More unchecked Israeli agression? Or just totally awesome?

I love that his alibi for Mossad is "we would have done it better and cleaner."

That was pretty awesome. I was thinking about the Bourne movies the whole time while I was watching it.

What's so impressive about it? Needing ten people to off one unguarded guy? Or getting half of them caught on tape?

Of course such a contingency has been thought off beforehand, but still, operations like this one don't seem all that impressive.

So any theories on how they were able to leave the room bolted and chain locked?

Adjoining room with a connecting door?

Also, in one shot at the end "Gail" appears to be smiling at the camera.

I wanna be a spy! Cool.

Leslie Ann Warren must be hard up for work though.

Thanks for posting this Juddl. I think it's fucking awesome. SO THERE!

I thought they got the room across.

Noticed that too.

There was no assassination on tape. Just some CCTV footage showing people walking around, stitched together by the Dubai police.

If you want to read about a really impressive operation, read about the alleged involvement of the CIA in Australia's 1975 constitutional crisis. That stuff is really impressive, if true. Not killing some Hamas lowlife.

I don't think he was asking for footage of the guy being killed, but that this was a rare opportunity to see this kind of "operation", often glorified in spy books and movies, in real life. In that sense, it does seem to be a pretty unique opportunity, I don't remember such a thing being this well documented and made available to the public before.

It seems you have some opinions as to the quality of the work being done here, as I'm not a professional assassin or a spy I can't comment on it at all. As for them being caught on tape, I'm sure they expected this as they didn't try to make any effort to hide themselves from the cameras in the first place (which seems like an impossible task).

What were they supposed to do, wear ski masks? Walk around with their hands covering their faces? That would have been a little suspicious. Somebody might have started to think they were up to something.

Ah yes, the little coup we had, backed and orchestrated by our 'strong and powerful friend across the sea'. Pine Gap remains open to this day and the firebrand lead singer that uttered the words "US Forces give the nod, it's a setback for your country' is now a snivelling kow-towing politician - and some people ask me why Im'm so cynical.

This little video on the other hand? Not madly impressive no.

They should all have worn Hitler mustaches! No way anyone would connect them with the Mossad!

It's not that it seems old hat, it's that I find it pretty ghoulish to not just obviously enjoy the visual, but to go do far as to find it 'cool'.

This is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I don't think we've ever gotten this level of insight and detail into an operation like this, other than dramatized versions in movies on tv. I'm totally blown away. Thanks for posting, JuddL.

The only problem I have with this is that instead of having paid 11 people to whack some Hamas goon in Dubai, the Israeli government could have...I don't know...Opened Negotiations with the Palestinians (including Hamas)

Hmmm?

The Israeli Mossad has been whacking terrorists with reckless abandon since Munich. Go to the peace table and reach a fucking agreement already.

I also fear whats going to happen to a few unlucky Israeli Soldiers now. Remember that movie, Hunger? Remember how the Ira retaliated against the prison warden?

I'm really not too worried about the Israeli soldiers. I think they can probably take care of themselves.

To answer the titular question of this thread:

The former and not the later.

I don't know if it's an open and shut Mossad-did-it situation. A former Mossad agent said it was too sloppy. Another Israeli agent said that Israel would never use the identities of actual Israeli citizens on the passports used in this operation.

I heard a theory of what if it was a different organization giving Mossad some kind of quid-pro-quo. Who knows. But I hope it doesn't sink further into media blackout because I find this incredibly fascinating.

This is pretty unfair, I think people are just saying that it is extremely interesting to be able to have this documented in video form. I don't think anybody here is commenting on the actual moral issues surrounding an assassination, or that it's cool to kill another human being.

This is the first time I've seen video of an operation like this. Things like this tend not to be highly publicized.

I'm really into fiction and real research about anything to do with intelligence, so it was interesting to me.

If I was walking around in that hotel, I certainly wouldn't have noticed anything suspicious about any of them. They seemed well trained in how to blend in, and walk around without drawing attention to themselves.

The bit of business with the tennis rackets was funny. "We're just standing here, bullshitting with each other, just got done playing tennis, don't pay us any mind! Great tennis weather we're having here in Dubai...". That must have been part of the initial planning stage. Tennis must be popular around there, with a court nearby (or in the hotel?) to make it such a deliberate choice for them to blend in.

The woman yacking on the cell phone (fake conversation complete with hand gestures, right?) and stalking back and forth in the hall outside his room seemed to stand out a bit, but I guess aimlessly pacing around on the phone is one of the only choices for how to justify your presence in the hallway.

The lingering questions for me are: How would you get the victim's fake name/travel itinerary? Someone inside his own organization, or intercepted intel from an operation near wherever his base is? How far in advance would you have to know that to start planning the operation? The answers to those would point you towards who might have the resources to do this.

From what I have read (Sorry, ain´t got an English source), the victim apparently breached Hamas security protocolls. Meaning that he used his real name to reserve the hotel via an unsecured phone line and stuff like this as opposed to the clandestine modus operandi that Hamas members are urged to use in regard to duck the tough pressure of being hunt down. At least that is what one Hamas official claimed in an interview.

I personally can't seperate the two - that's just me tho, I'm not judging anyone in here particularely harshly or anything.

Someone spent a lot of man hours putting the video together.

An interesting local spin on the tale...

Passport abuse not 'the act of a friend', Israel warned

I'm unclear on the history of this. How, exactly, did we save you from certain doom?

Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper (so grain of salt and all that) is reporting that a member of Hamas' political bureau is claiming that Jordan or Egypt likely behind Dubai hit:

More at the link.

If you're watching the silent surveillance footage, be sure to watch it while listening to "Force Marker" from the HEAT soundtrack, like I just did. Works like gangbusters.