Last month the Wall Street Journal identified the ticking time bomb in which U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are now taking a deep and abiding interest: Meta Financial Group, a U.S.-based company which issued credit cards to some of the 26 people suspected of involvement in the assassination of a Hamas leader.

Remember that the sensational formulations beloved by headline writers like me (“Dubai hit”) will be translated into the more neutral language of Washington.

What I accurately describe as the Dubai hit can also be described as  a counterterrorism operation against an organization designated as “terrorist.” If there was a U.S. role in the assasssination of Mabhouh–and it would not be surprising if there was given the collaboration of American and U.S. military intelligence organizations in the Middle East–then the Obama administration may have a problem.