To me it seems that it's sort of a confirmation of subtext from the book "The Secret History of the Mossad".<p>The thesis is that the Mossad is being seriously damaged by involvement of politics. Mossad requires time to do things properly (getting the job done, covering the trails, not leaving a trail to either operatives, Israel or Mossad itself), but politicians, especially Benjamin Netanjahu required (in 90's) that Mossad perform more operations faster, or so to say "on demand" whenever he needed a PR boost. Thus leading to a couple of spectacular failures that left Mossad operatives demoralized and even got them to start talking publicly about the ways of Mossad.<p>Fast forward 10 years. Bibi is in charge again and Mossad blew it again. Hmm???<p>If this is Mossad this is a terrible failure - revealing identity of 25 agents is horrible price to pay. Just imagine what kind of tow this will be on morale of other operatives. Mossad operatives work(ed) so good because they know that the organization will take care of them, that they will be protected and that they are being appreciated (in hacker terms think MS, Google,...).<p>Kinda reminds me of how in IT when PHB type MBA's come around "demanding results NOW!!!11one!", engineers loose morale, start leaving and everything goes down the drain.<p>Edit: <a href="http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/9279/pid/897" rel="nofollow">http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/9279/p...</a> - describing the previous Netanyahues debacles.
It seems so very implausible to me that one of the most experienced and most revered intelligence agencies in the world would fail to recognize <i>security cameras</i> as a viable threat to their operation. Seriously?<p>What seems more likely to me is that they were sending a very clear message: even with one of the most advanced surveillance and counter-intelligence networks in the world, we can still put two dozens operatives on the ground, run a complex mission with military precision, kill the target, and disappear before you know it's happened. There's nowhere you can hide from us.
A great read, but... Most people says Israel did it even though nobody has a proof of the case. Israel is the usual suspect in any death of a Palestinian terrorist, and so far there has been little more than the usual suspicious. A couple of Palestinians were arrested, that seems to be it.<p>The author says the lesson to whomever killed that guy is that nowadays you cannot get away with it. My question is -- who exactly did not get away with it this time?
I think that the author's point in claiming that such killings are technologically implausible is kind of shaky. Better disguises and more intelligent communication channels (select a hotspot in the city at random every time you need to send a message, encrypt the data, and bounce it around the globe for good measure. Hell, you could even use a bot net to do it so the neutral parties were oblivious).<p>Or you can call it part of the war on terror and blow the individual up with a remote controlled airplane.
It should glad me that everyone seems to discuss this with objective detachment. However, I am shocked that no one cared to touch the moral core of the matter : assassination of civil or political leaders is a crime.<p>Can you remember the outrage when Rabin was assassinated ? Can you imagine the outrage if Palestine assassinated an Israeli statesman ? What the Mossad did is no different.
Robert Baer, the author of the article, is a good (and very qualified) writer on intelligence issues. His book about his experiences in the CIA, See No Evil, is one of my favorites: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/See-No-Evil-Soldier-Terrorism/dp/140004684X/rawbjams-20" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/See-No-Evil-Soldier-Terrorism/dp/14000...</a>
Interesting article, it also beings up the question(in my mind) how operatives can operate in a hostile environment(not necessarily hostile, just one in which they don't want to be caught).<p>How could US (or British for that matter) HUMINT operate in places such as PR-China (which is beginning to operate such pervasive surveillance systems) without leaving a trail. How can you be a real/digital ghost?
I think the state-of-the-art is headed towards man-lethal, man-portable stealth UAVs, either using lasers or some sort of projectile weapon to assassinate targets. If you could have a much smaller team launch a small vehicle which would then pick off a target by flying silently hundreds of yards away at night? You could pick people off with a high degree of deniability.<p>Big teams deployed in an urban environment are just not practicable anymore.