Britain expels top Mossad agent over 'intolerable' passport cloning
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 04:58PM London Times
Britain has expelled Mossad’s chief representative in London after a criminal investigation blamed the Israeli spy agency for the cloning of British passports used in the assassination of a senior Hamas operative in Dubai.
The diplomat's expulsion was announced in a statement to Parliament by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who said that Israel's "intolerable" misuse of British passports had shown a "profound disregard" for the UK's sovereignty.
"The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury," Mr Miliband said.
"No country or government could stand by in such a situation," he added. "I have asked that a member of the Embassy of Israel be withdrawn from the UK as a result of this affair and this is taking place."
The 12 passports were among at least 26 forged European and Australian identity documents used by the members of an Israeli hit squad which murdered the Hamas armourer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel on January 19.
Mr Miliband said that an investigation carried out by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which sent officers both to Dubai and Israel, had shown that the owners of the passports had been the unwitting and innocent victims of official identity fraud.
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