Dubai has upped the ante in the Mahmoud al-Mabouh assassination investigation. In addition to the individuals it had named as assailants or accomplices, today it added an addition 15. In addition to those nations already victimized by cloned passports, Australia was added to the list. Though one should never say never when it comes to Israel wriggling out of predicaments like this one, it’s becoming harder and harder to imagine that it can without some serious consequences in terms of long-term relations with some of the countries involved, not to mention potential criminal charges against Israeli officials themselves like Meir Dagan, Mossad chief.
Dubai revealed that a number of the Mossad officers used American credit cards issued by the Iowa-based Meta Bank. Don’t you wonder why you haven’t heard a peep from the Treasury Department or Obama administration on this clear violation of federal law? I can’t imagine it’s legal to use a credit card issued on an American bank in commission of a crime. Shall we lay odds how long it will take U.S.authorities to say anything about this?
The most mystifying and intriguing development is this one reported by the Times’ Robert Worth:
The Dubai police statement issued Wednesday included a striking detail: two of the new suspects, identified as Nicole Sandra McCabe and Adam Marcus Korman and carrying Australian passports, left Dubai on a ship bound for Iran.
Say what?? Iran? I don’t know quite how to reconcile these elements but Paul Woodward has an intriguing theory that Israel had infiltrated al-Mabouh’s Iranian weapons network in order to eventually kill him. Something like this false flag operation was also used in the Iran-Contra weapons dealings. As I said, I’m not sure how to reconcile Paul’s theory with this, but the notion that two Mossad agents would’ve left Dubai after killing al-Mabouh headed for Iran is very, very strange.
Could Iran have wanted al-Mabouh dead? Could Iran have unwittingly been cooperating with Mossad agents in its arms dealings with al-Mabouh? Could the Mossad have deliberately been poking a finger in Iran’s eye by sending its killers home via the country with which al-Mabouh was engaged in arms dealing? Why would the Mossad risk sending its agents to Iran where they would surely be tried and executed if unmasked?
A powerful and critical reaction from one of the new batch of Israeli’s victimized by identity theft. The real Adam Korman told the Jerusalem Post:
I feel scared and shocked since hearing about this,” he added, describing the use of the names on the passports as “irresponsible” and “a violation of human rights and the rights of the individual.”
I read one unintentionally ironic passage from an Australian publication’s musings on the penetration of their nation’s security through the passport theft. Note the language of this passage:
THE use of Australian passports in the hit on a Hamas leader in Dubai has raised fears terrorists could bypass strict visa security measures unveiled by the Rudd government in its counter-terrorism white paper.
Doesn’t this tell you heaps about western prejudices in favor of our own and against the unwashed hordes, that this reporter would not have realized that any nation that carries out an assassination on foreign soil while abusing the security of numerous erstwhile allies is engaging in terrorism. Why can’t these Mossad agents be called terrorists too?
Great post Richard!
But it is not only the Mossad that has a get out of jail free card for engaging in willful murder.
Iranian security forces recently arrested the head of a Sunni terrorist group responsible for scores of killings in that country and claim that group was directly supported by US intelligence agencies.
So not only does the US refuse to hang a terrorist label on Mossad, but they apparently are supporting terrorists as long as the “right” people are terrorized
Richard – my “theory” on Mossad having infiltrated an Iranian weapons supply chain was in its conception highly speculative and I’ve since seen plenty of reasons to dismiss it.
On the issue of suspects fleeing to Iran, I have a somewhat stronger theory: it didn’t happen.
This was a carefully prepared false exit to create the appearance of an Iranian connection. The two Mossad operatives boarded the ship and then surreptitiously disembarked, thereby setting up a false trail.
If these two soon end up being arrested in Iran and put on a show trial, I’ll have to ditch this theory as well. (“Mossad agents on trial in Iran” – that would certainly put Gilad Shalit in the shadows.)
Whatever Mossad is doing in Iran – and there’s little doubt they have all sorts of things going on – I don’t imagine this includes risking having Israelis taken captive.
Seems like the Dubai police is now reaching too far and wide to stay in the news and keep this story alive. Not only is the notion that 2 supposed mossad agents would flee the scene of the assasination to Iran of all places far fetched, the notion that Israel would send a team of 26 individuals (2 more per reports today) in and of itself is preposterous. I have no experience in espionage and in covert ops, but sending 26 operatives to carry out a murder in a semi hostile state is surely an overkill – pun intended. It doesn’t make sense.
Seems to me that some of these people may have come and gone into Dubai (maybe from Israel) on various spying missions and now that the Dubai police realized that people with false passports easily come in an out of their country, they checked the records of recent entries and realized a bunch of people have come in on false passports and decided to associate them with the current media party.
That’s the operative statement as far as yr comment goes.
That makes good sense. But on the face of it it’s so preposterous that two assassins who are white Anglo Saxons would board a ship to Iran. Who would believe that they could implicate Iran in any way in this crime unless one could believe that Iran could use such individuals in its own secret ops.
Here’s why:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233949
“White Christian Americans” and “Jewish Israelis” are completely interchangeable in this context.
Strange… Only Israel didn’t complain about identity-theft of its citizens. Don’t they care?
I like Paul’s latest theory about the Iran diversion. But I do see a few more potential angles:
1. There was some obvious infiltration into the iran/Hamas weapons network by mossad people. The only thing we don’t know is how deep and from which end. It is highly likely that someone(s) would need to pose as an Iranian middleman as part of a ruse to get al-mahboud to Dubai. In such a case, the pretend “iranian” would need to cover their tracks, making sure they lead to Iran, hence the escape route (which BTW, we don’t know where it lead and where the agents disembarked. A ship is definitely easier to slip off incognito than a plane).
2. The most puzzling aspect of the whole operation is Hamas allowing a presumably high level operative like al-mahboud to travel by himself, with no security detail, and virtually no precautions. That means that hamas either had a high level of confidence in his safety – a strange prospect given previous attempts to off him, or that al-mahboud conducted his own rogue operation without the full blessing of hamas higher-ups – either by himself, or as part of a cell.
There is a third possibility, which I’ve been musing over for a while now. The assassinated hamas may have been a sacrificial lamb, who either had enemies within hamas or has outlived his usefullness, and was ‘given up”. In this scenario, one or more hamas people could be double agents – pretend to have been turned by Mossad, only to alert Dubai either just before or just after the assassination took place. The purpose of such an operation would be to give israel a black eye at the cost of a single individual (who may or may not have been as important as portrayed).
The reason I contemplate that third possibility at all is from looking at the tried and true “who benefits”, which in my book, reads “who REALLY benefits”. It certainly isn’t israel – or the Mossad. What good they got from the murder is more than out-weighted by the repercussions from exposure of so many agents, not to mention methods of operation. Surely, there would have been, somewhere in Mossad’s guts, saner minds who’d contemplate the eventuality of exposure of this many people (could mossad has become this complacent? may be). Hamas, despite losing one individual, benefits for obvious reasons. Israel is exposed as duplicitous to it’s friends and possibly, hamas may now get cooperation from other intelligence agencies, thus helping legitimizing itself. Iran benefits because this totally muddies the waters regarding israel’s push for sanctions and takes attention away from its internal suppression of dissent. But the greatest beneficiary is Dubai police, which are getting, by and large, rave reviews for the investigative job they did. And Dubai did need the good press lately.
Somewhere, within the possibilities above (playing out in in one or more twists) the truth lies. Of that much I’m convinced.
Ain’t conspiracies great?
There’s also a possible Mossad-Fatah link. They both aim to destroy Hamas.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Assassins+caught+video+reveals+possible+Mossad+Fatah+link/2606321/story.html
How much commercial business does Dubai do with Israel or passes through its ports to or from Israel? It would be nice if it were alot.
for a start, an Israeli company is responsible for the surveillance tech used by Dubai police!
Whoever was responsible – great work – no innocents harmed- one confirmed bad bad person taken out of the world.
Welcome the idiot brigade.