As
Israel Blames
Hezbollah for
Bomb, Bulgaria
Not Yet Sure,
Authorship a
Secret
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 19 --
After UN
Security
Council
president
Nestor Osorio
read out a
press
statement
about the
killing of
seven Israeli
tourists in
Bulgaria,
Israel's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Haim Waxman
took
to the UN
microphone and
said Hezbollah
and Al Quds
were
responsible.
Inner
City
Press asked
for a bit more
information.
He said he
couldn't say
more, but the
attacks bore
all the
fingerprints
of Hezbollah,
citing
the killing of
85 in
Argentina 18
years ago.
But
when
Bulgaria's
Permanent
Representative
Stefan Tafrov
spoke, he was
asked if he
yet knew who
did it. No, he
said.
He praised the
Security
Council for
issuing its
press
statement so
quickly,
noting that
when Bulgaria
was
on the
Security
Council in
2002-03,
during a month
he was
president
it took two
weeks to
negotiate a
statement
about Saddam
Hussein.
Noting
that the
increase in
speed is due
to the
Security
Council never
trying to say
who is
responsible --
since a
notably error
of blaming the
Madrid
bombings on
ETA not Al
Qaeda -- Inner
City Press
asked the
Bulgarian
Ambassador if
such lack of
attribution is
useful. He
again said, it
is too early
to say who is
responsible.
Nor
would
he or Osorio
say which
Council member
was
responsible
for
drafting the
statement.
Late
Wednesday,
Inner City
Press was
reliably
informed that
Germany had
been asked to
draft it; the
source said
that Germany
is now "always
eager on
matters
concerning
Israel." But
Thursday, no
one would
confirm
authorship or
initial
drafting.
And so it goes
at the UN.
, 
