Hamas accuses Mossad of assassinating Palestinian engineer in Malaysia
April 23, 2018 1 Comment
Militants in the Gaza Strip have accused Israel of assassinating a Palestinian engineer based in Malaysia, who was shot dead on Saturday by unknown assailants riding motorcycles. The victim has been identified as Dr. Fadi M. al-Batsh, 35, from the town of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave controlled by the militant group Hamas. Al-Batsh is believed to have completed undergraduate and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza. In 2011 he enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, from where he subsequently received his doctorate in electrical engineering. He was then employed as a lecturer by the University of Kuala Lumpur’s British Malaysian Institute. The Institute is located in the Jalan Gombak neighborhood of the Malaysian capital, where al-Batsh lived with his wife and three children. Some reports from Israel said that al-Batsh worked on drone technology and that he had authored scientific articles on the development of drone technology, as well as on the technical specifications of transmitters used to remotely control drones.
Local reports said al-Batsh was gunned down at around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning as he was walking from his home to a nearby mosque for early-morning prayers. Footage taken from nearby security cameras shows that al-Batsh was shot by two men riding on a large BMW 1100cc motorcycle, who waited for him to arrive at the scene for at least 20 minutes before opening fire. Malaysian police said the Palestinian man was pronounced dead at the scene, having sustained wounds from 14 bullets in the chest and head. A subsequent report by local police authorities said the incident was being treated as a “targeted killing”, not as a terrorist attack, because the assassins appeared to focus solely on al-Batsh while ignoring several bystanders that were present.
Shortly after al-Batsh’s killing some reports identified him as a relative of Khaled al-Batsh, a senior official in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A subsequent statement published by Hamas-affiliated media said al-Batsh was a commander in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. The militant group described him as a “loyal member” and called him a “shahid” (martyr), who was “assassinated by the hand of treachery”. The Gaza-based group also vowed retaliation against Israel and the Mossad intelligence agency.
Malaysian authorities said on Sunday that they did not rule out anything, including the possibility that al-Batsh may have been killed by militants belonging to the Islamic State. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said that the possible involvement of “foreign agents” in al-Batsh’s killing was also being looked at. He added that the two main suspects behind the killing were believed to be “white, European-looking men”. On Monday, Malaysian police released facial composites of the two suspects, based on eyewitness testimonies. An accompanying press release said the two suspects were “around 1.80 meters tall, well built, had fair complexions, and were believed to be of Middle Eastern or Western descent”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 April 2018 | Permalink | Research credit: R.B. and C.F.
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Television program about the Mossad prompts controversy, strong denials in Israel
June 4, 2018 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment
The investigative news program reported on May 31 that the “unprecedented” request has its roots in a “major secret program” that was launched by the Israeli government in 2012. The program required a major transformation of the country’s intelligence budget, staffing and resources. Although numerous individuals from nearly every facet of the Israeli intelligence community had been briefed on the project, the Israeli prime minister was concerned about leaks to the media. He therefore kept his cabinet in the dark about the program, and did not consult with the Knesset, or even the members of the Knesset’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Secret Services, which is required by law to be kept fully informed about Israeli intelligence operations.
Uvda further alleges that in 2013 Netanyahu convened an extraordinary meeting of senior officials, which included the participation of the attorney general, the head of the Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security service) and others. It was during that meeting, according to Uvda, when Netanyahu allegedly approached Yora Cohen, the then-director of the Shin Bet, and asked him to “monitor the partners of the secret project”. When asked what he meant, Netanyahu allegedly said that the directors of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Mossad should have their telephones monitored for possible unauthorized leaks to the media. Two names mentioned during that meeting, according to Uvda: Tamir Pardo, head of the Mossad, and Benny Gantz, the IDF’s chief of staff. Both men were new at their posts. Eventually, however, when Cohen took Netanyahu’s request to senior officials at the Ministry of Defense, “they were shocked and rejected it”, Uvda reports.
On Sunday, Cohen took the unusual step of issuing a denial of Uvda’s allegations, calling “reports in the media” about the prime minister having instructed him to “specifically wiretap Gantz and Pardo […] untrue”. The Office of the Prime Minister also denied the Uvda report, describing it in a statement as “utterly baseless”. The statement went on to say that Uvda’s allegations represented “a total distortion of systemic efforts that are made from time to time to safeguard sensitive information related to Israel’s security”. Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu directly criticized comments made by Pardo on the same program, which the Israeli leader saw as damaging to the reputation of the Mossad. Pardo told Uvda that “the fun part” about working for the Mossad was that the agency is “basically a crime syndicate with a license”. Netanyahu took exception to those comments on Sunday, saying that “the Mossad is not a criminal organization. It is a superb organization that does sacred work in the fight against terrorism and other threats to the state of Israel. We all salute it”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 04 June 2018 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, communications interception, IDF, Israel, Mossad, News, Tamir Pardo, wiretapping, Yora Cohen