By Stephen Dockery
BEIRUT: Sources speaking to Stratfor
intelligence business suggested causes other than the official explanation of
pilot error in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 in 2010 off the coast
of Lebanon, emails released by WikiLeaks show. The documents released show
Stratfor investigator Reva Bhalla received contradictory explanations for the
crash that killed 90 people after taking off from Beirut’s airport in 2010.
The sources suggested the crash was caused by
a Hezbollah action gone awry or a Mossad sabotage. The information came from
Lebanese military sources and a Hezbollah media source as well as additional
details from a hospital director.
Pilot error was listed as the most probable
cause of the crash according to the official report issued this year by
Lebanese, French and United States investigatory organizations. The Ethiopian
party of the investigation rejected the findings, saying other causes were to
blame such as sabotage or a lightning strike.
Massive numbers of emails from Stratfor have
been released by WikiLeaks this year, in an attempt by the anti-secrecy group
to expose a shadowy intelligence business of “questionable legality.”
Some heralded the releases as an important
exposure of illegal activity by an American business while others questioned
the reliability of both WikiLeaks and Stratfor for unsubstantiated claims in
their work.
According to the email chain released by
WikiLeaks a Lebanese military source told Stratfor that there were 20 Hezbollah
“operatives” aboard the plane transporting explosives to Africa and that these
devices went off by accident.
“They were part of HZ [Hezbollah’s] plans to
target US and Israeli interests in the event of military strikes against Iran.
He believes an explosive device on board seems to have went off inadvertently,”
the email written by Bhalla reads.
Just over a week later Bhalla sent another
email to her company citing a “Lebanese military intel source” that claimed the
plane was not brought down by a Hezbollah explosive but one from Mossad,
Israel’s intelligence service, to target a Hezbollah member.
“Lebanese intelligence community believes the
plane was sabotaged by the Mossad. In his opinion, it was the first shot in the
forthcoming war between Israel and Hizbullah. He says the Israelis were acting
on the false belief that Hasan Nasrallah’s cousin Hashem Safieddine was among
the passengers of the plane.”
There is no indication whether the Lebanese
military and Lebanese military intelligence sources are the same person; both
are given a reliability rating of “B.”
The claims of sabotage or an explosion are
strongly questioned by Bhalla’s colleagues who wondered why so many Hezbollah
operatives would get on the same plane during inclement weather.
“Hez and the Iranians are masters at covert
operations and movements. I can’t see them making such an obvious move.”
Bhalla responded that the Iranians and
Hezbollah were “panicky,” because of a looming threat from Israel. After more
questioning Bhalla concluded “I trust my source but, after all, he could be
off.”
Bhalla’s other sources provided details on who
may have been scheduled to be aboard the flight, but did not directly suggest a
cause for the crash.
According to the emails, a Hezbollah media
source with reliability of “D” said an important party member was supposed to
be aboard the flight but canceled because of security reasons. The director of
Rafik Hariri Hospital told Stratfor that an important Shiite diamond merchant
was aboard the craft when it crashed.
The final report of the official investigation
issued by the Public Works and Transportation Ministry found no explosive
residue on the aircraft and provided a much more straightforward cause of the
crash.
“The investigation revealed
that the probable causes of the accident were the flight crew’s mismanagement
of the aircraft’s speed, altitude, headings and attitude,” the report read.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Oct-01/189722-stratfor-probed-2010-plane-crash-conspiracies-leaks.ashx#axzz2816QG51z
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