Not Forgetting the al-Hillis 22278

 in Uncategorized by

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?

Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

22,278 thoughts on “Not Forgetting the al-Hillis”

1 … 387 388 389 390 391 … 743
  • Marlin

    Tim V jan 25, 9:14 PM – Thanks for taking the time to shoot some holes through the “extraction” scenario and good holes they were too. Still, as you say,

    “saying that I don’t think it happened is different to saying I don’t think it possible that some or all of the victims had extraction as part of the plan on offer.”. and “although I think actual extraction is highly, highly unlikely, the possible promise of it may be less unlikely as part of the bait proferred by those (the killers) who arranged to meet them there.”.

    We are agreed that elements of “extraction” were present in the profiles of the principals, and at least Saad and Sylvain were nervous about something, enough to look for an “escape”. But whatever or whoever they wanted to escape is whoever might try to take off with them (a la ‘rendition”) or, possibly kill them. And that is also where both the “lure’ and the ‘double cross” elements may be present. The passports found in the car foot well are just another indication that there was something afoot – at least a lure.

    But I think that despite the complications, I’d still place the odds that at least a partial ‘extraction” (or “rendition”) took place at over 25%. If it happened, it would have have to have taken place well before the fateful meeting at the Martinet – since it is indeed way too complicated otherwise for so much to happen in such a short time. How far in advance we can only surmise, having virtually no factual information to go on. We have no proof that the Al Hilli family encountered in the camp were the same UK family – all or some. We have no witness accounts (that curious Lambert individual aside) that whoever met them at the camp this time, knew them from before. No CCTV images from ferry or supermarkets or Swiss bank released. Above all, no photos have ever come to light of anyone but Saad.

    So there you have it – OTOH, an atrocious, cold-blooded murder where most of the victims’ physical identities cannot be independently corroborated; OTOH, an extraction/rendition – partial or complete – where the children present the key complication (I say that because, like all conspiracies, this one is indeed easier to construct when there are only some dead bodies around; much harder when there are living witnesses, especially when they are young children). Note that I always come back to the children as one of key mystery elements – because so much of the official accounts raise more puzzles than they solve when it comes to them, no matter which scenario we pick. There’s even the extremely chilling possibility that if an extraction/rendition took place, what better to serve as guarantors of good behavior than children kept in semi-custody?

    And because there are so many unsettled points, I am not willing – yet – to exclude certain scenarios, no matter how complicated we imagine them to be. So, for now, arguments pro and con aside, lots of balls remain in the air for us to juggle.

    Finally, just as an aside – people here have no doubt heard of “Prisoner X” kept in one of Israel’s deepest dungeons. One whose identity is not known or acknowledged, and who is kept in the strictest of isolations. It’s been suggested that he could be the kidnapped Iranian general, or a Mossad operative gone to the other side. I am not sure why I am suddenly reminded of this. Accounts of such a prisoner have however come up sometime last year. the fact that israel gets away with such a “disappearing act”, one worthy of the Pinochet regime, makes one wonder how many more such ‘disappeared’ are there in their dungeons.

  • Pink

    Thanks Q for the help and that was a nice piece in the Independant I had not seen it before .

    …
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul-Majid_al-Khoei

    I was reading about the shocking murder of Abdul-Majid al-Khoei earlier, his son is a writer for the Guardian and I saw the story there and wondered if they might have traveled together ,I am totally ignorant on the subject of politics but think I have gleaned enough on here to see they may well have known each other I am not sure how it would relate to what happened in France so I am adding the info so those of you who know more can consider it.
    I wondered if it might concern Balsam and politics as Mr Saltman said Saad was concerned for relatives in Irac .

    …….
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/06/moqtada-al-sadr-law

    “By killing the son of a Grand Ayatollah in April 2003, and brazenly attacking him inside Iraq’s holiest shrine, the Sadrists wanted to send a message to all other potential rivals that they were a force to be reckoned with. Today, when they control 39 seats in parliament, have eight ministers who sit in the cabinet, the only guarantee that they will not return to violence is their word…..

    ……….

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9762604/Alps-murder-Truth-about-Saad-al-Hillisfamily-feud.html

    “When Kadhim left Baghdad in 1981, the property was stolen by another family, so after Saddam’s fall in 2003, Saad came back to reclaim it,” recalled Hussain, who said it was the first time his cousin had returned to Iraq…..

  • Q

    Re: Medical insurance in France. Would that include parental leave? Did Sylvain Mollier take any medical leave, and would the office for such things in that area be in Annecy? Which insurer does AREVA/Cesus/TIMET Ugine use?

    Did the al-Hillis buy supplemental medical and travel insurance for their trip to France, and did they buy it from a French insurer? Was SAH’s work with DMC in France covered under French medical insurance, since he was working for a company that had an operation there.

    Have we determined if he did any work for DMC while he was on this holiday, i.e. a working holiday?

  • Q

    @Pink: And Saad al-Hilli was being watched by people his neighbour assumed were with Special Branch, in 2003.

  • Pink

    Q I don’t know if he did go back earlier the DM says it was 2010 when he was beaten up.
    It would seem to be more Iqbals and mums connections more than Saads though would it not ?

  • Q

    It is so curious to me to review old ground again: from believing that people, including woman, are kidnapped for political reasons or money, to not wanting to believe that such things happen. It’s especially odd in light of what happened to her own father in 1969. Incredible. Why the change of heart, one wonders?

  • Pink

    I give up on that line I really don’t know enough about it I will leave it to those of you understand how everyone relates to each other I just wondered if it may have had any connection.
    I get lost in who belongs to which group and the way the names work I may get the hang of it in the end if I keep reading long enough.

  • felix

    @Q
    The other news team which caught up with Mme Lecoeur was from Aftonbladet in Sweden. The photo of her has vanished from this web article by Karin Östman:
    {http://mobil.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article15406354.ab}

    However, the series of photos is still found at this location for the same article:
    http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article15404918.ab?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

    (including photo nr 5 by Lotte Fernvall showing Sylvie with car)
    I’ll copy it.

    Same old story, “There are 182 people living in our village. Nobody drives like he did. It may have been the killer I met” she says.

    I’ve just noticed that there is a video from Sweden of the Chevaline incident which I haven’t seen before on the same page by Caroline Wiberg who interviews Nevzat Akbas a “granne” or neighbour of Mrs Al-Allaf, with footage of her Stockholm block of flats.

    see also photo nr 8: “”Den här historien är så förskräcklig”, säger receptionisten Monique”
    “The story is so awful, said receptionist Monique” (on her bicycle).

  • Tim V

    Marlin
    27 Jan, 2013 – 7:11 pm The file is still open and almost anything is possible on this one I agree. Your point about the children is a fair one but if its true we have to believe British authorities would be prepared to use them for blackmail. I think it strange the way they have been handled. To be charitable it is to protect them. To be uncharitable it is to protect those involved in the murders.

  • Tim V

    Now I wonder how the explosion was caused? Couldn’t be anything to do with titanium containers by any chance could it?

  • Q

    @Felix: We discussed the Mastros in the thread some time ago. One curious thing is that the shirtless FBI agent Fred Humphries had lived close to them in Washington State. The Mastros were found by a medical bill, which led me to wonder how a Sylvie Lecoeur got some sort of award for her work at a medical insurance place in Annecy. I can’t say for sure (maybe everyone in Annecy gets awards), but usually a person who works at a clerical job is not singled out for such awards, unless they do something quite extraordinary. Was there ever a Sylvie Lecoeur who worked in the fraud squad at the medical insurance place in Annecy?

    http://www.ameli.fr/l-assurance-maladie/connaitre-l-assurance-maladie/lutte-contre-la-fraude-et-les-activites-fautives.php

    Maybe the medical bill that led authorities to the Mastros didn’t seem important the last time they were discussed here. It seems more important now.

  • Tim V

    The explosion occurred Monday, the day before Israeli elections weakened Netanyahu’s political control.

    Iran, to avoid alarm, had converted part of the stockpile to fuel plates for use in the Tehran Research Reactor. However, days after the recent failed talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian officials announced the enrichment process will not stop even “for a moment.”

    The regime’s uranium enrichment process takes place at two known sites: the Natanz facility with more than 10,000 centrifuges and Fordow with more than 2,700. The regime currently has enough low-grade (3.5 percent) uranium stockpiled for six nuclear bombs if further enriched.

    Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/sabotage-key-iranian-nuclear-facility-hit/#vWP7U46fBX7cTBzy.99

  • bluebird

    September 23 2012

    A monitoring device disguised as a rock exploded last month when Iranian troops near Fordow nuclear plant disturbed it, the Sunday Times reported, citing Western intelligence sources.According to the report, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were on patrol last month to check terminals connecting data and telephone links at the underground nuclear enrichment plant, when they saw the rock and tried to move it.

    +++
    How did they know about the monitoring “rock”? Who leaked information?
    +++

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-iran-uncovered-spying-device-disguised-as-rock-at-fordow-nuclear-plant-1.466313

1 … 387 388 389 390 391 … 743

Comments are closed.