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 only have Bluebirds word for it [edit: 2-3 pages back], that Yassar Al-Saffar, chief economist at the Bank of England, is Ikbal’s siter. I find it alright if it is exposed that he was wrong on this point, as this will help him to tread more carefully in the future
For @Q:
http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/index.html
Lachlan Cranswick Homepage is still accessable. Some links have been deleted but those are still available in google cache and in the wayback machine. Perhaps you want to find certain things about his life on his website.
BBC 13.33 TODAY
French Alps murders: ‘Long task’ to solve case
Saad al-Hilli was found dead in his car in France along with two family members
Related Stories
Alps murder victim’s cash worries
Alps murder force complete search
‘I left girl to get help’ Watch
There is no hope “in the near future” of solving the murders of an Iraqi-born British citizen and his family in the French Alps, a chief prosecutor says.
Eric Maillaud said the inquiry into the shootings in Annecy in early September was a “long task”.
/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19831615
Refining a metal to a certain grade of purity and creating an alloy with it are two separate and distinct processes. Sylvain Mollier was based where alloys are made.
Yesterday I posted a link about a company that was involved with SSTL’s latest satellite project, Earthview 1 (EV-1). The company also has a connection to CERN, via a type of coating the company makes.
The technical aspects of operating beamlines that examine alloys are complex. Saad al-Hilli had a background in mechanical engineering, had worked at Rutherford Appleton, and was said to be seeking employment at CERN. Is Saad al-Hilli’s connection to Sylvain Mollier through the beamline, its calibrations and applications in terms of examining metals?
A beamline is part of a particle accelerator. CERN is a particle accelerator.
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/research/Accelerator-en.html
One example of a CERN scientist who died mysteriously, and his colleague from the Grenoble beamline facility:
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1998/bnlpr090398.html
@ Mary:
That must be on ‘the wires’ because I heard it repeated elsewhere.
Nothing about al-Hilli relatives burying their family members in a private ceremony? Nothing about anything, I imagine.
@ cd , mary “may still be alive and in an I.D change program”
Another one
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/04/french-alps-shooting-case-prosecutor
A master class in how to say a lot..whilst saying absolutely NOTHING at all.
Why the coatings used on satellites are important:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/30/253468/iran-to-build-new-indigenous-satellite/
(link is from Iran)
@Q
Many thanks, once again.
Further to my previous post, “medical lasers” covers a lot of ground, doesn’t it?
It certainly does…
Laser medicine is the use of various types of lasers in medical diagnosis, treatment, or therapy. Types of lasers used in medicine include in principle any laser design, but especially:
CO2 lasers
diode lasers
dye lasers
excimer lasers
fiber lasers
gas lasers
free electron lasers
optical parametric oscillators
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_medicine
How does this relate to this case though?
:puzzled:
And… do you think there is any possibility SAH might have been a beamline technician?
The link about coatings, CERN and satellites posted on page 8 yesterday:
http://www.torrscientific.co.uk/index.php/technical-information
Does the Earthview 1 satellite built by SSTL have a radar-evading coating?
@sorensen
I only have Bluebirds word for it [edit: 2-3 pages back], that Yassar Al-Saffar, chief economist at the Bank of England, is Ikbal’s siter. I find it alright if it is exposed that he was wrong on this point, as this will help him to tread more carefully in the future
*******
Where did I say that?
Felix: The right spelling is YASER al Saffar and he is a Senior Economist at the Bank of England.
Lasers are used to calibrate beamlines in particle accelerators.
I wonder does anyone make anything of the fact that the official FCO statement quoted ‘close relative’ Ahmed al-Saffar, I think an uncle of Iqbal al-Hilli and brother of Suhaila (al-Allaf) al-Saffar?
Would the logically most senior family spokesman not have been the older brother of Saad, Zaid al-Hilli in the UK, rather than an in-law based in Sweden?
Another use for non-medical lasers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_aircraft
Lasers are used to apply radar-evading coatings:
http://robotsforsale.onpage1hosting.com/?tag=laser
@Dave
Allow me to help you with your confusion:
The only confusion I have, Dave, is why you might flatter yourself into thinking that anyone would want to believe what *you* are saying, when the article clearly stated what the shipment was, why it was halted (and eventually released), and what it could be used for.
And why you think anyone might believe you, rather than the independent nuclear consultant quoted in the Guardian.
:rolleyes:
On 31 August a truck carrying 1,000kg of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped. Zirconium can be used as a component of a nuclear programme. According to one expert, it is used in nuclear reactors to stop fuel rods corroding and can also be used as part of a nuclear warhead. The metal can be extracted from zirconium silicate. It is because the compound can be used for military purposes that its trade is usually tightly controlled.
[…]
There are technical rules that control the trade in zirconium silicate. These controls focus on how much of the material contains hafnium, another rare metal. The British view is that zirconium sulphate with more than 0.05 per cent of hafnium does not require a licence, as it is difficult to refine – although this is challenged by some experts. After a two-month investigation involving the British and Bulgarian authorities, it was agreed that the British cargo did not need an export licence and could be released and driven to Iran.
[…]
John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, said: ‘It is not a very sophisticated process to extract the zirconium from such material. Even though it appears that technically this cargo does not fall within the international controls, I would still be concerned. Zirconium is used for two purposes: one for cladding nuclear fuel rods inside a reactor and as material for a nuclear weapon. If Iran wanted this material for any illicit purposes, this would be one way it could get its hands on it.’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jan/08/iran.observerpolitics
So Dave, are you now some sort of expert in nuclear science, as well as somebody who has access to the employment records of Aldermaston?
Or are you just a complete and utter bullshitter?
As I said this morning, Dave is the new Katie.
😀
What’s this about anti-hydrogen?
http://www.torrscientific.co.uk/index.php/technical-information
Reaction between hydrogen and zirconium in nuclear reactors:
http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/101/7/348.abstract
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium_alloy
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/12-3
An anti-hydrogen coating would be valuable, non?
Lasers are used to calibrate beamlines in particle accelerators.
Ah…
Wasn’t Saad Al Hilli thought to have knowledge of lasers?
What’s this about anti-hydrogen?
http://www.torrscientific.co.uk/index.php/technical-information
Sounds like they’re studying the properties of anti-hydrogen at CERN… anti-hydrogen would be an anti-electron orbiting an anti-proton, as in anti-matter… the kind of stuff that would annihilate itself with a flash when it came into contact with ordinary matter.
“The only confusion I have, Dave, is why you might flatter yourself into thinking that anyone would want to believe what *you* are saying, when the article clearly stated what the shipment was, why it was halted (and eventually released), and what it could be used for.
And why you think anyone might believe you, rather than the independent nuclear consultant quoted in the Guardian.”
Look it up for yourself, zirconium silicate is used in the ceramics industry, it’s not the same as metal used by Iran in their reactors.
“Wasn’t Saad Al Hilli thought to have knowledge of lasers?”
I heard he was working on time machines.
What does any of this mindless speculation have to do with the case in hand?
We know who he was meeting and have a good idea who shot them, and we know what meeting man’s expertise lay in.
@Mary
“long task”. = “Long grass” “kick”
“very very long time” = “very very long grass” “kick”
@Bluebire
Fascinating what goes on in these anonymous buildings in the middle of nowhere.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=6+snellings+road+kt12&hl=en&ll=51.366836,-0.402905&spn=0.000409,0.000862&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.410182,56.513672&t=h&hnear=6+Snellings+Rd,+Surrey+KT12,+United+Kingdom&z=20&layer=c&cbll=51.366932,-0.402966&panoid=EWQbTbx3yINDLOxTWZCimA&cbp=12,111.33,,0,0
The huge question is whom BM was working for and who was paying him. I don’t think Silver Fern holiday cottages was generating any revenue.
@Dave
zirconium silicate
Yes Dave, well done! That’s exactly what the Guardian article was about! So glad you noticed. And that’s what the nuclear expert said could be used for Iran’s nuclear programme. I highlighted it so even you might notice. Apparently not.
:rolleyes:
Yes Ferret & you’re wrong about that too.
@Dave
What does any of this mindless speculation have to do with the case in hand?
Speculation, as any good sleuth knows, is the start of all theories. Only when you test them against known facts can you ascertain whether or not they have any validity.
Mindlessness, on the other hand, is something you seem to be something of an expert on?
😀
from craigmurray “John Goss” 7 Sep, 2012 – 3:52 pm baha’i, ba;ath or both
“I’ve discovered from a David Kelly site that Mr al Hilli was a member of the ba’ath faith just like David Kelly. So if you can find the murderer(s) of Dr David Kelly the two might be the same.” – – which Mr al Hilli? – – no other ref to this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk 7 Sep 2012 – Saad al-Hilli, 50, came to Britain in the mid-1970s after his family felt threatened by the ruling Ba’ath party http://www.bahairights.org. In 1970, Iraq banned the Baha’i Faith, and in 1975 there was a subsequent decision of prohibiting the issuance of identification documents to Baha’is. I
Olifant.
David Kelly was murdered because of his knowledge, I believe AH was killed for that too, not because of the political party they belonged to.
Katie
21 Sep, 2012 – 4:07 pm
Mochyn.
This is becoming hilarious, so your speculation is better than my speculation. LoL !!
Splitting my sides here.
Oh dear that desperate to find something to reply with you track back to the old thread !
You really should try to get over this Katie obsession Ferret.
Oh I see. So it’s OK when you speculate Katie, but not when I do?