On February 23, a Kyrgyzstan Airways flight from Dubai bound for Bishkek was ordered by the Iranian government to land in Iran and a passenger, Abdol Malik Rigi, was taken off in handcuffs. Have you seen it in the newspapers? Is there an emergency session of the UN General Assembly? Are the British or the French or the Australians complaining?
No, they're too busy beating Israel over the head about the dispatch of a man for whom a violent end should not have been a surprise. But emerging information about the death of Mohammad al Mabouh in Dubai makes the theory that the Mossad was behind al Mabouh's death less credible every day, and should be making people wonder what's going on.
First, the emerging information: According to Dubai authorities, more than 20 people were involved in the killing; all of them primped in front of the ubiquitous security cameras; Mabouh appears to have been tortured and left; two of the conspirators left Dubai for Iran (hardly the destination of choice for Israeli agents); and British passports were matched with American credit cards-all very sloppy and un-Mossad-like. Immediately afterward, Jordan extradited two Fatah-related Palestinians to Dubai, where they seem to have disappeared.
But never mind. The Australians summoned the Israeli ambassador to explain why three Australian passports were used. The British are considering suspending intelligence cooperation with Israel (which one do you think will suffer?), and Germany, France and Ireland are demanding answers. And journalists-including Israeli journalists-are feeding the frenzy, denouncing Mossad and insisting without evidence that Israel is behaving as a rogue nation.
In the meantime, a real rogue nation hijacks an airliner and removes a passenger.
Abdul Malik Rigi is the leader of Jundullah, a Sunni group that claims to provide protection to Iran's Baluch minority; Iran calls it a terrorist organization and accuses Rigi of masterminding a series of bombings, including one that killed 42 people, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders. The Iranians also claim Rigi is an agent of the CIA, to which Rigi attested in a videotaped "confession" shortly after his arrest. The BBC aired the tape, claiming not to know whether the "confession" was "coerced." You decide:
Rigi claimed to have been contacted shortly after the 2008 election. "The Americans said... that we don't have a problem with al Qaeda or the Taliban, but the problem is Iran and we don't have a military program against Iran." He further claimed that he was promised U.S. support to launch attacks on Iran in return for the release of Jundullah prisoners. "They [Americans] promised to help us and they said that they would co-operate with us, free our prisoners and would give us [Jundullah] military equipment, bombs, machine guns, and they would give us a base."
Somebody was slick here, and it wasn't the Mossad. Western intelligence agencies-the heart of the battle against violent Islamic radicalism-are being slimed with the active assistance of Western governments and journalists, and Iran forces down an airliner and abducts a passenger off the plane without a whisper of criticism.
