Posted on 03/03/2010 7:40:17 AM PST by hennie pennie
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The people who killed a Hamas operative in an airport hotel here in January seem to have thought they could pass it off as a natural death, or perhaps just another of this region's macabre mysteries. They injected him with a muscle relaxant, suffocated him and then smoothed away any signs of struggle, reattaching the hotel door chain as they left the room, investigators say.
Instead, the Dubai police quickly unraveled the plot and identified 26 suspects, in a display of transparency that is almost unheard of in the Arab world. They released a 27-minute montage of video surveillance, exposing the techniques - including agents clumsily disguising themselves with wigs and fake beards - of what is now almost universally believed to be the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.
The fallout from the killing of the operative, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, has created a diplomatic mess for Israel and raised troubling questions about identity theft, the spread of surveillance, and the colliding definitions of terrorism and crime. But above all it has underscored this beleaguered city-state's determination to protect its tourist-friendly image - and its powerhouse economy - from any further damage.
Dubai was hit hard by the global financial crisis, and it is keen not to let any more killers take advantage of its role as the region's most open city. A troubling precedent came last year with the killing of a Chechen political figure. At each of the near-daily news conferences held in recent weeks by Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, Dubai's gruff, swaggering police chief, the subtext has been clear: do not settle your scores here........
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.nytimes.com ...
Four different explanations of the death; a cast of perps that keeps growing; a report that two of the purported assassins fled to Iran and Hamas now saying the Jordanians and Egyptians were involved..some crack police work.
For the anti-Israeli NYT it apparently is a good job.
For the rest of us, it’s an ongoing joke
"In Israel, some columnists have expressed concern about the operation's apparent sloppiness. But for the most part it has been treated as a joke. During the Purim holiday, when Jews traditionally dress up in costume, many wore tennis outfits and wigs, mimicking the disguises of the assassins."
Afterall, strictly speaking, WHO really knows if any of the so-called surveillance footage is legitimate?
transporter beam from the future
If Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim doesn’t find out who hit Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, he’ll be the next one dead in a hotel room.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
They're not doing a great job.
They injected him with a muscle relaxant, suffocated him and then smoothed away any signs of struggle, reattaching the hotel door chain as they left the room......they also ordered room service, read a newspaper, watched some payperview, smoked a cigarette on the john...
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