Bulgaria's National Security Agency Clueless about Terror Attack - Rightist Leader

Rightist leader Ivan Kostov has insisted that the Bulgarian government and the State Agency for National Security (DANS) must explain as soon as possible why the country was hit by an international terror attack.

A bus carrying Israeli tourists exploded Wednesday afternoon at the airport in the Black Sea city of Burgas, killing seven people and wounding more than 32.

Five people died at the site of the explosion and the injured were taken to hospital.

Kostov, leader of the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) party and rotating chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Control over DANS, told journalists Thursday that the national security authority was unprepared to answer key questions to prevent future attacks of the kind.

He added that the MPs' questions to the Deputy Chair of DANS, Vladimir Pisanchev, had largely remained unanswered on the excuse that the investigation was at initial stage.

."Any cheap answer of the sort "Such things happen everywhere, why not in Bulgaria?" is absolutely unsatisfactory. This is the first time that Bulgaria becomes a target of international terrorism and Bulgaria needs to be told why this happened at this particular point in time," Kostov commented.

He urged DANS to say whether there was a serious reason why Bulgaria had been attacked or whether it would simply have to hope that the next bombing would miss the target.

Kostov added that DANS had received no signals before the terror attack at the Burgas Airport.

The rightist leader reminded that the prevention and fight against terrorism were set out in three pieces of legislation, the main responsibility being with the Chief Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) and the specialized counter-terrorism unit at DANS.

He added that the investigation of a terror attack was impossible without international cooperation, i.e. "without a serious backing on the part of all Western European partner services."