Exploring How the CIA and Mossad Killed Al-Qaeda’s Number Two Figure in Iran

The assassination of Abu Muhammad al-Masri in Tehran exposed how Iran became a hideout for al-Qaeda leaders. The Shia country denies and suspects a black campaign by the US and Israel.

Last August a man was shot dead in the middle of a street in the Iranian capital, Tehran, while with his daughter. Initially, the media reported that the victim was a Lebanese academic. Later discovered, he was Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the number two man in the terror network, al-Qaeda.

News of al-Masri’s death was finally submerged by a torrent of reports of an explosion in a Lebanese port three days earlier. However, various theories surrounding his murder quickly became a political issue in the Middle East.

Al-Masri was killed on August 7, coinciding with the anniversary of bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. And al-Masri was initially suspected of planning the terror act that killed up to 200 people.

Now the Associated Press news agency reports, two former top U.S. officials have admitted al-Masri was killed in an intelligence collaboration between the U.S. secret service and Israel. According to his second confession, the CIA provided information, while mossad executed a assassination plot.

One AP source once worked in the inner circle of the U.S. intelligence community and had direct knowledge of the course of the operation. While the other is a former CIA officer who got a report about the operation.

Disappearance of two key al-Qaeda figures

According to his claim, al-Masri was killed by Kidon, a unit in the Mossad body specifically tasked with eliminating high-value targets. In Hebrew, Kidon means “spearhead.”

Officials confirmed al-Masri’s daughter, Maryam, was also the target of the killings. The U.S. suspects he is being prepared to carry out important functions in the al-Qaeda network, and has been involved in planning operations.

Maryam was the widow of Hamzah bin Laden, son of former terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden. He was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region last year.

Al-Masri’s own death is believed to be a major blow to the terror network following rumours of the death of current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. But the veracity of the news has so far not been confirmed by the CIA, AP sources said.

Iran has dismissed allegations it is protecting al-Qaeda’s leader. The government in Tehran maintains a hostile stance against the terror group and suspects the U.S. and Israeli black campaigns behind the latest intelligence operation.

The CIA has long suspected the al-Qaeda leader of living in hiding in Iran for years. This is also known to the Israeli intelligence community. Al-Masri has been in Iranian “custody” since 2003, but has lived in the Pasdaran district on tehran’s edge since at least 2015.

Anti-Iran intelligence campaign

The pattern of killing al-Masri is similar to the methods mossad used in the past.

In 1995, the founder of Islamic Jihad in Palestine, Fathi Shaqaqi, was shot dead by a motorcyclist in Malta. Mossad also reportedly used a similar method of instination against Iranian nuclear scientists early last decade.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former Iranian affairs adviser to the Israeli prime minister’s office, said it had known about the longstanding presence of al-Qaeda figures in Iran.

Israel fears the new U.S. administration under Joe Biden will re-commit to the nuclear agreement. The government in

West Jerusalem is urging Washington to push for changes to the nuclear agreement to disarm Iran’s intercontinental missile program.

The assumption that Iran proved to be hiding al-Qaeda leaders on its territory is seen as benefiting Israeli lobbying.

Former CIA Agent Arrested For Being a Chinese Spy

Former CIA member, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified US information to China. He is said to have received tens of thousands of dollars as a ‘thank you’ from Chinese intelligence.

Monday (08/17), the U.S. Department of Justice indicted a former member of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, cia as a Chinese spy. Defendant Alexander Yuk Ching Ma is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was born in Hong Kong and worked for the CIA for seven years, from 1982 to 1989.

The 67-year-old man was arrested on Friday (14/08) last week, when a CIA member posed as Chinese intelligence and claimed to want to meet with Ma. Prosecutors accused him of being a traitor to the state for leaking classified U.S. information to five Chinese intelligence agents at a hotel in Hong Kong in March 2001. The information he provided includes CIA informants and assets, international operations, and CIA lines of communication. For this, Ma also received tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for Chinese intelligence.

“This betrayal was never worth it,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said, when announcing the arrest. Ma was also threatened with a life sentence in prison.

Prosecutors say that Ma was helped by his older brother who had also worked for the CIA. His unnamed brother, who is free from charges, is 85 years old and suffers from advanced cognitive illness.

Video recording

In the video footage of the meeting in Hong Kong, Ma is found to have received US$ 50,000 for the information he provided. At the time, the FBI said Ma was a valuable asset belonging to china’s Security Ministry.

In 2014 Ma signed with the FBI in Honolulu, Hawaii, as a linguist. He was tasked with translating documents related to missile and weapons system technology research. Prosecutors said during his several years working for the FBI, Ma repeatedly carried digital cameras and photographed translation documents and other classified records and kept in touch with Chinese intelligence.

Ma’s travel history is also suspicious. In 2006 he returned to Honolulu, after his trip to Shanghai and reportedly brought US$ 20,000 in cash and a set of golf clubs he had never owned before. The plan is today (18/08), Ma dijawalkan undergo his first trial.

Former CIA member Jerry Chun Shing has also been convicted of similar charges. he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in Novermber last year for proving to be a spy for China. Shing, received US$40,000 dollars for providing information on cia members’ names and information about espionage technology.