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Arabia
Dubai identifies 15 new suspects in Hamas killing
2010-02-25
Police in Dubai have identified 15 more suspects in last month's killing of a senior member of Palestinian militant group Hamas, taking the total to 26.

Six of the new suspects involved in the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh had UK passports, while the rest had Irish, Australian and French documents.

Many had allegedly used credit cards issued by a small US-based bank.

On Tuesday, Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni applauded the killing, which Dubai believes Israel was behind.

Israel has repeatedly refused to confirm or deny its involvement.

One of the founders of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, Mr Mabhouh was found dead in a hotel room in the Gulf emirate on 20 January.

A post-mortem examination report said he had been electrocuted and then suffocated.

Travel chart
Earlier this month, the Dubai authorities released the names and passport photographs of 11 "agents with European passports" - six from the UK, three Irish, one French and one German.

All four countries have since said the documents were fraudulent.

On Wednesday, the police released a new list of suspects who allegedly offered "logistical support" in the months before the January killing.

They include 10 men and five women travelling on British, French, Irish and - for the first time - Australian passports.

The police also produced a chart tracing the travel routes of both the new and old suspects before and after Mr Mabhouh's death.

"The suspects gathered in Dubai and dispersed to various locations before pairing up again in different teams and heading off to other destinations," they said.

In a new development, the police said two of the Australian passport holders had allegedly travelled by boat to Iran during a reconnaissance mission last August.

Investigators have also discovered that 14 of the suspects had used credit cards issued by MetaBank - a small bank based in the US state of Iowa - to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel.

A MetaBank spokeswoman told AP news agency that the bank was trying to confirm the reports.

New list
The six newly identified suspects who used UK passports were listed as Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur and Philip Carr.

Those on Irish passports were Ivy Brinton, Anna Shuana Clasby and Chester Halvey; on French passports David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard and Eric Rassineux; and on Australian passports Bruce Joshua Daniel, Nicole Sandra Mccabe and Adam Korman, according to the statement.

British officials said they were trying to contact the people whose names and passport details had been used.

"We can confirm that six more UK passports have been identified," the Foreign Office in London said. "We will seek to make contact with these individuals and offer consular assistance as we have the previous individuals."

"The foreign secretary and others have made clear we expect full Israeli co-operation," it added.

The Dubai police statement said the investigation was ongoing and that they were "not ruling out the possibility" of more suspects.
Posted by:Fred

#15  From the BBC (link)

Why did Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh go to Dubai?
...
It has been established that Mr Mabhouh went to Dubai without his usual security team.

He was relaxed enough about the trip to continue with his plans when his bodyguards couldn't get tickets on the same plane.

Dubai police have suggested the hit team was based in Austria, a fact they arrived at from telephone records.

But they were waiting in Dubai for Mr Mabhouh, even at such short notice.

They apparently had enough time to plan and execute a complex operation involving as many as 17 (26 now) operatives, disguises and radio communications, as reported in the media.

...
Posted by: Willy   2010-02-25 22:07  

#14  26? Whew! That could have gone Charlie Foxtrot South in a hurry.

What did they use to electrocute this guy? The in room coffee maker? Scented Plug In? Night light?
Posted by: Last Breath Farm Resident   2010-02-25 20:13  

#13  Has there been a crack in the case? No but folks at the mall are... jumping the shark!
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-25 16:45  

#12  A sure sign they have NO idea, name everybody near and tell your boss "I'm working on it as hard as I can".

Or to put it in more familiar words
"Round up the usual Subjects".
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2010-02-25 15:57  

#11  Quite frankly, as bad as the Hamas guy was, I am disappointed and embarrassed that I am not on the list of suspects. It seems to me that every decent man would at least like to be suspected to doing away with the evil in a Hamas uniform.
Posted by: whatadeal   2010-02-25 14:53  

#10  No worries. Captain Renault will sort this out.

"Round up every Westerner in the county!"
Posted by: Gabby   2010-02-25 11:58  

#9  26 people? It sounds like it wasn't so much an assassination as it was an Israeli jobs program. Then again, Mahbhouh was a "shovel ready" project.
Posted by: penguin   2010-02-25 09:53  

#8  
Dubai identifies 15 new suspects...

No they haven't. They haven't identified a single suspect yet.
Posted by: Parabellum   2010-02-25 07:59  

#7  The next batch of murder suspects will include:
CHICHOLINA
Kathrine Hephborn
Salman Rushdi
Suha Arafat
Sandy Bar
Beth Middler
Sami Davis
Sinbad the saylor
and
my half-breed Canaanite dog

Posted by: Elder of Zion   2010-02-25 07:54  

#6  Photos of all 15.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-02-25 07:31  

#5  An interesting tack. Flood them with too many leads!
Posted by: gromky   2010-02-25 03:20  

#4  Googling Metabank pops up a savings bank with HQ's in Sioux Falls, SD and a main branch in Des Moines. Someone else mentioned the small town of Storm Lake as connected. These areas also have a large immigrant population that sends remittances home and needs prepaid credit cards to function in the real world. Other than a now defunct kosher meat processing plant, I can't think of any Iowa connection to Israel, let alone Mossad. However, the largest halal exporter is also in Cedar Rapids. I'm guessing there are more Muslims than Jews in the state, with an occasional black and white kaffiyeh seen hanging out at the casino/race track. Come to think of it, a horse named Dubai has even run and there is simulcasting available. This case just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.False flag op?
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091   2010-02-25 02:12  

#3  Pretty soon this list will include all outbound airline passengers.
Posted by: ed   2010-02-25 00:48  

#2  --11 original + 15 new guys(same as yesterdays) =
26 to date.
They need to get the guy from 221B Baker street to solve this one. :)
Posted by: Tom- Pa   2010-02-25 00:25  

#1  Is this 15 new guys or the same 15 guys from yesterday?
Posted by: tu3031   2010-02-25 00:09  

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