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THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2012
The Associated Press
A blown-out bus is transported out of the airport in the quiet Black Sea resort city of Burgas, Bulgaria, on Thursday, a day after the suicide attack that targeted Israeli vacationers onboard.
ISRAEL AND IRAN
After attack on tourists, fears of an escalating ‘shadow war’ By Joby Warrick The Washington Post
The suicide bombing of a Bulgarian bus packed with Israeli tourists has stoked fears of a deadly new phase in the long-running “shadow war” between Iran and Israel, with ordinary civilians now apparently replacing diplomats as primary targets. U.S. and Israeli officials pointed to similarities between the Bulgarian attack and three recently foiled plots also aimed at civilians, including a nearly identical plan to kill vacationing Israelis in Cyprus. While the identity of the bomber in Wednesday’s attack remained unclear, the earlier attempts have been tied to Iran or Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia movement closely aligned with the Islamic republic. Even before the blast in Bulgaria, intelligence officials were seeing signs of a dangerous escalation in what had until recently been a campaign of covert, tit-for-tat strikes targeting diplomats and — inside Iran — nuclear scientists. Earlier this month, Kenyan authorities arrested two Iranian men in connection with a plot to bomb several Western and Israeli businesses in that East African country. The suspects, identified by Kenya as members of an elite Iranian military unit, had brought with them more than 220 pounds of RDX, a powerful military explosive strong enough to destroy a large hotel. As far back as January, the
Israeli government has sounded warnings about a growing terrorist threat in Bulgaria, a country whose Black Sea beaches have become a popular destination for thousands of Israelis each year. After Wednesday’s attack, Israeli officials were quick to blame Iran, but Israel did not release evidence linking Iran or Hezbollah to the incident. U.S. intelligence officials said they have not seen proof, though they did not dispute the link. A series of Iran-linked plots in the fall and winter had mostly targeted diplomats and embassies. Iranian nationals and Hezbollah operatives had been implicated in attempted assassinations of Israeli, U.S. and Saudi figures in five countries. In one incident, Iranian operatives allegedly sought to hire Mexican gang members in a foiled plan to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington. The attacks paused for several months during the spring, a lull that coincided with preparations for nuclear talks between Iran and the United States and five other world powers. But as the negotiations faltered in June, new plots surfaced, this time with civilians as primary targets. In a plot eerily similar to Wednesday’s attack, authorities in Cyprus announced July 7 that they had detained a Lebanese man who confessed to entering the country to plan attacks on planes and buses used by Israeli tour groups. Matthew Levitt, a counter-
terrorism expert who is writing a book on Hezbollah-sponsored terrorism, said the new plots pointed to a tactical shift by Iran that suggested both a deliberate escalation and an acknowledgment of the difficulty of going after embassies and other heavily guarded installations. “They’re going after softer targets,” said Levitt, a researcher with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. The new plots “fit within the pattern of the shadow war” that pits Iran and its proxies against the West, he said. “But what is shocking is the fact that, while the modus operandi is the same, this time they succeeded.” U.S. officials have cautioned that there was, as yet, no firm evidence linking Iran or its allies to Wednesday’s attack in the Black Sea port of Burgas. In the latest incident, a suicide bomber managed to blend in with an Israeli tour group at the city’s airport before detonating his explosives, killing five Israelis as well as their Bulgarian bus driver and himself. Iran denied having any role in the Bulgarian attack, and its official media dismissed Israeli accusations as “ridiculous.” Both Iran and Hezbollah have publicly blamed Israel and the U.S. for the assassinations of nuclear scientists and of the militia’s former security director, Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, who was blown apart in Syria in 2008 by a car bomb detonated by remote control.
W B Murdoch resigns from media boards LONDON — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has resigned as a director of a number of News Corp. boards overseeing his Britain newspapers, a spokeswoman confirmed Saturday. He also quit from some of the media company’s subsidiary boards in the U.S. Murdoch stepped down as a director of NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp. Investments in the U.K.,
Farm bill Continued from A1 While there is less money available, eligibility for funding is broader, and more receptive to tree farmers, she said. Previously, forestry was only eligible for up to 10 percent of the 10 million acres of land authorized for the Conservation Security Program, under which farmers receive payments for voluntarily promising to improve soil and water quality. In both new versions, there is no cap on tree farmers. Additionally, the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, another voluntary program that rewards farmers for creating and maintaining habitat for threatened and endangered species on their land, has been folded into the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The habitat program, particularly attractive to Northwest tree farmers who could accommodate the endangered spotted owl, will receive 5 percent of the larger program’s $1.75 billion in funding.
said Daisy Dunlop, spokeswoman for News Corp.’s British arm, News International. It was not immediately clear which of News Corp.’s U.S. boards Murdoch had left. News International sought to play down the significance of the resignations.
Muslim Brotherhood denounced at funeral CAIRO, Egypt — Angry mourners denounced the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday
The House version also included a fix that would include wood products in the Biobased Markets Program, an effort to bolster domestic agriculture by requiring the federal government to give preference to products that use renewable materials. “Historically, that meant everything but wood, but we’ve changed that,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, who is a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Last week, Schrader and 78 other representatives wrote to the House leadership, urging them to bring the farm bill to the House floor for a vote. “We all share the goal of trying to give small businesses certainty in these challenging economic times. Agriculture supports nearly 16 million jobs nationwide,” the letter states. “The message from our constituents and rural America is clear: we need a farm bill now.” More generally, both versions of the farm bill eliminate direct payments to farmers, which sometimes resulted in
at the funeral for Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s longtime top spy, in a ceremony that encapsulated the odd political dissonance that governs this country, where a democratically elected president newly in office shares power with a stilldominant military council. That president, Mohammed Morsi, did not attend the rites for Suleiman, whose agents once arrested Morsi for his work on behalf of the Brotherhood. — From wire reports
farmers in other states being paid to grow nothing, Schrader said. Oregon farmers will benefit by reduced competition from these propped-up entities, he said. The farm bill also calls for improved disease and pest management in federal forests, which will result in healthier public and private forests overall, he said. “In general, I think it’s a pretty good bill,” Schrader said. “The 2008 farm bill was a big, big improvement, and this one is a big improvement on that.” Oregon contains more than 30 million forested acres, which accounts for almost half the state. In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Bend, 2.9 million acres of forest are family-owned, while another 2.2 million acres of forest are privately owned industrial farms. Statewide, 141,000 family tree farms account for more than 4.2 million acres of forest. — Reporter: 202-662-7456, aclevenger@bendbulletin.com