Via Silver Lining
Posted on January 31, 2010 by realistic bird
‘Hamas Commander’s Killers Affiliated with Israeli Minister’
Al Manar
30/01/2010 Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said he believes assassins of senior organization member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai arrived in the region as part of Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau’s entourage. Landau recently took part in an environmental convention in Abu-Dhabi.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Television, Zahar said it was possible the assassins had come with him and entered Dubai under assumed identities, using false passports. “A week before the assassination Uzi Landau visited the emirates and he may have had people traveling with him under false names and additional citizenships,” he said.
To other news agencies, Zahar stressed that “the Zionist occupation seeks to change the rules of the game” by assassinating al-Mabhouh, and that Hamas had every right to defend itself. “We will consider all of the positive and negative outcomes of response for the crime of assassination,” Zahar explained. “We can hurt the occupation within the borders of occupied Palestine or without. This is in our hands. We will choose the best thing for us, our people, and our ties with other Arab and Muslim countries.”
He said that Hamas was in touch with United Arab Emirates security forces in charge of the investigation. “The Israeli side is accustomed never to declare the crimes it commits, because it does not want to commit itself to diplomatic obligations or international law,” Zahar said. He called on Arab countries sustaining diplomatic relations with Israel to respond to the incident in order to keep “the region from becoming an assassination field”.
Earlier, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal threatened to avenge the assassination of Mabhouh, warning that the circle of blood created by Hamas and Israel would not end. “We will get revenge for the blood of this great and pure man. The future will still see a battle between us and you,” he said addressing the Israeli criminals.
“You are happy for assassinating a great person who courageously killed some of your soldiers, but this is an unusual and passing joy. We shall avenge al-Mabhouh’s blood,” he said. “If you think we will abandon the option of resistance, you are being misled by illusions,” he added. “Resistance is our choice, and the settlement, the occupation, the killing, the fences and the starvation will not weaken it.”
“The war between us will continue. You will kill us and we will kill you,” Meshaal warned Israel. “You are fighting us based on false claims, and we are fighting you based on the truth. The war between us hurts us, but this is an open war that will not stop until you leave our land.”
Meshaal said that the Palestinians did not know when they would defeat Israel, but that they were certain that victory would come eventually. “This is a painful war which has been going on for decades, but we are certain of its results, because we will defeat you and tear up your fake image,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, a senior source in Dubai said that local police had managed to identify the men suspected of assassinating al-Mabhouh. According to the official, the police were conducting a manhunt for the suspects, who he said have European passports, and had even appealed to the Interpol for help. He added, however, that the two had apparently left the emirate.
Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported in turn that Dubai police have a lead in the investigation of the assassination. The report comes as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television quoted a senior Dubai security official as saying that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Israeli intelligence was behind the January 20 assassination.
According to the Al-Hayat report, recent developments in the investigation have lifted much of the uncertainty in the case, with security sources estimating that arrests are imminent.
A Dubai security source said that while the assassination had been carried out swiftly, its perpetrators left evidence behind that could significantly aid efforts to track them down. The source added that local police had already contacted Interpol in what could be a joint effort to have the suspects arrested.
Murder was the case…
by Clayton Swisher, Al Jazeera
January 30, 2010
Israeli Mossad is already a strong suspect in the recent killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the United Arab Emirates. The charter member of the al-Qassam Brigades was electrocuted and strangled in his Dubai hotel room, and God knows what happened to him in between.
Al-Mabhouh’s murder evokes a certain sense of deja vu. Anyone who has read the brilliant work “Kill Khalid: The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas” would know exactly what I’m talking about.
It chronicles how a Mossad hit team posing as Canadian tourists set out on the streets of Amman, Jordan in 1997 to eliminate the Hamas political leader.
They got dangerously close to Mishal – enough to inject a poison behind his ear – but one assailant was chased down and overpowered by Mishal’s bodyguard.
A furious King Hussein phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (in his first prime ministership) and demanded the antidote be delivered. Embarrassed and under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu agreed, saving the life of his nemasis who would live to fight another day.
Now Prime Minister in 2010, there is little doubt that Netanyahu would be brazen enough to order the al-Mabhouh hit. It would mean little to him that the Emirates recently hosted on its soil an Israeli Minister, Uzi Landau, even in spite of his hard line stance toward Palestinians (Landau famously likened the PLO to Al Qaeda!).
As Netanyahu demonstrated in 1997, he is not afraid to send intelligence operatives into a friendly Arab guests home, break some china, and have them peace out as if nothing ever happened.
Only in this case, the Dubai police do not have the benefit of a captured operative. They’ll have to rely on whatever witness and forensic evidence they can collect. As a law enforcement agency the Dubai Police are known for mercurial investigative standards.
But given the embarrassment al-Mabhouh’s murder is causing, and the fact that other hits have taken place in the Emirates, they’ll likely up their game in this case to try and salvage some prestige. The ubiquitious hotel surveillance cameras will likely come in handly, but that’s banking on the fact that hotels keep a backup of their digital records, and that the cameras were able to pick up faces that may have been veiled.
Emirati gumshoes will also be digging at any other destinations the suspected “European” passport holders ventured while in the country. The passports will have to be checked with Interpol, which may not be able to tell if the passports were forgeries or genuine documents issued for the purposes of intelligence missions.
Biometrics would make that all but impossible, which is also a key reason some Western governments elect not to use them–it would also deny them the ability to slip into countries, through the front door, undetected at airports.
We’ll see how cooperative Interpol liaison proves to be in this case. My hunch is that individual governments may be forthcoming if it is publicly revealed that their passports were misued by Mossad. It certainly caused an uproar with the Canadians back in 1997, and with New Zealand and others who were used as a deadly ruse.
Those governments will then have to decide whether to share with the Emirates the original passport applications, which usually require multiple forms of state-issued identifications and supporting documents to obtain.
From there a joint investigation could determine whether the suspects are the actual people they claim to be, or ficticious persons engaging in a most deadly game.
But the Emiratis will have to leave Hamas investigators behind, as Interpol and most European governments still consider it a “terrorist organization,” and will probably be anyhow reluctant to spend much effort to solve the case.
Uprooted Palestinian
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