“Iran Arrests Dozens in Search for Suspects in Killing of Hamas Leader” (NYT):
Iran has arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, military officials and staff workers at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran, in response to a huge and humiliating security breach that enabled the assassination of a top leader of Hamas, according to two Iranians familiar with the investigation.
The high-level arrests came after the killing in an explosion early Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’s political office in Qatar and was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president and staying at the guesthouse in northern Tehran, Iran’s capital.
The fervor of the response to the killing of Mr. Haniyeh underscores what a devastating security failure this was for Iran’s leadership, with the assassination occurring at a heavily guarded compound in the country’s capital within hours of the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s new president.
Can anyone recall a similar failure to achieve security here in the U.S.? If so, how many arrests were made of people who failed to achieve what they were paid to achieve?
Separately, the article says that Israel was responsible, but what is the evidence for this?
The deadly blast, which also killed Mr. Haniyeh’s Palestinian bodyguard, wasn’t only an earth-shattering collapse of intelligence and security; nor only a failure to protect a key ally; nor evidence of the inability to curb the infiltration of Mossad; nor a humiliating reputational blow. It was all of those, and more.
Perhaps most important, it delivered a jarring realization that if Israel could target such an important guest, on a day when the capital was under heightened security, and carry out the attack at a highly secure compound equipped with bulletproof windows, air defense and radar, then no one was really safe.
If being a senior Hamas leader can yield personal wealth, e.g., via skimming US and EU taxpayer dollars off the UNRWA budget, wouldn’t the most likely suspect in hastening the martyrdom of a senior leader be a junior leader?
Finally, we are informed by corporate media that Palestinians do not support Hamas. Aj Jazeera, on the other hand, shows us “Palestinians in the occupied West Bank protest against Haniyeh’s killing”:
If these folks viewed Hamas rule as oppressive or illegitimate why would they be out in the street upset that a senior Hamas leader is gone?
The Deplorable New York Post covers similar events here… “Hamas flag-wielding anti-Israel protesters show off portrait of killed terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh in shocking Times Square rally”.
What about the 0.6 percent of (88+ million) Iranians who don’t identify as Muslim? It would be interesting to know if they are upset about their Hamas-affiliated guest ascending to Islamic Heaven.
- Zoroastrianism in Iran (the prevailing religion in Persia prior to Arabs invading and becoming the indigenous people of the country they’d invaded)
- Christianity in Iran (about 100,000 remain)
- Wikipedia page on Persian Jews (about 100,000 lived in Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and today the number is fewer than 10,000)
- “What Will Become of the Jews of Iran?” (Jewish Journal, January 2024)
We don’t send people to prison in the USA for mere incompetence. Since you live here in America surely you are well aware of this 🙂
Arguably this is because we are a republican democracy with rule of law rather than an authoritarian, theocratic dictatorship. Practically, it could never work because at least half the population would end up in prison.
Ory: We have a higher percentage of residents in prison than Iran or, indeed, almost any other country (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate ). We send people to prison for 16 years for burning the sacred Rainbow Flag in the middle of the street at 2 am (see https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/19/hate-crime-iowa-man-sentenced-prison-burning-lgbtq-flag/2705226001/ ). Is it too much to ask that people whose job performance almost resulted in a death at least be fired from their jobs, if not arrested and imprisoned?
You raise good points I admit. I’d rather reduce the incarceration rate than increase it though. Surely if we can find a way to sentence someone to 16 years for expressing their religious beliefs and have it (apparently??) not overturned as unconstitutional in the ensuing five years we can find a way to take away Xbox Netflix smartphones cable and the like from the most ruinously inept, as a sort of incentive program plus deterrent. Aka the Western equivalent of chopping off your hands (forcing people to read, essentially).
Depriving a lifelong government worker of his/her/zir/their Netflix would be cruel and unusual!
I think that the missile that killed head of Hamas was fired from Israeli drone or even Israeli F35 and that targeting was done 100% with electronic intelligence and that Iran tries to cover up in media that Israel freely flies in Iran sky and selects targets at will on short notice.
The media, protesters in the US and the Palestinians are protesting against the killing of Haniyeh but yet they are not protesting the beheading, women and non-binary oppressions committed by Saudi Arabia on a daily bases?
Can anyone recall a similar failure to achieve security here in the U.S.? The attempted assassination attempt of Donald Trump.
If so, how many arrests were made of people who failed to achieve what they were paid to achieve? none.
Separately, the article says that Israel was responsible, but what is the evidence for this? none.
If being a senior Hamas leader can yield personal wealth, e.g., via skimming US and EU taxpayer dollars off the UNRWA budget, wouldn’t the most likely suspect in hastening the martyrdom of a senior leader be a junior leader? yes!
If these folks viewed Hamas rule as oppressive or illegitimate why would they be out in the street upset that a senior Hamas leader is gone? Even one death is one too many!
What about the 0.6 percent of (88+ million) Iranians who don’t identify as Muslim? They will rot in hell.