Dubai Explained, More or Less

The Daily Mail tells the tale:

The 18-strong team had lain in wait for Al-Mabhouh – who was travelling under the fake name of Mahmoud Abdul Ra’ouf Mohammed – before tracking him down to Dubai’s Al Bustan Rotana hotel near the airport. He had arrived on Emirates flight EK912 from Damascus and had used a fake passport.

The story goes on to explain how they got the security chain attached from the outside (a slender woman) and their jury-rigged, James Bond-ish electric chair bed that didn't work (unless they used it to interrogate him). What it does not explain is why Mabhouh was in Dubai in the first place, traveling under a phony passport. But it does say this:

We believe the papers he was carrying were copied.

Which must have more than a few people squirming in Gaza and perhaps Tehran and other points unknown. It will be interesting to see if the region reacts like it did to the Syrian nuke facility raid or as if a legitimate act of aggression.