International row deepens over use of fake UK passports as Israeli foreign minister fails to deny Mossad involvement
Gordon Brown today stepped into the growing international row over the alleged use of fake passports by the assassins of a Hamas leader in Dubai by promising a full investigation.
As demands were made for the Israeli ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Office to answer allegations that the Mossad security service was behind the assassination, the prime minister told London’s LBC radio station: “We are looking at this at this very moment. We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care.
“The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened, and it is necessary for us to accumulate that evidence before we can make statements.”
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), led by Sir Ian Andrews, formerly at the Ministry of Defence, has been brought in to investigate the use of British passports in the January killing.
“We are assisting the Dubai authorities. The details are to be determined and meetings are currently taking place,” a Soca spokesman said.
Soca, or “Britain’s version of the FBI”, was set up in 2006 under the chairmanship of a former head of MI5, Sir Stephen Lander. It is co-operating with the Dubai police, according to Whitehall officials, who suspect that Israel is behind the assassination. However, British intelligence agencies are refraining from publicly accusing Israel or any other country until they have firm evidence to back up such suspicions.
Earlier, the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, broke his government’s silence saying there was no proof that the Mossad was behind the killing.
However, he did not explicitly deny any Israeli involvement, saying his government had a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence issues.
“I don’t know why we take it for granted that it was Israel or the Mossad that used those passports or the identities of that British citizen, yes or no. It’s just not correct. Why are we in such a hurry to take all kinds of tasks upon ourselves?” Lieberman told Israel’s Army Radio.
He was speaking after details in the case began to point back to Israel. Seven Israelis with dual foreign citizenship, six of them apparently Britons and one American, had their identities stolen to be used for the forged passports relied on by the suspected assassins. The seven, who appear unconnected, have denied any involvement in the affair and say they have no idea how their identities were stolen.
Dubai police released on Monday the passport details of 11 people – six from Britain, three from Ireland and one each from France and Germany – that they said were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was murdered in his Dubai hotel room last month.
The New York Times reported this morning that the hit team included a total of 17 people, six of whom had not yet been identified.
Some Israeli commentators delivered the first criticisms of the Mossad today , saying the operation was beginning to look like a blunder. One even called on the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, to resign and suggested the incident could provoke a diplomatic row with Britain over the use of forged British passports.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader who is also a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said Israel’s ambassador in the UK should be summoned to the Foreign Office immediately.
“If the Israeli government was party to behaviour of this kind it would be a serious violation of trust between nations,” he said. “If legitimate British passport holders were put at risk it would be a disgrace. Given the current speculation, the Israeli government has some explaining to do and the ambassador should be summoned to the Foreign Office to do so in double-quick time.”
A Tory MP, Hugo Swire, chairman of the Conservative Middle East council, also demanded a “full investigation”.
In 1987, Britain protested to Israel about what it said was the misuse by Israeli authorities of forged British passports and said it received assurances that steps had been taken to prevent future occurrences.
But Lieberman said he believed that relations with Britain would not be damaged. “I think Britain recognises that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern,” he said.
Rafi Eitan, a former Israeli minister and intelligence officer, told Army Radio that the Mossad was not behind the killing and that a foreign organisation was trying to frame Israel.
There was a mixture of praise and criticism of the Mossad in the Israeli press. Yossi Melman, a respected security correspondent for Ha’aretz, said the agency had used forged passports on operations in the past and noted that in this case all the “operatives” involved in the assassination had left Dubai safely without being caught.
“As such, unless dramatic evidence is found to definitively prove an Israeli connection, it is likely that the State of Israel will emerge from this affair unblemished and the Mossad will continue enjoying a reputation of fearless determination and nearly unstoppable capabilities,” Melman wrote.
However, another Ha’aretz columnist, Amir Oren, said there were now “enormous question marks” over the operation and said the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, whom he described as “belligerent and heavy-handed,” should resign. He said the case would likely bring a diplomatic crisis for Israel and added: “Even if whoever carried out the assassination does reach some kind of arrangement with the infuriated western nations, it still has an obligation to its own citizens.”
Ben Caspit, in the Ma’ariv newspaper, described the incident as “a tactical operational success, but a strategic failure”. “When it becomes apparent that the passports belong to innocent Israeli citizens, who will now be subject to an international manhunt by Interpol, the embarrassment is great,” he wrote.
In Austria, the interior ministry said it had launched an investigation into the suspected use of at least seven mobile phones with pre-paid Austrian chips by Mabhouh’s killers. The killers reportedly never made direct phone calls to each other but dialled into a communications centre in Austria – described by Dubai as the “command centre” for the operation.
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Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/avigdor-lieberman-israel-mossad-killing
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See also:
Dubai hit-squad suspects caught on CCTV
Police have shown footage of some of the 11 suspected members of a hit squad who killed Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
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Full article and video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/feb/16/hamas
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See also:
New Hints of Skulduggery in Hamas Killing
The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision, fleeing the country afterward on European passports, the Dubai police say.
But even as the Dubai authorities called Tuesday for an international manhunt, questions emerged about the identities of the suspects, deepening the mystery around the killing.
British and Irish officials said the suspects’ passports — which were unveiled at a news conference Monday by the Dubai police, along with their photographs and surveillance video — appeared to be fake, and in at least three cases appeared to have been stolen from British citizens living in Israel.
“We believe that the passports used were fraudulent and have begun our own investigation,” the Foreign Office in London said in a statement. Six of the 11 suspects identified by the Dubai police on Monday are British and three are Irish. In Dublin, the Department of Foreign Affairs said that it had been “unable to find any record of Irish passports having been issued with details corresponding to those published in Emirati newspapers,” and added that “we have received no evidence that any Irish nationals were involved.”
An Emirati official said the passports had been used repeatedly months before the killing, in Europe and Asia. He added that the hit team had included a total of 17 people, six of whom had not yet been identified.
In Israel, a British man named Melvyn Adam Mildiner told Reuters that he had the same name as one suspect, but that he was a different person from the one whose photograph was provided by the Dubai police, and that he had his passport with him.
“I am obviously angry, upset and scared — any number of things,” Mr. Mildiner was quoted as saying. “And I’m looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name.”
Two other British men living in Israel — Stephen Daniel Hodes and Paul John Keeley — also appear to have had their identities used by the suspects, according to Israel’s Channel Two News, which interviewed the men.
Because the victim, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was a senior Hamas official, many have suspected that Israel was behind his assassination. Hamas has accused Israel and vowed revenge. Israeli officials have not confirmed or denied the Hamas accusations.
The Dubai police chief, Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, did not accuse Israel, but said it was possible that a foreign government had ordered the killing.
Mr. Mabhouh played a role in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, and was involved in supplying Iranian weapons to Hamas.
Dubai is an open city, often used by intelligence officials for covert meetings. But Israel has also nurtured a quiet friendship with Dubai leaders.
Jim Krane, the author of “City of Gold,” a recent book about Dubai, said, “If Israel did authorize the hit, it either found Mabhouh’s elimination worth the damage to its relationship with Dubai, or the hit squad made a big mistake.”
Dubai officials suggested that the killers — whoever they were — did practice some sloppy tradecraft. Although the assassination was carried out without attracting notice, the suspects allowed themselves to be photographed repeatedly on surveillance cameras, sometimes ducking into bathrooms and emerging with fake beards but still recognizable, the Dubai police say.
Assuming that Israeli agents were responsible, Dubai may be the only place they could kill Mr. Mabhouh, said Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. operative in the Middle East. Assassinations took place there during the 1990s and drew little attention. But Dubai is now concerned about its reputation as a tourism and financial hub, and may have deliberately publicized the suspects’ identities — rather than handling the matter through private channels — to embarrass whoever planned the killing, he added.
Robert F. Worth, New York Times
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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/middleeast/17dubai.html
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For the full video, see:
Assassins of Hamas Official Caught on Tape, Dubai Says
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/assassins-of-hamas-official-caught-on-tape-dubai-says
