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[diglyd]

Was this guy they killed a major figure? He is not even getting any headlines though it took 11 hitmen to take him out. I'm no hitmen or expert but this whole thing seems messy for an assassination. There is a paper trail and its still in the headlines but maybe that's what they wanted.

He was a senior official in Hamas and responsible for supplying Palestinian resistance with "special" weapons to fight against Israel from Iran. His loss according to reports is a significant blow to Hamas.

According to wkipedia he was "a key link in the smuggling of weapons into Hamas-controlled Gaza via Sudan, and suggested that his death is a serious blow to the operational capabilities of Hamas."

interestingly...

"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."

"One ex-Mossad agent was skeptical, saying al-Mabhouh's killing was "not Israel's style." Ramy Igra told Israel TV, "al-Mabhouh was an arms dealer and was probably cutting corners on all sides, so its more likely that whoever settled the score was a financial partner."

the plot thickens....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35426268/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/page/2/

 

[Silent Death]

http://gothamist.com/2010/02/18/us_credit_cards_used_in_hamas_hit.php

If you wondered how the U.S. might become embroiled in the controversy over a Hamas leader's assassination, wonder no more: The Wall Street Journal reports, "Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are probing five U.S.-issued credit card accounts, which officials say were used by five of the 11 suspects in the January killing of a top Hamas leader in Dubai, according to a person familiar with the situation."

There's speculation that Israel's secret service, Mossad, is behind the 11-person team, whose use of wigs and costumes was captured on surveillance video. Even Israeli believed the assassination was the work of Mossad, but today the NY Times reports that after "the Dubai police released images showing some of the 17 people suspected of being in the hit squad bumbling about in poor disguises... Now Israelis are wondering whether their once-famed spy service could have been behind such a sloppy job or, in a John Le Carré-like twist, if Israel could have been framed."

Britain, Ireland and France are dealing with fallout after fake passports for those countries were used by suspects. The WSJ reports that U.S. investigators haven't "yet joined the probe" but one of its readers comments, "Considering getting a credit card in the USA is so easy even dead family pets can get credit, chasing down those five U.S.-based credit cards is a waste of time."

Reading that I got this funny image of a bunch of Mossad director sitting around going:

Eric: We did that didn't we, Bob.
Bob: I'm not sure may Jeff's team, we were overthrowing the Congo.
Jeff: Nah, I was planting evidence of nuclear weapons in Iran.
Eric: Well who the fuck could that have been.

The news shows the footage.

Eric: Ahh hell nah, that wasn't us.
Bob and Eric nods in agreement.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Definitely seems out of the ordinary for Mossad not to take note of security camera when doing a hit.

Of course my knowledge of their operational methods come from reading The House on Garibaldi Street and Vengeance - which both show the same mentality towards operations like this: know where everything is down to the slightest detail, everybody's schedule and have at least two backup escape routes. Definitely seems sloppy for Mossad who usually over-compensate with how cautious their operations are.

 

[Silent Death]

Definitely seems out of the ordinary for Mossad not to take note of security camera when doing a hit.

Of course my knowledge of their operational methods come from reading The House on Garibaldi Street and Vengeance - which both show the same mentality towards operations like this: know where everything is down to the slightest detail, everybody's schedule and have at least two backup escape routes. Definitely seems sloppy for Mossad who usually over-compensate with how cautious their operations are.

Why do people keep saying this is sloppy? It's obvious that it was planned this way on purpose. They, "whoever," is definitely sending a loud and public message to Hamas. The fact that we have American credit cards, Austrian phones, and British passports, all tied into this is further proof that this was done by some states intelligence agency.

 

[AndyD]

Why do people keep saying this is sloppy? It's obvious that it was planned this way on purpose. They, "whoever," is definitely sending a loud and public message to Hamas. The fact that we have American credit cards, Austrian phones, and British passports, all tied into this is further proof that this was done by some states intelligence agency.

Its a piece of cake to obtain all those items though with enough money. For an American CC you dont even need money. Then you can use that to get an Austrian cellphone and British passport. Identity theft is pretty powerful stuff.

Sloppy because its too many people for an assassination, which could have been done much cleaner if that was all that was needed and intended.

The number of people and reported scars I think indicate that he was tortured likely for information extraction before he was killed.

 

[Dresden]

Its a piece of cake to obtain all those items though with enough money. For an American CC you dont even need money. Then you can use that to get an Austrian cellphone and British passport. Identity theft is pretty powerful stuff.

Sloppy because its too many people for an assassination, which could have been done much cleaner if that was all that was needed and intended.

The number of people and reported scars I think indicate that he was tortured likely for information extraction before he was killed.

I had no idea we had professionals on GAF.

 

[red shoe paul]

Sheesh, regardless of the story, that's a hell of a read.

Awesome stuff, I agree. I absolutely love reading about this stuff because it's just so interesting how advanced criminal minds work.

 

[AndyD]

I had no idea we had professionals on GAF.

Its not me, its the Mossad former agent speaking in that interview posted earlier in this thread. He said this was a message by someone, because an assassination can be clean and easy if needed to be that way.

 

[I <3 Memes]

because an assassination can be clean and easy if needed to be that way.

If this was true then they would have killed him the first time they tried in 1989. Instead it took 21 years to finally kill him. Come on guys you know it was Mossad. Do you really think there are private contract killers out there whose company has no fewer than 17 people employed and ready for hire? I wonder what their pension and medical is like. I wonder how many people you have to kill a year to pay no fewer then 17 people a good enough salary for them to murder people as well as risk life, limb, and their liberty.

Nobody, including Mossad, has the ability to know where every security camera in a city is and they cant make the camera not see them. Obviously there was nothing they could do about cameras outside of the hotel. And tell me which you think was a better idea, try to disable the cameras inside the hotel and probably alert the hotel that somebody there is fucking with the cameras, or try to kill the man in a way that looks like natural causes then leave the country immediately?

The death was ruled as being from natural causes. It was only investigated further when authorities found out who he was. And at least some of these people would have been caught by now without some kind of state sponsored protection.

 

[Clipjoint]

I'm not sure what they did that was so impressive. He was a guy alone in a hotel room, with no security, and he opened the door for them. I'm not sure why it took 18 people to conduct such a sloppy operation.

The Mossad isn't as professional as their reputation makes them out to be. They've botched plenty of missions, and they very often have poor intelligence. They once killed a guy mistakenly because he had the same name as a member of Hamas. Their agents and operatives get exposed and captured all the time. I believe over 70 have been identified and caught in Lebanon in the last year alone.

Yes they killed their target, but the ease in which they were identified and the diplomatic shit storm the mission has caused for Israel means the operation was a failure. If they didn't care to be discovered, they wouldn't have gone to such effort to make it seem like a natural death.

Israeli officials continued their policy of refusing to comment on whether the Mossad was behind the Jan. 19 assassination. But to Victor Ostrovsky, a former Mossad case officer, it seemed clear that it was.

"This assassination right now has caused more harm to the state of Israel than this guy could have done in a lifetime," said Ostrovsky, author of "By Way of Deception," a book critical of the Mossad.

"It's their job to make themselves look good," said Ostrovsky, who now serves as chief executive of Thebookpatch.com, a website based in Scottsdale, Ariz. "But they still live in a 1983 movie. It's a reflection of an entire intelligence society that is stuck in their days of glory."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-dubai-mabhouh19-2010feb19,0,2458273.story

Now the people whose identities were stolen are talking about suing the Israeli government. The European nations whose passports were forged for this operation are forced to confront Israel or be seen as complicit. In the end, no one can call this assassination a "success" if it harms Israel more than it helps.

 

[Dyno]

Definitely seems out of the ordinary for Mossad not to take note of security camera when doing a hit.

Of course my knowledge of their operational methods come from reading The House on Garibaldi Street and Vengeance - which both show the same mentality towards operations like this: know where everything is down to the slightest detail, everybody's schedule and have at least two backup escape routes. Definitely seems sloppy for Mossad who usually over-compensate with how cautious their operations are.

This isn't necessarily a sloppy job. The hit was successful and no one was caught at the scene. They probably got out of the country just fine.

The difference is that there is a lot more surveilance today than in the past. More gets added each year to say nothing of all the other advancements to law enforcement. It's harder to get away with criminal activity than it has any time before. Spies and assassins of earlier generations would never have gotten away with what they did in this day and age.

 

[Canova]

In the end, no one can call this assassination a "success" if it harms Israel more than it helps.

Read Mossad history, if this is the only fall out they have to deal with, they'd be patting each other's back.

Bottomline is one senior Hamas who's about to finalize arm-deal negotiation, dead

no civilian casualty, no dramatic, traumatized gunfights/bombs, no Mossad casualty, no proof so far that links them to the assassination

It's a success

 

[Deku]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has identified four more users of European passports suspected of involvement in the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was found dead in a hotel on 20 January.

The killing has been widely blamed on the Israeli secret service. Israel has refused to confirm or deny involvement.

At least 15 people using European passports have been identified as suspects in the case.

The British Foreign Office has confirmed it has received information from the UAE about another two suspects carrying British passports, bringing the total number of British passports used to eight.

The Irish Foreign Ministry has said it too has been informed about two more suspects who used Irish passports with genuine numbers but fake names and photographs.

A total of five Irish identities were used.

Dubai authorities had already released the identities of 11 people who travelled under the false passports. French and German identities, as well as British and Irish ones, were used.

The UK government denies it had any prior knowledge of the fake British passports being used, although shadow foreign secretary William Hague said it was "entirely possible" the government had been alerted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8530354.stm