Iran Fingerprints on Bulgaria Terrorist Blast

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright July 19, 2012
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               Examining dismembered fingers from yesterday’s suicide bombing at Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort of Burgas, authorities, with U.S. and Israeli help, have found Iran’s fingerprints.  “Yesterday’s attack was committed by Hezbollah—the long arm of Iran,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.  “We will continue to pursue the attackers and exact a heavy price from those who support them.  Since Iran decided to move full-steam ahead with its nuclear program, the U.S. and Israel have had very little leverage containing Iran’s uranium enrichment program, believed dangerously close to producing enough fissile material for A-bombs.  Long gone are the days when Iran relied on Israeli weapons to fight its eight-year long war with Saddam Hussein.  Today’s Iran has President Ahmadinejad promising to “wipe Israel off the map,” whether literally or symbolically.

            Since the height of the last Palestinian intifada [uprising] Sept. 29, 2000, Palestinians militant groups, especially Hamas, have engaged in suicide bombing inside the Jewish State.  Suicide bombing became Palestinians’ preferred form of resistance following the collapse of former President Bill Clinton’s last attempt a Mideast peacemaking at Camp David, ending in July 2000.  When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sept. 28, 2000, suicide bombings began hitting Israeli population centers.  Bus-bombings routinely occurred until Israel figured out how to prevent them.  Killing eight Israeli tourists July 18 at the Burgas airport indicates Tehran’s stepped up retaliation in response to targeted killing of Iran’s nuclear scientists.  Unable to get back at Israeli officials, Iran struck through its surrogates at the next best thing.

            When the last Iranian nuclear scientist Ahmadi Roshan was killed Jan. 11, 2012, it was a matter of time before Iran retaliated.  While Iran denies any such involvement, the Burgas suicide blast seems related.  Calling “other countries with delusional accusations,” Iranian Foreign Minister spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected any connection to past events.  Yesterday’s bus-bombing came exactly 18 years to the day from the suspected Iranian-backed bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires July 18, 1994.  Since its founding May 14, 1948, Israel has be subjected to nearly continuous war or asymmetric attacks.  When the Israeli Olympic Team was massacred in Munich Sept. 6, 1972, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir launched “Operation Wrath of God,” to use the Mossad—the Israeli secret service—to track down the Black September Palestinian terrorists responsible for the mass murder.

            Meeting in Tel Aviv July 17, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told  Netanyahu that the U.S. would use “all elements of its power” to prevent Iran from going nuclear.  Promising to work in “close coordination” with Israel, Clinton left no doubt that all options were on the table to prevent Tehran from getting an A-bomb.  While there’s no direct linkage between yesterday’s suicide bombing and Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, the U.S. recognizes Iran’s involvement in international terrorism. Iran continues to fund Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas, now fingered as the suspects in the Burgas bus-bombing.  When Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh was killed in 2008 with a car bomb, it was a long time coming, after suspected in the Munich Massacre and Oct. 23, 1983 truck-bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks and American Embassy in Beirut, killing 241 American soldiers.

             When former President George W. Bush fingered Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” in his Jan. 29, 2002 State of the Union speech—only four short months after Sept. 11—the prophecy rang true.  With wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush could do little to stop Iran’s feverish nuclear enrichment program.  While it’s tempting to tie the Bulgaria bombing and nuclear enrichment program together, the White House must separate U.S. and Israeli interests:  Neither side wishes to see Iran go nuclear.  But the U.S. can’t fight Israel’s proxy war with Iran.  When Israel left Lebanon in disgrace Aug. 14, 2006, Hezbollah scored a moral victory.  Whether Israel views yesterday’s event as an act of war, the White House must calculate its options with regard to what’s good for U.S. national security.  Opening up a new front in Iran would drain the Treasury and compromise U.S. national security.

            Claiming responsibility for the Bulgaria blast, Iran’s surrogate Hezbollah establishes itself as a new global terror menace.  While confining terrorist activities to the Middle East, Hezbollah’s new operation in Bulgaria crosses a different line.  Hezbollah’s defacto leader 51-year-old Hassan Nasrallah becomes the new Osama bin Laden, whose terror reach now goes beyond the Middle East into Eastern Europe.  Israel’s last Lebanon War ended in frustration because Israeli Defense Forces couldn’t root out Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon’s population centers.  Israel knew it would face Nasrallah again somewhere down the road.  “Any retaliation against Hezbollah is likely to take the form of a covert operation, which means it won’t be immediate as these things take time to set up,” said Shlomo Brom, senior research fellow at Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, signaling the asymmetric war goes on.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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