From: Jerusalem Post
Despite last week’s terrorist attack in Bulgaria that Israel blamed squarely on Hezbollah, the EU Tuesday rejected Israeli calls to place the Lebanese organization on its terrorist blacklist.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou- Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said at a press conference in Brussels with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman that there is “no consensus among the EU member states for putting Hezbollah on the terrorist list of the organization.”
Such a move, she said, required unanimity from the EU’s 27 member states.
Liberman, who met Tuesday with his EU colleagues as part of the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, had called on the body to put Hezbollah on its terrorist list. Doing so would make illegal any financial transfer from the EU to Hezbollah or to any member of that organization. Liberman said such a move would send a powerful message both to the international community and the Israeli public.
“From ouour point of view it is unacceptable that Hezbollah terrorists meet and talk with Western diplomats in Beirut on one hand, and they pursue their terrorist activity on European soil on the other hand,” he said at the press conference.
Kozakou-Marcoullis, speaking for the EU, plainly refused the request.
“The Lebanese Hezbollah is an organization that comprises a political party [and a] social services network, as well as an armed wing,” she said. “Hezbollah is active in Lebanese politics, including the parliament and the government, and plays a specific role with regard to the status quo in Lebanon.”
Taking this and other aspects into account, she said, there is “no consensus among the EU member states for putting Hezbollah on the terrorist list of the organization. Should there be tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terrorism, the EU would consider listing the organization.”
Cyprus is currently holding a suspect who according to Israeli officials, has admitted under interrogation to being a Hezbollah operative. He was arrested there late last month while allegedly planning an attack on Israeli tourists.
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Bulgarian press names bomber: Mehdi Ghezali:RELEASED FROM GITMO
From: The Times of Israel
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 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.
Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks 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 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. 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.
Weekly Standard: Sweden Pressured Suicide Bomber's Release From Gitmo
From: The Weekly Standard
With a black baseball cap pulled tight over a mop of stringy long hair and a patchy, close-cropped beard, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali looked more like a Metallica roadie than a disciple of Ayman al-Zawahiri. He addressed the scrum of reporters in a clipped, heavily accented Swedish and accused the American government of wrongly detaining him for three years and "physically and mentally" torturing him. A book about his experiences was in the works; a documentary crew, cobbling together a film about American human rights abuses, had requested an audience; and his legal team was plotting a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld.
It was 2004, and Ghezali was a free man.
In late 2001, Ghezali, a Swedish national, had been detained during the battle at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, handed over to the American military, and sent to the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. According to his lawyers, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he spoke none of the local languages, Ghezali told his captors, in the midst of the Taliban's retreat into the mountainous hinterlands of Afghanistan, he had crossed that country's border with Pakistan to study Islam.
After an intense lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson--and a vague promise that the country's intelligence services would keep a watchful eye on him--Ghezali was delivered to Sweden (on the government's private Gulfstream jet). The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter noted that Ghezali had achieved "rock star status" upon returning to his homeland, a native victim of America's rapacious imperialism. And after two-plus years in isolation, the emotionally fragile former prisoner would be happy to discover "that a majority of Swedes were glad that he was home."
With a black baseball cap pulled tight over a mop of stringy long hair and a patchy, close-cropped beard, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali looked more like a Metallica roadie than a disciple of Ayman al-Zawahiri. He addressed the scrum of reporters in a clipped, heavily accented Swedish and accused the American government of wrongly detaining him for three years and "physically and mentally" torturing him. A book about his experiences was in the works; a documentary crew, cobbling together a film about American human rights abuses, had requested an audience; and his legal team was plotting a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld.
It was 2004, and Ghezali was a free man.
In late 2001, Ghezali, a Swedish national, had been detained during the battle at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, handed over to the American military, and sent to the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. According to his lawyers, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he spoke none of the local languages, Ghezali told his captors, in the midst of the Taliban's retreat into the mountainous hinterlands of Afghanistan, he had crossed that country's border with Pakistan to study Islam.
After an intense lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson--and a vague promise that the country's intelligence services would keep a watchful eye on him--Ghezali was delivered to Sweden (on the government's private Gulfstream jet). The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter noted that Ghezali had achieved "rock star status" upon returning to his homeland, a native victim of America's rapacious imperialism. And after two-plus years in isolation, the emotionally fragile former prisoner would be happy to discover "that a majority of Swedes were glad that he was home."
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Bulgaria Becomes the Latest Ally to Get the Obama Treatment
From: Commentary Magazine
In what’s becoming something of a pattern for the Obama administration, the way we’re conducting relations with Bulgaria is increasingly indefensible. Sofia is a NATO ally, an EU member state and has contributed troops to our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But–like so many other allies who made a point of supporting us in the early years of the Global War on Terror–treatment at the hands of U.S. Ambassador James Warlick has fallen somewhere between condescending neglect and active alienation.
Frustration with Warlick spans the the political spectrum. Things got so bad a few months ago that someone started a new media initiative calling for “A Day Without Warlick.” When asked about the campaign, the ambassador “laughed and pointed out it was part of democracy, which is a marvelous thing.” The dripping paternalism was about as well-received as you’d expect.
Last April, Warlick blasted the independent Bulgarian judiciary for dishonesty and corruption, adding in the process that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s center-right coalition needed to “pay special attention” to their own laws. When asked to walk back his attack, Warlick very pointedly declined, insisting he had just been trying to “provoke a discussion.”
Sometimes there’s a purpose behind the Obama administration’s diplomatic offensives against democratically-elected allied governments. There are times when the White House prefers dealing with a country’s opposition and tries to unseat ruling coalitions. But Warlick has not limited himself to attacking the sitting GERB party.
He’s also engaged in extended feuds with Bulgaria’s powerful center-left Socialist opposition — the Socialist former Interior Minister recently lashed out at him as “trash” and demanded his recall with the leader of the hard-right Ataka party. He recently took a meeting with breakaway opposition MPs from across the political spectrum and was reported to have “expressed his admiration of the independent MPs for the bravery to part ways” with their parties.
That accounts for Bulgaria’s right, center and left — an alienation hat trick that would be difficult to pull off even if you were trying — plus the top figures of the Bulgarian Supreme Court and Parliament.
That’s a problem. If regional dynamics continue unfolding the way they’re going to continue unfolding, Bulgaria is set to become a literal front line in a realigned geopolitical order. Sofia’s support for the West has already made it a target for jihadist incitement, with IslamOnline accusing Bulgarians of assisting in “many episodes of ethnic cleansing by the crusaders.” A Wikileaks cable concluded that “Bulgaria’s participation in U.S.-led action in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased its profile as a potential target for Islamic terrorist groups” and that “Islamic extremism in Bulgaria is a very real concern.” Last year, national security forces raided and broke up extremist groups involved in the financing of more than 150 mosques. And so on.
The more pressing geopolitical issue is how the region will respond to the increasingly open neo-Ottoman ambitions of AKP-dominated Turkey. Ankara has indicated it considers the presence of Bulgarian-Turkish Muslims on Bulgarian soil to be a justification for interfering in Bulgaria’s internal affairs. That population is a leftover from the blood-soaked Ottoman occupation that included some of the 19th century’s worst atrocities, from the the Batak massacre of 5,000 civilians to a broader campaign of mass slaughter the New York Times identified as the horror of the century. Instead of showing circumspection about the near-genocidal colonization of parts of Bulgaria, earlier this year, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister committed Ankara to supporting Bulgarian Turks in “preserving [their] ethnic roots.”
Turkey’s regional ambitions are unlikely to erupt into armed hostility even in the medium term – although the Cyprus situation counsels caution – but it’s easy to imagine a scenario where Ankara triggers a diplomatic crisis by backing border villages that suddenly announce strong inclinations toward “self-determination.”
Even if a flashpoint never emerges between Bulgaria and Turkey, the tide of anti-American and anti-Western sentiment in Turkey will force us to look to Bulgaria as a key regional ally. Sofia is already offering to host NATO missile defense assets that Turkey seems set to reject, something we suddenly need as we try to build a missile defense architecture in Eastern Europe. As our alliances in the Middle East crumble, Bulgaria might be as close to that critical part of the world as we can get our bases and some of our assets.
Frustration with Warlick spans the the political spectrum. Things got so bad a few months ago that someone started a new media initiative calling for “A Day Without Warlick.” When asked about the campaign, the ambassador “laughed and pointed out it was part of democracy, which is a marvelous thing.” The dripping paternalism was about as well-received as you’d expect.
Last April, Warlick blasted the independent Bulgarian judiciary for dishonesty and corruption, adding in the process that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s center-right coalition needed to “pay special attention” to their own laws. When asked to walk back his attack, Warlick very pointedly declined, insisting he had just been trying to “provoke a discussion.”
Sometimes there’s a purpose behind the Obama administration’s diplomatic offensives against democratically-elected allied governments. There are times when the White House prefers dealing with a country’s opposition and tries to unseat ruling coalitions. But Warlick has not limited himself to attacking the sitting GERB party.
He’s also engaged in extended feuds with Bulgaria’s powerful center-left Socialist opposition — the Socialist former Interior Minister recently lashed out at him as “trash” and demanded his recall with the leader of the hard-right Ataka party. He recently took a meeting with breakaway opposition MPs from across the political spectrum and was reported to have “expressed his admiration of the independent MPs for the bravery to part ways” with their parties.
That accounts for Bulgaria’s right, center and left — an alienation hat trick that would be difficult to pull off even if you were trying — plus the top figures of the Bulgarian Supreme Court and Parliament.
That’s a problem. If regional dynamics continue unfolding the way they’re going to continue unfolding, Bulgaria is set to become a literal front line in a realigned geopolitical order. Sofia’s support for the West has already made it a target for jihadist incitement, with IslamOnline accusing Bulgarians of assisting in “many episodes of ethnic cleansing by the crusaders.” A Wikileaks cable concluded that “Bulgaria’s participation in U.S.-led action in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased its profile as a potential target for Islamic terrorist groups” and that “Islamic extremism in Bulgaria is a very real concern.” Last year, national security forces raided and broke up extremist groups involved in the financing of more than 150 mosques. And so on.
The more pressing geopolitical issue is how the region will respond to the increasingly open neo-Ottoman ambitions of AKP-dominated Turkey. Ankara has indicated it considers the presence of Bulgarian-Turkish Muslims on Bulgarian soil to be a justification for interfering in Bulgaria’s internal affairs. That population is a leftover from the blood-soaked Ottoman occupation that included some of the 19th century’s worst atrocities, from the the Batak massacre of 5,000 civilians to a broader campaign of mass slaughter the New York Times identified as the horror of the century. Instead of showing circumspection about the near-genocidal colonization of parts of Bulgaria, earlier this year, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister committed Ankara to supporting Bulgarian Turks in “preserving [their] ethnic roots.”
Turkey’s regional ambitions are unlikely to erupt into armed hostility even in the medium term – although the Cyprus situation counsels caution – but it’s easy to imagine a scenario where Ankara triggers a diplomatic crisis by backing border villages that suddenly announce strong inclinations toward “self-determination.”
Even if a flashpoint never emerges between Bulgaria and Turkey, the tide of anti-American and anti-Western sentiment in Turkey will force us to look to Bulgaria as a key regional ally. Sofia is already offering to host NATO missile defense assets that Turkey seems set to reject, something we suddenly need as we try to build a missile defense architecture in Eastern Europe. As our alliances in the Middle East crumble, Bulgaria might be as close to that critical part of the world as we can get our bases and some of our assets.
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