Labels: arms sales, assassination attempt, Dubai, Hamas, Inspector Tamim, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM
1 comments
Security Cabinet member and Finance Minister Yair Lapid has warned that Hamas's political leadership - including those based abroad - are not "immune" from bearing the consequences of continued rocket and mortar fire against Israeli civilians.
Speaking just before a Security Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Lapid referred to the murder of four-year Daniel Turgeman in a mortar attack on southern Israel, saying Israel "would not tolerate" the targeting of its children by Islamist terrorists.
...
"Those responsible for his death will pay the price," Lapid vowed. "Hamas's leaders need to know that we will pursue them, and we will cause them to pay the price for what is happening in the south of the State of Israel."
"No one is immune - not the political leadership, and not the leadership abroad," he said.
Until now Israel has largely avoided targeting Hamas's "political" leadership, focusing on commanders and personnel from its "military wing", the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. On Thursday, Israel succeeded in killing three of its "most wanted" Hamas terrorists in a strike targeting senior al-Qassam Brigades commanders.
A previous strike targeted the Brigades' commander, Mohammed Deif, but Hamas claimed this elusive terrorist mastermind had survived - though it gave no word on his precise condition.
Hamas's most senior political leader is Khaled Meshaal, currently based in Doha, Qatar. Other senior Hamas leaders are also based abroad - including one of the suspected masterminds of the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teens in June, Salah al-Aruri.Lapid is a moron. Everyone knows that Israel is capable of striking Hamas terrorists abroad. Keep your mouth shut and just do it.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Dubai, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Jordan, Khaled Meshaal, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, targeted killings
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:50 PM
0 comments
Australia had no evidence that a dual Australian-Israeli citizen and suspected Mossad spy, who died in jail in Israel in 2010, had been involved in the assassination of a Hamas arms procurer in Dubai, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Wednesday.
Carr also said Australia had found no evidence of the misuse of any of the Australian passports taken out by the man, Ben Zygier, who had changed his name several times and obtained new Australian passports each time.
However, Carr said the Zygier case raised unresolved questions about Australian passports held by dual citizens who work for a foreign government, and said Australia would lodge the strongest possible protest if it was found that Israel had used an Australian passport for spying.
"We have our own sources. None of them have information at this time that one of his passports was misused. But we are very alive to the possibility," Carr said as he released a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade report into the case.It will be many years - if ever - before the full truth is known about this case.
Labels: Australia, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, Prisoner X
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:50 AM
0 comments
Even the greatest democracy on earth has Prisoner Xs: In the war on terror that the Americans have been waging since the attack on the Twin Towers, there are terrorists, mainly from al-Qaida, who were arrested in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. They are taken on airplanes in the middle of the night, and flown to what the CIA calls “black sites” – outside US territory and legal jurisdiction – which are detention and interrogation centers, where torture is sometimes used. No one knows where they are or what exactly takes place there.Read the whole thing. What bothers me - and I suspect many others as well - most about this case, is how a young man goes from being an idealist to (apparently) betraying his country.
Labels: Australia, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:44 PM
1 comments
Western sources "in the know" told Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper on Thursday that Ben Zygier, AKA "Prisoner X," was one of the members of the squad which assassinated senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January 2010.
The same sources noted that following the mission, Zygier contacted the government in Dubai and updated it on the details of the assassination in exchange for protection. The sources also said that Israel managed to uncover Zygier's hiding place, kidnapped him and jailed him for treason, and all this while maintaining absolute secrecy. The report has not been confirmed by any other sources.
Israel acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that it held the Australia-born dual Israeli citizen under a false name for security reasons and that he died in prison more than two years ago - details that shed new light on a case that has strained relations with its close ally Australia and raised questions about its secretive Mossad agency.
Zygier's trial took place in 2010 at the Central District Court, while he still resided in Petah Tikva. He was taken to the court under heavy security and great secrecy, and all deliberations regarding his case occurred behind closed doors.
While inside the courthouse, he was hidden and isolated from the other detainees, so that he could not be communicated with and was unable to communicate with others.
Due to the furtiveness of the deliberations, the court employees understood that something irregular was occurring at the scene – but apparently most of them had no idea what was actually going on.
Labels: Australia, Dubai, Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:19 PM
1 comments
The investigation concluded that the terrorists were assisted by Hamas operatives abroad, who provided them with guidance and funding. Their primary contact person abroad was Husam Badran, one of the prisoners released in the exchange that secured the return of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
In 2004, Badran was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment for his involvement in the execution of terror attacks during the Second Intifada. Upon his release in October 2011, he was exiled to Qatar.Qatar needs to be reminded that the Mossad has long arms....
Labels: Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Palestinian terrorism, Qatar, terrorists for Gilad trade
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:36 PM
1 comments
1) The back history
Returning to the Middle East, former New York Times bureau chief, Ethan Bronner reported in With Longer Reach, Rockets Bolster Hamas Arsenal:
A number of recent Israeli military attacks were aimed at cutting the supply chain into Gaza. In late October, a munitions factory in Sudan was hit from the air. Israel did not acknowledge carrying out the attack, but the winks and nods of officials here make clear that it did. Israel has carried out several other such attacks on Sudan, including on convoys, in the past few years.Bronner's reference to the killing of Mahmoudd Mabhouh was not random. The other day on Twitter, a number of analysts (Jonathan Schanzer, Michael Doran and Tony Badran) fleshed out the argument. Mark Chandler also noted the significance of Bronner's speculation at Tablet.
In addition, Mossad agents killed a Hamas official in a Dubai hotel in early 2010 because he was thought to be crucial to the Hamas supply chain of weapons and rockets into Gaza.
One official here said that until Israel ended its military occupation of Gaza in 2005, there were only primitive weapons factories there. The Hamas rockets had a flight capacity of about a mile, they could not be aimed and they flew in a wild cylindrical pattern. Hamas then built better rockets that could fly up to 12 miles.
(In some accounts Ahmad al-Jabari, who was killed at the outset of Pillar of Defense, was a moderate. He was Mabhouh's replacement. Maybe he was playing both sides - arming and leading Hamas on one hand, and talking peace with gullible leftists on the other - but he was a real threat to Israel.)
Going back to contemporaneous reporting of the Mabhouh killing, Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv wrote in Israel's hit Squads in the Atlantic:
What made Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas man visiting Dubai, worth all the trouble and risk this time? He was involved in the killing of two Israeli soldiers 22 years ago. But that’s not why he was assassinated. The hunters stalked him because of his key role in forging secret connections between the Palestinian radicals who rule Gaza and the Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. Israel believed that Mabhouh had a major role in arms shipments from Iran to Gaza via the shores of Sudan and Egypt, and on through the Sinai. And rockets that get into Gaza have a high likelihood of killing Israelis.Edward Jay Epstein made similar observations in More Questions about the Dubai Assassination. Epstein also noted that Dubai "... the principal transshipment points for the lethal arms trade between Iran and Hamas..."
Mabhouh’s passing definitely sets Hamas back, at least for a few months. It will take time to find a suitable replacement. And the leadership of his radical movement is now in a tizzy trying to figure out where the security breach occurred. The vortex of suspicion can only be a good thing for Israel.
As for complaints by the British, Irish, French, and German governments that their passports were misused, the issue is likely to simmer down. Israeli intelligence can get its contacts in London’s MI6 and Berlin’s BND to put in a good word, pointing to favors Israel regularly does for European security agencies. The Mossad might even unveil dossiers showing how dangerous Hamas is to everyone.
The arms smuggling that allowed Hamas to rebuild its military capacity has been underway for some time - probably since the end of Cast Lead. But the recent escalation of hostilities by Hamas also sheds light on another news story. In 2010 Israeli forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, which was part of an attempt to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Israel suffered a major public relations blow, when its forces were attacked and in response killed nine Turkish nationals. Israel was accused of damaging its relationship with Turkey and isolating itself. Given that the flotilla was intended to aid arms smuggling to Hamas, the complaints against Israel were misplaced. Turkey was aiding Israel's enemies. Subsequent pressure to get Israel to relax the blockade (including from the Obama administration) only aided Hamas.
Another news story worth revisiting is Israel's disengagement from Gaza. Bret Stephens has written an amazing mea culpa for having advocated disengagement, The Truth about Gaza. (For the complete article, click on the title here.) Stephens concluded:
Now Israel may be on the cusp of purchasing yet another long-term strategic failure for the sake of a short-term tactical success. The Israeli government wants to bomb Hamas into a cease-fire—hopefully lasting, probably orchestrated in Cairo. That way Israel gets the quiet it seeks, especially on the eve of elections in January, and the Egyptians get the responsibility for holding the leash on Hamas.Israel abandoned the Philadelpi corridor at the insistence of the Bush administration (which also pressured Israel to allow Hamas to run for legislative election in 2006).
That is largely how it played out during Cast Lead. But as one leading Israeli political figure told me in January 2009, just as the last cease-fire had been declared, "Notwithstanding the blows to the Hamas, it's still in Gaza, it's still ruling Gaza, and the Philadelphi corridor [which runs along Gaza's border with Egypt] is still porous, and . . . Hamas can smuggle new rockets unless [the corridor] is closed, to fire at Israel in the future."
That leading political figure was Benjamin Netanyahu, just before he returned to office as prime minister. He might now consider taking his own advice. Israel can afford to watch only so many reruns of this same, sordid show.
Yaacov Lozowick adds more background about disengagement and the withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor:
The significance of this is that between September 2005 and early 2006, there was no Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Gazans were in an eiree sort of diplomatic limbo, unlike anywhere else in the world, with no internationally recognized sovereign, but with lots of internationally recognized clout, and could have reasonably expected the Palestinian Authority to move towards an upgrade of its status. There can be little doubt that had the Gazans done in 2005 what the Jewish Agency did in 1947, namely purposefully go about the mundane but crucial task of nation building, Israel wouldn't have interfered. On the contrary: a majority of Israelis were hoping - fervently or dubiously - they'd do exactly that, which is why Sharon, then followed after his illnes by Ehud Olmert, built the election strategy of their brand new party Kadima on the idea of continuing the disengagement process on the West Bank. (Hitkansut, Olmert called it).Listening to the news, I get the impression that the main goal of a ceasefire is to end the suffering of civilians on both sides. But unless something substantive is done - more than worthless promises of Hamas - Hamas will simply re-arm and Israeli civilians will soon be under fire again. Any ceasefire that doesn't substantially improve Israel's capacity to deter Hamas will fail and Israelis will pay the price for international meddling.
The reason none of this ever happened is that the Palestinians made their choices, and their choices were not what Israel had hoped. And thus began the downward spiral to where we're at now.
Is Hamas is now negotiating for what already existed in 2005, after having spent the intervening years pounding into the collective Israeli psyche that the gamble of 2005 was idiotic?
2) The Israeli narrative, muddled
Jodi Rudoren reports in Missile’s Firing, Bomb Blasts and Sirens Shatter Gaza Calm:
Suddenly, just after 2 p.m., the crowd was startled as militants near the hospital fired a missile — most likely one that landed near Jerusalem. In an instant, anticipation gave way to fear, and horror, as Israel fired back, explosion after explosion in the distance.Rudoren wasn't the first to report the firing of a rocket from near the hospital. But what does this reporting tell us?
And then came the sound of sirens roaring up the circular driveway, signaling what would become the bloodiest afternoon yet in the seven-day firefight with Israel.
First there were six ambulances, one after the other, unloading the bodies of men identified as militants, at least two of them decapitated. Then came three more, this time with children, dead and wounded. Another ambulance rushed in, then quickly sped back out.
What "anticipation" was Rudoren referring to? Was the crowd waiting to cheer the latest strike against Israeli civilians?
- Hamas, as Israel charges, strikes at Israel from populated areas.
- The injuries to the children show that there was also a play area near where the terrorists fired from.
These are issues that Rudoren doesn't address. She was quick, though, to filter the events through the eyes of Hamas.Even the medics unloading the bodies grimaced.Then Rudoren muddies the narrative further:
“There’s a real massacre now,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, who was at the hospital waiting for the diplomatic delegation. “At the same time when the Arab leaders came to Gaza, 10 persons are killed. At this moment, kids playing soccer are hit. It is a clear reflection of the mind and the thought of the occupation, thinking how to kill more and more Palestinians.”
It remains unclear whether the intense afternoon bombing was in retaliation for the Jerusalem strike, the second in five days, or an effort to take out as many targets as possible while final details of a cease-fire deal were being discussed. A frenzy of about 200 rockets also flew from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, hitting the southern cities of Beersheba and Ashdod as well as the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon LeZion; an Israeli soldier was killed in a week of cross-border battles, along with a civilian.If the first casualties to come were "militants" as she calls them, this wasn't a retaliation but rather an attack to neutralize a cell that was targeting civilians. Also she provides excuses to Hamas. Hamas is the governing authority in Gaza. "Rival factions" wouldn't have weapons if Hamas didn't allow it. Though it is a common journalistic conceit that Hamas "largely observed" ceasefires, ceasefires are either observed or they're not.
The violence, which health officials said brought the Palestinian death toll to more than 130, may complicate the efforts of the Hamas government to persuade people, especially rival factions, to abide a cease-fire.
What's remarkable about Rudoren's effort here is the degree to which she confirmed Israel's narrative and then, through naivete or malice, chose to obscure the implications of what she wrote.
Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, Gaza expulsion, Hamas rockets, human shields, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Middle East Media Sampler, Soccer Dad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:12 PM
0 comments
Experts are dismissing as unlikely the prospect that Israel liquidated Kamal Ranaja. This is from the first link. Former senior Mossad member Rami Igra said, "Practically, it's not reasonable that Israel or a Western country would settle accounts with a man like this, at this stage, in Syria. He's not big enough."The Middle East is amazing place. There are so many people who would have wanted Ranaja dead. Israel is a small fish in this pond. Read the whole thing.
"He's not important enough. To assassinate him would be a very complicated, dangerous operation, and it would be taking a huge chance. I don't see Israel or any Western country willing to take this risk," Igra said, noting the unstable Syrian situation.
On the other hand, "it would not be a problem for any gang in Damascus, maybe one working for Assad, to do this," Igra added. "With certainty I can say, it was not Israel."
Dr. Ely Karmon, a senior terrorism expert from the Interdisciplinary Center's Institute for Counter-Terrorism, agreed.
He said the most likely entity behind the killing was the Syrian regime, since Ranaja may well have been "involved in smuggling weapons to the Syrian opposition," particularly to the Muslim Brotherhood.
"If he really was an aide to Mabhouh," Karmon said, referring to reports that Ranaja was the aide of the late Hamas arms smuggler assassinated in Dubai, "the he had connections to weapons smuggling. The Muslim Brotherhood are in a state of crisis with the regime. There is a reasonable chance that he provided arms to the opposition," Karmon added.
A second possibility is that Hamas itself killed Ranaja after suspecting him of pocketing cash given to him to pay for weapons, ships, and smuggling teams. "We saw this happen with Fatah, when Arafat killed his own operatives in Europe for stealing cash," Karmon noted.
The third and least likely explanation is that Israel was behind it, though it is highly doubtful that Jerusalem "would take the chance of sending a team to Damascus, which is under heavy security," Karmon argued.
"Even journalists can't get in to Damascus," he added, and the price of failure would be enormous for Israel. It was also possible, though most unlikely, that a proxy team of Palestinians hired by Israel carried out the hit, Karmon added.
"The fact is, Israel is unlikely to take such a dramatic chance for mid-level operative," Karmon concluded. "I don't believe Israel did this."
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Muslim Brotherhood, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:24 AM
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Kamal Ranaja, the deputy to Hamas terrorist and arms buyer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was liquidated on Wednesday in Damascus. Hamas is blaming the Mossad (of course) despite the fact that the Syrians had more than adequate motivation to want to liquidate a senior Hamas figure. The announcement, posted on the terrorist group's official website said it was unknown who killed Kamal Ranaja, also known as Nizzar Abu Mujhad. However, a senior Hamas official later told AFP, "According to our information, Mossad was behind the assassination."YNet adds:
The statement on Hamas's website added that Ranaja died "in the service of his cause and his people," vowing that his blood would "not be wasted."
The senior Hamas official said that Ranaja was killed in his home in a suburb of Damascus, and implicated "a group of people" for the murder. He identified Ranaja as a former deputy of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas operative assassinated in Dubai in 2010.
A delegation of senior Hamas politburo officials including Khaled Mashaal and Mousa Abu Marzook is set to arrive in Jordan to attend Ranaja's funeral.Faster, faster!
The group was meant to visit Jordan over the weekend or early next week but its members decided to push up their visit in order to attend the funeral. They are slated to meet Jordanian officials and possibly also King Abdullah II.
There was no word about the manner in which Ranaja met his death. shortly after his death was announced, the new pan-Arabic television station Al-Mayadeen reported that he used to serve as aide to Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas member who took part in several terror attacks and was also involved in kidnapping and killing IDF soldiers.
...
The Syrian opposition claimed President Bashar Assad's regime was responsible for Ranaja's assassination.
One opposition activist, a former journalist, said Assad's regime ordered the hit. She claimed Ranaja was tortured before he was killed.
According to her, the hit was a message to Hamas, which turned its back on Assad following the violent crackdown on the opposition.
Labels: Damascus, Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, Palestinian terrorism, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:24 AM
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You might recall that two weeks ago, I reported that Bar Refaeli will be starring in a movie about the liquidation of 'Palestinian' terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Now, Mabhouh's family is trying to block the movie's release. Al-Mabhouh’s cousin, Ahmed, told AP on Sunday that the Israeli movie is a “Zionist conspiracy” to defame his cousin. Ahmed, who lives in Gaza, added that details of the suit, including where to file it, are still being worked out.Heh.
The movie's producer, Micha Scharfstein, dismissed the allegations, saying the movie takes artistic license and is not meant to be factual.
“Mabhouh, from our point of view, was a murderer with blood on his hands, and I don't see any reason not to do a movie about it,” he told AP. He added that the French-Israeli co-production, entitled “Kidon” (Hebrew for spear), is to be released in about half a year.
...
Parts of the movie are now being filmed in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat. In a movie plot twist, a gang of criminals murders al-Mabhouh in an attempt to frame the Mossad.
Ahmed al-Mabhouh told AP the family learned about the movie from the media and hopes to prevent its release.
“We consider this movie ... a distortion of our late martyr and reject the Zionist conspiracy against him after his death which everyone knows is a lie,” he said.
Labels: Bar Refaeli, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:58 AM
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Labels: Dubai, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:31 PM
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I'm sure that many of you remember Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas murderer who was liquidated in his Dubai hotel room in January 2010, allegedly by the Mossad.Email-ID 1593553Hmmm.
Date 2010-06-14 16:41:36
From burton@stratfor.com
To sean.noonan@stratfor.com, tactical@stratfor.com
I have VERY good information this was a contract job. The mission was contracted by the MOSSAD. In essence, subbed out under contract. The last few hits have been subbed out. I also have VERY good information that the Iranian physicist hit was also a subbed out job. More in person at the T meeting Tuesday, can't put anything in writing.
Sean Noonan wrote:
> Ah, that makes more sense. That daily mail story was pretty sensationalized.
>
> Looks like Melman is doing his job. I enjoyed his article on the matter:
>
> http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/germany-may-have-intentionally-leaked-alleged-mossad-man-s-arrest-1.295977
>
> Fred Burton wrote:
>> No, I made no statement. Forwarded Yossi the link to the story and that
>> was his response.
>>
>> Sean Noonan wrote:
>>
>>> Was your statement that the arrest was over the Dubai murder? Brodsky is
>>> wanted for the passport issue. The Sherrif of Dubai, Lt. Gen. Dhahi
>>> Khalfan Tamim (remember him?), has said they have no interest in the
>>> suspect unless directly linked to the murders themselves.
>>>
>>> Fred Burton wrote:
>>>
>>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>>> Subject: RE: Mossad agent arrested over Dubai murder
>>>> Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:44:02 +0300
>>>> From: Yossi Melman
>>>> To: Fred Burton
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Not true he was arrested by a request of germany and not dubai over the
>>>> obtaining a german passport deceptively which Was used in the murder/
>>>>
Labels: Dubai, Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:38 PM
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According to a report from deep behind the Times of London paywall, the Mossad continues to use British and French passports, complete with 'sexy women' to induce IDF soldiers on active duty to allow such use. According to the British newspaper, there have been several occasions when foreigners who immigrated to Israel have been asked to "lend" their passports to the Israeli intelligence agency.I wonder how many smart IDF soldiers have taken dumb British reporters for a ride to nowhere.
The daily said new evidence indicates that foreign nationals in Israel continue to allow Mossad to use their passports — "on many occasions willingly."
Though it never admitted that Mossad agents were behind the Hamas terrorist's death, Israel assured London its intelligence agency would stop using British passports.
"Matthew," who moved to Israel from London in 2009 and joined the IDF shortly afterwards, told The Times that just before his first week of army duty he was approached by a young woman from Mossad and asked if he was "committed to the State of Israel."
"She was really, really friendly. She gave me a recommendation of a good bar in Tel Aviv, and her favorite place for hummus," he said.
When she asked if Matthew was willing to do "a small thing to help", such as, for example, lend his passport, he did not refuse, The Times reported.
He said: "She pointed out that I wouldn’t need it for the next year or so. I’d be doing basic training and everything for the army. So I said 'yes’ — I was in that frame of mind of strong Zionism, you know?"
According to the report, Matthew received his passport back after 18 months of army service, and was surprised to find stamps in it from Turkey and Azerbaijan, countries that he had never visited.
"She told me it would maybe be a good idea not to go there . . . for the time being," he told the British newspaper.
Labels: forged passports, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:00 PM
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Sudan claims to have proof that Israel was behind a mysterious helicopter strike in which a senior Hamas terrorist was killed last week. The proof is in the missile remnants. "The definitive proof that Israel was behind this attack is that the rockets used by the American-made Apache helicopters are only owned by Israel in the region," the Foreign Ministry statement said.Heh.
It said remnants at the scene showed the weapon was an AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile.
The aircraft, the ministry said, had flown in from the direction of the Red Sea, scrambling Sudanese radar systems and following Port Sudan airport flight paths.
Sudan said Israel, which it considers an enemy state, was trying to derail efforts to normalise ties with Washington. The United States started the process of removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terror after Khartoum recognised a vote by its south to secede in July.
Labels: Abdul Latif al-Shaqr, Dirar Abu Sesi, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Sudan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:38 PM
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Time Magazine Jerusalem bureau chief Karl Vick claims to have confirmed that the IDF was behind the air strike on Wednesday at Port Sudan in which Hamas' chief arms procurement agent was allegedly killed. And indeed the Israel Defense Force had nothing to say on Wednesday about the mysterious air strike just north of Port Sudan late Tuesday evening. But a senior military official privately confirmed the obvious. "It's not our first time there," the official told TIME, referring to a January 2009 airstrike that demolished an entire convoy near the Egyptian border, killing dozens. Both attacks took place on the preferred route for smuggling guns, missiles and mortars to the Gaza Strip and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs it. The route begins in Iran, a major sponsor of Hamas, runs by sea around the Arabian Peninsula to Port Sudan, then overland across the vast Sinai Desert. Somewhere along the way, according to a Western official speaking on condition of anonymity, an electronic device was attached to the shipment. Its signal guided the missile into the the vehicle as it moved north from the port Tuesday night. News reports quoted witnesses as hearing multiple explosions; secondary blasts would likely be the unidentified munition inside the car.Now wouldn't that be something if Israel had gotten permission to overfly Saudi Arabia on the way to the Sudan? JPost adds:
The Sinai has never been easily policed by Egyptian authorities,and has been even more wide-open since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. (When a hierarchy slackens, the periphery loosens the most.) But Gilad signaled that things are tightening up, saying the military government that succeeded Mubarak is working closely with Israel on Sinai.
"We have intensive dialogue with Egyptian authorities and they are doing their best to rise to the challenges," he said. Indeed Gilad was downright ebullient about the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, referring admiringly to its "sophisticated use of power" and singling out Field Marshal Mohamad Hussain Tantawi, a close adviser to Mubarak. Israel's quite public worries about the course Egypt might take after Tahrir Square seemed a thing of the past, at least for now. "I must say I'm very much impressed by the stability of the Supreme Council," Gilad said. "I think they embody the best of Egypt."
Sudan may differ. To reach its territory, Israeli aircraft would have needed overflight permission from either Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Both border the Red Sea south of Israel, and neither is a fan of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Long experience with Egyptian meddling predisposes Khartoum to blame Cairo for a great deal, though on Wednesday its foreign minister was naming only Israel.
"This is absolutely an Israeli attack," Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters. He found in the air strike evidence of a plot to keep Sudan on the State Department's list of countries that support terror.
Israel assassinated a senior Hamas weapons smuggler late Tuesday night when it bombed a rental car in Sudan, the Al-Arabiya news channel reported on Wednesday, shedding light on the mysterious late-night air strike.I told you all last night that he had to be al-Mabhouh's successor!
The station did not identify the two men who were killed in the strike but said that one of them was Sudanese and that the other was from another Arab country. Some reports have claimed that he was a senior Hamas operative responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran, Syria and Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian news source Ma'an reported an anonymous intelligence official as saying that one of the men killed in the recent attack was senior Hamas official Abdul Latif Al-Shaqr. The source added that the other man killed was a 'friend' of Shaqr's.
According to the source, Shaqr was the successor of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the senior Hamas official who was assassinated in his hotel room in Dubai last year.
Private sources in Hamas have denied the claim that Shaqr was killed in the attack, Ma'an reported, and said that Shaqr is alive and well.
Shaqr, whose family live in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, has been previously accused of smuggling weapons to Hamas in Gaza by the IDF, Ma'an reported, and of inheriting Mabhouh's position after he was killed.
On Thursday, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported that jailed Gazan engineer Dirar Abu Sisi gave Israeli intelligence 'valuable information' that led to the attack on the arms smugglers. According to the source, Abu Sisi passed along the sensitive information to Israel during his remand since he was abducted by a train in Ukraine last month.Heh.
The source also told Al Jarida that Israel received valuable information on smuggling routes and cells operating from Sudan, through Egypt, and to Gaza, from a 'network' of southern Sudanese refugees who have migrated to Israel.
Labels: Abdul Latif al-Shaqr, Dirar Abu Sesi, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Sudan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:22 PM
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Israel Radio reports that both Hamas and Iran are denying that the two people killed in a mysterious attack in Sudan on Wednesday were their operatives.Labels: 12th Imam, Gaza, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Sudan, weapons smuggling
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:45 AM
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Labels: Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Sudan, targeted killings
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:05 PM
3 comments
I trust you all remember Inspector Tamim, the Dubai police chief who is still looking for the real killers of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.Hey Carl..I went to Dubai on my honeymoon ten years ago, so I decided to go back for my ten year anniversary...naturally, I can't go a day without your blog...and guess what....you are blocked in the united arab emirates! All the other blogs and israeli sites worked. U must have really pisssed somebody off!
Feel free to post it!
Happy purim
That's two this week. Heh.Labels: censorship, Dubai, Inspector Tamim, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:41 PM
2 comments
Hamas is planning to murder Israelis, take their bodies and then 'negotiate' their return to Israel. The sources said Hamas activists believe they cannot keep Israeli hostages out of the Shin Bet and Palestinian Authority's reach for long. So they plan to kill them, abduct and bury the bodies, then negotiate returning them to Israel.And if we'd traded 1,000 terrorists for Shalit, I'm sure they would not have dreamed of doing this.
Hamas headquarters in Damascus and Gaza are pressuring organization cells in the West Bank to kill Israelis and abduct their bodies, in view of the effect Gilad Shalit's abduction has had on Israeli public opinion. Another reason for the pressure is the failure of Shalit's abduction to bring the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the sources told Haaretz.
Hamas planned similar attacks in the Ramallah area in the middle of the last decade. In the past year, attempting to rebuild the organization's military networks that were damaged during the second intifada, it has returned to this line of action.
The Palestinian Authority and Israel have recently captured in the Ramallah region alone about five cells planning to kill Israelis and abduct their bodies.
On September 1, a day after a Hamas cell murdered four Israelis near the Beit Hagai settlement in the Hebron area, another cell opened fire at an Israeli couple from Ma'aleh Efraim in a car on the road to the Rimonim settlement east of Ramallah. The terrorists overtook Moshe and Shira Moreno's car and opened fire at them.The picture at the top is of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon HY"D (May God avenge their blood), two IDF soldiers who were kidnapped and murdered in 1989 and whose bodies were found much later.
At this stage their plan went wrong. The AK-47 ("Kalashnikov" ) rifle the attackers were using jammed and the couple, although injured, jumped out of the car and rolled down the wadi beside the road. The terrorists stopped their car and approached the Israeli vehicle. When they saw it was empty they took a bag containing documents from the car and fled. The couple hid in the wadi and were saved by the darkness. The husband was moderately injured and his wife lightly injured.
The security services and police figured out what vehicle the militants were driving from findings left on the road. About 24 hours later the Palestinian defense forces arrested the cell members in Ramallah. Three of them are still imprisoned in the city and the PA apparently intends to put them on trial, although it is not clear on what charges.
The interrogated militants said they had intended to kill their targets and abduct the bodies. They had dug graves in advance near their home village of Silwad east of Ramallah, they reportedly said.
Moshe Moreno told Haaretz this week: "I didn't think at that moment when we jumped out of the car. It was instinctive. I was a combat soldier, but I don't know why I decided to jump. We hid in the wadi. The terrorists were so surprised when they couldn't find us in the car that they ran away.
"We lay in the wadi for 18 minutes until Magen David Adom came. We heard the paramedics speaking in Hebrew and came out of hiding. Physically we've recovered, but not emotionally. We live in fear. The IDF must arrest those terrorists. You can't count on the Palestinians to keep them in jail," he said.
Labels: Avi Sasportas, Hamas, Ilan Sa'adon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Palestinian terrorism, Rabbi Moshe Moreno
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:39 AM
1 comments
Fortunately for Britain, David Miliband (pictured) is no longer the foreign secretary, or this could look really embarrassing.Labels: British passports, David Miliband, Libya, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, MI6, Mossad, SAS, William Hague
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:41 PM
3 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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