The Great Dubai Mystery

So far, I've avoided further comment on the assassination in a Dubai hotel of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh beyond what I wrote when it happened, but as this rapidly descends toward farce and is now an international story, I suppose further comment is warranted.

The facts, briefly are these. Al-Mabhouh was one of the heads of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing and a key link in smuggling arms from Iran to Hamas. He was found dead in a Dubai hotel room January 20th. Interestingly enough, none of his security guards was present when he was killed.

The Dubai authorities first said the death was due to 'suffocation', than from a shot administered to look like a heart attack, which progressed to 'causes unknown'.

They likewise originally said that al-Mabouh was killed by an "experienced criminal gang" with European passports. That later morphed into a certainty that they were '90% sure' Israel's Mossad was behind it..although they haven't presented any evidence to back up that particular claim except that some phony passports used by the assassins belong to British Jews with dual residence in Israel.There were also some CCTV pictures taken of the killers in their disguises) at the hotel....very useful, that.

The Europeans, particularly the Brits are in absolute meltdown over this:

Ministers are understood to be furious that an alleged hit squad which murdered a Hamas leader in Dubai last month cloned the passports of six unsuspecting Britons, who are now living in fear of reprisals.

Israel, which has not denied involvement in the murder, had previously promised that Mossad, its secret intelligence service, would never use British passports to help its agents carry out covert operations.

Israel's ambassador to the UK was summoned to the Foreign Office to give his explanation as the diplomatic row intensified. {...}

All of the British passport holders whose identities were stolen live in Israel, meaning Mossad would have had ready access to copies of their travel documents.

A senior Foreign Office source told The Daily Telegraph: “If the Israelis were responsible for the assassination in Dubai, they are seriously jeopardising the important intelligence-sharing arrangement that currently exists between Britain and Israel.

“If it transpires that Israel has been using British passports to assassinate its opponents, the British government will need to give serious consideration to any future cooperation. "

So, let's see what's wrong with this picture, shall we?

• If the Mossad needs passports, they can manufacture them from scratch, or use the names and particulars of dead persons.That's how they've done this sort of thing in the past.What the Brits of course don't understand is that it's the Mossad's mission to protect Jews, not put them in jeopardy by possibly getting them in Hamas' target sights.Nor are most Mossad agents silly enough to get caught on camera with anything incriminating, and as the Mossad knows very well, there isn't a major hotel in the world today without a CCTV camera around.
  

• What evidence do the Dubai police have besides some stolen passport numbers, some CCTV pictures of some heavily disguised perps and their usual hatred of Jews and Israel to determine that 'it was the Mossad'? So far, the Dubai police have been all over place in their investigation. Why are they suddenly deemed to be so credible?

• A spokesman for Hamas in Damascus told the AP that al-Mabhouh was laying over in Dubai on his way from Syria to an unspecified third country.Was it Iran, or maybe Lebanon? Was he buying arms? Did he perhaps have a large sum of cash on him? And just why were his bodyguards missing? Could it be that he was skimming off the top and paid the ultimate penalty? Revenge for a business deal gone bad perhaps? Or could it have been someone simply sending a message to Hamas's Damascus-based leader Khalid Meshaal, who was al-Mabhouh's patron?

Don't misunderstand me. I consider al-Mabhouh's death to be a welcome piece of pest control, and if it was the Mossad, kol tov. I'm merely saying that there could have been a lot of other people whom wanted this particular cockroach stomped.

As I pointed out when I first wrote about this, vermin like al-Mabhouh don't get to where they are without making some enemies, and anyone dealing in smuggling clandestine arms shipments can be a target, particularly given how Hamas makes money from criminal enterprises like counterfeiting, drug smuggling and other nefarious activities.

As for the Brits threat to suspend intelligence cooperation with Israel...given how infiltrated Britain is by the Muslim ummah in their security services and how hostile the UK is to Israel in general, does anyone think the Israelis are stupid enough to trust the Brits with more than a weather report?

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