I always used to get them confused.
"Thieves in Brussels steal $50 million in diamonds" by Andrew Higgins | New York Times, February 20, 2013
BRUSSELS — In a meticulously planned heist that took barely five minutes to execute, armed men disguised as police officers drove onto the tarmac at the international airport in Brussels on Monday night and stole diamonds worth around $50 million as they were being loaded onto a plane bound for Switzerland, officials said....
“This was not a random robbery. It was well-prepared — these were professionals,’’ said the spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutors' office, Anja Bijens, adding that the robbers had worn police uniforms and carried submachine guns. No shots were fired and no one was hurt....
Looks like an inside job to me.
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"Police detain 31 people in $50m Belgium diamond heist; Large number of diamonds found" by Raf Casert | Associated Press, May 09, 2013
BRUSSELS — Unlike the brilliant thieves in ‘‘Ocean’s Eleven,’’ it appears that those behind the clockwork-precision, $50 million diamond heist at Brussels Airport may not get a Hollywood ending.
I'm starting to think that is what my paper is, nothing but a staged script.
After three months of virtual silence on the matter, authorities struck this week, detaining at least 31 people in a three-nation sweep and recovering so many diamonds from the loot Antwerp traders lost that they are still figuring out the exact value.
Officials said that among the people held in Belgium, France, and Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday are some with violent criminal pasts; the one person held in France is believed to have been one of the robbers at the airport. The evidence seized includes large sums of cash, precious stones, and luxury cars....
Some 250 policemen were involved in the dawn raid in the Belgian capital, and many of the two dozen suspects were being interrogated late Wednesday. It could take at least another day before it’s clear how many will be placed under arrest, said Anja Bijnens, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.
Perhaps the most important discovery was in Geneva of stones that could immediately be linked to the cache spirited away from the airport.
That theft ranks among the biggest diamond heists of recent times, and many liken it to the plot of the 2001 Vegas heist movie, ‘‘Ocean’s Eleven,’’ which stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, for its clinically clean execution....
Jean-Marc Meilleur, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office, said police had also found luxury cars.
Meilleur was scant on detail, yielding no clues as to how police got on the trail of the suspects.
Script?
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Off script?
"Train carrying chemicals derails
BRUSSELS — Hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire in northern Belgium early Saturday morning. Amateur video showed the train ablaze. In daylight, the train cars could be seen forming a zig-zag over the track. Citing a statement from the East Flanders government, news reports said that authorities were investigating if a death of someone in the area of the derailment was linked to the accident. The statement said 17 people were injured (AP)."
Meanwhile, "in a little-watched proceeding in a small courtroom (and for good reason):
"Bulgaria bus bomb linked to Hezbollah; Labeling group as terrorists proves tricky in the EU" by Nicholas Kulish and Matthew Brunwasser | New York Times, February 06, 2013
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian officials have found themselves under pressure from Israel and the United States, which consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization, to blame it for the bus attack. But the Bulgarians also have been facing pressure from such European allies as Germany and France, which regard Hezbollah as a legitimate political organization, to temper any finding on the sensitive issue.
What that means is the Bulgarians and everyone else know it was another in a long series of Mossad or Israeli false flag attacks.
The United States welcomed the finding....
But Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign policy, responded with caution....
The new secretary of state, John F. Kerry, released a statement urging “governments around the world — and particularly our partners in Europe — to take immediate action to crack down” on Hezbollah, and made a phone call to Ashton. Asked whether he had pressed for Hezbollah to be blacklisted, the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said that Ashton “knows where we want to go.”
Yeah, we do.
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UPDATE:
[The alleged case of a Lebanese man, bearing a Swedish passport, reconning buses in Cyprus which sometimes carried Israelis, among thousands of Goyim, is totally a Mossad/CIA set-up, with no actual evidence except for a notebook the man carried. All articles on the Internet pertaining to the alleged case all derive from the Zionist press, either Reuters or Haaretz. No strategic info contained there, as far as the news reports. The NY Times is harping on the story below.] -- Mossad Looks To Build the Bulgarian Bus Case In Cyprus
Here's your cover story:
"Hezbollah operative describes inner workings" by NICHOLAS KULISH | New York Times, February 22, 2013
LIMASSOL, Cyprus — A Hezbollah operative who worked as a courier for the group in Europe said at his trial Thursday that he had instructions to record the arrival times of passenger flights from Israel to Cyprus, prompting Israel to press the European Union to formally declare the militant group a terrorist organization.
During a cross-examination, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub described himself as ‘‘an active member of Hezbollah’’ with the code name ‘‘Wael,’’ and said he had received a salary of $600 a month since 2010. Asked why he had a code name, he answered through an interpreter, ‘‘In general, the party is based on secrecy between members. We don’t know the real names of our fellow members.’’
Yaacoub said his handler, a shadowy figure known only as Ayman, told him to track the landing times for an Arkia Israel Airlines flight between Tel Aviv and Larnaca, Cyprus. Ayman also asked him to look into the rental prices of warehouses, he said.
So which western intelligence agency was he working for?
Yaacoub, 24, who holds Lebanese and Swedish passports, described himself as a pawn, following orders but not involved — or at least not knowingly involved — in planning an attack. But prosecutors say that is exactly what he was doing. Intelligence experts in the United States and Israel say Yaacoub was one small player in the covert war that has pitted Israel against Iran and the militant group.
Yaacoub’s testimony has provided an unusual look inside the operations of the secretive group. On Thursday, Yaacoub described the weapons training he had received as a member of the group.
But he has denied taking part in a plot to kill Israeli citizens in Cyprus, in an attack similar to the bombing of a bus in Bulgaria last summer that the government there has blamed on Hezbollah.
On the stand, Yaacoub said that Hezbollah fund-raising was used for schools and hospitals. He said the group had its own ‘‘popular resistance army’’ separate from the Lebanese army.
Probably the only true thing he said.
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"Conviction could limit Hezbollah in EU" by Nicholas Kulish | New York Times, March 22, 2013
BERLIN — In a decision that could have significant repercussions for Hezbollah’s operations in Europe, a court in Cyprus found a man guilty Thursday of participating in a plot to attack Israeli tourists on vacation on the Mediterranean island, part of a conspiracy similar to a deadly bombing last July in Bulgaria.
The court found the man, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Swedish-Lebanese citizen, guilty on five out of the eight charges, including participation in a criminal organization. The three others were conspiracy charges, which the head judge said in the ruling were already covered under the five counts. Yaacoub will be sentenced at a separate hearing.
‘‘It has been proven that Hezbollah is an organization that operates under complete secrecy. There is no doubt that this group has multiple members and proceeds with various activities including military training of its members,’’ the head of the three-judge panel that ruled on the case, Tasia Psara-Miltiadou, said in court Thursday. ‘‘Therefore the court rules that Hezbollah acts as a criminal organization.’’
Yaacoub admitted in court last month he was a member of Hezbollah, a Shi’ite militant group, and that he was trained in the use of weapons and dispatched around Europe on missions as a courier and a scout for the group. The court rejected his assertion that he had no idea why his handlers asked him to monitor the arrival times of flights from Israel and to track locations of Israeli tourists in Cyprus.
The conviction could accelerate efforts to have the group designated a terrorist organization by the European Union. Experts say that in the legalistic, bureaucratic world of Brussels, a court conviction holds significantly more weight than a declaration by a government or an intelligence report.
Israel and the United States have been pressing for European allies to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
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Related:
"Bulgarian cabinet resigns amid public anger" by Matthew Brunwasser | New York Times, February 21, 2013
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov of Bulgaria submitted his government’s resignation Wednesday after a tumultuous week of public anger over rising electricity prices, corruption, and austerity measures that ignited mass protests and led to bloody clashes with police on Tuesday night....
The mass protests were triggered by electricity price increases and corruption scandals....
Unlike governments across Europe shaken recently for implementing painful austerity measures, analysts say that Bulgaria has maintained tight fiscal discipline since a security board was established in 1997.
The global economic crisis has resulted in unemployment and lower income for many Bulgarians, while the cost of living has been going up, according to Daniel Smilov, an analyst at the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia.
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I wonder who was put in because I never saw another word in my Globe.
UPDATE:
"Bulgaria vote yields no clear winner" Associated Press, May 13, 2013
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria’s center-right party and its main challenger, the Socialists, finished first and second in Sunday’s parliamentary election, with neither winning a majority needed to form a government, two exit polls indicated.
If that outcome is confirmed, it could lead to more political and economic instability in the financially strapped Balkan nation....
Voter apathy was widespread, and allegations of vote fraud and an illegal wiretapping scandal marred the campaign....
In other words, it was just like any western election.
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