Israel Matzav: Brits threaten Israel over passports

Brits threaten Israel over passports

London's Daily Telegraph reports that Britain has threatened to suspend intelligence cooperation with Israel if it turns out that the Mossad stole the identities of British passport holders.

All of the British passport holders whose identities were stolen live in Israel, meaning Mossad would have had ready access to copies of their travel documents.

A senior Foreign Office source told The Daily Telegraph: “If the Israelis were responsible for the assassination in Dubai, they are seriously jeopardising the important intelligence-sharing arrangement that currently exists between Britain and Israel.

“If it transpires that Israel has been using British passports to assassinate its opponents, the British government will need to give serious consideration to any future cooperation.

“Britain has cut ties with Mossad in the past, and will do so again if the Israelis are found to be acting against British interests.”

Britain’s relationship with the Israeli security service reached an all-time low in 1986, when the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher closed down Mossad’s UK operation in response to a series of incidents including the discovery of a bag of forged British passports which had been lost by a Mossad agent.

Mossad was only allowed to re-establish its presence in the UK after it promised not to abuse British passports in the future.

Its intelligence-sharing relationship with the security services over such sensitive issues as Iran is now more important than ever, but the Foreign Office source said: “In the past Israel has had a reputation for making life difficult for its friends. It is sincerely to be hoped that this is not the case in this instance.”

If the Mossad is behind this, I don't understand why they didn't take dead people's identities. Unless the whole point was for people to look at what happened and say that the Mossad would never do something so 'stupid' as to endanger Israelis this way.

Of course, there's one small catch to this: To prove that it was the Mossad that stole the passports, they would also have to prove that the Mossad carried out the assassination. And so far, it seems unlikely that anyone will be able to do that.

Heh.

Israel Matzav: Brits threaten Israel over passports