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?
The late Anders7777 called SAH’s neighbour a “sleeping Mossad agent”. I agree that he must have worked closely together with WJC in the Waldheim case. Then his description is possibly correct. However, when they were revealing the Saratoga protocol and the interplanetary (secret) internet technology and perhaps even Cisco Saratoga protocol router backdoors , by using their fastdata ltd., to Israel, then SAH must have been working for Israel, too. Another possibility would have just been that SAH was perhaps a trojan horse. That of course is making an agent’s life always dangerous.
@Mochyn @Tim
I thought the bit about the arrival of the police sounded a bit weird or forced. Fancy the BBC getting there first. And then bumping into the gendarmes! I now wonder if it were added or substituted later.
Hey, something weird has just happened – the google street view showing M. Lecoeur’s house just off the main road has now been removed since yesterday and the image jumps over the junction now. You could see the strange chimney on the house on the corner until then. For the record, it is just down this street on the left
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Chevaline,+France&hl=en&ll=45.762434,6.21985&spn=0.007545,0.027595&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=7.368368,14.128418&oq=chevaline+&t=h&hnear=Chevaline,+Haute-Savoie,+Rhone-Alpes,+France&z=15&layer=c&cbll=45.762444,6.219864&panoid=WZa3sq_NnOf6Mz_AY04bHQ&cbp=11,90,,0,0
Yes, I see the junction just north of Chevaline. On such narow roads, on corners who is to say who has drifted onto the wrong side? Wrong side could just be getting a line into the bend…
{https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Chevaline,+France&hl=en&ll=45.767029,6.217747&spn=0.003772,0.013797&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=7.368368,14.128418&oq=chevaline+&t=h&hnear=Chevaline,+Haute-Savoie,+Rhone-Alpes,+France&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.767028,6.217752&panoid=Y-iPShml2VIHKIbTmiPdlQ&cbp=11,0,,0,0}
@BB: Ironic that the Boeing 787 news brought up concerns about back doors in hardware. Back doors in software are something we already knew about. So many back doors. Doesn’t anyone use the front door?
Of course, the Boeing problem turned out to be a battery.
Bluebird
19 Jan, 2013 – 7:15 pm STAGE MANAGER?
2006 ANDERS7777 suggested MoD gave/lent the plane to Al Hilli. Cud he fly then in addition to designing aviation stuff. In passing if true wud prove he wasn’t seen seen as national threat, in fact quite the opposite. I cant even get the Rev and customs to answer the phone let alone to get min of defence to give me a plane! so now we have three pilots. next to cycling, flying must be quite dangerous.
Bluebird
19 Jan, 2013 – 10:38 pm You say ““Slaughter of Horses” or better said: getting rid of all Trojan horses in intelligence organisations.”
“How do I get a trojan horse virus?”
“A common scenario is that a person receives what looks like a perfectly legitimate e-mail or computer update, often from a trusted source. When the user tries to open the file, it appears that nothing happens. In fact, they may have installed a trojan horse on their hard drive.”
Chevaline – the slaughter of horses.
Re horse clues: “Craig Lawson, landlord of the HORSE & Groom pub in The Street, Mortimer, said: “He [Pete Barnes] was a good all-round egg and will be sadly missed.””
On the virtues of oversleeping:
“Crane drivers Nicki Biagioni and Richard Moule both avoided the disaster because they slept in and were late for work.”
“… killed… commuter Matthew Wood… who had arrived early to work.”
This is how governments work: help us or we throw you to the Bauges. Pretty sure the same happened to Saad in 2002. Carrot and stick. His carrot was promise of help with business, Iraq house, and passport. Now his five computers at home and his internet anti american/israeli outbursts – that he must have known were being monitored – was he doing that to please himself or his political masters. Once you ve made a Faustian pact how do you escape? If he was to work for Iran they need to be persuaded he sympathised with their objectives. The very public opinions wud not be made by a spy for whom its important to stay low not draw attention unless needed. Was intended to make the Iranians bite so that false info cud be fed to them related to nuc tech? Israel out of the loop but taking no chances provided the biting fish, pretending to be the Iranians, just to do the deed. I’m convinced France was in on it to facilitate the operation may have even provided the forestry vehicle for the hit men to use. Now how could they put out that Martin saw a WHITE Peugeot 4×4? Impossible to confuse with either a Peugeot 306 OR “Green 4×4 with British registration plates” or “Black Mitsubishi Pajero”?
@Tim V: There is another possibility to consider. The MoD might have lent SAH a plane and the services of the pilot who was under contract to them.
@Bluebird
19 Jan, 2013 – 11:21 am
July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the first strike “Crazyhorse 1/8” and “Crazyhorse 1/9” directed 30mm cannon fire at … See also: 2007 in Iraq, Iraq War troop surge of 2007,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike
I think this is the video leaked by Wikileaks.
Also, there is this
Leaked Video Depicts Civilian Deaths In Iraq : NPR
Apr 6, 2010 … Unidentified Man #1: Hotel Two-Six and Crazy Horse One-Eight ….. The crew
members in the lead Apache, for example, were Crazy Horse 1-8.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125630795
And how about this?
Iraq war logs: Apache crew killed insurgents who tried to surrender …
Oct 22, 2010 … Iraq war logs: Apache crew killed insurgents who tried to surrender. US military
legal adviser … “They came out wanting to surrender,” Crazyhorse 18 signalled.
Clearance to kill came ….. 8 Jan 2013. US considers complete …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-apache-insurgents-surrender
US Apache guns down surrendering insurgents | Iraq War Logs
Oct 23, 2010 … The response was blunt: “CRAZYHORSE cleared to engage … … LH05 [
LIGHTENING HORSE] engaged the white truck with 8 rockets …
http://www.iraqwarlogs.com/2010/10/23/us-commits-%E2%80%9Cwar-crime%E2%80%9D-as-apache-helicopter-cleared-to-gun-surrendering-insurgents/
@Tim V
20 Jan, 2013 – 1:21 am
If the whole thing is one big cryptic message, the question then has to be who is messaging whom? And what’s the message?
Felix,
When I was telling James incorrectly which house LFR was working on we also found a house that had some blocking out.
The first house on the right hand side (east) on Chemin Rural dit de la Grande Combe from the Police road block.
If Google are wanting to hide things seems to be a red flag saying look here.
Q 7.52 pm
@Straw44berry: Did you see the dark green 4X4 on the Helivision website? It is towing a fuel tank on a trailer. Now, a fuel tank would weigh a lot. A trailer might have a narrower wheelbase than the vehicle towing it. The heavy cargo might make the trailer sink into the ground, if the ground was wet.
————
Yes I did see it, and jumped with the same thought before being stuck by ‘Why?’
Re: Saltman – He was covered throughly in the early days on Craig Murray
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/09/shootings-in-france/
Mary 7 Sep: “I still think it’s odd that on the electoral roll since 2002 there has been a succession of different people at his address.”
http://www.192.com/atoz/people/saltman/jack/
N_ 7 Sep: “Chaff is being spread: Jack Saltman, the neighbour, on how ‘Special Branch’ used his driveway…well how did he know they were Branch? I mean come on… For one thing, Special Branch doesn’t even exist any more under that name!”
anders7777: “So we have a dark green 4×4 – sounds like a British MOD Landrover to me – could they be that stupid?”
@ Mochyn69 19 Jan, 2013 – 6:00 am @Bluebird 19 Jan, 2013
“You will remember the late and great Anders 7777 fingered JS as one of the sayanim.”
How did Anders7777 know that? Did he have good sources, like he did on Savile? Is Anders really dead or was he disappeared / self-disappeared / extracted to Belarus? A relative posted on Icke that we’re not to ask questions like that, but how do we know the relative is real? Wouldn’t Anders be disappointed if we didn’t make a big conspiracy out of his alleged death?
Claygate By-Election 22 March 2007
Party…………….Candidate……Votes…%
Liberal Democrat…..Jack Saltman…744….49.5 (won)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmbridge_local_elections
More of his documentaries:
Getting Away with Murder (21 September 1989) – Editor
MI5 on Trial (26 April 1990) – Editor
The Death Smugglers of Baghdad (31 May 1990) – Editor
The Star of David and the Swastika (21 June 1990) – Editor
In the Name of Allah (20 September 1990) – Editor
Britain’s Cocaine Mercenaries (4 October 1990) – Editor
Clive Halls was director for Saltman’s “Guilt or Innocence: The Trial of James Earl Ray”
Halls was born 13 December 1942, Montreal
Also Coordinating Director for “The Royal Wedding” 1988
Another Montreal connection with Saltman, Raul, James Earl Ray.
Saltman’s ancestors are mentioned here, incl. a ref to him. They were devout Jews and Zionists at least in the early 1900s.
http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/Gr/all.htm
“KTB Magazine: The history of the U-Boats. #14 1984. The 80 feet deep water where the U-Boat was supposed to be was only thirty feet deep and worst of all – there was NO U-Boat! Jack Saltman, the producer for Thames TV, had to return to England and face the shame.”
http://www.sharkhunters.com/historyb.htm
A mention of Saltman. A good description of how corrupt and complicit the MSM is in cover-ups and creating fiction.
“… the first onscreen commentator is none other than Mr. CBS cover up himself, Dan Rather. Director Stephen Ives then tries to top himself. For the third talking head is the now disgraced plagiarist Gerald Posner.”
http://www.ctka.net/reviews/roads.html
An even better explanation of Posner, CIA and JFK cover-up:
http://www.ctka.net/posner_jd4.html
Whatever Saltman was doing, is it not odd to purposefully mention to the press that SAH entrusted him with a secret that he could tell only to the police? Why mention that at all. George Aicolina and Gary Aked also push stories for no apparent reason.
And it is only SAH’s neighbours (including those at the campgrounds in France) that we hear anything from. Not SM’s neighbours or BMs in England or France, or grandma’s neighbours in Sweden. And it is only for SAH and BM that there are pics.
Not many comments from the girls’ friends or their parents. We aren’t told what each one’s favorite colour is and how much they adore butterflies and rainbows. No charity fund-raisers on their behalf, not even fake ones by scamsters that I’ve heard of, which is really unusual. There were some phony ones for Sandy Hook.
Another thought on Saltman. Other than the film and TV credits, there’s not much about him. No bios, or publicity blurbs or interviews. Unusual for that biz which is all self-promotion and buzz.
Think you hit the bullseye there Mochyn69
20 Jan, 2013 – 10:44 am. “Cra-zyhor-ses! Cra-zyhor-ses!”
Absolutely Mochyn69
20 Jan, 2013 – 10:53 am. So far we’ve just been doin a horses lucky dip. The task now is to formulate a convincing metaphorical script the point being to point us in the right direction of those who came up with the idea and implimented it. Of course the clincher would be discovering the name of the operation. What we need is the equivalent of a Bradley Manning!!!! Americans go for wild west allegory; Europeans classical; Israeli, Tanakh etc.
@NR
It was a different neighbour that said about special branch not Jack Saltman.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/french-alps-shooting-were-special-1310089
“Retired finance director Philip Murphy said: “I watched them from the window and they were watching Mr al-Hilli and his brother.
“I thought they were from Special Branch. They would just sit there all day in their parked car just looking at the house.”
NR 11.03
N_ 7 Sep: “Chaff is being spread: Jack Saltman, the neighbour, on how ‘Special Branch’ used his driveway…well how did he know they were Branch? I mean come on… For one thing, Special Branch doesn’t even exist any more under that name!”
Let’s start from here: if it’s slaughter of horses the Al Hilli’s and Mollier must either or both be the “horses”. Horses because they represent the early Persian Empire perhaps or because the classical Pegasus, the untamable horse (assets)result from Poseidon (the British Chevaline nuclear programme Chevaline from Polaris) Interestingly Polaris of course is the lode star or galactic North. The name comes from the greek – “One ancient name for Polaris was Cynosūra, from the Greek κυνόσουρα “the dog’s tail” (reflecting a time when the constellation of Ursa Minor “Little Bear” was taken to represent a dog), whence the English word cynosure.[15][16] Most other names are directly tied to its role as pole star.” to which we might add the modern observation that Blair was Bush’s “poodle” and the aphorism about “the tail wagging the dog”. Then low and behold “Cynosure is a leading manufacturer of cosmetic, aesthetic and medical lasers that provide a diverse range of laser treatments!” Modern definition of “Cy·no·sure” n. 1. An object that serves as a focal point of attention and admiration. 2. Something that serves to guide. Then again, the “Trojan Horse” is a modern term relating to computer fraud and accessing secret information in which Al Hilli and his controllers might well have been engaged. Thus to kill the Al hillis was to disable the trojan horse. Attacks by American planes in Iraq well identified as “Crazy Horses” which might lend towards a suggestion that this was just such an operation. Then we have “Martinet” a weapon of French torture or correction, in a valley called “ire” for ” suggests greater intensity than anger, rage suggests loss of self-control, and fury is destructive rage verging on madness” – with allusions to Old Testament divine vengeance. Is that enough for starters? Of course it may be all just co-incidence but if so it couldn’t be more appropriate could it?
Oh and I didn’t even mention “being thrown to the wolves in the “Bauge reserve” Then again “Martinet” turns up this rather interesting person who has decided to reveal french secret service (DGSE) information at http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/un-ex-espion-francais-tombe-le-masque-26-04-2005-2005898421.php. Note the same paper that interviewed “Philippe didierjean”. (Apologies for automatic translation) It’s old but interseting. no doubt Martinet may have retired but the set-up continues. Exerpts:
A former French spy mask falls
Published on 26/04/2005
“Under false identities, he made many surveillance missions in Europe.
.. in friendly countries. In London, Stockholm and Geneva, he notably ” stashed ”
behind radical Islamists and different ” cib the s ” .For what purpose? Possible the ment prepare the heart ” neutralization ” by another team of the DGSE, if d Adventure political authority in giving the green light.”
“We on the contrary, rents Twingo, it is under false names, and our goal is never to be noticed. For this, we go the more often for ordinary tourists. happens How we serve action DGSE? There is inevitably co-opted. I first got involved in the army, in the s paratroopers to 18 years, and for years I have done several theaters, Africa, Lebanon. But I did not have much military spirit so I made a case to join the action service. I waited a year and a half. And one day in 1996, I was called for testing … ”
It is in this niche team susceptib the move after we will then be able to intervene. cib Some of your the s-el have the s been ” neutralized ” ? For definition, we never know what happens after we . We are the link in a chain. Service is partitioned. In London, I watched for months Abu Walid, a suspected member of the GIA. The service EGA the ment mounted an RFA on Abu Hamza, the rector of the mosque radically the London. I was also in Sweden surveil the r an Islamist militant. EGA was the ing been monitoring Geneva in the aim of finding Karadzic, a Serbian war criminals. When you come in Ang on earth or in Switzerland, these countries are they aware? Never. We work on as in the films of s War globalization on . We each have a false identity, with real fake passports, it communicates only in the s bistros, taking care not to be followed … and leaves no trace. What happens if you get caught? Our identity is false we can earn forty-eight hours before being unmasked as secret agents. This is the time it takes the rest of the team to leave the country. In mission, our worst enemy is the old the lady who spends hours behind the curtain and someone who notices hideout and call the police. In London, domiciled near the Abu Walid, this is what happened to me. A police car was called. I have the heart to explain that I was expecting a football match, but in the meantime my fake ID was passed in the computer. immediately I had to get to London.
These are agents that are co-opted Cercottes ( note: the training center agents ) them too. They have a false identity even more shielded than ours. They built a false life. They even board the ur license under the ur fake name. On the paper, they are no longer part of the service. This is one of the greatest secrets of the Republic … How many people are eliminated after you? I do not know. Anyway, it is always the policy that instructs a physical neutralization. Why did you leave the Service action? I was twenty years of service behind me, I wanted to change life. One day I sent a CV, by chance, and I found myself Canal +. This has resulted in a disaster. You Make a tab on the black ” internal security ” in Canal … At first, I had to fight against the pirates s decoder. That’s the vo the correct t the mission. But I was asked to do the s Poubel the s of ” enemies of the service ” , and force, I feel myself becoming one itself. The security service is headed by a former police general information, Gil the Kaehlin s. Wire needled on , I was asked to do things limits. ”
Gaccio has emerged as one of the ” leaders ” . I was asked to look into it. I followed him for six months, from June to December 2002, almost night and day. I took photos, reports … I also know that e-mails were Gaccio hacked and that her phone was under surveillance . On instruction I even went to an official of the Interior Ministry, which gave me a report on what there was a list of all the calls from his portab s the . what purpose? Gaccio bothered, Kaehlin repeated the need to find ” a solution radically the ” . It was considered the trap by placing drugs in her scooter or hiring a prostitute who would then complain … It was as twisted conversations, but el the s say a lot about the atmosphere Canal side scenes. I left disgusted. Today, I again changed my life, I do theater. * ” DGSE, Action Service – An agent out of the shadows ” , the Private Editions, 21.
I must go but just one more point. If the names are significant to the killing it must mean that they were familiar to the killers. Al Hilli had been to that area before. He had been under surveillance for a long time, at least a decade so you can be sure his previous visits were monitored by agents of the DGSE. It is the French who know the area best and may have chosen it for its metaphorical significance. On the other hand that doesnt sound typically Gallic to me. The revenge thing points east Im thinking – Syria, Iran, Iraq and Israel all fit. However I just don’t believe the French would allow the first three to carry out such a mission on their soil and I don’t believe it could happen without them knowing about it. Further none of those countries or their militant agencies have claimed responsibility as they tend to like doing. So of the four (and I havent even included N African elements despite the most recent Algerian incident) Israel is left as the most likely of them. It has a stated policy of assassination and doesnt limit itself to home turf. The Kidon set up and motor bike rather reinforce that view. Their specific alleged involvement in the slaughter of Iraqi intellectual/university sector since 2003 fits also. However having said that, the operation certainly has an American flavour about it. The use of 4×4 clearly revved up and ready to go, the in and out method, the rapidity of fire, the inabilty of the Brit on scene to point the finger at an all too important ally all point in that direction. Now one little interesting bit from the Martinet extract above. ““We on the contrary,(to James bond) rent Twingo”. From this I suggest that the white Peugeot 306 seen racing away was most likely a French agent to witness facilitate. It may well have been the missing vehicle necessary to block Al Hilli’s escape route, the 4×4 being deployed at the other end of the park as indicated by the type marks. Of course if it was racing away in the middle of Chevaline when witnessed it must have come from the direction of Martinet WELL AFTER Brett Martin had arrived so must have been seen by him but not referred to. The only other explanation would be that the car had done a circular route from Moulin but then why the desperation to get away? So I would argue we have at least three if not four agencies on site effectively working together though I am still convinced the British did not intend or conive at their assassination and were in someway double crossed by the others.
@ Pink 20 Jan, 2013 – 1:28 pm
“@NR It was a different neighbour that said about special branch not Jack Saltman.”
Thanks for fact checking. I suspected it was wrong, but didn’t double-check.
@ Tim V 20 Jan, 2013 – 2:27 pm
If the translation is correct: “In mission, our worst enemy is the old the lady who spends hours behind the curtain and someone who notices hideout and call the police.”
Like SAH’s neighbour looking through the curtains?
“We work on as in the films of s War globalization on.”
Does he mean their cover is as film makers like Tony Mendez or Aaron Milchan and possibly Jack Saltman, or is he saying their mission is like it’s depicted in popular films.
For thousands of horse refs search on Illuminati or Masonic +horses. A quick look gives:
“Behold A Pale Horse”
“Horse/unicorn symbolism in illuminati hoes’ music”
“IlluminatiEquine on deviantART”
illuminatiequine.deviantart.com/
“My focus animal is horses, but I’ll occasionally go for a wolf or something like that. … (Illuminati Designs)”
For US Western symbolism, you already have the Indian Apache (also server software) and Chief Crazy Horse, but for many years the symbol of Yale’s Skull & Bones (Illuminati fer sure) was the real skull of Chief Geronimo, which they’d supposedly stolen – and eventually returned (I think).
Include cowboy movie horses, like Silver (Silver Fern?) and Trigger (nukes?) and the comic book publisher Dark Horse.
Anti-virus software protects* (maybe) from Trojan Horse viruses, but Trojan condoms protect from real viruses.
* I think half the virus writers are the same persons writing the anti-virus software. Big profits both sides. Somebody, Bluebird?, said above that crazy McAfee was an alleged Israeli spy and built back doors into his software. Or maybe it was Norton and Symantec that said that?
I forgot the horses head in bed in “Godfather I”. Never thought all the Illuminati and Masons in the cinemas are nudging each other and snickering, “We know what that means.”
And that’s what seemed to happen at News Corporation and its problem child, NDS.
The chain of events is dramatically illustrated in an archive of emails that came from the computer hard drive of a senior NDS executive. The Financial Review has obtained 14,400 of the emails, many of which have been published through our website afr.com.
The development within NDS parallels the way excessive use of private investigators changed the culture of the newspapers at News International that used them, the News of the World and The Sun.
NDS was an accident of history. In February 1998 an Australian technology consultant, Bruce Hundertmark, badgered Murdoch into shelling out $3.6 million to found a start-up company in Israel called News Datacom Research, based on encryption technology developed by the Weizmann Institute, which took a 20 per cent stake. (The details of the early history are airbrushed out of many accounts).
Seven months later, after blithely deciding to launch Sky Television in the UK, Murdoch realised that he needed to encrypt the broadcast stream.
It’s called conditional access. You can access the programming and watch the moving pictures only on the condition you have paid for it. Otherwise pay TV companies would go broke.
A handful of technology companies around the world provide conditional access services – including Nagra in Switzerland, Viaccess and Canal Plus Technologies in France (later sold to Nagra) and Irdeto in South Africa and the Netherlands. They all use smartcards with microchips on them that are inserted into the set-top box to decrypt the pay television signal – and they are the heart of any pay TV system. They provide the customer management base as well as the platform to offer interactive services. http://www.afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/murdoch_inside_job_sZrtO3tNzsy2TD1Z3TpNvJ
But it wasn’t piracy that introduced Murdoch to the world of spies and intelligence. It was a fraud that a former chief executive of NDS, Michael Clinger, was still running on NDS years after he had been forced out.
Amazingly, Clinger had run NDS from 1990 to late 1991 despite having a US arrest warrant outstanding against him for stock fraud.
News Corp general counsel Arthur Siskind hired Reuven Hasak, a former deputy head of Israel’s domestic secret service, Shin Bet, to run the investigation in 1995.
Hasak made short shrift of Clinger, and NDS chief executive Abe Peled then hired Hasak full time to set up a special unit called Operational Security to fight piracy of NDS smartcards used by BSkyB in Britain, DirecTV in the US and Foxtel in Australia.
To head Op Sec in Europe, Hasak hired Ray Adams, a highly decorated but controversial former police commander who had run the Metropolitan Police’s S11 criminal intelligence unit.
In the US, Hasak hired John Norris, who had been a US Army captain in intelligence during the Vietnam War and had close links with the US Secret Service. Adams and Norris worked with the FBI, the US Secret Service, US Customs and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as police forces and anti-piracy groups across Europe to target the hackers and dealers who produced the pirate cards.
Been out and about on travel and could read but not chime in. Lots of interesting stuff brought up and a few new exciting tangents like peter Burns and the hellicopter crash (may not be related but plenty interesting on its own).
Tim V 1:46 AM This particular conjecture that Saad was pressured into working as a channel to the Iranians is one that as you know I also suggested as a kind of a hint to his role. What tipped me off to that direction were these mysterious “chat room rantings”. Someone in Saad’s position and with his need for contracts in sensitive areas, and a background of association with the MoD during pre and during the invasion of Iraq (something we are all pretty sure of) just wouldn’t do that, and in the highly unlikely case he would leave a note or two somewhere, would certainly not brag to a friend/acquaintance – Gary Aked that he was engaged in internet rantings and was turning anti-West. Tno way saad wouldn’t know this is like a huge red flag to anyone monitoring him which leads to the only possible conclusion that such confidences recounted by gary (assuming they were real) were deliberate. Therefore, that one comment from gary Aked, was, IMO, either a glaring misdirection by Gary (ie, untrue, made up) or did reflect something Saad said, in which case it would be a deliberately planted part of a cover for him (Saad) as an anti-Israel/America would-be zealot.
Which leads exactly in the direction of your speculations Tim V. I am fairly certain, based on my own psychological profiling/truth sniffing logic exercises that somewhere along the way between 2009 and 2012 SAH was re-recruited to support some mission that may well have involved Iran. furthermore, he seems to have done so under duress – per all the indications that he was increasingly under pressure and distraught. Everything we know about him in the past few years, which is not all that much, but includes the account of his cousin/relative about saad’s deteriorating state of mind, indicates – to me at least – a person living in fear. I
I would even hazard a guess that somehow his wife, possibly mother-in-law were dragged into the web of connections. There is a high likelihood that Iqbal’s origins may have been Iranian (not established but suggested), maybe Suhaila as well. There could have been quite a family web that was exploited (or that saad was pressured to exploit) as part of him getting in the good graces of Iran, becoming a trusted conduit. Would Saad have spied for Iran on his own – due to true leanings that way? my profile says no, or not very likely. The danger to him and his family would be too high and one of things we can believe is that he was a caring family man. Nonetheless – I can’t forget the postman’s comments about Iqbal being rarely seen and/or receiving very little mail at the Claygate address. Arabic people are voluminous writers of cards and letters and present senders. So that detail is also one that just never fit. On top of it we have the unnatural quiet from sweden – not a hint of outrage in sight, no demand to be included in the investigation of one of their citizens, even if an Arabic one. Don’t pass the smell test.
From this point – of accepting that Saad was pressured over a period of 2-3 years at least to become a conduit with Iran – there are a few forks in the road. elaborating on the scenario you suggested, Tim V, here are a few possibilities. One is, as proposed, that SAH might indeed have started communicating with what he believed to be Iranian agents – but possibly were plants or Western agents in disguise – working for another agency (the killers’). It’s likely then that the killers agency, running its double agents did not, in fact, realize that Saad was put in place as a “trojan Horse” either to ferret out some real infiltrators or as conduit for planting false information. It is possible that somewhere SM fits as either another false agent (a second Trojan Horse) working for yet another one of the agencies involved. For whatever reason the killer’s agency decides to get rid of the trojan horses. Why is a good question for which I don’t have a no good answer yet – maybe Saad came to know individuals in the double agent ring and was considered too dangerous – being able to finger them and all. May be, as I posited once before, he actually started to pass some disturbing information – whether on instruction of his own agency or on his own. Or it could be even more complicated – the killers’ agency coming to know Saad was a Trojan Horse but one that knew too much and/or could not be controlled.
Either way, I like the tie-up of Chevalin and “trojan Horses’. there’s something that rings true to me in the symbolism – can’t quite put my finger on it.
Hasak’s people were not just on good terms with law enforcement agencies. Adams’s UK Operational Security team even had a special line item for police. It was Code 880110 and appears in a string of NDS departmental budgets.
On June 9, 2000, Adams’s deputy Len Withall, another former policeman, asked for a £2000 cheque to be made out to Surrey Police, drawn on Code 880110, which he explained was “an amount of money set aside for payment to police/informants for assistance given to us in our work”.
Adams was more explicit on October 9, 2001, when he explained Code 880110 to NDS accountant Greg Gormley, who was looking for budget cuts: “This is a contingency sum for police informants. No claims so far. May be none this year.”
That proved optimistic, as a month later, on November 13, 2001, Withall told an NDS accountant he needed £1000 cash. It should be charged against Code 880110, which he said was “used for payment to some informants not covered under our normal payment system”.
Who was Withall going to pay, using the “contingency sum for police informants”, and why did it have to be in cash?
These payments raise serious questions, beginning with how a major division in News Corp had a line item in its budgets which on Adams’s description at least, was to be paid to police informants? http://www.afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/murdoch_inside_job_sZrtO3tNzsy2TD1Z3TpNvJ
Whistleblower made to change his tune
PUBLISHED: 28 MAR 2012 00:01:05 | UPDATED: 29 MAR 2012 02:28:05
Senior executives in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire mounted a sham multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the United States to silence a whistleblower whose evidence threatened to expose a dirty tricks campaign by News Corp.
A former Metropolitan Police commander who worked for Murdoch, Ray Adams, orchestrated an extraordinary legal campaign to destroy the reputation of a Swiss hacker, Jan Saggiori, who held key evidence that News had sabotaged its competitors’ products.
“We . . . have no case against Jan,” the US executive overseeing the lawsuit, former Army intelligence officer John Norris, told Adams two months after it was served on Saggiori, yet legal proceedings continued for another nine months.
Emails between Adams, Norris and other News executives and lawyers raise questions about whether News was involved in an abuse of process of the US court system. http://www.afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/whistleblower_made_to_change_his_QW6jAgcKF9qtJdEtXD2YYP