Part 115 – OCTOBER 25 1988
'Dalkamoni is aware that Semtex is odourless.' BKA Report, Oct. 1988
On 25th October 1988, Imad Adel Hazzouri, former director of Miska Bakery, Malta, is flying to Frankfurt Airport.
Also today, Khreesat and Dalkamoni went to a tourism office. Dalkamoni wants to look at flight schedules. He needs a flight going from one city in Spain to another city in Spain and then on to Israel.
They find Iberia 888, which goes from Madrid to Barcelona to Tel Aviv. Dalkamoni does not tell which date he wants to target the flight although he has said that he will target a flight in the next week.
The plan for the Iberia flight is to have someone get on the flight in Madrid with the BomBeat 453 IED and then get off at Barcelona. Just before getting off the plane in Barcelona, the courier would arm the device by inserting a pin into the radio to arm it. The barometric device would then detonate on the Barcelona to Tel Aviv leg of the flight.
After leaving the tourism office, they went back to Hashem Abassi's supermarket. When they reached the market, they met Ahmed Abassi, the younger brother of Hashem. Dalkamoni was pleased that Ahmed Abassi was there, as he speaks German and could help them by translating.
Dalkamoni wants to look for more timers and tuners. Khreesat is of the opinion that they are wasting their time, as they do not have any parts to convert any more tuners into IEDs.
They found some timers that resembled kitchen timers and purchased half a dozen of them. They also purchased some clothes for Khreesat. They then went to a garage and fixed a flat tyre and then went home to Hashem Abassi's residence.
At one point in the day, they stopped at a coffee shop. Across from the coffee shop was a telephone booth. Khreesat made a quick call to his case officer but could not discuss much because Dalkamoni was present. Whenever Khreesat makes a telephone call, Dalkamoni stands right there and listens in.
At night, Dalkamoni called Ahmed Jibril. He told him that all the devices were ready. Dalkamoni mentioned three people. These names are believed to equate to three cities.
Dalkamoni also asked Ahmed Jibril for permission to start the operations. Jibril gave his consent. Dalkamoni also asked Jibril to talk to Khreesat, who was referred to as Abu Safi.
Khreesat got on the phone with Jibril, who told him to go to a medical doctor and get a check-up so that he could use health as a reason for overstaying his visa in Germany.
After this, Khreesat and Jibril talked about using glue to cover up the smell of the explosive.
Intelligence
The last subject of discussion between Jibril and Khreesat is a mistery. When Khreesat and Dalkamoni were arrested on Oct. 26 1988, the BKA found a Toshiba radio in the trunk of their car. A bomb was hidden inside the Toshiba radio model BomBeat 453. The explosive was Semtex-H.
Until the beginning of the 21st, Semtex was untraceable, undetectable, and odourless. [1] Why would Jibril and Khreesat, two experts in explosive, discuss masking the smell of an odourless substance?
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. In response to international pressure, Semtex has today a chemical added to produce a distinctive odour that sniffer dogs can detect. Also, in recent years, efforts have been made to reduce the shelf-life of Semtex from its current 20 years to about three. Finally, all new supplies contain an identifying metallic code which makes semtex traceable even after an explosion.
