Tag: Dubai

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.  

Taipei 101

Yesterday’s news of the opening of the world’s tallest building phallic symbol was a pun fest.  The New York Times, for example, had as a headline, “Dubai Opens a Tower to Beat All.”  The Dubai Tower, it seems, is 2,717 feet tall.  It is far taller than any of the other really tall buildings phallic symbols in the world, including the one in China Taipei, Taipei 101.

All of this, of course, begs the question as to why Dubai, which apparently cannot pay its debts and is teetering on the abyss of financial collapse, decided to build this gigantic monument to itself.  Maybe its name should be changed from Burj Khalifa to the Ego Tower or Narcissus 101:

The glittering celebration may have been an attempt by Dubai’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to shift the focus from Dubai’s current economic troubles to a future filled with more promise.

All the same, the tower’s success by no means signals a recovery in Dubai’s beaten-down real estate market, where prices have collapsed by as much as 50 percent and many developers are having trouble finding occupants for their buildings… snip

At a time when several of Dubai’s newly built office towers stand empty, [the big one] is 90 percent sold, according to the building’s developer, Emaar Properties.

Can you believe that?  Lying about one’s size and performance apparently goes with the territory.  Even yesterday there were whispers that the building was empty, that it wasn’t as hot as it was claimed to be.

And what about the US?  Doesn’t the US need to have the world’s tallest monument to Priapus?  Apparently, 1 World Trade Center proceeds apace, but it is about 1,000 feet shorter than Burj Khalifa.  What a huge disappointment.  Can the US face up to this embarrassing Erecting Dysfunction?  Isn’t there some kind of architectural Cialis or Viagra to grow this project?

All of this begs the real question.  What kind of sign of the Apocalypse is it that humans are building gigantic, expensive, unneeded phallic symbols rather than feeding those who are starving and caring for those who need medical care?  How many schools, hospitals, clinics and libraries could be built instead of these awful, unnecessary buildings?  How many hungry people could be fed, how many sick people could receive care and medicine?  Couldn’t these resources be better spent developing systems to keeping humans from broiling or drowning on this planet?

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simulposted at The Dream Antilles

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.    

This weekend, buyers from across the Gulf states and the Middle East will descend on a huge arms fair in Dubai. Sheikhs, emirs, princes and kings will be buying anything from specialised sniper ammunition by the ton, to the highest-tech surveillance gear and even the odd British Aerospace gunboat or Eurofighter.

The Arab world will use the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX), to tool up for a coming confrontation with Iran, and to arm Sunni insurgents to fight Iran’s allies in Iraq, the Shia militias.

http://www.thefirstp…