Labels: arms sales, assassination attempt, Dubai, Hamas, Inspector Tamim, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM
1 comments
While Israel has never spoken about its involvement, secret U.S. intelligence files confirm that Israeli special operations forces assassinated the general while he vacationed at his luxury villa on the Syrian coast.
The internal National Security Agency document, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, is the first official confirmation that the assassination of Suleiman was an Israeli military operation, and ends speculation that an internal dispute within the Syrian government led to his death.
A top-secret entry in the NSA’s internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, described the assassination by “Israeli naval commandos” near the port town of Tartus as the “first known instance of Israel targeting a legitimate government official.” The details of the assassination were included in a “Manhunting Timeline” within the NSA’s intelligence repository.
According to three former U.S. intelligence officers with extensive experience in the Middle East, the document’s classification markings indicate that the NSA learned of the assassination through surveillance. The officials asked that they not be identified, because they were discussing classified information.
The information in the document is labeled “SI,” which means that the intelligence was collected by monitoring communications signals. “We’ve had access to Israeli military communications for some time,” said one of the former U.S. intelligence officers.
The former officer said knowledge within the NSA about surveillance of Israeli military units is especially sensitive because the NSA has Israeli intelligence officers working jointly with its officers at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.Read the whole thing. My guess is that (a) this is true, (b) the timing was designed to throw the first of what will be many monkey wrenches in Israel's efforts to convince Congress to vote down the Iran deal, and (c) the part of the article (which I did not quote here) about Israel violating international law is meant to serve as a warning to Netanyahu not to get out of line in his efforts to defeat the Iran deal.
Labels: assassination attempt, Bashar al-Assad, Binyamin Netanyahu, Edward Snowden, Ehud K. Olmert, Israeli national security, spying, Syria, targeted killings
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:00 AM
2 comments
One result was that some of those Israelis - apparently miffed that the Americans were taking too much credit - went to the trouble of speaking with Western officials and diplomats to offer corrections.
Basically, using a phrase inspired by the blue-and-white flag of Israel, they suggested that the assassination of Mughniyeh was "almost all blue-and-white, and just a little bit red-white-and-blue."
Based on what they told their Western contacts this month, the Israelis claim that their Mossad and Aman (military intelligence) agencies managed to pick up the trail of the elusive terrorist - despite plastic surgery that changed his appearance. His biggest mistake was moving around Damascus without bodyguards, and specifically an unguarded area in front of his apartment building in the Syrian capital.
Contrary to the recent reports, the Israelis claim to have designed and tested the bomb, while respecting the CIA's insistence that it not be too large so as not to kill any innocents.
According to this version, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert kept track of the testing and - during a trip to Washington - even showed some of the videos to George W. Bush, who was impressed and enthusiastic about eliminating Mughniyeh. The CIA had briefly withdrawn from the mission, but President Bush brought the agency back in.
On the night of the assassination seven years ago this week, the surveillance team in Damascus held off when noticing that Mughniyeh was not alone. He headed into his apartment with his Iranian handler and a Syrian general, Muhammad Suleiman, who was a senior advisor to President Bashar al-Assad.
The Iranian and the Syrian left, and half an hour later the Hezbollah man walked out alone. The button was pushed at Mossad headquarters - a privilege Israel wanted, because Mughniyeh had killed dozens of Israelis and other Jews in car bomb attacks - and the terrorist was blown to bits. No one else was hurt.
Assad's aide, General Suleiman, was assassinated less than six months later by a long-range sniper. Intelligence sources said Israel did that because Suleiman had been in charge of Syria's secret nuclear reactor, which Israel's air force had destroyed the year before.Heh.
According to the Israeli version of events, Vice President Dick Cheney phoned Prime Minister Olmert to exchange praise for the Mughniyeh assassination.
Labels: assassination attempt, CIA, Damascus, Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Mossad, Syria
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:00 PM
0 comments
Labels: assassination attempt, Barack Hussein Obama, Islamic terrorism, lies, Paris
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:23 PM
1 comments
[Colonel (Res.) Benny] Tal told the station that anyone with a gun could have fired at Netanyahu from one of apartments in the buildings that lined the street in which the march passed. He said that Netanyahu was the prime terror target in the march – more so than the leaders of France, Britain or Germany – and should have been accompanied by at least ten guards who are taller than he is, scanning the possible lines of fire.
By "pushing" his way into the front row, said Tal, Netanyahu placed himself in greater danger, because he was completely exposed from the front. The security men who held his arm and shoulder would have been useless if Netanyahu had been hit by gunfire. “This is worse than gross negligence,” he said. “We already had a prime minister taken down in Tel Aviv – do we need this to happen in France, too? What would that do to our deterrence?”
Tal noted that Netanyahu was highly at risk as he waited for a bus to take him to the march from the Elysee Palace, as well. Netanyahu kept a stiff upper lip during the wait, but was visibly concerned, as video from the event shows (below). Tal noted that security teams often use deception in situations like these, sending a "dummy motorcade" in one direction and bringing the person they are protecting to the location from another direction, sometimes in disguise. In this case, Netanyahu was completely visible throughout the event.
The security detail is probably not to blame, said Tal, who faulted Netanyahu for deciding just hours before the event that he would attend it. In an event of this magnitude, he added, security men should have been on location a week ahead of time, he explained, making sure that all the arrangements were properly planned.Emphasis mine.
Labels: assassination attempt, Binyamin Netanyahu, Islamic terrorism, Paris
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:27 PM
3 comments
According to the report, Liberman said in the meeting that killing Mashaal is the only way to ensure that further infiltration tunnels from Gaza to Israel will not be built in the future.I would love to see Meshaal assassinated... but why tip the guy off?
The foreign minister added that Mashaal was responsible for and had funded terror attacks which have killed hundreds of Israelis.
Mashaal, the political bureau chief of the Palestinian Islamist group, was Hamas' Jordanian branch chief in 1997, when Mossad agents poisoned him to death in an assassination attempt in Amman.
The Mossad agents were arrested by Jordanian authorities. King Hussein threatened to sever ties with Israel and to try the Mossad agents unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who ordered the assassination on Mashaal in retaliation for a suicide bombing committed in Jerusalem that year, turned over the antidote.
After some hesitation, Netanyahu relented, and Mashaal's life was saved.
Labels: assassination attempt, Avigdor Lieberman, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, terror tunnels
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:52 PM
1 comments
Labels: assassination attempt, Beirut, MEMRI, Rafik al-Hariri, suicide bombing
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:38 PM
0 comments
A powerful explosion has rocked downtown Beirut Friday, according to the Washington Post, shattering windows and killing an unknown number of people.
It has been confirmed that former Lebanese minister Mohammed Shattah, adviser to former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and a staunch critic of Iranian-backed Hezbollah, was killed in the blast. Hariri and 21 others were killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut in February 2005 [pictured above. CiJ]; the attack was blamed on Hezbollah, and pushed sectarian tensions in the country to the brink.
The Guardian notes that Shattah, 62, is the second senior opposition figure to have been killed in the past 14 months. Figures linked to the Hariris have a history of being killed off over at least nine years, the news agency said.
The explosion was heard at about 9:40 a.m. emanating from just behind the Four Seasons hotel in the Lebanese capital. USA Today notes that the site was just a few hundred yards from important government and parliamentary buildings.
Reports now indicate that the explosion was from a car bomb. The engine of the car carrying the bomb was flung about 50 meters, according to the Wall Street Journal. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the area.
...
At least 5 people have been confirmed dead, with 15 injured; local media reports describe dead bodies littering the bomb site. The Lebanese Health Ministry has reportedly raised the number of injured to as high as 70, according to the Los Angeles Times.
No terror group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Lebanese media outlet Al-Mayadeen, which is close to Hezbollah, reported that Shattah was the target of the attack.
In addition, several news outlets have pointed out that the attack comes just hours after Shattah posted and anti-Hezbollah tweet. Shattah was outspoken against the terror group, and its influence on the Lebanese government, reports say.Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is blaming Hezbullah for the assassination.
"As far as we are concerned the suspects...are those who are fleeing international justice and refusing to represent themselves before the international tribunal," Hariri said, referring to five Hezbollah suspects indicted for the 2005 killing of his father.
The trial of the five suspects is due to open in The Hague in January. The suspects are all fugitives and Hezbollah, which denies any role in the Hariri assassination, has refused to cooperate with the court which it says is politically motivated.
...
A tweet posted on his Twitter account less than an hour before the blast accused the Shi'ite movement of trying to take control of the country.
#Hezbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security & foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 yrs.
— Mohamad B Chatah (@mohamad_chatah) December 27, 2013
The explosion sent shock waves among residents and emptied the streets in downtown where people, seeking a respite from recent turmoil, had ventured out to enjoy the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
...
Sources at the explosion site said Chatah was on his way to attend a meeting at Hariri's headquarters when the explosion tore through his car. Hariri himself has stayed away from Lebanon for more than two years, fearing for his safety.
A Reuters witness at the scene said his car was "totally destroyed, it is a wreck." Chatah's identity card, torn and charred, was found inside his car.The more things change....
Labels: assassination attempt, Beirut, Hezbullah, Lebanon, Rafik al-Hariri, Saad Hariri
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:42 PM
0 comments
For those of you who lived through the mid-'90's of the last century in Israel, please tell me that this doesn't sound familiar (Hat Tip: Bad Blue).Worryingly, a US Dept of Homeland Security 'insider' recently told a Canadian paper that the Obama Administration is scheming (along with that heavily-politicized agency) to spark a Helter-Skelter-type race war in this country... only difference being it'll be the Bolshevik Boy Wonder -rather than Charlie- we'll be turning-to to lead us all 'Forward' through the ensuing apocalypse. Attempts at gun confiscation, curfews, and DHS checkpoints (they recently obtained the bulletproof booths) are what you can look forward to in this action-packed sequel to hopenchange.For those who do not understand my reference to Rabin at the top of this post, one of the many pieces of speculation as to what really happened on the night of November 4, 1995 (given that the government has never offered an explanation for why assassin Yigal Amir was a consort of General Security Service agent Avishai Raviv, and yet he managed to pull the trigger) was that Rabin's assassination was staged in a bid to gain sympathy for him, and that Rabin was not supposed to die but the staging attempt went awry. A much fuller explanation is here.
Now that a reckless prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case has the progressive Left's street muscle all fired up, perhaps DHS staging a faux-Obama-assassination attempt (as the informant purports they're planning to do) could trigger the widespread rioting and looting throughout major US cities that Obama needs to inflict martial law and cancel the November election. But Axelrod won't be leaving that to chance: the source also speaks of persistent rumors that Louis Farrakhan in on the CIA payroll, and that he'll be utilized in rabble-rousing masses of blacks and Muslims -in concert loyal Obama allies like the New Black Panthers- 'by any means necessary'.
Yeah, this particular DHS 'insider' reminds one of what you hear from the Ulsterman Report, which has delivered astounding revelations from a presidency in disarray over the last couple years. But interestingly, their anonymous 'White House Insider' recently said very similar things re pending US riots and subsequently cancelled elections, except the trigger in his view would be the likely Supreme Court defeat for ObamaCare, bringing a 'Summer of Healthcare Riots'.
Labels: assassination attempt, Barack Hussein Obama, Yitzchak Rabin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:20 PM
2 comments
Meanwhile, the New Yorker's often sensationalist Seymour Hersh claims that the United States has been training members of Iran's MEK, which has been classified as a terror organization in the United States, to assassinate key nuclear scientists. It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies, it was linked to the assassination of six American citizens. It was initially part of the broad-based revolution that led to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran. But, within a few years, the group was waging a bloody internal war with the ruling clerics, and, in 1997, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. In 2002, the M.E.K. earned some international credibility by publicly revealing—accurately—that Iran had begun enriching uranium at a secret underground location. Mohamed ElBaradei, who at the time was the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency, told me later that he had been informed that the information was supplied by the Mossad. The M.E.K.’s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administration’s fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence. Some American-supported covert operations continue in Iran today, according to past and present intelligence officials and military consultants.Hmmm. I'd say it's much more likely that the Israelis are doing that training.
Despite the growing ties, and a much-intensified lobbying effort organized by its advocates, M.E.K. has remained on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations—which meant that secrecy was essential in the Nevada training. “We did train them here, and washed them through the Energy Department because the D.O.E. owns all this land in southern Nevada,” a former senior American intelligence official told me. “We were deploying them over long distances in the desert and mountains, and building their capacity in communications—coördinating commo is a big deal.” (A spokesman for J.S.O.C. said that “U.S. Special Operations Forces were neither aware of nor involved in the training of M.E.K. members.”)
The training ended sometime before President Obama took office, the former official said. In a separate interview, a retired four-star general, who has advised the Bush and Obama Administrations on national-security issues, said that he had been privately briefed in 2005 about the training of Iranians associated with the M.E.K. in Nevada by an American involved in the program. They got “the standard training,” he said, “in commo, crypto [cryptography], small-unit tactics, and weaponry—that went on for six months,” the retired general said. “They were kept in little pods.” He also was told, he said, that the men doing the training were from JSOC, which, by 2005, had become a major instrument in the Bush Administration’s global war on terror. “The JSOC trainers were not front-line guys who had been in the field, but second- and third-tier guys—trainers and the like—and they started going off the reservation. ‘If we’re going to teach you tactics, let me show you some really sexy stuff…’ ”
...
Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated since 2007. M.E.K. spokesmen have denied any involvement in the killings, but early last month NBC News quoted two senior Obama Administration officials as confirming that the attacks were carried out by M.E.K. units that were financed and trained by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. NBC further quoted the Administration officials as denying any American involvement in the M.E.K. activities. The former senior intelligence official I spoke with seconded the NBC report that the Israelis were working with the M.E.K., adding that the operations benefitted from American intelligence. He said that the targets were not “Einsteins”; “The goal is to affect Iranian psychology and morale,” he said, and to “demoralize the whole system—nuclear delivery vehicles, nuclear enrichment facilities, power plants.” Attacks have also been carried out on pipelines. He added that the operations are “primarily being done by M.E.K. through liaison with the Israelis, but the United States is now providing the intelligence.” An adviser to the special-operations community told me that the links between the United States and M.E.K. activities inside Iran had been long-standing. “Everything being done inside Iran now is being done with surrogates,” he said.
The sources I spoke to were unable to say whether the people trained in Nevada were now involved in operations in Iran or elsewhere. But they pointed to the general benefit of American support. “The M.E.K. was a total joke,” the senior Pentagon consultant said, “and now it’s a real network inside Iran. How did the M.E.K. get so much more efficient?” he asked rhetorically. “Part of it is the training in Nevada. Part of it is logistical support in Kurdistan, and part of it is inside Iran. M.E.K. now has a capacity for efficient operations that it never had before.”
In mid-January, a few days after an assassination by car bomb of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, at a town-hall meeting of soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, acknowledged that the U.S. government has “some ideas as to who might be involved, but we don’t know exactly who was involved.” He added, “But I can tell you one thing: the United States was not involved in that kind of effort. That’s not what the United States does.”
Labels: assassination attempt, Iranian nuclear program, MEK
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:56 PM
1 comments
A report has come in on Twitter indicating that shots have been fired at Bashar al-Assad's motorcade in Homs. No confirmation and no report of casualties yet. But the source is Sultan al-Qassemi, who is a journalist with the National (UAE) and is generally reliable.The report did not give further details and did not specify the origin of the shooting.Hmmm.
Syrian state television showed video of Assad, wearing an open-necked shirt with a blue suit, walking casually in the Baba Amr district, which was reclaimed by his forces earlier this month after 26 days of heavy bombardment.
"Life will return to normal in Baba Amr, better than it was before," Assad told a group of people shouting support for the president.
...
Assad, walking slowly through the streets under light rain, saw shattered and burned out buildings. He waved and smiled to small crowds who came out to greet him.
A spokesman for peace envoy Kofi Annan, representing the United Nations and the Arab League, said on Tuesday Assad had accepted basic terms of a peace plan that calls for national dialogue and does not hinge on his agreement to leave office and give up power.
"He thinks he won and scored a great victory," said opposition activist Saif Hurria, speaking by telephone from Homs.
"He wants to show the world he defeated and put down a revolution. But in fact he can't control Homs ... It seems he can't even release the video until he has left Homs. That is not control."
Labels: assassination attempt, Bashar al-Assad, Homs, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:31 PM
0 comments
I find it curious that Israel Radio has been continuously reporting on the Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States without even mentioning the second part of the story: the plan to bomb the Israeli (and Saudi) embassy. Perhaps they don't want us to realize that the Iranians have us in their crosshairs.Most of the important lessons to be learned from this event have not been mentioned so far. Here are a few of them:And presumably the Iranians believe the same thing about Israel and the Saudis. Time to show them otherwise? Are you kidding? Two days after Netanyahu agrees to trade 1,027 terrorists for one kidnapped IDF soldier.... If that didn't convince the world that we're wimps nothing will. The only way to redeem Israel's name would be to wipe out Hamas' leadership the day after Shalit is returned. What do you think the odds are on that happening?
...
Third, despite a welter of doubletalk from the administration, it is ridiculous to speculate that such an operation could be carried out without the explicit approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to whom the commanders of the Quds Force report. Indeed, as my brilliant colleague Tom Joscelyn has reported, the top man in Quds, General Suleimani, sits atop the chain of command for this operation, and he is an intimate of Khamenei.
So, to answer the often-asked question (how could the leaders of the Iranian regime have approved such a provocative action in this country?): they do not fear us, they do not believe that Obama is capable of doing anything that would threaten their grip on power, and they viewed the operation as both a provocation and a humiliation of him and his administration. So far, the pathetic lack of anything approaching a serious response – not even a hint of support for regime change in Tehran — combined with empty ritualistic incantations a la “nothing is off the table” suggest that their assessment is correct.
Labels: assassination attempt, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:02 AM
3 comments
I'm sure that those of you who are currently online have already heard about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az) in Tucson about an hour and a half ago.Labels: assassination attempt, Gabrielle Giffords, Tucson
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:35 PM
5 comments
Iran is claiming that the Mossad tried and failed to assassinate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to Lebanon in October. The Israeli Mossad tried to assassinate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to Beirut around 40 days ago, an informed Iranian source told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.I don't believe this. I'm sure that the Mossad watched Ahmadinejad, but I don't believe they tried to assassinate him - and failed. If they had tried, they would have succeeded. This, on the other hand, I do believe:
The source said that Tehran monitored attempts by the Israeli intelligence to carry out an assassination operation against Ahmadinejad during his visit to Lebanon in November through members of the Iranian opposition.
"We call those hypocrites because they are collaborating with Zionism against the Islamic Revolution and the Iranian people," he said.
He said Iranian security agencies did not cooperate with their Lebanese counterparts to guarantee Ahmadinejad's safety. They mainly relied on Hizbullah's security and military apparatus.
The source also unveiled that Iranians visited Lebanon's border with Israel under Hizbullah protection two weeks ago. He did not confirm whether the Iranians were politicians or security personnel.They probably weren't worth Israel's time.
After visiting Fatima gate, the visitors toured the former Khiam detention center, the source added.
Labels: assassination attempt, Hezbullah, Lebanon, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mossad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:30 PM
2 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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