Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat

[MindMover]

After a decade in which al Qaeda dominated the world stage, the global terror threat from Iran has escalated sharply, generating a swarm of recent plots from Delhi to Mombasa to Washington and signaling an aggressive new strategy, counterterror officials say.

But there were meager results until this month. On July 18, a suspected suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 30 aboard an Israeli tourist bus in a coastal town in Bulgaria. Israel quickly accused Hezbollah and Iran, longtime sponsor of the Lebanese Shiite militant group. Many questions remain about the bombing, and Bulgarian authorities have said they do not have proof implicating Hezbollah so far. Nonetheless, many Western counterterror officials share Israel's suspicions.

If the allegations are true, Iran and Hezbollah have crossed a dangerous line with their first strike in Europe in more than 15 years. The repercussions are stoking more turmoil in a Middle East torn by civil war in Syria and conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

ProPublica has reviewed a string of plots attributed to the Shiite alliance, 10 cases in the past year alone, and found a complex and contradictory evolution of the threat. Iran and Hezbollah have waged a determined campaign to strike their enemies in retaliation for attacks on the Iranian nuclear program and the killing of a Hezbollah chief, counterterror officials say. The offensive led by the Quds Force, Iran's elite foreign operations unit, has displayed impressive reach and devastating potential.

http://www.propublica.org/article/before-deadly-bulgaria-bombing-tracks-of-a-resurgent-iran-hezbollah-threat

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Good in depth article on Hezbollah threat ....

[dtom67]

1. I am the "Low-rent" Cassandra....

Here comes the build-up.

" We must invade Iran. We must invade Iran. We must...."

Bullshit.


I fully expect that there will be an event in the next 6 or 12 months that will cause normally sane Americans to wrap themselves in the Flag and Beg for an Invasion of Iran.

If anyone tells you: " There is no way anyone could have known ", you tell them.

Bullshit.

But we fall for it every time.

[MindMover]

2. I will keep saying that we do not have to enter Iran with troops ...

This piece is more about the connection and how each is using each other ... for terrorist purposes ....

High flying bombers will do the job just fine ....

[eager beaver.]

3. Am I reading you correctly?

You are cheering the scenario of ANY sort of bombers dropped on a country that is being ginned up as an enemy? And I will be the one kicked out of here; not you...

[MindMover]

4. You will read into my post (s) anything you want ....

I could say open your eyes and you will think I said close them ....

I will just say that there is No Way Jose that Iran with its current political theater is going to acquire nuclear arms in any form ...

and if you have a problem understanding the sentence above .... I will explain further ....

[OverseaVisitor]

5. Before that happen

[Warren DeMontague]

7. That's alright, you'll be back

at least, until the library closes.

[LooseWilly]

6. Interesting that this and other suspected activity is being acknowledged as a "change of strategy"

on the part of Iran.

The misadventure may reflect factionalism and freelancing in Iran's mafia-like security forces, according to experts and officials. Some theorize the Quds Force launched the mission mainly to send a warning message, or as part of Iranian political intrigue.

In the aftermath, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, warned about a shift in Iranian strategy. "Some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime," Clapper said during Senate testimony in January.

I hope everyone realizes that this constitutes an admission by the Director of National Intelligence that Iran hadn't been willing to conduct an attack on the US in response to real or perceived threats previously... but have now changed their calculus.

Does anyone still believe the idea that all of these US sanctions and so on were in response to a "perceived threat"?...

After admitting what is tantamount to a pre-emptive program of US hostilities, are we really going to be drawn into a knee-jerk response to acts of hostility that may or may not be attributable to Iran?

Do we all also buy timeshares every time the time-share people call and "inform" us of the wonders and joys to be had from a week of vacation in Ireland, Hawai'i, Fiji, or points more or less exotic than previously listed?...

Can you not smell a sales job and someone angling for a commission here, people?

[cpwm17]

8. IF this is true, it's a self-fulfilling prophosy

After years of criminal sanctions against Iran by the US (allegedly for Israel's benefit) and the murder of Iranian scientists (possibly by Israel), some group in Iran MAY have decided to take revenge with a terrible crime of their own.

This is aggressive war making 101 by the US and Israel.

I personally still think that the actual war will not happen, but this is a dangerous and tragic game.