Trapwire Stratfor Email 2

Re: [CT] Discussion- Al-Mabhouh blowback
Date 	2010-02-17 23:06:54
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Any ideas how they got to the shopping center? Maybe a cab driver
talked? Only need to connect one person to make the dots come together.

On 2/17/2010 5:06 PM, Ben West wrote:

right, but there was no inherent connection between the hotel and the
shopping center that I could see. In order to run TrapWire, you first
have to have the images to analyze - I'm curious as to who decided to
look at the shopping center tapes and how they determined that it needed
to be looked at.
In general, this just seems too good to be true. Either Dubai police
department are a bunch of bad-asses or someone got help.

Fred Burton wrote:

Forensically, you start on the hotel tapes from the floor of the murder
and walk the cat back, using TrapWire like software.

Ben West wrote:


One thing I was talking to Bayless about just now: I realize that there
is now face recognition technology out there that would allow the
Emirates to track these people, but in order to use that, you have to
have the right set of images to work from in the first place.
Running analysis at the airport makes sense because the team would have
scanned their passports there and so had to have gone through the
airport. Same for the hotels, authorities would have been able to place
the team members at each hotel based on their passports, which would
help specify which video to analyze.
However, I don't understand how they got video of the team going into
the shopping center. Out of all the random places that the team
could've met, what prompted the police to check that shopping center?
Either they ran checks on hundreds of other CCTV tapes or they somehow
had a tip that the team was meeting at the mall.

Fred Burton wrote:


Yes, I think as you break down the tape, the teams had specific roles.
If host country intelligence and/or another service picked up on them,
they had enough players in the mix to send any surveillance team down a
rat hole. I think we are missing something on the dead guy.

George Friedman wrote:



17 people for a hit leaves so many opportunities for failure that its
breathtaking. Maybe it is the Israelis, but that is way out of the
box. Like I said, I wonder how many were camo. I bet you some of those
who resolved back to the Israeli passport holders weren't even aware
there was a hit on. That much razzle dazzle might mean a small team
hidden in a big box.

Fred Burton wrote:



Wow

His links to Iran must have been very important.

Sean Noonan wrote:




Just to clarify--NYT, sourced from Dubai police, says 17 people now.
The 11 they identified, with pictures/passport info, and then 6 others.
Fred Burton wrote:




When you break down the video tape, efforts were made by the hit team to
conceal their identities from the video.

The operation was worked around the video tape I think.

Between 13-15 men were in play; multiple surveillance teams; hand offs,
clothing changes; wigs, toupees, cover for action.

Mossad has made several tactical errors in the past, to include the loss
of two Palestinian double agents in Europe.

They had the same passport foul up on the attempt to poison Mishaal in
Amman, which led to them being caught.

Frankly, Mossad has a history of bungled operations, but quite a few
good ones, like Ali Hassan Salameh.

This was Mossad.

George Friedman wrote:





A Mossad team would be extremely aware of placement of security
cameras. They would not be doing what this woman did. She is to a
great extent blown now. Major intelligence agencies would be able to do
biometrics on her pretty effectively. An agent competent enough to
participate in an assassination of a HVT in an Arab country would be
highly trained and prized. So from this we can assume that she is
either a throwaway in the team or that this isn't a major league
hit--and it was. The Israelis did not need to make this appear to be an
Israeli hit because everyone would assume that it was Israeli anyway. No
need for confirmation. For a hit like this the passports used would
have been much harder to trace, certainly not to living people in
Israel. The Israelis, like all intelligence organizations, maintain
libraries of properly aged identities that don't resolve to living
people.

Either this was not an Israeli hit or the Israelis sent a second tier
team. The women looks like she could be Jewish, but she could also be
middle eastern or American.
This hit, like some other allegedly Israeli hits in recent years, does
not follow high professional standards. Trust me on this--the hotel in
which this woman stayed was mapped out months ago, probably from blue
prints but certainly remapped for security devices and cameras. She was
briefed (pounded into her head) where the cameras were and to turn her
head as she walked by, preferably wearing a dress that hid her figure--a
blob on the video camera. Instead, she is hamming it up. Looking at
her, she wasn't the honey trap, so what the hell is going on?

Sean Noonan wrote:





As Posey works on the piece from the tactical angle, I wanted to bring
up the political angle. Now that all kinds of information has come
out on the assassination of Hamas operative Al-Mabhouh in Dubai on
Jan. 19, European governments are starting to question the fraudulent
use of their passports. 6 British, 3 Irish, 1 German and 1 French
passports were all faked/stolen/borrowed and then used by the
assassination team. NYT/Dubai says there were another 6 involved, who
they probably didn't get on camera.
Israel has in the past borrowed/acquired passports from immigrated or
dual-citizens of other countries (like Canada for failed Meshaal
assassination). They also can fake them or steal them. It's becoming
clear that this was a Mossad op, so if we make that assumption, what's
the blowback on Israel?

UK is asking questions:
http://www.english.rfi.fr/europe/20100217-uk-presses-answers-hamas-killing

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5heI4dq286UxVDMXoueq-dwR8tbJw

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37297

Ireland from a week or so ago:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/israeli-hit-squad-that-killed-hamas-commander-had-irish-passports-14670094.html


Six of the passport _names_ had dual citizenship with israel:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/16/world/la-fg-dubai-slaying17-2010feb17


I haven't seen stuff from other countries yet. When this happened to
the Canadians with Meshaal, they couldn't/didn't do much. Will the
Brits or anyone else do anything? Obviously Israel doesn't really
give a shit, but I feel like this is something we should watch.

--
Sean Noonan
ADP- Tactical Intelligence
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com






--

George Friedman

Founder and CEO

Stratfor

700 Lavaca Street

Suite 900

Austin, Texas 78701


Phone 512-744-4319

Fax 512-744-4334










--

George Friedman

Founder and CEO

Stratfor

700 Lavaca Street

Suite 900

Austin, Texas 78701


Phone 512-744-4319

Fax 512-744-4334




--
Ben West
Terrorism and Security Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin,TX
Cell: 512-750-9890



--
Ben West
Terrorism and Security Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin,TX
Cell: 512-750-9890