Was Mossad on a Fantastic Adventure in Dubai?

Many people asked me of my opinion about the assassination in Dubai, allegedly done by a Mossad kidon squad. I think it is worthwhile to read GORDON THOMAS' article published in THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (February 17, 2010) after that incident: MOSSAD'S LICENCE TO KILL.

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Gordon Thomas explains how kidon works and how the Mossad has to get an approval from the Prime Minister of Israel for each individual killing operation. It's also my experience, as I worked with the Mossad incidently on illegal nuclear deals, that tells me there is something wrong with that Dubai assassination of a Hamas leader, Mabhouh. Why even 30 people should be used to frame that terrorist and to kill him? Why British and other authentic passports should be used by kidon squad members, identifying innocent people and creating a havoc and disagreement between the Mossad and the MI6 for example? This looks to me as a provocation of some Arab country or organization that sacrificed Mabhouh for some reasons to put the blame on the Mossad and on Israel and to cause deep disagreement or even distrust between the real allies of Israel. Mr. Yossi Melman, of "Ha'aretz," who is usually well informed and probably is not a fan of the Mossad, wrote this short article (here below), which I recommend to you to read and think over. At the time, when Israel is really endangered by Iran and by terrorist Hamas and Hezbollah, it's very unlikely that Israeli armed intelligence squads would risk a dubious operation that could backfire on Israel's Government and on the Mossad as such. But organizing a provocative assassination against a Hamas leader, maybe the not the most important one, could serve other interests, namely these hostile to Israel. Best regards David Dastych a former CIA covert agent

Was Mossad on a Fantastic Adventure in Dubai?

By Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz 25/2/10 Feb 26, 2010 - 1:20:13 PM Twenty-six agents, perhaps even 30, sent to assassinate one person? Granted if they could flee the scene by sea, how could one think that Mossad agents would take cover in Iran? I ask myself. Even if they have unprecedented self confidence the likes of which are unknown? Without disparaging the skill of Dubai's chief of police, he took pride that his investigators are much more professional than the Mossad people (whom he accuses of carrying out the operation). One must take into account that he might have gotten carried away in the success of what he had uncovered. There is no doubt that more than a little of the information that he is disclosing or leaking to the media is part of an ploy in which bits of disinformation are planted. He's throwing out a lure in the hope that someone in Israel will swallow the bait and respond by incriminating himself or disclosing confidential information. It began with a leak that on Mabhouh's body there were signs of brute force that were evident that he was tortured before he was killed. There was even a report that his assassins tied him up with wire. In fact it turned out that for 10 days the Dubai police thought he had died of natural causes, so clearly had he not been tortured. Now the world is being fed new, allegedly even more dramatic, information about 15 additional suspects, which was released by the Dubai Information Ministry and not the police. The police chief, who attracted international coverage, apparently isn't itching to advance the investigation. Last week he was out of the office for personal reasons and now it has been announced that he is on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is hard to believe that, if the Mossad intelligence agency carried out the operation, the planners were so irresponsible as to dispatch nearly 30 agents and to expose an entire select operational unit on one assassination operation. This is true even if we assume the planner thought the target should be hit no matter what, and even if hypothetically Mabhouh was on his way to Iran to arrange an arms deal that Israel had seen as changing the balance of power. Either the new revelations are another salvo in Dubai's psychological warfare or the police investigators are groping in the dark. It is doubtful we will ever know the truth. The evidence linking Israel to the affair is still weak, certainly for courtroom purposes but also in the diplomatic sphere. But the saga also sends a message of deterrence to Hamas that the long arm of whoever carried out the operation can hit another senior Hamas official.