Posted on 09/06/2012 3:43:59 AM PDT by nuconvert
#19
Thanks for the update. There are so many aspects to this story.
I tend to believe that it is the intelligence agencies, but crime is always possible, and one can't rule anything out.
There are some odd hints in this report from a news story today:
"I saw an English car coming up the road from the village," said Mr Fillion-Robin, who has not yet been interviewed by police. "There were no other cars with it. I did not see or hear any other cars pass by that afternoon."
The house is the final property before the road climbs 3km to the car park in a national park above Lake Annecy.
Police have revealed that the Iraq-born Mr Hilli, 50, his dentist wife Ikbal, 47, his Swedish mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, and a cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, were each shot two times in the head and that 25 bullets were fired in the attack.
Mr Fillion-Robin said: "I didn't hear any shooting. You do hear shooting from the hunters sometimes but I didn't hear anything that afternoon. Perhaps they had a silencer."
The builder, who lives in a nearby village, said it was "bizarre" for the family to have gone to the car park. "It is not the sort of place that families with young children or older people would go to," he said.
There is something odd about that car park in the high area of the nature reserve, and the witness is not saying exactly what it is.
I have been gleaning the internet for background information on this area. First of all, it's hard to identify the location in Google Earth or Google Maps. There are a number of photos of the crime scene with reporters swarming over it. I believe it was a one shot deal. They had to walk about two miles to get there, I believe. You can follow the road to the place which must be the "car park" but it's hard to match it up with the pictures. The road rises from 1828 ft to 2460 ft, but it is running along the bottom of a valley with two steep forested slopes on either side. In Google Earth, it's hard to distinguish the paths and trails which go on from there from the one lane road. However if you pay attention to the vertical relief, you can reconcile the view with the pictures, I think. Anyway, this has to be it, although I'd certainly be interested in other opinions.
The strange thing about his going there with his family is that it is nothing but a dead end unless you are equipped for some challenging mountain hiking or biking.
Am wondering who are the Clients of this company; where he was employed. And just what, kind of info/for whom; is 'the 'gathering'.
Detectives investigating the shooting in the alps massacre are looking into whether Saad Al-Hilli could have been targeted over links to the defence industry.
Mr Al-Hilli was killed alongside his wife and mother-in-law last week. His daughters Zainab, seven, and Zeena, four, survived the killing.
There is growing speculation over the motives for the killings. French detectives are reportedly keen to question work colleagues of Saad after discovering that he was killed while working on a secret contract for one of Britain's biggest defence companies.
Mr Al-Hilli worked for Surrey Satellites Technology Limited (SSTL) near Guildford, and detectives are expected to ask colleagues about whether his work may have made him a target for assassination.
Mr Al-Hilli was part of a team involved in an undisclosed project linked to European Aeronautic Defence and Space. The company designs and launches satellites for clients who want an "eye in the sky" for commercial, civil or security purposes.
. . .do think this is where the trail leads; just hope they get to 'end of it'.
link: The Telegraph link
They are pretty stupid cops over there. Inspector Clouseau could have done better.
Prayers for the two young survivors.
24 to 25 rounds were fired, most likely from a single Skorpion automatic pistol chambered in .32 ACP.
That same weapon was also used in the nearby assasination of Momir Gavrilovic in Belgrade in August of 2001. Gavrilovic was entirely enmeshed in black ops for Serbia as well as European cigarette smuggling for his own pocket.
...and even though it was a an automatic machinegun pistol, the hitmen shot Momir twice in the head and once in the chest with his burst.
Fast forward to August of 2012 in France, where each of the 4 victims was shot twice in the head and once in the chest with the same Skorpion automatic machine pistol.
Same area. Same MO. Same caliber of ammo. Likely the same, or same type of, weapon.
OH, that weapon is the weapon of choice for Serbia’s Red Beret Spec Ops.
Say what you will about the Serbs pro or con, no one doubts their accuracy and proficiency with firearms.
Same time of year for both jobs, too. August in Europe is when most government workers are “on holiday” vacations...available for side jobs.
The 7 year old girl was *outside* the locked BMW. It’s reasonable to conclude that she was outside during the attack because it is unlikely that she would open, close, and lock the BMW after surviving that attack in her condition.
The violence to her head could have been from being hit by the attacker’s car, which would also explain why she was only hit once in the shoulder if that driver was firing while moving as he turned off the road toward the BMW.
The BMW had its doors locked and was in reverse, getting stuck on the incline behind it.
Obviously you would be in a big hurry to leave your 7 year old daughter outside. They saw what was coming.
The man's defense industry connections are probably more of interest but maybe its something else. Wonder if she had any famous clients or identified someone questionable based on dental records?
that’s intersting stuff there...
yeah that was a weird one
This all reminds me of “Day of the Jackal.”
3 more people have now been murdered in a car by a small caliber automatic weapon user in France (Corsica).
Corsica? Mafia war?
Ex-soldier questioned over French Alps murders ‘commits suicide’
Latest update : 2014-06-04
A former French soldier who was questioned as part of an investigation into the 2012 murder of four people in the French Alps was on Tuesday found dead in a suspected suicide, an official said.
Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud said the man – a former Legionnaire and paratrooper – had "left a note of six or seven pages in which he said he was disturbed by the questioning. He felt accused".
"It does not make this the main or sole reason for his action," Maillaud said, adding that the 50-year-old had not been a suspect in the case.
The man, whose name was not made public, was found dead in his home in Ugine, in eastern France, on Tuesday afternoon. He reportedly died from a gunshot wound.
The police investigation in question was the September 5, 2012, murder of three members of the British-Iraqi al-Hilli family who were shot dead in their BMW in a woodland car park close to the village of Chevaline in the hills above Lake Annecy. A French cyclist Sylvain Mollier was also found shot dead at the scene.
Maillaud said the soldier had been questioned for “two hours” last year due to his links to Mollier’s family.
The two al-Hilli daughters, then aged four and seven, survived the attack in which more than 20 bullets were fired. The oldest daughter, Zainab, 7, was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head, leaving her with a fractured skull. Her 4-year-old sister, Zeena, hid for eight hours under the skirt of her dead mother in the back of the family's car and survived without any injuries.
More than 1,300 people have been questioned in the police investigation into the al-Hilli family murders.
Weird
Thanx
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.