"These are the known facts: The Dubai police claim that 26 visitors entered and exited the emirate over the past year on false British, Irish, Australian, German and French passports. Some or all were involved in the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who also entered Dubai under a false identity. The Dubai police chief has accused the Mossad of the January 19 hit. He has presented no proof, but more than half of the fake passports in Dubai bore the names of Israelis.
The European Union and the countries whose passports were counterfeited have criticized the misuse of their identity documents without mentioning the names of those responsible. French President Nicolas Sarkozy termed the assassination utterly unjustified – "nothing more than a murder." Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in Mabhouh's killing or in falsifying the documents, but former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Dan Halutz said that such actions attributed to Israel "deter terror organizations." "
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Several networks here and abroad have called for my opinion on this matter. I have declined to be interviewed, saving this for you. The best was a foreign network in which the "booker" wanted to know if I would subscribe to the rumor being bruted about (or aboot for South Parkers) that the Israelis wanted to be caught so that they could seem more "bad-assed" (my vernacular). I laughed and told her that this rumor was clever on the part of the Mossad. In fact, they and the Israeli general staff intelligence are just not very good services. AIPAC does its best to disguise that but in truth most of what the Israelis have, their friends gave them.
Dubai? They screwed up. Too many people, too clumsy, too arrogant in their assumption that the "ragheads" would never catch them. The truth is that the Israelis think of all gentiles that way. pl
Col.,
I just can’t figure the number of people no matter how arrogant I assume the Israelis were. Or is there something i’m missing here — teams of 3-4 on call at 1 hour intervals or something to carry out the deed if the opportunity presented itself? Don’t really know anything on how one would arrange something like this. But a priori i can’t make any more than 10 people make sense in my head.
Danny Boy
You don’t get it because you are not a bureaucrat staff driven creep. pl
It was a boondoggle of a wet job.
Everybody knows Dubai has the best duty free shop in the Gulf and the place is loaded with Russian hookers.
Sarkozy’s comment is strange, and the assumptions underlying it have always baffled me. It’s really evil to kill a bad guy close up — that’s murder! — but okay to bomb whole neighborhoods where your enemies might be, because that’s war.
Dead bad guy, less killing overall, no dead innocents — that sounds like a better solution to me. My vote is always for “the least amount of killing that can be managed.”
Hats off to Dubai law enforcement. The ongoing investigation is far more impressive than the actual crime- which is the way it should be.
It’s soooo sad how arrogant the Israelis are towards their Arab neighbors in particular and Gentiles in general. The Arabs are smarter than the Israelis, and the Israelis don’t have enough brains to realize it. The Arabs can spot an Israeli in an Arab crowd while the Israeli thinks he/she is blending in. LOL.
Col.,
Theres some chatter that the reason for the large number of agents exposed is that the ruler was so angered by the hit, he ordered the whole station to be exposed.
Either way, the Israelis have definitely done Hizballah a favor.
If or when they take their promised revenge for the Mughniyeh killing, they can be equaly “ambiguous” in their response and enough of a question will exist so as to blacken or dampen the expected Israeli response.
Many years ago there was a book “By Way of Deception”, which had something to say about the Mossad. And the conclusion there was the same as the Colonel’s. Seems like nothing has changed, except that then the Mossad relied heavily on sympathetic “helpers” in foreign countries (who might volunteer their passports, for instance). Now that they have more money, the operations expand commensurate with funds available.
The Mossad and Israelis and their supporters in general should read more Greek tragedies. It was always hubris that finally did the hero in.
@ Daddy warbucks
… and Thai, and Filipino, and Belarussian, and etc…etc…
There may be something to the boondoggle theory (lots of bosses and their pets wanted in on the fun).
Hmm. Australia is abstaining on the Goldstone resolution at the UN today instead of voting against and has opened an investigation on its citizens who were spying for Israel.
Eventually with passage of time covert assassinations will be the rule, not the exception world-wide. Note that the prohibition in US ops is an executive order issued by Ford I believe with no citation to authority except for President’s implied powers. Associate Justice Jack in the so-called STEEL SEIZURE case during Korean War in a brilliant dissent argued for NO implied powers in the President. Trouble with that is the Louisiana Purchase accomplished by Jefferson still stands as the leading use of implied Presidential Powers. Where do I come out? TO the extent that assassination might be necessary purhaps the definition of that word helps! Go to OED for help.
I’m confused about the passports. Various reports refer to them as ‘fraudulent’ or ‘forged.’
According to Dubai authorities the passports were authentic, which implies they are fraudulent (assuming ‘fraudulent’ means they are authentic, but obtained nuder false pretense?).
Another thing – the Israelis have used foreign passports in this manner in the past, why do you suppose they have not used American passports – or perhaps they have, just never been caught?
Ali: My understanding from following the reporting on this is that the passports themselves are authentic or accurate with the exception of the pictures – those have been changed to match up with the operatives using them. In the initial reporting several of the British citizens in Israel, including the woman whose passport was used, provided information that there had been burglaries at their residences and that they could document their whereabouts for the last six months or so. The initial British response, like that of all the other affected countries, was outrage, however, it has recently been reported that British Intelligence may have been informed about the use of the passports, which has itself raised a new hue and cry in the UK. Finally, and unfortunately, Fox News ran the names on several of the passports during their reporting on this on this past Tuesday night. They put up the pictures that were used by the operatives with the passports, unfortunately what this has now down is put several people who, at least at this point appear to be real victims here, in the limelight by broadcasting their names. Given the way these things are handled, they’re all likely to wind up on watch lists as a result. (As for watching Fox News: I was at the gym, its always on along with CNN and CNBC – I try not to yell at the screen it upsets the other people working out… I did get them to eventually change it to the Olympic hockey though).
Ali —
When the first batch of passport images were released, the Irish at least and I think the british said that the serial numbers weren’t right. I.e. non-perfect forgeries.
At least one of the passports, a german one, appears to have been obtained using the birth certificate/old residency documents for a Jew whose father fled nazi germany (i.e. obtained from the german’s fraudulently).
Some of them appear to be perfect or near-perfect. I’ve seen the word “cloned” used to refer to these. (i.e. perhaps obtained as the german one was, or perhaps master forgeries).
All my infomation is from wire/newspaper reports i’ve read in the past week, so take it for what that’s worth.
Col. Lang,
Dubai is Iran’s offshore business center and backdoor to the West for technology and nuclear proliferation. I would imagine that monitoring and/or penetrating this activity would be high priority for Israeli intelligence.
Further, I had the impression that Dubai was probably laissez-faire when it came to its espionage laws and the activity of foreign intelligence services – like an Austria in the Middle East. Just so long as they don’t start assassinating each other in the nice parts of town.
If there is some truth to these assumptions; why would Israel risk upsetting the locals which would undermine the of monitoring Iranian proliferation?
Ali,
Congressmen and Senators don’t get involved in these types of operations….
Not content with fake identities Isreal used identity theft to make a covert action? Sounds like a bad Hitchcock spy thriller. I wonder how much was rung up on the fake credit cards (or did they steal the real ones, too?)and will the real passport holders now be on everyone’s no fly list forever? Try proving that you are innocent if you get caught in this dragnet. Catch 22 and Gitmo both come to mind.
As to assassination, it sure kills people but it hasn’t killed any of the underlying ideas or problems.
it appears that Iran was more successful in her endevour regarding “terrorism” than Israel in Dubai, the case being: Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah terrorist group.
For context, new book just out per Israel:
Stephen C. Pelletiere, Israel and the Second Iraq War The Influence of the Likud (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC CLIO, 2010)
Additional analytical questions/requirements would seem to include:
1. What role does Israel play in Anglo-Zionist geopolitics?
2. What role does Israel play with respect to the activities of international organized crime? For example “Russian” organized crime conducted by Russians of Jewish background and “American” organized crime conducted by Americans of Jewish background? By extension, what is the nature of the nexus between Russian, US, and Israeli organized crime?
3. To what extent is Israel “sovereign”? Is it merely the tool of transnational cosmopolitan interests?
and so on…
You’ve made the local news Col. Lang. I also have to ask, considering the numbers of Israelis involved, if you think this operation might have been a bungled kidnapping attempt?
“Dubai hit squad underestimated police: expert
By Ashley Hall
Updated 7 hours 53 minutes ago
A former top level US intelligence official says the assassination in Dubai of a Hamas operative has all the hallmarks of the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
He believes the Israeli operatives badly bungled the job because they underestimated the competency of the Dubai police.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/26/2831801.htm?section=justin
Another thing – the Israelis have used foreign passports in this manner in the past, why do you suppose they have not used American passports – or perhaps they have, just never been caught?
Posted by: Ali | 26 February 2010 at 09:51 AM
Even if they use american passport, they would have supressed the news by now. Dubai is still in good term with US and aipac runs state dept. so. But dubai vs. Israel with a palestinian leader dead? they can’t possibly not do something.
The question for US would be, does the state dept. knew and has a hand in this high profile assassination. (if not, why not? failure of intel. If yes, who is going to fix the damaged standing in arab world?) Same question for UK. How can they let so many UK pasport being used in such way? (obviously they let this happen, they can’t possibly say they know nothing without admitting the entire passport system is broken.)
I think some of those passport isn’t forged/not the person. Some of them are who they are. (faking german passport? Israel ain’t such good buddy to the german yet.)
PS. yes passport rfid can be forged. blank can be purchased.
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They are already running to mommie and try to drag US asking for help. pathetic.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152409.html
But Dubai has several masks. It helps Iran, but behind its back it provides the United States with an opportunity to gather intelligence about that country. The U.S. Consulate in Dubai also operates as a station for gathering information and enlisting agents. A few years ago the U.S. State Department wanted to close the consulate, but the CIA succeeded in convincing it to leave it open and even to boost the number of employees so that it could handle the hundreds and perhaps thousands of Iranians who come to request visas.
It’s not only the U.S. intelligence services that love Dubai: The tremendous scope of commerce and the large number of companies and foreign agencies there are an excellent cover and an appropriate disguise for any city of spies.
—-
Anybody watching Euro/europe politics? something big is going down. swirling around the net is the hedge fund group is going to attack and bring down euro.
This on top of Spain proposing Palestinian independence, Merkel allowing neo nazi rally and excluding settlement produce from import tax exemption. The neocon and zionists are not going to sit. They have to attack. The question who is going to help Merkel. She is alone (Sarkozy is a zionist). Obama or China. Whoever help europe owns european favor for next 2 decades.
If europe crash, US lost eurasia control in 5 years or less. if Obama decides to help, the jewish bankers and money people won’t be around anymore. They want to crash euro badly.
I learned recently that “shiksa” is a term of contempt. Pity the poor shiksas.
arbogast,
consult:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa
One of the interesting facets of this episode is the US connection. The credit cards that were used were issed by a small Iowa bank, MetaBank. However, these were prepaid credit cards issued in connection with a company by the name of Payoneer, headquartered in NYC. This company issues these Metabank cards to international travelers, refilling them as needed and handling the currency conversions.
The interesting connection is the CEO of Payoneer is Yuval Tal, an Israeli and a former special ops commando in the IDF. Payoneer also has an R&D office in TelAviv.
There seems little question that this was a Mossad ops but it is interesting that no American news outlet has publicized this connection and it’s obvious violation of US fraud and money laundering statutes.
Either the US was complicit in this assassination or Israel has deeper control of our justice system that anyone imagined.
Well the blow-back on those nation governments who were passive partners or inadvertent fools (passports) to Mossad’s actions.
http://www.news.com.au/national/iris-scanning-for-australian-dubai-visitors/story-e6frfkvr-1225834974052?from=public_rss
Iris scanning for Australian Dubai visitors
AUSTRALIANS traveling to Dubai will have to obtain a visa, be fingerprinted and have an iris scan in the wake of the Mossad hit squad passport scandal.
One of these days, the various and sundry Arab intels are going to get fed up enough to actively go after Mossad. When that day comes watch as Mossad operatives start dropping like flies in the Arab world. And Mossad will have nobody to blame but themselves.
Thanks for addressing this issue. Reading the Huffington Post comments on the initial news story gave me a new definition of arrogance. The ‘moderators’ there are hopelessly overpowered.
Gives me an idea about the pro-assassination comments you must be reviewing.
Thanks to the other readers for their links also. It’s a big story.
There is also some interesting thoughts on it here:
http://www.thecoldspy.com/
sooner or later somebody has to face the truth. Dual Israel US passport is endangering US citizens. Every country in the world will demand US passport with fingerprints, irish scan, complete travel log, plus access to main ID database before be given entry. (no access, then no entry.)
Irish is the last biometric that is pretty hard to fake. But rest assure somebody will come up with contact lens with biometric pattern on it. Then what? DNA blood sample? (hey, whole genome DNA scan is now only needing 1 week/100K. soon it will be 1 day/1K)
And with so much computing power and publicly available personal data from private corporation, it’s going to be nasty for everybody. On the bright side, even if Israel recruit every jewish looking person in the planet to be their spy, it’s still a trivial computationally to track every single one across the globe forever with complete biometric data. Israel will remember why they hate the interpol again.
ISTM that beyond the simple explanation of Israeli arrogance vis-a-vis Arab policing lies the possibility that this hit is as much about fracturing the Palestinians as it was about taking out a Hamas arms provider (and possible Hamas-Iran link). It didn’t take long to roll upthe Palestinain finger men for the hit; both are connected to Fatah in the publicity; and now the blood feud between Hamas and Fatah grows deeper.
What is Israel up to in the bigger scheme? Perhaps they are knocking down/setting back “nearer enemies” (Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria) through covert action in order to clear fighting and defending space in the event they pull the trigger on Iran? Certainly, the “war-drum” against Syria and Hezbollah has picked up quite a bit.
For certain, the Iranians have played a good hand to date in keeping the Israelis (and the rest of us) guessing as to whether Syria and/or Hezbollah will or will not help them in event of an Israeli attack. One wonders exactly what was agreed to in by Syria and Iran this past December? The histrionic Debka thinks it knows. Certainly, Israel recently turned quite publicly aggressive (provoking?) towards Hezbollah – but could they be any more obtuse when making statements like this: (via Ha’aretz)
Hezbollah is an army that is armed by Iran and Syria,” Barak said. “It has more than 40,000 missiles aimed at Israel’s civilians, and these are weapons of terror.”
Somehow I doubt words like these are going to get the Lebanese public, punished under whither Israeli attach against civilian infrastructure in 2006, to side with their southern neighbors.
SP
Why would Israel act so clumsily, when it could do otherwise with ease? Bad ass? I don’t know. This article poses a crucial alternative to the bumbling-bueaucratic-jerk theory. Perhaps this class of idiot would be a very useful idiot for some.
Re: article
http://larouchepac.com/node/13702
SR
1- Who is Larouche? (a joke)
2- That is just nuts. pl
Professor Kiracofe: In regard to the second question you posed, is that Israel has become, from everything I’ve ever read, the Southern point on the North-South axis for certain portions of Russian organized crime. My take on this is that when the Russians told Israel you’ll take everyone we say is Jewish or you won’t get anyone, the Russians opened the jails and sent anyone they could even remotely tie to Judaism. Now a lot of those folks are Jewish, but a lot weren’t and this began the development of this North-South transit point. I can’t speak to drugs or munitions, but I’ve read about the traficking of humans, specifically women, for the sex trade.
I can’t help you much on your other two questions, but I came across this and thought you, and perhaps other SST readers, might find it interesting:
http://bernardavishai.blogspot.com/2010/02/israels-democratic-party-thought.html
The Mossad pillow assassination from an Israeli prospective (anti-Zionist side anyway)
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/why-it-takes-so-many-mossad-agents-to-kill-a-palestinian-wit.html?printerFriendly=true
Why it takes so many Mossad agents to kill a Palestinian with a Pillow? by Gilad Atzmon
Monday, March 1, 2010 at 10:07AM
While in Britain, France, USA and Argentina the Mossad enjoys the support of thousands of local Sayanim, Jews who are happy to betray their neighbours for their beloved Jewish state, when operating in Arab countries the Mossad has to schlep its very many assassins and their assistants using different fraudulent methods.
Yet one may wonder why does it take 26 Mossad agents to carry out a single murder of an unarmed Palestinian freedom fighter with a pillow*. I will try to throw some light on the puzzling question.
The Mossad is not just an ordinary intelligence agency run by boring gentiles. It is actually run by Chosen people and it is there to serve the interests of the Jewish state and the Jewish national project. In recent days we learned that more than two dozen Mossad agents have been identified so far by the Dubai police. One would expect that with such a varied and extended collective of Jewish murderers operating in an hostile Arab country at least one combatant Rabbi is needed just to keep the Kosher regulations, maintaining an open line with God and sustaining a revengeful Jewish spirit.
As much as food in Dubai is known to be amazingly delicious, not many kosher delicatessens are currently operating downtown. Hence, we also need a Jewishly trained expert that would purchase the fish for the gefilte and the chicken for the soup. We would need at least one chef who knows how to transform chicken and water into Jewish Power (chicken soup). You have to remember that from a Jewish perspective, food is of the essence. Unlike animals who kill only when they need to eat or are detecting an imminent danger, the Israeli kills for “ulterior motives” (democracy, pluralism, war ‘against terror’ etc’) and then prefers to do it when their belly is full.
Between the culinary concerns and the Kosher diet regulations we already allocated 3 members of the team. Still 23 potential assassins are more than enough for just one single kill.
But there are more facts to take into account. Bearing in mind the recent revelations about some Mossad members’ mental instability, it is more than likely that a Psychiatrist, a Freudian analyst, a psychiatric paramedic and a nurse were needed to assist the Jewish lethal heroes ‘before and after’. This indeed brings our team to just 19 potential assassins.
As we learn from the press, 6 of the Mossad agents were women. This would mean that we need some beauty experts. A hairdresser who specialises in ‘curly situations’. We would also need a Jewish Cosmetic consultant, and one who knows about manicure and pedicure. One who can transform the Jewish female nail into a Zionist lethal sword (just in case a technical pillow failure occurs). We also need a wig specialist, one who knows how to transform a boy from Tel Aviv into a lad from Essex. The ‘J beauty specialists’ reduce our team of assassins to 17.
But we are not finished yet, as we learn from the press. Our Mossad killers were rather enthusiastic about tennis. Clearly they wouldn’t trust an Arab or Jihady referee, they must have brought their own. They probably needed a Kosher Israeli tennis referee and a few athletic settlers who run after their balls. Let us assume that we need 2-3 ball runners and one referee, this would bring our potential assassin team to just 14.
According to The Times, the Holocaust play a major role in Mossad’s philosophy. “We should be strong, use our brain, and defend ourselves so that the Holocaust will never be repeated”, says . Meir Dagan the Mossad ’s current chief. As it happens, the Mossad is killing in the name of the Jewish past. It is more than likely that the Mossad schleped to Dubai some of its best Holocaust priests, those who remind the spies why should they execute and why they should depart from the human family. Considering the six figure narrative, it would be reasonable to assume that the Mossad sent to Dubai at least six Holocaust mentors: one for each million.
However, as we know, the Nazi Holocaust is just one event among countless other Judeocides. ‘Never to Forgive Never to Forget’ is apparently the prospect of Jewish future. All together we can count 9 or 10 Jewish Judeocide priests to include the 19th century East European Pogroms, the Inquisition, Amalek and so on. This would bring down our list of potential hit men to just 5.
Yet as much as nationalist Jews and their spiritual leaders vow ‘never to forget’ and always to remember, there are some things they really insist to overlook, push aside or dismiss. For instance, they seem to fail to grasp the real meaning of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict known as the Goldstone report. They insist to dismiss Shlomo Sand’s reading of their history as a bundle of invented phatasmic tales on the verge of total fallacy. They insist to turn a blind eye to the fact that AIPAC, AJC, ADL, LFI and CFI dispatches are all lobbying for racist expansionist ideology (Zionism) in our midst. With British Foreign Secretary David Miliband being listed as an “Israeli Hasbara (propaganda) Author” and Zionists preaching for interventionist wars in the Media, with Bernie Madoff teaching us about Ponzi schemes and Alan Greenspan who brought on us the biggest financial meltdown ever. We need some Jewish specialists who can indoctrinate Mossad agents into total blindness and complete amnesia. I would guess that with Wolfowitz, Miliband, Goldstone, Abe Foxman, Greenspan, Madoff, Olmert, Livni Sharon, Peres and too many more, we may need just more than 5 experts to convince the Mossad’s hit-squad that the Jewish cause is truly kosher.
As we can see, we already counted 26 necessary assistants to murder without even mentioning a single Mossad pillow operator. As we see, it takes far more than just 26 Mossad agents to murder an unarmed Palestinian. I guess that in the coming days the Dubai police will bring up many more photos of Israelis in wigs.
I must admit that with Israel around, life is always full of surprises. What are we going to do when it is gone?
Oh yeah, highly predictable result too.
Newborns’ Blood Used To Build Secret DNA Database
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/01/2250248/Newborns-Blood-Used-To-Build-Secret-DNA-Database
and this:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/02/2834143.htm?section=world
Dubai’s police chief said it will enforce an entry ban on Israeli dual nationals, the first sanction by the emirate following its allegations Israeli intelligence agents murdered a top Hamas leader there in January.
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I hope Israel is not stupid enough having a dna database of jewish somewhere. cause things are going to get nasty in not too distant future. And there is no escaping dna scan.
It’s not going to be papier bitte, but put your finger on blood sample collector.
J: funny stuff. A doctor and nurse could have been mentioned…
@Dr. Silverman,
The Russian mafia is pretty heavily involved in illegal arms sales in the West Bank, pilfered from the IDF. (the reason why most armed palestinians i met up there are carrying M16s and M4s).
In Gaza, of course, those weapons were procured by Hamas courtesy of General Dayton, the Egyptians and Mohammed Dahlan.