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?
this is a BIG step forward towards a solution of this crime today.
Thompson (ex policemem and oil contractor) literally cries from his grave: “Hey, I worked for CIA”.
murder at the same day on two different continents definitely can only be the work of a secret service or by a BIG organisation.
poisoned dart murder script cries: “secret service!”.
Do we have a timing of the two killings? Same day and same time? we need to know the time if thompson’s death. Peter Allen, please ask!
there is an oil rig with the name “Noble Jim Thompson”.
Noble is the company. However, we dont understand the name giving of the Noble company for their oil rigs, do we?
http://www.noblecorp.com/rig-fleet/rig?rig=NJT
If this guy was still in touch with Iqbal & was in some way a confidant for her & CIA, he would have known of the assassinations about to take place so therefore would have to be silenced.
this is his sister
http://www.realtor.com/realestateagents/Judith-Weatherly_Marrero_LA__761199755
Weatherly & Associates, Marrero, LA
Real Estates
Even back in the days when *the* Jim Thompson vanished, the CIA had a compressed-air pistol affectionately known as the Hush Puppy, because it was originally conceived to tranquilize guard dogs without leaving any trace (the darts consisted in a tranquilizing agent mixed with finely-ground iron powder that would literally rust away after coming into contact with the shot dog’s tissue). Substitute a potent poison for the dog tranquilizer, and you have an almost totally silent close-range assassination weapon which leaves very few traces and causes something that is almost certain to be taken for an idiopathic fatal heart attack.
So far, so good. However, the point of any such device is its unobtrusiveness, the ability to kill the victim in such a manner that his death is assumed to be a natural one. Using it on the same day that a spectacular murder, to which the victim is however tenuously linked, is committed elsewhere, defeats that objective. Why bother choosing a covert, deceptive killing technique, when the timing of the death screams “foul play”? This makes no sense, and hence I personally believe that the timing of James T’s death was sheer coincidence.
Regarding Iqbal’s marriage to this rather undistinguished U.S. citizen, and particularly the fact that she never told anybody about it, that is a rather different matter. Again, this is merely my personal opinion, and I hardly expect to convert any of this blog’s readers to it, but that behaviour smacks of a deep-cover agent building up her legend. Far from being a CIA agent, James T. probably was nothing but some gullible love-struck mope whom she first picked up and later ditched to suit her own purposes – as may have been the case later on with Saad. I now realize that I have been looking at this case with somewhat sexist goggles all along, assuming Saad as the man of the household to be the one who might have harboured the family’s dark secrets, if such secrets they had. Matters have taken on a somewhat different slant now: That “whirlwind romance” in Dubai – who says that she was not the one who initiated it, because she had been ordered to relocate to the UK? The money in that Swiss bank account – did it really belong to Saad’s father, or were those her operational funds, provided by whomever for whatever purposes? Her spending years and years “training” to become a dentist, without ever qualifying and working as such – was that ineptitude, laziness, or merely seriously good cover?
i wonder about why did the family members never come out with their story?
It would have been easy to call a british journalist. Or was this part of the D notice and the media knew all that stuff before but they werent allowed to publish that stuff?
However, the family members could have posted on blogs if they wanted to. there are thousands of different al hilli blogs. hence, they didnt.
They obviously knew that he was married to Iqbal plus they did suspect foul play with their fathers/brothers/husbands death.
Why did they stay silent for such a long time??
One possibility could be that they knew that their father was a CIA agent and that they were educated to stay silent regarding his job.
The other possibility could be that they are setting up a scripted story now. But why? And why now?
BB
We need to know how the French found out about this marriage.
If there are no marriage records how did it come to light ?
They say it was when they arrested an Iraqi hit man, so what was his connection with James T ?
OR, did the hit man know Iqbal personally & her past….. which then casts a whole new light on this.
Thanks for the second article Peter.
And thank you for your views.
Just some “quick points” from the latest article….
1. James Thompson was previously an “Oil Boy”. Then a “General Contractor”.
2. Iqbal was “a friend of the family” (?) and he met “through a cousin”.
3. He married her “as a deal so she could get her Green Card”.
4. Iqbal was a “dentist but went back to school to become a dental technician”.
Iqbal seems to use the “I was a dentist, but can’t practice in this country” line alot. And seems always to be “in education to be able to practice”.
When Saad met her in Dubai, was she actually a dentist….or “in education to get my certificates in order to practice in this country” dentist ?
And it seems she likes Wedding cake. Regardless which denomination cooks it.
To take Peter’s point and “add a bit of spin” to it….
….what if this was actually “a hit”. A hit that was meant for Saad alone.
I have never hired a “hitman” (there’s always a first time, hey Tim !)but I guess you “kinda” give them instructions….and on the day, Christ only knows what happens. It could go a bit “haywire”. Semi professional nutters do allsorts of things. Especially if they’ve been paid up front.
One for Blue.
If now it is confirmed that James Thompson married Iqbal for a Green Card. And James Thompson has FOUR previous wives. Why is there no record of Iqbal ?
@Katie
“OR, did the hit man know Iqbal personally & her past….. which then casts a whole new light on this”.
You kinda read my mind. See my post above.
And thanks to Peter’s new “non sexist” state.
Hullo, James. That Daily Fail article was updated since I read it, hence you got to read some fresh tidbits that I hadn’t read before.
To my mind, the most interesting fresh item was this quote: ‘My father struck a deal with her. She got my dad a Honda. ‘She was a dentist but she had to go back to school and became a dental technician. (…) She would take care of people, she would buy everything that they needed. She would care take for him.
How exactly could did this dental-technician-in-training, whose parents lived in a Swedish working-class suburb at the same time, afford such largesse in order to acquire her U. S. green card?
lets wait and see.
peter allen from DM updates every 20 minutes with news. he seems to be in a constant conversation with his daughter and he already answered my question regarding the timing. So then, Thompson died approx 6 to 7 hours later.
maybe he had already heard of the killing and that was too much for an ill heart to take ???
So James, are we right back to the heated argument Saad had with a well dressed ‘Baltic looking’ man, was he in fact an Iraqi……… this ‘contract killer’ we are now hearing about ?
That would explain him knowing things about Igbal.
That’s the question that struck me too,Peter. Where was she getting the cash from ?
FYI:
http://www.governmentcontractswon.com/department/defense/mississippi_counties.asp
james
there are no records of ANY of his wives.
perhaps he married all of them for money in return of a green card? if so, he must have married in a foreign country, then applied for visa for his new wife at an US embassy before returning to the usa. if he had done so for all 4 wives then the lack of marriage and divorce records is logic.
what i found meanwhile is that his two half siblings were adopted by his father james augustus. one of them at the age of 9 and the other one at the age of 12. records are available.
i have access to a family genealogy tree, finding the cousin should be easy.
The Augustus Thompson family emigrate to the USA in the 17th century coming from South London/Surrey. They probably still habe relatives there.
There is even a family history book on the www dealing/beginning with Deacan Augustus Thompson who was a christian prayer in massachusets.
Missing passports…
FARK !
Updated. I’ll “cut n paste” it as it may change.
‘My father used to brag that he had the best teeth in town. She lived in his house with his grandmother, his grandfather and his uncle. She would take care of people, she would buy everything that they needed. She would care take for him.
‘She was a virgin at 30 and my father knew that in her culture he could ask for her virginity, but he did not want to do that’.
Miss Martinolich described her father as a biker who liked to smoke cigars.
He and Mrs Al-Hilli stayed married for two or three years and then she left America.
Miss Weatherly described Mrs Al-Hilli was a ‘wonderful’ person who left the US because she got homesick, though they stayed in touch.
She said: ‘She wanted to start a family and her own family did not want her to marry out of their own culture’.
The attack on the Al-Hillis happened at 3.45pm on September 5 2012.
It is not clear if Mr Thompson was aware of the development when around 3pm local time in Natchez, some 19 hours later, he came out of an antique shop and told a friend he was not feeling well.
Miss Martinolich said that her father complained to a friend he felt nausea, he asked for some aspirin then got in his car to go home.
He did not make it and stopped in the middle of the street a short distance away.
My father struck a deal with her. She got my dad a Honda.
‘She was a dentist but she had to go back to school and became a dental technician. She was better than a lot of the dentists but had to work under them.
‘My father used to brag that he had the best teeth in town. She lived in his house with his grandmother, his grandfather and his uncle. She would take care of people, she would buy everything that they needed. She would care take for him.
‘She was a virgin at 30 and my father knew that in her culture he could ask for her virginity, but he did not want to do that’.
Miss Martinolich described her father as a biker who liked to smoke cigars.
He and Mrs Al-Hilli stayed married for two or three years and then she left America.
Miss Weatherly described Mrs Al-Hilli was a ‘wonderful’ person who left the US because she got homesick, though they stayed in touch.
She said: ‘She wanted to start a family and her own family did not want her to marry out of their own culture’.
The attack on the Al-Hillis happened at 3.45pm on September 5 2012.
It is not clear if Mr Thompson was aware of the development when around 3pm local time in Natchez, some seven hours later, he came out of an antique shop and told a friend he was not feeling well.
Miss Martinolich said that her father complained to a friend he felt nausea, he asked for some aspirin then got in his car to go home.
He did not make it and stopped in the middle of the street a short distance away.
This story is getting even more odd !
How long was Iqbal in the U.S. for ?
This guy sounds an “normal redneck Joe”.
He marries “a vigin” from “Iraq” so that she gets a Green Card.
She gets “homesick” and moves back to….. Sweden ? Dubai ? Iraq ?
Then she turns up in the UAE…. working as a “trainee dentist” ?????
http://www.lemessager.fr/Actualite/Actualite_de_Hte_Savoie/article_1122250.shtml
It would seem that not only was Jean-Paul Deronzier the mayor of Doussard, the President of Faverges but also le premier magistrat of the area!
Quite likely he made enemies of vilans.
Mr Q ….
And what name would you like the passport in ?
Iqbal Al Safar. Iqbal Thompson. Iqbal Al Hilli.
Is there an Iqbal Al Maktoum from Dubai in the house ???
when they were married for “2-3 years” about 1999 then she directly fell into the arms of Saad al Hilli when she left the USA. It looks as if during her USA time her parents made a wedding deal with the al Hilli family and sold her to Saad in Dubai.
james
we have only 4 brides:
Ingrid, Jennifer, Tosha and Linda Tudor.
Two if them did bear him children, 2 of them were “virgins”.
Who of the two was Iqbal? Ingrid or Tosha?
Ingrid (sounds swedish?)
Iqbal … Ingrid?
Ingrid Thompson?
US passport Ingrid Thompson?
Blue….
There are many possibilities. That maybe one.
BUT then we have to have a link between Al Hilli and Al Safar.
And why didn’t she go straight to the U.K. Why the UAE ?
Going back to earlier reports, who actually new she was working in the UAE ?
It is said that Saad went there after the death of his mother.
That in itself is a “bit odd”. A holiday ? Maybe ? A holiday romance ?
Is there some sort of “mail order Islamic bride service” in the UAE ?
But aside from that, Iqbal seems to “accept” rednecks (and there families all in the same house) Is it “possible” that Saad’s father put some kind of “condition” on inheritance ? You must be married ?
Zaid was/had been. And he had a child. Albeit “out of the culture”.
Saad hit the jackpot. An “unmarried” woman.
tosha thompson
http://m.radaris.com/~Tosha-Harris/146134837
ingrid thompson
http://www.mylife.com/chickenhaw49359jv
it’s neither thomlsha nor ingrid.
iqbal seems to be under the radar.
or is todays surprising story a fake setup?
james:
consider how noble people from such cultures marry.
iqbal’s marriage was a so called “conditional marriage on time”. i doubt that it was even legal for shia religion because he was a christian.
the bride is then offered to saad’s father and they make a deal. then iqbal is ordered by her parents to come to dubai to marry saad. that’s how it works. the parents say “you will marry him/her” and thats it.
Igbal was a virgin, if the marriage was never consummated it would simply be annulled.
Do all records of such a marriage get deleted too ?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2684400/Al-Hilli-Alps-muirder-Police-investigating-deaths-British-family-shot-French-Alps-reveal-wife-secret-ex-husband-died-America-day.html
Miss Martinolich said that her father was friends with local mob bosses but did not have any enemies. She said: ‘Everybody loved my father’.
That’s, erm, most reassuring, and surely a credit to this former policeman. Mob bosses and intelligence agencies sort of go together, however. Thus, it will be highly interesting to learn just how, where and through whom Iqbal and James T. hooked up – and even more interesting to learn how she got together with Saad in Dubai. I think that I can now hazard a fair guess as to what she was doing there, or pretending to do there, but what were Saad’s stated reasons?
Peter….
I’ve met loads of “virgins” in my time !
And in every bar I go in I meet a “mob boss”.
In reality, I doubt I have ever met either.
We either say that his death and her death was “coincidental”…
OR we say they are “linked somehow”.
If we push down both avenues, we may get the answer (although we missed this !).
I doubt her in her “new life” in England she would be in contact with James T.
And I doubt he was involved in the “Intelligence” world.
The “sudden trip to France” is still a mystery….and with his mother in law.
So who “pushed” for that holiday/trip ?
James,
My personal reading is that James T. fancied himself as a bit of a 1%er (see the photos of him on his Hog). Hence, I would guess that the so-called “mob bosses” amongst his acquaintances are to be found amongst those circles – Bandidos, Hells Angels, and so forth. I have never heard of any intelligence agencies collaborating with outlaw MC gangs, which in and of itself would give that idea some novelty value and make it worthwhile 😉 After all, those gangs have global networks and know how to keep secrets.
Somehow, however, I doubt that this was the channel used – just my own gut feeling. Anyway, like a fine wine, this case just keeps getting better, richer and more nuanced, with age 🙂
In the olden days, dentists made their clients false teeth.
These days it is usually the case that false teeth are made in a dental laboratory,
by dental technicians.
If Iqbal was already a dentist, why was she training to be a dental mechanic.
The only thing I can think of is,
she has or is going to come in to loads of money, walsing in and out of a dental laboratory that you own would be a much easier lifestyle than being a full time dentist,
it would give you time to pursue other pastimes, like espionage.