AP is reporting that Israeli intelligence agents interrogated an Iranian terror suspect in Kenya. The suspect, who was arrested and found with explosives in his possession, claimed he’d also been tortured by the agents, which included the injection of drugs. This incident calls to mind Israel’s kidnapping of Gaza engineer Dirar Abusisi in 2010. In that case, the Mossad, with the collaboration/collusion of the highest echelons of the Ukrainian intelligence services, kidnapped Abusisi on a train, spirited him to a safe house in Kiev, drugged him, and took him from the country inside a casket according to the victim’s testimony.
Israel has a long history of such drugged-kidnappings including Adolf Eichmann from Argentina, and an IDF defense attaché suspected in the 1950s of spying for the Russians (he died of a drug overdose en route back to Israel).
A second Iranian suspect was also arrested in Mombassa.
A high level Israeli source reports to me that Israel sent a joint Mossad-Shin Bet team to investigate this incident. My source cannot confirm the use of torture on this suspect, but such practices are standard in security cases within Israel. Thanks to a reader who notified me that, coincidentally, last year news reports noted that during a presidential visit to Israel, Raul Odinga signed a far-ranging “memorandum of understanding for cooperation on matters of homeland security” with Kenya. In doing so, Israeli enlisted that country in its worldwide fight against the “Islamist menace.” This is clearly the fruit of such understanding.
All of this indicates a number of things: first, that if true, Iranian intelligence interests are probing soft targets in locations where there may be Islamist groups like the Shebab to facilitate their efforts. Previous Iranian terror attempts were in India and Thailand. Though both have Muslim populations, Kenya is right next door to an Islamist insurrection in Somalia. Kenya has had two major terror attacks, one of which was on an Israeli-identified target. Second, Kenya is offering Israel (and possibly the U.S.) the right to interrogate terror suspects on its soil. What is interesting is that Kenya did not allow the Israeli agents to kidnap the Iranian and render him to Israel as Ukraine did in the case of Abusisi. This either means that Israel was less interested in holding these suspects permanently as it was with Abusisi, or that the Kenyans weren’t prepared to accept this affront on their sovereignty as the Ukrainians were. The security memorandum may not have permitted such rendition. The third interesting aspect of this story is that the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, participated in this foreign mission. Finally, Israel must be interested in interrogating such terror suspects in order to prove there is an organized, official Iranian effort to sabotage international targets. Doing so might allow Israel and the U.S. to further isolate Iran in the world arena, and support the current regime of sanctions and other punitive measures against Iran, up to and including war.
I just published a new story at Antiwar.com about a Maariv report that the on-again/off-again joint Israeli-U.S. military exercises are on-again. They are scheduled for October, only a few weeks before the presidential election (surely a coincidence!). These will be the largest such military maneuvers in the history of both countries. They will focus on defending Israel from an Iranian counterattack after it pre-emptively attacks Iran. Though this is surely meant to send a message to Iran that such an attack on it creeps that much closer, it comes that much closer to guaranteeing that such an attack will happen. I’d be grateful if you’d disseminate the link to this post as widely as possible as it’s not been reported yet in U.S. media.
Richard. You said that,”Israel must be interested in interrogating such terror suspects in order to prove there is an organized, official Iranian effort to sabotage international targets.”
Why wouldn’t they be interested? Iran attacked Israeli targets in Thailand and India and planned attacks in Azerbaijan. Mossad and Shin Bet would be remiss if they didn’t go to Kenya.
Is torture and drugging on foreign soil part of Israel’s MO too? You betcha. Not to mention what other assets Israel has in Kenya and what role it might be playing in Somalia as well.
‘Previous Iranian terror attempts were in India and Thailand.’
You’re assuming the nationality of an attacker shows direct links to a governments involvement, which leads to further conclusions based on conjecture. There has been no link established between either of those attempts and the Iranian intelligence service.
Hired mercenaries, yes. Professional agents, no.
Though I haven’t tracked this issue closely, I believe both India and Thailand have concluded that the attacks were connected to official Iranian channels. There have been articles to that effect though perhaps others will bring the links here.
Iran Kidnaps pro Israel Kurd. Spy v Spy.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/6/state6310.htm
You used the term “Islamist menace” in quote marks regarding the “memorandum of understanding for cooperation on matters of homeland security” signed between Kenya and Israel. Yet nowhere in the article cited is that term used. I assume there’s some reasonable explanation for that.
There are a number of reasons for using quotes around phrases. Quoting someone’s actual words is only one reason. Placing quotation marks around a phrase to show you disagree with the premise behind it is another. Aren’t you a native English speaker? Or do you just not read very much? This is elementary stuff. Or perhaps you’re just doing yr usual trollish job of trying unsuccessfully to give a hard time?
Also, the prevailing tone of the statements by Peres in that article clearly indicate that both Israel & Kenya face an “Islamist menace.”
Iran is a fully rational, cost-benefit player. Thus, this MOSSAD/GSS borne info bears the question, “What’s in it for Iran to commit these recluse acts of terror?”
That’s how the Ahmadinejad mistranslation (“Wipe Israel from the Map” lie) was uncovered as a fraud. The curious, who noticed a typically calculating and rationale regime (to the point of never making a mistake) suddenly claim they would destroy a country that could literally just press a button to do the same to them, looked into it. It didn’t pass the smell test.
The “Wipe Israel from the Map” translation came from the Iranian state-run media. Western sources just picked up Iran’s own translation of Ahmadinejad’s speech. Check Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB News) 10.26.2005. I believe Wikipedia has a link to the original in their article about the controversy.
Regardless, everybody conveniently left out the part: ‘The Imam said’
I agree with you there. It is important to recognize that Ahmadinejad was just quoting The Supreme Leader.
Maybe you should direct some of your earnest questions to the translators of IRIB News then.
Meanwhile let’s stick to the correct translation, shall we?
I’ve got no problem with that. Just wanted to point out where the translation originated from in response to the commenter who seemed to be suggesting that it was some kind of fraud. I don’t see how the NY Times (and others) can be accused of fraud when they were simply reporting on the translation of the speech that was provided by the Iranian news outlet.
The NY Times can pay for someone to do a proper translation of a speech from Farsi. If it doesn’t then it’s a pretty shoddy journalistic endeavor.
The NY Times did have someone do a translation of the speech from Farsi. Nazila Fathi, who was born and raised in Tehran, translated the speech for The New York Times Tehran bureau as well and also came up with the same translation of the phrase as the Iranian source.
It may also be worth noting that, as another poster pointed out, Ahmadinejad was quoting a previous remark from the Supreme Leader, which was made in the 1980s and had been translated then as a reference to a map as well, even though the word map itself literally isn’t used.
Seems Nazila Fathi was lazy then.
I suppose the Iranian operative should have taken into account the possibility of getting caught. Hope he’s got a nice severance package from the Iranian regime.