Fresh from his mocking on Israeli television, anti-Israel journalist blogger Richard Silverstein has posted that the charges against palestinian engineer Dirar Abu Sisi are “with absolute certainty..a fraud.”
His proof? Well, he has none (http://ht.ly/4v0PY).
After consulting with Dirar Abusisi’s attorney, his wife and brother and checking the facts regarding the Shabak accusations, I can say with absolute certainty that they are a fraud.
They are a fraud in large part because Abusisi, likely under torture or extreme duress gave an account to his interrogators that was blatantly false. But the part that indicates the sheer incompetence of the security services is that they didn’t even check to determine whether the information he proferred was accurate. That would seem to be an elemental rule of spycraft.
And whatever Abusisi couldn’t provide them to embellish the story they appear to have made up.
It seems that the Shabak has been hoisted on its own petard.
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this post, I tried to summarize from memory Dirar Abusisi’s charge sheet, which I’d correctly translated in yesterday’s post. I made two errors. This post has been edited to correct those errors.
First, Shabak’s charge sheet claims Abusisi studied missile design at the Kharkov military academy and that his advisor was a Professor Petrovich, who specialized in SCUD rocket technology. The claim is that he led a double life while earning his PhD in electrical engineering at a civilian wing of the institute, while all the while maintaining a full program in military engineering.
A few minor problems with claim: first, according to his wife, Abusisi attended the Zaporhizia Machine Building Institute, A reader below has done a search of the database for Abusisi’s doctoral dissertation and it says he defended it at the Kharkiv State Academic of Municipal Economy. His brother Yousef notes that Dirar arned his degree in electrical generation, and Dirar’s lawyer told me that Prof. Petrovich does not exist. As I said, I have these facts both from Yousef and Veronika Abusisi and the victim’s attorneyand no information they’ve offered till now has been proven wrong.
I am getting a different impression of the charge sheet regarding Abusisi’s “recruitment” to Hamas in which I claimed yesterday the Shabak may’ve deliberately concocted his relations with a number of assassinated Palestinian militant leaders. It now occurs to me that it may’ve been Abusisi himself who concocted the story using such figures because no one in Shabak could possibly investigate the authenticity of his claims.
In short, the accusations against Abusisi are a tissue of lies.
If Shabak throws this man in prison it and the government will be made to be the laughing-stock of intelligence agencies around the world.
And I put the world media on notice that whoever reports the Israeli charges at face value will wind up with egg on their faces.
Media emptor.
I also put the Shabak on notice that someday this man will go free and if you harm a hair on his head as punishment for what he’s done you will face a reckoning either moral or legal. The days of impunity are rapidly drawing to an end.
Notice how Silverstein offers not a shred of proof. Just guesswork largely based on conversations he had with Abu Sisi’s family and lawyer. When confronted with the reality he is indulging in speculation, this is how he responds:
You don’t understand the difference between speculation & a factual assertion. When I speculate I tell you that I am doing so. When I state that something is a fact I am not speculating. So let me rephrase, tell me when any factual assertion of mine has been proven wrong in such cases?
I’m tickled by the fact that you claim the only person who knows what really happened is the Shabak interrogator. Why not the actual victim? But why trust the victim. They’re only Palestinian after all & certainly unreliable, while your Mukhabarat are always so. Right??
In other words, his speculations are fact because he says so, and because no-one has proved them to be wrong.
And there’s this:
Prof. Petrovich doesn’t exist because Abusisi told his attorney he made his up. Can’t get a better source than that. A researcher in the Ukraine has found no reference to such a professor.
In other words, he believes the accused – who has everything to gain from lying – is the best source.
Notice also how Silverstein made errors with the translation of the charge sheet, which are rather bad errors to make when 1) you claim there are only a few examples of you being proven wrong (this is the second time in two days; he also made an error regarding the name of one of the hosts on the television show on which his interview appeared). 2) you claim to be well versed with Hebrew
Meanwhile, Silverstein may want to reconsider his defiant, parting words. This just in:
Dirar Abu Sisi gave Israeli intelligence ‘valuable information’ that led to the attack on arms smugglers in Port Sudan, Sudan, a source told Kuwait newspaper Al Jarida reported Thursday. According to the source, Abu Sisi passed along the sensitive information to Israel during his remand since he was abducted by a train in Ukraine last month.
The source also told Al Jarida that Israel also received valuable information on smuggling routes and cells operating from Sudan, through Egypt, and to Gaza, from a number of southern Sudanese refugees who have migrated to Israel.
Methinks it is the Dickster who is the blatant fraud here, and it is he who will end up with egg on his face.
Update: Here’s the full Channel 10 interview with Silverstein.
Notice how he claims if revealing information would harm Israel, he wouldn’t do it. I call BS on this.
