Europe wary of following Dubai killers' trail

Status
Not open for further replies.

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,986
3,321
126
There is no way this could be made up...it`s way to over the top...lolol.....
It`s very interesting the way world politics plays out...
All of a sudden and IMO that the way it should be...
Investigating a possible Mossad involvement in the killing of a Hamas operative is not the politically correct thing to do......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100227/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_dubai_slaying

GENEVA – A killer — or killers — may be on the loose in Europe after a Hamas operative was slain last month in Dubai.

European nations, however, seem to be in no rush to find him, her or them.

The spotlight is falling on those countries where police say the alleged assassins' trails begin and end: Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Authorities there have either declined to say whether they are investigating, or told The Associated Press they have no reason to hunt down the 26 suspects implicated in the Jan. 19 killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

European countries' reluctance to investigate may have something to do with the widely held belief that the killing of al-Mabhouh was carried out by a friendly country's intelligence agency — Israel's Mossad. The Jewish state has previously identified him as the point man for smuggling weapons to the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers.

Experts say arresting Israeli agents — or even digging up further evidence that Israel was involved — could be politically costly.

"I would guess that it's in the political interest of certain countries not to get proactive in this case," said Victor Mauer, deputy director of the Center for Security Studies at Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology.

"Countries such as Germany have a special relationship with Israel because of their history and therefore wouldn't be interested in investigating," he said.

Switzerland's federal prosecutor's office says it has "no evidence relating to this case that would justify opening an investigation," although Dubai police insist that eight of the suspects fled Dubai for Zurich.

Dutch and Italian officials, too, said they aren't investigating the flight of six suspects to Amsterdam and Rome.


All three countries say they haven't received an official request for help from Dubai yet, though authorities there have asked Interpol to circulate arrest warrants that the Arab emirate issued for 11 suspects charged with "coordinating and committing the murder."

Dubai police did not respond to repeated requests by The Associated Press for comment on cooperation with European and other police agencies in the investigation. But Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim was quoted by the Dubai-based Al Bayan newspaper Saturday as saying that an international security team has been created through diplomatic channels to aid in the cross-border hunt. No other details were given in the report.

France, meanwhile, has said it is only probing the alleged use of three French passports in the crime. Two suspects landed in Paris on Jan. 20. Their trail ends there.

Germany, too, is investigating the possibility that a forged or illegally obtained German passport was used. But prosecutors in the German city of Frankfurt, where four suspects returned, say they aren't investigating the killing itself and don't see any reason to, as most likely no crime was committed in Germany.

Philip Alston aka :douche bag, an independent U.N. human rights investigator and New York University law professor, said European countries would be wrong to ignore the case.

"If a foreign intelligence agency was responsible for the killing of al-Mabhouh, the matter should clearly be classified as an extrajudicial execution," he said. "All states have an unquestioned obligation to investigate and prosecute anyone accused of a killing who they have reason to believe is within their jurisdiction. Political considerations can never be invoked to avoid taking the necessary action."

Michael Boyle, a lecturer in strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, said European countries were "unlikely or unwilling to make it a serious political issue with Israel. It's going to raise up embarrassing questions and complicate their relationship with Israel," he said.

Boyle said the focus on forged passports made sense, however. "I think there's a concern on the part of European governments that if this process of Israeli operatives using European passports were to continue, that would put European citizens at risk."

Britain has sent a special police investigator to Israel to meet with six dual nationals whose passports were used in the assassination, even though they weren't in Dubai at the time. Australia and Ireland also have sought clarifications from Israel on the alleged use of their passports.

Only Austria has gone further and investigated whether Austrian SIM cards were used. Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia declined to provide details about the findings except to say there are no indications that there was a "command center" in Austria, as Dubai police have claimed.

Boyle said there was "a certain degree of moral revulsion and disgust" among European countries "because this is a murder."

But "there's an understanding that these sort of intelligence operations get conducted, but don't get caught with it and don't make it politically costly for us. I think that's the real story of the Dubai incident."

___

Associated Press Writers Deborah Seward in Paris, Vanessa Gera in Rome, Bruce Mutsvairo in Amsterdam, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna, Brian Murphy in Dubai and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
17,515
0
0
I don't know...regardless of who it is that gets assassinated, I'm not sure it's a good idea to have an implied policy that officers of other countries' intelligence services can run around your country at will offing people.
 

Borealis7

Platinum Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,901
205
106
i don't think its an "implied" policy as much as it is "easier to ignore" as long as these operatives serve a friendly purpose. lets say, for instance (and only for instance ;) ) that France wants to tail some Muslim leaders within its borders, but cant risk getting caught because that would incite a civil uprising by the Muslim population. they could ask Israel to do it. if it works, its a win-win, you scratch my back and i scratch yours sometime in the future. if it fails, Israeli operatives get caught or killed, France pretends to investigate and gets out clean, Israel gets a slap on the wrist as usual.

remember that we only hear about very successful assassinations or epic failures. the other 99.9% we dont even know about.
 
Last edited:

Narmer

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2006
5,292
0
0
Given the history of Nazi Europe and the state of Israel, this is no surprise.
 

Atheus

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2005
7,313
2
0
This is all rubbish - nobody will have any idea what MI6 etc are doing until they've done it and possibly not even then. IMO these peopel will never be heard from again and no official statement will be made one way or the other by the intelligence services.

Given the history of Nazi Europe and the state of Israel, this is no surprise.

What?
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
174
106
The article seem like rubbish to me.

The European countries seem to be doing the appropriate thing, investigate only what is under their juridiction (passport stuff) unless and until Dubai makes an official request.

I don't know why, at this point, the European countries should be investigating a murder outside of their own borders (apparently) not even involving any of their citizens, particularly if not asked by Dubai.

Then, as mentioned above, since this is likely intelligence related it's unlikely they would be announcing their investigatory activity at this early stage; potentially too touchy diplomatically.

There's already enought intrigue without the article's author trying to manufacture more.

Fern
 
Status
Not open for further replies.