Quote:After Dubai hit, Israelis question Mossad methods
8:41am EST
By Dan Williams - Analysis
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The quiet assassination of a Hamas commander gets unexpectedly messy. Exposed and forced to atone before angry allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the spymaster responsible to fall on his sword.
That was in 1997, when the Mossad director resigned after his men botched the poisoning of Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. Now premier a second time, Netanyahu faces a similar crisis over the death of another Hamas figure, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai.
Israel's official silence on the January 20 killing has been outpaced, in the popular imagination, by UAE police footage of the suspected assassins and revelations some of them had copied the European passports of actual immigrants to the Jewish state.
The idea that the Mossad, having long cultivated a reputation for lethally outwitting Israel's foes abroad, this time tripped up by underestimating Arab counter-espionage capabilities prompted commentators to demand a public reckoning.
Special scrutiny was devoted to Mossad director Meir Dagan, an ex-general now in his eighth year of service and praised by Israeli leaders for spearheading a "shadow war" against Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, and Iran's nuclear program.
Amir Oren of the liberal Haaretz daily went as far as to call for Dagan to be fired, describing him as "belligerent, heavy-handed" and predicting a row with Britain, Ireland, France and Germany -- the countries whose passports were used.
"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," Oren wrote.
Several of the foreign-born Israelis who said their identities had been stolen for the Mabhouh assassination voiced fear they could now be vulnerable to murder prosecutions.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not deny Mossad involvement in Mabhouh's death but tried to deflect attention, implying in a radio interview that "some other intelligence service or another country" may have had a role.
Israel's allies recognize "that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game," Lieberman asserted.
UNNATURAL CAUSES
Other pundits disagreed about the diplomatic price that could be exacted from Israel, which is already fending off foreign criticism of the hundreds of Palestinian civilian deaths during its offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip last year.
But there was little arguing the fact that Hamas had turned the tables on Mabhouh's assassins by insisting UAE police launch a murder investigation after they initially ruled that his death, in a Dubai hotel room, had been of natural causes.
"What began as a heart attack turned out to be an assassination, which led to a probe, which turned into the current passport affair," wrote Yoav Limor in Israel Hayom, a pro-government newspaper.
"It is doubtful whether this is the end of the affair."
Israelis generally rally around the Mossad's two-fisted image -- honed back in the 1970s, when the agency hunted down and killed Palestinians blamed for a deadly raid on Israel's Olympic delegation at the Munich Games.
But the Mabhouh hit underscored the difficulties spies must contend with in the digital era, with ubiquitous high-resolution CCTV coverage and easily accessed passport databases.
"What happens in the modern world, the cameras everywhere -- it changes things not just for those whose trade is terror but also those trying to fight terror," former Mossad officer Ram Igra told Israel's Army Radio.
The UAE is holding two Palestinians accused of helping Mabhouh's assassins. Should they finger Israel, it will deepen the questions about Mossad tradecraft and operational security.
Mabhouh had masterminded the abduction and killing of two Israeli troops in 1989 and, more recently, the smuggling of Iranian-funded arms to Gaza. The attempted discretion of his killing indicated the assassins were not on a vendetta but, rather, trying to eliminate what they saw as a current threat.
Yet the possibility that the Mossad had so quickly come undone led Yossi Melman, author of two books on the intelligence agency, to suggest such assassinations would not be repeated.
Melman said a wider question would be also raised: "Does Israel's assassinations policy pay off?"
The 1997 attempted assassination in Amman, by two Mossad officers posing as Canadian tourists, unwittingly boosted Meshaal's status in Hamas. Netanyahu was also forced to free the Islamist faction's jailed spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin.

Quote:BREAKING NEWS3:15pm UK, Wednesday February 17, 2010
PM Wants Probe Into 'Killers' Fake Passports'
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
Gordon Brown has called for a full investigation into how fraudulent British passports were allegedly used by the killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai.


Police there have named 11 Europeans, including six Britons and three Irish nationals, suspected of killing Mahmoud al Mabhouh in a luxury hotel last month.
But the Foreign Office said the UK passports involved were "fraudulent" - and officials in Dublin said they had "issued no passports" in the names of three people using Irish identities.
Details such as the names, numbers and dates of birth on the suspect passports matched the originals. However, the photographs and signatures differed.

The 11 suspects in the investigation into the assassination
Prime Minister Mr Brown said: "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," he told London's LBC Radio.
"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."

Facebook picture of Melvyn Adam Mildiner (left) and picture of suspect (right).
Meanwhile, three people whose British passport details were apparently used by the killers have expressed their shock at being named among the suspects.
Israel-based Melvyn Adam Mildiner, 31, said he had never been to Dubai, adding he was "angry, upset and scared".
Kent-born Paul Keeley, 42, a builder who has lived on a Kibbutz in northern Israel for the past 15 years, said he had not left Israel for two years.
He said: "I am in shock. What do you mean what do I think about it? I am in shock. I think I need to check with the consul. What is going on here?"
And a third Briton, Stephen Hodes, said: "I do not know who is behind this. I am simply scared. These are very powerful organisations."
Hamas has pointed the finger at Israel, blaming the country's secret service Mossad for carrying out the hit.
And Dubai's police chief Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said it was possible that "leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill" the Hamas militant.

Picture of Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh
The hit squad allegedly flew into Dubai on separate planes and booked into different hotels wearing wigs and fake beards to disguise their appearances.
At least two of the alleged gang watched the Hamas commander check-in to the hotel and booked a nearby room, it was claimed.
Around five hours after setting foot in the emirate, al Mabhouh was ambushed and killed. It is not known if he opened the door to his alleged killers himself.
All of the suspects left the United Arab Emirates within 19 hours of their arrivals, it was also claimed.
Hamas officials have not yet said why their commander was in Dubai, amid suggestions he was on his way to Iran.

Quote:Collusion. That's what it's all about. The United Arab Emirates suspect – only suspect, mark you – that Europe's "security collaboration" with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel's enemies. At 3.49pm yesterday afternoon (Beirut time, 1.49pm in London), my Lebanese phone rang. It was a source – impeccable, I know him, he spoke with the authority I know he has in Abu Dhabi – to say that "the British passports are real. They are hologram pictures with the biometric stamp. They are not forged or fake. The names were really there. If you can fake a hologram or biometric stamp, what does this mean?"

Quote:"We have identified five credit cards belonging to these people, all issued in the United States." The man will not give the EU nationalities of the extra five – this would make two women involved in Mr Mabhouh's murder. He said that EU countries were cooperating with the UAE, including the UK. But "not one of the countries we have been speaking to has notified Interpol of the passports used in their name. Why not?"

Quote:“The UK is going through the motions of outrage, but our assessment is that they will do nothing,” said a source close to the Israeli government.

Quote: Britain’s relationship with the Israeli security service reached an all-time low in 1986, when the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher closed down Mossad’s UK operation in response to a series of incidents including the discovery of a bag of forged British passports which had been lost by a Mossad agent.
Mossad was only allowed to re-establish its presence in the UK after it promised not to abuse British passports in the future.

Quote:The secret service hit squad blamed for assassinating a Hamas commander were carrying a total of five Irish passports, it has emerged.
Dubai authorities have warned diplomats in Ireland two more identity papers were recovered after the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh by suspected Israeli agents.
Israel's Ambassador to Ireland Dr Zion Evrony met senior government officials in Dublin over the controversial killing but insisted he knows nothing about it.
Dr Evrony also said he was under no obligation to address the international incident in public.
"I don't know anything about the event - beyond that it is not customary to share the content of diplomatic meetings," he said.
A Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed two more Irish passports had been linked to the hit squad.
Officials have tracked down the first three people named on forged documents - Evan Dennings, Gail Folliard and Kevin Daveron - two of whom were due to travel this weekend.
The first three forged documents carried authentic passport numbers but the names did not match.
Officials were tonight attempting to establish if names and numbers were genuine and to track down the unsuspecting citizens.
Micheal Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister, said with Interpol on red alert for 11 suspected agents at least two Irish citizens would likely have been arrested as they attempted to fly over the next 48 hours.

Quote:Israeli agents tipped off British intelligence that they were going to carry out an 'overseas operation' using fake British passports before assassinating a Hamas official in Dubai, the Daily Mail reported on Friday. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151018.html

Quote:MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to carry out an 'overseas operation' using fake British passports, it was claimed last night.
A member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas terrorist chief was assassinated in Dubai.
The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action. But the claim from a credible source that the Government had some prior knowledge of the abuse of UK passports will strengthen calls for ministers to come clean about what they knew and when.