Regards, Ivan
Posted on 10/09/2004 5:03:25 PM PDT by MadIvan
THE ISRAELI government has ordered Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, to make the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists its main priority after last week’s Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists.
Egyptian officials said yesterday they had detained dozens of bedouin tribesmen on suspicion of supplying the explosives for the blasts at the Taba Hilton and at a bungalow beach camp 35 miles down the coast.
As rescuers pulled more bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, Dan Arditi, Israel’s counterterrorism chief, urged tourists still in Egypt to come home, warning that the attacks on Thursday “don’t lessen, even in the slightest, the risk that this will happen again”.
The order to Mossad to turn its attention from Palestinian groups to Al-Qaeda was given by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, after Israeli intelligence sources said the size of the blasts suggested they were the work of Osama Bin Laden’s network rather than Palestinian suicide bombers.
Confirmation may be provided by fingerprints taken from bomb fragments and DNA obtained from the remains of the suspected bombers.
Arditi had urged Israelis on September 9 to avoid the area because of indications of an imminent terrorist attack. His warning appeared on the front pages of the country’s main newspapers on the eve of the Jewish new year.
“This time Al-Qaeda hit our back yard,” said a security source. “If we don’t focus on them, next time it will be Tel Aviv. After four years of intifada we’ve succeeded in containing the Palestinian terror, but now we’re facing a much more ruthless enemy we can’t ignore any more.”
It is not the first time Al-Qaeda has gone after an Israeli target, or that Sharon’s government has vowed to take it on. The group claimed responsibility for the car bombing in November 2002 of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa that killed 14 people, including three Israelis.
After that attack Sharon summoned Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, and ordered agents living undercover in Saudi Arabia and Yemen to hunt down those responsible. Almost two years later the perpetrators remain at large — a reflection, according to the security source, of the agency’s concentration on combating Palestinian operations.
When Mossad was presented with a list of priorities for the current year, Al-Qaeda was not on it. Its main efforts were instead to be directed at Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the activities of Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon and Syria.
Israeli intelligence sources said they believed the Taba attack had been masterminded by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor regarded as Bin Laden’s deputy. In a statement broadcast this month on the Al-Jazeera satellite television channel, al-Zawahiri threatened to focus Al-Qaeda’s efforts more intensely on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Nothing is known about how Mossad will carry out its mission, especially against al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be in hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Intelligence sources said this weekend the organisation — which has no more than 150 agents operating all over the world — would not try to compete with America’s CIA.
It would instead focus on Turkey and Thailand. “We’ll co-ordinate with the local security services, but our main aim will be to protect Israeli tourists in these two locations,” said one intelligence source.
The agency would then work in a more systematic way, by listing top Al-Qaeda activists and trying to kill them in the same way they have done over the past 40 years in operations against various terrorist groups. “To hit an Al-Qaeda leader either in Saudi Arabia, Europe, or even Tehran is less difficult than to act in Damascus,” said one intelligence source. “It’s all a matter of priorities.”
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Yeah this is really good news, they usually get thier man!
Gonna be a tough time in the old town tonight.
Good news. But what took them so long?
Good news. But what took them so long?
Read it again. It says "TOP TARGET". You can be sure they had them targeted before. It is just that they are now TOPS.
It would make sense. Israel severely weakens the local terrorist groups. Arab opinion starts to turn against Al Qaeda's tactics. So Al Qaeda does what Saddam Hussein tried to do and change the subject to the arch-enemy Israel.
On the contrary, I think it's a good habit. I want them to go after Sicilians next, maybe even the cremora in Naples or the Sardinians, they could teach them a thing or two about kidnaping.
Mossad
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Never, EVER screw with the Mossad. IMO they are the best intel agency in the world. They get stuff done. Look at the jihad got that got whacked a couple of weeks ago in syria.
I wonder what the impact of Mossad bringing in bin laden and/or zawahiri would be on the middle east.
Nice thought, isn't it?
:)
I'm betting this bombing is the tag team work of Iran and Al Qaeda. By turning Israel's full attention away from Iran and their nuclear ambitions to Al Qaeda this buys them time to continue their development of the bomb since they think Israel will try and bomb their own nuclear facilities. I'm sure they won't totally ignore it though. Thank God for that! Go Mossad!
The article doesn't mention it, but that's a reference to this event.
Yahoo! Just like the Kerry signs proclaim: 'Hope is on the way!'
I look forward to reading more accounts of Mossad covert actions like phone bombs blowing the heads off Islamofascist slime (see: Munich retributions). While our 'adults' in Washington toy with A balanced concept of limited war and 'HAPPY-MEAL' style freedom, it will be a pure delight to welcome the far more wizened (and ruthless) adults of the Mossad into the allied fold.
These tough little Jews just may have the balls needed to save the apathetic gentile civilization.
Having Mossad working with us against AQ would be a great assist in pulling off an "October surprise". Sharon owes Bush big time for his nod and wink on abandoning the "roadmap" and pursuing the turnover of Gaza.
Never screw with the Mossad. I heard that when Admiral Borda was found slumped over in his backyard. Nothing here. Move on
Red
Industrial strength stupid to piss-off the enforcement arm of the Jewish State.
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