From Forbes, 25 February 2010, by Claudia Rosett:
...Last week Dubai authorities released surveillance camera footage of 11 suspects wanted for the assassination of a top Hamas terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh...
Whatever the mysteries, this much is clear: Dubai's security apparatus has just given an impressive display of its surveillance abilities. ... the Dubai Police describe themselves as "the most forward-thinking and progressive Arab police force today!" They have 15,000 personnel, and employ electronic finger printing, satellite technology and--obviously--quick access to lots of surveillance cameras.
All of which points toward a big question. If Dubai surveillance is this adept, where's the rest of the Dubai video collection?
... The assassination of al-Mabhouh is hardly the only case in which international killers have prowled the streets, malls and hotels of Dubai....[which] has had a reputation for years as a frontier of the Wild East...a way station, meeting place and financial center for tyrannical regimes and terrorists.
The U.S. 9/11 commission noted that for al-Qaida terrorists in 2001, "Dubai, a modern city with easy access to a major airport, travel agencies, hotels and Western commercial establishments, was an ideal transit point." More than half the September 11 hijackers passed through Dubai en route to attack the U.S., two of those hijackers came from the U.A.E., and the 9/11 Commission reported that roughly half the $250,000 the hijackers spent preparing for the attacks was wired to them via Dubai banks. Following the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, documentation emerged--in U.S. federal courts,, as well as in both Congressional and United Nations investigations-- suggesting that Saddam's regime had used Dubai as a hub for sanctions-busting front companies, kickback collection and, according to the U.S. Treasury, efforts to buy surface-to-air missiles.
Today, Dubai is Iran's top trading partner, doing billions worth of business every year. Dubai was described in a recent paper by Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution as playing "a critical role as Iran's offshore banker and exporter."
So what else lies in the surveillance archives of the Dubai security services? If Dubai's authorities can piece together within 24 hours the trail of the alleged killers of one top terrorist, might we reasonably suppose they could also exhume quite a collection of clips providing more context? Could they perhaps give the global public a much better window on the deadly nature of the business pursued in airports, malls and hotel rooms by such killers as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or by Iran's pet terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and al-Mabhouh's outfit--Hamas?
For starters, where's the full surveillance footage of al-Mabhouh himself? He was a killer from way back; a founding member of Hamas's violent Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who bragged about his role in the 1989 kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers. The Wall Street Journal, among others, reports that al-Mabhouh at the time of his death "was a key link in smuggling operations ferrying Iranian weapons to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip." He reportedly arrived in Dubai last month from Damascus, which serves as a haven of hospitality for Hamas' top terrorists. Dubai authorities say he was traveling on a false passport, but apparently they have been able to piece together enough of his trail to inform the press that just before he was murdered, he "met with members of his group and bought a pair of shoes."
Please, tell us more--or better yet, show us any accompanying video clips. In whose blood was al-Mabhouh planning to dip those new shoes? Who, exactly, did he meet in Dubai? What for? Did he do any banking in Dubai? How often had he visited before? In recent years have Dubai authorities perchance stored away enough video of al Mabhouh and his terrorist comrades for a full-length feature film? Queried about these matters, the U.A.E. embassy in Washington referred me to the Dubai Police, who did not respond to phone calls or emailed questions.
Clearly this is a complex scene. The U.A.E. tries to walk a line between dealing with Iran and its affiliates and cooperating with the U.S.
[allow me to repeat that - SL] ...The U.A.E. tries to walk a line between dealing with Iran and its affiliates and cooperating with the U.S.
On its Washington embassy Web site, the U.A.E. states that its support for the U.S. includes the hosting of more than 2,000 U.S. military personnel and the contribution of 250 special forces soldiers to the coalition in Afghanistan. Last August Dubai blew the whistle on a shipment of North Korean arms that made a stopover in their waters, en route to Iran. And U.S. authorities in recent times have credited the U.A.E. with starting to crack down on terrorist finance networks.
Nonetheless, Dubai's authorities are putting on a curious display of priorities, appearing far more incensed over the murder of one Hamas terrorist than over the use of their turf for terrorists such as al-Mabhouh to plot and facilitate the murders--albeit elsewhere--of many others. If this is all about enforcing civilized norms, Dubai's authorities are clearly in a position to help, if they so choose.
May we see the rest of the video collection?
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Computer scans of passports are commonplace in the United Arab Emirates
From: The Australian February 26, 2010, by Simon Canning:
IN the past two weeks [alone], hundreds of Australian passports have been scanned into computers in the United Arab Emirates ...computer scans of Australian passports are commonplace throughout the region, hotels there usually requesting guests hand over their passports for scanning.
Travellers in large groups ...are often asked by hotel clerks to surrender their passports overnight for scanning ...a practice that is frowned upon by the Australian government, but harried travellers often agree with the request when checking in.
...Two weeks ago, 500 Australians and New Zealanders travelling with the V8 Supercars round to Abu Dhabi and Bahrain were told by clerks at the Yas Marina Crowne Plaza Hotel to hand in passports to be scanned overnight...
IN the past two weeks [alone], hundreds of Australian passports have been scanned into computers in the United Arab Emirates ...computer scans of Australian passports are commonplace throughout the region, hotels there usually requesting guests hand over their passports for scanning.
Travellers in large groups ...are often asked by hotel clerks to surrender their passports overnight for scanning ...a practice that is frowned upon by the Australian government, but harried travellers often agree with the request when checking in.
...Two weeks ago, 500 Australians and New Zealanders travelling with the V8 Supercars round to Abu Dhabi and Bahrain were told by clerks at the Yas Marina Crowne Plaza Hotel to hand in passports to be scanned overnight...
Friday, February 26, 2010
Troika of sabre rattlers meet for secret love-in in Damascus
From JPOST.COM, 26/02/2010:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met Thursday evening in Damascus along with their senior advisors, and discussed regional developments and “the zionist threat,” ...the meeting was not reported upon until after it had taken place for security reasons.
On Thursday Ahmadinejad and Assad together unleashed vicious rhetoric against Israel, with Ahmadinejad declaring that the “criminal” state of Israel is doomed, and Assad charging that Israel “is capable of aggression at any point.” ...Ahmadinejad vowed that Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East “without Zionists and without colonialists.”
In remarks that extended to vicious criticism of the US, and made a mockery of Washington’s efforts to engage his Syrian hosts, Ahmadinejad said the United States should leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affairs. ...Assad took a swipe at Clinton for [suggesting that Syria move away from Iran] ... In a show of unity, the two signed an agreement canceling travel visas between the their countries.
...President Shimon Peres slammed the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Assad, warning that Iran’s true designs were for “hegemony over the Arab world in the Middle East ...The problem in the Middle East is not the Palestinian problem ...[it] is Iran’s attempt to take control of the Arab Middle East, which is why it is building an atomic bomb, and why it is supporting and developing terror organizations like Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza,” Peres said.
Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah and Assad have dinner together, discuss "threats."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met Thursday evening in Damascus along with their senior advisors, and discussed regional developments and “the zionist threat,” ...the meeting was not reported upon until after it had taken place for security reasons.
On Thursday Ahmadinejad and Assad together unleashed vicious rhetoric against Israel, with Ahmadinejad declaring that the “criminal” state of Israel is doomed, and Assad charging that Israel “is capable of aggression at any point.” ...Ahmadinejad vowed that Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East “without Zionists and without colonialists.”
In remarks that extended to vicious criticism of the US, and made a mockery of Washington’s efforts to engage his Syrian hosts, Ahmadinejad said the United States should leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affairs. ...Assad took a swipe at Clinton for [suggesting that Syria move away from Iran] ... In a show of unity, the two signed an agreement canceling travel visas between the their countries.
...President Shimon Peres slammed the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Assad, warning that Iran’s true designs were for “hegemony over the Arab world in the Middle East ...The problem in the Middle East is not the Palestinian problem ...[it] is Iran’s attempt to take control of the Arab Middle East, which is why it is building an atomic bomb, and why it is supporting and developing terror organizations like Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza,” Peres said.
Hamas mass murderer got what he deserved, all else is trivia
From vexnews.com, February 26, 2010, by Andrew Landeryou:
If Israel brought the Hamas mass murderer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to justice – and we’ll never whether they did or whether he fell foul of fellow terrorists – then we can only celebrate.
How they did it is a tenth-order issue.
Why they did it is to stop Hamas blowing buses full of school-children, crowded pizza parlours, airplanes and airports, kindergartens and beach resorts.
Kevin Rudd and his blow-dried Foreign Minister Stephen Smith are good men and they have a role to play on the national stage ...Protecting the integrity of our passports is a part of the job, we suppose.
...Being a victim of a one-off identity theft is obviously not nice. And we can entirely understand the confusion and unhappiness about the individuals in that position. We’re sure not even the knuckle-headed authorities in the Dubai one-man dictatorship will hold them responsible for the death of the Hamas arms-buyer.
But after everyone has had a Bex and a good lie down, then surely the paramount issue is the need for Israel to protect itself from those who wish to terrorise it into madness, blast Jerusalem with nukes and drive six million Jews into the sea.
The world continues to apply a double-standard to Israel.
Where’s the front-page outrage when missiles land in southern Israel? ...
Where’s the Prime Ministerial or DFAT frenzy over the nuclear arsenal being slowly and hopefully incompetently assembled by Iran’s perverted regime? ...
...Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is dead.
We don’t know why he was killed. But if Israel did it, then that’s fine by me. If it had been possible to do so, I don’t doubt the preference would have been to extract him from the one-man dictatorship of Dubai and bring him to Israel to see how many of his blood-thirsty ghoul comrades he’d give up.
If you really believe that the Holocaust ought happen never again, if you’re really Israel’s friend as I’ve seen Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith insist over the years then you might consider that true friends stick even when slight offence has been caused. True friends don’t act opportunistically to denigrate the other. True friends see the big picture.
Whining about identity theft, the integrity of passports and such things is not the act of a friend.
It shows a contemptible lack of understanding about the reality of life in the Middle East and situation Israel is put in by those who seek to destroy it.
...From the comfort of suburban Melbourne, I am in no position to second-guess how the brilliant Israel security forces and services do their work. But I thank God they do. And while debate will rage in Israel about whether operations against scum like Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are worth all the grief, real friends of Israel are just relieved that there’s one less genocidal maniac on the loose.
If Israel brought the Hamas mass murderer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to justice – and we’ll never whether they did or whether he fell foul of fellow terrorists – then we can only celebrate.
How they did it is a tenth-order issue.
Why they did it is to stop Hamas blowing buses full of school-children, crowded pizza parlours, airplanes and airports, kindergartens and beach resorts.
Kevin Rudd and his blow-dried Foreign Minister Stephen Smith are good men and they have a role to play on the national stage ...Protecting the integrity of our passports is a part of the job, we suppose.
...Being a victim of a one-off identity theft is obviously not nice. And we can entirely understand the confusion and unhappiness about the individuals in that position. We’re sure not even the knuckle-headed authorities in the Dubai one-man dictatorship will hold them responsible for the death of the Hamas arms-buyer.
But after everyone has had a Bex and a good lie down, then surely the paramount issue is the need for Israel to protect itself from those who wish to terrorise it into madness, blast Jerusalem with nukes and drive six million Jews into the sea.
The world continues to apply a double-standard to Israel.
Where’s the front-page outrage when missiles land in southern Israel? ...
Where’s the Prime Ministerial or DFAT frenzy over the nuclear arsenal being slowly and hopefully incompetently assembled by Iran’s perverted regime? ...
...Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is dead.
We don’t know why he was killed. But if Israel did it, then that’s fine by me. If it had been possible to do so, I don’t doubt the preference would have been to extract him from the one-man dictatorship of Dubai and bring him to Israel to see how many of his blood-thirsty ghoul comrades he’d give up.
If you really believe that the Holocaust ought happen never again, if you’re really Israel’s friend as I’ve seen Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith insist over the years then you might consider that true friends stick even when slight offence has been caused. True friends don’t act opportunistically to denigrate the other. True friends see the big picture.
Whining about identity theft, the integrity of passports and such things is not the act of a friend.
It shows a contemptible lack of understanding about the reality of life in the Middle East and situation Israel is put in by those who seek to destroy it.
...From the comfort of suburban Melbourne, I am in no position to second-guess how the brilliant Israel security forces and services do their work. But I thank God they do. And while debate will rage in Israel about whether operations against scum like Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are worth all the grief, real friends of Israel are just relieved that there’s one less genocidal maniac on the loose.
Duplicitous Dubai
From an article published February 25, 2010 by Zvi Bar'el:
It's no surprise Dubai was the site of a hit on Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh by a troupe of disguised assassins. After all, Dubai itself is a two-faced entity, disguising itself again and again while providing cover for spies.
...Dubai has several masks. It helps Iran, but behind its back it provides the United States with an opportunity to gather intelligence about that country. The U.S. Consulate in Dubai also operates as a station for gathering information and enlisting agents. A few years ago the U.S. State Department wanted to close the consulate, but the CIA succeeded in convincing it to leave it open and even to boost the number of employees so that it could handle the hundreds and perhaps thousands of Iranians who come to request visas.
It's not only the U.S. intelligence services that love Dubai: The tremendous scope of commerce and the large number of companies and foreign agencies there are an excellent cover and an appropriate disguise for any city of spies.
Dubai has now replaced 20th-century Istanbul, Nicosia, Casablanca and Berlin as a hotbed of spying activity. Russians exchange information with Pakistanis, Afghans and Chechens trade tactics, members of Hezbollah convert illegal money and diamonds in bank transactions "for widows and orphans," and all while enjoying car races and performances by international artists.
...Dubai is a city-state that is not only its own disguise, but also that of neighboring and distant Arab countries. Male and female Saudis, who at home observe religious strictures very strictly, travel on weekends to Dubai in order to enjoy the nightclubs and the alcohol. Iranians of both sexes sail along its coasts without headscarves and without the supervision of the morality police, and political exiles find a refuge there from governments that are seeking revenge.
Dubai is a wonderful place. It has no substitute. Ask the Mossad, the CIA or the British Secret Intelligence Service.
It's no surprise Dubai was the site of a hit on Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh by a troupe of disguised assassins. After all, Dubai itself is a two-faced entity, disguising itself again and again while providing cover for spies.
...Dubai has several masks. It helps Iran, but behind its back it provides the United States with an opportunity to gather intelligence about that country. The U.S. Consulate in Dubai also operates as a station for gathering information and enlisting agents. A few years ago the U.S. State Department wanted to close the consulate, but the CIA succeeded in convincing it to leave it open and even to boost the number of employees so that it could handle the hundreds and perhaps thousands of Iranians who come to request visas.
It's not only the U.S. intelligence services that love Dubai: The tremendous scope of commerce and the large number of companies and foreign agencies there are an excellent cover and an appropriate disguise for any city of spies.
Dubai has now replaced 20th-century Istanbul, Nicosia, Casablanca and Berlin as a hotbed of spying activity. Russians exchange information with Pakistanis, Afghans and Chechens trade tactics, members of Hezbollah convert illegal money and diamonds in bank transactions "for widows and orphans," and all while enjoying car races and performances by international artists.
...Dubai is a city-state that is not only its own disguise, but also that of neighboring and distant Arab countries. Male and female Saudis, who at home observe religious strictures very strictly, travel on weekends to Dubai in order to enjoy the nightclubs and the alcohol. Iranians of both sexes sail along its coasts without headscarves and without the supervision of the morality police, and political exiles find a refuge there from governments that are seeking revenge.
Dubai is a wonderful place. It has no substitute. Ask the Mossad, the CIA or the British Secret Intelligence Service.
Fraudulent passports and disguises are tools of trade for Hamas
From The Globe and Mail, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza — Reuters:
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas commander assassinated in Dubai, used the same tradecraft — fraudulent passports and disguises — as his killers during secret missions to procure arms for the group, a confidant said on Thursday.
...“He used to wear coloured contact lenses and dye his hair when travelling to European countries,” said the confidant, who is based in the Gaza Strip, an enclave run by Hamas Islamists. He told Reuters he spent two years in exile with Mr. al-Mabhouh.
“He used to supply money and arms to Hamas and other allied factions,” the confidant said.
“He had many passports of different nationalities — all Arab,” he added. “Recently he underwent surgery to reshape his nose. It became narrower.”
Mr. al-Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in ...Dubai ....
Dubai authorities have named 26 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed the Palestinian and said they used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports, and disguises...
...Dubai police have not commented officially on the passport Mr. al-Mahbouh used to enter the emirate. Mr. al-Mabhouh's brother said the Hamas commander arrived in Dubai on a Palestinian passport that listed his family name as Hassan.
“(Mabhouh) never led a normal life. He was suspicious, careful, and he never told anyone, not even his wife, of his future or immediate plans,” the confidant said, adding that Mr. al-Mabhouh used Arab passports to enter European countries because they aroused less suspicion....
...Both Hamas and Iran have acknowledged Tehran's financial support for [Hamas]....
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas commander assassinated in Dubai, used the same tradecraft — fraudulent passports and disguises — as his killers during secret missions to procure arms for the group, a confidant said on Thursday.
...“He used to wear coloured contact lenses and dye his hair when travelling to European countries,” said the confidant, who is based in the Gaza Strip, an enclave run by Hamas Islamists. He told Reuters he spent two years in exile with Mr. al-Mabhouh.
“He used to supply money and arms to Hamas and other allied factions,” the confidant said.
“He had many passports of different nationalities — all Arab,” he added. “Recently he underwent surgery to reshape his nose. It became narrower.”
Mr. al-Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in ...Dubai ....
Dubai authorities have named 26 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed the Palestinian and said they used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports, and disguises...
...Dubai police have not commented officially on the passport Mr. al-Mahbouh used to enter the emirate. Mr. al-Mabhouh's brother said the Hamas commander arrived in Dubai on a Palestinian passport that listed his family name as Hassan.
“(Mabhouh) never led a normal life. He was suspicious, careful, and he never told anyone, not even his wife, of his future or immediate plans,” the confidant said, adding that Mr. al-Mabhouh used Arab passports to enter European countries because they aroused less suspicion....
...Both Hamas and Iran have acknowledged Tehran's financial support for [Hamas]....
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Just like Hitler: Iran to build enrichment sites inside mountains
From The Washington Post, Monday, February 22, 2010, by ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press:
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Monday it plans to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack [just as Hitler built factories for war materiel, including the V2 rocket "secret weapon" deep inside North Austrian mountains to protect them from attack - SL].
...The two plants are among 10 industrial scale uranium enrichment facilities Iran approved the construction of in November, a dramatic expansion of the program in defiance of U.N. demands it halt enrichment.
...[vice president Ali Akbar] Salehi said the new enrichment sites will be equal to that of Natanz in terms of production capacity but smaller in geographical size, an... indication that more advanced centrifuges will be installed, requiring less space to churn out the same enriched uranium....
The Associated Press:
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Monday it plans to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack [just as Hitler built factories for war materiel, including the V2 rocket "secret weapon" deep inside North Austrian mountains to protect them from attack - SL].
...The two plants are among 10 industrial scale uranium enrichment facilities Iran approved the construction of in November, a dramatic expansion of the program in defiance of U.N. demands it halt enrichment.
...[vice president Ali Akbar] Salehi said the new enrichment sites will be equal to that of Natanz in terms of production capacity but smaller in geographical size, an... indication that more advanced centrifuges will be installed, requiring less space to churn out the same enriched uranium....
European hand-wringing over forged passports, but not over cold-blooded mass terrorism
From WSJ, Tuesday February 23, 2010, by Gerald M. Steinberg, who teaches political science at Bar Ilan University and heads NGO Monitor:
The headlines and video images allegedly showing Israeli spies in Dubai are titillating, but they mask the serious issues involved in the death of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Along with predictable European hand-wringing over forged passports, this case is the latest example of the failure of the international legal system and the United Nations to provide a remedy to mass terror.
Al-Mabhouh was a cold-blooded murderer—in an interview just last year on Al Jazeera he boasted about kidnapping and then killing two Israeli soldiers. He was also a major figure in arranging arms shipments from Iran to Gaza. Al-Mabhouh shared responsibility for the thousands of rocket attacks fired at civilians in Sderot and other Israeli towns, which resulted in last year's war in Gaza. In his travels, the Hamas terrorist was probably making arrangements for the next round of attacks.
But international law provides no means for stopping terrorists like Al-Mabhouh, or for his Hezbollah counterpart, Imad Moughniyeh, whose life ended with an explosion in Damascus in 2008. (In addition to numerous attacks against Israelis, Moughniyeh has been blamed for the 1983 Beirut bombings that killed hundreds of American and French peacekeepers and the murder of Lebanese President Rafik Hariri.) Cases involving Muslim terrorists, supported by Iran, would never be pursued by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or raised in the framework of the United Nations. Al-Mabhouh violated the human rights of untold Israeli civilians, but the U.N.'s Human Rights Council—which is dominated by such moral stalwarts as Libya, Algeria, and Iran—has no interest in Israeli complaints.
It is equally hard to imagine Interpol issuing arrest warrants in response to Israeli requests. And if warrants were issued, history shows that German, French, Belgian, and other European governments would not risk the consequences of acting on them. Little effort was ever made to apprehend the perpetrators of the Munich Olympic massacre, or of the deadly bombing attacks against synagogues in Istanbul and Athens. It's a widely known secret that European governments had ungentlemanly agreements with the PLO that allowed the Palestinians to operate from their territories, provided the terror attacks occurred elsewhere. Not until 2003 did the EU even put Hamas on its terror list. Hezbollah is currently free to operate in Europe.
The bitter reality is that for Israel, international legal frameworks provide no protection and no hope of justice. Instead, these frameworks are used to exploit the rhetoric of human rights and morality to attack Israel. In European courts, universal jurisdiction statutes, initially created to apprehend and try dictators and genocidal leaders, are now exploited as weapons in the service of the Palestinian cause. In this way, Israeli defense officials are branded as "war criminals."
Similarly, Richard Goldstone's predetermined "fact finding inquiry" into the Gaza war makes no mention of Al-Mabhouh or Iran, which supplied Hamas with over 10,000 rockets for attacks against Israelis. Mr. Goldstone and his team have remained silent about what would be the "legal" way to bring jihadi murderers to justice. In their efforts to demonize Israel, Palestinian terror actually doesn't really exist. The Goldstone team simply refused to accept conclusive Israeli video evidence of Hamas war crimes.
The same legal distortions are found among the organizations that claim to be the world's moral guardians, such as Human Rights Watch. HRW's systematic bias is reflected in a Middle East division that sees no problem in holding fund-raising dinners in Saudi Arabia—one of the world's worst human rights violators and a country officially still at war with Israel—to help finance their campaigns against the Jewish state.
In the absence of any legal remedies or Western solidarity, Israel's only option to protect its citizens from terror has always been to act independently and with force.
When in 1976 a group of Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Israel-bound Air France plane to Uganda and separated the Jewish passengers, Israel decided to act. In a daring mission, it rescued all but three passengers while killing all terrorists and several Ugandan soldiers who had been protecting the terrorists. Back then, Israel's detractors also fretted about the "violation of Ugandan sovereignty" even though dictator Idi Amin was in cahoots with the terrorists. Entebbe, though, quickly became the gold standard for successful counter-terror operations. Only a year later, Israeli-trained German special forces freed in Mogadishu, Somalia a Lufthansa plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Similarly, when after years of horrific suicide bombings Israel pioneered the targeted killings of Hamas terrorists—often with the help of unmanned drones—Israel's Western adversaries complained about "extrajudicial assassinations." Today, though, U.S. forces have copied Israel's technique with their own drone killings of jihadi terrorists in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
Unlike those Predator strikes, though, which hardly raise an eyebrow in the West these days, there was no "collateral damage" in the mysterious Dubai hit. No innocent civilians were hurt, no buildings were damaged. Justice was done, and al-Mabhouh's preparations for the next war ended quietly.
All this is lost on those diplomats, "legal experts," and pundits who blame Israel for Dubai, and angrily denounce the passport infractions. In the absence of viable alternatives, and a refusal to share any of the risks, they are in no position to condemn actions aimed at preventing more terror.
The headlines and video images allegedly showing Israeli spies in Dubai are titillating, but they mask the serious issues involved in the death of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Along with predictable European hand-wringing over forged passports, this case is the latest example of the failure of the international legal system and the United Nations to provide a remedy to mass terror.
Al-Mabhouh was a cold-blooded murderer—in an interview just last year on Al Jazeera he boasted about kidnapping and then killing two Israeli soldiers. He was also a major figure in arranging arms shipments from Iran to Gaza. Al-Mabhouh shared responsibility for the thousands of rocket attacks fired at civilians in Sderot and other Israeli towns, which resulted in last year's war in Gaza. In his travels, the Hamas terrorist was probably making arrangements for the next round of attacks.
But international law provides no means for stopping terrorists like Al-Mabhouh, or for his Hezbollah counterpart, Imad Moughniyeh, whose life ended with an explosion in Damascus in 2008. (In addition to numerous attacks against Israelis, Moughniyeh has been blamed for the 1983 Beirut bombings that killed hundreds of American and French peacekeepers and the murder of Lebanese President Rafik Hariri.) Cases involving Muslim terrorists, supported by Iran, would never be pursued by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or raised in the framework of the United Nations. Al-Mabhouh violated the human rights of untold Israeli civilians, but the U.N.'s Human Rights Council—which is dominated by such moral stalwarts as Libya, Algeria, and Iran—has no interest in Israeli complaints.
It is equally hard to imagine Interpol issuing arrest warrants in response to Israeli requests. And if warrants were issued, history shows that German, French, Belgian, and other European governments would not risk the consequences of acting on them. Little effort was ever made to apprehend the perpetrators of the Munich Olympic massacre, or of the deadly bombing attacks against synagogues in Istanbul and Athens. It's a widely known secret that European governments had ungentlemanly agreements with the PLO that allowed the Palestinians to operate from their territories, provided the terror attacks occurred elsewhere. Not until 2003 did the EU even put Hamas on its terror list. Hezbollah is currently free to operate in Europe.
The bitter reality is that for Israel, international legal frameworks provide no protection and no hope of justice. Instead, these frameworks are used to exploit the rhetoric of human rights and morality to attack Israel. In European courts, universal jurisdiction statutes, initially created to apprehend and try dictators and genocidal leaders, are now exploited as weapons in the service of the Palestinian cause. In this way, Israeli defense officials are branded as "war criminals."
Similarly, Richard Goldstone's predetermined "fact finding inquiry" into the Gaza war makes no mention of Al-Mabhouh or Iran, which supplied Hamas with over 10,000 rockets for attacks against Israelis. Mr. Goldstone and his team have remained silent about what would be the "legal" way to bring jihadi murderers to justice. In their efforts to demonize Israel, Palestinian terror actually doesn't really exist. The Goldstone team simply refused to accept conclusive Israeli video evidence of Hamas war crimes.
The same legal distortions are found among the organizations that claim to be the world's moral guardians, such as Human Rights Watch. HRW's systematic bias is reflected in a Middle East division that sees no problem in holding fund-raising dinners in Saudi Arabia—one of the world's worst human rights violators and a country officially still at war with Israel—to help finance their campaigns against the Jewish state.
In the absence of any legal remedies or Western solidarity, Israel's only option to protect its citizens from terror has always been to act independently and with force.
When in 1976 a group of Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Israel-bound Air France plane to Uganda and separated the Jewish passengers, Israel decided to act. In a daring mission, it rescued all but three passengers while killing all terrorists and several Ugandan soldiers who had been protecting the terrorists. Back then, Israel's detractors also fretted about the "violation of Ugandan sovereignty" even though dictator Idi Amin was in cahoots with the terrorists. Entebbe, though, quickly became the gold standard for successful counter-terror operations. Only a year later, Israeli-trained German special forces freed in Mogadishu, Somalia a Lufthansa plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Similarly, when after years of horrific suicide bombings Israel pioneered the targeted killings of Hamas terrorists—often with the help of unmanned drones—Israel's Western adversaries complained about "extrajudicial assassinations." Today, though, U.S. forces have copied Israel's technique with their own drone killings of jihadi terrorists in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
Unlike those Predator strikes, though, which hardly raise an eyebrow in the West these days, there was no "collateral damage" in the mysterious Dubai hit. No innocent civilians were hurt, no buildings were damaged. Justice was done, and al-Mabhouh's preparations for the next war ended quietly.
All this is lost on those diplomats, "legal experts," and pundits who blame Israel for Dubai, and angrily denounce the passport infractions. In the absence of viable alternatives, and a refusal to share any of the risks, they are in no position to condemn actions aimed at preventing more terror.
3000-year-old Jerusalem city wall discovered
From The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb 2010:
Hebrew Unviersity excavations have revealed a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon.
(Communicated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon - has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.
The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem.
The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the East Jerusalem Development Company. Archaeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and hired workers all participated in the excavation work.
"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering," Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley. "A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar.
"This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "The Bible tells us that Solomon built - with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders - the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."
The six-meter-high gatehouse of the uncovered city wall complex is built in a style typical of those from the period of the First Temple like Megiddo, Beersheva and Ashdod. It has symmetrical plan of four identical small rooms, two on each side of the main passageway. Also there was a large, adjacent tower, covering an area of 24 by 18 meters, which was intended to serve as a watchtower to protect entry to the city. ...
Hebrew Unviersity excavations have revealed a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon.
Dr. Eilat Mazar next to an 8 meter section of the corner tower that was excavated
(Communicated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon - has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.
The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem.
The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the East Jerusalem Development Company. Archaeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and hired workers all participated in the excavation work.
"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering," Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley. "A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar.
"This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "The Bible tells us that Solomon built - with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders - the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."
The six-meter-high gatehouse of the uncovered city wall complex is built in a style typical of those from the period of the First Temple like Megiddo, Beersheva and Ashdod. It has symmetrical plan of four identical small rooms, two on each side of the main passageway. Also there was a large, adjacent tower, covering an area of 24 by 18 meters, which was intended to serve as a watchtower to protect entry to the city. ...
Sunday, February 21, 2010
IAEA report confirms ‘military intentions’ of Iran
From JPost, 21/02/2010, by HAVIV RETTIG GUR AND AP:
... an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Thursday that says Iran may be developing a nuclear warhead.
...Noting that the report is the first during the term of new IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of Japan, Israel said it “establishes that the agency has a lot of trustworthy information about the past and present activities that testify to the military tendencies of the Iranian program.”
Among these activities were the recently declared decisions to enrich uranium to 20 percent and the continued construction of the Qom nuclear facility, kept secret until it was discovered by Western intelligence agencies and made public in recent months.
The UN nuclear agency report suggested for the first time that Teheran had either resumed such work or had never stopped when US intelligence thought it did.
Thursday’s report appeared to put the UN nuclear monitor on the side of Germany, France, Britain and Israel.
...The confidential IAEA report said Iran’s resistance to agency efforts to probe for signs of a nuclear cover-up “give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”
...The language of the report appeared to be more directly critical of Iran’s refusal to cooperate with the IAEA than most of those compiled by Amano’s predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt.
It strongly suggested that intelligence supplied by the US, Israel and other IAEA member states on Iran’s attempts to use the cover of a civilian nuclear program to move toward a weapons program was compelling...
...Meanwhile on Friday, Russia’s foreign minister said he was “very alarmed” over Iran’s failure to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, suggesting Moscow may be closer to acceding to Western demands for new UN sanctions against Teheran.
“We are very alarmed, and we cannot accept that Iran is refusing to cooperate” with the IAEA, Lavrov said on Ekho Moskvy radio. He added that he did not understand the need for Iran to conduct its nuclear program in secret, withholding information from the IAEA...
...Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the IAEA report “underscores that Iran continues to flout its international obligations” and indicates that Teheran is pursuing “a nuclear weapons program with the purpose of evasion.”
The United States has circulated elements for a possible new UN sanctions resolution to other veto-wielding UN Security Council members – Russia, China, Britain and France – and Germany. The six countries have been trying, to no avail, to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program and return to negotiations on its nuclear program.
...“We now have no other choice, given this report, than to seek, together with our partners, the adoption of new measures by the UN Security Council over the next few weeks,” the [French Foreign Ministry] said in a statement.
The United States and its Western allies have been pushing for a fourth round of UN sanctions. But China, which relies on Iran’s energy exports, is skeptical of any new sanctions.
... an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Thursday that says Iran may be developing a nuclear warhead.
...Noting that the report is the first during the term of new IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of Japan, Israel said it “establishes that the agency has a lot of trustworthy information about the past and present activities that testify to the military tendencies of the Iranian program.”
Among these activities were the recently declared decisions to enrich uranium to 20 percent and the continued construction of the Qom nuclear facility, kept secret until it was discovered by Western intelligence agencies and made public in recent months.
The UN nuclear agency report suggested for the first time that Teheran had either resumed such work or had never stopped when US intelligence thought it did.
Thursday’s report appeared to put the UN nuclear monitor on the side of Germany, France, Britain and Israel.
...The confidential IAEA report said Iran’s resistance to agency efforts to probe for signs of a nuclear cover-up “give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”
...The language of the report appeared to be more directly critical of Iran’s refusal to cooperate with the IAEA than most of those compiled by Amano’s predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt.
It strongly suggested that intelligence supplied by the US, Israel and other IAEA member states on Iran’s attempts to use the cover of a civilian nuclear program to move toward a weapons program was compelling...
...Meanwhile on Friday, Russia’s foreign minister said he was “very alarmed” over Iran’s failure to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, suggesting Moscow may be closer to acceding to Western demands for new UN sanctions against Teheran.
“We are very alarmed, and we cannot accept that Iran is refusing to cooperate” with the IAEA, Lavrov said on Ekho Moskvy radio. He added that he did not understand the need for Iran to conduct its nuclear program in secret, withholding information from the IAEA...
...Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the IAEA report “underscores that Iran continues to flout its international obligations” and indicates that Teheran is pursuing “a nuclear weapons program with the purpose of evasion.”
The United States has circulated elements for a possible new UN sanctions resolution to other veto-wielding UN Security Council members – Russia, China, Britain and France – and Germany. The six countries have been trying, to no avail, to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program and return to negotiations on its nuclear program.
...“We now have no other choice, given this report, than to seek, together with our partners, the adoption of new measures by the UN Security Council over the next few weeks,” the [French Foreign Ministry] said in a statement.
The United States and its Western allies have been pushing for a fourth round of UN sanctions. But China, which relies on Iran’s energy exports, is skeptical of any new sanctions.
Holland gone mad: the absurd trial of Geert Wilders
From Macleans.ca, Thursday, February 18, 2010, by Mark Steyn:
The Dutch state is prosecuting the platform of the country’s most popular opposition party
...Geert Wilders ...is one of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands, and his fate is central to the future of his kingdom and his continent. ...Wilders is being prosecuted for ...proposing an end to “non-Western immigration” to the Netherlands: the offending remarks were made in response to a direct question as to what his party would do in its first days in office. So the Dutch state is explicitly prosecuting the political platform of the most popular opposition party in the country, and attempting to schedule the trial for its own electoral advantage. That’s the sort of thing free societies used to leave to Mobutu, Ferdinand Marcos and this week’s Generalissimo-for-Life.
....It gets better. The judge in his wisdom has decided to deny the defendant the level of courtroom security they afforded to Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh. Wilders lives under armed guard because of explicit death threats against him by Mr. Bouyeri and other Muslims. But he’s the one put on trial for incitement. ...
...despite its significance, the trial has received relatively little coverage in the Western media, in part because, for those of a multiculti bent, there’s no easy way to blur the reality—that this is a political prosecution by a thought police so stupid they don’t realize they’re delegitimizing the very institutions of the state.
Still, the BBC gave it their best shot, concluding their report thus: “Correspondents say his Freedom Party (PVV), which has nine MPs in the lower house of parliament, has built its popularity largely by tapping into the fear and resentment of Muslim immigrants.”
Gotcha. This democracy business is all very well, but let’s face it, the people are saps, gullible boobs, racist morons, knuckle-dragging f–kwits. One-man-one-vote is fine in theory, but next thing you know some slicker’s “tapping into” the morons’ “fears and resentments” and cleaning up at the polls.
Strange how it always comes back to a contempt for the people. Whenever the electorate departs from the elite’s pieties ...it’s because some wily demagogue ...has been playing on the impressionable hicks’ “fears and resentments.” ...
...in the old days—divine right of kings, rule by patrician nobility—it was easier. But today’s establishment is obliged to pay at least lip service to popular sovereignty. So it has to behave more artfully. You’ll still have your vote; it’s just that the guy you wanted to give it to is on trial, and his platform’s been criminalized.
To return to where we came in, what does it mean when the Ministry of Justice proudly declares that the truth is no defence? When the law stands in explicit opposition to the truth, freeborn peoples should stand in opposition to the law. Because, as the British commentator Pat Condell says, “When the truth is no defence, there is no defence”—and what we are witnessing is a heresy trial...
The Dutch state is prosecuting the platform of the country’s most popular opposition party
... as the spokesperson for the [Dutch Ministry of Justice] put it, “It is irrelevant whether Wilders’s witnesses might prove Wilders’s observations to be correct. What’s relevant is that his observations are illegal.”
...As for “Wilders’s witnesses,” he submitted a list of 18, and the Amsterdam court rejected no fewer than 15 of them. ... it’s easier to make the rules up as you go along...
...Geert Wilders ...is one of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands, and his fate is central to the future of his kingdom and his continent. ...Wilders is being prosecuted for ...proposing an end to “non-Western immigration” to the Netherlands: the offending remarks were made in response to a direct question as to what his party would do in its first days in office. So the Dutch state is explicitly prosecuting the political platform of the most popular opposition party in the country, and attempting to schedule the trial for its own electoral advantage. That’s the sort of thing free societies used to leave to Mobutu, Ferdinand Marcos and this week’s Generalissimo-for-Life.
....It gets better. The judge in his wisdom has decided to deny the defendant the level of courtroom security they afforded to Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh. Wilders lives under armed guard because of explicit death threats against him by Mr. Bouyeri and other Muslims. But he’s the one put on trial for incitement. ...
...despite its significance, the trial has received relatively little coverage in the Western media, in part because, for those of a multiculti bent, there’s no easy way to blur the reality—that this is a political prosecution by a thought police so stupid they don’t realize they’re delegitimizing the very institutions of the state.
Still, the BBC gave it their best shot, concluding their report thus: “Correspondents say his Freedom Party (PVV), which has nine MPs in the lower house of parliament, has built its popularity largely by tapping into the fear and resentment of Muslim immigrants.”
Gotcha. This democracy business is all very well, but let’s face it, the people are saps, gullible boobs, racist morons, knuckle-dragging f–kwits. One-man-one-vote is fine in theory, but next thing you know some slicker’s “tapping into” the morons’ “fears and resentments” and cleaning up at the polls.
Strange how it always comes back to a contempt for the people. Whenever the electorate departs from the elite’s pieties ...it’s because some wily demagogue ...has been playing on the impressionable hicks’ “fears and resentments.” ...
...in the old days—divine right of kings, rule by patrician nobility—it was easier. But today’s establishment is obliged to pay at least lip service to popular sovereignty. So it has to behave more artfully. You’ll still have your vote; it’s just that the guy you wanted to give it to is on trial, and his platform’s been criminalized.
To return to where we came in, what does it mean when the Ministry of Justice proudly declares that the truth is no defence? When the law stands in explicit opposition to the truth, freeborn peoples should stand in opposition to the law. Because, as the British commentator Pat Condell says, “When the truth is no defence, there is no defence”—and what we are witnessing is a heresy trial...
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