. . . . According to the detailed but unverified account given on Monday by Dubai police, the killers began arriving in Dubai shortly after midnight on 19 January. Their movement across the city was captured on CCTV footage (see below post for video), much of it released by the Dubai authorities, along with hotel records and flight data they said supports their allegations. When Mabhouh arrived in Dubai 15 hours later, police believe his assassins, who were using forged European identities, tracked him to room 230 of the luxury Al-Bustan Rotana hotel, in the heart of the city, killed him, and then departed the country. The entire operation was completed in just 19 hours, they said.
The first two suspected assassins used the names Michael Bodenheimer and James Clarke, and respectively carried German and British passports. They were followed 30 minutes later by the only female member, Gail Folliard, and Kevin Daveron. Both carried Irish passports and arrived on a flight from Paris. The pair were said to have taken separate taxis to the same hotel, in what appears to have been the first in a series of repeated, meticulous decoys and counter-espionage techniques. Throughout their 19 hours in the emirate, members of the gang used cash rather than credit cards for their transactions and almost continuously changed their identities, switching outfits and wearing wigs and glasses as disguises, Dubai police said. The CCTV footage showed Daveron appeared to have undergone the most extreme transformation, disappearing from the view of a CCTV camera in a hotel lobby as a bald man in a suit, before reappearing with thick black hair and glasses.
Dubai police said the team used international calls to communicate and “special communication devices” to relay encrypted messages. Austria was identified as a possible “command centre” by police, who claimed to have tracked a series of calls to the country from numbers used by the assassins. By the time Mabhouh arrived in Dubai, all 11 members of the team – including the alleged ringleader, a French passport holder who used the name Peter Elvinger – were in the country and preparing for his murder, police said. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
Palestinians held in Dubai over Hamas militant murder (AFP, 16 Feb 10)
Dubai police questioned on Tuesday two Palestinian suspects in connection with the murder of a top Hamas militant, after naming an 11-member hit team travelling on European passports. The two men, both residents of the United Arab Emirates, had “fled to Jordan” after Mahmud al-Mabhuh was found dead in a Dubai hotel room last month, police chief Dahi Khalfan told AFP. The pair were extradited from Jordan “three days ago,” Khalfan said, adding there was “strong suspicion” that one of the two had met a member of the suspected hit team before the assassination. . . .
. . . .The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has accused Israel of killing Mabhuh, 50, and vowed revenge. Its members have said that Mabhuh, who was based in the Syrian capital, was on a visit to Dubai to buy weapons for the militant group’s armed wing of which he was a founder.
Khalfan said on Tuesday that it was most likely that information about Mabhuh was “leaked” from people close to him, adding that Mahbhuh booked his hotel room just a day before his arrival on January 19. Palestinian Authority police spokesman, General Adnan al-Dameeri, told AFP in Ramallah that Palestinian security authorities “confirmed information that two Hamas officers… were involved in the killing of Mabhuh.” On Monday Hamas official Ayman Taha told Al-Arabiya television that the pair, who were arrested in Jordan and handed over to Dubai, worked for the PA and took part in Mabhuh’s assassination. . . .
SKY News, 16 Feb 10: In 1981 two Fatah military leaders, close aides of Yasser Arafat were killed in Beirut by an Israeli hit team. The advance team entered Lebanon using British passports. The hit team went in later by boat and carried out the assassination. It was led by Ehud Barak who is now Israel’s defence minister. The use of British passports caused big problems for British journalists operating in Beirut at the time. But the hit was regarded with pride by Israelis as another example of their military’s deadly “reach”. . . . .
. . . . .Was the hit in Dubai the work of Mossad? Analysts like Ben David are bound by Israeli intelligence censorship. But he says Mossad is working hard to give its foes the impression they can be killed anywhere, any time. “That is part of the operations,” Ben David said. “If you make your enemies deal with hiding and with surviving, they’ll have less time to plan things against you and that’s part of the strategy.”
Key to the new aggressive nature of Mossad’s operations, is its current boss. Under Major General Meir Dagan the agency is thought to have pushed its own boundaries well beyond gathering intelligence. It now directs the military to act upon it. He has, says analyst Dr Ronen Bergman, author of The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Power
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 560–Middle Eastern Intelligence Services and Terrorist Organizations
YNET, 16 Feb 10: Melvyn Adam Mildiner, originally from UK, tells Ynet was surprised to discover his name, passport number appear in that of suspect in Hamas man’s assassination in Dubai. Meanwhile, two other Israeli citizens with similar backgrounds find their names in online media reports.
What would you do if one day you found out you’re allegedly involved in a Mossad assassination? This is exactly what happened to Melvyn Adam Mildiner, 31, an Israeli-British citizen residing in Israel who now fears his life would never be the same again. After having learned that some of his personal details appear on the passport of one of the suspects in the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Mildiner told Ynet Tuesday that he is worried he would have a problem leaving the country from now on.
On Monday the Dubai police exposed footage from the security cameras installed at the hotel where al-Mabhouh was killed last month, as well as the identity used by the 11 squad-members behind the hit.
Mildiner, a resident of Beit Shemesh, claimed Tuesday that one of the suspects used details from his own passport. According to Mildiner, who made aliyah 10 years ago, he first discovered the news from media reports. “My identity was stolen or forged,” he told Ynet and noted he knows nothing about the assassination. “I watched the news, I know the story from there, but I don’t know what’s going on and why it happened, it’s not me, I have nothing to do with it.” Mildiner mentioned that his passport is in his home and has no Dubai stamp on it suggesting that the actual document was not stolen.
Referring to the “fake” passport Mildiner said, “The name appearing on the passport is mine and so is the number, but it’s not my picture and the birth date is incorrect as well.” He sounded as though he was having trouble coming to terms with the sudden exposure and wished to clarify “I was never in the Mossad, nor did I visit Dubai.” He also added that at the beginning he thought the picture on the suspect’s passport slightly resembles his own, however his wife rejected the idea. Mildliner stated that he plans to consult with a lawyer. “Everyone (from his family) is angry and afraid, especially at the prospect of having trouble leaving Israeli borders. I also don’t know what are the other repercussions concerning my identity.” He noted that he had not left the country for a while.
Meanwhile it appears two other Israelis with a similar background to Mildiner’s have found themselves in the same situation: Steven Daniel Hodes and Paul John Keeley. Like Mildiner, Hodes, 37, who resides in Ramat Beit Shemesh, is mainly concerned with having his name connected to the affair. Gabriella Hodes, Steven’s wife, said that her husband learned of his “association” with the assassins by chance while surfing the Ynet website. “He was sitting by the computer and suddenly realized it’s his name. At first he laughed and said that someone is dressing up like him for Purim but he later realized it was serious when he began receiving e-mails from friends. By then he wanted to talk to a lawyer.” Hodes, a physical therapist who made aliyah in 2000, discovered that it wasn’t just his name that was supposedly used. “In time he realized that it was also his birth date.” . . . .
‘Mossad assassination squad used British passports’ (Times of London, 16 Feb 10)
. . . . Six of these suspects were travelling on British passports and three were carrying Irish passports, including the woman. The other two entered Dubai with German and French passports. . . . .One former Mossad agent confirmed that the organisation regularly used foreign passports for travel abroad on secret missions. “Sometimes these were legitimate passports of people who held dual citizenship, other times they were acquired,” he said. “An Israeli passport raises red flags and is best avoided.” . . .
Mildiner: I woke up a ‘murderer’ (Jerusalem Post, 16 Feb 10)
On Monday night, Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a British Israeli man who made aliya from London nine years ago, went to bed suffering from what he said is pneumonia. When he woke up the following morning, Mildiner said, he was stunned to discover that one of the members of an alleged hit squad who assassinated senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel last month went under an alias which was identical to his name. “I have no idea how to clear my name. Interpol has a warrant out for my arrest. I don’t know how I will travel. I went to bed with pneumonia and woke up a ‘murderer,” Mildiner told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. . . .
Israeli Hit Squad? Dubai Police Issue International Warrants (ABC News, 16 Feb 10)
All signs point to an Israeli hit squad, using fake passports and elaborate disguises, in the assassination of a top Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel room, according to current and former intelligence officials. . . . .”It has all the earmarks of an Israeli assassination,” said former CIA intelligence officer Robert Baer. “There are very few intelligence agencies that have the ability to pull off something like this.” Intelligence officials say the Israeli intelligence unit, Mossad, has returned to its “old school” methods in tracking down people it suspects could be threats to Israel. “Mabhouh was probably in Dubai to meet with the Iranians, because that’s where you go to do business or arrange arms shipments with them,” said Baer. . . . .
Dubai seeks global dragnet for Hamas slaying (AP, 16 Feb 10)
Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt Tuesday after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander last month in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs. . . . But questions emerged about the list of suspects after Dubai authorities released pictures, names and passport photos identifying them as six Britons, three Irish and one each from France and Germany. Ireland said the three alleged Irish citizens on the wanted list do not exist. In Germany, officials said the passport number give by Dubai for the lone German suspect is either incomplete or wrong.
Other elements also challenged the narrative presented by Dubai authorities, including how investigators pieced together the evidence pointing to an alleged European assassin team. Or why such an apparently well-planned operation would forget about the country’s wide-ranging security cameras. . . . A former high-ranking Mossad official, Rami Igra, told Israel Army Radio that the assassin “does look professional” as described by Dubai police. But Igra said it “doesn’t look like an Israeli operation” because of the apparent shortcuts, such as allowing members to be videotaped by security cameras. . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
Haaretz/Yossi Melman, 16 Feb 10: What makes the security camera shots released last night by the Dubai police interesting is the professionalism exhibited by the suspected assassins of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
They arrived on separate flights from different destinations; one of them flew in via Munich and Qatar. They stayed in different hotels and were careful to make phone calls using international routers. They wore clothing that makes them difficult to identify. One is seen with a mustache and a hat, others wearing hats and glasses. They try, throughout, to appear to be innocent tourists or business people, there to enjoy themselves and even play some tennis.
On the basis of the video clips and the information provided by Dubai police officers investigating the murder, the assassination squad involved 10 men carrying British, French, German and Irish passports. A woman carrying an Irish passport was also captured by the cameras.
The Dubai authorities claim there were two teams: one carried out surveillance of the target, while the other – which appears to be a group of younger men, at least as far as the camera shots show – carried out the killing. Contrary to reports, the squad did not break into Mabhouh’s hotel room, nor did they knock on the door. They entered the room using copies of keys they had somehow acquired. . . . .
The woman posing as Gail Folliard, apparently wearing a wig and glasses, pretends to speak on a mobile phone as she stakes out the hallway
. . . . Two of the suspects are seen changing clothes on the security camera footage in Dubai. The actual capture of the suspects on film may reveal their identities – and even suggest only partial success of the operation.
However, it is clear that whoever they are, they knew ahead of time that in an era when terror is a global threat, security measures have also expanded considerably. Anyone embarking on an international operation of this sort takes into account that nearly every hotel, airport and basically any public building is equipped with security cameras working 24/7. Those on such a mission consider this as part of their calculated risks and do their best to distort their appearance.
In any case, if the police in Dubai manage to receive the information from Interpol regarding the suspects’ passports, they will reveal fictitious names and possibly forged passports. Therefore the information will do little for the investigation.
The only weak point that may lead to the identification of the group behind the assassination is the arrest in Dubai of two Palestinians. According to Dubai police, the two were linked to the operation and provided logistical information. Even if they are connected to the killing, we can assume that they know very little that would help identify the perpetrators. Such operations involve stringent compartmentalization, not only among the members of the teams, but also with those assisting them and who may have provided information that allowed them to actually carry out the assassination.
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 202–Vulnerabilities of an Intelligence Professional
Fox News, 16 Feb 10: The cloak and dagger world of international espionage and assassinations has had its cloak lifted, to some extent, in this modern world monitored by security cameras.
Never before has the lead up to and aftermath of an assassination been documented as it was in Dubai, January 18 of this year when Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was killed. Mabhouh was a top operative for Hamas connected to the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers as well as rocket smuggling to Gaza.
Security cameras catch the 10-men and 1 woman on the alleged hit squad, following the intended victim from the airport, through Al Bustan Hotel and right to his room. Two of the alleged members of the hit squad, dressed in tennis gear, ride the elevator with the target to confirm he stayed in room 230.
Cameras catch members changing their appearances, donning wigs and mustaches. Ultimately, after alleged members of the hit squad entered the room, spotters patrolled the hallway in front. Mabhouh is caught on camera headed to room 230 in the final minutes of his life. 26 minutes later, apparent assassins and their spotters casually head for the elevators. Even their departure through Dubai international airport is caught on camera. Two days later, Mabhouh’s body was found. Cause of death: suffocation.
Alon Ben David, who specializes in security analysis for Israel Channel 10, went to Al Bustan Hotel. “The first thing that struck me was the amount of cameras,” he said. “They had to know they would be videotaped.” . . . . .
Longer Version:
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 202–Vulnerabilities of an Intelligence Professional
