Faked passports are common currency in espionage, since they are necessary if an agent or officer is going to travel under an assumed identity. Conducting assassinations whilst traveling under allied papers, though... that's pretty crass.
Faked passports are common currency in espionage, since they are necessary if an agent or officer is going to travel under an assumed identity. Conducting assassinations whilst traveling under allied papers, though... that's pretty crass.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Uhm, first off I have no doubt that a number of illegal activities up to and including assassination have been carried out by most major Western intelligence agencies under false papers from another country. Secondly, I have yet to see a shred of evidence that the Israelis did it. Miliband was quite clear that they didn't know - essentially he said that it seemed very likely that a 'state intelligence agency' had forged the papers, given the sophistication of the forgery, but went no further than that. Now, there could be further information that has not been disclosed pointing to the Israelis, but so far nothing has come out. The case back in the '80s under Thatcher was much tighter.
In principle, I would say it's fine to use whatever papers you can forge as a cover, even that of an ally. The important rule, though, is don't get caught. If there's a significant chance of that, at least try to implicate someone you don't like.
I guess I just can't believe the Israelis would be so inept. Mughniyeh was killed in a high security neighborhood of Damascus in a much more obvious way, and no one was even suspected. Even the botched assassination attempt on Meshaal back in '97 required only two Mossad agents (with perhaps some minimal backup that wasn't caught?). Press reports about the assassination squads working in Europe hunting down Black September indicated much smaller teams - a total of 9 including backup for the botched Lillehammer hit.
Furthermore, of the identity thefts, there were plenty of non-Israeli connections. A bunch of the Irish passport numbers were genuine and had no connection to Israel or the Middle East. For that matter, stealing identities of dual-citizenship Israelis is the easiest way to frame the Mossad.
Look, I'm not suggesting that the Mossad did or did not carry out the hit. There are questions on either side, and I think it's certainly possible they did it and just screwed up. But the Brits don't have a shred of evidence to indicate this is true, so expelling the Mossad station chief (or whatever he was) seems a bit premature.
Would you like it to? If it was a Mossad operation, we should definitely tell the world everything we know about it. Maybe we could publish the name of a bunch of Mossad agents we know about too. Then Mossad could blow a load of MI6 agents in response. Awesome!Now, there could be further information that has not been disclosed pointing to the Israelis, but so far nothing has come out.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
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