Dubai's Candid Camera

Claudia Rosett

February 25, 2010 12:03 AM

Dubai authorities have provided a terrific display of their surveillance abilities, with the video footage released last week of 11 alleged assassins now wanted for the Jan. 19 murder in a plush Dubai hotel room of a top Hamas terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh — who was a big player in smuggling arms from Iran to Gaza.

But why stop with releasing video of al-Mabhouh’s alleged assassins? As an offshore banking center and top trading partner for Iran, Dubai is a crossroads for all sorts of interesting characters — such as the late al-Mabhouh, and “members of his group,” whom Dubai authorities say he met with shortly before he was murdered. If surveillance in Dubai is that good, may we please see more? — starting with footage of al-Mabhouh himself, and those mysterious members of his “group.” Imagine the possibilities for a full-length feature film. More in my column this week for Forbes.com, on Video Killer Thriller in Dubai.

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] Claudia Rosett is widely recognized as a ground-breaking reporter on corruption at the United Nations. Her investigative reporting skills, drawn from three decades as a journalist covering international affairs, led her to expose the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, the worst financial fraud in the history of humanitarian relief. Ms. Rosett worked from 1984-2002 as a staff editorialist, editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared before six U.S. House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees to testify on subjects including U.N.-related corruption and the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. Her work on Oil-for-Food earned Claudia the 2005 Eric Breindel Award and the Mightier Pen award, and for her on-site coverage of China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, she won an Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence. She is a Foreign Policy Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum, and writes a column on foreign affairs for Forbes.com.