Pages

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Red-faced in Tel Aviv, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs
Red-faced in Tel Aviv
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Feb 20, 2010

Mossad, which in Hebrew stands for the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, is in charge of Israel's overseas espionage and covert operations

The initial nods, winks and pats on the back here (Jerusalem) over the assassination last month of a senior Hamas official in Dubai are turning to puzzlement and concern as mounting evidence, including extensive surveillance videos, points to a remarkably clumsy operation many Israelis deem unworthy of their intelligence service,Mossad.Officially,Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the case, as is customary in delicate matters of intelligence and national security. But since the news of the assassination broke last month, Israel has unofficially made the story its own, with newspapers blaring congratulatory headlines and government ministers praising Mossad's director.

However, then the Dubai police released images showing some of the 17 people suspected of being in the hit squad bumbling about in poor disguises, and Britain became infuriated by the use of faked British travel documents. Now Israelis are wondering whether their once-famed spy service could have been behind such a sloppy job or,in a John Le Carré-like twist, if Israel could have been framed.

On Wednesday, a commentator for the newspaper Haaretz, Amir Oren, wrote a front-page column about the case,calling for the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, to step down."What must have seemed to its perpetrators as a huge success," he wrote,"is now being overshadowed by enormous question marks."

http://newageislam.com/red-faced-in-tel-aviv/current-affairs/d/2486


0 comments: