The mainstream media for the most part has moved on. But there are a few more gleanings to be had, of perhaps the most interesting comes from the Daily Mirror, which labels al-Hilli an extremist on the grounds that he was against the war in Iraq, disapproved of the behaviour of Israel and had doubts over 9/11 – which makes a great deal of the population “extremist”. But the Mirror has the only mainstream mention I can find of the possibility that Mossad carried out the killings. Given Mr al-Hilli’s profession, the fact he is a Shia, the fact he had visited Iran, and the fact that Israel heas been assassinating scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear programme, this has to be a possibility. There are of course other possibilities, but to ignore that one is ludicrous.
Which leads me to the argument of Daily Mail crime reporter, Stephen Wright, that the French police should concentrate on the idea that this was a killing by a random Alpine madman or racist bigot. Perfectly possible, of course, and the anti-Muslim killings in Marseille might be as much a precedent as Mossad killings of scientists. But why the lone madman idea should be the preferred investigation, Mr Wright does not explain. What I did find interesting from a man who has visited many crime scenes are his repeated insinuations that the French authorities are not really trying very hard to find who the killers were, for example:
the crime scene would have been sealed off for a minimum of seven to ten days, to allow detailed forensic searches for DNA, fibres, tyre marks and shoe prints to take place.
Nearby bushes and vegetation would have been searched for any discarded food and cigarette butts left by the killer, not to mention the murder weapon.
But from what I saw at the end of last week, no such searches had taken place and potentially vital evidence could have been missed. House to house inquiries in the local area had yet to be completed and police had not made specific public appeals for information about the crime. No reward had been put up for information about the shootings.
Behind the scenes, what other short cuts have been taken? Have police seized data identifying all mobile phones being used in the vicinity of the murders that day?
The idea that the French authorities – who are quite as capable as any other of solving cases – are not really trying very hard is an interesting one.
Which leads me to this part of a remarkable article from the Daily Telegraph, which if true points us back towards a hit squad and discounts the ides that there was only one gun:
Claims that only one gun was used to kill everybody is likely to be disproved by full ballistics test results which are out in October.
While the 25 spent bullet cartridges found at the scene are all of the same kind, they could in fact have come from a number of weapons of the same make.
This throws up the possibility of a well-equipped, highly-trained gang circling the car and then opening fire.
Both children were left alive by the killers, who had clinically pumped bullets into everybody else, including five into Mr Mollier.
Zainab was found staggering around outside the car by Brett Martin, a British former RAF serviceman who cycled by moments after the attack, but he saw nobody except the schoolgirl.
Her sister, Zeena, was found unscathed and hiding in the car eight hours later.
Both sisters are now back in Britain, and are believed to have been reunited at a secret location near London.
There are of course a number of hit squad options, both governmental and private, which might well involve iraqi or Iranian interests – on both of which the mainstream media have been very happy to speculate while almost unanimously ignoring Israel.
But what interests me is why the Daily Telegraph choose, in the face of all the evidence, to minimise the horrific nature of the attack by stating that “Both children were left alive by the killers”? Zainab was not left alive by design, she was shot in the chest and her skull was stove in, which presumably was a pretty serious attempt to kill a seven year-old child. The other girl might very well have succeeded in hiding from the killers under her mother’s skirts, as she hid from the first rescuers, and then for eight hours from the police.
The Telegraph article claims to be informed by sources close to the investigation. So they believe it was a group of people, and feel motivated to absolve those people from child-killing. Now what could the Daily Telegraph be thinking?
This Shreen Ayob. In her “profiles” it says…
“She left a career in Offshore Engineer to work in the thirds sector”
Searching the key bits there, I get..
http://www.slideshare.net/ShreenAyob
And Saipem UK, I get that.
http://www.saipem.com/site/Home.html?utm_campaign=applegate.co.uk&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=applegate.co.uk
So that’s…
An “ex” Iraqi,
English childhood,
Engineer degree,
The UAE
and Surrey.
That’s a “full house” !
It’s a female Saad ! Nowonder they were friends.
I wonder if she can repair a BMW
“I think it was a Mossad orchestrated hit with thugs imported from the middle east”
Why not just their own people?
Far easier to import a team from Israel on fake European passports than mess about trying to get Arab thugs in?
“So… nothing to do with Aldermaston then, eh Dave.”
Did Mollier who Al-hilli was meeting work for AWE?
Clue – no.
Yeah, could be. Only we haven’t seen such bestiality from the Israelis before against european citizens, conducted right in the heart of Europe. They wouldn’t risc upsetting cordial relations that they have towards governments in europe, I think – but they will do that anyway, I agree, if found out that they laid out the masterplan.
“Yeah, could be. Only we haven’t seen such bestiality from the Israelis before against european citizens”
But these were Iraqis, if they’d gunned down white middle class English people….
Note how it’s all been hushed up, no mention of funerals or remembrance services back home in Surrey, just silence.
All in all it is important to remember that whether or not the Israelis had a direct involvement in those killings, such bestiality would not have happened right in the middle of europe, if Israel did not exist, because it is something that this country has done that so upsets other people; Israel’s actions in for example the occupied territories (and I include here former occupied territories like Gaza and South Lebanon) is the worlds greatest terror-incentive, and teh simgle greatest reason why Anti-americanism is on the rise, because the US is Israel ONLY ally on the face of this planet (maybe they themselves think they have some in the outer world) apart from Vanuato and Guam.
And if supposed procurement of nuclear knowledge or parts were involved, these things wouldn’t have happened either if Israel didn’t exist, because countries in Iran wouldn’t have an incentive to get a nuclear weapon (supposing they have such plans, but there are no proof of this)
BACK TO BASICS
We know that there was an unattributed report of a “D Notice” about four specific aspects of the murders.
For any new readers, a “D Notice” (aka “DA Notice”) is a gag order direct from the UK Ministry of Defence which prohibits newspapers, television, and radio from mentioning the specific items mentioned in the notice.
D Notices are only issued when national security would be compromised if the prohibited material were published.
The leaked D Notice in this case probits four specific subjects:
1. No mention of his links to the security services
2. No mention of his links to Iran
3. No mention of his links to nuclear weapons research
4. No speculation about Israeli involvement in the murders
Presumably, “his” in this context refers to Saad Al-Hilli (“SAH”).
It is easy to confirm that the media have meticulously avoided these four items:
1. No mention at all of SAH’s links to security services.
2. No mention at all of SAH’s links to Iran, despite having an Iranian wife and having visited the city of Qom, Iran, late in 2011. Qom is the nearest city to the hollowed-out mountain in which Iran has its most secure nuclear facilities.
3. No mention at all of SAH’s links to nuclear weapons research.
4. Although there has been mention of Mossad’s possible involvment, there has been no speculation about it. These very few mentions are either as a direct quote (from Gary Aked, SAH’s “best friend”) or in disparaging terms as to what “conspiracy theorists” are saying on the internet.
Since simply mentioning Mossad is not prohibited under item 4, only speculation about its involvement, these cannot be considered violations of the D Notice.
So, it seems fairly clear that the leaked D Notice must be real.
(If one were to take the position that it is a fake, one would have to credit its author with prophetic ability, and to imagine that all newspapers, TV, and radio somehow entered into a conspiracy to avoid these four subjects for reasons unknown, or that they accidentally and coincidentally did so, without of course knowing which four subjects to avoid. I think it must be clear to any thinking reader that these scenarios are rather unlikely, to say the least.)
Given that it’s likely that a D Notice *was* issued, and leaked to the internet by a concerned journalist, anyone with any curiousity would start to wonder why it had been issued.
What is it they don’t want us to see, or consider?
Why don’t they want us to investigate SAH’s links to security services?
Why don’t they want us to look at his links to Iran?
Why don’t they want us to look at his links to nuclear weapons research?
Why don’t they want us to speculate about Israeli involvement?
It is interesting to me that the D Notice does not, for example, prohibit mention of his work with satellites, nor his work with particle accelerators. Clearly neither of these were considered a threat to national security.
And I am particularly interested at present by the prohibition on mentioning his links to nuclear weapons research, about which we have uncovered no hard facts, except that they don’t want us to look there.
Eh Dave! 😉
It would be fair to counter this argument by saying that the MoD were, perhaps, just covering their bases by issuing a blanket ban. However, given the large number of secret technologies that the UK is involved with (drones, satellites, biological weapons research, chemical weapons research, nuclear weapons research, etc, etc) it would seem unlikely that the MoD would prohibit mention of just one of these, if they were simply covering their bases.
So it seems to me that the specific prohibition against mentioning SAH’s links to nuclear weapons research is a strong indication that he had some.
He is known to have worked as a student at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxfordshire, where they conduct research using lasers and particle accelerators amongst other things.
And the UK’s nuclear weapons research establishment (the AWE) is located 20-odd miles away at Aldermaston. Their research includes powerful lasers, among other things.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that SAH worked beyond studenthood at RAL and even perhaps at the AWE at Aldermaston.
Failing this, it is hard to see what his links could be to atomic weapons research.
So my hunch is that he did, in fact, work at the AWE at Aldermaston – or perhaps on a sister-project at RAL.
I am hoping (perhaps against hope) that someone will blow the whistle and reveal something of his background there.
That is why it is so important that all honets men and women work together to get this the worlds last colony closed down, because the risks to the world when it is allowed to govern itself, are simply to great. I only need to point to the first oilcrisis following the October war in 1973, which wouldn’t have happened if Israel did not exist* or had been closed down in, say, 1965. If we had done it in 1965, then there wouldn’t have been any humiliation of Egypt in 1967. Imagine what it must have felt like for the 70 million egyptians to have their airforce wiped out on the ground, without any declaration of war? What is a fact is that Muhammed Atta was brought up with constant hatred over Israel being aired by his father. Whether or not the father had been in the military around this time we do not know (I don’t at least) but the family would undoubtely had known somebody who were.
—–
Click on me name NOW to read about (some of) the consequences of that oilcrisis, which also made the second after the overthrow of the Shah in Februari 1979 much worse than it otherwise would have been. Yes very possibly this second — which then would have been the first — would have been nothing, just a blop.
“And I am particularly interested at present by the prohibition on mentioning his links to nuclear weapons research, about which we have uncovered no hard facts, except that they don’t want us to look there.”
Mollier workerd for Cezus, Cezus fabricates and processes zirconium into metal and nuclear grade zircoaloy.
The media seem to have done their level best to ignore the above, some just describing Molliers job to be in a steelworks.
It’s clear that the thought of Al-hilli helping Iran procure zirconium, which seems to be a key material used in the building of a nuclear reactor has never been metioned, despite it being a pretty obvious reason that he might be assassinated by a hit team.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium_alloy)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jan/08/iran.observerpolitics
Iran tries, and fails to import some Zirconium…
@ ferret
I agree with your D notice post…..except a D Notice isn’t a gagging order. It’s a “polite” request. The press aren’t forbidden..or via a D Notice anyway…from discussing the subject or subject matter.
The press are deterred from going against the D Notice because those who do don’t get invited to press conferences, don’t get the latest press releases etc etc and hence their news would always be printed a day later than everyone elses because they had to get it secondhand.
Dave, I’m surprised how much energy you’re putting into deflecting attention from SAH and his probable links to nuclear weapons research at the AWE at Aldermaston.
Aren’t you at all curious? Not even one little bit?
Sylvain Mollier is of course of great interest, and his work at the Cezus/Areva zirconium plant was discussed at great length on the previous thread on this site.
As were the many and varied properties and uses of zirconium itself and its sister product hafnium.
But that is another subject altogther.
Aren’t you the least bit curious what links SAH might have had to nuclear weapons research, and what he knew, and might be passing on?
@Ferret
2 Oct, 2012 – 12:48 pm
This is from AWE’s own website
‘Well before Polaris entered service in 1968, it was thought likely to be vulnerable to the anti-ballistic missile system in development by the Soviet Union. It was therefore decided to produce a countermeasure. The starting point was the American Antelope system, itself based on Polaris A3.
Over a decade and half, the British developed it into a capability for degrading the Soviet anti-ballistic missile system radar. This would have given attacking warheads the chance to penetrate this type of defence. The counter-measure became better known as ‘Chevaline’ and it entered service in 1982. By then, Trident had been selected as the next delivery system for the British deterrent.’
http://www.awe.co.uk/aboutus/our_history_f77a4.html
As I said earlier, in plain sight.
@Dopey
Yes, technically you are correct: the D Notice system is entirely voluntary on the part of the media.
However, seeing as all the mainstream media have played along, for the reasons you elaborate, it might just as well have been a gagging order because they have all shut up.
“Aren’t you the least bit curious what links SAH might have had to nuclear weapons research”
No.
“As were the many and varied properties and uses of zirconium itself”
But note which country has a need for zirconium or the raw materials needed for it’s production.
“Based on Iranian statements, the Arak fuel pin is also designed to
have a zirconium cladding. Iran has built a zirconium plant at Esfahan that is expected to
supply cladding for the Arak fuel pins, although the plant’s operational status is
unknown. Whether the Iranian fuel pins shown by President Ahmadinejad are clad in
zirconium could not be determined from the photo”
http://isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/Arak_Update_25_August2009.pdf
What was Sylvain Mollier’s role at Cezus?
It is unbelievable — at least to me — that no one in the press simply went ahead and started digging something up themselves, irrespective of any “D-notice”, which if it exists, anyway seems to be a complete antic in a modern democracy.[And tell me, why haven’t any US-based media written about it. In the land of the free, free speach is enchrined in the constitution as an inalienable right]
It means that journalists in general are extremely sheepish. No not because of any D-notice, but beacuse they are so sheepish, some of the worst human material that exists. Only politicians and real estate agents are worse.
“So, it seems fairly clear that the leaked D Notice must be real”
The other alternative being that there is no mention of his links with Iran, nuclear weapons and the security services because there are no such links. The only evidence we have for the DA Notice is an article on Indymedia. Indymedia is an open source site where anybody can post an item so is prone to hoaxers and pranksters. It’s interesting that there have been questions about the origin of the DA Notice claim on Indymedia which have remained unaswered.
“Although there has been mention of Mossad’s possible involvment, there has been no speculation about it.”
That’s just splitting hairs.
@Kempe
The other alternative being that there is no mention of his links with Iran, nuclear weapons and the security services because there are no such links.
This claim is patently false, as SAH’s wife Iqbal was Iranian, and he had visited the Iranian city of Qom as recently as late 2011.
Neither of these seemingly innocuous facts has been reported by the mainstream media.
And I can see you didn’t read my original post properly, as it clearly states this.
“Although there has been mention of Mossad’s possible involvment, there has been no speculation about it.”
That’s just splitting hairs.
No, it’s not – it’s an important distinction.
If the MoD had wanted to prohibit mention of Mossad in connection with these murders they could easily have done so. They did not, which is why we find mention in the papers. But there is no speculation.
Yes, Mochyn, it was mad to to use the USSR’s unwillingness to issue emmigration papers to Jews as a pretext to artificially prolong the cold war, as the neo-conservatives did in the early 70’s.
There was a thaw in east-west relations at that time – at it was simply mad, and highly risky — to begin to exagerate Soviet strenght just because you want some of your fellow men out! How stupid and narrowminded would you have to be to come up with anything like that! No good, pragmatic British person would do such a thing!
It is Richard Perle and Paul Volfowitch working as interns to congressman Henry M. Jackson who are chief responsible for this.*
*) {http://www.wrmea.com/component/content/article/249/4561-the-pentagons-dynamic-duo-richard-perle-and-paul-wolfowitz.html}
Kempe
Can you then explain why the absolute silence on the subject then? The silence which kicked in just after that Gary Aked piece I seem to recall.
The silence, the lack of photos..the “nothingness” that abounds where this case and the victims involved are concerned.
It is this silence all round, and so very soon after the killings too, that speaks volumes to me.
@Kempe
As you are casting aspertions on the veracity of the leaked D Notice, and implying it is a fake, perhaps you would like to post a fake D Notice of your own on Indymedia to predict which avenues of investigation will be avoided by the mainstream UK media?
Then we will see how easy it is to be prophetic, as the author of the D Notice clearly was (at least, according to you).
Be sure to include some facts which are in the public domain so we can all check. (Iqbal’s nationality and his visit to Qom, for example, are both verifiable details.)
@Kenneth Sorensen
2 Oct, 2012 – 1:23 pm
I think the MSM journos must be going crazy over this story. Although Shreen Ayob describes the coverage of the story as unprofessional journalism, it’s clear the British media were going to all kinds of lengths to extract information about it from her, and doubtless other ‘sources’.
There’s little doubt in my mind there was a DA notice, which has probably since been replaced by a worldwide superinjunction, you know, the kind journos aren’t even allowed to report exists, in order to protect the best interests of the two girls.
@M69
Thanks for that. Re the name “Chevaline”, the coincidence is indeed remarkable. I believe it has been noted here before that such coincidences often crop up in such mysterious events, although I cannot think of any examples to hand.
@Everyone
Can anyone think of any avenues that could be followed up to try and prise open the so-far sealed can of worms which is AWE/RAL?
How could we establish any connection?
Come on Dave….
Aren’t you the least bit inquisitive?
Surely you must know someone who works at AWE?
The leaked D Notice in this case probits four specific subjects:
The D Notice and the four subjects mentioned are as likely to be true as untrue. The press is largely compliant anyway and a call from their senior security/crime/defence correspondents to their contacts could have got the response ‘Hold off for now, we’ll have something solid for you in a few weeks’.
Any mention of Mossad is speculative whether it is quoting someone else or raised by the author of an article themselves.
All we can say is that MSM speculation on likely motives for the murders would seem to focus disproportionately on a family dispute as against the possible involvement of security service(s) including Mossad. The MSM reluctance to look more closely at the latter possibility is certainly suggestive of ‘turning a blind eye’.
As I have said previously, it’s my own view that the belief that SAH was up to no good was possibly sufficient cause for the murders to be ordered, perhaps by an agency that (received a leak? and) was not party to the full facts. In that sense the information or material SAH may have had access to would be less important than what he was believed to have had access to.
The murders are a culmination of a sequence of events. The logic we apply to unearthing those events and our attempts to discern their causation are being applied after the fact. So we look for intention because we tend to assume the consequences were intended. But, obviously, the consequences were not intended (or foreseen) by all the actors on the day. Even those responsible for the murders (that is those present and distant) may not have intended that four people would die. And if that was not what they intended then what did they intend? One death? Two deaths? Five deaths? Abductions? Arrests?
“Come on Dave….
Aren’t you the least bit inquisitive?
Surely you must know someone who works at AWE?”
Sylvain Mollier worked for a company that refined zirconium, Iran uses zirconium as a key part of it’s nuclear programme, Al-hilli had links to Iran, Israel has an open policy of assassanetaing anyone with links to Iran’s nuclear industry.
Why worry about AWE when it’s quite clear why it happened and who the players are?
Now does anyone know what Sylvain Mollier actually did at Cezus?
@ Dave Brooker 2 Oct, 2012 – 12:25 pm
Far easier to import a team from Israel on fake European passports than mess about trying to get Arab thugs in?
I strongly disagree. Setting up a typical assassination by a Kidon team is a lengthy process involving months of preparation. Substantial resources are required, if only because those passports are *not* fake. They are modified genuine passports taken away from immigrants into Israel, who have to fit a certain profile (be likely to stay put inside Israel for the foreseeable future) and who also have to match the basic physical characteristics of the team members (age, sex, languages spoken).
Now, the only good reason to go to all that trouble is that Kidon’s targets are hard targets: Wary and/or well-protected people who *know* that they are potential targets. SAH may have been fearing for his life lately, but he surely did not expect anything like that to happen to him. (IMHO, he may have laboured under the illusion that having his family around himself would be sufficient protection.) He was a soft target, the kind of target for which it really makes sense to send in the hired help. That principle would hold all the more true if the assassination was arranged at short notice: short notice implies sketchy preparation and thus high risk.
@CD
The press is largely compliant anyway and a call from their senior security/crime/defence correspondents to their contacts could have got the response ‘Hold off for now, we’ll have something solid for you in a few weeks’.
To accept this as the real reason would require all the mainstream media – newspapers, TV, and radio, including BBC, Sky, and ITV – to have entered into a grand conspiracy to avoid the four subjects. Is this what you believe? If so, how could they have accomplished this? And why? I find this extremely uncompelling and highly unlikely.
Any mention of Mossad is speculative whether it is quoting someone else or raised by the author of an article themselves.
Dictionary definitions:
Mention: refer to (something) briefly and without going into detail
Speculation: the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence
http://oxforddictionaries.com
Again, there *has* been mention (referring to Mossad briefly) but no speculation (forming of any theories or conjectures about their participation) by the media.
All we can say is that MSM speculation on likely motives for the murders would seem to focus disproportionately on a family dispute as against the possible involvement of security service(s) including Mossad.
They have not focused AT ALL on the possibility of Mossad involvement, so this is a somewhat misleading statement. They have focused entirely on speculating about OTHER theories. Period.
The MSM reluctance to look more closely at the latter possibility is certainly suggestive of ‘turning a blind eye’.
Again, it’s not “reluctance” to speculate about the possibility of Mossad involvement, it’s a complete and utter *avoidance*.
They are modified genuine passports taken away from immigrants into Israel..
They have actually used cloned passports of visa applicants and tourists, thereby endangering the lives of blameless citizens of other states.