Kidon | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0292 (al-Mabhouh assassination edition #3)

February 21, 2010 by intelNews 4 Comments

Former Mossad spy says Israel killed al-Mabhouh. Victor Ostrovsky, who worked for the Mossad in the 1980s, says the assassination of Hamas official Mahmound al-Mabhouh last month in Dubai has all the earmarks of a Mossad operation, and was likely sanctioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
UK denies knowledge of Hamas murder plot. The British Foreign Office has denied a news report that the British intelligence service was told in advance that Israeli agents planned to assassinate senior Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, using British passports.
Anglo-Israeli intelligence co-operation is now in jeopardy. Britain has cut its ties with Mossad in the past –after its London station chief carelessly mislaid a sackful of forged British passports– and will do so again unless Israel can provide a credible defense of its actions, says The Daily Telegraph‘s Con Coughlin.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dubai, Hamas, intelligence cooperation, Israel, Israeli embassy in the UK, Kidon, London, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, News, news you may have missed, travel documentation, UK, United Arab Emirates

Mossad has long history of assassination operations

February 21, 2010 by intelNews 6 Comments

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The recent assassination of Hamas military official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has sparked a public debate about the history of the Kidon (formerly known as Caesarea), Mossad’s elite assassination unit. Several participants in this debate frequently mention the infamous Black September killings of the 1970s (operation BAYONET), which exterminated almost every original member of the Palestinian group that perpetrated the massacre of the Israeli athletes in the 1972 summer Olympic Games in Munich. In reality, however, these operations were not conducted by the Kidon, but by a separate unit outside Mossad’s operational structure, created specifically for this purpose. The same applies to other extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, which are usually perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1972 Munich massacre, Abu Jihad, assassinations, Black September, Egypt, Egyptian nuclear program, Fathi Shikaki, Federal Republic of Germany, Hamas, Hezbollah, history, IDF, Imad Mughniyah, Israel, Jordan, Khaled Mashal, Khalil al-Wazir, Kidon, Lebanon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Malta, Mossad, News, Operation BAYONET, Operation DAMOCLES, Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PLO, Shin Bet, Yehiyeh Ayyash

News you may have missed #0291 (al-Mabhouh assassination edition #2)

February 20, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Interpol adds suspected Dubai assassins to most wanted list. Interpol has added the 11 people allegedly responsible for last month’s Dubai assassination Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to its most wanted list. At least five nations are now actively investigating the assassination operation.
Dubai assassins had keys to al-Mabhouh’s hotel room. Yossi Melman, of Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reports that, contrary to previous accounts of al-Mabhouh’s assassination, the Mossad hit squad did not break into his hotel room, nor did they knock on the door. Instead, they entered the room using copies of keys they had somehow acquired.
Will biometric passports limit Israel’s intelligence? By 2015 most countries will have introduced biometric identification features in passports. This worries international smugglers and terrorists, but it also worries the Israeli intelligence services.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, biometrics, Dubai, Interpol, Israel, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, News, news you may have missed, travel documentation, United Arab Emirates

Dubai CCTV footage reveals spy craft details

February 20, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

CCTV footage

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The closed-circuit television footage from the January 19 assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh reveals –among other things– interesting details of spy craft in action. Prominently featured is the use of fake wigs, beards and other facial hair, which the Mossad assassination team members employed in order to disguise themselves. Spies, therefore, really do use fake beards, moustaches, glasses, as well as other props in ground operations, known as ‘light disguise’ in espionage lingo. The obvious reason for such props is disguising the visual identity of the operative from potential witnesses. But there are other reasons too, such as evading facial recognition systems, which tend to rely on cheekbone and jaw-line coordinates. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, disguises, Dubai, facial recognition, Hamas, Israel, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, News, spycraft, United Arab Emirates

Answers to questions about al-Mabhouh’s assassination

February 17, 2010 by intelNews 5 Comments

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The intelNews email inbox is literally bulging with messages about the recent assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the co-founder of Hamas’ military wing, who was found dead in Dubai last month. Here are brief answers to a selection of readers’ questions. Q. Is there any doubt that Mossad was behind the assassination? A. Almost none. By no means was Israel al-Mabhouh’s sole enemy. In fact, his killing caused little distress among Fatah’s leadership, and at least two Palestinians are believed to have assisted in the assassination. Nevertheless, the operation has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored action, something particularly evident in the sophisticated travel documentation forgery involved. Moreover, the tactics of the hit squad, its composition, as well as its methods, point almost directly to the Mossad. Q. Were those passports real, or not? If not, who are the people in the photos? The eleven known members of the hit squad utilized British, Irish, German, and one French (the squad leader) passports. Read more of this post