Globe and Mail, 17 Feb 10: A jihadist from a small town in Quebec who plotted to set off bombs abroad has received the toughest sentence for a convicted Canadian terrorist. Saïd Namouh, 37, who took part in the plot over the internet from his basement apartment in Maskinongé, Que., was handed the maximum sentence under Canadian anti-terrorism law — life, with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Judge Claude Leblond said Mr. Namouh is still extremely dangerous. Unlike other terrorists convicted in Canada, Mr. Namouh showed no remorse and no prospect of rehabilitation. “The evidence shows his enthusiasm to participate in the project,” judge Leblond said. “In fact, he was probably destined to be the suicide bomber.”
In January, the Maskinongé terrorist was found guilty on four charges of taking part in the activities of a terrorist group, including one count of plotting to set off a bomb in Vienna. . . . “He was about to board the plane, when he was arrested, he was in the process of obtaining the visa to leave the country. He was ready to work,” Mr. Dudemaine said.
Mr. Namouh engaged in hundreds of online conversations and produced videos praising violent attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lauded the kidnappers of a British journalist in Gaza and allegedly helped distribute ransom demands. He threatened future attacks in Germany and Austria. In a series of chats in August, 2007, Mr. Namouh planned a trip to Egypt and Germany for a mission involving a bomb attack. In one brief online comment, he proclaimed his expertise in explosives. His handler and alleged co-conspirator sent him $800, suggesting he buy a gun. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 163–Dying to Kill Us: Understanding the Mindset of Suicide Operations
Gulf News, 17 Feb 10: The wigs, sports gear, moustaches and caps used to disguise the identities of the assassins of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh say little about the assassins except for the amount of secrecy and planning that went into the operation.
Since European officials have confirmed that some of the passports used by the assassins were forged, Dubai Police’s hunt for the killers has become all the more difficult. The police have said that the suspects left “no traces to uncover their identities” including fingerprints. The only leads the police have are the faces of the assassins and, perhaps more importantly, the two Palestinian suspects who are being held by the police.
It is however not uncommon for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, who are suspected to have ordered the assassination, to use Palestinian informants in their operations. The Mossad agents, who often lure informants with incentives of money, drugs or the honour and safety of their families, are likely trained not to reveal any information that could be traced back to them. That is perhaps also the reason that the escape arrangements for the Palestinians differed to those of the rest of the squad. The two Palestinians are likely to have asked for guarantees of a safe passage out of Dubai, and perhaps feel betrayed by the agents now. If that was part of the plan, there is little the two are expected to know that would be of real value in the investigation.
It is likely that the assassination squad did prior surveillance in Dubai in planning the assassination, and knew how closely watched movement in the city is. Knowing that, they would have known well that their pictures would be released for the world to see. Their attempt to nevertheless wear disguises while conducting the operation suggests that the objective was not to hide their identities but perhaps avoid suspicion, specifically from the victim. Some of the other agents did not seem to take extra precautions to look discreet in places where cameras were sure to be watching them. . . . .
Haaretz/Yossi Melman, 17 Feb 10: It seems suspicions are narrowing in on Israel. Israeli citizens with dual citizenship, who emigrated from Britain a long time ago and whose names and identities were used for an operation that led to the assassination of a senior Hamas figure in Dubai, are justifiably feeling they were pawns in a much larger game. From now on, they’ll have to explain to the British consulate in Tel Aviv and the British Home Office that they were not in Dubai, had not participated in the assassination and had not misplaced their passports.
However, a deeper look into the matter suggests this will not be too difficult for them to prove. The governments of both Ireland and the United Kingdom already announced yesterday that the passports used by the suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were forged. The Mossad has used forged passports on a number of occasions in the past, or used the names of real people on fake passports with photographs of its agents.
Agent Sylvia Rafael, from South Africa, was arrested in an assassination attempt in Norway that ended in tragedy, as a result of the mistaken identity of a Moroccan waiter in July 1973. She was traveling with the forged identity of a Canadian photographer by the name of Patricia Roxburgh. Her colleagues on that mission were arrested with the forged or borrowed identities of British and French citizens. In 1979, according to the Times of London, an Israel Military Industries’ courier left British passports in a public telephone booth in Bonn, meant for agents on a secret negotiation for the supply of arms to China prior to the existence of diplomatic ties between Israel and Beijing. The Mossad had provided the documents.
In 1997, Mossad agents were arrested in Jordan following the failed attempt on the life of Hamas politburo leader Khaled Meshal. They were carrying Canadian passports. Following that incident, Ottawa demanded clarifications from Israel and received promises that Canadian passports would not be used in future operations. It turned out that at least one of the passports belonged to a Jewish Canadian who had arrived in Israel to study and said that certain people contacted him and asked to make use of his passport for a short period of time in the service of the State of Israel. He later denied this version of events, claiming the passport had been taken without his consent.
Several years later, two Mossad agents were arrested in New Zealand attempting to acquire real passports using the name of a local quadriplegic youth, who was highly unlikely to apply for a passport to leave the country. In this case, too, Israel was forced to apologize and promised not to violate the sovereignty of New Zealand in the future.
As such, we can point to a modus operandi in which Israel was forced to use foreign passports for operations involving assassinations of enemy targets. In the New Zealand operation, a great deal of effort was put into acquiring one or possibly more passports – suggesting that the Mossad is in need of genuine passports. Indeed, intelligence agencies always prefer to use original documentation and only when they have no choice do they forge passports or borrow other peoples’ identities. The future will be even more difficult thanks to biometric measures that will be included in travel documents – with Israel being one of the countries leading this effort. Forged passports will be impossible to use, as it is impossible to forge fingerprints or irises. . . . . .
Profiles of Britons named in plot by authorities (Daily Telegraph, 17 Feb 10)
Here are profiles of the real people whose identities were used in the plot. . . . .
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♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 202–Vulnerabilities of an Intelligence Professional
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
Daily Telegraph/Gordon Thomas , 17 Feb 10: The killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh bears the hallmarks of the ruthless Israeli intelligence service. One of the leading chroniclers of the agency gives a unique insight into its methods. The Mossad assassins could have felt only satisfaction when the news broke that they had succeeded in killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas military commander, in Dubai last month.
The Israeli government’s refusal to comment on the death has once more gained worldwide publicity for Mossad, its feared intelligence service. Its ruthless assassinations were made famous by the film Munich, which detailed Mossad’s attacks on the terrorists who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Long ago, the agency had established that silence is the most effective way to spread terror among its Arab enemies.
In the past year, al-Mabhouh had moved to the top of Mossad’s list of targets, each of which must be legally approved under guidelines laid down over half a century ago by Meir Amit, the most innovative and ruthless director-general of the service. Born in Tiberius, King Herod’s favourite city, Amit had established the rules for assassination.
“There will be no killing of political leaders, however extreme they are. They must be dealt with politically. There will be no killing of a terrorist’s family unless they are also directly implicated in terrorism. Each execution must be sanctioned by the incumbent prime minister. Any execution is therefore state-sponsored, the ultimate judicial sanction of the law. The executioner is no different from the state-appointed hangman or any other lawfully-appointed executioner.”
I first met Amit in 2001 and through him, I talked to the spies of Mossad, the katsas, and finally, to the assassins, the kidon, who take their name from the Hebrew word for bayonet. They helped me write the only book approved by Mossad, Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad
The killing in Dubai is a classic example of how Mossad goes about its work. Al-Mabhouh’s 11 assassins had been chosen from the 48 current kidon, six of whom are women. . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–An Introduction to Israeli Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies
Daily Telegraph, 17 Feb 10: Dressed in tennis gear and carrying racquets and balls, the guests who wandered through the lobby of Dubai’s al-Bustan Rotana hotel on Jan 19 couldn’t have looked less threatening. But within hours they and nine accomplices had carried out the ruthlessly efficient assassination of the Hamas military Commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who had just a few seconds’ warning of his fate as the killers overpowered him in his room.
The murder bears the hallmarks of a meticulously-planned operation by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, though Israel has so far refused to say whether it was involved. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the alleged hit team, travelling on forged British, Irish, German and French passports, spent no more than 19 hours in the Gulf state, killing Mr Mabhouh just five hours after he had flown in from Syria. After trawling through dozens of hours of CCTV footage, investigators have been able to piece together a minute-by-minute reconstruction of how the hit unfolded. . . . . .
