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Mahmoud al-Mabhouh: To Kill a Terrorist - Exclusive Analysis

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:04 PM PST

The assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud
al-Mabhouh has touched off a great deal of outrage by the same media
organizations and countries that typically ignore the murders committed by
Islamic terrorists. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a Muslim Brotherhood member and
a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the "armed wing" of
Hamas. Essentially Mahmoud was a co-founder of the terrorist sub-group
responsible for more than half of the murders of Israelis that have taken
place over the last decade alone.

If you're wondering what that long string of syllables, Izz
ad-Din al-Qassam, means. It's in memory of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a
Muslim religious leader who founded the "Black
Hand" terrorist group, the first modern day Muslim terrorist group in
Israel, which murdered Jewish farmers and tried to
launch an uprising in order to create an Arab-Islamic in place of
Israel. The good Sheikh worked together with the Mufti of Jerusalem, who
went on
to help Hitler to carry out the Holocaust. Qassam never had the chance
to do the same, as he was killed in 1935 while hiding in a cave after the
murder of a Jewish police officer.

The only difference between
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and his inspiration Sheikh Al-Qassam, is that the
latter met his end in a cave and the former in a hotel room. Both men were
committed and fanatical Islamic terrorists who plotted to drown the region
in blood in the name of their Jihad. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's presence in
Dubai was no casual vacation trip. Mabnouh had become a key figure in the
weapons smuggling network between Hamas and its Iranian backers. Meanwhile
Dubai has become an vital link in the chain of international terrorist
operations. Its global import-export connections combined with the support of UAE
leader Sheikh Zayed for Hamas, and Dubai's proximity to Iran make it a
mecca for terrorist smuggling operations.

If you want to do
business with Iran, the best
way is to use a proxy in Dubai. This makes Dubai a perfect center for
Iranian links to terrorists around the world. Dubai is a legitimate
business destination that will raise the fewest suspicions of just about
any Middle Eastern destination. The UAE rulers are very friendly to Iran
and to such groups as Hamas. Last month Sheikh Zayed met with Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal, who had also been the target of an Israeli assassination
attempt. Dubai serves as one way for Iran to move money and goods over to
Hamas through front organizations that are actually Iranian run, through
banks that do business with Iran while pretending to do business only in
Dubai, and through ports controlled by Dubai Ports World, which is itself
a subsidiary of the government.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh who had
received linguistics training in Syria, possessed an engineering
background and had spent much of his adult life living in different Arab
countries and forming radical contacts there was the perfect man to
oversee a regional weapons smuggling network. And Dubai was the perfect
place for him to do business. That confluence in turn made Dubai the
perfect place for al-Mabhouh's assassination, not simply because he was
there, but because it was meant to send a message. The very visible nature
of the operation demonstrated that Dubai was not a safe zone for
terrorists, despite its distance from Israel and a terrorist friendly
government.

The publicity accompanying the assassination was a
feature not a bug. Sheikh Mohammed is being sent a message that at a
critical time when Dubai needs foreign investment, he has to choose
between backing terrorists and stabilizing his economy. The killing of
al-Mabhouh creates the very association between Dubai and Islamic
terrorism that it would like to avoid. Dubai would like to be thought of
as representing fun in the sun and a growing business environment, even as
the UAE funds Islamic extremism. The assassination shines light on the
Islamic dark side of Dubai and it will create nervousness among visiting
business executives. A British newspaper article wonders if the German
executives of firms who produce parts for Iran's nuclear reactors will
also be subject to assassination. Of course they won't be, but having them
worry about it may keep them out of the Iran business and out of
Dubai.

This isn't just about Hamas, though al-Mabhouh's presence on
Israel's Most Wanted list and his murder of Israelis would have certainly
provided enough incentive on its own. As does his place in the smuggling
network that moves weapons from Iran to Israel, where they are used to
murder Israeli citizens and bomb Israeli villages. It's about Dubai and
the UAE. While Egypt and Saudi Arabia, despite their own hostility toward
Israel, have gotten into the Anti-Iran camp, the UAE and Dubai in
particular is Iran's connection to the rest of the world. Dubai has built
up its position in international business in no small part because it is a
convenient access point for companies looking to do illegally business
with Iran. If Israel can't get Dubai out of the Iran business by pointing
out the danger it faces from Iran's growing power, a danger that the
Saudis and Egyptians have already recognized, then it can force Dubai to
choose between being a mecca for international trade, or being Iran's
stooge. And the al-Mabhouh demonstrates the dangers of being a front for
Ahmadinejad.

And that too is part of the bigger picture, because it
isn't just about Iran as a country, but the ruling clique currently
running Iran and fighting off the opposition in bloody street riots. The
issue at the top is not Islam, as all the major factions among the Iranian
elite have a similar understanding of Islam, but money and power. Most
political alliances and conflicts in the Muslim Middle East boil down to
family, whether it's rural tribal clans or urban political elites. Power
is vested in prominent families. Those families use their positions to
siphon off money by taking a cut off everything which they reinvest
abroad. That includes money earmarked for terrorist operations as
well.

The Iranian elite currently fighting a bloody battle to stay
in power has an easy conduit to funnel its investments into legitimate
banks through Dubai, by way of the same network of businesses that they
use to conduct their terrorist operations. These connections require key
point men they trust to take care of their money. Because while it's easy
enough to find terrorists loyal to the Jihad against the infidel, finding
one you can trust not to rip off your family stash or cut a deal with your
rivals is much trickier.

Iran at the top is a snake's nest with a
small tangle of families fighting for control over key industries. A
family's fallback plan requires having access to their foreign
investments, so they don't have to beg for spare change or become too
dependent on their former backers. Iran's Supreme Ayatollah may have
sent his family to Russia, but he isn't stupid enough to turn over his
fortune to Putin's banks. Maintaining that rathole means finding someone
you can trust, who isn't beholden to anyone else, to protect your
finances. There's no way to know if Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was that man, but
if he was, then the extensive resources that Israel committed to this
operation become all too clear. The money will still be there, if the
Mossad hasn't gotten to the bank accounts through whatever papers were in
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's briefcase, but Iran's ruling families will need to
find a new man to protect their financial rear ends. And that may weaken
them terribly, particularly if information about those accounts is quietly
leaked to the Iranian opposition.

In summary, a major Hamas
terrorist leader and a key figure in the transfer of Iranian weapons to
Hamas is dead. England and Dubai are outraged, but their outrage amounts
to nothing. But the UK and Dubai have been playing footsie with terrorists
for too long, whether it's freeing the Lockerbie bomber for an oil deal
with Libya and then going on
a shooting party with his son, or funding Hamas and providing a haven
for a terrorist smuggling network. Using the identities of Brits in Israel
makes it at once obvious who was behind the killing, while at the same
time leaving enough plausible deniability to avoid any serious diplomatic
repercussions. The sensational nature of the assassination has people
talking, which was the objective all along. Not simply to kill al-Mabhouh,
but to send a message by doing it.

There are of course no final
answers, and there may never be. The Emirates police are just a hired
bunch of thugs whose job is to keep order for the ruling families. They
are not a police force in the First World sense, their usual tactic is to
grab the likeliest suspect who isn't too well connected, and beat a
confession out of him or her. If it's a foreigner, so much the better,
because foreigners are less likely to be connected in the tribal sense,
than Emiratis. Hamas itself put out numerous contradictory statements
about the death of al-Mabhouh. Their only point of agreement is that they
will kill Israelis, which is a given on any day when dealing with
Hamas.

Israeli ministers meanwhile are giving the matter their best
winking denial, which is not in and of itself proof of anything, because
it's a standard response to just about any question about Israel's
intelligence operations, and because it's likely that neither Landau or
Lieberman would even be briefed about a Mossad operation before or
afterward. A few years from now a retired Mossad chief may stick it as a
footnote in his biography. Or maybe a week from now there will be a
torrent of new answers. Most likely though the full truth will never be
known. As is the case with much of the shadow war of counterterrorism
against the infrastructure of terrorist groups.

But there is a final footnote to the story. On
February 16, 1989, Avi
Sasportas was a 21 year old soldier hitchhiking, as soldiers commonly
did back then, and sometimes still do despite many warnings to the
contrary. He disappeared into a beige Subaru and was never seen alive
again. Two months later his body was finally found under several feet of
dirt. It bore the marks of the brutal torture he had undergone. In those
two months his mother Rachel Sasportas spent
every day waiting for news of her son.

“I have no news for you,” the defense minister kept on
telling her 21 years ago. “Your son’s body has not yet been found.” And
she, Avi’s mother, listened to every word attentively, as if looking for
a hidden treasure, and only said: “I know. I’m certain that the IDF and
other security forces are making every effort to find Avi. I trust
you.”

She would also say something else: “If Avi is not alive,
and I believe that he is not alive, do not trade living terrorists for
his body.” She would say this, get up, and leave.

Her noble
figure, distancing from us down the long corridor of building number 22
at the Defense Ministry, has remained etched in the memory of many of
us. Her whispering voice still resonates among many of us. Yet there
would never be tears in her eyes, as if she ordered herself to refrain
from crying.

In the meantime Gaza Arabs made prank phone calls to a
hotline searching for tips on his whereabouts.

Avi Sasportas'
funeral, combined with the recent rape and murder of 13 year old Oren
Brahami, occasioned riots against Arab terrorism, as outraged Israelis
demanded that their government do something. An attitude that has sadly
faded to numbness long ago.

In 2001 the sister of Ilan Sa'adon, the
other soldier whose kidnapping and murder al-Mabhouh took part
in, said; "I very much hope they find them and kill them, just as they
did to my brother."

Twenty-one years later, a long outstanding
debt has finally been paid.