Ex-Mossad man Eitan: Maybe it wasn't Israel

Former senior Mossad official Rafi Eitan pointed a finger away from the spy organization yesterday in the Dubai assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabnouh and said: "It is possible that a foreign country in a state of war with us, or a terrorist organization connected to it, intentionally used the details of Israeli citizens, which can be found in various databases around the world, to later incriminate the State of Israel for the assassination."

Among the 11 people the Dubai police claim were involved in the assassination, seven bore the identities of Israeli citizens who say they were shocked to see their names and personal details in newspapers all over the globe.

"The people whose details were reported are not exposed to any danger of imprisonment if they want to leave the country. Maybe they will be find some technical difficulty or two, but they will not be harmed because of that," said Eitan.

Eitan told Haaretz: "A terrorist organization, such as Al-Qaida, is capable of extracting the information they want from international databases in which the details of Israelis are stored, and later making widespread use [of the information] according to the organization's ideology and goals. Iranian intelligence also knows how to carry out its job," said Eitan.

Foreign sources attribute the January assassination to the Mossad.

Eitan, 84, a former minister and today a private businessman, commanded the Mossad unit that captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, and brought him to justice in Israel. Eitan was also a key figure in the Jonathan Pollard affair.