Not Forgetting the al-Hillis 22278

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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?

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22,278 thoughts on “Not Forgetting the al-Hillis”

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  • bluebird

    Hezbollah and PKK and drugs

    There is a comman misunderstanding. The Lebanese/Iranian Hezbollah is a Shia organisation. The Turkish Hezbollah is a Sunni organisation.
    Turkish Hezbollah joined al Nusra in their fight versus Assad.
    The Shia Hezbollah fights for Assad.
    Turkish Hezbollah and Shia Hezbollah have nothing in common but the name.

    Then there is the clue:

    Turkish Sunni Hezbollah fights PKK while the Shia Hezbollah cooperates with PKK.

    Consequences: European Shia Hezbollah leaders could be important PKK supporters at the same time, particularly in terms of funding, organising and smuggling.

    The below text has nothing to do with that topic but it shows about how local such wars are getting even within european cities:

    10/11/2002   KurdishMedia.com
    London (KurdishMedia.com) 10 November 2002: Yesterday, six young Kurds weredecorating a shop in Haringey, North London, when suddenly they wereattacked by a gang of 150 people. Six were critically injured and two ofthem died this morning in the hospital.The shop was owned by Abdullah Baybasin and he was preparing the shop to beformally opened.”Two people, who claimed to be from the PKK, who called themselves Suleymanand Seres, few days ago demanded from Mr Baybasin to give a donation to thePKK. Mr Baybasin refused and they threatened him and said that there willnot be room for him in the area,” Baybasin family told KurdishMedia.com.”Yesterday, during a meeting held allegedly by the PKK in Halkevi CommunityCentre in London, the organisers spoke out against the Baybasin family. Theysaid that anyone who does not take part in the attack on the Baybasin shopis our enemy,” informed the Baybasin family.The young Kurds who were hired by Baybasin family to decorate the shop andwho had nothing to do with the Baybasin family, were critically injured andtwo later died in hospital, while one is still in a critical condition.The gang chanted in the shop “Biji Serok Apo – Long live leader Ocalan”before attacking the workers in the shop, Kurdishmedia.com was told.Baybasin family has reported the incident to the police and an investigationhas been launched.http://www.kurdishmedia.com/news.asp?id=3123

    Read more about the Baybasins:
    Fifteen years prison for PKK drug dealer BaybasinThe German newspaper Kölner Stadt Anzeiger reports on 10/05/2002 that Nizamettin Baybasin (39), wirepuller of a dynasty of drug dealers linkedwith PKK terrorist organization, has been condemned to 15 years prison, themaximum penalty under German law.During his trial which lasted over two years, the Higher Regional Court ofBonn concluded as proven fact that Baybasin distributed a total of 486.5kilos heroin, enough for 5 million ‘shots’, with a market value of more than7 million euros.Judge Joseph Janssen rejected several abstruse conspiration theories broughtforward by the defendant – beginning from the alleged complicity of Turkishpoliticians up to a supposed plot hatched between the Dutch and Germanpolice.Baybasin was convicted of having organized six drug shipments in the periodbetween August 1998 and May 1999. Each of these shipments, with a volume of80 to 90 kilos, was enough for 11 to 14 years prison.Besides of his imprisonment, Baybasin was condemned to pay also the processcosts, estimated at about 1.2 million euros. His considerable privatefortune was seized – about 3 million euros in cash, several real estateproperties in Turkey, and business assets in Germany and the Netherlands.The co-defendant Celal C. was condemned to 11 years prison.After the arrest of Huseyin Baybasin (the “Drug Empereor”) who was condemnedto 20 years imprisonment by a Dutch court, this is the second member of theBaybasin Dynasty convicted for drug dealing by order of the PKK terroristorganization.A third member, Mahmut Baybasin, was arrested by the Spanish police on 17May 2000 in Majadahonda (Madrid). A total of 15 kilos heroin and about 1million euros cash were found in his flat.

  • James

    Blue….

    I think it is along “those lines” that you have outlined.

    Just digging around myself to see if I can turn up anything “local”.

  • Kenneth Sorensen

    Ambrose if one of the best journalists I know of. Also because he’s opposed to the euro. His father was the world known Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970,Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. Now see this masterly crafted article:

    Dust to Dust: a man-made Malthusian crisis
    We must wake up to the global land crisis or face a very real threat of famine

    By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    American scientists have made an unsettling discovery. Crop farming across the Prairies since the late 19th Century has caused a collapse of the soil microbia that holds the ecosystem together.

    They do not know exactly what role is played by the bacteria. It is a new research field. Nor do they know where the tipping point lies, or how easily this can be reversed. Nobody yet knows whether this is happening in other parts of the world.

    A team at the University of Colorado under Noah Fierer used DNA gene technology to test the ‘verrucomicrobia’ in Prairie soil, contrasting tilled land with the rare pockets of ancient tallgrass found in cemeteries and reservations. The paper published in the US journal Science found that crop agriculture has “drastically altered” the biology of the land. “The soils currently found throughout the region bear little resemblance to their pre-agricultural state,” it concluded.

    You might say we already knew this. In fact we did not. There has never before been a metagenomic analysis of this kind and on this scale. Professor Fierer said mankind needs to watch its step. “We really know very little about one of the most productive soils on the planet, but we do know that soil microbes play a key role and we can’t just keep adding fertilizers,” he said.

    The Colorado study has caused a stir in the soil world. It was accompanied by a sobering analysis in Science by academics from South Africa’s Witwatersrand University. They fear that we are repeating the mistakes of past civilisations, over-exploiting the land until it goes beyond the point of no return, and leads to a vicious circle of famine, and then social disintegration.

    Entitled “Dust to Dust”, the paper argues that the erosion of soil fertility has been masked by a “soup of nutrients” poured over crop lands, giving us a false sense of security. It said 1pc of global land is being degraded each year, defined as a 70pc loss of the top soil.

    Once the top soil crosses a crucial threshold, the recovery rate plunges. Chemicals can keep crop yields high for a while but the complex ecology beneath is being abused further. Yields have already fallen 8pc across Africa as a whole. The paper calls for a complete change of course as the “only viable route to feeding the world and keeping it habitable.”

    This degradation is courting fate given that the world’s population will grow by over a quarter to nine billion before peaking in the middle of the century. It comes as China and emerging Asia switch to an animal protein diet, replicating the pattern seen in Japan and Korea as they became rich. As a rule of thumb it takes 4kg-8kg of grains in animal feed to produce 1kg of meat.

    Professor Robert Scholes, one of the authors, said there comes a point when terrified governments make a Faustian pact, sacrificing their future to stop their people starving today. “We’re seeing a massive arc of deforestation in Africa,” he said.

    Cautionary stories abound. The East side of Magdascar has been destroyed by slash and burn deforestation, perhaps irreversbily in any human time horizon. Iceland’s Norse settlers turned their green and partly forested island into a Nordic desert in the 10th Century. They have yet to restore the fragile soil a thousand years later, despite careful husbandry.

    “We’re running out of new agricultural frontiers and we don’t have the freedom to make errors any more. We are using up our nutrient capital and face a looming food crisis over the next 30 to 40 years. There is a risk that we are going to paint ourselves into a corner. Famine is a very real possiblity,” he said.

    The Sumerian civilisation that first pioneered cereal farming in the Tigris and Euphrates was almost certainly destroyed by soil erosion and over-cultivation. The Gilgamesh epic describes tracts of cedar forest in Iraq before it was cut down for the timber trade around 2,600 BC.

    The story is usually the same, whether for the lowland Maya central America, or the Khmer Empire of Angkor, or Easter Island, recounted by Jared Diamond in “Collapse”. Once the hillside trees are cut down, water flows are disturbed. It then becomes harder to feed saturated settlements. Societies take short-cuts to survive, leaving less land fallow . The spiral accelerates. It seems that a climate shock is the often the coup de grace, pushing them over the edge.

    The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) says the world food demand will 50pc by 2030, requiring up to 170m- 220m hectares of fresh land. Yet it also expects land degradation to cut output by 12pc over the next 25 years.

    The UNCCD is aiming for a global deal to achieve “zero net land degradation” from 2015, mostly by replanting forests. The body’s environment chief Veerle Vanderweerde says it is not going well. “We know what to do to restore degraded land. It’s not impossible but it takes time, money, dedication, and political will, and there is not a lot political will.”

    There have been heart-warming episodes. Yacouba Sawadogo, “the man who stopped the desert”, began to revive the ancient zai technique thirty years to stop soil erosion on his little farm in Burkina Faso. It involved digging smal holes and filling them with compost and tree seeds to catch the seasonal rains, recreating a woodland of 20 hectares in the arid Sahel. Sadly, local officials then expropriated the land.

    Mrs Vanderveerde said global agro-industrial companies are moving into new frontiers, stripping and degrading land for quick profit, more akin to mining than farm stewardship. “They can’t just come in, take the resources, and then walk away. The big companies need to change their behaviour and they won’t do it unless they are made to,” she said.

  • James

    Reading into the PKK for the past week…

    If the BMW SUV was actually there (ONF1), then it is likely that “he” (the BMW X5) was likely there to meet the motorcyclist.

    That’s just logic.

    SM was shot first. Then logically it’s “local”.

    If ONF1 is lying ! But if he isn’t !!!!

  • Jon

    Tim V,

    Threads have auto-closed on this blog for quite some time, as a defence against spam, and to simplify moderation. Normally this goes unnoticed, as Craig usually posts frequently, and commenters tend to migrate to the latest post or two. Sadly Craig has not been able to carry on blogging recently, I suspect because of his health.

    I hurried up the closure of the last couple of posts as they were turning into a bun-fight. There’s a couple of posts that are still open – this one and an Assange post. So, the blog’s not closed – and hopefully Craig will feel able to return to blogging soon.

    Macky,

    ‘pologies for inadvertently causing you puzzlement. I’m still, infrequently, keeping some techie wheels turning in the background, and when I log in I’ll always peek at the comments stream. Old habits die hard!

  • Jon

    Hi there Mary, didn’t spot your post until just now. Hope you are well! Good spot – pleased to see Craig is keeping busy with his speaking.

  • James

    Didn’t know Swissair “one eleven” (Swiss 111) had some “strange” things onboard.
    News to me that.

    Just shows you what gets “released” later on.

  • James

    Magnesium !

    What were they carrying “pyroplastics” for ? The manifest doesn’t show that.
    Where did all the Magnesium come from.

  • James

    WOW ! That investigation was “way off”.
    229 “murders” ?

    What about the Chevaline Investigation ? Are people going to ask questions ?
    4 murders there. 225 less. And no one gives a sh*t !

  • bluebird

    Some more local investigation.
    Sadly the one and only Communal-Tournier family member who runs a fb site is Sophie.
    There is one common link with Cavit Havutcu which is that they both are fb friends of Bar Le Santa Fe in Faverges/Saint Ferreol. That isnt something particularly significant because that bar has severel other local fb fans, too.

    There is one fb message of Sophie Communal Tournier from december 1st that might have some kind of significanve, though. I have only a google translation and that one is pity. Maybe one of you could deliver a better translation. That message could be significant for tracking people in that area by criminals. This fb message links to Romanian criminals (sic!).

    I know that this is just a minor possibility but in a good investigation we should post every little possibility here.

    Fb message original and google translation:

    > Attention, en ce moment il y a des portes clés pour accrocher au retro qui sont distribués à des pompes à essence et sur des parkings. ils sont gratuits… mais ne les acceptez pas… il y a une puce à l’interieur.> > > les criminels vous suivent de la pompe jusque chez vous et savent ainsi que quand vous n’etes pas a la maison et ils vous cambriolent.> > > Selon la police c’est le travail des Roumains. vous avez été avertis…> > > faites pareil faite tourner un max

    > Attention now there are doors to hang keys that are distributed retro gas pumps and parking. they are free … but do not agree … there is a chip inside. >>> criminals after you pump up and you know as well as when you are not at home and they will steal. >>> According to the police is labor Romanians. you have been warned … >>> do the same made a turn max

    Bb

  • bluebird

    It looks as if Sophie Communal Tournier was a victim of a hoax. (See articles below).
    I just wonder about how many hoaxes did Eric and the MSM tell us about Chevaline so far?

    http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2012/07/02/la-police-cantonale-de-geneve-victime-d-un-canular-electronique

    Eclat de rires à l’autre bout du fil! «Vous êtes au moins le centième appel de ce genre depuis hier, lance Philippe Cosandey, porte-parole de la police genevoise. Cette histoire est absolument fausse.» Depuis lundi, une légende urbaine fait exploser le standard téléphonique de la police. Objet de tous ces appels: une prétendue mise en garde de la police concernant un groupe de criminels qui utiliseraient des porte-clés piégés pour suivre leurs victimes jusqu’à leur domicile et les dévaliser.Le faux email de mise en garde appelle ses récipiendaires à se montrer vigilants (ndlr: le texte du email ci-après est retranscrit tel quel, sans correction) vis-à-vis d’un «groupe de criminels qui se présentent comme faisant la promotion des ventes et qui donnent gratuitement des porte-clefs». Ces criminels agiraient principalement aux abords «des stations-service et dans des terrains de stationnement publics».Un «hoax» apparu en 2008 déjàLes porte-clés seraient «munis d’une puce électronique» qui permettrait aux prétendus malfrats «de suivre vos déplacements». Ceux-ci cibleraient des «personnes semblant à l’aise financièrement». «Il est possible qu’ils viennent à connaître votre lieu de résidence et vous devenez potentiellement sujets à vous faire voler», conclut le message.Cet appel à la vigilance est en fait une légende urbaine, ou «hoax», bien connue de la police. «Elle était apparue en 2008 déjà et refait surface cette année, explique Philippe Cosandey. De plus, en lisant le message, on peut assez vite s’apercevoir que cela ne correspond pas vraiment au type de mise en garde que nous envoyons.»

    http://mobile2.tdg.ch/#/articles/20758554

  • James

    Blue.

    It’s an Urban Legend doing the rounds on email.
    She must have believed it for some reason…and re posted it.

  • Macky

    @Jon, sorry as puzzled even more now; keeping “techie wheels turning in the background” is quite different from moderating, so stating “I rather lost interest in daily moderation” is in direct contradiction to your earlier announcement of stepping down as Moderator; have you resigned as you said you had or not ?

    Yes, threads auto-closed after a period if no posts are made, but the reason that some threads ran into many pages, and persisted until a fresh post from Craig, is that over the years a community has built-up around this Blog, people who like to stay in touch with one another, and to comment on daily news items, but your action in closing that latest thread has ended this, and threatens to permanently dissuade the regular posters from ever returning, as the Blog is effectively closed now as very few people will be aware of these two ancient threads that are still open, and even if they were aware, would not want to post off-topic comments.

  • Jon

    Hi all. Apologies for the downtime. Our host had a move-around and mis-configured our site over the weekend. Apologies if any posts were lost.

    I’m looking to move to a more stable set-up, but it requires Craig’s time, and he is between visits to Africa. I believe the internet isn’t so good where he’s based!

  • Diogenes

    Assumed one of you had solved the case and PRISM had rolled up this amateur analysis site when it went down….

    It has been a fascinating last 15 months. Certain points stick out for me. The anouncement in Sept 2012 of joint diplomatic missions between UK, Canada, New Zealand etc – in the same month as this incident. More recently the incredible zeal which France has demonstrated in matters foreign policy i.e. Africa and the Iranian nuclear issue – married to the fact that this incident happened on their soil and involved the death of a nuclear industry worker.

    Non of the above is news to anyone following this blog of course!

  • Tim V

    “On June 9, 2010, AVG announced the acquisition of North Carolina-based Walling Data, a North America security software distribution that has distributed AVG offerings across the United States since 2001[15]
    On November 10, 2010, AVG announced the acquisition of Tel Aviv-based DroidSecurity, a company that specializes in the field of mobile security solutions, for Android devices. Upon completion of the acquisition DroidSecurity will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AVG and DroidSecurity CEO and co-founder, Eran Pfeffer, will become the general manager of AVG’s Mobile Solutions Team.[16]
    In December of 2010, AVG released a mandatory-install update to the 2011 version of its antivirus software which caused thousands of 64 bit Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers to become completely inoperable. AVG has since released a fix which attempts to repair computers bricked after installing the update. Affected users can watch the following video on AVG’s Official YouTube page to resolve the issue.[17]
    On January 28, 2011, a dangerous rogue appeared. The interface and graphics resemble the previous version of the software and uses sophisticated social engineering to deceive users and infect their systems. The malware also contains the Internet Explorer emergency mode.[18][19]
    On July 30th, 2013, AVG Technologies announced that Gary Kovacs is the company’s new CEO”

    My computer files were all copied some time ago since when I have had this message: “Windows.Build 7601. This copy of windows is not genuine” “!You may be guilty of counterfeiting” A reference to my article “Bush on Kennedy” that was initially brought up at the top of an AVG search no longer appears in contrast to a google search!

    Bluebird if you’re still around, and insight on AGV, its takeovers or characters mentioned? The avg search engine certainly appears amazingly reticent to implicate the name of Bush with anything untoward.

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