Mossad Passport Scam

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Israel warned before on faking passport: diplomat

A FORMER Australian ambassador to Israel has revealed that he warned the Israeli government not to fake Australian passports for intelligence operations.

Ian Wilcock, who was Australia's ambassador in Israel from 1997 to 1999, has told The Weekend Australian that he met Israeli Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem twice during his posting to convey to them strong concerns about the potential abuse of Australian passports by Israeli intelligence.

"I can confirm there have been past approaches to the Israelis on the possible abuse of Australian passports," Mr Wilcock said yesterday.

"The abuse of such a fundamental Australian document is completely unacceptable.

"We had concerns at the time about the abuse of the passports of a third country, so I met senior officials in the foreign ministry in Jerusalem and we put our concerns very strongly about the potential for this being done to Australian passports."


The Rudd government has demanded answers from Israel about its suspected role in backing the theft of three Australian citizens' identities by its spy agency, Mossad, to carry out a political assassination.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has warned that Israel's standing as a friend would be jeopardised if it were found to have sponsored the doctoring of Australian passports.

Britain, France, Ireland and Germany have also called on Israel to explain why the identities of their citizens were stolen as part of the 26-person hit-squad that suffocated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room.

Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said yesterday his government was "very angry" over the suspected use of forged Irish passports by the assassins.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said there is no evidence to link his country to the killing.

Like his assassins, who wore tennis clothes and designer suits to blend it with hotel guests, the victim himself kept a series of fake passports and disguises including coloured contact lenses to protect himself.

It was reported yesterday that the passport photographs of the agents who assassinated Mabhouh were doctored so the agents would not be identified.

According to Israel's Haaretz newspaper, the features of the people in the photographs, such as eye colour, or the line of a lip, were altered slightly so as not arouse suspicion at passport control, but still enough that the real agent could not be recognised.

Australian Jewish community leaders refused to condemn Israel, saying evidence of its alleged involvement in the assassination was inconclusive and unproven.

Mr Wilcock declined to comment on the Israeli response to his warning.

But diplomatic sources say Israeli officials had given no promises and had appeared to be offended by the suggestion they might abuse the identity of Australian citizens.

The former ambassador said the willingness of Israelis to go to such extremes reflected their deep fears about national security.

"It is important to understand the psychology of Israelis in dealing with national security threats,' he said.

"The Holocaust may be old news to a great part of the world but it is a living and deeply painful memory to Israelis and to Jews everywhere. Israel will never leave the security of the country to others. The belief is Jews must be able to look after themselves."

'Mossad spies' jailed over New Zealand passport fraud

The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.

The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man who had not spoken in years, provoked a furious reaction yesterday.

"The breach of New Zealand laws and sovereignty by agents of the Israeli government has seriously strained our relationship with Israel," said the prime minister, Helen Clark.

"This type of behaviour is unacceptable internationally by any country. It is a sorry indictment of Israel that it has again taken such actions against a country with which it has friendly relations."

High-level visits between the two countries will be cancelled, visa restrictions imposed for Israeli officials, and an expected visit to New Zealand by Moshe Katsov, the Israeli president, later this year has been cancelled.

"The spy ring consisted of at least three Mossad agents working from Australia (it later emerged that Australia secretly expelled an Israeli diplomat as a result of this scandal in NZ) and one New Zealand Jew. The ringleader, a Mossad agent, and the New Zealander got away to Israel. The two other Mossad agents, Eli Cara and Uriel Kelman, were arrested in the act of accepting delivery of a fraudulently obtained NZ passport.

Algeria arrests Mossad agent with fake Spanish passport


Algerian authorities have arrested an Israeli Mossad agent carrying a fake Spanish passport in the city of Hassi Messaoud near an Egyptian office providing service for oil companies, Algerian Ennahar El Djadid newspaper reported on Tuesday.

According to the Algerian sources, the Mossad agent entered Algeria under the fake identity of a 35-year old Spanish man named Alberto Vagilo, and spent over ten days in the country prior to his arrest.

The Algerian paper also reported that the Mossad man received entry visas through a European embassy before traveling to the country via Barcelona.

Mossad Fixer Captured in Poland

Poland recently arrested an accused Mossad fixer when he attempted to enter the country. His arrest was requested by Germany because of the agent’s participation in a scheme to secure a passport for one of the Mossad agents

Israel has protested the arrest and asked Poland to return him to Israel and Germany to quash its extradition request. It will be a test of international resolve to see whether Germany and Poland have the courage of their convictions and go forward with this process.

Mossad also gathers genuine passports of other countries from immigrants to Israel on the pretext of "saving the Jews". These genuine passports are studied to prepare fake passports. Ostrovski identifies four kinds of passports used by Mossad for their operations; "top quality, second quality, field operation and throwaway". The low quality throwaway kind is mostly stolen from others and put in use when "needed only to flash them". They are not used for identification, since it cannot withstand through scrutiny. The field operation kind is "used for quick work in a foreign country, but not used when crossing borders". The second quality passport is a perfect one, "without no real persons behind" the details provided in it. The top-quality passport is the perfect kind, "which could stand up completely to any official scrutiny, including a check by the country of origin". The motto of Mossad in such delicate forgery is that, "no operation should be bungled by a bad document".