Habib Toumi

Al Bustan Rotana Hotel where Al Mabhouh was killed - Gulf News

The mystery shrouding the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai last month is deepening amid new reports that Britain’s MI6 and Foreign Office had known that Israeli intelligence service Mossad would use British passports for an operation outside Israel.

The Daily Mail on Friday reported that MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to carry out an ‘overseas operation’ using fake British passports.

Quoting an unnamed Mossad source, the paper said that the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas leader was killed in Dubai. However, the tip-off did not say who the target would be or where the hit squad would be in action.

The paper reported that a British security source who met the Mossad agent and who had “a track record of providing reliable information”, said that the British government “was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.”

“There was no British involvement and they didn’t know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports,” the paper said  

The security source said that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a “courtesy call” to let the security services know “a situation might blow up.” continue reading…

Israel’s Ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, has been summoned to explain on Thursday the use of passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, an Israeli daily has reported.

The summoning seemed as part of the full investigation pledged on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into the use of the forged passports by a hit squad that murdered Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh on January 20.

“We are looking into this at this very moment; 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,” Brown said in a radio interview, according to Haaretz.

Brown said the British government would seek to accumulate evidence about “what actually happened” before making any official statements on the matter.

Anticipating wider diplomatic developments involving Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said also on Wednesday that there was no proof Israel’s Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination.

Lieberman shrugged off any prospect of diplomatic problems with Britain over suspicions a Mossad team had used counterfeit British passports.

“I think Britain recognizes that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern,” he said. continue reading…

Mishka Ben David

 The bits of information available and the camera images shown by the police about the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai suggest methods used by the Mossad that are depicted in a novel written by an Israeli former intelligence agent, an Israeli paper said.

According to Haaretz, Mishka Ben-David wrote about the Mossad operation details in detail in his novel ‘Duet in Beirut’.

“Ben-David, who served as the intelligence officer for the Caesarea operations branch of the Mossad, insists that his novel is a work of fiction. However, it is obvious to all that the experience he accumulated in the Mossad over the years appears in his book.”

In “Duet in Beirut”, Ben-David describes the Mossad agents, changing hotels, changing vehicles, arriving from different destinations, and changing clothes and appearances in order to make identification difficult, the newspaper said. continue reading…

Gail Folliard checking in at a hotel

 British government sources on Tuesday said that that the three Irish passport-holders accused of being involved in the assassination of a top Hamas leader last month were Israeli Mossad agents, according to the Daily Telegraph

The London-based paper reported that “there was no ‘corroboration’ within Whitehall of any British involvement in the assassination plot” and that “government sources said that officials do not believe any Irish nationals were involved but were Mossad agents using Irish passports.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said officials were “seeking further information” and were aware a request had been made to Interpol for arrest warrants, the paper said.

“Asked if any of the names had been registered with British officials or if any had reported passports being stolen, a spokeswoman for the Home Office declined to comment.” continue reading…