British authorities are investigating how six British nationals apparently had their identities stolen by suspected Mossad agents on a mission to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai.
IOA Editor: Another Mossad Murder Inc. story, and the various details of how it compares to past “cases.” The Book where good and evil deeds are recorded is filled with Mossad assassinations. As usual, left out of the public discussion is any questioning of the legitimacy of murder as a foreign policy. But in a world run by armed thugs, mostly “Western Democracies” gone wild, anything goes.
By Catherine Philp, Richard Ford and Sheera Frenkel – Times Online – 17 Feb 2010
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7029553.ece
British authorities are investigating how six British nationals apparently had their identities stolen by suspected Mossad agents on a mission to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that 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 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.
Mr al-Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.
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, Sheikh 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 formally protested to Israel over the use of forged British passports, and received assurances it would not happen again.
One of the British passport holders named in the Dubai case is Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a British 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 said 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 confirmed that the name and number of his passport matched those released by the Dubai authorities. But he 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,” he said.
The photo released in Dubai also does not match his passport picture. “It’s not me,” he said.
Colleagues of Susan Hodes, the mother of Stephen Daniel Hodes, said she had been thrown into panic by the apparent theft of her son’s name.
At her workplace, Urban & Rural Estates, in Manchester, a colleague said: “It’s not her son. She has a child called Stephen Daniel Hodes and 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 that 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.
Michael Higgins, an Irish opposition MP, called the use of fake Irish passports a matter of “grave concern” and called for Israel to give an explanation. Israel has refused to respond to allegations of its involvement.
The Times reported on Saturday that Mossad was stepping up covert operations across the Middle East. Gad Shimron, a former Mossad field agent, told The Times that elements of the Dubai killing bore a striking resemblance to past operations. Computerisation has made producing convincing fake papers more difficult, possibly accounting for the use of stolen rather than fabricated identities, 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.”
