Posted on 02/02/2010 5:32:48 PM PST by SJackson
Hamas probing whether Israel also got into Damascus security services.
The mysterious death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month has prompted Hamas to launch an internal investigation to determine whether Israel has managed to infiltrate the highest echelons of the Islamist movement, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip revealed on Tuesday.
“The assassination of someone as senior as Mabhouh has rung an alarm bell in Hamas,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “Only a few people in the Hamas leadership knew about Mabhouh’s secret activities and movements.”
The official said that many Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip and Syria were convinced that the Mossad has infiltrated the movement’s top ranks. “Obviously, the assassination of Mabhouh is a huge security blunder for Hamas, because it shows that the Israeli agents are sitting among our leaders in Damascus.”
The Hamas official said Hamas was also looking into the possibility that Israel has infiltrated the Syrian security services, which are responsible for the safety of the leaders of all the radical Palestinian groups based in Damascus, including Hamas.
“We don’t rule out the possibility that the Israelis or some other security agency that works with them have recruited a senior Syrian intelligence officer who feeds them with details about the movements and whereabouts of representatives of Hamas and other groups, particularly Hizbullah,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hamas appears to be divided over the question of whether it should attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world to avenge the killing of its top operative.
Some Hamas officials warned that “exporting” the fight against Israel to the international arena would jeopardize the movement’s efforts to seek recognition by the West.
A Hamas representative in the West Bank urged his movement to abide by its long-standing policy of refraining from attacking Israeli and Jewish targets outside the Palestinian territories and Israel.
He predicted that despite the threats, Hamas would not “change the rules of the game” by carrying out terrorist attacks abroad.
Hamas’s “foreign minister,” Osama Hamdan, hinted that his movement has no intention to launch terrorist attacks on Israelis and Jews around the world. “Hamas won’t be dragged to the square where the Israelis want to take us,” he said. “Hamas makes its decisions in a balanced manner and in accordance with the interests of the Palestinian people.”
Hamdan, who is Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, said his movement does not make hasty decisions based on “emotional” considerations.
Shortly after blaming Israel for the killing of Mabhouh, a number of senior Hamas officials, including Mahmoud Zahar, declared that their movement would seek revenge outside Israel and the Palestinian territories. Hamas’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, issued a similar threat
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
gee...that’s too bad
/
Something like this happened years ago with Eli Cohen.
Yes, I hope Israel has done it again, though I seriously doubt it. I’d like to see the US do it. Maybe Iran, China would be good too.
I sure HOPE they did.
The need to do such stuff to survive!
OR
TURN TO GOD ALMIGHTY WHOLESALE . . . WHICH THEY WILL DO AFTER THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION BETRAYAL.
I guess they remember Eli Cohen, who almost became Syrian Deputy Minister of Defense.
Seems like the Syrians recognize talent when they see it.
Good—let them start eating their own. Popcorn anyone?
Hmmmm. Of course, when dealing with a large, violent, terrorist group, one of the best things a government can do is make them think that they have been infiltrated. Suspicion becomes paranoia in an instant, and the terrorists are kept busy shooting each other, and torturing "confessions" out of each other. With any luck, they will keep at it for years.
The French did it in Algeria, and the Brits in Ireland.
Chances that we will do it to Al Queda while BO is President: ZERO.
Mahumoud Ahmuh-nut job will get his soon enough. His day is coming.
The Syrians should execute all their top officers just to be sure...
Inbreeding can have frightful consequences.
Whoops, and I forgot to put this link in the previous ping. [blush] Thanks SJackson.
“Only a few people in the Hamas leadership knew about Mabhouh’s secret activities and movements.”
While Hamas may be concerned over a real intelligence coup by Mossad, the depth of the “penetration” that they suspect is not in fact always the depth necessary for achieving what happened.
All Mossad really needed was people absolutely able to identify the person in question and enough of such people established in places where it was simply possible the suspect MIGHT show up. And, don’t think such people were idle in the meantime (in terms of the totality of their job); they wouldn’t be.
Mossad pulled another Eli Cohen? If only...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.