Tag: UAE

There are 27 suspects in the January 20th murder of Hamas top military operative Mahmoud Al- Mabhouh , all of whom travelled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on faked foreign passports.   Ironically, Mabhouh was also in the UAE on a false passport.

Two of murder suspects subsequently entered the United States, one on an Irish passport as “Evan Dennings” January 21st, and another on a British passport Feb 14th “Roy Allan Cannon.”   (Both real life persons, one British- Israeli, are currently believed to be the victims of identity fraud. )

It is not known if the alleged murderers using the passports are still in this country.  

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

There aren’t records of either man leaving the U.S., though investigators can’t be sure the two are still in the country, according to this person. Since the two were traveling with what investigators believe to be fraudulently issued passports, they may have traveled back out of the U.S. with different, bogus travel documents.

The suspected U.S. travel broadens to American shores the international manhunt triggered by Dubai’s investigation into the death of Mr. Mabhouh. Dubai police have already identified two U.S. financial companies they believe issued and distributed several credit cards used by 14 of the suspects in the alleged killing.

A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Interpol, which is also investigating the murder, declined to comment.

Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied any involvement, a longstanding practice. Last week, Israel’s foreign minister said there was no proof implicating Israel.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/…

Twelve of the suspects used British passports, police said. Six suspects used Irish passports, four used French passports, three used Australian passports and one used a German passport.

Already the story is changing again, as a “national security source in the United States” is saying that the 2 suspects who might have entered the US after the murder, did not, even as the list of suspects went from 26 to 27, according to CNN and newsrunner.com.

http://www.newsrunner.com/disp…

The only Israeli in government who has commented so far is Tzipi Livni, the current Kadima Party opposition leader and the former foreign minister.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

A CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour, asked the Israeli Minister of Defense on Saturday to comment.  Ehud Barak wouldn’t comment, either.

The Chief of Police of Dubai, Dahi Khalfan, is “100% positive” that Mossad is involved.  During a Feb 28th news conference, Khalfan said that he was sure that all the suspects were now in Israel, and as long as they stayed there, they wouldn’t be arrested.   The UAE is now blocking people traveling on Israeli dual nationality passports from entering the country.

Information released yesterday says the autopsy showed Mabhouh was injected with the muscle relaxant succinylcholine, typically used in endotracheal intubation,  and then suffocated to death.  

wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…

it is perennially popular in emergency medicine because it arguably has the fastest onset and shortest duration of action of all muscle relaxants.

Suxamethonium does not produce unconsciousness or anesthesia, and its effects may cause considerable psychological distress while simultaneously making it impossible for a patient to communicate. For these reasons, administration of the drug to a conscious patient is strongly contraindicated, except in necessary emergency situations.

The use and abuse of foreign passports and identities by the hit squad involved in the murder, has upset many countries.  

It’s one of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever seen.   A member of the ruling family of the UAE tortured a man he didn’t much care for, beating him with a board bristling with nails, driving a car over him, and all kinds of nasty, nasty business, displaying a sadism rarely seen in public.   A top-ranking police chief was right there the whole time, letting it happen, in fact enabling it, as they drove out in the desert to do this.

I’m pretty sure I wrote about it here when it went public.   Oh yeah, here it is:   Obama wants to give nukes to the crooks in the UAE.    Sorta flew under the radar, didn’t it?    How many people know anything about our nuclear deal with the UAE?    Yeah, nukes for a psychotic ruling family of a country that can’t even keep its books straight.   Nice.

The videotape of the torture slowed the deal down, but apparently it went through, because, well, corruption wins every time, right?   Gotta go where the money is was, and the money ain’t here any more.

Anyway, here’s a new article on the outcome of this crime:

UAE sheikh acquitted in taped beating

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — A United Arab Emirates sheikh was acquitted Sunday of charges connected to the videotaped beating and torture of an Afghan grain dealer.

Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a member of the emirates’ ruling family, was charged with rape, endangering life and causing bodily harm in connection with the nearly three-hour long tape shot in 2004 in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf region.

However, the court acquitted Issa on Sunday, ruling he had diminished responsibility for his actions because of the effects of medication his defense attorney claimed he was given. Issa had a “lack of criminal responsibility,” the court found, defense attorney Habib al-Mulla told CNN.

“The judiciary system acquitted Issa based on the evidence presented by the defense that the sheikh was under the influence of drugs given to him,” al-Mulla said. “That deprived him from his poise and caused him to carry out acts that were out of consciousness and that were photographed with the intention for later extortion.”

The tape surfaced last year as a piece of evidence in a federal civil suit filed in Houston, Texas, against the sheikh by his former business partner, Bassam Nabulsi. It caused outrage among human rights groups and in the United States, where senior U.S. officials familiar with the case said the tape delayed the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the UAE and the United States.

On the tape, Issa is seen along with a private security officer stuffing sand in the man’s mouth.  As the grain dealer pleads and whimpers, he is beaten with a nailed board, burned in the genitals with a cigarette lighter, shocked with a cattle prod and led to believe he would be shot. Salt is poured into his wounds.

In the end, the victim can muster up only weak moans as an SUV is repeatedly driven over him.

So he gets off with the “twinkie defense”.  

I’m sure the videotape cowed anyone who might be considering convicting this guy that it would probably be a pretty bad idea.   I mean, I’m amazed it went this far.   What a joke.   “Yeah, let’s waste everybody’s time and money to put on a little pony show demonstrating that we have this thing called “justice” in the UAE.   I mean, for everybody BUT the ruling family.”

Sure.   Like I said, it’s good to be King.  

And these are our “friends”.   We do nuclear deals with these guys.   We move American businesses to this country (like Halliburton! as American as baseball!)   If the United States was on Facebook, the UAE and this monster would have been one of the first to get “friended”.   So would the guys who torture people for us in Uzbekistan.   BFF’s!  

And on the 18th, Goldman Sachs is handing out 20 BILLION dollars in bonuses (we used to call it “embezzlement”) to its partners in crime.    And nothing will be done.    There won’t even be a protest, apparently, because everybody will have their eyes diverted to, if not Harry Reid’s “scandal”, something new.

I wish I was King.  

If I was King, there would be serious hell to pay.   For some people.   Those who skate.   Those who torture.   Those who murder, and those who steal retirement funds.   They would skate no more.  

And if anyone thinks “oh, this stuff only happens in other countries,” I’ll remind you that Dick Cheney shot a man in the face.    And the man later apologized to Dick Cheney.     Just in case you’d forgotten.

Tonight I want to point out a story of which very few people are aware.   Surprisingly enough, this is inspired by a piece that is actually on CNN (a network which represents, usually, the very worst of the Corporate/Republican Noise Machine, albiet in a far more insidious and subtle way than Fox).  

The story is here:

Torture video threatens U.S.-UAE nuclear deal

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama on Thursday sent a civil nuclear agreement with the United Arab Emirates to the Senate for ratification, but its passage remains uncertain, thanks to a recently disclosed video.

Senior U.S. officials said lawmakers critical of the deal could use the video, which shows a member of the UAE government’s royal family torturing a man, to argue the United States should not have such nuclear cooperation with a country where the rule of law is not respected and human rights violations are tolerated.

This is putting it oh-so-mildly, and it barely touches the tip of the UAE iceberg.