Death in Dubai

It was another confusing "who killed Cock Robin" scenario, reminiscent of the old nursery rhyme.

Who killed Cock Robin?" "I," said the Sparrow,
"With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin."
"Who saw him die?" "I," said the Fly,
"With my little eye, I saw him die."

This week's Cock Robin was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh cofounder of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. His sudden death in Dubai two weeks ago, at first almost overlooked, has now aroused considerable speculation.

His body was flown to Damascus where he lived in exile for the past twenty years. Contrary to custom Mabhouh was not buried the same day but "kept on ice" for ten days till the cause of death could be determined. The funeral ceremony bore all the familiar trappings of a "Shahid's" last journey on earth.

In the eulogy he gave for the dead terrorist Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal vowed to avenge Mabhouh's assassination.

Two days before the funeral everyone knew that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh didn't die of natural causes. There were a few unsubstantiated reports that he had been ill with an unspecified bone disease, however most of the news agencies were sure he was assassinated. Who was the sparrow? The Mossad of course, that is if you believe Khaled Mashaal. Well he should know. In 1997 he narrowly escaped a bungled assassination attempt carried out by two Mossad agents in Amman.

BBC Online quoted a Hamas source "who was reticent about how al-Mabhouh met his death, but his family said doctors who had examined his body determined that he had died after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that he had been strangled.

Blood samples sent to a French laboratory confirmed he was killed by an electric shock."

Reuters quoted Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s brother, Faiq, who said he had been electrocuted. “The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the United Arab Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head.” The same agency elaborated further. "Security sources quoted in the Gulf news media said that as well as electrical burns, al-Mabhouh’s body had signs indicating that he was strangled."

According to The National an English-language daily newspaper, printed in Abu Dhabi, al-Mabhouh was electrocuted while walking in the hotel corridor, dragged into his room, and then strangled.

An unnamed Arab source claimed Mabhouh was smothered by a pillow.

On Sunday Dubai Police said that at least seven individuals were involved in the al-Mabhouh murder and would not rule out the possibility that the perpetrators were Mossad agents.

The Sunday Times (London) gave another version of the Hamas leader’s assassination. “The hit squad that assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room injected him with a drug that induced a heart attack.”

According to the paper quoting unnamed sources in the Middle East.
“A team of assassins broke into al-Mabhouh's room and killed him silently before photographing all the documents in his briefcase and left a 'do not disturb' sign on the door.” The same source added “The 50-year-old Hamas man's body was discovered by staff at the luxury Al Bustan Rotana hotel in the early afternoon on January 20. There were no suspicious signs and local doctors diagnosed a heart attack.
But nine days later, blood samples sent to Paris for analysis showed signs of poison and Hamas announced his death and blamed Israeli agents for the assassination.”

Accounts of al-Mabhouh's murder in the Israeli news media have relied on foreign sources quoting Reuters, BBC, CNN and others as well as a number of foreign newspapers. In keeping with a long standing policy government spokespersons have neither denied nor confirmed the accusations linking the Mossad to al-Mabhouh's timely death.

Ronen Bergman, author of “By Any Means Necessary,” and other books and articles on Israel's covert operations claims targeting al-Mabhouh fits the pattern of Israeli assassinations. "In some cases” states Bergman, “Israel has decided to close the circle and wreak vengeance on people who were behind symbolic acts of terrorism - not necessarily the most violent or lethal acts."

To add further confusion journalist Avi Issacharoff (Haaretz), quotes a Hamas source indicating a complete volte-face

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh had enemies across the Middle East and was wanted by Jordan and Egypt. A preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas suggests that the assassination was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government, and not by the Mossad. Osama Hamdan, a colleague of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh said in an interview with Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar "It is quite possible that Palestinian Authority security forces were involved.”

The Israeli web site Debka files offers yet another dubious theory.

Namely, that Hamas may have belatedly dredged up al-Mabhouh's death to finger Israel - a sure-fire means of distracting attention from Hamas leadership's many troubles.
Journalist Alon Ben-David is currently senior defence correspondent for Israel's Channel 10 and also Middle East correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly and Aviation Week.

This week Ben David went to Dubai to try and find out what really happened

in al-Mabhouh’s hotel room.
Ben David is a responsible and cautious reporter; therefore I tend to accept his account of the al-Mabhouh assassination. “As always when travelling, al-Mabhouh had taken the precaution of reserving in advance a room with no balcony and sealed windows. On arrival, he deposited a case of documents in the hotel safe before spending around an hour in his room.
At about 4:30 pm. he left the hotel for a meeting. It is assumed he dined outside the hotel because there is no record of him ordering food or drink, before returning to his room at around 9:00 pm.
While he was out his assailants entered his room and waited for him to return. Apparently some of the hit team waited outside the hotel to warn of his approach. At 9:30 pm. Al-Mabhouh's wife called his mobile phone. There was no answer. It seems he was already dead. His body was discovered the following day.
Post mortem examinations revealed signs of electrocution beneath both ears -presumably from a device used to stun him.

Alon Ben David says that the surveillance cameras in the hotel lobby and corridors should have supplied some information about the assassins, how and when they entered al-Mabhouh's room and when they left, but so far the authorities in Dubai have released few details.

The exact cause of death is still a matter of speculation. Electrocution, asphyxiation (strangling and smothering), poisoning or induced heart attack have been mentioned and according to some reports he died a double death.

Apparently like Rasputin he was hard to kill.

The many varied and conflicting accounts of the assassination are partly due to the dearth of reliable information regarding the circumstances of al-Mabhouh's death and the identity of his killers.

So far no one has taken the credit for the assassination and the only eye witnesses are the perpetrators themselves and they are not volunteering information.

Dubai and the Al Bustan Rotana hotel are anxious to end the embarrassing incident. It’s simply bad for business.

Two weeks ago Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was known mainly to intelligence agencies, Middle East affairs analysts, a few journalists and a number of erudite scholars. Although he helped found the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, he really attained notoriety when he organised the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers 21 years ago at the time of the first Intifada.

More recently he was a key figure in organising weapons shipments and smuggling them into the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a villain and deserves no sympathy. Maybe his grieving wife is consoled by the knowledge that her husband has been declared a "Shahid" (martyr) and now she has 72 replacements.

It's fair to assume that the Mossad had every reason to kill al-Mabhouh.

Certainly to avenge the kidnapping and murder of the two Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon. An additional motive for al-Mabhouh’s assassination is that it undermines the Hamas weapons supply branch entrusted with the complicated logistics of shipments from Iran to Gaza.

Yossi Melman is an intelligence and military affairs correspondent for Haaretz . He has co-authored a number of books on espionage and Israel’s intelligence community. In an article entitled “The Mossad killing of terror chiefs has little impact on the Israel-Hamas war,” published in Haaretz this week he claims, “‘special operations,’ like the assassination in Dubai (if this indeed was a Mossad operation), have always accounted for a relatively small proportion of its overall activity.” Rightly so he maintains that these “special operations” have earned the Mossad its feared cloak and dagger reputation. Melman warns that they are liable to divert their attention from their primary mission, namely gathering intelligence information.

“Over the years, on the basis of past precedents, the intelligence community has tried to develop a ‘combat doctrine’ for this type of operation. This doctrine holds that only assassinating the leaders of a terrorist group can have a strategic impact, as this is thought to deal a severe blow to the organisation.” …..” However the assassinations – (according to foreign reports) - of the PLO's Abu Jihad (1988), Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki (1995) and Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyeh (2008), though they dealt severe blows to their respective organisations, did not cause them to collapse.

And this is all the more true when the person assassinated is a mid-level operative like Mabhouh. Every terrorist, no matter how senior, is soon replaced, sometimes by someone even better or more professional. “
Although Melman doubts the value of these assassinations and believes “they will have only a marginal impact on the battle between Israel and Hamas,” he is aware of Israel’s unenviable predicament. Passive resistance doesn’t work in this neighbourhood. We simply have to continually hound, harass and eliminate our enemies before they have a chance to eliminate us.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s death in Dubai brought to mind Luchino Visconti's film (1971)

"Death in Venice" based on Thomas Mann's novella.

Of course the two scenarios have little in common except perhaps the lonely deaths of the main players. Moreover, the music track of Visconti’s film, Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony seems out of place in Dubai.

Not wanting to conclude in such a morbid mood I want to include an extract from an e-mail I received from an old friend - Russell Francis from Australia. He added a few forgotten details from the Bob Dylan story I wrote about last week:

“Greetings Beni

I remember well the time when Bob Dylan's cousin "Sandy Katz" volunteered at Ein harod, it was in 1972 and was the time my brothers Ray & Gary and Bryan Smith were also volunteers there. Sandy often spoke about Bob and was in contact with him.”

Have a good weekend.

Beni 4^th of February, 2010.