Mossad suspected of forging passports
· From:The Australian
· February 18, 2010 12:00AM
LONDON: British authorities are investigating how six British citizens apparently had their identities stolen by suspected Mossad agents on a mission to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai.
The British Foreign Office confirmed the identities used by six members of the 11-strong hit squad were those of real British passport-holders living in Israel.
"We believe the passports used were fraudulent, and have begun our own investigation," a spokesman said.
Authorities are considering the possibility that British passport details were copied from the originals by hotel or immigration staff while the passport-holders were travelling. While the names, passport numbers and dates of birth on the fraudulent passports matched the originals, the photographs and signatures differed.
British officials refused to comment on the real identity of the killers of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas military chief, but speculation has mounted that the killing was the work of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency. Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.
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Mossad has used the forged and stolen passports of several friendly countries to carry out hits in the past, including a bungled assassination attempt on the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in 1997 when forged Canadian passports were used.
In 2004, New Zealand suspended diplomatic relations with Israel after jailing two Israeli agents for possessing fake New Zealand passports. In 1987, Britain protested to Israel over the use of forged British passports, and received assurances it would not happen again.
The suspects' pictures and names were published, along with CCTV footage showing their whereabouts and disguises in the run-up to the killing of Mabhouh, a founder of the militant group's armed wing.
One of the British passport-holders named was Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a Jew who emigrated to Israel in 2001. He was stunned to find his name listed as one of the alleged assassins.
"I am obviously angry, upset and scared -- any number of things," Mr Mildiner told London's The Times newspaper from his home in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. "I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name."
Mr Mildiner said he had no idea how his details had been stolen. "I have my passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody else in my family, and there's no Dubai stamps in it because I've never been to Dubai."
Colleagues of Susan Hodes, the mother of Stephen Daniel Hodes, said she had been thrown into a panic by the theft of her son's name: "She is in a complete tizz. Thankfully there was the picture, which is not her son."
Paul Keeley, another Briton on the list who has lived on a kibbutz for more than a decade, said he had not left Israel for the past two years.
France and Germany said they were unable to verify the identities of the French and German passport-holders named in Dubai. "We are still checking," a French Foreign Ministry official said. "But it would not be surprising if the identity was false."
Ireland said the three Irish passports appeared to be forgeries rather than stolen identities. "There are no passports in those names or with those numbers," said an Irish Foreign Affairs Department spokesman.
Israel has refused to respond to allegations of its involvement.
The Times reported at the weekend that Mossad was stepping up covert operations across the Middle East. Gad Shimron, a former Mossad field agent, told the paper elements of the Dubai killing bore a striking resemblance to past operations.
Computerisation had made producing convincing fake papers more difficult, he said.
"These days, any border policeman has near-instant access to international databases where he can authenticate documents," Mr Shimron said.
"That means that passports used by spies have to be as close as possible to the real thing."
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Peace.
Michael Santomauro
Editorial Director
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