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?
Peter, oddly that is a rather nice picture.
Yes I can see where the confusion arises, a small flat headstone would fill the criteria,we of course have rather flashy cumbersome upright ones by comparison.
The coffin though is rather different, we see pictures regularly of muslims carrying coffins which there seems a need to touch on its way to funerals,didn’t one for some famous terrorist get knocked & the body fell out ?
Gruesome !
I can’t believe they reuse them…….maybe its just supposed to be a very plain one.
Dopey, your faith in accurate reporting is greater than mine. 😉
@ Katie
I can see why Bioquell would make a journalist’s ears prick up, as they also produce defence-related stuff
{http://www.bioquell.com/markets/defence#applications}
and it’s definitely the sucessor to TPC. Not only does it reside at the same address, that “guy on the right” also says so in his CV
{http://www.linkedin.com/in/flourallc/hi}
The refusal to publish the photos I agree is very telling. It confirms to me that Ikbal and/or her mother were definitely persons “of interest” in some way. There’s no other explanation for it IMO.
I can’t think of one case where there has been an appeal for information on a multiple murder ..or on anything seriou for that matter..where absolutely nothing visual is given to help people out. It’s all ludicrous beyond belief and leaves me in no doubt that the two women and their backgrounds are very significant in some way.
Morning NR.
Sorry I’ve just realised I didn’t reply to your comment yesterday.
Funny you should mention that bag of Felix’s, if you have watched the BBC film posted yesterday, you will see the identical bag on Brett Martins back ….Lol !!!
@ katie
well, I did say “if accurate” 🙂
I totally agree Peter, but why did he send me that other link & say ‘ see the blog of the guy on the right ‘ ?
Was he trying to say… similar company,because I see no connection with AH.
Some interesting detail in that Daily Mail article. But the big thing that leaps out is absolutely no mention (in the DM of all places) of the heroic WBM. Which may be significant… and the suggestion via Stedman that the investigation is effectively in the hands of the Surrey police who are not showing much interest.
Some new facts – Kadhim was 91 when he died… the family was 26 years at that address… the house was part of father’s estate (therefore not left to Saad by his mother)…
One possible contradiction in the story, if a will splits an estate and there is a property involved that one of the beneficiaries wants to keep then it is usually possible to accommodate everyone where the overall value of the estate allows for it (which would seem to be true in this case) – ie independently valued bricks and mortar to one and equivalent cash to the other.
but why did he send me that other link & say ‘ see the blog of the guy on the right ‘ ?
Not blog, “biog”, and that dude on the right used to work for TPC/Bioquell. Obviously Your Man at the BBC still is on the steep end of the learning curve and hasn’t got around to establishing what TPC/Bioquell actually do, instead assuming them to be some sort of pharmaceutical company.
This is a truly unbelievable para from a respected British rag:
“Police are unconvinced by suggestions the real target may have been Mollier, a local father of three said to have worked for the French nuclear giant Areva. Mollier, they say, worked as a welder in a workshop at a subsidiary of Areva. “He doesn’t appear to have been exposed to nuclear secrets,” said a source.”
Look at the first line,it is risible in it’s banality, ‘ the local father of of three is said to have worked for….that is utterly ridiculous,did he or didn’t he … yes he did !
Then we have he doesn’t appear to have been exposed etc, really these journalist just pad out & fill a quota of words saying nothing it’s all if buts & maybe’s.
One of us should call & give them a load of bull & I bet they’d print it.
Apparently Ostrich farming can be a shady “plucking” business. I wonder if Zaid got scammed
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ostrich-firm-siphoned-off-pounds-7m-of-funds-1337613.html
@ Trowbridge H. Ford 13 Oct, 2012 – 9:44 am
I think the issue with your Hershkovitz theory is that there is nothing to connect him to the events at Chevaline, even if he were a recruit as you suggest. It looks, on the face of it, as if he was high on the Middle East conflict rhetoric and took it out on an arabic co-worker.
Well done Peter. I see now b i og…… !
So I wonder how TS connected him with AH, he came back via email within seconds of me telling him of TPC.
What exactly is this sort of work ?
Interesting find Dopey, I remember when Ostrich became temporarily the new chicken & low fat,but clearly it never took off. [ yeah yeah I know they are a flightless bird 😉 ]
Another thought on the missing pics of the women. Surely everything points to the French/Brits knowing who they were right from the start, photos of Saad were up within hours, the man was married & before it could be hushed up someone would have handed a photo to the press of ‘the couple’ rather than just him, it was an up to date one too. Where did they get it from, their files ?
This must point to complicity of the authorities, back to my theory he was known to be on that job, working for them/us & the authorities knew the identity of both women
@CD
So why did the securocrats take Hewrshkovitz out after he killed Arab-Iraeli Armando al-Abed, a Shia turned Christian, when they could have just smoked him out of that kitchen, and had him tried for conveniently murdering al-Abed?
Why?
Because Hershkovitz would have used what had happened in France to justify his killing this probing Arab who made his life so difficult – like having nightmares about it all.
Trowbridge H. Ford 13 Oct, 2012 – 11:22 am
Why? Perhaps because they have a shoot-to-kill policy and don’t want to be seen to discriminate?
Evidence that lnks him to events in France – his whereabouts at the time?
Evidence for this probing Arab who made his life so difficult?
Just idle speculation, but if one were to run spies, either industrial or state, what better place than a golf club. You have caddies, trainers, serving staff, locker room attendants (stuff left there), chicks and dudes picking up high rollers at the bar for nooners nearby. Clientèle that might well have something worth knowing.
Hershkovitz has a cast-iron alibi, as he was in Israel since August 27th {http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=8184}, talking to himself, punching the walls, uttering death threats to all and sundry as well as engaging in a long-running dispute with al-Abed.
@ Trowbridge H. Ford
In my opinion, it would be more fruitful for you to investigate the possibilities that the Al-Hillis might have had caps put on their a*ses by some local Crips, or that they were killed by Sylvain Mollier, SAH’s secret lover, who thereupon, overcome by remorse, shot himself three times in the torso and twice in the head. Both of these hypotheses make eminently more sense than yours.
@Peter
Why do you fail to provide a link which works, and then invent what is in it?
I found the article, and it says nothing about his having a “cast-iron” abili about being in Israel since August 27th.
All I could find in the article which relates to your claim is this:
“Hershovich (sic), who is described as having been ‘active in the Jewish community’, arrived in Israel on August 27th, with the intention of spending 5 months in the country.”
He could have gone out of the country the next day, and his intentions could have been changed drastically by his employers, most likely the Mossad.
You certainly sound like one of its operators, especially when you add those insane fantasies about more likely possibilities.
I have never understood why somebody are not just throwing that bridge over the Ford (that would also get the -h in its proper place) and everyone could walk over dry feeted
just for info:
Dr Roger Davis, who mentored Iqbal al-Hilli as she worked for dental exams, paid tribute to the “delightful, intelligent” mother of two and said her death constituted a “great loss” to the community.
Mrs al-Hilli began training alongside Dr Davis at Hare Lane Dental Practice last year.
He said:
During 2011 I had the privilege of acting as a mentor for Iqbal al-Hilli while she prepared for the examinations that would allow her to practise as a dentist in the UK.
This entailed her observing our work at the practice. She was not permitted to carry out treatment on patients, nor was she involved in any capacity.
She was a delightful, intelligent woman who will be a great loss to her family, to dentistry and to the community as a whole
It is such joy to start on a new page because it loads much faster
I previously asked the question who formally identified the bodies? Over on Marilyn’s site they say it was a cousin of Iqbal, who might that have been?
Well stone me some news!!!
The new evidence is pointing me to a legacy Iraq hit squad.
Interesting – Father went missing for 6 days and doubt about his death being of natural causes!
Is fear of this the reason neither son where there at the time of his fathers death, the reason why Saad was scared, did he know who may have killed his father (did he receive a letter or a call and that what the neighbour spoke about the information he passed to the police) is that what was hidden in the house!
Maybe they where getting out and Saad was arranging release of the money from Geneva.
He was tracked from the UK!
Ricki, the father apparently died in a care home, so he wasn’t missing. He was supposedly found in very ill health at his apartment (by the site caretaker) after he had dispensed with the services of his female “companion”.
Whilst confined to a wheelchair and with Parkinsons he did however return to the Al Hilli Claygate home for a while in the months before he died. ..as reported by the peeping tom neighbour who knew the bedroom habits of the family.
Just read this below again
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/09/20/costa-link-to-french-alps-murders/
This implies the father went missing from the care home six days prior to his death. The guy who signed his death certificate is named and quoted. Where on earth did this frail wheelchair bound old man go for those six days?
The peeping tom neighbour said when Zaid moved out of Claygate the father moved in to Zaid’s bedroom not long after. I wonder HOW long after – perhaps this was where he was for those six “missing” days? Then he comes back to the care home and immediately dies.
Royal Air Forces Association Benalmadena announces May 2012 the Jacaranda care home has closed and they have found a new ne – the SAR care home
http://www.rafabenalmadena.co.uk/minutes/2012-05.pdf
It just gets even more strange this “conundrum”.
Paris Match claim GA and SAH worked at TCP.
The Daily Mail claim GA was at Aldermaston.
GA claims SAH had “other” companies (forget AMS10877645)
And the Daily Mail claim his accountant has been questioned.
When Mrs AL snr dies, a distraught SAH goes on “long” holiday to Dubai…
where he meets, dates and enchants his dentist/dental nurse.
He then brings his Iraqi/Iranian Swede babe to the U.K. and marries her.
His father, who appears to be seriously ill, ends up in Spain…and SAH with IAH set up house…in the home SAH only left to go on his “long holiday”.
I wouldn’t like to play cards with him, that’s for sure !
p.s. Note the caravan. It’s not British. The door is on the wrong side.
Dopey,
A possible explanation of where he went is that a ‘relative’ came to take him out for a break/family occasion or whatever reason they used.
Would their identity have been checked properly or was it one of the 2 people mentioned in the article -Asia or Alla Hussein Mohamed
CD – I am with you on the lack of any tangible link from the Al-Hillis to Hershkovitz
Oops
!
“GA claims SAH had “other” companies (forget AMS10877645)
And the Daily Mail claim his accountant has been questioned”
Should read “hasn’t been questioned”.
Fast typing…and laughing at the “holiday in Dubai”.
And the “right pops, here’s the wife…now Spain for you” !
No wonder there was a family “rift”.
The 39 year old batchelor wasn’t for moving was he !