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 39 year old batchelor wasn’t for moving was he !”
🙂 he certainly wasn’t.
If this was a normal family I wouldn’t bat an eye at the father doing off to Spain in 2003.
This was far from a normal family however and considering how “busy” 2003/2003 was for that lot I’m not convinced that the father b*ggered off to Spain just for the weather.
Sketchy history for Saad
More sketchy history for his father
Even more sketchy history for Ikbal and her mother.
Hey Dopey….
Was just reading an old newspaper. 7th Sept.
It mentions a “family friend”. That “James” chap. It says it is “James Matthews”.
Is it “Dr James Matthews” of BAE ?
And has that been covered ?
Heres the article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/07/annecy-murders-french-alps-baghdad
Heres Dr James Matthews LinkedIn
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/james-matthews/7/b31/b78
@Jon / Mod
Can you moderate my comments and Links to Dopey.
@Dopey
A link to Dr James Matthews of BAE.
He’s mentioned in an article (full name). I think he’s “the James”.
Think it may have been covered.
“I’m not convinced that the father b*ggered off to Spain just for the weather”.
I’m back from Dubai, here’s the wife…and here’s a one way ticket to Malaga on the 18.05 ! See ya !
Or could it be,’ I’m back from Dubai & look ‘who’ I found’ …. father says OMG you can’t have ‘her’ living here here, son says,just you watch me, father says ‘well I’m off then before the… ?… find out she’s here’!
Sorry too many ‘here’s. 😉
@Dopey
The care home may be SAR Torrequebrada, Carabela (Urb. Nueva Torrequebrada), S/N
29630 , BENALMADENA COSTA
http://www.sarquavitae.es/residencial/residencias/zonasur/torrequebrada/presentacion
A chain, SARquavitae
Jon in the Olive Press doesn’t seem to have followed up the story.
The Iraqi who “kept an eye on” the father in Fuengirola was given as Alla Hussein Mohamed.
I notice on the web an Iraqi(?) given as living in Fuengirola
Ala Hussain Hamoudi,
who, or a namesake, was given Danish citizenship (no 201) in 1988.
https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=59403
Ala Hussain Hamoudi. Pl. Constitución 2, 229640 Fuengirola (Málaga)
off topic, but there is some recent problem aired on the web about the former owner of the Jacaranda (hence “disgraced”) concealing the death of a resident!
Just a thought.
Maybe his wife IS the something after all !
Maybe you have hit on something.
But them Mollier ?
But what if it actually wasn’t suppose to be Mollier !
What if it was to be Bill ?
Sa’ad is coming across as a bit of a “chancer” here.
And maybe it was her side of the family that was well to do.
And they had/have all the contacts (Stockholm isn’t cheap to live in nor is Dubai).
But then it’s even harder to connect Bill to Sa’ad !
Maybe Sa’ad to “being protected”. And there’s heaps at Fifty Five that do that.
…and hence “the sibling” remark. And the “finding of the four year old”.
He would have known that there were indeed two children ! Not one.
@Straw
A lot of people round there will have gardeners come in.
The photo in the Mail is an old one. A spy camera has since been installed on the left side of the ground floor.
The bizarre bit of that Mail article is this:
‘It seems the police are just as bemused as we are,’ Julian Stedman, Mr al-Hilli’s accountant and neighbour, told me this week, after detectives finally got round to interviewing him a few days earlier
This is not more police incompetence. This address would have been the second port of call in a police investigation, and I am surprised that his accountant’s computers weren’t seized while he was telling numerous news channels how normal the Hilli family was.
We don’t even know when the Hillis left for their holiday! One week? Three weeks before? More “not” police sloppiness.
@Ferret
are you there?
One question:
Is the online 2010 account of Silver Fern identical in all respects to the one which can be downloaded from Cos house?
Felix
I don’t reckon it is police sloppiness. They know what it was about, and are just going throught the motions.
The biggest clue “this won’t be solved in ten years” – you don;t get much more apathetic than that, or so early into a case. They KNOW.
That back hedge is a shared one, maybe the neighbour looked after the hedges to make sure they were done.
Let’s face it that back ‘garden’ is so tacky I would not have liked to be his neighbour,add to that a caravan always in the drive plus BMW’s he was supposed to be doing up.
Does anyone see this guy as a magpie ,what are all the ruberoid roofs hiding?
Take a look at this & ask yourself, does it look like a million pounds worth of property ?
http://professionalcvwritingservices.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/46f7e_article-2199513-14DF093C000005DC-116_642x899.jpg
@James, Katie
TCP is not the same as TPC.
{https://www.duedil.com/company/02622741/process-containment-technology-limited}
{https://www.duedil.com/company/02722064/total-process-containment-limited}
TPC was in leafy Surrey, not too far from Cranleigh. TCP not.
However, Hari Floura seems to have worked for both consecutively.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/flourallc
I agree Dopey they certainly know why the meeting was taking place, for sure.
BUT my guess is, they do not know who did the killing, they are in a cleft stick knowing only half ….they must be scratching their heads as to why the plan went wrong, their best excuse has to be fling out all the muck you can & keep dropping the name Mossad !
If I were the Israeli’s I’d step up & say it wasn’t us…….but they probably know,no one would believe them.
For a number of reasons I don’t believe it was Mossad, surely they would rather follow the trail & bump off the Iranian contact/scientist ?
Iqbal’s sister isnt “studying” at Reading pharma at Reading.
She’s a PhD.
And ALi Al Saffar. Was he the son of a close relation …. ??
And I recall fairly young ?
I guess “Ali” and “Al Saffar” maybe quite common, but he seemed quite media savvy. It’s not this chap is it ?
(Link to follow)
From the britishiraqforum dot com
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ali-al-saffar)
Mollier a welder? I checked the professions and jobs of his brothers. Both top notch positions in reknown companies. Sylvain must have been the bad boy of this family or just lazy or stupid. I dont accept that. It stinks.
@James
The caravan found in France with Al-Hill’s BMW plates on it looks like a Bürstner Ventana 455 TS
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kampeerplein/6326671072/
Don’t know if these are common in the UK. Looks though like they come with standard doors
{http://www.ukcaravansforsale.co.uk/index.php?option=com_ezrealty&Itemid=61&task=detail&id=2724}
Felix.
They are standard doors. But the door is on the “drivers side” of the caravan.
Doors should open to the kerb side, which would be the “pax side”.
The pic of the youngest daughter stood infront ot the car…shows the caravan door on the right hand side (it should be on the left if a U.K. caravan).
He must have loved going abroad…as it’s def not a one built for theU.K. market.
@Katie
13 Oct, 2012 – 4:58 pm
‘For a number of reasons I don’t believe it was Mossad, surely they would rather follow the trail & bump off the Iranian contact/scientist ?’
Maybe that’s precisely what they thought they were doing!!
M.
I don’t think they would be that stupid, Mollier was the French contact.
@Dopey
13 Oct, 2012 – 2:22 pm
Wait, you’re saying AH Snr passed away in a care home used by RAFA!?
How more bizarre can this case become??
For what it’s worth, I still think zircalloy is the key, with SM being the catalyst.
SM could be connected to the CIA via Solidarite et Progres and I’m sure the Al Hillis were British assets. An outside agency misreads the intel, or doesn’t want to take any risk. Hence the Chevaline conundrum, double or double double cross, which went spectacularly wrong.
No wonder WBM was in a state of panic.
I am becoming a little uneasy writing about other people’s lives, so one last question before I just concentrate on other matters.
If the bodies were formally identified by a cousin of Iqbal, could it be this gentleman, http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=97444550&pid=86251361&authType=name&authToken=F87K&trk=pbmap who lives in Paris?
If so,presumably he wrote this, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/04/iraqs_elected_criminals?page=0,0.
Does this tie the women to Ammar al Saffar and the murky world of Iraqi Shia politics?
Apologies if this has already been covered, I am beginning to lose track.
@Felix
13 Oct, 2012 – 4:15 pm
Nice,that care home SAR Torrequebrada, Carabela (Urb. Nueva Torrequebrada), S/N
29630 , BENALMADENA COSTA
http://www.sarquavitae.es/residencial/residencias/zonasur/torrequebrada/presentacion
Have a look at the pictures, it’s even got BM’s BBC wardrobe in the bedroom.
@ norfolkeagle 13 Oct, 2012 – 6:19 pm
I looked him up previously but didn’t find a definite connection.
A “close relative” of Iqbal (perhaps her uncle) called Ahmed al-Saffar was quoted in a FCO release issued not long after the events of Sept 05. I tried to locate him (perhaps he’s in Sweden?) but didn’t manage to track him down.
Eagle, I’d say that is precisely what is going on.
There are so many old scores to be settled & as I keep reading, ‘we are looking for vengeance’.
Also, Iraqi’s with knowledge of that old regime are not safe anywhere.
@CD
13 Oct, 2012 – 6:56 pm
Both the 61 and 18-years old have been making statement to the press.
They live in Huddinge ( very close to Suhailas area ):
http://www.ratsit.se/BC/SearchSimple.aspx?Where=Gustav+Adolfsv%e4gen+39+huddinge
Here is another very interesting article. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/24/050124fa_fact1?currentPage=1
Do we know anything about Akeel al Saffar?
@Bluebird 13 Oct, 2012 – 5:26 pm
Mollier “is said” to be a welder in the probably misleading article.
The article today in Daily Mail gives another verson:
“Mollier was not merely a keen mountain bike rider. He held a senior post with Cezus, a company based in the nearby small town of Ugine and owned by Areva, the giant multi-national that leads the way in the research and development of nuclear power.
A spokesman told us he had been employed for many years as a senior production manager specialising in nuclear fuel cladding made from zirconium — one of the metals Iran wishes to amass for its feared nuclear programme.
‘Iran is unable to produce certain key materials and metals that are critical to its nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes,’ says Mark Fitzpatrick, of the IISS defence think-tank.
Export controls and sanctions have made it difficult to procure them, but Iranian agents are trying to exploit black-market niches — and access to advanced research and development work on specialty metals will help advance Iranian [nuclear] capabilities.’
Sylvain Mollier undoubtedly enjoyed such access, and given his professional contacts, Mr al-Hilli would surely have known where to find him.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217000/Alps-murders-Saad-al-Hilli-family-shot-dead-near-Chevaline-shortage-theories.html#ixzz29CnnW2e0
Among the new info in the article, is that Al-Hilli worked in Dubai around 2003, and that Ikbal was working as a dental nurse when they meet:
“Then, profoundly saddened by the death of his mother, he went to work in Dubai, where he fell for Iqbal, an attractive Iraqi working as a dental nurse.”