Private firms scapegoat in Dubai case

The US will use private security firms as a scapegoat in a case which involves US websites funding the assassination of a senior Hamas official, says a Lebanese retired general.

In a January operation which led to the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of Hamas, several American companies covered up the tracks of whoever funded the assassination, US investigators say.

In an interview with Press TV, Hisham Jaber said, “American officials … allocate this to a private sector like Blackwater for example.”

US private security firm Blackwater was thrown into the spotlight after five of its members who were tasked to guard US diplomats in Iraq opened fire on civilians in Baghdad in September 2007, killing 17 people.

The case again caused controversy after a US District Court dropped all charges against the guards last December, saying the defendants’ constitutional rights had been violated.

The secretive firm is now operating in Afghanistan under the name of Xe Services.

“The Mossad could use private sector or a special person or a killer by contract to participate and cooperate” in the act, Jaber said.

Dubai earlier this year, released photos and information of 27 suspects, who entered Dubai on fake passports, using the identities of 12 individuals from Britain, six from Ireland, four from France, three from Australia, and a German.

Dubai police accused Mossad spy agency of being behind the killing of al-Mabhouh who was drugged and then suffocated in his hotel room on January 19.