So over here the biggest story of the moment is that a Hamas commander was killed in Dubai. Apparently its been linked to the Israeli intelligence agency, and they’ve used British and other EU passports.
Does anyone know what will happen if this turns out to be true? What actions could and should the UK government take?
Jesus. You’d never catch MI6 doing that. It’s been going on forever and a day. Let the media wet their pants and sequel like a bunch of big girls at a midnight feast, the politicians put up their hands in horror and then get back to the real world.
If GWB and his Brains Trust had even enough sense to run a tyre shop they’d have dealt with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in exactly the same way.
The only point of significance is that the Israelis have become so brazen as to do it in international hotels with full cctv. That is rubbish behavior – really poor form.
The Israeli Ambassador in London has been “invited” round for a word. Nothing has been admitted. This will go around and around behind the scenes for a while, but nothing will happen overtly.
At a guess, the Israelis will eventually offer the British something juicy intelligence-wise as a (non-)apology and (non-)compensation for the (non-)embarassment, and honor will be deemed to have been satisfied.
What **Gyrate **said.
From what I understand, the target was only supposed to be in the country for a few hours, and the only time he was vulnerable was when he was in his hotel. You can’t just gun a man like that down in the middle of the street and hope to get all your people out of the country - note that this way, the entire team was gone before the body was even found.
That said, this new Big Brother world of omnipresent security cams (no place more than in London and Dubai) certainly presents an interesting challenge to covert professionals. I’m curious to see what lessons will be learned from this latest operation.
I believe the point of significance is that whoever’s in charge allowed Mossad to clone passports of real people from allied countries, resident in Israel. There’s no way that this could have been approved without people realising there would be diplomatic fallout.
Expedient with regard to the practicalities of the “job”, but extremely clumsy in diplomatic terms, and there’s an outside chance that it could increase the genuine individuals’ chances of assassination.
(I have to say, though, I am enjoying this story immensely - real-life Robert Ludlum stuff, and I am not terribly sad about the victim.)
And your supporting cite for M16 stealing the identities of foreign nationals for assassinations after having given a commitment not to do it again as the Israeli’s did in 1987 is …?
What struck me was the willingness to probably compromise the future use of what are undoubtably very well trained professionals for a single hit. Digital images are now available of each of the team members and they had to know this would be the case. Their decision to go forward despite this tactical cost speaks volumes about the value they bestowed on the target.
Different enemy, different times. It’s all about drones atm.
If they haven’t been caught how would you ever prove or disprove anything?
Offer to help them by giving them real British passports next time the Mossad render us all a service.
Remind me again when ObL et al checked into a hotel in a city near an international airport?
Does this mean that finding passports at the scene of a crime is no longer a proof?
You are not allowed to wage war in a country without that country’s permission. Neutral countries are to be respected. The Israelis have a long history of ignoring such niceties. But to be fair, the Palestinians have a longer and nastier history in that regard.
A pox on both their houses.
But using British passports puts all British passport holders at risk. That is a Big Deal. You will note the Israelis did not use American passports. As I understand it, and I am willing to be corrected, using an ally’s passports in this manner is not cricket.
This has not been pinned on Mossad yet. They aren’t the only people in the world who wanted this guy dead. The tie to Israel could be a false trail to divert attention from whoever actually planned/conducted the operation. Or not. Either way, the world is a better place without this guy in it.
Oddly (according to this morning’s New York Times) the Israeli papers all think it was the Israelis. (They are also complaining it was a botched job.)
So the Israelis think it was the Israelis. The Arabs think it was the Israelis. The British think it was the Israelis. Basically, everyone thinks the Israelis did it.
It was Jacob. Or maybe Flocke.
I agree that if you wanted to frame Mossad it was a very good job. Pretty damn skilful for someone outside Israel to get hold of all those passports located in Israel to clone, though.
So, with Occam sitting on my shoulder, which anti-Hamas group, almost certainly possessing agents within Israel’s borders, has those sorts of mad skillz?
Seeing as the UAE doesn’t recognize Israel’s existence, has no diplomatic relations with it and doesn’t allow bearers of Israeli passports to enter the country, I’d hardly call it “neutral”. If it wants respect, maybe it should show some.
First of all, nobody thinks the Brits are behind this, and nobody thinks that the Mossad - if they are indeed behind this - will be using British passports again in the near future. So there’s no real risk involved. And seeing as the UK is the currently the most virulently anti-Israeli country in Europe, and has even gone so far as to attempt to arrest Israeli officers and politicians, maybe they deserved to have their noses tweaked a bit. An alliance works both ways.
How ? Do you have a high security clearance in Israel ? Are you in the Mossad ?
What did you guys learn from the debacle in Jordon when you used Canadian passports?
Even if it was Mossad, they killed an asshole. So what? Nobody is going to invade them over it. Maybe there will be an exchange of diplomatic nastygrams. No big deal.