Unforeseen Contingencies

If you've not been following, Bruce Schneier has has some great posts related to the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. These are worth a look, including the link to the page on how to break through an electronic door lock. The video is particular interesting, and includes countermeasures. Things every UC reader should know!

Most officials seem to think Israel's Mossad was responsible for the killing. If so, it raises some serious questions. The assassination involved theft of identities of Israeli civilians. If a government agency is stealing the identities of its own citizens and using them for covert operations, that agency is violating rights, rather than defending them. Identity theft is a real crime, and especially in these circumstances.

Lest someone suppose that this is simply an example of our usual irony at UC, keep in mind that the people whose names were used face real danger in this. Their rights have been violated. Keep in mind too that al-Mabhouh was a murderer and weapons smuggler for terrorists, and killing him was certainly called for. It did not violate anyone's rights that he was killed, including his. "We" here at Unforeseen Contingencies are of the opinion that there cannot be peace in the Middle East until Hamas is eliminated, given their vow to exterminate Jews.

Of course, the real reason why the international community is in such an uproar is the way in which al-Mabhouh was killed. Had it been with a Hellfire missile from a Predator drone, it would just have been another ho-hum news story.

Photo: the civilized way to eliminate unwanted Muslim terrorists.