Amidst all the political news at home this got my attention this morning:
JERUSALEM — Aziz Asbar was one of Syria’s most important rocket scientists, bent on amassing an arsenal of precision-guided missiles that could be launched with pinpoint accuracy against Israeli cities hundreds of miles away.
He had free access to the highest levels of the Syrian and Iranian governments, and his own security detail. He led a top-secret weapons-development unit called Sector 4 and was hard at work building an underground weapons factory to replace one destroyed by Israel last year.
On Saturday, he was killed by a car bomb — apparently planted by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
It was at least the fourth assassination mission by Israel in three years against an enemy weapons engineer on foreign soil, a senior official from a Middle Eastern intelligence agency confirmed on Monday. The following account is based on information provided by the official, whose agency was informed about the operation. He spoke only on the condition of anonymity to discuss a highly classified operation. NT Times
According to the N.Y. Times “the prime minister alone is authorized to approve an assassination operation, euphemistically known as “negative treatment” within the Mossad.”
As is typical in Israel there was no official comment, and in Israel ( “Intelligence official: Mossad behind Syrian scientist's death: Official from Middle Eastern intelligence agency tells New York Times the Mossad was behind the death of Syrian scientist Aziz Asbar” Arutz Sheva) and worldwide the press is relying on the N.Y. Times story for information about this assassination. According to Arutz Sheva the original reporting came from the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. the scientific research center in the city of Masyaf.
I wonder if Trump, who admires Netanyahu, will read this and get any ideas.
About me
Tuesday, Aug 7, 2018 · 2:59:26 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
We have a president who admires world leaders who are willing to engage in these kinds of actions. Netanyahu most probably made this decision after due deliberation and consultation with his military and intelligence chiefs. Trump, on the other hand, is prone to impulsive outbursts of rage. What if he realizes that he has the authority to give the CIA an order find and assassinate an important Iranian scientist so he can take credit for it?
Other stories that caught my attention today.