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The shock uptick of capital punishment in recent years, and the brutality of methods still used around the world, has thrust state-sanctioned executions back into the spotlight.
This was not the first time that I had the chance to interview an intelligence officer. Their world is dark and ruthless and full of deadly blows. The Iraqi intelligence agency showed no leniency with whoever it viewed as an enemy. It can be said that the regime was fearful and fearsome.
Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency is defending its use of a sophisticated surveillance tool that was used to send threatening text messages to Palestinian protesters during unrest at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site two years ago. A leading civil rights group has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to halt the practice, saying the threatening messages exceeded the authorities of the Shin Bet. It has also noted that the messages were sent erroneously to people uninvolved in the unrest.
The Arab League strongly condemned on Tuesday the Israeli attack against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank. It slammed the heinous killing of 14 Palestinians and injury of 20 others. It warned that this dangerous escalation is another chapter in the open war the Israeli government is waging against the Palestinian people, their properties and sanctities as part of its open policy to destroy any chance to achieve peace. It accused the government of seeking to stoke chaos and violence in the region.
Is it true that Saddam Hussein saved Khomeini’s life when he rejected a suggestion to assassinate him while he was staying in al-Najaf? What about the tale of the explosive that was placed in Khomeini’s pillow at his home in Tehran? These questions, and many more, had remained unanswered for decades. I sought the man who would provide the answers and found them with Iraq’s former intelligence officer Salem al-Jomaili.