Some European countries like France and Italy have admitted past secret agreements with terrorist groups to allow them to operate freely as long as they don’t do attacks within the country.

This is a statement in a writings by Barry Rubin at Gloria Center. He is upset with EU nations using double standards on Israeli secret operations.

There has been a huge international controversy about the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leading Hamas terrorist, in Dubai on January 19. I have no idea who did it but have some points to make on the subject.

Readers could weigh the Dubai assassination against the crimes, which would otherwise go unhindered and unpunished. Mabhouh was probably in Dubai arranging more arms’ shipments from Iran so that Hamas could go to war again, causing deaths on both sides. He was a real war criminal, in contrast to the bogus ones fabricated by the terrorist-sponsoring dictatorships which seem to have so much influence on the “human rights” agenda.

As long as Western states do nothing to help bring Hamas or Hizballah terrorists to justice, and since Israel has no way of getting these people before a court, it has no option other than the extra-judicial one. Remember that an Israeli cabinet minister is more likely to face prosecution in the United Kingdom nowadays than a terrorist who has murdered Israeli civilians.

This point of international culpability in letting certain terrorists escape or function isn’t brought up, explained, or seriously discussed:

What do you do if specific people are attacking you and there’s no other option to stopping them?

If the United States could assassinate Osama bin Ladin or other top al-Qaida terrorists whom it could not capture shouldn’t it do so?

Of course it should.

Mabhouh was in a similar position, the top Hamas arms’ procurer who enjoyed the trust of the Iranians and who knew how to get lots of rockets and other equipment quickly and consistently.

These are not people who merely carried out a specific attack but those who make possible the staging of dozens of attacks.

By the way, although it doesn’t seem to make the headlines so much, other countries including the United States (certainly in Somalia and Yemen) have taken out specific terrorists. Doing so more would be a good idea, if the cases are carefully selected and in the absence of any option to grab them from some state providing safe haven.

First Published: 9th of March, 2010.

Source: Gloria center