Ten Questions on Bulgaria Bus Attack

By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi

Israeli Nurit Harush, wounded during an attack in Bulgaria, is pushed in a stretcher by medics after her arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv July 19. A suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed seven people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the country’s interior minister said Thursday. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The attack on a bus outside the airport at Burgas Bulgaria on Wednesday, July 18th is still under investigation and so far there are few clues regarding the perpetrator(s).  The Bulgarian government has published the photo of the bomber’s blown-up face, describing him as “blue-eyed Caucasian.”  While we await the final result of the on-going investigation, the sum of the available information raises several troubling questions that cast doubt on the official story – that a “bus load of Israeli passengers” was exploded by a bomb.  Rather, the information suggests that the targeted bus was empty and only the passengers in the bus next to it were injured.  These questions raise the distinct possibility of an Israeli “false-flag” operation aimed at smearing Iran and Lebanese group, Hizbollah.  The purpose of raising these questions is less to prove a theory, and more to disprove the official story that has settled on the notion of a full bus as a self-evident fact, in light of the images of fire and smoke engulfing the said bus, reports of multiple fatalities as well as more than three dozen injured.  As a result, any suggestion that the bus in question was empty may seem far-fetched and highly questionable, until one begins to address the following ten questions:

1.       Why the amateur video of the bus taken within seconds of the explosion  doesn’t show anyone jumping down the bus?

2.      Why so many passengers survived with only light hand and foot injuries in an explosion involving (according to the Bulgarian officials) three kilograms of TNT in front of the bus?

3.      Why did the Israeli group known as Zakar appear immediately on the site and collected the bodies of the dead, per several images, when this should have been done by Bulgarians? Why was this group at the airport at that time?

4.      Why did the bomb kill the Israelis sitting in the back of the bus (per reports in the Israeli media) while simultaneously killing the bus driver in the front and leaving the vast majority of bus passengers only lightly harmed?

5.      Why have some bus witnesses told the media that they tried to get out through the front door but found it locked and managed to get out through a “hole on the side” when both the videos and reports indicate an instant fire following the explosion engulfing the bus?

6.      Why is there no report of any injuries to the bus driver in the next bus, which sustained major damage especially on the driver’s side?  Could the bus driver killed be the one in the second bus?

7.      Why was there no extra security precaution even though according to the Israeli media prior to the landing of Israeli passengers the tour company had received a call that they would be “greeted with two bombs”?

8.      Why was the trunk of the targeted bus empty and no sign of any luggage (per numerous images that also show the inside of the bus and the absence of any section for luggage contrary to the claim of one of the Israeli passengers who is quoted widely)?

9.       Why did the passport and license of purported terrorist remain intact despite the raging fire in the bus?

10.  Why did Israel rush all the passengers back to Israel early next morning instead of allowing the Bulgarian investigators to interview them?

It is noteworthy that the Israeli passengers who were evacuated back to Israel by the Israeli defense force did not have passports and identification and were able to leave Bulgaria simply based on the pledge by the Israeli ambassador that he “recognized every one.”  In other words, it is perfectly possible that several Israelis who arrived in Burgas on the same airplane and were subsequently announced dead as a result of the explosion may have slipped back to Israel without raising the slightest suspicion.  In that case, all Israel needed to do for the sake of a successful “false-flag” operation was to put some body parts inside the bus (operated by an Israeli company).

Assuming this was indeed a “false-flag,” then the question arises as to why the Bulgarian government has not corroborated Israel’s accusation of Iran and Hizbollah? The answer is that Israel’s intention is not start a war with Iran and or Hizbollah at this stage, only to discredit and stigmatize them in the international community and thus gain sympathy in the world public opinion while putting its traditional adversaries under negative limelight.

In every “false-flag” there are usually one or two key “human stories” that are meant to elicit emotional feelings of anger at perpetrators and sympathy for the victims and their country of origin.  In this particular case, the human story revolves around a 42 year old woman who, according to the official story, had just discovered about her pregnancy at the Israeli airport by her doctor calling her to break the news before her departure.  What is unusual about this story is that it is common knowledge that nowadays diagnosing a pregnancy is a matter of minutes and therefore it is somewhat difficult to believe the story, particularly since news of her death reached the Israeli media at precisely 5:25, the moment of explosion, per an Israeli website, thus suggesting a pre-packaged news information.  As a result, we cannot simply preclude the possibility that the five Israeli dead are not dead and are alive under assumed names. 

The above analysis does not to purport to answer all the serious empirical questions raised by the incident in Burgas, universally billed as a “terrorist attack.” Rather, the aim is to debunk the official story and to show the viability of the “false-flag” scenario, which indicates an explosion in an empty bus, causing a great deal of eye-catching fire and smoke, and a charred bus,  with only cosmetic injuries to the passengers in the bus parked next to it.  The intention behind this operation appears to have been to cause a chaotic scene whereby it would be impossible to distinguish between the passengers in the two buses, contradicted by the Bulgarian official report that only 32 were hospitalized.

According to the Bulgarian media, the airplane carrying the Israeli passengers that afternoon on July 18th carried 150 passengers and there were four buses, one of which, with 50 passengers, left the area quickly.  This means that one of the three buses parked in front of that bus was empty, the middle one, and the bomber may indeed have been a “mule” ordered to put the bomb in an empty bus unaware that he was carrying a bomb, only a small instrument of a sinister “false-flag” operation designed to smear Israel’s adversaries.

(source: IR Diplomacy)

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