Peter Presland Wrote:Who's that bloke Smith? He's certainly sticking his neck out a bit. Maybe he's just not politically ambitious?

Magda Hassan Wrote:I want one. Where do I sign?

Sounds like the pre-paid credit cards you can get at the post office and petrol stations everywhere.

Quote: Warning on passport forgery ignored, says former diplomat

Mark Dodd and Paul Maley From: The Australian February 26, 2010 12:00AM

IN 2004, it was an open secret in Canberra's Middle Eastern community that Israeli agents were trying to obtain "clean" passports from countries such as Australia and New Zealand to be used by its spy agency, Mossad.

Ali Kazak was the Palestinian representative to Australia at the time and he went public with his concerns, warning the Howard government that Mossad was trying to obtain Australian passport details fraudulently.

Mr Kazak, who served as a semi-official ambassador from 1982 to 2006, last night said he had been vindicated by confirmation that cloned Australian passports were used by suspects in the murder of Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

"I told you but you didn't act on the warning," Mr Kazak said. "And you've put Australian lives at risk."

In 2004, Mr Kazak declared that a Mossad agent operating in Sydney at the time had obtained 25 false Australian passports.



Mr Kazak said his claims were played down by then federal attorney-general Philip Ruddock.

Months later, New Zealand police arrested two suspected Mossad agents who had flown in from Australia after a botched attempt to obtain a false passport using identity details of a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim.

The agents had picked a target they guessed was unlikely to travel abroad but their attempts at faking a New Zealand accent aroused the suspicion of an immigration official who alerted Wellington's small but sharp security service.

The two Israelis, Eli Cara and Urie Zoshe Kelman, were promptly arrested.

New Zealand's prime minister at the time, Helen Clark, blasted Israel and suspended all high-level diplomatic contacts over the incident.

Cara and Kelman pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to six months' jail by an Auckland court on charges of having attempted falsely to obtain a passport.

The two served their sentences and were sent home to Israel.

A year later, Israel apologised and diplomatic ties were restored.

Cara, a former Israeli air force officer, had operated a travel business based in the northern Sydney suburb of Turramurra.

Mr Kazak said yesterday he had no doubt Mossad was behind the murder of Mabhouh.

"Yesterday the Israeli members of parliament were praising the head of Mossad for what he did -- for assassinating the Hamas leader in Dubai," he said.

"We know they've been responsible for counterfeiting New Zealand passports. We know that in 1997 when they (Mossad) attempted to assassinate the Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal they used Canadian passports. And we know Mossad agents were operating out of Sydney (in 2003), were counterfeiting Australian passports.

"I said that at the time, but did the Australian government -- Alexander Downer -- investigate seriously this Mossad activity? No, I don't think so."

In 1997, Mossad bungled the assassination of Meshaal, who was injected with a poison while in Jordan by Israeli agents travelling on Canadian documents. Meshaal survived after his assailants were captured by his bodyguards and Israel provided the antidote.

Mr Kazak said the Australian government's failure to properly investigate Mossad's activities here amounted to appeasement and had put Australian lives at risk. "Can you imagine what Australia would do if this (passport fraud) was being done by an Arab or Muslim country?" he said.

"This neglect, this appeasement, this closing of eyes towards Israel is putting Israel's interest above Australia."

Mr Downer last night rejected Mr Kazak's claim.

Speaking from Greece, the former foreign minister said the Howard government had bluntly warned Israel not to issue fake Australian passports to its intelligence operatives.

"I'm not 100 per cent sure that I didn't myself raise it with the Israelis," Mr Downer said. "I may have done. I couldn't rule it out."

Mr Downer said the warning was issued in the context of a series of botched operations involving Mossad agents travelling on fake passports.

"My recollection is that over time we have raised this issue with the Israelis," he said. "We have raised the issue of Israeli intelligence officers using foreign passports and that they should not consider using Australian passports."

Mr Downer said the attempted forgery of a New Zealand passport provoked outrage across the Tasman.

"It was certainly raised with me in a very animated way by Phil Goff when he was the New Zealand foreign minister," Mr Downer said. "They were very, very animated about it."

The normally voluble Jewish lobby group Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council last night declined to comment on the looming diplomatic spat. An AIJAC spokesman told The Australian its director, Colin Rubenstein, was seeking more details.

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Quote: DEBKAfile: Dubai police claim of DNA and fingerprints is not credible
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis February 27, 2010, 12:15 AM (GMT+02:00)

Mabhouh with mysterious shadows

Dubai's police chief Dhahi Khalfan said Friday, Feb. 26, that DNA and fingerprint evidence of at least one of the 26 team of assassins had been found in the hotel room where Hamas commander Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was found dead on Jan. 19. The first arrest warrants have now been issued through Interpol.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that the Dubai authorities believe that a persistent stream of "revelations" about the Mabhouh investigation will make Israel and its Mossad intelligence agency slip up and admit responsibility for his death.
According to those sources, it makes no sense for the Dubai police to have found DNA or fingerprints in room 230 of the Al-Bustan Rotana luxury hotel occupied by Mabhouh and in none of the other rooms taken by hit team members. Any fingerprints will not be of much use unless they can be matched with prints of identified persons already on file with the Dubai police, and in any case are probably not genuine.
Our sources disclose that all the suspects arrived in Dubai disguised from head to toe and their fingerprints were most likely faked along with the rest of their appearance. Therefore, the Dubai police's fine collection of video clips and passport photos are of little use to the inquiry.
debkafile sources therefore dismiss the claims by the Dubai police and certain Israeli publications citing "security experts" that the Mossad was caught unawares by the security cameras which tracked the death squad's movements. They missed the fact that the team was not only aware of the cameras but controlled them and used them in support of their mission.
Therefore, when Khalfan comes out with his next round of "revelations," he will most likely produce video depictions of some of the suspects using electronic gadgets to open the door of 230, Mabhouh's hotel room, at 8:24 p.m. Jan. 19, as the victim climbed up from the lobby to his room. The next shot 19 minutes later will show the same suspects leaving room 230, relocking the door and with the same gadget shooting the inside bolt home to concoct the appearance of a locked room mystery.
But the Dubai police are clearly missing the essential 19-minute segment covering the action inside room 230, without which they have no real evidence of a crime.
That did not happen by chance.
According to our sources, the death squad kept the cameras running long enough to exhibit their facility to penetrate any secure site in the Middle East, but switched them off when they wanted to conceal the actions they took in pursuance of their mission.