Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick

UPDATED: In tomorrow's Ha'aretz, Yossi Melman, who generally knows this beat pretty well, raises some questions about the details emerging: "Was Mossad on a Fantastic Adventure in Dubai?" The more elaborate this gets, the more unprofessional it seems.

There are now 15 more suspects in the Mabhouh hit in Dubai. So there are now 26 suspects in all, and this chart from Gulf News (PDF) shows how they are linked to each other.

Assassination hit squads: mainstay of the Dubai travel industry since 2010.

If this was indeed a Mossad operation, there seem to have been some holes in their operational security. (Well, okay, they got their target and got away, and they may not normally look anything like these passport photos. The number of beards, mustaches, shaved heads and glasses suggests disguise.)

ADDED: I don't usually flag comments since they're there for you to read, but I know some folks don't read them, so I thought I'd flag the three comments so far on this otherwise thin post. First, David Mack:

David Mack said...

Mossad chose its operatives' passports carefully. It turns out that some 33 nationalities do not require visas and are not subject to the routine iris scans that UAE introduced at all points of entry in 2002. Abu Dhabi's National has a good article at [link].

Next, "Will":

Will said:

2010? Come on, Dubai has been the assassination capital of the region since at least 2008 -- Suzanne Tamim, the Chechen warlord gunned down in '09. Who am I missing?

Just embarrassing for Mabhouh to get it in Garhoud when the Dubai Marina has been THE place to get killed for quite some time.

To which I have replied:

Will: I suppose three makes it the "assassination capital of the region," geographically limited, but London balcony falls have accounted for four Egyptians so far (Ashraf Marwan, Nasser's son in law and alleged Israeli informer; actress Suad Husni with vague rumors of shady ties; Al-Leithy Nassif, Egyptian Ambassador to Britain; and Ali Shafiq, aide to the late Abd al-Hakim Amr. Must be the ice on the balconies.

Admittedly, Dubai's been a lot livelier lately, like Istanbul in an Eric Ambler novel or something.

And Larnaca is still in the running, I think.

Since the comments on this post are more interesting than the post, I thought I'd move them up here.