The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Fatman on February 26, 2010, 12:26:49 PM
-
Video here (http://gulfnews.com/gntv/news/the-murder-of-mahmoud-al-mabhouh-1.583880)
AP article, some interesting reading:
(AP) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt Tuesday after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander last month in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.
The case – as presented by Dubai authorities – rings of clockwork espionage and detailed planning that included suspects riding the same elevator as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was slain in an ambush-style attack in a luxury hotel room that took no more than 10 minutes.
But questions emerged about the list of suspects after Dubai authorities released pictures, names and passport photos identifying them as six Britons, three Irish and one each from France and Germany.
WATCH: Video report with footage from Gulf News
Ireland said the three alleged Irish citizens on the wanted list do not exist. In Germany, officials said the passport number give by Dubai for the lone German suspect is either incomplete or wrong.
Other elements also challenged the narrative presented by Dubai authorities, including how investigators pieced together the evidence pointing to an alleged European assassin team. Or why such an apparently well-planned operation would forget about the country's wide-ranging security cameras.
At least three people who live in Israel share names with suspects identified by Dubai police, Israel's Channel 2 news reported. Another man named as a suspect holds dual British-Israeli citizenship. Those connections are likely to encourage Hamas and others to press their claims that Israel's Mossad secret service masterminded the slaying. Hamas has vowed revenge.
Story continues below
Click here to find out more!
Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wings, had been wanted by Israel for his role in the 1989 kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers on leave – something that was acknowledged by Hamas last month.
Days after his body was found on Jan. 20, Israeli officials also pointedly accused al-Mabhouh of helping smuggle rockets into the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory ruled by Hamas.
Officials outside Dubai, however, said at least two Palestinians linked to the case were in Dubai custody, leaving Hamas and its Palestinian rivals trading bitter accusations.
Meanwhile, doubts were raised about some suspects' identities.
In Dublin, Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said it could not find the three suspects in passport records and the numbers listed were counterfeit because they have the wrong number of digits and contain no letters. "Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the department said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Germany's Interior Ministry also said the five-digit passport number given for the lone German suspect is too short and lacks the letters that now appear on its passports.
Melvyn Adam Mildiner, 31, one of the men identified by the Dubai police Monday as a suspect, was shocked when an AP reporter reached him on the phone in Israel and read him the information released by Dubai officials.
Mildiner, who said he holds a British and an Israeli passport, confirmed the name and the passport number matched his but said the date of birth was a few days off.
He said he did not know how anybody obtained his U.K. passport, issued in 2001 and never reported lost.
Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement Tuesday that authorities were aware the "holders of six British passports have been named" as suspects in the case but added authorities believe the passports used were fraudulent.
Dubai officials have said they would seek assistance from the global police coordination agency Interpol and press individual nations to hunt down the suspects.
Attorney General Essam al-Hemaydan said Tuesday that international arrest warrants have been issued.
The account presented Monday by Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, included surveillance video clips from the suspects' airport arrivals to their hasty departures to Europe and Asia before al-Mabhouh's body was found in Room 230 at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel near Dubai's international airport.
Tamim said the suspects arrived in Dubai at different times, checked into different hotels and tailed al-Mabhouh from the moment of his arrival in Dubai to when he entered his hotel room. Some suspects even rode in the same elevator as al-Mabhouh to verify his room number and later booked a room across the hall, Tamim said.
They paid for all expenses in cash and used different cell phone cards to avoid being traced, Tamim said.
Surveillance footage shows the female suspect apparently wearing a wig and at times a big hat and sunglasses to blend in as a tourist. Others also were disguised as vacationers, wearing baseball caps or tennis outfits and carrying rackets. Tamim also said some suspects donned fake beards.
He said forensic tests indicated al-Mabhouh died of suffocation, but lab analyses were still under way to pinpoint other possible factors. Hamas initially claimed al-Mabhouh was poisoned and electrocuted, but later a Hamas leader, Mohammed Nazzal, denied that poison was used.
The killing itself took just 10 minutes, Tamim said.
Four assassins later entered his room while he was out, using an electronic device to open the door, and waited in ambush for al-Mabhouh to return.
Tamim said they were careful not to disturb anything in the room and left the door locked from the inside.
The team then headed for the airport, some of them flying to Europe and others to Asia, he said. All left Dubai – one of seven semiautonomous emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates – within 19 hours of their arrival.
Dubai police claimed that four members of the alleged cell carried out the killing. Five others, including the woman, were used as spotters and in other planning roles, police said. The mastermind was a man identified as French.
The consul general of France in Dubai, Nada Yafi, declined to comment.
A former high-ranking Mossad official, Rami Igra, told Israel Army Radio that the assassin "does look professional" as described by Dubai police. But Igra said it "doesn't look like an Israeli operation" because of the apparent shortcuts, such as allowing members to be videotaped by security cameras.
Igra declined to speculate on who could have carried out the slaying, but noted that al-Mabhouh has many enemies and was at the center of bloody Palestinian feuds.
"He was not new to terror ... and he had many contacts with people who had good reason to want him dead," he said.
The two detained Palestinians were Hamas operatives, said West Bank police spokesman Adnan Damiri, citing sources familiar with the investigation.
Hamas, however, claimed the suspects were linked to the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of alleged clandestine links with Israeli intelligence.
In Amman, Jordan, government spokesman Nabil Sharif told the AP that Jordan turned the two Palestinians over to the United Arab Emirates "a few days ago." He declined to give their names or further details.
Top Hamas figures have denied reports that al-Mabhouh was en route to Iran, a major Hamas backer. But the group has not given clear reasons for his presence in Dubai.
Besides Mildiner, the other suspects were identified by Dubai police as Michael Lawrence Barney, James Leonard Clarke, Jonathan Louis Graham, Paul John Keeley and Stephen Daniel Hodes of Britain; Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron of Ireland; Peter Elvinger of France and Michael Bodenheimer of Germany.
___
Associated Press Writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Dave Rising in Berlin, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.
-
Well one thing we do know, it wasn't a CIA operation. The guy's dead. ::)
FQ13
-
1 who cares.....
2 a couple of Aussies have been caught up in this as copies of there passports were used
-
Lets narrow down the suspect list. Who doesn't want to kill him? Very well inspector, interview the remaining 5 people. ::)
FQ13
-
Meanwhile Amidinijad brags about his Nuke program ::)
Even tinfoil won't help him. ;D
-
pretty professional job. who cares if this dirt bag is dead anyway? be different if he was from Al Qaeda
-
pretty professional job. who cares if this dirt bag is dead anyway? be different if he was from Al Qaeda
Not that professional they got caught on camera, they could have least wore caps or wide brimmed hats, scouted the hotel before hand and nted where the cameras were or possibly were?
-
Funny part is that it might NOT have been the Israeli's. This guy may have been killed in some kind of internal power play.
-
dont matter who it was, one less scum bag camel shagger!
-
Not that professional they got caught on camera, they could have least wore caps or wide brimmed hats, scouted the hotel before hand and nted where the cameras were or possibly were?
They knew exactly where the cameras were, notice how they kept their heads down?
No way these guys are getting caught unless someone rats them out.
I don't see what all the fuss is about. One less dirtbag terrorist enabler in the world.
-
thats how i would have done it. wait until he gets back, two or three guys overpower him, inject him with whatever majic potions they have now days.
probably would have put the body in one of thoes big trunks, taken it to my room, dumped it in the sea.
not that i thought about it or anything. ;D
-
Where do I sign up?
-
In this day and age of google where it is easy to search for people's names, I am puzzled why they used real people's names.
??? ??? ???
-
In this day and age of google where it is easy to search for people's names, I am puzzled why they used real people's names.
??? ??? ???
For exactly that reason. You show up with a fake name and some eager Beaver googles it, you're screwed. Use a real one and it just shows up as confimed, assuming age and race are the same. Unless they have a face book page you're good. These are burn identities. They were in country and gone in less than a day. Good enough.
FQ13
-
I doubt the UAE has any problem with this puke being offed, they just wanted it done at some other country.
Terrorist are bad for business and tourism.
I had a captain in the Home Guard ( police) tell me they worried about outsiders killing each other than killing locals. His opinion was if we all went home it would go back to being a Middle Eastern paradise.
His CO chewed his ass in Arabic and sent him on his merry way.
-
I doubt the UAE has any problem with this puke being offed, they just wanted it done at some other country.
Terrorist are bad for business and tourism.
I had a captain in the Home Guard ( police) tell me they worried about outsiders killing each other than killing locals. His opinion was if we all went home it would go back to being a Middle Eastern paradise.
His CO chewed his ass in Arabic and sent him on his merry way.
Thats what happens when you tell the truth. Energy independence means we can screw all of the BS and have them send us a post card to let us know how it all works out. "The Middle where?, Oh, yeah, that bunch of crazy bastards we used to care about. What about them"?
FQ13
-
They understand they have oil reserves for about 20 years at the present rate and want to use the income to build the New Hong Kong or Zurich banking center. Maybe they will maybe they won't.
-
They already had to run off a bunch of Russian Mafiya crews that could not leave their grudges at home.
-
thats how i would have done it. wait until he gets back, two or three guys overpower him, inject him with whatever majic potions they have now days.
probably would have put the body in one of thoes big trunks, taken it to my room, dumped it in the sea.
not that i thought about it or anything. ;D
Whoever it was WANTED him to be found. They probably don't care that their (altered) faces were seen, and the weapon of choice would have been a plastic bag. Quiet (with a gag), efficient, and NEVER considered a dangerous weapon.
Even in an age of Google, the point of international entry would be too busy to check the bona fides of anyone that didn't raise a red flag through normal checks.
-
Whhhoooopppss!!
I should have been more specific. Why pick people's names that lead back to Israel?
Unless of course, you wanted people to think it was Mossad (sp?) who was behind it.
???
-
Whhhoooopppss!!
I should have been more specific. Why pick people's names that lead back to Israel?
Unless of course, you wanted people to think it was Mossad (sp?) who was behind it.
???
Three kinds of people that would do that.
1) People who wanted to blame Israel as a smoke screen and divert attention from themselves (Hamas, Fatah, the Lebanese government, his credit card company). ::)
2) Enemies of Israel, like Fatah and rival Hamas groups who want to discredit Israel.
3) Israel, who wants to send a message and make a point that they can reach out and touch you.
It's 6-4 and pick'em. ???
FQ13 who is tired of all of these people and wants energy independence so so we can tell them all to kiss our ass. As a former boss said, "These people have been nothing but trouble makers since Moses. Jesus and Mohamed were the worst. To hell with all of them". Wise words from a Texan.
-
Wise Ignorant words from a Texan bigot.
-
Bigot maybe, ignorant, not at all. I'm a Christian Path, but you add up the body count from all three individuals' followers, and its something that would make Hitler and Stalin gag. I love Jesus, but I don't trust preacher's. Same with the politics. I love the flag and the Constitution, but I don't trust the government. So maybe you ought to turn down the "I'm so easily offended" a notch and look at the record.
FQ13 who's just sayin'
-
Actually, Path brings up an interesting point, in a round about way. Me, I'm a happy church going Episcopalian, and I'm glad Jesus came. But leaving theology aside, and just looking at history, what would have happened if he didn't? Lets assume the "People of the Book", didn't exist. No Abraham, Moses, Jesus or Mohammed. What would world history have looked like if we were still pagans like Greece and Rome? I am not offering a moral/theological question here, just an historical one.
FQ13
-
Three kinds of people that would do that.
1) People who wanted to blame Israel as a smoke screen and divert attention from themselves (Hamas, Fatah, the Lebanese government, his credit card company). ::)
2) Enemies of Israel, like Fatah and rival Hamas groups who want to discredit Israel.
3) Israel, who wants to send a message and make a point that they can reach out and touch you.
It's 6-4 and pick'em. ???
FQ13 who is tired of all of these people and wants energy independence so so we can tell them all to kiss our ass. As a former boss said, "These people have been nothing but trouble makers since Moses. Jesus and Mohamed were the worst. To hell with all of them". Wise words from a Texan.
Number 4 would be Israelis who wanted to blur the trail and didn't want Israel to be conspicuous by it's absence from the list.
-
Here's a nice open source analysis:
(http://www.stratfor.com/sites/all/themes/zen/stratfor_mail_html/images/logo_stratfor_email.gif)
UAE: The Assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
February 18, 2010 | 0028 GMT
(http://www.stratfor.com/mmf/154773/two_column)
Mahmoud al Mabhouh
Dubai Police Department
Suspects in the assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are seen on video footage Jan. 20
Summary
Recently released closed-circuit television footage shows the suspected assassins of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh as they conducted operations. Throughout the footage, the suspects act in a methodical, well-choreographed manner, indicating the assassination was a professional operation.
Editor’s Note: This is a tactical discussion and analysis of the assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Analysis
Dubai police on Feb. 16 released closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of 17 individuals (15 men and two women) believed to have participated in a Jan. 19 operation to assassinate Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, reportedly was in Dubai for an unknown meeting — without security, due to an inability to purchase timely airfare for his bodyguards — and according to STRATFOR sources stopped there on his way to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials about prospective arms sales to Hamas. He was found dead in his room at the Al Bustan hotel in Dubai on Jan. 20.
Police were able to backtrack 11 of the 17 suspects through CCTV footage and immigration records to their arrival at the Dubai International Airport 19 hours prior to al-Mabhouh’s assassination. Those 11 traveled to Dubai on passports from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Germany, arriving approximately 14 hours ahead of al-Mabhouh from different locations around Europe.
The suspects utilized several high-pedestrian-traffic locations throughout Dubai as meeting areas, logistics hubs and staging sites prior to the operation, including at least three hotels and a shopping center. Dubai police also identified several reportedly encrypted phone calls made from suspects’ phones to numbers in Austria, where police think a command-and-control center for the operation was based.
All suspects attempted to alter their physical appearance in varying degrees, ranging from simple hats to wigs and glasses. The demeanor of team members visible on the CCTV footage did not deviate from that of regular tourists or businesspeople, indicating a high level of training and professionalism.
From the CCTV footage it was clear the suspects were assigned to one of several specialized teams and carried out very specific roles in the operation. At least four surveillance teams were identified; three of the four teams appeared to work in pairs, while the fourth looked to be a single individual. Another individual, who seemed to be the senior commander of the operation, appeared to have reserved the room across the hall from the room in which al-Mabhouh was staying. The remaining seven members of the group were directly involved in the actual assassination, serving as lookouts outside al-Mabhouh’s room or as the actual assassins.
Prior to al-Mabhouh’s arrival in Dubai, the surveillance teams were prepositioned at the airport and at two hotels al-Mabhouh was known to frequent when he traveled to Dubai. Once al-Mabhouh arrived at the Al Bustan, the two surveillance operatives located in the lobby were seen following him to his room. After al-Mabhouh’s room number had been confirmed, the two surveillance assets contacted the rest of the team, who then moved to the Al Bustan, and the senior commander reserved the room across the hall from al-Mabhouh’s.
Al-Mabhouh then left the Al Bustan for an unknown meeting, during which time CCTV shows one of the surveillance operatives calling out the description of al-Mabhouh’s vehicle. After al-Mabhouh’s departure, two men and a woman wearing wigs and glasses and a pair of two-man assassin teams staged themselves in the room across the hall from al-Mabhouh’s room.
Upon his return to the Al Bustan, al-Mabhouh is seen passing the disguised man and woman who had taken up lookout positions near the elevator and outside al-Mabhouh’s room. Al-Mabhouh was then intercepted and killed in his room by the two-man assassin teams at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time. The surveillance teams then left the premises, followed by both the two-man assassin teams (who left all together), and finally by the disguised two men and woman.
The 11 identified individuals flew out of the Dubai International Airport between two and 10 hours after the assassination to several different locations such as South Africa, Hong Kong, Germany, France and Switzerland – long before a hotel cleaning crew discovered al-Mabhouh’s body Jan 20 at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time.
The arrival of the team members some 19 hours ahead of the operation and 14 hours ahead of al- Mabhouh indicates the group had knowledge of al-Mabhouh’s travel plans beforehand. Additionally, the coordinated movements and logistics involved in the operation typically require an advance team to be in place ahead of the assassination team’s arrival. Throughout the CCTV footage, some members of the team — specifically the actual assassins — were mindful of the placement of the surveillance cameras and moved in such a way as to block direct views of their faces, while others were not as careful.
The team’s movements throughout the operation were methodical, calculated, well-choreographed and, most of all, indicative of a professional operation. Moreover, their outward demeanor directly before and after the killing did not deviate from that of Dubai regulars. It was clear that each member of the team was professionally trained and operated in a coordinated and defined role necessary for the completion of the mission. Operators with these skills are not easy to come by. The tactics and logistics involved in this operation were well beyond the capabilities of known terrorist organizations and all but a few national intelligence services. While this CCTV footage does not offer any clues as to who carried out the al-Mabhouh’s assassination, it does show a high degree of professionalism that very few possess.
-
It would be interesting to know if any of the alternate identities based on real people had anything in common.
Said another way....I wonder how those real people got picked???
Were they all facebook friends?
Were they members of the DownRange TV forum? :o :o ;D ;D
Did somebody already have access to their passport or other ID photos and said, "Hmmn...yeah, with a hat and a mustache Mossad Operative number one looks like that poor sap Charlie Goldfarb the guy who runs the open air market in Tel Aviv....hmmmn..."
It would kinda suck to have some Hezbollah "agent" show up at your door to let you know you have doppleganger running about killing off high profile hadji's.
-
With respect to the STRATFOR cut and paste above...yeah, they might have been some really good professionals. Or maybe just as a precaution each two person team was compartmentalized from any other two person team and they had no idea that their intell gathering efforts were going to lead to the assassination of that hadji.
Methinks they had a dry run or two at it before.
-
With respect to the STRATFOR cut and paste above...yeah, they might have been some really good professionals. Or maybe just as a precaution each two person team was compartmentalized from any other two person team and they had no idea that their intell gathering efforts were going to lead to the assassination of that hadji.
Methinks they had a dry run or two at it before.
Exactly. I think Stratfo is getting breathless over the "professionalism" of the teams. This op is something that board members could game out over a few beers (don't get any ideas Tom!). The key is the intel and financial support and nerves of steel. I mean walking out of a hotel room with a body and making an airline reservation in a country that enthusiastically uses the death penalty kind of nerves. Still, other than the money and intel, all it takes is will, trust and practice. Even Eric and TAB and me could do it. "Known terrorist organizations" who don't have the capability? I call BS. Al Queda, Hamas and Hezbollah could do this in their sleep. They have before numerous times and doubtless will again.
FQ13
-
"Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, reportedly was in Dubai for an unknown meeting — without security, due to an inability to purchase timely airfare for his bodyguards — and according to STRATFOR sources stopped there on his way to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials about prospective arms sales to Hamas. He was found dead in his room at the Al Bustan hotel in Dubai on Jan. 20."
He can't get airline tickets for his bodyguards but can afford arms purchase from Iran?
Either a big time set up on the inside or a honey trap.
-
"Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, reportedly was in Dubai for an unknown meeting — without security, due to an inability to purchase timely airfare for his bodyguards — and according to STRATFOR sources stopped there on his way to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials about prospective arms sales to Hamas. He was found dead in his room at the Al Bustan hotel in Dubai on Jan. 20."
He can't get airline tickets for his bodyguards but can afford arms purchase from Iran?
Either a big time set up on the inside or a honey trap.
Probably the latter. That's what Dubai is known for, being the Vegas of the Middle East. No matter how repressive a regime you claim to support, you can come to Dubai and get your freak on, and nobody saw nothin'.
FQ13
-
I wonder if he told the Mrs. he was going hiking on the Appalachian trail. Just wondering ;D
-
Yeah, I am wondering if they actually have the wet bars stocked with liquor in the Dubai hotel rooms...and if they can get the Playboy or Penthouse channel on the TV.
Heck, they might even serve bacon for breakfast too. ;D
Isn't Dubai where like a lot of non-Arabic or non-Farzi (sp?) speaking foreigners go to for work...like Chinese and Koreans...in the service industry there?
Hmmn...kinda makes me wonder how rampant prostitution is there too...hmmn???
-
Dubai has replaced Beirut as the city where Muslims and Arabs go to drink and party.