(Irish Examiner) Stephen King - I was in Dubai at the weekend. If you ask no questions, the Emiratis won't ask you any either. That's why Mahmoud Mabhouh dropped by presumably. Some say he was buying arms. He was one of the military leaders of Hamas, after all. Nor do we know which of his five passports he was traveling on. Much of the Irish media, without much in the way of evidence, has jumped to the unreserved conclusion that his assassination was a Mossad operation. Maybe it was: the Israelis, as usual, are not commenting one way or the other. They are just glad he's gone. But it seems a whole lot of people - not just the Israelis - wanted Mabhouh out of the way. Hamas themselves don't seem sure who killed Mabhouh. Some of their officials are pointing the finger at one or another of the Arab governments. He was wanted by the authorities in Jordan and Egypt, for instance. Some Arab media have reported that the operation against Mabhouh may have been carried out by a rival Palestinian group. Who knows, perhaps his untimely death was due to a split within Hamas? They, presumably, knew his whereabouts and his plans at all times, as did the Iranians. The Syrians too. The Dubai authorities themselves have not actually provided any forensic evidence that points to Israel, just a series of photos and videos of random hotel guests. Besides, the persons shown in these images are not shown committing any crime. Nor has anyone come forward and said they recognize any of these people. It does make you wonder. There is an almighty stink about "passport fraud," but no Western government has much to say about the fact that the terrorist in charge of illegally smuggling missiles from Iran to Hamas apparently had an open invite to hang out in Dubai. Funny that, isn't it? Mabhouh was on a mission to acquire Iranian weapons for use against civilians. He was a combatant. Unlike his victims, he was fair game for whoever crept into his hotel room that night.
2010-03-04 08:29:22Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive