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Major Update: In a tweet today, veteran Israeli journalist, Amir Oren revealed that the Mossad used local Malaysian sayanim (assets), hired to organize logistics and kidnap and beat the Palestinian victims before and during their video interrogation at the hands of Shabak interrogators located in Israel. The name of the main victim, according to Malaysia Now (video featured below), is Omar Al-Balbisi Raeda.
It did someting similar in Tunisia when it murdered a Palestinian drone engineer. There it used unsuspecting conspirators who lured the victim into an ambush, where he was murdered.
Now, Malaysian media, using local police sources, has further broken the case open. Below is a Malaysia Now video, which recounts not only the crime itself, but names all the suspects (13 in all). It’s amazing how many goons are needed for such an operation. Also, astonishing that the Mossad hired so many of them, without suspecting that either one of them would f*k up, or one of them would blab about it to a drinking buddy or the police. At any rate, the first happened. And now the Mossad has egg all over its face. And rightly so.
The key question is what, if any repurcussions there will be. After the murder of of Prof. Batsh there in 2018, there seems to have been few or none. If we ask why, there can be many reasons. Either Israel paid off local security officials. Or a diploatic deal was reached. Or the Mossad agreed to help or share intelligence with the Malaysians.
Though the video below quotes a Malaysian minster saying the government planned to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, and expose what and how it happened–that’s precisely what Dubai’s chief of police said after the al Mabouh assassination there in 2010. There were few repurcussions in Dubai-Israel relations there as well. How much does it cost to buy “cooperation” among countries and intelligence agencies?
Here are the videos:
And a pure news report from Malaysian TV:
My, how the Mossad can sometimes look like the Keystone Cops! Let’s take you back to 2010, when 27 different Mossad agents traveled to Dubai to assassinate a low level Hamas weapons dealer, who traded in Iranian weapons. Mossad made an elementary, fatal mistake by not knowing that Dubai was covered in CCTV cameras, which captured every agent’s moves throughout the city. Though they did murder Mahmoud al Mabouh, it certainly was not worth the international opprobrium the Mossad earned. This included three different Mossad station chiefs expelled from major locations, and many governments angry that passports of real citizens were used in the operation. Though Meir Dagan’s head didn’t roll immediately, he retired a few months later. In a western democracy (which Israel isn’t), he would have been sacked.
Today, Malaysian media reports a similarly botched operation. This one, a kidnapping of two Palestinian computer engineers in Kuala Lumpur. This time, instead of murdering them, the Mossad and Shabak wanted to kidnap them and elicit any intelligence information they could glean about Hamas intelligence capabilities.
The Mossad hired several Malaysians and trained them in the methods they would need in order to complete the job. But either the training was badly done or the agents were incompetent. They made an unbelievable number of blunders even an untrained spy would know not to make.
Yossi Melman tweeted that outsourcing its operations to external agents means the Mossad loses control of things and is completely dependent on the competence and consistency of those operatives. In this case the spy agency seems to have placed its trust in a bunch of bungling Keystone Kops.
First, when they ambushed the two Palestinians in a local car park, the victims fought back and the agents only captured one of them. The other escaped. A Malaysian source said the kidnappers warned him away from defending his colleague. Naturally, he took off to a local hotel, and roused the security guards, who directed him to the nearest police station. He then filed a police report and officers began an investigation. It wasn’t hard to penetrate this conspiracy because the kidnappers had used their cell phones in the course of the kidnapping and the subsequent interrogation, which was conducted in a rented chalet. Also, the two kidnap vehicles used actual license plates and did not wear masks, which made it much easier to identify and track them via CCTV cameras.
In the meantime, the Malaysian kidnappers beat the Palestinian in the vehicle after they nabbed him, until he unlocked his cell phone. Then they threw it away fearing it would enable the authorities to track them. When they arrived at the chalet where the interrogation was to be conducted, they again beat the Palestinian till he was prepared to talk to the Israeli interrogators, who were hooked up by remote link in Israel. These Israelis were not affiliated with the Mossad. Since Shabak deals with Palestinian affairs, these were interrogators from that agency:
For the next 24 hours, the victim was interrogated and beaten by the Malaysian operatives when his answers were not to the Israelis’ satisfaction.
Meanwhile, one of the Malaysian operatives was in direct communication with another Israeli, carrying out his orders.
“The Israelis wanted to know about his experience in computer application development, Hamas’ strength in developing software, members of the Al-Qassam Brigade that he knew and their strengths,” he said.
It was this contact between the Malaysians and Israelis which was also traced. It offered yet more evidence permitting the authorities to track them down. When police arrived at the chalet, they caught the culprits red-handed and arrested them. The Israelis on the video feed were confused by the commotion and kept repeating, “Hello, hello” till the link was disconnected.
The police believe that had they not disrupted the conspiracy, the Palestinian “would have disappeared.”
The local kidnappers were purportedly trained by Mossad to carry out the job. Either the Israeli training failed or the agents were incompetent (or both). This makes one wonder at the agency’s planning and execution of the operation, as in the al Mabouh affair.
The kidnapping follows another daring Mossad operation in which assassins ambushed a Palestinian professor and engineer, purportedly affiliated with a militant group, as he walked to prayers at the local mosque. Motorcycle riders drew up alongside him and pumped a fusillade of bullets which killed him. It seems likely that the Mossad used locals for this operation as well. Perhaps the same ones who kidnapped the Palestinian computer engineers. If so, the Malaysian authorities may learn a great deal about the methods used in both incidents. It will permit them to protect themselves and hinder Israeli attacks in the future.
Melman adds that Shabak claims Prof. Batsh and these kidnapping victims were involved in Hamas weapons engineering. Of course, it offers no proof of such a claim. It beggars belief that a professor of engineering at a distinguished foreign university with a wife and children would be involved in research to improve the engineering function of Hamas drones.
Mossad carried out a similar kidnapping last year. This time they kidnapped an Iranian general in Syria and flew him to an African country (reports claim it was Kenya), interrogating him there about the whereabouts of Israeli pilot, Ron Arad. He was shot down during an air attack in Lebanon, after which he was captured by Lebanese militia. He eventually came into Iranian hands and died under mysterious circumstances sometime in the 1990s. Ever since, Israel has left no stone unturned in its efforts to find out what happened to him after he bailed out of his plane, and to identify his remains and bring them to a resting place in Israel.
Initial reports said the mission was a failure. The Iranian didn’t know anything about Arad and didn’t offer any other useful information. Later, the prime minister and Mossad chief changed their tune, praising the courage and heroism of the personnel who conducted the operation.
Returning to a theme I’ve been voicing for years: assassination is not a policy. It is a stopgap measure in the face of having no policy. It is a sign of desperation and bankruptcy. You can even kill the top leaders of your enemy and, as long as s/he maintains dedication and steadfastness to a cause, it has no impact. Other than enraging your enemy and recuiting hundreds more future leaders to the cause. Israel’s problem is that it doesn’t want to have either a strategy or a policy. It wants to maintain the status quo indefinitely.
There are similarities (and differences) between these two kidnappings. Though we don’t know how the Mossad captured the general in Syria, it seems likely it would have been local Syrians hired for the job. It would be especially dangerous to insert Israeli agents into Syria. And their capture would create a huge incident given that the two countries remain in a state of war. Presumably, either the general was interrogated by agents at the African location, or by Israelis remotely from Israel. It isn’t known whether the interrogators were Shabak or Mossad. Though Mossad doesn’t have interrogators, leading to the likelihood that they were Shabak agents.
In both cases, the kidnappings failed, though for different reasons. Also in both cases, the Israelis didn’t get the information they sought because in one case the victim didn’t know anything, and in the other, their agents were interrupted and captured by local police.
So we can add these failures to the al Mabouh murder as three different operations, all of which failed in different ways.
[comment deleted: off-topic comments are not permissible. Comment only on the topic of the post. Comment threads are not meant for any subject you want to talk about. They’re meant to comment directly and solely on the topic.]
Mossad has never been much of an organization since they went amok and murdered Palestinians who had nothing to do with Munich. They’ve always been bumbling. Over the past 74 years, their ‘accomplishments’ can be totaled on two hands.
Hello Greta Berlin,
Mossad did mistakenly murder a Palestinian waiter because the waiter resembled a wanted terrorist.
As for Mossad’s ‘accomplishments’, how can we say what they’ve accomplished, when most of what Mossad does is secretive and hidden from sight.
@ Top Cat: Mossas has made hundreds of similar mistAKES. And if wants to murder someone it damn well better be sure who it’s mudering. This killing of a totally innocent man was inexcusable.
Mossad’s operations are not so secret or hidden. After all, the Mossad boasted of them to Ronen Bergman, whsoe book lionized the Mossad and revealed many of its “exploits.”
My comment threads do not offer accolades for Israel’s spy regime. If you want to do that there are plenty of other outlets to choose.
Hello Richard Silverstein,
I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself more clear.
I’m not offering accolades for the Mossad, but questioning what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
Anyway, I’ve not read Ronen Bergman’s book, nor do I intend to.
Cheers,
T.C.
how many innocent people, men, women and children has USA killed in afghanistan, iraq etc in recent times?
Whataboutism. Not convincing
simple double standards, hold israel to different standards than you do to any other country including your own.
killing of innocents is immeasurably tragic, but don’t make out as if israel is the only country to do so, apply your moral standards to USA, PA, Iran etc
@ ock:
I’m a Jew. Not Chinese. Not North Korean. I can’t influence their bad behavior. But as Jew, you can be damn sure I have something to say about a nation that claims to speak in my name and that of the rest of us Jews. So don’t blowhard me on “double standards.” That’s just a smokescreen for refusing to take responsibility for your own national sins.
This must be a talking point your’re taught in Hasbara 101. You’re at least the 10th if not 100th commenter to whom I’ve made clear that I am a critic of my own country’s history and politics. If and other Israelis were half as critical, you wouldn’t be up to your neck in it as you are.
And don’t try to pull the fakery of “of course the killing of poor babies is terrible but…” We can see through that nonsense.
you’re also an american, so how about having something to say about a nation that claims to speak in your name and the rest of USA citizens, a country you receive government benefits from and pay your taxes to or would that make you too cognisant of your blatant hypocrisy? fully understand
same goes for all commenters here, if you live in PA, countries like Iran etc, this should be disclosed, case of pot calling kettle black
@ ock:
First, I have no idea WTF you’re talking about. 2nd, I don’t give a flying fart what you think, including what you believe commenters should disclose
You don’t even bother to read my rebuttal to a comment in this thread making clear that I am a harsh critic of my own government and its policies. And if you think I’m going to permit you to restrict who and what I criticize, you’re nuts. I swear if another hasbarist like you brings up this stupid argument I’m going to ban their ass.
Only one comment per thread from you henceforth. That means no further comments in this thread.
The waiter murdered in Norway was Moroccan and NOT Palestinian (he was the brother of one of the founding members of Gypsy Kings), they even got that wrong …
And he’s not the only one murdered who had nothing to do with Munich. They even killed a 17 years old Palestinian girl in Beirut before Munich !
Ghassan Kanafani, a PFLP spokesman, and his 17 year old niece, were killed when a pressure trigger detonated a bomb placed in Kanafani’s car by Mossad.
Kanafani was targeted because his PFLP had recruited Japanese terrorists to attack and massacre innocent tourists at Lod Airport. Twenty-six people were killed, including 17 Christian pilgrims, in what’s come to be called, the Lod Airport Massacre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lod_Airport_massacre
The Japanese terrorists had been trained in Lebanon by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
You don’t have to post an extract from wikipedia to justify the killing of a 17 years old innocent girl. And we can just conclude that the waiter killed in Norway wasn’t even Palestinian.
@ Topcat. Yeah, as Deir Yassin points out, Wikipedia is pretty useless in general, except for rare cases. And this isn’t one of them.
Khanafani was not a terrorist. He was a revolutionary. As part of his ideology, and because Israel used violence against the Palestinian people, he supported the use of violence against it. But he never carried a gun. He played no role in the Lod attack. To murder him would be like murdering Bibi’s spokesperson because Bibi committed war crimes. Would that be acceptable? Even if he justifgied Bibi’s war crimes? No. Bibi is the address for his own crimes. Not some guy who is paid to represent him in the media.
So again, don’t try to justify Israeli terrorism with a lame excuse like the one you’re offering from Wikipedia.
Khanafani, with his Japanese Red Army terrorist girlfriend.
https://twitter.com/hillelneuer/status/1077199912117436416?lang=en
@ Top Cat: Only one comment per thread for you in all future threads.
You are using multiple IP addresses including a different one for each comment you’ve published here. Do not do this. Use a single IP address. Otherwise I suspect you are using IP proxies to conceal your identity or location. I find it hard to believe, for example, you are in Singapore, where your IP resolved. This is what social media platforms call “inauthenctic behavior.” I believe in transparency. If you don’t, you don’t belong here.
Quoting from Hillel Sewer is like quoting from Goebbels. Don’t do it. Anything out of his mouth is either a lie or a distortion (or both).
The Red Army came to Lebanon to train for their attack. Khanafani did not know of the attack or plans for it. I find any claim that the Japanese woman was his “girlfriend” to be dubious at best, and a lie at worst.
Let’s offer another postulate. Say a picture of you is taken with someone who later is proven to be a mass murderer. Does that make you an accessory to murder? Are you responsible in any way for it? Should you be executed because you met the murderer before he committed him crimes? Even if he was plotting the murders at the time the picture was taken? No it doesn’t So stop quoting me Hille Neuer’s bullshit. It stinks. And anyone who uses it as you have…well, you figure it out.
Oh and while we’re talking, I’m sure if you approve of Israeli assassinations, including of innocent Palestinian civilians, you won’t have any problem with Palestinian assassinations of Israeli leaders. Right? Only fair, right? In fact, in the face of Israeli state sponsored assassinations and mass murder, Palestinians have the right to use “any means necessary” to resist. Including the same means Israel uses.
Do not comment further in this thread.
You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about ! Ghassan Kanafani had no Japanese girlfriend, since the easly sixties he was married with a Danish woman and had two kids ! They were all there when the Mossad blew his car into pieces.
And why don’t you find the interview made by an Australian journalist on that same occasion, where Kanafani speaks of “peace negociations” between the sword and the neck.