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?
I can understand if some people think its odd that I praise people like Brent Scowcroft and James Baker. But compared to neo cons, you’ve got to admit that they are just the best we have. They represent the realist thinking, and is thus infinite better than the neocon take of the situation. It isn’t perfect, but…we have to embrce it as the best we’ve got coming out of America. It must be a formidable challenge to be a public figure in that place — constantly being subjected to a barrage of neocon ideology, and given those circumstances I’m quite impressed with a figure like James Baker.
There is a spying case going on elsewhere that made me think of some possibilities related to this story. In the other case, a man employed in naval intelligence approached Russia and offered to sell secrets for a monthly salary. He downloaded military secrets onto a memory stick, shared the information via the drafts folder of an email account based in the Middle East (a Russian shared the password, so no emails were sent) and voila! It was very simple, no “James Bond” gadgets, and apparently little to no skulking around. He got away with it for years. The Russians had photos of his children. Why military computers would download to a memory stick from an office supply store, and why no one would notice for years is beyond me.
Sometimes things are simpler than we think.
@ Felix 16 Oct, 2012 – 4:10 pm
M6 ≠ MI6 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M6_(TV_channel)
@Dopey: That’s correct. There was some sort of deal to improve satellite coverage. I read it, too.
@Felix
Thanks – gotcha.
🙂
And re 55 Princes Gate, I was filling in an Annual Return a while back and noticed that it said that the registered address of the company has to be a real address where the records can be inspected, not a PO Box etc. So if 55 Princes Gate isn’t where the company records are (ie is just a dropbox) then wouldn’t they be committing an offence?
@Bluebird
Bravo again re the Bethesda connection! What a strange “coincidence” (if so it is, but I hardly believe that it is…)
And re your question yesterday “I just wonder what they found on his computers when they raided his house”, I’ve been thinking for some time now: nuclear weapons test simulations? SAH had a computer qualification as part of his engineering degree, and since the nuclear test ban, haven’t all tests have been done by computer simulation? I would’ve thought this would require a massive amount of processing power – hence needing a bank of PCs in his “shed”. (Apart from the four in the loft room.)
@Q
Thanks for your link from yesterday re Nuclear-grade calcium: http://cns.miis.edu/archive/country_india/nucfacil/hyderabd.htm
One sentence jumped out at me:
“High-purity calcium and nuclear-grade magnesium are used as reduction agents to convert uranium and plutonium oxide to metal. Equipment that uses this process to separate hafnium and zirconium have also been installed in preparation for full-scale production.”
@Ferret: Military colleges offer engineering degrees. They also offer scholarships to students to pursue specialized advanced degrees at universities that are non-military institutions. From my research elsewhere, atomic institutions are littered with scientists who at some point earned degrees at the expense of military scholarships. There’s payback in terms of service. The connection to Aldermaston is one that makes me think of such things. I wanted to spell that out.
I think you are in the weeds with Gypsum. Not used to make Calcium or Calcium Chloride. If it has a nuclear use explain it, otherwise I will continue to switch off whenever I see banging on about this cement/plaster board component.
That is NOT A SCHOOL for kids!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_CIS_School_Latina
Quote: The NCISS motto is “Sapere aude Sapére Aude” which is Latin for “dare to know”.
Oops!. I will better stop my investigation here, should I?
Quote: The School response to NATO exercises and especially to SFOR, KFOR and ISAF operations, some of which even with short notice, was decisive for the deployment of qualified technicians and engineers in the new Theatres of Operation.
NCISS’s offers more than 90 different courses and over 370 sessions are scheduled. The courses, of various duration up to 6 weeks, range from the Communication area (SATCOM, DLOS, COM Systems, BME/NCN, Video Tele Conferencing, etc.), to the Information Systems (Functional Area Sub-Systems, MCCIS, AIFS, Geo-spatial IS, WISE, etc.), and the Security on Communications/AIS (Compusec, Information Assurance, Crypto, PTC,
and Cyber Defense (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!),
etc.) or simply on specific equipment (Fiber Optics, Crypto Devices, HF Radios, etc.) or even tailored on particular requirements (e.g. Frequency Management for Theatre of Operations, etc.).
+++++++++++++++++++++
Well, what did Pietro say about SAH. How and why would he know him? Had Saad been at the school for 6 weeks? What kind of meetings or courses did he have? He met Pietro? Pietro knew him? What did Pietro say about him to press? Any h8ints, ferret or katie? If we know what he said, we can add up 1+1.
News on NCISS (this is VERY interesting)
On Sunday 1 July 2012, the NATO CIS School in Latina moved from the deactivated NATO CIS Services Agency (NCSA) to the newly established NATO Communications & Information Agency (NCIA).
The establishment of the Agency is part of a broader NATO reform process, with the aim to make the new NATO Command Structure more effective, leaner and affordable. The consolidation is part of a broader NATO efficiency and cost-cutting driven policy that will merge the functions performed by 14 agencies into three new organizations that will cover three main areas: the NCIA, the NATO Supply Agency and the NATO Procurement Agency.
The NCIA is an Agency born with the amalgamation of the NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA), NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), NATO Air Command and Control System Management Agency (NACMA), and elements of the NATO Headquarters Information and Communication Technology Service (ICTM).
The new NCI Agency “connects forces, NATO and Nations”- it is NATO’s IT and C4ISR (*) provider, including cyber and missile defence.
Visit the NCI Agency new website: ncia.nato.int
(*) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
courses: http://www.nciss.nato.int/dett_news.php?id_news=24
more to come …
Note the date of the test:
http://www.ncia.nato.int/news/Pages/20120910-NATO-tests-new-missile-defence-assets.aspx
We urgently need a link between Pietro and Saad. What and where did Pietro say something about Saad and what did he say?
@Ferret: 🙂 And scientists at nuclear facilities in India have been having unfortunate accidents.
@Intp1
The following two quotes explain a possible link:
{http://articles.janes.com/articles/Janes-CBRN-Assessments/Production-Capability-Iraq.html}
{http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/phosphates_inf124.html}
@Bluebird
Our Pietro definitely knows a thing or two about security and defence!
😉
The only quote we have from him about SAH is one reported by Felix:
5 Oct, 2012 – 8:21 am
At the Saad Al-Hilli memorial facebook page, there is still a comment from Pietro Malandrucco
http://www.facebook.com/pietro.malandrucco
Pietro Malandrucco
We were colleagues and friends at Elekta, he was the nicest man.
Saad I will always remember you.
Like · · 10 September at 22:18
@Q
@Ferret: Military colleges offer engineering degrees. They also offer scholarships to students to pursue specialized advanced degrees at universities that are non-military institutions. From my research elsewhere, atomic institutions are littered with scientists who at some point earned degrees at the expense of military scholarships. There’s payback in terms of service. The connection to Aldermaston is one that makes me think of such things. I wanted to spell that out.
Ah, OK. I think we know that SAH got his degree from Kingston Uni in Engineering, which included a section on computer science (even in his day). Don’t think he’d have needed to be sponsored though, with a rich dad? Or wasn’t this where you were going with it? Oh, Gary AKED…. ah… I see what you mean now. Yes, very possibly… why not…
@Peter
Thanks. whatever made you think of Vauxhall?
I can only find the most recent link to M6 / chevaline from 12 October on the web. Is M6 the channel of default for release of info/disinfo by the French secret services, dutifully copied by the printed press? e.g ‘He has a keen sense of observation. This could help us greatly.’ (M6 on the at the time unidentified BM)
Selon la chaîne M6, elle a indiqué n’avoir vu qu’un “méchant” au moment de la tuerie.
and…
Selon M6, les trois membres de la famille Al-Hilli ainsi que le cycliste ont été exécutés par une seule et même arme, un pistolet automatique, de calibre 7.65.
Any more??
Now you’ve got it, Ferret, on the second try. Possible, yes; proven, no.
ferret: when was saad apparently working for Elekta?
Pietro was working for Elekta 1997 and 1998 only.
When was Saad working for Elekta? Could they really meet each other at Elekta?
Did somebody find out when Saad was working for Elekta?
About thermite and calcium sulfate (gypsum), a do-it-yourself guide:
https://www.totseans.com/chemicals-substances/learn-about-thermite/
Remember I promised earlier to reveal a surprising “coincidence” involving Atkins PLC (Aldermaston)?
So without futher ado…
WS Atkins (Consulting Engineers), Unit 4, Hercules House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Reading, RG7 8DN 1
Silver Fern Services Ltd, 2A Zodiac House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Reading, RG7 8HN 2
(NB this is of course not Brett Martin’s company, which is Silver Fern (Sussex) Ltd – but it has a very similar name.)
Remember someone said on this thread that WBM said he’d started his involvement with Silver Fern in the 1990s? And that this couldn’t have been with Silver Fern (Sussex) because that was only founded in 2006?
Well, that got me looking… now it’s true that Silver Fern Services was only founded in 2005 but it does have NZ directors (WBM connection?) and perhaps we can find another company they had already started back in the 1990’s?
Interestingly too, Silver Fern Services used to be at 29 Raeburn Way, Sandhurst, GU47 0FH – just 3 miles from Sandhurst Military Academy!
1 {http://www.yell.com/s/engineers+consulting-aldermaston.html}
2 {https://www.duedil.com/company/05583774/silver-fern-services-limited}
@Bluebird
when was saad apparently working for Elekta?
We don’t know – we only have the two RIP statements reported on this thread to go on.
Pietro was working for Elekta 1997 and 1998 only.
OK, so that would indicate he must have been there then, at least.
When was Saad working for Elekta? Could they really meet each other at Elekta? Did somebody find out when Saad was working for Elekta?
Not as far as I know.
*
When was Saad working for Elekta? Could they really meet each other at Elekta?
It would seem strange, wouldn’t it, what with SAH in the UK, and Pietro in Italy? Maybe PM was in the UK then – maybe that’s when he met his UK wife?
Did somebody find out when Saad was working for Elekta?
Not as far as I know.
Bluebird /Ferret.
Didn’t we see the MD [?} post a message on behalf of all the staff at Elektra, but then it was removed ?
Some recent activity on the FB RIP page..
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RIP-Saad-al-Hilli-and-Family-God-bless-your-two-daughters/419120754803049
{http://www.facebook.com/salibabe}
Dentist..
think she is here
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/saleha-sharif/21/781/78a
{https://plus.google.com/102870977919620618401/posts}
Link to Ikbal,obviously.
Edit: Elekta.
@Ferret
link to Ikbal awaiting mod – forgot to bracket a link
BTW link to NZ here from Sandhurst:
https://www.duedil.com/company/FC030358/hart-group-holdings-limited
Regarding Gary Aked. I strongly believe you guys were wrong by linbking him to the defense & space company ATK. That is a US based company. If he worked for this company, linkedin would have characterised his profession as “defense & space”. However, it isn’t.
My strong guess would be that Gary Aked is working for this company.
http://www.atk-partnership.co.uk/aboutus.html
That would fit quite well with “mechanical & engineering”.
I strongly believe that you were unfortunately searching in a wrong oneway with Gary Aked’s profession.
Now let’s find out about how we could link that company above to SAH.
Bluebird the ATK he says he works for on Linkedin is down (again on Linkedin) as having 10,000+ employees)
It’s not that ATK partnership.
@ferret
be careful with “Silver Fern” names. Silver Fern means nothing more than “Newzealander”. Not unlike “Scotsman” means that he is Scottish and “Paddys” or “Micks” would be used for Irish.
If you find a Paddys Ltd or a Paddys Service Ltd then it most likely just tells us that it is run by an Irish. However, those two companies have nothing in common except that likely run by an Irishman. The same meaning has Silver Fern for Newzealanders.
@dopey
So then we’d have to find and “ATK” related company in the UK. I give up. I can’t find any. ATK is solely USA. Do you find an ATK representing company or sister company in the UK? I won’t. Frustration!