Israel & intelligence (merged thread)

[Rex Brynen]

How spy technologies foil old-school political killings


By R. Jeffrey Smith and Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 20, 2010

The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state -- an age-old tool of foreign policy -- has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profile killing on foreign soil.

In Doha, London and now Dubai, political killers have been caught on film and tracked, provoking unexpected attention and controversy for the organizers. Because of new biometric technologies, the proliferation of cheap video, and sophisticated monitoring of customs points and airports, the skills of those who specialize in the creation of fictional identities have been tested, and sometimes defeated.

[davidbfpo]

The Dubai police CCTV compilation is on Abu M:http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...eaking-ct.html

There are pictures of a time chart and a few other details.

One clear gap is whether the suspects were forensically aware, so will have not left any DNA or fingerprints behind - notably in the hotel rooms used. Without that evidence any Interpol circulation is flawed, who are the real suspects using the forged passports? Tracing the phone calls made and the money used offer some options and "dead ends".

Stratfor have a You Tube item:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTmRy...layer_embeddedwith an ex-US DoS expert commenting (Hat tip to Free Radicals blogsite).

[Rex Brynen]

One clear gap is whether the suspects were forensically aware, so will have not left any DNA or fingerprints behind - notably in the hotel rooms used.

Dubai police do reportedly have retinal scans of the suspects, presumably taken at the airport.

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating update from Dubai, picked up by the BBC too; photos of the suspects, the use of an Iowa, USA bank's credit cards and charts on the travel pattern: Dubai link http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs....702249835/1133 Note I cannot get the travel charts to download and the BBC link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8534303.stm

[bourbon]

Note I cannot get the travel charts to download and the BBC link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8534303.stm

Try right-clicking on the link and selecting "Save Link As", which will download the pdf to your hard drive.

Or see a JPEG of it here.

[Rex Brynen]

It remains to be seen how many of the newly-identified suspects are actually operatives (and, for that matter, Israeli operatives).

However, if Dubai police are now circulating their photos, and possible biometric, DNA, fingerprints, and other evidence, Mossad sure compromised a lot of personnel for the purpose of one assassination.

[davidbfpo]

There is a very long, sometimes confusing and full of interesting points on this murder on:http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive...houh_assa.html

[Schmedlap]

... if Dubai police are now circulating their photos, and possible biometric, DNA, fingerprints, and other evidence, Mossad sure compromised a lot of personnel for the purpose of one assassination.

We don't have any way of knowing if this was simply intended to eliminate one person. There could have been a trove of materials of significant intelligence value on his person (details of arms shipments, banking information for fund transfers, intelligence that would lead to the capture/killing of others like this clown, etc). If the intelligence leads to the death or capture of other high value jerkoffs or to strangling lines of supply to Hamas, then the payoff is far greater than just one KIA.

[jcustis]

A fascinating update from Dubai, picked up by the BBC too; photos of the suspects, the use of an Iowa, USA bank's credit cards and charts on the travel pattern: Dubai link http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs....702249835/1133 Note I cannot get the travel charts to download and the BBC link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8534303.stm

How did all of these passports come into the possession of law enforcement? Are they scans/photocopies made at the airport?

[davidbfpo]

Jon,

I expect that Dubai uses the standard passport scanning IT so often seen at airports around the world. IIRC Dubai as an international airline hub is required by the US DHS to have such equipment.

Perhaps others here know more. I am aware that Dubai law enforcement is very IT friendly, well illustrated by the released information so far.

[davidbfpo]

A different analysis:http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-a...astoriginalsL5

I like the point why expose so many operatives?