Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak once cooked a terrorist’s goose, with a little bit of ketchup.
In 1984, Libyan dictator Mu’ammar Gadhafi wanted to assassinate his enemy, former prime minister Abdul Hamid Bakkush. Bakkush was living in exile in Egypt. So Gadhafi ordered his ambassador to Malta to hire four intermediaries, who would then find four killers, who in turn would travel to Egypt and whack Bakkush.
President Mubarak got word of the plot, however, and immediately set out to foil it. He had Egyptian undercover police pose as assassins for hire, and when the offer was made, the four intermediaries were sent to prison. Bakkush was whisked away to a secret location, where an elaborate death scene was staged. Bakkush lay on the floor, his mouth agape like a flounder, ketchup oozing from ersatz bullet holes. Photos of the scene were sent to the Libyan ambassador, as requested, along with a letter requesting payment.
Within days, Libya’s official radio was crowing triumphantly that the “stray dog” Bakkush had been executed by a death squad devoted to obliterating enemies of Gadhafi’s revolution. Celebration, though, soon turned to humiliation when Mubarak announced that Bakkush was alive and well. He proved it several hours later at a news conference. A grinning Bakkush was flanked by two Egyptian officials holding up the staged photos.
Source:
Farquhar, Michael. “State-Sponsored Deception.” A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds. Penguin, 2005. 108-9. Print.
Further Reading:
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak
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