Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Tue 02/16/2010 View Mon 02/15/2010 View Sun 02/14/2010 View Sat 02/13/2010 View Fri 02/12/2010 View Thu 02/11/2010 View Wed 02/10/2010
1
2010-02-16 Arabia
The blonde 'assassin': 'Hit squad with British passports accused of executing senior Hamas leade
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by tipper 2010-02-16 00:02|| || Front Page|| [7 views ]  Top

#1 I would say Gail has looks that could kill.
Posted by Shineng Ebbolush2214 2010-02-16 00:50||   2010-02-16 00:50|| Front Page Top

#2 More info, plus photos of the winning team at http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/dubai-says-hamas-man-killed-by-european-hit-241239.html
Posted by Lone Ranger 2010-02-16 00:52||   2010-02-16 00:52|| Front Page Top

#3 What's up with the description of some of 'em as "British Passport Holders"?
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-02-16 01:15||   2010-02-16 01:15|| Front Page Top

#4 A curious story. MI5 doing a favor for the Mossad, or simply good cover?
Posted by SteveS 2010-02-16 01:28||   2010-02-16 01:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Thoughtful of the Mail to run the article and photos.
Posted by Besoeker 2010-02-16 01:28||   2010-02-16 01:28|| Front Page Top

#6 From Lone Ranger's link:

Tamim claimed the suspects left behind some evidence, but he declined to elaborate.

The fork sticking out of his back was a bit too much, was it? >:-}
Posted by gorb 2010-02-16 01:29||   2010-02-16 01:29|| Front Page Top

#7  I would say Gail has looks that could kill.
Shineng Ebbolush2214, maybe she's La Femme Nikita II.
Posted by tipper 2010-02-16 02:17||   2010-02-16 02:17|| Front Page Top

#8 What's up with the description of some of 'em as "British Passport Holders"?

Until 30 or 40 years ago, anyone born in the British Empire/Commonwealth was a British citizen and issued a pasport as such. Since then any british citizen with the right to live in the UK has 'Right of abode in the UK' (or similar) in his/her passport.

AFAIAW these 'British Citizens' (or some of them) still get issued with British passports but without the right of abode wording.

So a British passport holder could be from Aden, Burma or Calcutta.
Posted by phil_b 2010-02-16 02:31||   2010-02-16 02:31|| Front Page Top

#9 Looks like the operation was being run from Austria.
A police video, combining CCTV footage from the Dubai airport, a number of hotels and shopping malls, showed the arrival of the suspects and Al Mabhouh into Dubai, their checking into various city hotels and the hours before the Palestinian commander was killed in room 230 in the Bustan Rotana Hotel, near the airport.

A surveillance team had followed the victim around the city. Some of the suspected killers disguised their appearance at various times.
Posted by tipper 2010-02-16 02:45||   2010-02-16 02:45|| Front Page Top

#10 Must've been high quality false beards and wigs, to fool the crack Hamas security team.

Its the glasses , superman fooled the world for years with that stunt
Posted by Oscar 2010-02-16 03:22||   2010-02-16 03:22|| Front Page Top

#11 
Posted by Maj .Colon Pow ILL  2010-02-16 03:47||   2010-02-16 03:47|| Front Page Top

#12 One joseph is enough on here captain obvious

:)
Posted by Oscar 2010-02-16 03:54||   2010-02-16 03:54|| Front Page Top

#13 Does this mean the Euros have finally gotten sick of their crap, too? (Yeah, I know, but I can hope.)
Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2010-02-16 08:34||   2010-02-16 08:34|| Front Page Top

#14 In all likelihood CB, the "suspects" are just innocent tourists caught on camera in proximity to the late unlamented.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2010-02-16 08:56||   2010-02-16 08:56|| Front Page Top

#15 Publishing photos and cooperating with Interpol to identify them reminds me of staking out rendition flights to identify CIA. Let's hope the disguises were really, really good or some good covert operatives will be compromised permanently.
Posted by Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-02-16 11:13||   2010-02-16 11:13|| Front Page Top

#16 Maybe he screwed the Russian Mob and it was payback time?
Posted by 3dc 2010-02-16 11:16||   2010-02-16 11:16|| Front Page Top

#17 Publishing photos and cooperating with Interpol to identify them reminds me of staking out rendition flights to identify CIA. Let's hope the disguises were really, really good or some good covert operatives will be compromised permanently. Posted by Lumpy Elmoluck5091

A blinding flash of the obvious, but if "Gail" and friends actually were part of a 'wet' operation, you can bet it was state sponsored,
quite well planned and funded. Dubai police can toss those British passports in the rubbish bin. All they have are some photos and possibly finger prints, newly bearded men wearing glasses, etc. Nice job hit team. Enjoy your well earned pensions, and lengthy sabbaticals.
Posted by Besoeker 2010-02-16 11:37||   2010-02-16 11:37|| Front Page Top

#18 Not the Mossad? What did the Brits have against the gentleman?
Ulster boys 4 hire ?

IRA/Hamas have ties

Call it a poke in the eye
Posted by Jeeves 2010-02-16 12:40||   2010-02-16 12:40|| Front Page Top

#19 Hmmm...

Where was Fiona?
Posted by mojo  2010-02-16 14:34||   2010-02-16 14:34|| Front Page Top

#20 It sounds like they tasered him and then suffocated him with a pillow. Unlike a car head rest or cell phone that explodes, he felt it all they way.

The hotel should be glad the assassins chose a method that minimizes clean up. Now they have a room with history. They can make a theme out of it.
Posted by Penguin 2010-02-16 17:20||   2010-02-16 17:20|| Front Page Top

#21 D *** NG IT, ANOTHER PENN STATE "BOTTLE BLONDE", except for Alabama's AMY BISHOP!

DOES NO ONE LIKE THE NATURAL HAIR GOD + PARENTS' SEX ACT GAVE THEM!
Posted by JosephMendiola  2010-02-16 18:52|| na  2010-02-16 18:52|| Front Page Top

#22 lol Mojo - my first thought
Posted by Frank G 2010-02-16 19:17||   2010-02-16 19:17|| Front Page Top

#23 Britons had passport details stolen by ‘Mossad death squad’
One of the British passport holders named in the Dubai case is Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a British Jew who emigrated to Israel in 2001. He was stunned to find his name listed as one of the alleged assassins. “I am obviously angry, upset and scared — any number of things,” Mr Mildiner said from his home in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. “I’m looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name.”

Mr Mildiner confirmed that the name and number of his passport matched those released by the Dubai authorities. But he said he had no idea how his details had been stolen. “I have my passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody else in my family, and there’s no Dubai stamps in it because I’ve never been to Dubai,” he said.

The photo released in Dubai also does not match his passport picture. “It’s not me,” he said.
Posted by tipper 2010-02-16 20:28||   2010-02-16 20:28|| Front Page Top

#24 Didn't the UK have 10K missing blank passports awhile ago?
Posted by 3dc 2010-02-16 21:51||   2010-02-16 21:51|| Front Page Top

#25 Close - 3K
Hijackers steal blank British passports worth £2.5m as driver stops to buy a chocolate bar

Last updated at 12:23 AM on 30th July 2008
Posted by 3dc 2010-02-16 21:53||   2010-02-16 21:53|| Front Page Top

#26 from a 2004 hearing by H. Hyde...

Mr. ERVIN. I find it troubling, Mr. Weller, and as part of this review that I mentioned we can and will look at that. As a footnote as well, laying aside the issue of purchasing citizenship, as you know in certain visa waiver countries it is easier to obtain citizenship than others. Not purchases, but for the record I just want to lay out naturalization and derivative citizenship.

Page 70 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC


There are certain visa waiver countries, as you know, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium being among them, have liberal laws whereby if you are a third-country national you can come to those countries and after 3 years become a citizen of those countries. Also there is something known as derivative citizenship. Some countries have very liberal systems where in Ireland, if one of your four grandparents were Irish, you can ipso facto obtain Irish citizenship. And as we understand it, Italian law is even more liberal in this regard.

Again, it is not purchasing citizenship but it makes citizenship easier, and with regard to visa waiver countries you can see the problem with that.

Mr. WELLER. Does your Department give extra attention to passports coming from these countries, not only those who sell the passports, but those who have relatively easy citizenship requirements?

Mr. ERVIN. I can't answer that, I don't know whether the inspectors give particular attention to that. They certainly should. And that is one of the things that we will be looking at as we continue this series of reviews with regard to this complex set of issues.

Mr. WELLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the panel for their time.

Chairman HYDE. Thank you. Mr. Nick Smith.

So... Irish Passports - easy...
Posted by 3dc 2010-02-16 22:18||   2010-02-16 22:18|| Front Page Top

#27 Google search turned up this gem:
“A nice little business” in British Passports?

A consignment of 3,000 “useless” blank biometric passports has been stolen on its way to British embassies throughout the world. Or at least, the Identity & Passport Service says they’re useless. A recent article in The Register shows why nothing could be further from the truth.

The passports were stolen from a courier vehicle in Manchester, UK while the driver stopped to buy a newspaper.

The article explains how even though the passports have high-tech chips installed, they can easily be used for a variety of fraudulent applications from opening bank accounts to getting jobs, as well as for travel in countries that do not yet have chip readers at border control points.

The final paragraph makes a chilling point:

… it’s still early in the relationship between forgers and biometric passports. One could perhaps envisage a future where businesses that regularly had to check passports (say, tourist hotels) could be ‘farmed’ by forgers for passport data, producing data banks of passports that hadn’t been stolen, but that could be cloned on demand - just pick somebody the right age and appearance. Put that together with a stock of blank biometric passports and you’ve got a nice little business there.
Posted by 3dc 2010-02-16 22:32||   2010-02-16 22:32|| Front Page Top

23:46 Omoluque Hapsburg8162
23:08 Goober Crealet3411
23:00 tipover
22:37 CrazyFool
22:34 trailing wife
22:32 3dc
22:32 trailing wife
22:31 Cyber Sarge
22:29 trailing wife
22:22 phil_b
22:18 3dc
22:18 tipover
22:08 Frank G
22:06 Frank G
22:04 badanov
22:03 crosspatch
21:59 JosephMendiola
21:56 JosephMendiola
21:53 3dc
21:51 3dc
21:48 Frank G
21:47 eLarson
21:45 JosephMendiola
21:40 JosephMendiola









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com