New York – A New York-based firm that provided suspects in the assassination of a senior Hamas commander in Dubai with credit cards has ties to former Israeli military officials, according to new details of the stunning plot.
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Dubai police, who say the murder was carried out by an Israeli hit team, said most of the prepaid credit cards used to purchase air tickets and book hotels for the attack were issued by an Iowa bank, Metabank.
Metabank, in turn, got the cards from privately held Payoneer, which has a Park Avenue office and a research-and-development center in Tel Aviv, Israel, authorities said.
Payoneer’s CEO is Yuval Tal, a former member of the Israeli special forces, according to Fox News, which used him as a commentator during Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah.
“It’s a war that they cannot lose,” Tal said on Fox at the time.
Payoneer has other Israeli ties.
Among its investors is Greylock Partners, which hired a former Israeli army intelligence officer, Moshe Mor, to head its expansion into Israel in 2003.
Other financial backers of Payoneer are Israeli-based Carmel Ventures and Crossbar Capital, whose co-founder previously headed an Israeli venture-capital firm.
After the Dubai hit, Payoneer said it was cooperating in the investigation. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the firm said Tal was unavailable and that the company “is providing no further comment on the matter.”
The latest disclosures came as Interpol issued 16 international arrest warrants in the Jan. 19 murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of Hamas’ armed wing.
Information coming from Dubai supported claims that the 16 suspects were members of a support team that “aided and abetted” a smaller group that allegedly drugged and suffocated Mabhouh in his hotel room, Interpol said.
In all, 27 people used a variety of bogus names and faked passports in the assassination plot, which began a year ago, Dubai investigators said.
Dubai’s police chief, Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said last week that all the suspects are back in Israel. He said he was “99 percent if not 100” percent certain the assassination was carried out by Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Israeli officials said they don’t know who killed Mabhouh, but welcomed his death.
Why did they need 27 operatives to kill one cockroach?
This does not seem to emanate from a Yiddishe Kop.
What a botched operation!
Everybody in Israel has either been in the defense for we himself or is related or has connections with someone who was. So what!
Great work, whoever did this! Lots of mazal and beracha to everybody involved in this mitzva!
No. 8 u r onto something!
reply to #8
You nailed it. Your analysis is stunning!!!!!! This is the best explanation as of yet. Why are the Dubais itching to be in the news EVERY DAY for the last who knows how long?
Mendel meets Christopher and they discussed the Dubai job. Christopher
has a dozen questions why, when and where and is prepared to give advice to the Mossad.
Mendel replies with a question as it is customary: tell me Christopher
how much does the daily feces of a chicken weigh? Christopher replies
immediately, 245 gr. Mendel’s comments, great.
Now tell me the weight of the feces of a dog? he replies 650 gr. Mendel
says: just beautful.
And how nuch is the weight of the daily output of a cow? Reply: 20.3 Kg.
Mendel says, you are a genious.
Do you know how much is the weight of the daily elephant feces? Sure,
44 5 kg.
Mendel: I never saw in my lifetime an expert on feces as you,
but it doesn’t mean that you understand the first thing about espionage .
You now have the correct reply to all the Chochmoligy your readers are commenting.
who cares who killed him – every arab, israeli, european, asian, american, etc., etc. is happy that he’s gone.
There is no way no how that Israel would need or use 27 people. The more people you have involved, the greater the chance of failure. The whole thing is baloney. Just saying.