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?
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/pearl-harbor-2-0/
Worth reading. Might be a little bit off topic but it is a nice fictious example about how media and internet could manipulate the truth, now and in the future.
From “Q’s” 3.15 Guardian post –
“Kurdish leaders everywhere are painfully conscious of a history of oppression and betrayal by supposed friends. Hopes for statehood after the first world war came to nothing and the British put down a Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the 1920s. In 1946 the short-lived Mahabad republic in Iran was abandoned by the Soviet Union. In 1975 the US withdrew its support for an Iraqi Kurdish rebellion mounted from Iran and secretly aided by Israel, as part of a rapprochement between Baghdad and the Shah of Iran. “Covert action,” Henry Kissinger told Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of the current KRG president, “is not missionary work.”
Given the antipathy of the Gulf States, does anyone know where Israel get its oil? Now oil is flowing from Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, is this the American/Israeli strategy to obtain oil sufficiency on its doorstep?
And just when everything was going to plan someone starts trying to blow it up! up.http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/13/303350/iraqturkey-oil-pipeline-bombed/
Bluebird
11 Jun, 2013 – 10:27 am I quite agree. I did this calculation and posted it way back and its always good to see it repeated. It becomes even more so if the “! shots” that popped up in the C4 film is accurate. I find it astonishing after 9 months to get it right, there can be such a significant change without any attempt at explanation. Was this yet another MI6 undermining poke?
From the aerial photo we can make out where bullets struck the car – 4 on the windscreen; two front passenger window; two drivers door. We do not know about the back windows. Clearly the nearside one is completely gone. The off side one looks intact to me but its difficult to tell. There is a ping on the roof as well that could easily be a bullet but we can’t be sure about that. I make that at least ten probably more that hit the car either as missed shots, or collateral damage of a shot on target. I am personally convinced that the screen pings resulted from the shooter aiming at a retreating Saad.
The shooter has to deal with TWO men trying to retreat at the same time, then a reversing car. It appears he first downs SM then probably directs his fire towards SAH and then through the near side window to disable him in the drivers position. Either he or an accomplice then approaches the drivers side and aims for his head. If the rear nearside window is intact the two rear seat passengers must have been shot from the nearside where the glass is completely gone.
I have always found the pile of cartridges by the rear offside door suspicious. There simply arn’t enough shots left particularly if EM would have us believe 10 casings were under the car and discovered only when it was moved.
In any event this killing SHOUTS “professional” and seems highly perverse of EM to suggest otherwise.
Finally as regards the “two euro hole” in SAH head, remember this was from outside the door window presumably. Not that easy. If correct it points to dum dum bullets, yet more evidence of “professionalism”.
In the context of Turkey at present, Gladio and the “wolf reserve” at Chevaline I thought this reference was interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves
From the above:
“Activities to date [edit]
The Grey Wolves became the first foreign militant organization to participate in PLO training in Lebanon.[19]
On a global scale, the Grey Wolves are suspected to have been responsible for numerous political assassinations and disappearances of Turkish and Kurdish human rights activists, and are known to have ties with the Turkish mafia.[20]
The Grey Wolves have also raised funds for Chechen guerrilla separatists, whom they consider their brothers.[21]
In 1996 the Grey Wolves were involved in an attack on a protest of Greek Cypriots against the occupation of Cyprus and in the murder of Tasos Isaac.One protester, Tasos Isaac, was beaten to death.[22]
In December 1996, the Grey Wolves attacked left-wing students and teachers at Istanbul University, under police sanction.[23]
In 2004, the Grey Wolves prevented the screening of Atom Egoyan’s Ararat in Turkey, a film about the Armenian Genocide.[24][25][26][27]
Links to Operation Gladio [edit]
Main article: Counter-Guerrilla
The Grey Wolves were the most visible force at the command of the Counter-Guerrilla; the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio.[28] By using such paramilitary structures, the leaders were able to maintain a facade of plausible deniability.[13]
Numerous sources show that the MHP and the Grey Wolves had ties to the Turkish mafia, to the Turkish intelligence services as well as to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Former military public attorney and member of the Turkish Supreme Court, Emin Değer, has established that the Grey Wolves collaborated with the counter-insurgency governmental forces, as well as the close ties between these state security forces and the CIA.[29][30][31]”
How incredibly interwoven are all these elements? And then they say “conspiracists” are “doo-lally”. (A place where mad soldiers were sent in India!)
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
“In 2007, Birkenfeld decided to tell the DOJ what he knew about UBS’s practices. At the same time, he wanted to take advantage of a new federal whistleblower law that could pay him up to 30% of any tax revenue recouped by the IRS as a result of Birkenfeld’s information. Birkenfeld also wanted immunity from prosecution for his part in UBS’s transactions.[6] In April 2007, Birkenfeld’s counsel sent the DOJ a summary of the Birkenfeld’s information. The DOJ responded that it was not part of the IRS’s whistleblower program and that it would not grant Birkenfeld immunity.[6]Nonetheless, Birkenfeld met with the DOJ. When communications between Birkenfeld and the DOJ stalled, Birkenfeld contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IRS, and the U.S. Senate.[6] In April 2008, Birkenfeld’s lawyers told the DOJ that he would assist the DOJ in return for immunity. One or two months later, Birkenfeld was arrested.[6][10] The DOJ’s top tax lawyer said, “With regard to whistleblowers: those who seek to be treated as true whistleblowers need to know they must come in early and give complete and truthful disclosures…. Mr. Birkenfeld did not come in and give complete and truthful disclosures. Therefore, he is not entitled to whistleblower status.”[10]
In September 2012, the IRS Whistleblower Office awarded Birkenfeld $104 million as a whistleblower.[11][1][12] This award is one of the largest individual whistleblower payouts in history.[13]Birkenfeld received the award under the IRS whistleblower program, which gives informants a percentage of money the U.S. government recovers after fraud is found.[14] The IRS explained its decision by citing Birkenfeld’s “exceptional cooperation” and the “breadth and depth” of the information he provided, all of which led to “unprecedented actions” against UBS.[15] The IRS used the information to negotiate a $780 million settlement with UBS in 2009. Under that deal, UBS admitted to helping U.S. clients cheat on their taxes. The bank later turned over the names of nearly 5,000 U.S. clients suspected of tax evasion.[16] IRS amnesty programs have since collected $5 billion from people who participated in UBS’s illegal scheme based on the information provided by Birkenfeld.[15]”
In SOME situations, it obviously pays to blow the whistle.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Birkenfeld as recommended by BB above.
I would like to point out that it is entirely possible that Eric is aware of who did what in Chevaline, that he is being played as the rube in this investigation by powers beyond his authority, and that may be why he hinted that the case may take a decade to solve. He did say, after all, that the clues to what happened lie overseas, and that American authorities were not providing the information he needed from internet activities to investigate the case. Eric may have been pointing us in the direction of Prism, before a now-disappeared whistleblower revealed what many had long suspected.
So Eric does not appear to be a rube, although he is being played like one.
@ Tim V: I know we discussed sig-ops in the past with relation to the locations Saad al-Hilli was known to frequent in France. This was one of the locations discussed:
http://intelligenceref.blogspot.ca/2010/10/groupement-de-controles-radioelectrique.html
With regard to various sorts of “wolves” and caches/caves, isn’t it likely that the stay-behinds are in these same locations? That was my thinking back when I brought it up originally some time ago. It would make sense for intercepted information to be dealt with by those who intercepted it, or members of the same pack.
It is amazing how little we know about Al Hilli and Mollier.
It is amazing how little the authorities have made “appeals for information”.
Mollier. “There he isn’t”.
Al Hilli “SSTL….and that’s it !”
So COME ON Eric… who else was there that is you know about ?
Martin with 55 Princess Gate ?
Didierjean the driving hiker now called Bossy ?
The “unknown” third cyclist ?
“The Mossad’s headquarters, as disclosed by a renegade trainee case officer—Victor Ostrovsky, who wrote By Way of Deception—are located inside a large secure compound at Glilot Junction, a residential area north of Tel Aviv, and consist of an operations and a headquarters directorate. The operations branch, headed by the Mossad’s deputy chief, consists of Kesaria, the principal “combatants” section, which includes the assassination unit Kidon; Neviot, formerly Keshet, which is directed against static targets and installs technical collection systems in buildings; Tsomet, which handles all non-Israeli agents abroad; Tevel, the political reports and research unit; and other technical sections. The headquarters directorate encompasses planning and support.
The public’s perception of the Mossad as an efficient organization with an effective global reach is not shared by others in the international intelligence community, as was demonstrated by a classified Central Intelligence Agency assessment of Israeli intelligence capabilities recovered from the U.S. embassy in 1979. Although shredded, the document was reconstructed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Iranian students, and it cited numerous operation failures and lapses in operational tradecraft and was particularly scathing about the Lillehammer incident, in which a Moroccan waiter was murdered in Norway when he was incorrectly identified as a Black September terrorist, and the bungled assassination of Khaled Meshal in Amman.
While the Mossad attracts criticism for indulging in assassination as a declared instrument, many of its operations, particularly against the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, have proven effective in reducing the incidence of suicide bombings inside Israel.
While Israel—with its unusual combination of race, nationality, and religion in its population and its precarious geopolitical status—generally can rely on intense loyalty, Mossad has suffered hostile penetration, although probably not all the cases identified have been publicized. The only example officially acknowledged is that of Ze’ev Avni, who wrote an autobiography, False Flag, in which he described some of his covert work for Mossad.”
http://intelligenceref.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/M
“The Mossad’s headquarters, as disclosed by a renegade trainee case officer—Victor Ostrovsky, who wrote By Way of Deception—are located inside a large secure compound at Glilot Junction, a residential area north of Tel Aviv, and consist of an operations and a headquarters directorate. The operations branch, headed by the Mossad’s deputy chief, consists of Kesaria, the principal “combatants” section, which includes the assassination unit Kidon; Neviot, formerly Keshet, which is directed against static targets and installs technical collection systems in buildings; Tsomet, which handles all non-Israeli agents abroad; Tevel, the political reports and research unit; and other technical sections. The headquarters directorate encompasses planning and support.
The public’s perception of the Mossad as an efficient organization with an effective global reach is not shared by others in the international intelligence community, as was demonstrated by a classified Central Intelligence Agency assessment of Israeli intelligence capabilities recovered from the U.S. embassy in 1979. Although shredded, the document was reconstructed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Iranian students, and it cited numerous operation failures and lapses in operational tradecraft and was particularly scathing about the Lillehammer incident, in which a Moroccan waiter was murdered in Norway when he was incorrectly identified as a Black September terrorist, and the bungled assassination of Khaled Meshal in Amman.” http://intelligenceref.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/M
Further evidence of the black arts?
“A video of half-naked female Israeli soldiers dancing around a rifle has emerged online – just days after the country’s army was forced to discipline a group of combat women for similarly “unbecoming behaviour”.
“The latest footage is shot inside an unidentified barracks and features a group of women – one clad in a g-string and crop top – dancing provocatively around a weapon and spanking each other.
“unit in which they serve is not known, as of now, nor the identity of the cause of the distributor and the date of photography. Still, it is possible that they are behind distribution. In recent years, the IDF has invested much effort to warn the soldiers from divulging sensitive information on social networks, but it seems that invest in training about sexual education and self-
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/12/semi-nude-female-israeli-soldiers-filmed-pole-dancing-rifle-video_n_3426530.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
I take your point Q
11 Jun, 2013 – 5:17 pm. Maillaud may indeed be in an impossible position being merely the mouthpiece and puppet of others. How else can one explain a Government Law Officer admitting defeat almost before the investigation was underway, stating he is not in charge of the investigation, of blaming a lack of assistance from both Britain and America, countering evidence from its own laboratories, with-holding information about Mollier etc etc.?
We still do not know what happened to Stan Maillaud who disappeared soon after the Chevaline incident or whether the two are related?
Why do you suppose we saw nor heard anything from the famous TV interview with WBM during the recent channel four programme? Just asking!
Advice for those in certain circles who consider becoming a whistleblower, from Edward Snowden:
“Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets,” he told The Guardian newspaper.
“We have got a CIA station just up the road — the consulate here in Hong Kong — and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/world/asia/snowden-what-next/index.html?hpt=wo_c2
The girlfriend of whistleblower Edward Snowden adopts the spy-in-a-bag look (see april-22-packed-away):
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-ed-snowden-girlfriend-lindsay-mills-already-know-he-wasnt-coming-back/#12
Not that anyone wanted to know.
Tim V – are you following the discussions about the “3rd” bicyclist – who now materialized in a French Video, that none of us, not here, not at MZT, seem to have seen before? The woman who tells about him (we only have this 2nd hand information apparently) lives in a house that we all recognize.
This is downright strange – remember I asked once the question of how that “double-suicide” on the boat in England that Straw44berry was chasing – materialized long after- the story having been in the very papers around the time Chevaline happened – apparently missed by the most conspiratorial of conspiracy theorists both here and on Icke? I kept asking – why was that “missed” at the time? never got an answer – may be people thought I was accusing them of inattention or something, but the opposite was true. I had nothing but faith in the attentiveness of the posters here. There was a reason that back a few months ago (before i got sucked into another universe for a time) I started agitating for looking back at the old accounts. In fact, several people did find a few articles that contained tid-bits missed before.
Then there is the farmer with all the cows who “did not pass” down the Combe d’Ire that day. Do you or anyone else recall whether we have ever seen this account before? we sure did talk some about cows, that I remember, but may be not quite these cows or this farmer?
Yes, it could just be language – but a few of the early posters on CM – now long gone – did speak enough french to be able to discern one thing from another.
There is something about Chevaline that is downright weird. I keep getting this funny feeling of a temporal helix-like story line with something like a worm hole running down the center – spitting out and/or sucking up details as we move along. we talk a lot about where, when and how but somehow there’s another set of questions that we never get to – as suggestive as the many coincidences pointed out are. It’s like the mind resists going there. Oh well, may be it’s just my fertile imagination.
Jennywren
12 Jun, 2013 – 2:31 pm I take the view that nothing about this case, or its presentation can be taken at face value. Within weeks of the event the idiosyncrasies were obvious and the approach of investigators puzzling. In addition the media outlets by and large have merely repeated the official line and failed to question the inconsistencies.
The televised interview of WBM itself was very strange, not in a studio but an anonymous (windowless?) room with an amateur “BBC” sign propped up behind. The arrangements of only two broadcasters (BBC and Sky)being given access was itself unconventional. The storyline had obviously been rehearsed and approved although the questioning results in slightly different, complimentary information.
The second (Sky) interviewer’s technique was somewhat more searching yet many aspects (precise timing/why he moved and searched the dead Mollier/ when and by whom was the “3.48 call” made/what happened immediately afterwards/did he know Mollier/was he attending a rendezvous/further details about the passing 4×4 and motor bike etc) were still not pursued, though it might be naive to think he would have answered them fully or honestly.
Only the interviewers know what the ground rules for the interview were and they haven’t said. Clearly someone in authority had decided WBM would be interviewed. It is inconceivable WBM would have agreed to this on his own. Nor were normal procedures followed. Where were the police who invariably supervise these things? They were notable by their complete absence.
He was paraded with an agreed story line for a purpose. The purpose is harder to divine. That he has not appeared since suggests whatever it was it was fulfilled and he won’t be wheeled out again.
Question relating to the recent C4 film made by an American company: is it an unbiased genuine report/investigation or did it have a manipulative ulterior motive? If the latter what point was it trying to get over?
jennywren, 2:31PM
My take on this whole aftermath is to view it as a ball game between two sides – French and british – possibly with other actors in the background 9and quite a few backbenchers). See my posts above.
According to this, the documentary is primarily a “play” by the French, barely masked by the appearance of peter Allen (who provided cover with the Sunday Times article that none of us have so far accessed due to pay wall or something). the unveiling of Bossy was supposed to be a coup for the french, but for whatever reason, some key part announced early (where bossy ‘almost” punches WBM) was left out. Bossy himself may be on the brit side but that’s not clear.
Viewed this way, WBM, clearly in the british court – and one who has taken pains to deliberately knock holes in the French story line – would not make an appearance.
Along the way, there was some interference run on the documentary narrative so that what came out, with Bossy adding 6-7 minutes and EM smiling at an inopportune moment (showing desperate need for the Al saffar dentistry skills) looking very uncomfotably caged in his own skin – ended up as a point for the brits. They trpped EM, who is now calling for a foul demanding a chance for penalty kick. That’s where the Rumanian phone calls come in not two days later, along with the “two wills” of Khadim.
The brits are now conferring with the referee, who the french suspect are not entirely neutral. brits are saying the Doc manipulation was just a harmless off-side. I know i raised a flag and I believe so had others. But the french are calling for more and EM is pretending to have been knee-capped (well, french are good actors, no?).
Anyways, seeing this as a game is, IMO, the only sensible way to view everything that’s transpired since the Chevaline killings. The alternative is to believe that someone among the authorities is actually trying to inform the public and seek real justice. I know, it’s nice to believe in the tooth fairies…
This may be the quote you were referring to Marlin Google translated
“- We were on a pasture there, just over there. We have to get the animals in the mountains and we had to go this morning, and suddenly, you can not go because the roads are cut so.
– It is a vast forest?
– It is a vast forest and we were the pasture … we continue the road and up to our pasture is over. So here, for the moment, we can not climb. Everything is blocked, what. Normally, it should be placed on … Normally yesterday afternoon we should be … we had to be there because I had to go get animals yesterday afternoon and I shifted a day so if to 2:00 and a half, three hours would have been up there, so we would have been in the middle of the shoot, I think. So what is being said, we said we passsé next, that’s all.
– With hindsight we say we got lucky ..
– Well, but … yes. – See more at:”
This is the latest Express slant on the back of the Romania story: “Mollier was the target; Al Hilli’s in the clear”.
“Peter Allen, the British journalist based in Paris who has covered the case from the outset, says the focus on a supposedly dark side of the Al-Hillis is all the more misplaced given the French authorities’ reluctance to look at a far more plausible explanation for the murder.
“This is a prosecutor who thinks it’s foreign assassins bringing all the trouble to France, following this family and executing them,” he says.
“I’m not saying that couldn’t have happened. But the authorities should have a far more open mind about the French cyclist who was also at the scene. The ballistics show he was the first person to be shot and he got the worst of the gunfire. We also know there are lots of possible motives for attacking him so it’s very possible this was an attack that turned into a hit.”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/406839/Mystery-of-Alps-murder-deepens-as-clues-suggest-British-family-was-not-main-target
From MZT – Posted by Max
6-12-2013 at 23:44:11 (I hope he doesn’t mind me posting it here)
“@Lynda, all,
I think that 3rd VTT guy as in http://lejt.tv8montblanc.com/Tuerie-de-Chevaline-les-temoignages-des-Habitants_v5051.html … gives credit to BM and PD/PB stuff
The whole thing is very fresh, telling what the ‘VTT man’ appearently saw. And probably the VTT man heard stuff from ??? BM? PD? as I understand the VTT man recall what happened, which he must have heard from BM/PD but not from the gendarmes
Unless BM had prepared a whole story, I think (now) that BM (and perhaps PD) just told what he had seen and the VTT man picked this up.
As said, I sound untinkered and gives credit to BM’s and PD’s account
(no mention of AH, but a mention of SM ‘overtaking’ BM)
…
Hmm with this and the posts above … I now also in the ‘camp’ where the 1515 pictures are suspect.
So .. what IS the story about those 1515 pictures????
– M
– See more at: http://www.marilynztomlins.com/articles/chevanline-shootings-saad-al-hilli-sylvain-mollier-brett-martin-philippe-d-xavier-baligant/comment-page-47/#comment-12630
So who’s the VTT man????????
The significance of that farmer quote above @ Tim V
12 Jun, 2013 – 10:05 pm seems to be that he could not go up the Combe 2.30 to 3.00, as usual because his way was blocked by police! I can’t see how he’s right on that as it seems to be an hour and a bit before the police arrive but there we go.
http://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Faits-divers/Actualite/Le-scenario-minute-par-minute-de-la-tuerie-de-Chevaline-555890
ref the above i think farmer meant he was blocked the FOLLOWIG DAY 6th – sorry
Today the Boston Globe confirms that there was a plan for a backbag bomb terrorist drill in Boston. Coincidentally, the plan of the drill was exactly worked out like the surprising and unexpected sad reality. Actors and film makers were already contracted for that drill. The drill could not happen as the terrorists did unexpectedly destroy that drill plans, however, they are planning to repeat that drill at a later time.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/07/before-police-could-plan-for-terrorist-attack-real-thing-happened/ufxjb9O0RXyzVZNPFyGkiI/story.html
Quotes:
Months of painstaking planning had gone into the exercise, dubbed “Operation Urban Shield,” meant to train dozens of detectives in the Greater Boston area to work together to thwart a terrorist threat.
The hypothetical terrorist group was even given a name: Free America Citizens, a home-grown cadre of militiamen whose logo would be a metal skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat and a furious expression, according to a copy of the plans obtained by the Boston Globe
For this year’s training, the agencies wanted to test the investigative skills of their detectives, as well as their ability to work with detectives in other cities, and share intelligence, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the planned exercise were confidential.
Officials from a dozen agencies had been meeting for months to plan the scenario. They behaved much like movie producers, recruiting students from Northeastern University and the Boston Police Academy to play the parts of terrorists and witnesses.They scouted warehouses and homes around Chelsea and Winthrop that could be used as a terrorist safe house.The basic plot was this: Half a dozen members of Free America Citizens wanted to gauge police response to a bomb scare. They would plant hoax devices, then stay on the scene to watch and record the bomb squad and detectives as they responded, as a dry run to a larger attack.
The planned exercise has eerie similarities to the police investigation that led to the capture of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose images were caught on video cameras and who were captured after a car chase and shoot-out with police.In the training scenario, investigators participating in Urban Shield would have to track down footage of the bombers caught by street surveillance cameras and the phones of “witnesses.”
“The training, funded by a $200,000 Homeland Security grant, will probably be rescheduled to early next year, said Transit Police Chief Paul MacMillan, whose agency was slated to participate.
He said he anticipates the new training scenario will be similar to the one already planned.
“Why wouldn’t we do it?” MacMillan said. “Just because we had one event doesn’t mean that we might not have another one. And it behooves us to continually work together to investigate these types of incidents.””
Once again, internet chatter had it right. It would be most appreciated if someone could inform the public about exactly when and where the second staging of this event will occur, in order for the public to avoid being caught up in it. When drills go live, it never ends favorably for the innocent passers-by.
I’m assuming the auto repair guy from Brazil who randomly showed up for interviews at the shop he closed down a year previously was also an actor.
Eric Snowden’s alleged ties to Geneva, Swiss banks and bankers:
http://www.sott.net/article/262586-NSA-surveillance-whistleblower-Edward-Snowden-I-am-not-afraid-because-this-is-the-choice-I-ve-made
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/switzerland-questions-u-s-over-cia-drunk-driving-gambit/
Snowden’s claims about a sketchy connection to a Swiss banker spark a “diplomatic note”.