A very dead terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
STRATFOR
February 18, 2010
Palestinian sources in the Gulf confirmed Nahro Massoud, a Hamas security official, was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus in connection with the Jan. 19 killing in Dubai, London daily The Guardian reported Feb. 18. Hamas political leader Khaled Mishal denied the allegation but knowledgeable Palestinian sources insisted Massoud was being questioned.
A Hamas security operative is under arrest in Syria on suspicion of having assisted the hit squad that assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the British Guardian daily reported late Wednesday.
Palestinian sources in the Gulf said Nahro Massoud was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus, the Guardian reported. Last week, Jordan said it had extradited two Palestinians to Dubai in connection with the killing.
However, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal denied the allegation, according to the report. “It is not correct at all,” he was quoted as saying. But Palestinian sources insisted Massoud was being questioned amid speculation that potentially senior Palestinian defectors may have been involved in the plot. Al-Jazeera reported that one of the Palestinians extradited to Dubai worked for Fatah’s security services, but the Palestinian Authority has denied that.
Dubai police announced on Wednesday that their inquiry into the assassination of Mabhouh is focusing on bringing the suspected assailants to trial. They said investigators had successfully recreated a detailed picture of the operation. The official Web site of the Dubai police featured the suspects’ pictures and personal information in an effort to locate the assailants.
According to Palestinian news agency Ma’an, Dubai police said on Wednesday that they hold retinal scans of the suspected assassins, which they plan to publish through international police intelligence service Interpol.
Airport officials carried out routine retinal scans on 11 suspects sought by Dubai when they entered the country in the days before the hit. An official source in Britain said that the investigation has now widened, with police seeking a further six members of the assassination team – making 17 in all.
NOTE: A Tundra Tabloids colleague stated the following recently: “Someone needs to explain to me why it’s such a moral negative for Israel to assassinate an armed enemy of the state in a country that is at war with Israel. That assumes that it was Israel that actually carried out the assassination. ”
The Finnish capital’s bird cage paper, The Hell-Singing Sanomat, has a big spread on the assassination, and of course Israel is suspected heavily, but then again, so what?
