Ripples of Dubai Killing Spread Across Region

[incarcerated]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...-accident.html

Hit squad electrocuted Hamas leader with lamp to make death look like an accident

By Daniel Boffey
Last updated at 12:51 AM on 21st February 2010
The hit squad behind the assassination of a Hamas commander in a Dubai hotel tried to make his death look like an accident by electrocuting him with a bedside lamp.

Police sources said the killers, who used fake British passports, tried to ‘induce the effects of a heart attack’ before smothering Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh with a pillow in his room.
It is understood that the lamp was taken apart and the wiring attached to a device that pulsed electricity into his body....

Dubai police confirmed they now believe the hit squad tried to make the Palestinian’s death seem like a heart attack.
When he was discovered by a cleaner and member of security at lunchtime the day after his murder, he was wearing only a pair of black shorts under the bed sheets.

However, a source said there were tell-tale burn marks on his chest from an electric shock.
A later post-mortem showed that he had been killed by suffocation but ‘without the need for violence’.

Earlier this week police unveiled CCTV footage of the assassins’ movements in the hours before and after Al-Mabhouh’s death.

However, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal further details of the audacious operation.
The 18-strong team had lain in wait for Al-Mabhouh – who was travelling under the fake name of Mahmoud Abdul Ra’ouf Mohammed – before tracking him down to Dubai’s Al Bustan Rotana hotel near the airport.

He had arrived on Emirates flight EK912 from Damascus and had used a fake passport.

The killers had planted a tracker device in his rented Toyota Land Cruiser and tailed him to his hotel.

Al-Mabhouh, 49, was followed to room 230 by two men in tennis outfits. In the few hours before his death, Al-Mabhouh made a visit to the Dubai Mall where he bought a pair of shoes.

He returned to his room at 8.24pm and his killers were in place. It is believed that he was overpowered by four men shortly afterwards when he answered the door.

A woman travelling under the Irish passport of Gail Folliard stood watch outside in the corridor.

A source told The Mail on Sunday that the Dubai police are working on the theory that the lamp to the right-hand side of Al-Mabhouh’s bed was then taken apart to provide live wiring which was attached to an unknown device.

However, the source added that because CCTV footage showed the agents were there for just 22 minutes, the investigators believed the electric current was not used to torture him.

Initial autopsy results show that Al-Mabhouh’s cause of death was by suffocation with a pillow or another soft object.
The source added: ‘Within 25 minutes of the discovery of the body, the hotel notified the police. The first attendees were six officers and then a whole team came within 40 minutes. The number reached 15.

‘He was on the bed on his back covered with the bed sheets up to his neck, wearing black shorts.

‘Pillows were in place and the room appeared normal with curtains closed. Signs of movement to the lamp’s wiring was only later discovered. We believe the papers he was carrying were copied.’

As they left, the killers mysteriously managed to put the latch and chain on the inside of the door.

But investigations by The Mail on Sunday show that the proportions of the hotel room make that a simple process for a woman with slender arms....

[brown77]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

As they left, the killers mysteriously managed to put the latch and chain on the inside of the door.

But investigations by The Mail on Sunday show that the proportions of the hotel room make that a simple process for a woman with slender arms....

Say what!

Mail on Sunday taking the phrase Media Circus a bit too literally by adding magic to their repertoire

[The Reaper]

Where is the outrage over his fake passport, and where did it come from?

TR

[Basenshukai]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Where is the outrage over his fake passport, and where did it come from?

TR

Oddly, I have not read that anywhere. I agree with you, if this is the case, why isn't anyone concerned over this?

I read somewhere during the week that real identities, from people that had nothing to do with the operation (regular citizens), was used by the operators for their passports for this action. If this is true, it is absolutely wrong on so many levels. I cannot image the outrage I would feel - as a regular citizen - if my identity was used to conduct an operation elsewhere and in this high visibility fashion. I really hope it is not true - maybe it's media propaganda or misinformation (intended, or otherwise).

[incarcerated]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...5TrwqjCGh-tKuw

Dubai murder an 'Israeli act of terror': Iran

(AFP) – 4 hours ago
TEHRAN — The murder in Dubai of top Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabhuh last month was an act of Israeli "state terrorism," the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran said on Tuesday.

"The Dubai assassination is an act of state terrorism on the part of Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a report by state-run Press TV.

"Israel's existence is itself based on terrorist activities," Mehmanparast said at his weekly news conference, according to the channel which translated his comments into English....

[incarcerated]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151941.html

Haaretz exclusive: Hamas founder's son worked for Shin Bet for years

Last update - 04:19 24/02/2010
By Avi Issacharoff
The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.

The exclusive story will appear in this Friday's Haaretz Magazine, and Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas" (written with Ron Brackin) will be released next week in the United States. Yousef, 32, became a devout Christian 10 years ago and now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion.

Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "the Green Prince" - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders.

During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.

"I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done."

The story of Yousef's spiritual transformation appeared in Haaretz Magazine in August 2008. Only now, however, is Yousef exposing the secret he kept since 1996, when he was first held by Shin Bet agents seeking to enlist him in infiltrating the upper echelon of Hamas.

Their efforts proved successful, and Yousef was released from prison in 1997. His former handler, who no longer serves with the security service, says Yousef collaborated with Israel because he wanted to save lives.

"So many people owe him their life and don't even know it," said the handler, named in Yousef's book as Captain Loai. "People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it."

Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," he says. "He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."

Loai recalled one time when the Shin Bet received information that a suicide bomber was going to be picked up at Manara Square in Ramallah and be given an explosives belt.

"We didn't know his name or what he looked like - only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt," he said. "We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger. We knew he was one of those who in any situation - rain, snow, summer - give their all."

With his memoir, Yousef hopes to send a message of peace to Israelis. Still, he admits he is pessimistic over the prospect of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, let alone Hamas.

"Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis," he said. "Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does."

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...-accident.html

Hit squad electrocuted Hamas leader with lamp to make death look like an accident.

Leave it to the Israelis. They can be counted on for sloppy work. I'm stickin' with post #4

[Richard]

Dubai police have named a further six Britons whose cloned passports were used in the killing of a top Hamas agent last month, as they raised the number of those involved in the assassination to 26.

And so it goes...

Richard's $.02

Dubai Hamas Assassination: 12 Suspects Carried British Passports
Richard Spencer, The Telegraph, 24 Fev 2010

An emailed police statement said an additional 15 people using western passports were thought to have played a role in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leading arms buyer for Hamas.

As well as the six using British passports, three had French passports, three Irish and three Australian. Five of the 15 were women.

The passport photographs were revealed on a film released by the police which also showed clips of closed circuit television footage of the assassination squad in action.

Mr Mabhouh was electrocuted and then smothered with a pillow while staying at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel near Dubai Airport on January 19. Police said he was stopping over on his way from his base in Damascus, Syria, to China.

Eleven of those responsible were identified last week, including one woman.

But the names and passport numbers given turned out in all but one case to have been copied from genuine passports held by people not involved, including six Britons with dual Israeli nationality.

Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, has been widely blamed for the killing, including by the head of Dubai police, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim.

Britain, France, Ireland and Germany have already called in Israeli ambassadors, angered by the use of their nationals’ passports in the operation. In the one German case, a valid passport was acquired on behalf of an Israeli citizen and then altered.

Police said the passports in the new cases were also fraudulent. “Friendly nations who have been assisting in this investigation have indicated to the police in Dubai that the passports were issued in an illegal and fraudulent manner,” the statement said.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We believe that passport details were fraudulently used as in the previous cases. We are seeking to contact these other six as we did before to offer consular assistance.”

The six were named as Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur and Philip Carr.

It is not yet known whether any or all of them are also Israeli nationals.

The Irish passports were in the names of Ivy Brinton, Anna Shuana Clasby and Chester Halvey, the French passports David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard and Eric Rassineux, and the Australian passports Bruce Joshua Daniel, Nicole Sandra Mccabe and Adam Korman.

The new revelations add a further air of mystery to the case. As well as the 26 people being sought by the police, two Palestinians suspected of being agents within either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority for Mossad are already in police custody in Dubai.

A further Palestinian, said to be a senior Hamas operative, has been taken into custody in Syria.

Police said that two of the suspects, both using Australian passports, fled by boat to Iran, despite that country’s well-known backing for Hamas.

It is currently extremely difficult for western nationals to obtain visas for Iran.

Relations between Dubai and Iran, which have been close for more than a century, have deteriorated in recent years as the emirate has bowed to pressure to cut trade and banking ties in line with the United Arab Emirates’ western allies.

Iran on Tuesday pointed to the “scandal” that the city had been used for transit by a terrorist leader it captured on board a plane flying over its territory from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.

Abdol Malek Rigi, a Sunni militant Iran says was backed by the CIA, was taken off a civilian airliner forced to land in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas by a military plane.

Others in the new group of 15 left Dubai for Hong Kong, and a number of European countries.

Fourteen of the 26 involved in the assassination used credit cards issued by the same American bank, Metabank, to book flights and hotel rooms, police said.

“The new list of suspects includes people who offered prior logistical support and preparations to facilitate the crime, and others who played a central role,” they added.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...passports.html

[Marina]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Leave it to the Israelis. They can be counted on for sloppy work. I'm stickin' with post #4

I agree with Dozer's theory on the Iranians. It's a contrarian view, but so what. There's so much subterfuge and double gaming on a typical day in the ME it's hard to keep track.

The Israelis could have been purposely sloppy trying to get some to think it was the Iranians framing them. Or maybe it was the Iranians trying to inflame the Europeans and drive a wedge on the nuclear issue.

The speed at which the Dubai police put together the CCTV documentary is fishy.

If it was Mossad, they should get out more often.

[DJ Urbanovsky]

Frame job by the Iranians? Possibility.

Trying to tarnish the image of Israel in the eyes of the world to make whatever action they want to pursue seem more justifiable...

"Look at us. We're not the bad guys, the Israelis are the bad guys! Just look what they did in Dubai!"

It certainly seems to me that Iran has been doing a lot of saber rattling lately, that's for sure.

[Marina]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Where is the outrage over his fake passport, and where did it come from?

TR

Iran - Mabhouh was in Dubai on a forged Iraqi passport under a false name, courtesy of the IRGC. He was on his way to Sudan to broker another Iranian arms shipment to Hamas.

Poor Hamas man. Not very lucky that he happened to be in Dubai the same time that Mossad held their annual dinner and dance reunion for all their British and Irish based agents.

Reeks of Arab vendetta. Blame the Jews. Dubai cops are running an Iranian side show.

[Irish_Army01]

Suspicious package at Dublin Israeli embassy
Friday, 26 February 2010 13:04
The Israeli Embassy in Dublin has been sealed-off following the discovery of a suspicious package.

An Explosive Ordnance Disposal team is at the embassy.

Gardaí were notified at 11.45am this morning.

There have been no evacuations, but Pembroke Road is closed between the junctions of Raglan Rd, Merrion Rd and Northumberland Rd.

Motorists can only turn left from Raglan Rd onto Pembroke Rd.

The number 18 Dublin Bus service has been diverted.




http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0226/israelembassy.html

[SD_JOHN]

Here's the video footage. Its kind of long but interesting.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8fd_1266461202

[LarryW]

V/r, suggest it has more to do with business than politics.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...529#post317529

The arguments re: IRG involvement sure appear to be the best gaggle of usual suspects.

[incarcerated]

Originally Posted by Richard

....Fourteen of the 26 involved in the assassination used credit cards issued by the same American bank, Metabank, to book flights and hotel rooms, police said....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...toWhatsNewsTop

....Meta Financial is a Nasdaq-listed thrift holding company for MetaBank and Meta Trust Co. Along with taking deposits and making loans, its Web site also details an electronic payment-system division.

Payoneer was founded in 2005. It is a closely held company, based in New York but with offices outside Tel Aviv. The company has been seeded by several high-tech venture capital funds, including American and Israeli investors, according to the company's Web site.

The company's chief executive, Yuval Tal, described himself as a former Israeli special forces solider in an appearance as a commentator on Fox News during the 2006 Lebanon war.

Mr. Tal, reached by phone Thursday evening, said the company was "very surprised" to be mentioned in the Dubai police report. He said the company is getting all of its information through news reports, and is working with MetaBank to gather more information about the transactions. He declined to comment about his experience in the Israeli military.

On its Web site, the company says it only serves customers that "operate legitimate and transparent businesses" and complies with all online payment regulations....

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/201..._assassination

UAE: Credit Card Links to the al-Mabhouh Assassination

February 25, 2010 | 2219 GMT
Two U.S.-based companies issued the credit cards used by operatives in the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, police in Dubai announced Jan. 24. Payoneer, a New York-based company with operations in Tel Aviv, Israel, that issues pre-paid credit cards to companies for use instead of paychecks or bank transfers reportedly provided the pre-paid cards used to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms for the operatives. All of Payoneer’s credit cards are issued through Metabank, based in the U.S. state of Iowa.

An examination of Payoneer’s operations reveals interesting links with Israel. Payoneer CEO Yuval Tal is a former member of the Israel Defense Forces’ special operations forces. He is also the main financial operator for Taglit Birthright trips, which provides free trips to Israel for young Jews. Payoneer receives its venture capital from Carmel Ventures, based in Herzliya, Israel; Greylock Partners, which has Israeli partners including Moshe Mor, a former captain in Israeli military intelligence; and Crossbar Capital, whose founder formerly ran a venture capital firm out of Israel.

For its part, Metabank has a history of financial and regulatory trouble. Its new credit card service, Metapay, has been its main source of revenue. Those so inclined could easily manipulate the ability to register for credit cards online.

While these links do not conclusively prove that Payoneer is involved in supporting the operations of Israeli intelligence organizations, the links are certainly interesting — and undeniable.