No need to comment on this:
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 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.
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.
Hat tip: PeterTheHungarian.
Update: In another twist, Bulgarians now deny that Ghezali is the one, and so do Swedes.
America’s ABC News on Thursday reported that Bulgarian officials denied Bulgarian news reports that the Burgas bomber was identified as Mehdi Ghezali. The Atlantic Wire also reported Swedish officials issuing a similar denial.Let's wait a bit more then.
Earlier on Thursday Bulgarian media had 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 Ghezali.
Update: A more nuanced piece. Apparently the Swedes don't deny that the man in question is Mehdi Ghezali, only that he was a Swedish national.
WASHINGTON – Sweden denied Thursday reports in Bulgarian media suggesting that Mehdi Ghezali, the suspected suicide bomber who executed the terror attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas, was a Swedish national. Meanwhile, new details on the suspect contiune to emerge.
"We don't know this name", Swedish Security Service Chief Claes Ohison said, but would not elaborate.
2 comments:
It's a truism in the news biz that the first report is almost always wrong, in one way or another.
How true. Still, I am suspicious about Swedish denial.
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