Maybe we should start watching the Israeli government photo ops and see who comes up missing, or resigns to spend more time with their family. If this wasn’t a Mossad op, they are going to be seeking revenge against whoever did this, because they lost their entire station at a very sensitive location.

With reports that at least two of the people went to Iran, when the Iranians get the IDs more people are in major trouble, and it is probable that another net will be rolled up. This isn’t over.

I take back what I said… Daffy Duck is way smarter than these idiots.

And yeah… It stinks like some high-powered moron’s Bond fantasy! I can’t believe in all seriousness that was a standard Mossad op, even if they have sunk as low as CIA & ASIO!

One of the basic problems is that Israelis no longer learn and study Arabic. They reflexively hate Arabs, and hate is not a good thing when you are trying to understand an enemy as it clouds your judgment and leads to an underestimation of enemy capabilities.

The current Israeli cabinet is so filled with whackos that it is possible that this was a rogue operation, but they made contact with and were helped by the local station, which didn’t seem to be very well informed, so someone in power approved this. How many groups with a grudge against Hamas can afford to have a couple of dozen people live in Dubai? Governments and multinationals are the only groups I can think of. The same for the passports, they are very expensive items if they are any good. They aren’t something you can whip up on your HP printer, even without the chips, which are trivial to produce.

What a mess.

As someone who has spent some time working on ME Security, mostly in the UAE and SA, I know how good it can be. 🙂 The UAE is a place that can appear on the surface to be very modern, but the reality is that they hold dear their ancient traditions, and if you cross a line, you will find yourself in very deep trouble very fast. The unwritten *law* there is that even in this modern World, their ancient tribal laws take precedence. The UAE is the last place I’d mess about in. People forget that the UAE has only been in existence since ’72, and it’s really a very loose affiliation of States. Al Fujayrah in particular holds to the old ways, and an unwary traveler there is likely to end up loosing everything, even their life very easily. 🙂 Dubai may be a *modern* Sate, but only 40 years ago, Dubayy was very much a tribal warring State. 🙂

Seems ignorance is bliss in Israel these days too. Morons.

They were seen more than once with the *local’s*, a serious breach, they were caught on speed camera’s, another breach, they were photographed in several places, breach, they life a trail Daffy Duck could follow, breach… etc, etc..! Incompetence doesn’t even begin to describe this. Mossad must seriously be scraping the bottom of the pond scum.

Dubai couldn’t exist as destination for so many wealthy people if it didn’t have the level of security that such people expect, even if they aren’t conducting business.

Shutting down cctv nets would not have worked the way it would in Europe or the US. I suspect it would be the same sort of response you would see in a casino, i.e. quick and suspicious.

These Israelis are reading and believing their own press releases. They believe they are the best, but haven’t been keeping up with what has been happening since 9/11. There have been a lot of security upgrades, especially in the Arab world, because al Qaeda also threatens the comfortable existence of many Muslim leaders, and they have spent the money to protect themselves.

It is very possible that the only real mistake the actual action team made was being connected to the local team. I’m willing to bet that a member of the action team was seen, possibly innocently, communicating with a local person of interest, and the whole thing unraveled. It’s the little things that screw you up.

Whose old? You mean us wizened and experienced *survivors* of many encounters with ‘bold fools’? 😉 Maybe the young fools out there might learn a thing or two if they ever read this thread (assuming they learn to read, and comprehend). This is, after all, the decade of *hope*, is it not? 😉 😛

I have been spending several hours pondering and researching this event. Time I should have been spending far more productively… but, something really bothers me.

There are three high possibilities…

1. It was the Mossad, and they screwed it up totally.
2. It was someone trying to make it look like it was the Mossad, and that the Mossad are now clueless imbeciles,
3. It was the Mossad, and they planned to make it look like someone else and wanted to leave a trail, and screwed it up totally.

The Mossad I knew would often try to *kill two birds with one stone* and do a dirty deed and have someone else blamed for it. It appears that most of these operatives were fairly young. My suspicion is that this was a fairly recent and inexperienced Mossad cell. I suspect that what the Ex-Mossad covert op Michael Ross said in the BBC article is close to the truth based on my experiences and knowledge.

In my view, there was a gross underestimation of the reaction of the Dubai authorities given the UAE’s close relationship with the West and the rather odious past activities of Mr Mabhouh .

Basically, I think they screwed up due to arrogance and over confidence, and possibly watching too much American TV! 😆 There were so many breaks in trade-craft… It boggles the mind. I would expect this from rank amateurs or arrogant fools on speed!

There are several other aspects of this that annoy or bother me. 🙂

The way they are heading, Israel are going to feel like trapped rats with no friends anywhere. That will be very dangerous.

This is becoming an “old guys” thread, but the Cold War kept us on our toes, at the top of our game. You didn’t last long if you weren’t a real professional. There were “the rules” and you followed them or ended up with a black bordered file.

Most of the garbage that the Hedgemony introduced was recommended by Mossad, and we are constantly having to throw Israeli agents into prison. They are a real PITA and need to be slapped down hard.

If the guess about the Dubai station is right, this was a very major blow. This may also make anyone with a Israeli visa in their passport suspect in a lot of countries in the world.

Maybe they can blame it on global warming?

Yeah… really!!

I’m sure you know how it worked in the 70’s & 80’s… Back then, all the allied agencies had a fairly close working relationship. Back then, they would have come to us and presented their *rationale* and asked for some *legit* ID’s we would have created and made available if we approved, and usually then we (and other allies) did. Now… I seriously would recommend that we don’t even give them a hearing, and seriously *clean house* (I know for a fact we have at least a few Mossad sleepers here). The USA probably has dozens. 🙂

The Bulgarians were a funny bunch! 😀 We alternately admired and laughed at them! 🙂 When they were good… they were really, REALLY good. And when they were bad… they were downright terrible! 😆

But this surpasses anything the Bulgarians did, if for no other reason than the Mossad are the agency all others are compared against! They *WERE* the benchmark. They are now on a par with ASIO (who I wouldn’t personally trust to guard school kids at a school crossing) !

Glad I waited, because the ABC story has some nice snark in it.

What in hell could they do with all of those people? Were they planning a fire-fight in the middle of the city? Did everyone’s brother-in-law want a vacation in Dubai? Were they posing as a glee club or a football side?

Not even the Bulgarians would have involved that many people, and they did some really stupid things in Europe.

The new generation of Israelis is really a bunch of clowns living on their fathers’ reputations. The debacle in Lebanon and now this.

The elaborate mission to assassinate al-Mabhouh is believed to have stretched back to the middle of last year and involve credit card fraud from the US to Europe to cover financing tracks.

It has been described by Dubai investigators as precision spy work but it was also punctuated by clumsy mistakes and crude spycraft, with operatives caught on CCTV cameras in a lift with their target, at other times changing into fake beards in toilets or donning wigs, and even carrying tennis rackets as part of their disguises.

*SIGH* How the mighty have fallen! Unbelievable. “…precision spy work…” my ass!! I would have sent anyone this clumsy and stupid working for me in the 80’s to the worst hell hole in Afghanistan. I’ve also *heard* that MI6 at least was aware of this before it happened, and that Rudd is asking the UK for some answers also.