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Flagged. What's this Mossad PR stunt doing on HN?

tonystubblebine 17y ago
I'm hoping for someone to discuss the implications as they relate to technology, PR, security, and privacy. What technology is necessary to gather that much video so quickly? Is that video feeding into a central hub? This is Dubai, a relatively tiny country. Did they build this technology themselves or did they license it. PR. What's to gain from releasing this? It's fascinating but long. It's definitely not put together as a soundbite, in fact it has no sound. What are the security implications of releasing this information? Will it make future assassins think twice? What about the privacy implications? If you were incorrectly identified as a lookout what would you do to clear your name? The story includes some Israelis who share names with the assassination team who are freaked out right now.
- yannis 17y ago
  What technology is necessary to gather that much video so quickly? Is that video feeding into a central hub? This is Dubai, a relatively tiny country. Did they build this technology themselves or did they license it. The technology is CCTV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television. It is imported from all over the place and is probably not feeding into a central hub. In most countries UAE included it is found in all hotels, airports and Shopping Centers. The assassins for sure knew about it but because of their modus operandi did not worry about it. If you notice the end of the video says the hotel staff opened the room 17 hours later and that the latch was locked from the inside. They made the murder appear as a heart attack (other reports at the time) reported it as electrocution - probably killed him by inducing a heart attack via electrocution. The team scattered to different places and all the names and nationalities mentioned are probably false. They also probably had multiple passports and on leaving Dubai appeared in another country with a different name.
  - johnyzee 17y ago
    Accounts from previous Mossad agents have explained one technique they have employed for this kind of murder: They give the victim hardly traceable anesthetic and fever inducing drugs, then, when his body temperature is exceedingly high, he is submerged in icey water (f.ex. in a bathtub). Apparently this causes heart attack in the victim and is very difficult to distinguish from a natural cardiac arrest.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- utku_karatas2 17y ago
  I cannot make myself believe world's and especially mid-east's most feared inteligence service making mistakes in this level (Security cams ha? Who knew!). This case is more like a message telling "we come, we find, we kill your leader wherever he is and btw don't forget to comment us on Youtube". That's why I called it a stunt.
  - InclinedPlane 17y ago
    Did it not enter your mind that this video comes from Dubai security services and not Israel? The real question is the motivation of Dubai in making and releasing this video. I highly doubt that it's as an advertisement for the mossad (even if it may end up coming off as such).
    - utku_karatas2 17y ago
      Somehow "Dubai security services" sounds like a joke instead of a beacon of Arabic intelligence to this mid-eastern ears of mine. Thus I think this whole thing ended up as a Best of Mossad episode.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
  - tokenadult 17y ago
    Hotels are full of security cameras these days. That's perhaps why the assassination victim thought he could travel to a hotel safely even though he surely had deadly enemies. The story, which is worth discussing among hackers, is how the assassins circumvented the security cameras to operate in what was, as it appears, a foreign country for them. After edit: this quotation from the submitted article, "The door on al-Mabhouh’s room was latched and chained from the inside, and there was no blood evidence," shows more tradecraft than I have for leaving a modern, secure hotel room and ensuring that the assassination scene will yield little evidence and not be discovered at first.

I'm hoping for someone to discuss the implications as they relate to technology, PR, security, and privacy. What technology is necessary to gather that much video so quickly? Is that video feeding into a central hub? This is Dubai, a relatively tiny country. Did they build this technology themselves or did they license it. PR. What's to gain from releasing this? It's fascinating but long. It's definitely not put together as a soundbite, in fact it has no sound. What are the security implications of releasing this information? Will it make future assassins think twice? What about the privacy implications? If you were incorrectly identified as a lookout what would you do to clear your name? The story includes some Israelis who share names with the assassination team who are freaked out right now.

yannis 17y ago
What technology is necessary to gather that much video so quickly? Is that video feeding into a central hub? This is Dubai, a relatively tiny country. Did they build this technology themselves or did they license it. The technology is CCTV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television. It is imported from all over the place and is probably not feeding into a central hub. In most countries UAE included it is found in all hotels, airports and Shopping Centers. The assassins for sure knew about it but because of their modus operandi did not worry about it. If you notice the end of the video says the hotel staff opened the room 17 hours later and that the latch was locked from the inside. They made the murder appear as a heart attack (other reports at the time) reported it as electrocution - probably killed him by inducing a heart attack via electrocution. The team scattered to different places and all the names and nationalities mentioned are probably false. They also probably had multiple passports and on leaving Dubai appeared in another country with a different name.
- johnyzee 17y ago
  Accounts from previous Mossad agents have explained one technique they have employed for this kind of murder: They give the victim hardly traceable anesthetic and fever inducing drugs, then, when his body temperature is exceedingly high, he is submerged in icey water (f.ex. in a bathtub). Apparently this causes heart attack in the victim and is very difficult to distinguish from a natural cardiac arrest.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

utku_karatas2 17y ago
I cannot make myself believe world's and especially mid-east's most feared inteligence service making mistakes in this level (Security cams ha? Who knew!). This case is more like a message telling "we come, we find, we kill your leader wherever he is and btw don't forget to comment us on Youtube". That's why I called it a stunt.
- InclinedPlane 17y ago
  Did it not enter your mind that this video comes from Dubai security services and not Israel? The real question is the motivation of Dubai in making and releasing this video. I highly doubt that it's as an advertisement for the mossad (even if it may end up coming off as such).
  - utku_karatas2 17y ago
    Somehow "Dubai security services" sounds like a joke instead of a beacon of Arabic intelligence to this mid-eastern ears of mine. Thus I think this whole thing ended up as a Best of Mossad episode.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
- tokenadult 17y ago
  Hotels are full of security cameras these days. That's perhaps why the assassination victim thought he could travel to a hotel safely even though he surely had deadly enemies. The story, which is worth discussing among hackers, is how the assassins circumvented the security cameras to operate in what was, as it appears, a foreign country for them. After edit: this quotation from the submitted article, "The door on al-Mabhouh’s room was latched and chained from the inside, and there was no blood evidence," shows more tradecraft than I have for leaving a modern, secure hotel room and ensuring that the assassination scene will yield little evidence and not be discovered at first.