The British government has called in the Israeli ambassador to discuss the use of fake UK passports by the alleged killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
Gordon Brown has also ordered an inquiry into the passports, which bear the names of six British-Israelis who are not the men pictured.
Dubai police believe 11 "agents with European passports" killed Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.
Israel said there was no evidence to link its secret service.
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, refused to issue any formal denial in line with a "policy of ambiguity" on security matters.
He told Israeli Army Radio: "There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief."
'Full investigation'
It is expected that the Israeli Ambassador, Ron Prosor, will meet Sir Peter Ricketts, head of the diplomatic service, on Thursday.
Israel's ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Zion Evroni, said he had received a summons from the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and would be meeting Minister Michael Martin.
Sir Menzies Campbell, former Liberal Democrat leader and member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the ambassador had to be questioned.
"The one institution that does know whether Mossad was involved in this matter is the Israeli government and I expect that the senior civil servant in the Foreign Office will say 'well, now's your chance to tell us one way or another'," he told BBC's Newsnight.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn has called for Mr Prosor to be expelled from the UK if he cannot provide "adequate assurances".
The BBC's Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen said if there was proof Israel had used British passports "for some nefarious uses of its Mossad service - as they have in the past Canadian and New Zealand ones", then relations between the UK and Israel would be "in a crisis".
The Serious Organised Crime Agency has been asked to look into the fraudulent use of the passports.
“ I don't know who's behind this. I am just scared, these are major forces ”
Stephen Daniel Hodes
It has confirmed that photographs and signatures on the passports used in Dubai do not match those on passports issued by the UK.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "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 Foreign Office said the British embassy in Tel Aviv was ready to support those affected by the Hamas shooting case.
The men whose names appeared on the passports have dual British and Israeli citizenship.
They are Melvyn Adam Mildiner, Paul John Keeley, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Michael Lawrence Barney and Jonathan Lewis Graham. They all deny involvement in the killing.
Several of them have spoken of their shock at being implicated in the crime.
Salford-born Mr Hodes, 37, said he had not left Israel for two years and was "in shock".
"I don't know who's behind this. I am just scared, these are major forces," he told Israeli television.
The details of the suspects and their passport photos were released by officials in Dubai earlier this week.
Three of the other suspects used Irish passports.
Authorities in the Irish Republic have confirmed that while the numbers were legitimate, they did not match records for the names which had been used - Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron.
Its Department of Foreign Affairs said officials were urgently trying to contact the three citizens who hold or have held passports with these numbers.
France and Germany have also reportedly raised doubts over the identities of two suspects who used a French and a German passport.
Mr Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel room in Dubai on 20 January.
Reports have suggested he was there to buy weapons for the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas.
Two Palestinian suspects were being questioned about the murder. Police said they had "fled to Jordan" after the killing and have not released their names.
Officials in Dubai, who have issued arrest warrants, said the team appeared to be a professional hit squad, probably sponsored by a foreign power.
They released CCTV footage which they said showed some of the suspects in disguises, including wigs and false beards, in the hotel near Dubai's international airport.
The suspects allegedly trailed Mr Mabhouh when he arrived in Dubai from Syria. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Ñ äðóãîé ñòîðîíû, åñëè ðåøèëè ïðèãëàñèòü èçðàèëüñêîãî ïîñëà äëÿ áåñåäû, çíà÷èò åñòü îñíîâàíèÿ ïîëàãàòü ÷òî ýòî ñäåëàë èìåííî Èçðàèëü. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
À ïàñïîðòà òî ïîäëèííûå áûëè... ×òî æ òîãäà ïîëó÷àåòñÿ: Êòî-òî âûêðàë ýòè ïàñïîðòà, ïåðåêëåèë ôîòîãðàôèè, ïîäïèñè ïîääåëàë? Íåïðîôåññèîíàëüíî âñ¸ ýòî êàê-òî, ïî-ëþáèòåëüñêè... _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Esti
: 22.01.2006 : 904
: , 18 2010, 12:52:17 :
Çàáóãîðíîâ, âîò òû òàêîé áîëüøîé è óìíûé áëàãîäàðÿ òîìó ÷òî âçðañòèëà òåáÿ çåìëÿ ãäå ìîëî÷íûå ðåêè è ìåäîâûå áåðåãà. Õîðîøåãî òàêîãî âçðàñòèëà, âûó÷èëà, òåïåðü âîò î òâîèõ áëèçêèõ - ñòàðûõ è ìëàäûõ çàáîòèòñÿ....
Íåóæåëè íèêîãäà íå íàñòóïèò òîò ÷àñ, ÷òî âìåñòî êîïàíèÿ â íåãàòèâèçìå òû óâèäèøü (è äðóãèì ðàññêàæåøü!!) äîáðîå ñëîâî î íàøåé Ñòðàíå??
Òóäà, êñòàòè, íèêòî íå ïèøåò êðîìå ìåíÿ è Êîøêè. À åñëè ïðàâèòåëüñòâî íå êðèòèêîâàòü - òî âñ¸ òàê äàëüøå è áóäåò ïðîäîëæàòüñÿ, âñå òå áåçîáðàçèÿ êîòîðûå ñåé÷àñ òâîðÿòñÿ. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150754.html Interpol adds suspected Dubai assassins to 'most wanted' list
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Dubai police chief says is 99 percent sure Israel was responsible for January killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Interpol added the 11 suspected assassins responsible for last month's Dubai assassination of a Hamas strongman to their most wanted list, Haaretz learned on Thursday.
The individuals who were charged by Dubai police as responsible for the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were tagged with "Red Notices," according to the Interpol's official website.
The website also specifies that Interpol chose to publish the photos of the suspected assassins since the identities the perpetrators allegedly used were fake, using fraudulent passports to aid them in accomplishing their aim.
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Also on Thursday, an article published in an Emirati newspaper reported that Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he is 99 percent sure Israel was involved in Mabhouh's January killing.
"Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh. It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent, that Mossad is standing behind the murder," Tamim told The National newspaper.
Haaretz earlier Thursday learned the identities of two Palestinians arrested in Jordan in connection with the January 20 killing at a Dubai hotel.
Ahmad Hasnin, a Palestinian intelligence operative, and Anwar Shekhaiber, an employee of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, were arrested in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Jordan on Tuesday confirmed it had extradited the two to Dubai.
The two were residents of the Gaza Strip until Hamas seized control there in 2007, a Hamas source told Haaretz.
Both moved to Dubai, where they were employed by a real estate company belonging to a senior official of Fatah, the political faction headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
A third man, a Hamas security operative, is under arrest in Syria on suspicion of having assisted the hit squad, the British daily The Guardian reported late Wednesday.
Palestinian sources in the Gulf said Nahro Massoud was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus, the Guardian reported.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal has denied the allegation, according to the report, saying "It is not correct at all".
But Palestinian sources insisted Massoud was being questioned amid speculation that potentially senior Palestinian defectors may have been involved in the plot.
Dubai to hand retina scans to Interpol'
Dubai police said Wednesday investigators had successfully recreated a detailed picture of the operation. The official Web site of the Dubai police featured the suspects' pictures and personal information in an effort to locate the assailants.
According to Palestinian news agency Ma'an, Dubai police said Wednesday that they hold retinal scans of the suspected assassins, which they plan to publish through international police intelligence service Interpol.
Airport officials carried out routine retinal scans on 11 suspects sought by Dubai when they entered the country in the days before the hit. An unnamed Dubai official said on Thursday that the investigation has now widened, with police seeking a further seven members of the assassination team - making 18 in all.
Dubai police also identified Austria as the "command center" for the assassins, after mobile phone data showed at least seven numbers originating there, the Guardian reported.
Dubai police speculated members of the group communicated using "encrypted" messages, and that contact was maintained via several Austrian mobile phone Sim cards.
Austria has confirmed its officials are investigating the claims. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150675.html France joins U.K., Ireland demand for Israeli answer over fake Dubai passports
By Barak Ravid, Danna Harman and Jack Khoury, Haaretz
Report: Suspected killers of Hamas commander in Dubai used U.S.-issued credit cards during operation.
France joined both the U.K. and Ireland in demanding Thursday that Israel explain how a forged French passport came to be used by the alleged assassins.
"We are asking for explanations from Israel's embassy in France over the circumstances of the use of a fake French passport in the assassination of a Hamas member in Dubai," the Foreign Ministry said in an electronic news briefing.
Meanwhile, the web of countries allegedly involved in the January assassination of Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh continues to grow as the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Dubai authorities are looking into five U.S.-issued credit card accounts suspected to have been used by the alleged assassins.
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The cards, according to the Wall Street Journal report, issued by U.S. banks, were used by the suspected assassins to buy plane tickets connected to the operation, as well as other travel related items.
Earlier Thursday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded Israel's full cooperation in investigating of the fraudulent use of U.K. passport by the killers of a Hamas official in Dubai.
Israel's ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, met with Sir Peter Ricketts, head of the British diplomatic service, on Thursday after London asked him to clarify what it called an "identity theft" in which the passports of six British Israelis were used by assassins.
"The permanent secretary (Ricketts) said we wanted to give Israel every opportunity to share with us what it knows about this incident," Miliband told British television.
"We hope and expect they will cooperate fully with the investigation that has been launched by the prime minister [Gordon Brown]," he said.
He said he hoped to discuss the issue further with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman when both men were in Brussels on Monday.
A hit squad that killed senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January apparently forged travel documents bearing the names of the Britons, who all live in Israel.
"Following an invitation yesterday evening, I met today with Sir Peter Ricketts, Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office," Prosor said following the lunchtime meeting.
"Whilst of course happy to cooperate with Sir Peter's request, I was unable to shed any further light on the events in question," Prosor continued.
"In keeping with standard diplomatic practice, it would be improper to disclose the content of such bilateral discussions between our countries."
Prosor added: "In accordance with accepted diplomatic protocol, it would be unfitting to reveal the content of the talks conducted between the countries."
Although Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for the January 20 hit on Mabhouh, the incident seems to have spawned a serious diplomatic rift between Israel and the United Kingdom.
Israel's ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Zion Evroni, said Wednesday that he too had received a summons from the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and would be meet Minister Michael Martin on Thursday.
In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on the matter, but an Israeli diplomat said on condition of anonymity that the government has decided to withhold a public statement until the British message is received, and would then choose how to respond.
Israeli officials expressed concern Wednesday that the affair could seriously harm ties between Jerusalem and London. They said the British and Irish summonses could lead to similar steps on the part of France and Germany, other countries whose passports the assailants carried in Dubai.
One Israeli official said the Irish government had already contacted Britain, Germany and France to recommend they conduct a joint investigation into the incident.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised Wednesday that his government would launch an inquiry into the use of the British passports in the operation, but did not cast blame over the alleged forgeries.
"The defrauding of British passports is a very serious issue," a statement from the Foreign Office released Wednesday read. "The government will continue to take all the action that is necessary to protect British nationals from identity fraud."
"The government is involved in a number of strands of ongoing activity in relation to this specific case," the statement said. It cited three specific areas of activity: offering bureaucratic assistance to the affected British citizens living in Israel, investigating the matter fully and summoning the Israeli ambassador for clarification.
"The Serious Organised Crime Agency will lead this investigation, in close cooperation with the Emirati authorities," the Foreign Office said.
Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs released a statement indicating, "the identities of the persons recorded on the forged passports do not correspond to those recorded on the valid passports carrying the same numbers."
Emirati police said the team left Dubai several hours after the operation - some individually and others in pairs - for destinations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
At a memorial rally for Mabhouh in Gaza Wednesday, leaders of Hamas' armed wing said the group "will never rest until they reach his killers".
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal addressed the rally of several thousand by video link from Damascus.
"We call on European countries to punish Israel's leaders for violating laws," he said. "Israel deserves to be placed on the terror list." _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
×òî, íåëüçÿ áûëî óêðàñòü ïðîñòî áðèòàíñêèå ïàñïîðòà ó áðèòàíöåâ â Àíãëèè? Õîòÿ, êîíå÷íî, ýòî ñëîæíåå.... _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Australia warned Israel on Thursday that if it was involved in the alleged use of three fraudulent Australian passports in a Dubai assassination it would not be considered the act of a friend, the foreign minister said.
The Canberra government called in Israel's ambassador after three Australians were named as suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official at a Dubai hotel last month.
Dubai authorities are investigating the use of at least 26 possibly fraudulent passports in connection with the Jan. 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said investigations were still under way, but the three Australians were also apparently innocent victims of identity theft.
"I made it crystal clear to the ambassador that if the results of that investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as an act of a friend," Smith said.
In an interview with Australian radio, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also emphasized the severity of the situation. "We will not be silent on this matter. It is a matter of deep concern. It really goes to the integrity and fabric of the use of state documents, which passports are, for other purposes," Rudd told Australian radio.
"Any state that has been complicit in use or abuse of the Australian passport system, let alone for the conduct of an assassination, is treating Australia with contempt and there will therefore be action by the Australian government in response," said Rudd.
Dubai police say they are near certain that members of Israel's Mossad spy agency killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in January. A list of 11 people suspected in the assassination released last week by Dubai included the names of six British-born Israelis, whose names appeared on forged British passports thought to have been used by the killers.
Dubai on Wednesday identified 15 new suspects in the assassination; Haaretz has learned that 10 of them also share the names of Israelis who hold dual citizenship.
Photos: AP and Reuters
The three using Australian passports have been identified as Daniel Bruce, Nicole Sandra McCabe and Adam Korman. The other new suspects also include Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur and Philip Carr, traveling on British passports; Ivy Brinton, Anna Shauna Clasby and Chester Halvey, on Irish passports; and David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard and Eric Rassineux, on French passports.
The suspected killers' use of passports from countries including Britain and France has drawn criticism from the European Union that diplomats said was aimed at Israel. Some of the countries involved have summoned the Israeli ambassadors.
"Friendly nations who have been assisting in this investigation have indicated to the police in Dubai that the passports were issued in an illegal and fraudulent manner," the Dubai government said.
Israel has not denied or confirmed it played any role but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said there was nothing to link it to the killing. The United States, Israel's main ally, has kept silent about the affair. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Dubai police said on Friday they have DNA proof of the identity of at least one of the killers of senior Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the emirate country last month.
"We have DNA evidence ... from the crime scene. The DNA of the criminals is there," Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on the Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya.
He said police had "categorical DNA proof on one of the assassins" and fingerprint evidence from several other suspects, providing "100 percent" proof of their identities.
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Dubai said it was seeking at least 26 people it suspectd of involvement in the assassination in January.
Last week Interpol added 11 suspected assassins to their most wanted list, all of whom were apparently using forged passports.
The individuals who were charged by Dubai police as responsible for the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were tagged with "Red Notices," according to the Interpol's official website.
The website also specifies that Interpol chose to publish the photos of the suspected assassins since the identities the perpetrators allegedly used were fake, using fraudulent passports to aid them in accomplishing their aim.
Also, the Dubai police chief ahi Khalfan Tamim said Interpol should issue a warrant to help locate and arrest the head of Israel's spy agency Mossad if the organization was responsible for the killing of a Hamas militant in Dubai.
Meanwhile, a Haaretz probe discovered that the passport photographs of the agents who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai were doctored so the agents would not be identified.
The discovery casts doubt on claims that the espionage agency that carried out last month's hit on the senior Hamas operative committed grave errors.
Various features of the people in the photographs, such as eye color or the line of a lip, were changed - slightly enough so as not arouse suspicion at passport control, but still enough that the real agent could not be recognized. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Australian investigators are expected in Israel in the coming days to question several dual nationals whose names have been connected to the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Israel agreed to allow two to three Australian police officers to question the dual citizens, after Australia's Foreign Ministry on Sunday requested approval from the Israeli envoy in Canberra to dispatch the investigators.
Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20 in what police say they are almost certain was a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency.
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Australia last week said it was not satisfied with the Israeli envoy's explanation about the use of fraudulent Australian passports in the killing, after three people holding Australian passports were listed among 15 new suspects.
Dubai authorities have named 26 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed the Palestinian and said they operated in disguise and used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports.
Media reports last week said that Australian authorities had approached Israel in the 1990s to seek assurances that its passports would not be used in Mossad activities after it was feared Israel had doctored New Zealand passports.
During that meeting, the reports claimed, the Israelis said they condoned such identity theft, with Australian participants describing their response as "enraged self-righteousness."
On Saturday, investigators from Britain's Serious Organized Crimes Agency arrived in Israel to interview dual nationals whose names were used on British forged passports tied to the killing.
'Two suspected Dubai assassins traveled to the U.S. after the hit'
At least two of the 26 suspected members of the team that tracked and killed Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month traveled to the U.S. shortly after his death, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Records show one of the suspects entered the U.S. on January 21 using an Irish passport and another arrived in the U.S. February 14 using a British passport, reported the Wall Street Journal, quoting "a person familiar with the situation."
Investigators are uncertain whether the two are still in the U.S. Police suspect the alleged hit squad members used fraudulently issued passports, and that the two may have left the U.S. using different travel documents.
Spokesmen for the U.S. State Department and Interpol both declined to comment on the Wall Street Journal report.
Also on Monday, Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said that some of the suspects in the killing had left shortly afterward for the U.S. and Israel.
"Some of them went to America and others to Israel," Tamim told Gulf News, after police announced the results of a forensic examination of Mabhouh's corpse.
Dubai police said an autopsy showed Mabhouh had been drugged with the general anesthetic succinylcholine, then smothered to death.
Dubai police have also identified two U.S. financial companies they believe issued several of the credit cards used by at least 14 suspects in the alleged killing. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Soca report into forgeries used in Dubai killing says personal data was stolen in border checks
A British Airways flight takes off from Israel's Ben Gurion airport. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA
Passing through Israel's Ben Gurion airport, a few miles east of Tel Aviv, is a unique experience no first-time visitor is likely to forget.
It represents the pinnacle of modern aviation security. Baggage is passed through giant, state-of-the-art machines, and travellers – both arriving and leaving – are frequently subjected to lengthy, personal and repetitive questioning by officials, on their ethnic background and that of any local acquaintances they may have made.
It is not at all uncommon for the mostly youthful immigration officers to wander off, passports and tickets in hand, ostensibly to consult with their seniors. Surrendering documents at check-in or at immigration has hitherto been considered a necessary evil for all those travelling in and out of Ben Gurion.
But the evidence that the Israeli state has been taking the information gleaned from these inspections to create cloned identities for its spies introduces a new level of risk to the experience.
The report by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) into the use of cloned British passports in the Dubai assassination makes clear their view that this is what happened as Britons travelled through the airport in the months and years before the plot was hatched to kill the Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
The Soca report concluded that the passports must have been cloned at the airport or at other interfaces with Israeli officialdom, such as airline offices in other countries. There were no other links between the 12 individuals whose identities were stolen.
According to insiders, the language in the Soca report, produced after a four-week investigation, was "direct" and the findings unequivocal: the inquiry showed that the victims' data was taken, stored and passed on when they handed their passports to Israeli officials or those linked to them.
"We cannot pin it on individuals, but the evidence draws us to the conclusion that the only place these passports could have been cloned is when they were inspected at the Israeli border or in other countries, where they were passed to Israelis," said one source.
In some cases, this information theft had taken place several years before the assassination. One of the Britons involved told investigators he had not travelled out of Israel for more than two years.
Soca concluded the report on their findings last week and handed it to the Home Office on Friday, which passed it to the Foreign Office on Monday. It then moved from the criminal sphere to the diplomatic, as the foreign secretary, David Miliband, translated the raw findings into concrete measures to be taken against Israel: the expulsion of a diplomat and a travel warning that Israeli officials were not to be entrusted with passports.
The foreign secretary's decision to accuse Israel directly in parliament yesterday reflected both the certainty among British officials of Israeli state involvement, and the anger among diplomats and security officials at such a blatant infringement of British sovereignty. At least 12 British passports were used in the Mabhouh plot, more than any other nation's.
That irritation was heightened by Israel's record. In 1986, eight British passports were found inside an Israeli embassy envelope in a West German telephone box, apparently left there by an absent-minded Mossad agent.
The next year, a Palestinian found with an arms cache in Hull turned out to be a double-agent working for the Mossad, taking part in a covert operation Israel had omitted to tell Britain about.
After investigating operations by the Mossad, the Thatcher government expelled an Israeli diplomat, Arie Regev, for "activities incompatible with his status". And the Israeli government of the day gave an assurance that such transgressions would not be repeated.
Today, Britain is looking for similar assurances.
According to those close to the Soca investigation, detectives soon realised the passports involved were no ordinary forgeries of the type most often seen during inquiries into organised crime, terrorist support networks and money launderers in the UK and abroad.
Most experts agree that British passports are notoriously difficult to forge, and those which do come to light are either poorly doctored originals, or passports created from fake documents.
"It is rare for us to see forged British passports," said one police expert. "When we do, they are not often of the quality which could pass through an international border."
So when investigators from Soca examined the details of the passports, they immediately noticed the difference.
"These were incredibly good forgeries. They are not the thing that anyone could do," said an investigative source.
"The originals were still in the hands of their owners and someone had used the information to create a new document. The quality of the forgeries made it highly likely that there was state involvement."
The accusations will put considerable strain on Britain's relationship with Israel. But MI6, which pursued its own informal investigation into the affair, is likely to maintain its close, professional relationship with the Mossad.
Key findings from the Soca investigation have been passed to the United States and to investigators in the United Arab Emirates, who are leading the inquiry into the murder of Mabhouh.
To all intents and purposes the Soca investigation is now closed, although detectives may still be asked to provide additional information to the Foreign Office or the Dubai authorities. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
FAQ
