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Arabia
Mahmoud al Mabhouh's assassins techniques revealed on CCTV footage
2010-02-18
Rather long, but tells the story of how the plan came together. If you don't have patience to watch the whole thing (about as long as an episode of Cheers, but has a much happier ending) then go to 4:00 of part 3 to watch Mahmoud's last minutes on Earth. Highlights:
  • The assassins walking through the airport and checking in to their hotels.

  • They didn't call each other's mobile phones, instead calling a number in Austria and communicating through there, probably securely.

  • Shows them going into a hotel room and coming out in disguise.

  • The hit squad checked out another hotel where Mahmoud was known to frequent, but he didn't stay there.

  • Surveillance teams at the airport and in the hotel lobby, waiting for Mahmoud to show up.

  • Hotel surveillance team (holding tennis rackets) gets in the elevator with Mahmoud and watches him go into his room.

  • Team uses sekr3t communication device to tell other team member to rent the room directly across from Mahmoud's.

  • Mahmoud leaving the hotel to go do whatever nefarious deeds he came to Dubai to perform, being tailed by a team member, who gives out his car's description.

  • The team tried to electronically change the door keycard, but failed. They got into his room some other way.

  • Mahmoud returning and going to his room to meet his destiny, walking past team member who is guarding the hallway.

  • Team makes rapid getaway, 1-2 hours after the dirty deed.

  • The next day at 1:30pm, the hotel staff enters to find out why he didn't check out, and the door has been latched and chained from the inside.
Ideas, analysis, monday morning quarterbacking?
Posted by:gromky

#18  The best thing about this? Nobody knows for sure who did it? Everybody's looking sideways at each other.
Posted by: tu3031   2010-02-18 20:15  

#17  A big group with fake mustaches and stuff doesn't sound very slick to me. I think real pros (Mossad) could do it with just one, two or three agents. That leads me to believe it was probably an internecine hit, i.e. Jordanians, P.A., or even Hamas copying Mossad M.O. to the best of their ability, yet kind of making a mess of it.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder   2010-02-18 20:12  

#16  "Barbara, how are we on popcorn supplies as we head into Friday's mosque sermons?

Another boxcar just got dropped off on the siding, lotp. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2010-02-18 18:37  

#15  My take on it as well Bodyguard. Message was sent.......hey, yea it's us again! We came after the bastid with a platoon and we left with the same platoon! No KIA/WIA, and the target is dead meat. Take that you muzzie losers. Who will step up to be next?
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-18 17:17  

#14  B-Ker, Being on this guys PSD team would have been a trainwreck from the get-go. I've dealt with principals that were somewhat similar, but not this outrageous. A Greek Diplomat about drove my boys and I nuts once or twice, but he wasn't near the HVT as this Mahmoud guy. The hit team obvously had their poop in one shoe on this Op.
Posted by: Bodyguard   2010-02-18 15:01  

#13  Very interesting, Gromky. There are 5 more possibly connected, besides the 11 from various Euro locations, and several used US credit cards through a US bank. A message of solidarity among the world's intel orgs against Hamas/Iranian cooperation?
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091   2010-02-18 13:55  

#12  What Al-Sayassah newspaper deliberately failed to report, is that Nehru Massoud is recruited by the Jordanian Intelligence — specifically Hamas Department — A service, full-time monitoring and follow-up Hamas and the activities of its leaders in coordination with several international security ser­vices among them the Mossad.
Posted by: gromky   2010-02-18 12:26  

#11  Add in the fact that two of the people involved are Palestinians - and Hamas claims they work for the Palestinian Authority, who claims they work for Hamas.

It's quite possible that Isreael really didn't do this one, at least not directly.

Who did it? Who put them up to it? Who tipped off the Dubai authorities???

Barbara, how are we on popcorn supplies as we head into Friday's mosque sermons?
Posted by: lotp   2010-02-18 12:20  

#10  Dubai put all those videos together really quickly. They must have some really good face matching software.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-02-18 12:13  

#9  I'm not saying they shouldn't have whacked him. He deserved whacking. I'm saying his whacking wasn't worth compromising their agents and operations. If they cased the joint, they would know there were cameras. I'm also assuming that they didn't plan on erasing videos and passport machines and failed at that.
Posted by: Penguin   2010-02-18 12:02  

#8  Dubai made a hue and cry, and put together the brilliant forensic work. It appears. I think that they are happy with the hit. They don't really want Hamas around.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2010-02-18 11:26  

#7  penguin what has ever went politically correct for Israel? they are damned if they do and damned if they don't
Posted by: chris   2010-02-18 10:39  

#6  It's to get away with it leaving no evidence. Penguin

I beg to differ. The hit team sent a 'clear and present message' back to the nest, ie, we are willing to potentially lose a dozen people to get you! Books will be written about this one I assure you.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-18 10:02  

#5  I think it is a political disaster for them. The object isn't just to kill the thug. It's to get away with it leaving no evidence.

The only thing that would justify the complete exposure would be if he was the key figure between Hamas and the Iranians. In that case publicize it.

Posted by: Penguin   2010-02-18 09:56  

#4  in part because they do not keep permanent assignment support personnel in other countries >Anonymoose

Long term, clandestine presence in the ME is very difficult to maintain due to both the potential of compromise and cost. The risk of prolonged loitering rises exponentially, hence the highly successful swarm technique.

The volume of CCTV data immediately released, publicity, and hue and cry by Dubai could also support other theories not mentioned.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-18 09:48  

#3  Most modern hit teams are very small and efficient, but it's been noted that in past the Israelis have tended to kind of over staff operations, in part because they do not keep permanent assignment support personnel in other countries, with the exception of the US.

The US is a training area for foreign ops, and young Israeli spies are sent here to avoid third country counterintelligence operations against them. Before 9-11, they overdid it, and so the US expelled about 200 of them, in the "art school student" spy ring.

That so many would try to fit under one umbrella shows both inexperience and a lack of confidence. But ordinarily it would have been a disaster for them, so hopefully they learned their lesson.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2010-02-18 09:30  

#2  Target had experienced previous attempts on his life yet failed to use personal security survival tools such as surveillance detection routes (SDR), personal disguises, secure safe houses, personal security detail (PSD), host-nation law enforcement or intelligence coordination, intrusion detection systems, personal firearm. Target was very sloppy.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-18 09:09  

#1  Seems rather sloppy for Mossad but maybe I watch too much TV.
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091   2010-02-18 08:48  

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