
Come on Mark, do you really think the US was involved in any way with that attack?
Did you think big and do any searching outside your usual haunts?
For instance, did the date of this attack have any significance?
It is no coincidence this attack comes on the 18th Anniversary of the attack on a Jewish community center in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. On this date two decades ago, 85 people lost their lives?
LikeLike
This will knock you off your feet: I did not go to any “haunts.” I am seasoned. If you look around, you will not find other “haunts” offering my point of view. I don’t play linkydink. They would have to come to me.
I used deductive reasoning: The US has moved the fleet into the Gulf, and Israeli agents have said that there will be an attack in August. Surrounded and sanctioned, Iran has to be very careful not to do anything that will provoke the attack. That would be insane, and there is absolutely no strategic gain from attacking tourists.
Ergo, it seems logical that such provocation was supplied by the Israelis. Since the US rules over Israel with an iron fist, such provocation would not happen either without US assistance or approval. (The US can easily discipline Israel at any time by shutting off military aid.)
Your attitude is easy to discern, as I’ve seen it countless times in this country: You are saying that we are rational, and they are not. They will do crazy shit, we don’t. I’m above all of that. Psychopaths are about 1% of the population world wide. In the US they are 2%, probably due to colonial seeding. Though such people are a small minority, they gravitate towards power and inflict enormous calamity on the rest of us. Imagine the devastation caused by just two men, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and multiply it by a factor of thousands.
That’s why I say that the world is confronted by many problems, the first being climate change, and the second US foreign policy.
Your Argentine correlation is nonsense. If it is merely about anniversaries to celebrate, dead bodies in Iraq, Vietnam, Chile, the West Bank, Kosovo, Libya and so many other places offer plenty of reason for the US to attack anyone anywhere. That’s insane.
LikeLike
Back in Jan they said they were going to close off the canal.
Then there’s this. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/02/2012218143339683553.html.
LikeLike
You are too funny and too typical. You think it is OK for the American fifth fleet to threaten Iran, but if Iran puts war ships in the Mediterranean, it’s provocative. I’m going out to breakfast now. Aren’t you a little early to be out to lunch?
LikeLike
You’re right. We implanted a chip into the bomber while he resided in Gitmo.
Israel Times via Bulgaria paper.
“Bulgarian media on Thursday 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 Mehdi Ghezali.
There was no independent confirmation of the veracity of the information. The reports surfaced 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 had been 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.
LikeLike
Given no independent confirmation, a standard of real journalism, I would regard this as a planted story until evidenced otherwise. If it was indeed an American or Israeli deed, they would supply both the bombs and the culprit. They are seasoned at this stuff.
LikeLike
Reflecting on this on my way back from breakfast, I take this story as a very good sign. I think it means that the bombing was done by the Israelis, trying to provoke the US into attack. The US countered by offering up a culprit that deflects blame from Iran, meaning they are not willing to attack.
Mehdi Ghezali, if he really existed, was either dead already or murdered overnight to prevent his coming forth to falsify the story.
All speculation, of course, and I could be wrong top to bottom. But remember, if you like sausage, to not ask how it is made.
LikeLike
Yeah, and I’m impenetrable.
LikeLike
Swede, I am speculating, and I’ve said as much. Make two columns on a note pad, and in the left one put the known facts, and in the other the speculation. On the right goes Netanyahu’s remark, as he had no basis for blaming the Iranians and failed to offer any evidence. Also there is the news article you quoted that said itself that it was not independently verified, which means it should not even have been printed.
Based on my experience, I know that the Israelis and Americans often engage in terrorism for political ends. I know that the Americans are known to “kill” people who are already dead. I know that when the US wants war, it will create incidents to make it appear as though there is a just cause for war.
And if we have one more fact in the left-hand column, I might have to change every idea. Right now, we only know that a bus blew up.
I also lack your undying faith in the US, although I shared it at one time.
LikeLike
But you do need to understand that he is a captive of the office, and not running the show. His job is to give speeches now, make it appear as though elected officials are in charge of policy. That was Bush’s job too, but he didn’t know it. He really thought he was the decider.
LikeLike
…There is a power struggle going on- Israel clearly wants to go to war, the US continues to resist. But there is no doubt that there are interests in the US who want a war – hence the media drumbeat for war.
LikeLike
I can’t pretend to know the ultimate objectives of this nonsense. Iran is not a military threat to the region, but the US and Israel are. Iran does not attack its neighbors, but the US and Israel do. But they re intent on bringing down Iran, and aggressive war appears to be the ticket once again.
Interesting – prior to Obama taking office in 2009 Israel attacked Gaza, unprovoked. It was a message to Obama – the question is, did that message originate in Washington or Tel Aviv? My guess is the former.
Anyway, Obama has not presented a problem to anyone in any way. He’s not a factor in foreign policy as I see it.
LikeLike