UPDATE: Israel’s Channel 10 has revealed that the alias of the arrested Mossad agent is Eric Rassineux. His passport is displayed here. It is the first Israeli source also to confirm that Canada is holding him. For those knowing Hebrew, here is the report (which begins 11 minutes into the video).
****
Finally a break in the story of a week ago or so in which Dubai’s police chief revealed that an unspecified non-European country had arreseted a Mossad suspect in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabouh. The officer also revealed the tantalizing details that the country refused to cooperate with Dubai in the investigation and refused to divulge any details about the suspect or why or how he was arrested.
The country revealed to Dubai that it had arrested Rassineux in June (which means it may have held him even before then), which begins to explain the Emirates frustration with that nation’s opacity. Out of this frustration, Dubai has uppped the ante by revealing that the country is Canada:
“We want clarity on this issue. We want the Canadian authorities to tell us exactly what the details are — the thing that is discomfiting is the lack of transparency on this,” he told Reuters.
Mr. Tamim said he had been informed that Canada would send a representative to Dubai to provide further information, but did not know when a debriefing would take place.
Canadian officials have not responded to requests for comment from Reuters.
Knowing this, we can now understand why the secrecy. The current Canadian government is ultra-supportive of Israel partly out of its right-wing ideology and partly out of alliances it has created with uber-Israel Jewish groups in Canada. The arrest would deeply embarrass this government because it would put it into conflict with Israeli interests. Now that the news is public Israel can be expected, as it did with Germany, to begin a fierce lobbying campaign to free its spy asset. Shortly, I predict Canadian’s will see the big guns of the Jewish community (Aspers, Greenbergs, Reitmans, Reichmanns, etc.) linking up to pressure any government official they can get their hands on to make this case go away. I would expect that if there is any way the government can free or release this suspect without violating Canadian law it will try to do so. That’s why I’m urging all Canadian human rights groups, especially progressive Jews to begin lobbying their members of Parliament and government officials not to cave to such pressure. Demand a transparent legal process and full accountability. This suspect should be brought before judges and a case should be mounted against him. If not this, then Canada should extradite the suspect to Dubai for proper justice to be administered there. Let’s begin by forcing the government’s justice minister to make a statement acknowledging Canada has the suspect and what it plans to do with him.
The next step must be to identify who the real suspect is (or says he is), which might help unravel some more of the various mysteries surrounding this case. Here is a hint:
According to Al Ittihad Arabic daily, the suspect was one two people caught by the hotel’s CCTV cameras wearing tennis gears as they staked out Al Mabhouh’s room in the Bustan Rotana Hotel.
If this is true, then something I wrote immediately after the hit turns out to be wrong. I believed (foolish me) that the Mossad would keep these agents on ice at home for years in order to deaden the scent. That appears to have been wrong. The Mossad appears to have wanted to taunt the world’s police authorities as if to say that we can send our operatives wherever we want whenever we want. Either we believe you can’t identify us or we believe you won’t dare arrest us for fear of the politicial embarrassment that will follow. Which means that Meir Dagan is even more reckless than I thought.
This may at least partially explain Bibi Netanyahu’s threat to open a Knesset investigation of the al-Mabouh hit, a threat almost unprecedented in Israeli spycraft, which Dagan parried by squelching it. I believe that the price for Dagan for killing the investigation was his resignation, which he apparently wasn’t willing to offer. I say this because otherwise I see no need for Netanyahu to have threatened an investigation which he then allowed Dagan to stymie.
I’m speculating that with the last name Rassineux, that he must be a French-speaker or that at least this is part of his spy identity. This would explain why he might use a Canadian identity in order to pass himself off as French Canadian.
Paul Woodward wrote a post speculating last week that the suspect had been captured by the U.S., which was very tantalizing. He wasn’t far off.
UPDATE: Canada’s conservative Globe and Mail is reporting that Canadian government authorities are denying they are holding any suspect in the Dubai killing. Maybe they’ve rendered Rassineux “extraordinarily” to an ice-house jail in Hudson’s Bay and even the government doesn’t know its existence.
If the current Canadian statement is true, and I wouldn’t concede that at all at this point, then it is possible that Canada did detain him when it informed the Dubai police of this in July, but that it quietly released the suspect after that and never told Dubai that it had. It’s further possible that Dubai did know he’d been released and is now seeking to embarrass the Canadians for doing so.
There is something in the tone of the Globe and Mail report that is so dismissive of the Dubai claim that it makes you wonder whether the paper is subtly acting to bolster the government’s claim of non-involvement. When I read spin like that in ostensible news stories is tells me there may be something that the story would rather conceal than reveal.
More as events unfold.
Related articles
- Dubai Police: Hamas Hit Suspect Nabbed in Canada (nytimes.com)
# Richard)
Maybe I didn’t understand your last sentences correctly but the passport displayed in your article IS a French passport. It states ‘de nationalité française’ and that our ‘Rassineux’ is born in Hérault, a ‘department’ in Southern France, close to the Spanish border.
I wonder what Sarko, Bibi’s long time ‘best friend’ is going to say about this ?? Nothing, I guess.
SOrry I didn’t notice that in the passport. Thanks for yr correction. I just figured that since he was arrested in Canada that might be where his cover was & he was based. So now we have two nations involved in Rassineux’s skullduggery given that Rassineux used a French passport. That complicates things because even if Canada wants nothing to do w. him, the French might have dibs on ‘im too. For both nations to let him go free would be doubly embarrassing (to someone if not the countries involved).
There is a ‘David Eric Rassineux Benzaken’ on Facebook. No photo though.
Typical Sephardic name combined with a typical French name, supporter of ‘Olympique de Marseille’, goes pretty well with being born in Héreault:
Interesting, but I think a hoax. The birth dates on the FB account & Rassineux’s fake French passport also match up. But someone’s playing an interesting mind game. I’d bet the mobile phone number listed on FB is a fake. But an Israeli reader might try it & let us know what is the result:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458239952&v=info
@ Richard
1. In arutz 10 Alon Ben David is stating that the guy was traveling with a french passport, at least to dubai, and as Dir stated, the french you presented is a french passport.
2. there is no israeli by that name.
3. in the name of justice i guess that your next post would be urging the surrender of those wanted by the argenitian authorities for blowing up the AIMA building in 1994
On October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the government of Iran of directing the bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out.
Omigod [smacks self in forehead]…no Israeli by that name? My God, that’s gotta mean the whole thing’s a hoax. Rassineux couldn’t possibly be a fake identity could it? Nah. Mossad never uses fake identities.
Nice try, but OFF TOPIC. And you’re angry at me for moderating you. Now you know why. Do not post material that is off topic.
At the Risk of sounding melo-dramatic, I will say that our shit-for-brains Prime minister will probably release him in no time. I was surprised that he was arrested in the first place.
the Canadian Globe & Mail:
Canada denies arresting anyone related to the elimination of el-mabhouh
“Baseless,” was the word one well-placed Ottawa official used to describe the general’s claim.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/canada-denies-arresting-suspect-in-death-of-hamas-militant/article1764494/
Baseless my arse. We’ll see. The newspaper is a stalwart supporter of the right wing gov’t.
Canada’s minister of public safety denies the arrest.
http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/CdaNewsFlash/0,2297,L-3973252_184,00.html
the news paper supports right wing ? maybe, would a minister lie in public ? i doubt that.
Nah, never. No minister has ever lied in public before, have they?
Here’s the original Reuters link:
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE69K5RW20101021
RE: “The current Canadian government is ultra-supportive of Israel partly out of its right-wing ideology and partly out of alliances it has created with uber-Israel Jewish groups in Canada.” – R.S.
ARTICLE: “Why the UN Rejected Canada’s Bid for the Security Council” ~ By Yves Engler, Counterpunch, 10/19/10
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.counterpunch.org/engler10192010.html
Richard,
You must be prescient! Notice the passport you chose to emphasize in another article you wrote on this subject back when the assassination took place:
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2010/02/25/dubai-names-26-suspects-in-dubai-assassination/
The Mossad suspect Peter Elvinger also had a French Passport. Elvinger is seen a lot in the Dubai film and was a key player. I wonder if he too is in Canada or maybe in France?
This Eric guy, looks to be the short, stocky guy in the tennis outfit with a white t-shirt. Except in the passport he’s wearing a fake beard.
They probably station people in Canada, the U.S. and those other European countries as spies and these guys fleeing the scene of the crime might hook up with these contacts in all these different countries.
Netanyahu probably signed off on this assassination so it’s odd that he would investigate a hit that he ordered. The attempted investigation was probably all staged.
Anyway, you’re right, people need to condemn these acts. Everyone’s freedom, liberty and security are at risk when these guys can assume identities, commit crimes using other people’s identities, set people up and influence the politics of other countries, in essence subverting democracy and the rule of law.
They may be normally resident in Canada, and working there to support and maintain agents of influence.
Canada is still a dominion, it’s just not a British dominion anymore.
Upset ? no i am not upset
a long time ago i realized that extreme people do not see what they don’t want to see, do not hear what they do not want to hear, and do not know what they don’t want to know.
luckily the Magnes notion which you represent was an insignificant episode in the history of the Jewish nation, and as such it will remain.
if you were to live in israel the IDF would have given you 2 gas masks, one for each side of your face.
If it was what you say it was, Arthur Hertzberg wouldn’t have devoted many pages to portraying it in The Zionist Idea, the seminal text on history of Zionism. Brit Shalom didn’t get much traction in its day, but often ideas are ahead of their times & history eventually catches up. I don’t think the binational idea is what will end up happening. But something with some of its principles WILL.
I don’t much like your snark. If it continues you’ll be gone.
Can you confirm that this man is absolutely not connected to a single enterprise run by Cyril Reitman, and that none of Mr Reitman’s political contacts are responsible for the Canadian Goverment behaving like a pregnant nun over the issue?
Or maybe…
The Globe & Mail is considered to be the left-wing national paper, while the National Post is the right-wing one.
A “left wing” paper wouldn’t have supported the conservatives in the last 2 national elections. And Wikipedia said it’s always been the paper of the business elite. So whatever it may’ve been in the past, it’s certainly not “left wing” now.
Harper wants to be a bigshot on the international scene, which is why he’s sucking up to Israel, i.e., Israel throws weight around that it doesn’t have because Washington is currently Israel’s bitch. That’s the Israeli-style position Harper would like to be in. But as the Engler article makes clear, it’s backfiring.
And that’s not gonna change with a change of government in Canada, as leader of the opposition Liberals Michael Ignatiev is, as Tony Judt has implied, Washington’s useful idiot.
Believing Dubai over Canada seems, well, just stupid.
No, actually your comment seems, well, just stupid & racist.
Racist? My Lord you are a hoot.
Racist? Naaaaah. We know no one in their right mind would believe those primitive, crafty, lying swarthy Ayrabs over nice, civilized white North Americans, would they?
Do you all work from a script? Who said anything about “Arabs,” but you? What is wrong with you race baiters?
Big comment rule violation, Ken. Read the rules & follow them. If not, ya takes yer chances here that I’ll moderate ya or worse.
[comment deleted for comment rule violation]
I find it hard to believe that a western country such as Canada could hold a suspect without revealing his existance since June or July and still deny it when a relevant party claims it to have happened. Is Canada so backward democratically?
Why should Canada do it for Israel? Remember how she was angry after the failed Mashal assasins used fake Canadian passports?
And if this French guy is really a mossad agent do u really think he’ll come clean and not have a perfect cover story perfected over a year of planning to explain who he is, where he was and how he ends up being where he was when arrested?
Would channel 10 in Israel be allowed to publish the name before Canada or even Dubai reveal it? Was the Israel censor sleeping? This stinks of disinformation!
I think Lt-Gen Dahi is missing the two minutes of fame he had last February and will do all he can to stay in the world’s press even at the cost of a little imaginative speculation.
Even if the mossad did do the whole thing, I really don’t think anyone will be “caught” unless the mossad wants someone to be caught as part of some plan. Yes I believe the spook world is dirty…
Yes, Canada is democratically backward–at least, right now. As to why Canada “should do it for Israel,” we’ve got Christian Zionists in Parliament. It’s like having a case of crabs.
What? Canada doesn’t have habeus corpus? What happened to their British traditions? The French traditions couldn’t have done that much damage to Canada!
Even if they have “Christian Zionists” in their (democratic?) parliament, does that mean they can hold a man for 4 months without revealing he was even arrested? Or release a man and deny he was ever held? Why arrest him at all if you’re going to release him?
Someone reads too many spy novels. I think that I also prefer Canada’s version to Dubai’s, not because Shirin thinks cynically:
“Racist? Naaaaah. We know no one in their right mind would believe those primitive, crafty, lying swarthy Ayrabs over nice, civilized white North Americans, would they?”,
but rather because Canada’s version is simply more believable than Dubai’s.
One of us will eat his hat in the end in a few days…
Mossad talking points…Canada is no more believable on this subject than the MOssad or Shin Bet or IDF are whenver a story or incident arises that embarrasses them.
Richard – do you still believe Dubai’s version over Canada’s after a month has passed and no news of any arrest or release of a mossad agent?
Yes. I wouldn’t trust Stockwell Day and the Tories as far as I can throw ’em.
Of course it is. Why so many here argue differently is astounding but maybe they enjoy the taste of hat.
Maybe these are the crabs Kobi’s father raised at his kibbutz…
Richard, you are not my friend, you don’t even know me, you are a blogger, and as such you have no right talking about my dad who had been dead for few years now.
If I don’t want someone to talk about a personal subject I make it a point of not raising it first, which you did. You put yr father in that unfortunate position. Not my fault.
this is what i said:
“just FYI, i grew up in a kibbutz which is know for the it’s pigs farm and processing.”
the rest was your assumptions, and following your logic i can safely assume that you had a mother, how would you feel if i would bring her into the conversation ?
in short a real man admits he was wrong and can apologize for his mistakes.
Go right ahead. My mother & I aren’t on especially good terms. You can say anything you want.
It’s gonna be a cold day in hell before I apologize to you.
I didn’t expect one from you
as you know hazal stated: כל הפוגע בחברו פוגע בעצמו ועל מצפונו אם יש כזה בו
what you write about yourself your mother and my father stands for itself, i don’t think i should add anything.
Since I’ve been able to find only 2 references online to this phrase and none confirm it as Talmudic and the syntax doesn’t appear Talmudic to me, I’m going to doubt you & your source. You may’ve learned this somewhere, but it isn’t what you claim it to be.
Since you’re claiming offense because i caused some harm to you and your father’s reputation, you might want to think about all the Palestinians you’ve harmed by your maliciousness here. Does that similarly say anything about the “harm you’ve done to yrself and your conscience if you have one?” (I urge my Hebrew speaking readers to try to translate Hebrew when they quote it)
Richard, Hazal and Talmud knowledge coming from you is an oxymoron, after all you were unable to differentiate between rabinu tam and rabinu gersohm (and if you deny i will send you the emails which surfaced in one of the forums)
as for the rest of you massage, nice attempt of altering the subject. you behaved with no דרך ארץ( basic manners) you were called upon it and in return you offer a little soliloquy.
Ah, I see. Now that Shmuel, who shares yr politics btw, has uncovered yr error instead of admitting it, you fend off the error by pointing out errors I have made. That takes maturity. If this is the extent of what you intend to do here then I’ll put you out of yr misery.
I pointed out that you haven’t observed any of the principles of decent human conduct toward Palestinians which you’ve demanded of me. And I don’t accord respect to those who show they don’t have it themselves. So you’ll go begging here if you expect anything fr. me.
You clearly know nothing about the Harper right wing government.
YOu haven’t a clue about the current govt’s pro Israel views have you? Do some research before you expose yr ignorance about the contemporary political situation there.
Sure, one of Israel’s most popular TV channel’s participating in a deliberate disinformation campaign against its own country’s intelligence agency. BTW, the censor didn’t prevent reporting on Uri Brodsky either inside Israel. Was that disinformation too? Oh that’s right that story turned out to be TRUE!
That’s not his name. And if you wish to be snarky with Arabic names you’ll do it elsewhere. People have real, full names. Use them! Actually, I think the disinformation comes from Mossad shills like you.
“You clearly know nothing about the Harper right wing government.”
Correct, but even right wing governments who may be pro-Israel won’t lie on a matter such as this when the truth has to come out soon. Being right-wing doesn’t always negate all your common political sense.
“Sure, one of Israel’s most popular TV channel’s participating in a deliberate disinformation campaign against its own country’s intelligence agency. BTW, the censor didn’t prevent reporting on Uri Brodesky either inside Israel. Was that disinformation too? Oh that’s right that story turned out to be TRUE!”
Well yes, where did his info come from this time? Not the Canadian govn. 99% his source was from mossad directly or indirectly. Whenever Israel breaks a story before the rest of the world be sure that someone inside wants it that way, otherwise the reporter will say “from foreign sources” Uri Brodeski’s id was not first released by Israel press, but later confirmed. It was not against Israel to reveal his id, since until now no one actually knows who he is\was – he’s disappeared you may have noticed! Probably never actually existed, and the person who was arrested in Poland and extradited to Germany will never be id’d now that he’s released.
As for not using Lt-Gen Dahi’s full name – even in yr comments here you refer to “Harper’s right wing government” – are full titles and names only for people you admire, and others insulted by your use of nicknames or shortened names? You’ve often mentioned someone called “Bibi” – perhaps you meant “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”? Is “President Barack Hussain Obama” never shortened by you to simply “Obama”?
Anyway the truth of this arrest in Canada will come out soon. If I’m wrong I’ll apologise here. I suspect if you’re wrong you’ll simply moderate me or move on to new topics without a word of regret.
You are either naive, have no sense of history, or you’re deliberately deluding yrself. Politicians lie all the time & even when it’s likely that the truth will come out. I can’t say for sure that Toews has lied in this case. But I can say that no Canadian journalist that I’m aware has asked any tough questions about this case. They’re giving the gov’t the benefit of the doubt & they don’t deserve it.
As for Dubai’s police chief’s proper name, it is Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim. You’ve called him the equivalent of “Lt. Gen. Joe.” I didn’t call the Canadian gov.t “Steve’s gov’t.” “Bibi” is a commonly accepted term for your prime minister used by almost every Israeli, whether those who support or oppose him.
On the other hand, only sycophants use “Tony” to mean Antony Charles Lynton Blair, the full form being preferred by those who want their condemnation to be precisely targeted.
For people who do understand French, here is a very interesting program on “Canada under influence” about the sioniste influence on Canadian politics.
It’s produced by the public French-Canadian “Radio Canada” and the report is by the multi-prized journalist Luc Chartrand. The program “One hour on Earth” is more or less the equivalent of “60 Minutes”.
We hear that the actual Harper-governemnt is more conservative and more extremist that the US in the inconditionnal support to Israel:
http://www.tou.tv/une-heure-sur-terre/S2009E21
It stars out after a short introduction to the next topic on the Opera in Manaos, at about min 1:00
Sorry for the typos. My inner translator is still sleeping “Zionist”, “government”
Globe & Mail conservative? The newspaper is a stalwart supporter of the right wing gov’t.? Hahahahah. Oh my that’s funny.
Any editorial board with half a room full of brains supported the Conservatives during the last election. The Liberals were hopelessly lost last time around (last two times actually).
I know it’s a non sequitur but, hey, why not add my two cents.
The paper supported the last 2 conservative governments. That’s pretty stalwart to me. YOu haven’t presented any evidence to support whatever it is that you’re claiming. So permit us to laugh at you.
@kobi
“as you know hazal stated: כל הפוגע בחברו פוגע בעצמו ועל מצפונו אם יש כזה בו
what you write about yourself your mother and my father stands for itself, i don’t think i should add anything.”
if you’re going to quote hazal at least get it right!
כל הפוסל במומו פוסל
and it doesn’t mean you’ll end up hurting yrself but rather that u project yr own shortcomings when accusing others
The question is where did his original quote come from?