JonnyRadar
The Living Force
Anybody seen this yet?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/australians-caught-in-hit-on-hamas/story-e6frg6so-1225834538825
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/australians-caught-in-hit-on-hamas/story-e6frg6so-1225834538825
AUSTRALIA yesterday warned Israel its standing as a friend would be jeopardised if it were found to have condoned the suspected theft of three Australian citizens' identities by its Mossad spy agency to carry out a political assassination.
As Kevin Rudd demanded answers over Israel's role in the growing international scandal - and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police launched investigations - it was revealed that Australia had previously warned Israel not to use fake Australian passports for intelligence operations.
A diplomatic row broke out yesterday when three Victorians, all living in Israel, were confirmed among 26 people from four nations whose tampered passports were allegedly used by a team of suspected Israeli Mossad agents who assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith summoned Israel's ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, early yesterday to express his "grave concern" about the issue.
"I've made it crystal clear to the ambassador that if the results of (our) 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 the act of a friend," he said.
The Prime Minister vowed the government would "get to the bottom" of the case.
"We will not be silent on this matter," Mr Rudd said.
"Any state that has been complicit in the 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," he said.
Israeli officials conceded nothing and promised nothing in response to Australia's demands.
The latest spy scandal comes more than five years after New Zealand temporarily cut diplomatic ties with Israel after two alleged Israeli agents, including one who had lived in Sydney for several years, were jailed for trying to obtain a false Kiwi passport.
And diplomatic sources said the latest scandal was not the first time Australia has raised serious concerns about the behaviour of Israel's secret intelligence agency, Mossad.
Australian authorities quietly approached the Israeli government in the 1990s to seek assurances that Australian passports would not be abused after it was feared Israeli agents had doctored several New Zealand passports.
The Australian has been told that during that meeting with Israeli government officials, the Israelis responded with "enraged self-righteousness" at the suggestion that they would condone such identity theft.
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer last night confirmed the Howard government had warned Israel at least once 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 told The Australian.
Speaking from Greece, 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."
Three Australian passport holders - Adam Marcus Korman, Joshua Daniel Bruce and Nicole Sandra McCabe were named by Dubai police among 15 new suspects in the January 20 assassination, which is widely believed to have been a Mossad operation.
Dubai police released passports purporting to belong to the three Australians. Although the written details in the passports were correct, all three Australians said the photographs in the documents were of other people.
The fake passports were thought to be "duplicated" copies of the originals, but Mr Bruce's mother, Sarah, said the signature on the passport did not match her son's.
The three Victorians, who now live in Israel, were said to be shocked by the news and denied any involvement in the assassination team, which allegedly now numbers 26 people.
"It's identity theft, simply unbelievable," Mr Korman, who sells musical instruments in Tel Aviv, told an Israeli newspaper. "I have been frightened and shocked since receiving the news."
Dubai police said two of the Australians - identified as Ms McCabe and Mr Korman - had escaped Dubai on a ship bound for Iran, but offered no explanation as to why they would go there.
Mabhouh's murder has received global prominence after hotel video footage captured the assassination team wearing tennis gear and riding in a lift with their target shortly before he was smothered by a pillow in his room.
Israel has declined to confirm or deny Mossad's involvement, in keeping with its "no comment" policy on intelligence matters.
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, has said there was nothing linking Israel to the assassination.
Britain, France and Ireland have publicly asked Israel to explain the allegedly fraudulent use of their citizens' passports to help the assassination team enter Dubai without scrutiny.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has described as an "outrage" the use of six fake British passports in the plot.
In 1997, Mossad bungled the assassination of top Hamas leader Khalid Mishal, who was injected while in Jordan with a poison by Israeli agents travelling on Canadian documents. He survived after his assailants were captured by his bodyguards and Israel provided the antidote.
In 2004, two Mossad agents were jailed in New Zealand after trying to obtain fake passports, one in the name of a cerebral palsy sufferer.
Mr Downer said the incident had provoked howls of 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 then prime minister, Helen Clark, imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel, accusing the two men of acting for Mossad.
