While some are denying it, other sources indicate that the bomber is -- Mehdi Ghezali, former Guantanamo Bay detainee. Eight died in the blast yesterday. It will be interesting to follow reports and see if the bomber is actually Ghezali. Who is he Mehdi Ghezali and what connection if any does he have to Iran?
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. (image: Mehdi Ghezali (screen capture, Channel 10)
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 (continue at Times of Israel)
As Ben Shapiro at Breitbart says, "Leftists who hate Israel can rejoice; their efforts at securing the release of a Gitmo detainee and their subsequent lionizing of him allowed him..." to kill Israelis. Shame on them.
According to Wikileaks documents, Ghazali was “uncooperative, unforthcoming and deceptive during interrogations.” His father had met with Abdolrahman Barzanjee, an Al Qaeda associate and possible Ansar Al-Islam coordinator for Europe (Ansar Al-Islam is a group of Sunni Muslims trying to turn Iraq into an Islamist state), and Ghazali was friends with a Swedish operative who was a close associate of Abu Zubadayah, a high-ranking official with Al Qaeda.
Ghazali, who was a Swedish citizen, was visited by members of the Swedish government frequently while he was in custody at Gitmo, and the Swedish media played up his incarceration. While Ghezali was detained at Gitmo, he was featured in the documentary Gitmo – The New Rules of War, a film that savaged Guantanamo Bay detention camp by film directors Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh. [snip]
He was released to Sweden on July 8, 2004. And guess how much he meant to the Swedish? He was flown home to Sweden by the Swedish Air Force on a Gulfstream IV jet, at the expense of the Swedish government. (continue)
UPDATES:
Hezbollah and Iran connection confirmed:
A senior American official confirmed Israel’s assertions on Thursday that the suicide bomber who killed five Israelis in an attack here on Wednesday was a member of a Hezbollah cell operating in Bulgaria ... in retaliation for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists by Israeli agents, ....
A senior Israeli official said on Thursday that the Burgas attack was part of an intensive wave of terrorist attacks around the world carried out by two different organizations, the Iranian Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as Hezbollah. (Nicholas Kulish and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times, hat tip Robert Spencer Jihad Watch)
"studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain"
Surprise! NOT!
Is the West going to learn in time what we are up against?
Posted by: Always On Watch | July 19, 2012 at 04:08 PM
AOW..'no'.
Debbie, like Lieberman says "if we can't call it islamist terrorism, we're not going to win".
Your story points in that horrid direction, doesn't it...everybody's more interested in protecting terrorists than keeping us safe. CRAP!
oops :-)
Posted by: z | July 19, 2012 at 06:23 PM
When they find this Muslime mound of goats$%t BANG ! One less terrorist ...more to go. Find em fix em....then BANG ! that should be the new way to deal with these turds. If they take him alive it gives all the dhimmis a chance to plead his case...really worked out well last time huh ?
@Deb Have you heard about former Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke forming "Special Operations for America"?
Seems he's calling Obummer on the carpet for trying to take all the credit for the killing of Osama.
This is the equivalent of "Swift Boat Vets against Kerry "
I've got a post on it, and so does BareNakedIslam.
Posted by: PALADIN | July 19, 2012 at 09:17 PM
Paladin: Yes I heard about the former Navy SEAL, I think he is doing a great thing. Somebody needs to be calling Obama out.
Thanks for sharing your post and also BareNakedIslam. They do a great job when they can stay online.
Posted by: Debbie | July 19, 2012 at 10:07 PM
@Deb yes he is, and people can get involved with this group, especially if your a veteran. and even if your not. And those turds @ CAIR have been trying to shut down the BNI site for some time, which is why i have declared a personal war against them.
They seem to bully whoever they can into submission.....ain't gonna happen with me.
Any info anybody has on em i would like to know.
Gonna set up a bootleg e-mail account and gather everything i can on em.
They pissed off the wrong guy and i'm gonna devote a lot of time to them....you could say they have become my "special project " :)
Posted by: PALADIN | July 19, 2012 at 11:47 PM