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Netanyahu can provide no evidence to Schieffer to back up wild charges of Iranian ‘terror campaign’ in 24 countries

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It would seem from this interview on CBS yesterday that Netanyahu feels no responsibility to provide evidence for his assertion that Hezbollah and Iran were behind the terrorist attack in Bulgaria last week. He says that the shoe fits the bomber(s) because the week before a man of Lebanese origin was arrested in Cyprus on charges that he was tracking Israeli tourists. Netanyahu accuses this man of terrorist motives, too.

Netanyahu tells Bob Schieffer that he is exposing “Iran’s culpability…yes they’ve targeted Israelis … [in a] systematic attack in dozens of countries on five continents.”

He also accuses Iran of a “global campaign … to launch terror attacks against Israelis” in 24 countries, including Bulgaria. In this campaign, he claims, Iran was prepared to take out American senators to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States– but this was a dubious plot.

These are wild charges that could only push the United States toward an attack on Iran. It’s amazing that a foreign prime minister gets nearly 8 minutes of prime time network air to make them. But it’s part of a sad and predictable pattern.
 

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Sent this on Friday to Face the Nation:

Hi,

Why are you having Netanyahu on to blame Iran (see I already know what he’s going to say, as do you all) before he knows anything about who did the bombing? He started out talking blame immediately after the fact, yet didn’t know enough to warn or prevent the attack before the fact. His government then promptly backtracked. Now it’s reasserting the Iran angle. The US has only cited Israeli claims as its “confirmation” (NYT) of Iranian involvement. He has less than zero credibility.

Given the lack of any credibility, how can you have Netanyahu on to blame Iran with all the other big stories going on? What is so, so, so important that he be given time on your show.

Again given the lack of credibility, why are you failing to have someone on to refute his unsubstantiated claims? At least do this small thing.

—

You are part of the band, again marching us toward a catastrophic war and economic meltdown. Stop it. Be responsible.

And by all means let the audience assess Netanyahu’s credibility by asking about nuclear triggers.

I don’t know what clout he has to get on your half-hour show at a time of US national crisis (more dead people, need I say) and mourning, particularly when he has nothing factual to say, but there it is. The lack of journalistic judgement is breathtaking.

Very disappointing.

Me.

Apparently they didn’t take my advice… (chortle, chortle)

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When I watched the Fox News interview and Netanyahu said he had ‘rock solid evidence’, I sort of chuckled. It reminded me of then-CIA’s director George Tenet’s comment in the run-up to Iraq that the intelligence was a ‘slam dunk’.

The difference is that Tenet was an idiot who didn’t know what he was being fed in order to use him, Bibi is pushing this on his own.

But the nature of both remarks, in the run-up to Iraq in the first place and Iran in the second is striking.

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An Iranian terrorist squad is now plotting to kill Israeli athletes?

Good news: Native Israelis are safe in the London Olympics.

https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/07/no-palestinian-athletes-will-represent-israel-in-the-olympics.html

Israel is so nice, they will not risk attacks against a minority, so the minority have to stay at home in the The Jewish state in occupied Palestine….

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The most recent National Counterterrorism Center’s annual report, for 2011, doesn’t even mention Iran.

Report highlights follow:

Sunni extremists accounted for the greatest number of terrorist attacks and fatalities for the third consecutive year. More than 5,700 incidents were attributed to Sunni extremists, accounting for nearly
56 percent of all attacks and about 70 percent of all fatalities. Among this perpetrator group, al-Qa‘ida (AQ) and its affiliates were responsible for at least 688 attacks that resulted in almost 2,000 deaths, while the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan conducted over 800 attacks that resulted in nearly 1,900 deaths. Secular, political, and anarchist groups were the next largest category of perpetrators, conducting 2,283 attacks with 1,926 fatalities, a drop of 5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from 2010.

• Attacks by AQ and its affiliates increased by 8 percent from 2010 to 2011. A significant increase in attacks by al-Shabaab, from 401 in 2010 to 544 in 2011, offset a sharp decline in attacks by al-Qa‘ida in Iraq (AQI) and a smaller decline in attacks by al-Qa‘ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al-Qa‘ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
• The most active of the secular, political, and anarchist groups in 2011 included the FARC (377 attacks), the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) (351 attacks), the New People’s Army/Communist Party of the Philippines (NPA-CPP) (102 attacks), and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Turkey (48 attacks).

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The Bulgarian Interior Minister directly contradicts Netanyahu:

BEGIN
Investigators are struggling to identify the Bulgaria suicide bomber who killed seven people (including himself) on Wednesday and witness reports contrast autopsy results.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov – who is leading the investigation – told Haaretz that the identity of the attacker is still unclear, noting that the bomber had never been to Guantánamo Bay and “there is no proof that he was sent by Hezbollah.”
END QUOTE

http://www.businessinsider.com/investigators-are-struggling-to-identify-the-bulgaria-bus-bomber-2012-7#ixzz21SRlo16Y

To repeat; THERE IS NO PROOF THAT HE WAS SENT BY HEZBOLLAH.

So: why didn’t Netanyahu provide the Bulgarian government with the ironclad proof he claims to possess?

And why didn’t Chris Wallace and Bob Shieffer challenge Netanyahu on this point? Are they afraid of offending their employers or the Israel lobby?

More developments for those who are interested in sifting through facts, not ridiculous Israeli propaganda:

BEGIN QUOTE
On Friday AP reported that prosecutors cited witness reports that the suspect had dark eyes and said they believe the man to be short-haired, but that they were unclear whether he was wearing a wig or had a haircut after the footage was taken.

However, a forensic expert who took part in autopsies on the victims and the attacker told Bulgarian National TV that the bomber “had a white face, light eyes, and very thick brown hair.”

…

On Sunday Bulgarian media reported that police were looking for a woman believed to have been staying in a hotel with the bomber.

Troud reported, again citing unnamed investigators, that this woman is also believed to be linked to a possible second man whom police think may have been the bomber’s accomplice.

That man was reported to be a U.S. citizen named David Jepson, who was allegedly captured on airport security footage at the end of June, according to unconfirmed information.
END QUOTE

Is this U.S. citizen a Hebollah member? Let’s see where the investigation leads.

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