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?
Q
FBI?
May i have a laugh? This guy is obviously better trained than most other top CIA agents.
Plus he is an Obama shill.
he is america’s james bond whose g-g-g-g-g-g-great grandfather was Benjamin Franklin and whose stepfather is a Pilkington. He could easily candidate for president himself.
Fort Hood could be one of those Canadian connections. They had a Canadian Deputy Commanding General, who went on to head the Canadian Forces. He was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He had graduated from the US Army War College.
There’s a significant amount of cross-training between the US and Canada.
NR
24 Nov, 2012 – 9:54 pm I admire how you always manage to subject information to critical examination. Respect! American Jewish billionaire bankrupt, American diplomat/military types/New Zealanders/Martins? Interesting combination.
sorry that was for NR
24 Nov, 2012 – 9:54 pm
Pilkington (fred humphries stepfather connection?)
Pilkington is military contractor. Who does the laser mirrors? Who does the glass for planes and helicopters?
Look at that:
http://pilkoptr02.uuhost.uk.uu.net/newsarchive/399.htm
Who is that country above? Lets guess ..
And they do much more than glass only (satellites, laser, etc)
http://wn.com/pilkington_optronics
http://pilkoptr02.uuhost.uk.uu.net/histf.htm
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/firm566.html
@ Q 24 Nov, 2012 – 9:59 pm
“Thanks, BB. Fort Bragg: hmmm.”
“Special Forces. Language School : 4 or 6 Month Course
Fort Bragg, North Carolina:”
He might have Rox 24 Nov, 2012 – 11:04 pm. He might even have used it. But this still does not explain why Maillaud stated that it was Martin made the initial call at 3.48, or stuck to that story until it subtly changed to equally impossible Didierjean. At no time has it been even hinted that the Al Hillis or Mollier set off the alarm.
NR, Q
Would the location of this guy fit to one of the Texas locations of Fred Humphries?
http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=6765
He is a very interesting Pilkington with close links into Iraq and Iraqi and Middle Eastern politics.
@ Tim V 24 Nov, 2012 – 5:13 pm
Is it significant that the police were the last to arrive?
Yes.
First response to a multiple shooting, 4 dead, perp. possibly still at scene?
Obviously not the fire brigade…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=-ZYzbkk5X4M&NR=1
@ Q 24 Nov, 2012 – 11:23 pm
“Fort Hood could be one of those Canadian connections. They had a Canadian Deputy Commanding General, who went on to head the Canadian Forces. He was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He had graduated from the US Army War College.”
“There’s a significant amount of cross-training between the US and Canada.”
The US and UK also.
“[Paula Broadwell] has held positions in the U.S. intelligence community, U.S. Special Operations Command and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, according to the bio.”
“Later, she would add degrees from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.”
** “She is also a PhD candidate at King’s College, London.”
“Among her many military-related activities, Broadwell has been a “valued member” of the Warlord Loop, an elite, invitation-only email forum that has about 500 national security specialists as members, said John Collins, who runs the group.”
Interesting but not particularly surprising:
Mr. Humphries did NOT investigate, Mr. Berger said. He received the information from Mrs. KELLEY.
House majority leader Mr. Cantor said he had no intention of “politicizing” the tip from Mr. Humphries, whom he did not name. “The information that was sent to me sounded as if there was a potential for a national security vulnerability,” Mr. Cantor said.
@Terry
25 Nov, 2012 – 12:08 am
‘sapeurs-pompier’ not exactly just fire brigade. That’s a misconception, the sapeurs-pompier are the fire and rescue service.
But it is curious they arrived ‘in convoy’. Who said that, I forget, was it WBM?
I wonder where they came from – it seems the nearest centre is actually Doussard. There’s a map here:
http://www.sdis74.fr/casernes/?
Does any of this help with the timeline?
This is from the SDIS departemental website for Doussard:
103 place du Pré de Foire
74210 DOUSSARD
Tél. administratif : 04 50 44 39 66
En cas d’urgence, composez le 18
Chef de centre : Adjudant Christophe PIERRETTE
Pôle Groupements : Ouest
Effectif : 19 Sapeurs-Pompiers Volontaires
Activité opérationnelle : 204 interventions en 2011
Moyens matériels :
4 engins dont 1 CCI, 1 VTU, 1 VTUHR et sa remorque.
Responsable du Groupement du Bassin Annécien : Lcl Philippe CHAPPET
In case of emergency, dial 18.
http://www.sdis74.fr/casernes/?
@BB: Goodfellow AFB and its intelligence training seem to be a possible point of crossover, although not among the locations listed in Pilkington’s bio.
It is also possible for people to cross paths overseas on assignments, and in training courses, etc.
Morning Bluebird, that Pilkington, are you talking about the glass family ?
I knew Roger Pilkington he lived in Jersey & had a holiday home in the S of F, very nice genuine straight up sort of chap & big in the Samaritans. I have a feeling his wife was American .
Rox.
Interesting about the watch, I am convinced AH would be into something of that nature, why would a geek have an ordinary mobile phone…… even if he wasn’t doing something covert, I’m still in favour of a satellite phone . I wonder if his regular disappearances from the campsite could be related to finding co-ordinates or some such ?
Felix,
Personally I think that report means they have removed the hard drive from the computer found in the caravan,why they couldn’t just search it within in the computer sounds a bit daft but very French, they complicate everything, or could it be that putting it in one of their own computers they could crack passwords & codes ?
I read that AH never went anywhere without his laptop so finding one in the caravan in my view excludes a flit & extraction , he would have had his precious computer in one of those travel bags to take with him.
Still think that my difference with BB about William Hershkovitz’s real name is where the cover up of the Lake Annecy massacre begins – what the Mossad’s Sam Rosenfeld has attempted to complete by his empty claims as yet to sue me.
Shall be going to the States soon to straighten out all matters pertaining to William Hershkovitz, and returning to Sweden in Febraury to see if Rosenfeld ever makes good on his threats – what I shall respond to with a counter suit of tell proportions.
@ Tim V 24 Nov, 2012 – 11:38 pm
“NR 24 Nov, 2012 – 9:54 pm I admire how you always manage to subject information to critical examination. Respect! American Jewish billionaire bankrupt, American diplomat/military types/New Zealanders/Martins? Interesting combination.”
Thanks. I know many of these “connections” are coincidences, but sometimes they remind another person of a detail they saw or heard and that leads to something valuable.
@ bluebird 24 Nov, 2012 – 9:41 pm
Killeen (TX) Where Humphries lived is Fort Hood, where a very bad incident of alleged “workplace violence” took place, allegedly by Nidal Hasan on 5 Nov 2009.
“Brigadier General Jeffrey S. Pilkington [was] vice commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, Kelly Air Force Base, Texas.” [The base was largely closed after he left, and ops transferred elsewhere.]
“From July 1993 until January 1994 he was commander of the Combined Task Force Operation Provide Comfort at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.”
One function of Incirlik was a massive “listening post” to monitor communications in the old USSR and other eastern bloc nations.
@ Katie 25 Nov, 2012 – 8:16 am
“Personally I think that report means they have removed the hard drive from the computer found in the caravan,why they couldn’t just search it within in the computer sounds a bit daft but very French, they complicate everything, or could it be that putting it in one of their own computers they could crack passwords & codes ?”
One of the rules of electronic forensics is never to turn a device on. If the user has stuff they don’t want you to find, they may have set it up so anyone unauthorized (wrong password or unlock code within a few sec] turns it on and the device erases or destroys itself. So they take it to their labs to have experts examine, and if needed decrypt or recover deleted info.
@ Mochyn69 25 Nov, 2012 – 4:05 am
“@Terry 25 Nov, 2012 – 12:08 am
“‘sapeurs-pompier’ not exactly just fire brigade. That’s a misconception, the sapeurs-pompier are the fire and rescue service. I wonder where they came from – it seems the nearest centre is actually Doussard.”
I recall “somebody” saying there was a “rescue” station at the bottom of the road to Martinet. There was a pic of the media gathered there, before they were allowed up the road. Who knows if the report is accurate and if they had fire trucks there, or maybe it was just the forest rangers’ station.
Thanks NR, I didn’t know that.
I think AH would have anything imported well encrypted, I wonder how the French plod is managing to understand any of his work ?
Mochyn69
25 Nov, 2012 – 4:05 am – iT WOULD HELP us with the timeline if the emergency services would tell us what time they logged their arrival (and how they knew where to go and presumably what to expect) There can be no reason to withhold this information unless skullduggery(!) – I don’t know what the French term is for that, sorry – involved. It seems to me that only the press or politicians are able to take this case forward now – and they seem to have neither the balls or the appetite (so to speak) so the perpetrators and back room planners will get what they want – another mysterious case unsolved, another assassination not proved and filed. “Now where shall we send you next chaps?”
funny you should post this Mochyn69
25 Nov, 2012 – 4:14 am I was going to suggest you e-mail them and ask…..
“This is from the SDIS departemental website for Doussard:
103 place du Pré de Foire
74210 DOUSSARD
Tél. administratif : 04 50 44 39 66
En cas d’urgence, composez le 18
Chef de centre : Adjudant Christophe PIERRETTE
Pôle Groupements : Ouest
Effectif : 19 Sapeurs-Pompiers Volontaires
Activité opérationnelle : 204 interventions en 2011
Moyens matériels :
4 engins dont 1 CCI, 1 VTU, 1 VTUHR et sa remorque.
Responsable du Groupement du Bassin Annécien : Lcl Philippe CHAPPET
In case of emergency, dial 18.
http://www.sdis74.fr/casernes/?”
Along the lines of:
Dear Adjudant Christophe PIERRETTE,
I am one of many people around the world impressed by the speed and courage with which your rescue service responded to the tragedy that took place on Combe d’Ire on the 5th September, 2012.
The Annece Prosecutor, M. Eric Maillaud has publicly stated that the first call alerting the emergency services, including presumably your own, was made by the British “ex-RAF Pilot” Mr Brett Martin. In a television interview on the 10th September Mr Martin said he tried to phone using his mobile phone but it had no signal, so he failed to get through. I understand a call was subsequntly placed by M. Pierre Didierjean, who he met whilst seeking help but this must have been much later than 3.48.
It would be appreciated by the many who have taken an interest in this case, if you could could clarify at what time the emergency call was logged, who made it and whether sufficient information was given to enable you to so quickly assess the nature of the incident and the precise remote location. Can you confirm your men arrived on scene at 4.20 pm as has been stated?
It would appear your colleagues were the first to arrive, and attended despite the possible danger that may have still been present, for which they deserve the highest commendation.
Yours etc.
Tim
It’s Philippe.
When did Eric detract his statement and introduce Philippe making the call ?
I have the angle on the times, now it’s the call.
I have the delay of the forensics and the search for the 4×4 (or larger vehicle) including “Twigs” car crash.
I have a couple of journalist in mind now. One is the local woman that began the coverage, so hopefully tabling well organised “conflicts” may ignite something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3uc16bOeoE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/03/drone-race-factory-slaughter
“Russia has unveiled its MiG Skat combat drone with on-board cruise missiles for strikes on air defences as well as ground and naval targets, while Iran demonstrated an armed rocket launched drone, the Karrar, in 2010
Hypersonic drones are also on the wishlist. Darpa, the Pentagon’s research arm, has the HTV-2 programme to develop armed drones that can reach anywhere on the planet within 60 minutes. In recent tests their Falcon drone flew at a maximum speed of 13,000 mph (20,921.5 kph), about 8.5 times faster than the Russian MiG-25. The hypersonic fully autonomous drones of the future would create very powerful, effective, and flexible killing machines.
The downside is that these machines will not be able to discriminate on their targets – there are no programmes capable of distinguishing civilian from combatant. We have records of civilian casualties, including numerous children, from drone strikes when there are humans watching on computer screens and deciding when to fire. Think how much worse it will be when drones deal death automatically. Is this really a technology we want the secret intelligence services of the world to control?”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/03/drone-race-factory-slaughter
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/64-drone-bases-on-us-soil/ drone technology is cutting edge and critical in the middle east and elsewhere. Seems it would fit in Al Hilli’s brief. sorry if I’m only stating the obvious but I doubt the general public are fully aware how pervasive, ingenious and potentially deadly these things are.