Dubai seeks '11 Europeans' for Hamas killing

[Magda Hassan]

I wonder how long it will be before we get a little false flag here? A North Korean torpedo mechanism dredged up from the bottom of the harbour. An inconvenient death at a 5 star hotel. To get us back on the straight and narrow hey?

[Magda Hassan]

Polish authorities have arrested a suspected Israeli agent in connection with the murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai in January.
Officials say the agent was arrested in early June. Media reports named him as Uri Brodsky.
Germany is seeking his extradition over a forged German passport used by one of the killers, the prosecutors say.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas's military wing, was found dead in a Dubai hotel on 20 January.
Dubai police have said they are 99% sure Israeli agents were involved, but Israel says there is no proof.
Extradition wrangle On Saturday, German prosecutors said the agent had been arrested on a warrant issued by Germany, as he arrived in Poland.
"It's now up to the Poles to decide if they are going to hand him over," a spokesman for the federal German prosecutor's office told AP news agency.
Israel's foreign ministry confirmed that an Israeli citizen had been arrested in Poland but gave no futher details.
A spokeswoman for Polish prosecutors told the Associated Press news agency that a suspect, identified as Uri B, had been arrested on 4 June in connection with the Dubai murder.
The German magazine Der Spiegel reports that the Israeli embassy in Warsaw has urged the Polish authorities not to extradite Mr Brodsky.
Forged passports from Britain, the Irish Republic, France, Australia, and Germany were used in the Dubai operation, leading to diplomatic rows between those countries and Israel.
The UK and Australia have expelled Israeli nationals over the forgeries.
Israel maintains that Mabhouh was in Dubai to procure rockets for Hamas to fire into Israel from Gaza.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pa...302022.stm

[Ed Jewett]

Money Trail in Dubai Assassination Leads To Iowa


May-June 2010, Page 18
Special Report


http://wrmea.org/component/content/artic...iowa-.html
Money Trail in Dubai Assassination Leads To Iowa

By Michael Gillespie

A MetaBank branch office in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo M. Gillespie)

AN ONGOING investigation by the Dubai Police Force into the assassination there of a high-level Hamas official (see April 2010 Washington Report, p. 12) has revealed the contours of Israel's massive and ever-expanding operations in the United States.
The Jan. 19 murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana, a 275-room five-star luxury hotel, has been widely perceived to be a Mossad operation involving, by the most recent count, 27 suspects traveling on fraudulently obtained and falsified European or Australian passports.
The plot thickened in late February and early March, when major U.S. news media outlet reports connected the crime and many of those involved in it to Israeli and U.S. corporations and revealed that, after leaving Dubai, some of the suspected assassins had entered the United States.
ABC News reported on Feb. 24 that Dubai police had identified 15 new suspects as part of the ring that killed al-Mabhouh, and that "Fourteen of the suspects purportedly used credit cards from MetaBank, a regional American bank, to pay for hotel rooms and travel arrangements…Dubai police linked MetaBank to a New York-based company called Payoneer, which provided prepaid MasterCard credit cards issued by MetaBank. According to its Web site, Payoneer has a research and development center in Tel Aviv."
This reporter contacted MetaBank's corporate headquarters in Storm Lake, Iowa to inquire why an Iowa bank would provide credit cards to 14 suspected members of a death squad. Lisa Binder, vice president for Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, responded via telephone and e-mail with a statement saying, in part, "The Meta cards in question were issued in conjunction with a Meta Payment Systems program, not at a retail bank location. Meta Payment Systems, which has issued more than 150 million prepaid cards, markets its payroll cards through various Program Managers—in this case, Payoneer—to offer reputable U.S. companies network branded payroll cards with which American companies can pay expatriates, employees and contractors of their company who live in the U.S. and in foreign countries. The cards in question were 'loaded' by the companies using direct deposit for payroll, disbursements, and other compensation."
Attempts to contact Payoneer offices at 410 Park Avenue in New York City revealed that the only phone answered at Payoneer headquarters was a customer support line for Payoneer's Birthright Israel customers.
According to Birthright Israel's Web site, <www.birthrightisrael.com>, the program sends "thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants' personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people."
The Web site states that all Birthright Israel participants must pay their $250 refundable "security deposit" through Payoneer.
Payoneer's Birthright customer support center declined to provide contact information for Payoneer corporate communications personnel or for Payoneer founder and CEO Yuval Tal.
"Since the [Dubai[ assassination," noted Abbas Al Lawati, a staff reporter for Gulf News.com, on March 3, "Tal has been shielded by a wall of public relations representatives and does not respond to media requests for comments...Tal's public relations representatives in New York have refused to comment on his past and relations with Israel's intelligence agency Mossad."
Payoneer's Web site describes the company as "a registered MasterCard Merchant Service Provider (MSP), and partner with MetaBank or Choice Bank Limited to deliver our services. Privately held, our funding partners include Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures, and Crossbar Capital."
All three of Payoneer's funding partners are venture capital firms that have offices in or strong connections to Israel, the Washington Report has learned.
Charlie Federman, managing partner of Crossbar Capital, previously co-founded BRM Capital in 1999, headed its New York office, and served as a managing director of the Israel- and New York-based fund until 2007. BRM Group, headquartered in Herzliya, was founded by Nir Barkat, mayor of occupied Jerusalem. Carmel Ventures also is headquartered Herzliya.
Greylock Partners, founded in 1965, "operates in a number of global centers of innovation, including Boston, China (Beijing), India (Bangalore), Israel (Herzliya) and Silicon Valley." Current Greylock portfolio companies include Digg, Facebook, and LinkedIn, according to Greylock's Web site.
Greylock's investment activities in Israel were launched in 2002 by partner Moshe Mor, who "served six years in the Israeli army as a Captain in the Military Intelligence branch," according to the Web site.
Despite the reported entry into the U.S. of at least two of the Dubai suspects using fraudulent, falsified passports, thus far there has been little to indicate that U.S. officials are seriously interested in investigating the funding of travel expenses and hotel accommodations of suspected Israeli assassins through U.S. corporations. The Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security failed to respond to inquiries from this reporter.
Michael Gillespie lives and works in Iowa, where he writes regularly about peace and social justice activism.

[Jan Klimkowski]

For more on Metabank, reported in this very thread back in February, see Carsten's posts #71 ff:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...195&page=8

And my post #87 here:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...stcount=87

[Carsten Wiethoff]

For more details on Uri Brodsky (aka Alexander Verin), the Israeli agent arrested in Warsaw recently, see Der Spiegel.

The day the Mossad operation on German soil began was a clear, sunny Sunday in late March 2009. Alexander Verin, who holds an Israeli passport, had an appointment with an attorney in Cologne to discuss naturalization. Verin was accompanied by a man named Michael Bodenheimer, who claimed that he was an Israeli of German descent. Bodenheimer wanted to apply for a German passport, but Verin, who had made the appointment, was doing most of the talking.


The two men explained that Bodenheimer's father Hans had emigrated to Israel to escape Nazi persecution. As proof, the Israelis showed the attorney what they claimed was the parents' marriage certificate, as well as a passport. In such cases, which number around 3,000 a year, Article 116 of Germany's constitution provides for a relatively straightforward naturalization procedure. The two Israelis were staying in a Cologne hotel. Bodenheimer would later rent an apartment on a run-down street in Cologne's Eigelstein neighborhood, in a nondescript, sand-colored apartment building with a pizza takeout restaurant on the ground floor, near the railroad station. It was the perfect, cheap apartment for someone who didn't want to be noticed.
On June 16, 2009, the attorney submitted the naturalization application to a registry office in Cologne. A German passport was issued in the name of Michael Bodenheimer two days later. It looked like a routine procedure.
But it was everything but routine when the passport was used in January in connection with the murder of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

[Ed Jewett]

Ireland seeks to block Israel access to data on EU citizens

July 10, 2010 by legitgov

[url=javascript:void(0)][/url]Ireland seeks to block Israel access to data on EU citizens --Irish government retaliates over use of forged Irish passports by alleged Mossad spies in Dubai assassination. 11 Jul 2010 Ireland is seeking to stop a European Union initiative that would enable Israel to receive sensitive information about European citizens, due to concerns about the use that Israel would make of this information, the Irish minister for justice said over the weekend. In what may be another blow to Israel's international status, Dermott Ahern said that since Israel allegedly used forged Irish passports to carry out the hit on Hamas official Mohammed al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Israel should not be allowed access to this data.
Permalink

[Ed Jewett]

How to fund a murder

American authorities are assisting Dubai in investigating the Mossad murder. They have identified American companies that were used to transfer money to the assassins:

"The U.S. companies identified by investigators include web-based firms that pair freelance job-seekers with employers and transfer payments between them, the Journal said. Authorities have identified financial transfers from several intermediary businesses into prepaid, cash-card accounts used by suspects in the Dubai killing, according to international investigators.

The companies are not accused of any complicity in the attack - instead, investigators believe suspects might have posed as freelancers to obtain while that obscuring its source, using the money for operational expenses, such as plane tickets.

Representatives of several companies identified in the probe, including, Elance Inc. and Rent a Coder, now called vWorker.com, said they had not been contacted by U.S. authorities and were unaware of any investigation."

at 8/01/2010 09:17:00 AM

[Magda Hassan]

"The U.S. companies identified by investigators include web-based firms that pair freelance job-seekers with employers and transfer payments between them, the Journal said. Authorities have identified financial transfers from several intermediary businesses into prepaid, cash-card accounts used by suspects in the Dubai killing, according to international investigators.

I get these emails all the time. $800 per week, work from home with your computer, just email work and let us use your bank account and you keep 10%. Some thing like that.

[Magda Hassan]

Alleged Mossad spy granted bail in Germany, 'can return to Israel if he wants'

Prosecutors accuse Uri Brodsky of illegally helping to procure a German passport used in connection with the slaying of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

Prosecutors say an alleged Mossad spy wanted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas leader in Dubai earlier this year has been set free on bail by a German judge on Friday.
Cologne prosecutors' spokesman Rainer Wolf said after a closed-doors hearing that the suspect known as Uri Brodsky is free to travel wherever he wants to go while judicial proceedings against him in Germany will continue.
Alleged Mossad agent known as Uri Brodsky, center, being escorted by armed Polish anti-terrorist police officers to court in Warsaw, July 7, 2010.
Photo by: AFP Wolf said Brodsky could "return to Israel today if he wants to."
Prosecutors accuse Brodsky of illegally helping to procure a German passport used in connection with the Jan. 19 slaying of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, allegedly by a Mossad hit squad.
Brodsky was arrested June 4 at Warsaw airport. He was extradited to Germany on Thursday.
Israel's suspected forgery of European passports allegedly used by members of a hit squad who took part in the killing of the Hamas leader in Dubai in January annoyed several European countries, including Britain, which expelled an Israeli diplomat over the matter in March.
Police in the United Arab Emirates said the elaborate hit squad linked to the Jan. 19 slaying of Mabhouh - one of the founders of Hamas' military wing - involved some 25 suspects, most of them carrying fake passports from European nations and Australia.
Among the faked passports, according to Dubai police, was one issued in 2009 by authorities in Cologne with Brodsky's alleged involvement. The passport was issued to a man named Michael Bodenheimer, who allegedly was part of the hit squad.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/new...y-1.308057

Suspected Mossad agent lands in Israel after released in Germany

Uri Brodsky released on bail following his extradition from Poland to Germany on Thursday.

By Roman Frister


WARSAW - The Israeli suspected of forging a German passport allegedly used in the January assassination of a Hamas operative landed in Israel last night. The arrival of the man, identified as Uri Brodsky, came after a German court released him on bail following his extradition from Poland to Germany on Thursday.
A court in the German city of Koln subsequently said Brodsky will be allowed to leave the country while proceedings against him continue. He will be represented by his attorneys in court.
Brodsky, who is expected to face charges of forgery, faces a maximum penalty of three years. The Polish court that authorized his extradition limited the ability of German authorities to charge him with more serious crimes, noting the only available evidence related to the illegal procurement of a German passport. According to Polish sources, even before his extradition was approved, a secret deal had been reached by which Brodsky would be allowed to return to Israel, with guarantees that if he is sentenced to jail time he will be sent back to Germany. German legal experts believe the court will only fine Brodsky and not ask for jail time.
Brodsky, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in Poland in early June, and is charged with helping procure a German passport through forgery. The German media reported that he used the name Alexander Verin when he assisted another alleged Mossad agent, who represented himself as Michael Bodenheimer, the son of a German Jew named Hans Bodenheimer, in acquiring a German passport.
Responding to the news that Brodsky was released on bail, the United Arab Emirates says it is seeking clarification from Germany on why it released an alleged Israeli spy wanted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas operative in Dubai. Emirati Foreign Ministry official Abdul Rahim al-Awadi said yesterday that the UAE has asked Berlin for an explanation of why Brodsky was released while the case is ongoing.
Brodsky is accused of illegally helping to procure a German passport used in connection with the January 19 assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, allegedly by a Mossad hit squad.
The UAE authorities maintain that more than 30 suspects were involved in the hit, and that they used passports from Britain, Ireland, France, Australia and Germany. The use of apparently fake passports from other countries led to diplomatic friction between Israel and those countries, including the expulsion of Israeli diplomats in some cases.