Five Israelis wake up as named 'Dubai assassins'

ran roughshod over all recognized conventions among civilized nations and the United Nations, which, of course, is no longer of any use, since they have done their job in providing Israel with a homeland of highly questionable parentage and legitimacy.

maybe other elements in the Arab world did it in revenge for whatever wrong Hamas did to them wether it was Fatah whom got chucked off highrise buildings or al qaeda groups whom clashed with Hamas against Iranian dominance due to the whole Shia-Sunni rift. PS: some attackers fled to Iran maybe the Iranians were hacked off that Hamas went to buy weapons in China instead of them or maybe Hamas did it better themselves for such a transgression. Why not whack their own deviant and frame Israel in the process???Taqiyah with some blood involved sounds appetizing???

besides Israel???erm thats an easy one Fatah got chucked like rag dolls off high rise buildings(PA) Al Qaeda sunni supremacists cells resenting Shia influence of Iran over predominantly Sunni Gaza?? A power struggle within Hamas(not impossible) and in a dictatorship like Hamas run Gaza disobedience=death. maybe Mabouh did a Taboo and was fooling around with other women behind his wifes back an Arab poster suggested this in another thread also another possibility but as a woman she has little power or say unless she hired lowlifes to do him in. maybe he was a double agent about to meet enemy agents in china(this would really displease Meshaal and Haniyeh no doubt. And besides why would Israel frame their own civilians???Mossad is their to protect Israelis not get them into trouble!!!

As I read that several phones were from the Austrian T-Mobile provider, somehow it appeared to me that it could be Iran standing behind the assassination. The Austrian police closed its eyes as an iranian hitteam murdered three iranian Kurds in Vienna. If it is true that there was a command in Vienna its possible that Iran is using Austrian soil again. That iranian militias often see each other as rivals is well known. The route of Mabhou went from China through Syria. Two freindly countries to Iran, Iran can deffenetly watch closely at least Syria. The alleged involvement of a Hamas man and faked IDs of Israelis also point in Irans direction. Further it is much more likely than Iran can carry out such an assassination, as Hamas or the PA.

Could not agree more!!!!!!! Spot on!!!!

I thought we Jews were supposed to have "seykhl"?These comments about the Israeli secret service not being involved is I am afraid something called denial or stupidity.The terrorist got what was coming to him.Mossad did it,good for them, good for Israel,end of story,until next terrorist gets his comeuppance.The only thing I wont do is change my name to Amberstone if ever I make an Aliyah to Israel.

but I also suspect, as mentioning above, that they were tipped off that something was going down, though they didn't know exactly when and how. Posters here can't bring themselves to believe that mossad could have been that careless. But if the operatives were not caught, so to speak, if Dubai police did not know to look for something, maybe no one would have been the wiser. It's also possible that getting fake passports is getting more and more difficult, so they may not have wanted to take any more chances on total fakes. Agree with you on there being way too many. Also how come the hamas man had no guards? how important was he anyways? And the most troubling scenario for Israel is if it wasn't Mossad. Then one would have to call this false flag operation a major success. Maybe people should worry more about this before suggesting UK/Palestinians etc as the planners. At least your logic seems to be in top shape. Something familiar there....

Actually, I now suspect that the Dubai authorities got tipped ahead of time. Possibly by the same contact who served as the information source for the hapless mossad crew. There's some evidence that the people in Dubai were ready for something, though obviously they wouldn't quite know the when and how. That would explain why the operatives were fingered - it probably took a while to assemble the details. It would also explain how they knew to ask for those 2 palestinians who were extradited from Jordan. That would explain also how they realized so fast to look for foul play in the death. Which raises a few other questions; why would they let it happen as it did if they knew something is about to go down? clearly it would take a while to piece together who all the people involved were, but one would think they were on to one or more from the start (two were photographed leaving the airport following the taxi carrying the hamas guy). Seems interesting. Does every taxi gets filmed?

What other country is at war with Hamas besides Israel?

One is the pictures of the actual suspects. Two of them looked distinctly Israeli, one looks like someone I even used to know (don't worry, it's not him). The rest could easily be Israeli as well, though several could, of course, be arabic, or irish or anything southern. Two is the 'who else' and 'why now'? if this was, in fact, a palestinian mounted false flag operation, then it was quite successful - just look at the row! if however, it was mossad, it was rather sloppy. Either way, it should be quite worrisome for Israel, whether because it has more sophisticated enemies to contend with now - ones who copied well the mossad's MO, or that it has a deficit of competence. We have seen these past few years more evidence for the second than the first.

...and I mean ANYONE. A teenager located in Samoa could have stolen them and made those passports. All you need is a connection to the internet and some clever trojan software. Facebook for example is one of the greatest sources of identity theft. You're barking up the wrong tree on this.

More than five will need to wake up. Maybe the Reut Institute should start with this story if it's serious about hunting down "delegitimizers" of Israel.

You must be naif not to believe that Mossad is behind the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Israeli secret services have access to any passport data, and Mossad has always been behind any assassination of this kind so far in Middle East. Even Israeli tourists when they coem to Italy for vacation seem so naif...but..........

Unfortunately, it appears the Mossad was the organization that carried out the operation. With so many names of Israeli citizens used, it must have been an official Israeli organization which access to such data. (How else would anybody know that a travelling Brit, for example, actually resides permanently in Israel?) The use of names of Israelis, as well as having a picture with some vague resemblance to the actual owner, was apparently intended to use in authenticating the passport in case of some checking up by the Dubai border control. But the operation seems now quite flawed: 1. 11 agents is way too much for such a relatively simple mission. More agents means more opportunities for a foul-up. None of them was caught, but one should not tempt fate. 2. Irish fake transports that are obviously fake (by impossible serial numbers). That's really unprofessional. 3. Many agents are burned out as their pictures were advertised. I suspect Mossad underestimated the Dubai police.

MOSSAD would get the CORRECT numbers on the pssports not use INCORRECT made-up ones! Wait a minute-I can hear the Israel-bashing Brits saying the nefarious Jews purposely used wrong numbers to fake sloppiness thus throwing off suscpicion from the "professional" Mossad jobs-oh those dastardly cunning Jews-Yep just WAIT FOR THIS CANARD to show up in the media... What really happened was that this Hamas guy P'O'ed some of his own PAL enemies off -and they got him back with the ultimate censure while trying to plant the blame on Israel --kill your enemy AND pin the blame on Israel --sounds like a "cunning" ARAB move to me...their sloppiness in getting the numbers wrong was overlooked in their desire to kill 2 birds with one stone -of course the bRITANISTANIS will never believe it waa ARab on Arab... Or maybe the Hamas guy cheatedon a deal with the Mafia or Russian mob and they "got him" while trying to deflect blame to Israel? OR a CIA plot (OBAMA proves he can embarrass Isr

Standard Mossad operating procedure is to get in do the deed get out and get back to Israel as soon as possible. If the Austrians (and it may be no accident Peres was there yesterday) can using cctv to trace those already identified in Dubai to Vienna and then boarding a plane bound to Israel. That would be the real game changer.

Must be a set-up. Israël can do no wrong, everybody knows that. Mossad? To even think that they could mess up.. come on. Khaled Meshal? Nahh. Another set-up.

Just wanted to put a few scenerios into the pot. But the fact Avigdor (the nightclub Bouncer) Lieberman has refused to either confirm or deny Israeli involvement, and Netanyahu, Barak and Peres aren't even cheering the death of this admittedly not very nice individual, makes you think about the latter possibility. And your right it doesn't bare thinking about.

Litvinenko was killed by the KGB for selling Russian secrets to Israel. I wished they'd waited until he'd visited another state before they killed him but Litvinenko was playing with fire. As was this terrorist. You don't seem to be able to grasp that is not the issue. The issue is Israel used British Passports after previously promising after a normalisation of ties not to do so. Israel's embassy is going to be a few staff short, we kicked 14 Israeli diplonats out the last time and ceased co-operating with Mossad for five years, the last time Israel did this. This time it will be permanent, and probably be a downgrading of the embassy to a consulate, and severe limitations on Israelis travelling to London. They will have to start applying for an extremely limited amount of visas.

The current Israeli government is a poor excuse for a government but this whole Dubai affair just doesn't pass the smell test for me. Until proven otherwise I will assume some kind of internal Palestinian thing. They could have flubbed it this badly. Bottom line, the sucker's dead and gone and that's a + for the world.

"This is CLEARLY a sloppy frame-up to point every finger at Israel by someone else." - Jane I think you might be right Jane, but do not consider the situation 'clear'. Avigdor Lieberman's statement today is too cute and essentially avoided denial. The current government of Israel is very reckless. I cannot rule out Mossad, but suspect the trail will eventually lead elsewhere. While this is not CLEARLY a false flag operation, it certainly is probably one. Still, why Lieberman's word games? Yes, I know he is a thuggish fool which is the probable explanation for his babbling. Can't SOMEONE in Israel have enough sense to understand that if Israel didn't do it, it is in Israel's interest to help Dubai find out who did? The Financial Action Task Force has been meeting in Abu Dhabi and is to release it's findings tomorrow. This will name nations and organizations to be blacklisted for failure to stop money laundering and terrorist funding. This hit can risk Iran sanctions and FATF.

Chris, you prove my point exactly. British passports need to be changed every 10 years, so it is reasonable to assume that the passports were changed in the recent past, and where were the new passports issued? In addition it was also reported that the passports were usedn in recent months in Europe and Asia. If it was the Mossad the documents would be used one time only. So I say or British intelligence trying to compromise Mossad or Syria/Iran.

Was it a Mossad copy-cat operation after all, directed by Mahmoud al-Mabhouh himself, and/or Hamas in an effort to create an international incident between Israel and U.K.? But then, there are the two detained Palestinian suspects. It is alleged one was a former Hamas security member. He fled Gaza after the discovery he was a Mossad recruit.(Palpress 17.2.10) Why was Mabhouh instructed to travel to Dubai? 'Mabhouh died after interview.' (Jpost 17.2.10) The Mabhouh interview: Aljazeera 07 February 2010 'To Israel I am stained with blood.' http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/02/2010271441269105.html Was the man giving the interview, Mabhouh - his face was covered during interview? He said, "I am very cautious, thank God." And, "God will Inshah'Allah make us stronger, and I hope to become a martyr." Security film Dubai hotel (seen on TV) shows Mabhouh walking to his room alone. Cautious??? I bet a lot of answers will be found in Britain. Mossad may not have dunnit.

"Why not just admit that Mossad are the only obvious suspects? If you were investigating this, wouldn`t they be the first people you`d want to talk to?" Michael/UK Sir, It depends. Obvious attempt to frame Mossad with significant British contamination would call for interviews with -shhhhh..- british very secret services enabling their Arab friends to do the job.

Let's Assume it was the Mossad. The passports were from Germany, Britain, Ireland and 1 other EU state, right? Do you people believe that the names in those passports would be Israeli, Jewish sounding names or Gentile, European names from the respective country. SO I ASK, WHERE DID THESE NAMES COME FROM? WHERE DID TAMMIM THE DUBAI INVESTIGATOR COME UP WITH THEM? GREAT RESPONSE FROM ISRAEL THOUGH, DEBASE THE NAMES, SHOW HOW THOSE NAMES DO NOT MATCH TO ANY ISRAELI. AND THEN WHAT VALUE WILL THOSE NAMES BE? BUT IF SOMEONE CAN ADVISE WHERE THESE NAMES CAME FROM THAT WOULD BE GREAT. DID TAMIM JUST MAKE THEM UP TO SAVE FACE OR HOW DOES HE INVESTIGATE THIS. alwayslearning@live.ca

Denial is a River in Egypt. The German passport holder is a deeply religious Jew with dual Israeli, German nationality who hasn't left Israel for ten years. That does not sound like Israel is getting fitted up. When would this particular German's passport details been copied (apart from when he entered Israel at Ben Gurion to make Aliyha and his passport was photocopied so he could get the relevant documents he would require to live in Israel open bank accounts etc. The passports were forgeries then names of the people used were not. Apparently the numbers in the British passports are correct, so it was a very good forgery.

is in order for a job so so so well done . I think Israel should find and hire those top fliers who can do a such a perfect terror elimination .

Interesting range of possibilities you list in your response to Jane. However, I would have thought that sanctioning an assassination by Mossad would require sign off from Netanyahu and not just Lieberman. If it was possible that Lieberman had this power I would be quite worried.

Sir, Russians killed Litvinenko in London - the capital of the United Imperial Femdom. Do you still feel at war with Russia? Is your stiff upper lip still stiff? Do you soften your stiff thing when relate to the superior power - Russian Democratic Tzardom?

You seem to be saying that there is no way that Mossad would have, or could have, done this. Sounds like a great act of camouflage by Mossad to me. (i.e., It can't possibly be us. We wouldn't be that stupid!)

My advice to any Jew in future if your name is Bernstein,Cohen,Goldwater.DONT change it to Burton, Cowen or Walter if you intend going to live in Israel!

Palestinians are now an "ilk". You are an out and out racist. Don't even try to deny it. If Mossad did this, (and they probably did), they got lazy and used the names of people out of the phone book with foreign ties (too smart by half). I bet the s**t is flying at Mossad head quarters today.

"How about: police cadets just graduating" [Murray] A Qassam missile on its way to Sderot leaves a smoke trail that can be seen from any point in Gaza. Firing such a missile at civilian targets is a violation of all kinds of laws and would require the Gaza Police to arrest the launch crew. I can see where one or two missiles might be launched with the crews escaping, but 8000? Without even one arrest? No way. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the police are just another arm of Hamas military, and are not operating as police. Ergo, police are fair targets in any military encounter.

On the other hand even the mighty USA f-up the Bay of Pigs back in the day and perhaps the Mossad did it after all. My gut tells me it's not that simple. I certainly don't believe the UAE or Dubai had anything to gain here. The only ones with any reason besides Israel are the PLO or whatever they are called these days. PS - You seem to smart to be anti-Israel. Wassup with that? We have our good and bad like any place else.

If the goal was to terminate this "inconsequential" terrorist, 1. Why would a 11-17 man hit team & million dollar operation be required? 2. Why would this "professional" hit team make sure to parade around every camera in Dubai only to kill & leave their target in his room for public display. They could have nailed him using only 1 operative in another secluded or public place with a single shot or bomb.(Happens all the time.) 3. With "whom and why did the target meet" and what about any computer, cell phone, phone lists? No one is talking about this. Perhaps there is more than meets the eye.

A final playout between HAMAS and the PLO of the internicine strife that we have seen in Gaza, possible, and it is also possible a Palestinian sympathiser has access to passport records in Israel. All scenarios are possible. The final possibility is this was an operation sanctioned by Lieberman without informing Netanyahu as a means of flexing his muscle within the Israeli cabinet and to possibly force charges to be dropped. In return for his silence and possible alienation of three key allies within the EU. Either way I'll agree it is one almighty fuck up whoever did it. But I think we could discount Dubai or the UAE they could have earned mega browny points at a time when it is financially in the mire by arresting him parading him in front of the telly cameras and then handing him over to the Americans.

Putting aside my anti Israel sensitivities for a moment (or insensetivities depending on what side of the fence you sit). Lets look at this logically. Russia has in the past assassinated someone in Dubai, there are Russians in Israel and one could have got details of British, French, German and Irish passport details of those who also hold citizenship of Israel. Motive: warns Iran to back off arming Hezbollah and Hamas as it is interfering with Russian interests in the Eastern mediterranean. United States to put pressure on Israel to accept a two state solution by isolating Israel from Europe. Possible, and getting rid of a terrorist who is destabilising a region of the world they have an interest in, with the added bonus of warning Iran. A joint operation by the EU to take out a main player and protect their citizens if Israel attacks using joint passport holders who reside in Israel as cover to protect their interests in the Middle East.

My friend, at Dubai International Airport Europeans can enter the country without having a prior visa issued. This is a short terms visa and in this situation (at passport control counters) your passport is scanned. This is what happened to me. So the images of the passports you have seen were scanned at the entry point.

How about: police cadets just graduating. Israel has proudly announced that they deliberately killed 248 of them at the start of the "Cast Vote" attack on Gaza.

It makes no sense that the Mossad would use the names of Israeli residents and thereby connect Israel to this killing. Also the Mossad would bever use so many people for one operation, as it would endanger it. This is the job of some Arab organization hating Hammas which also wanted to smear the Mossad by using the names of the Israeli residents. It could very well be the Fatah rival faction. The fact that two Palestinians were arrested in conjuction with this killing attests to that as well. But It was definitely not the Mossad. It just doesn't make sense.

This is CLEARLY a sloppy frame-up to point every finger at Israel by someone else. Although imperfect as any intelligence agency, the Mossad could not possibly f-up an operation so badly. I also believe that recent warming of Israeli-Gulf states relations is a tremendous threat to radical elements and they are doing all they can to nip it in the bud. That's what I've been saying since this story broke the other day. We may never know exactly what happened but the result so far is one dead murderering terrorist and that is good for everyone.

Keep denying Israel's responsabilities !! As you can see it's helping a lot...

That could have happened although one of the British/Israelis caught up in all of this has not been out of Israel for ten years. So I say it is Mossad.

When a Hamas fighter throws away his clothes and dresses up as a woman and fires his AK47 from behind a crowd, it seems to me that the distinction between combatants and civilians gets kinda fuzzy. The Gazans were warned. For 8 years prior, and even during the fighting. Leaflets, phone calls. I never heard of any army going so far out of its way to avoid casualties. Asymmetrical warfare will cause civilian casualties, in fact it is the objective. Talk to Hamas about your concerns.

"8 years of continual rocketry out of Gaza"... Does that include : 1- the 40 years of continual israeli occupation ? 2- cease fire respected by Palestinian factions during so many months ? You're not honnest.

For killing civilians no matter what the reasons are. Israel has been targeting and killing Palestinian youths before the 8 years, during the intifads, but that is not our subject here. Innocent people should not be targetted for whatever reason.

I guess you are referring to Cast Lead, which finally happened after absorbing 8 years of continual rocketry out of Gaza. How long would your respective countries accepted that?

Soldiers of fortune from countries sympathetic to whoever organized the hit would not be readily identified. Try getting info from the Russians or even Britain about black operations they may have unofficially sanctioned for whatever reason. The UK is particularly obliging to the Saudi Royals after all and Hamas is a Persian client. The only thing that's stable about the ME is the shifting sands of the alliances.Kiss to day kill tomorrow & vica versa. Good night sir duty calls in the am,

Come on Pete, a bit of friendly advice. I've alsways said that you're one of Israel's more sane, rational and credible defenders on here. My advice would be not to damage your credibility on this one. Either admit Mossad are the obvious suspects or just stop posting until when and if any evidence turns up that seriously suggests someone else did it. Oh and it's 'cogito ergo sum' not 'cogito ergot sum'. Means 'I think therefore I am' indicating that thought is central to the human experience. Go on, Pete, try it on this one.

Pete i agree that mercs could have been employed here BUT these passports were tailored for the people in the team. Having a passport tailored around an innocent civilian who looks like you would more than likely require full access to passport databases which isn't an easy thing to do and would require governmental approval (more than likely). The other alternative is that everyone of these innocent people stayed at a suspect hotel some time in the past where their passports were copied and that all the 'mercs' just happened to look like them. This may well have been a joint country venture BUT like i've said before I wouldn't rule out Mossad participation here.

Since you're so critical when it comes "rockets and mortars being fired into Sderot", perhaps you should be as critical when Israel kills palestinians civilians using hi-tech bombs and F16 ? how many killed in Gaza last year ? Should israeli leaders still be free ? Those who pressed the red button should be punished according to your moral ? But your moral is only one way. That's the occidental problem.

Any name on a forged passport will deny culpability,whether they were there or not,let alone if they were not there.There would be no information available from a British resident who had nothing to do with it.Why does it have to be an Israeli resident?Who benefits from drawing attention to Israel?You are making a whole lot of assumptions, proving nothing. Arabs kill each other,wheher it's tribal,family honor,religious or political.As it has always been, long before the catchall excuse of Israel was taken by them and their fellow travellers. Cogito ergot sum-try it before assuming your default position on everything to do with Israel.

You and I both know this doesn't have the smell of a commercial operation. It would cost somebody a fortune to hire this many mercs and, if they were mercs, the chances are some of them would already be known to Interpol. You don't just graduate straight from high school to doing this sort of thing. These would be faces known to the military they served in, or to Interpol because of previous track records and by now somebody would be talking to the press about them. Why not just admit that Mossad are the only obvious suspects? If you were investigating this, wouldn't they be the first people you'd want to talk to?

Who have eliminated targets outside Britain in the past. No great shortage of dollars or grudges in the Arab world. CIA,British intelligence,Russians for starters could do it with their eyes shut. Who is talking Israeli passports here?? Believing Israeli intelligence would deliberately point the finger at themselves,when they could have used other names on the forged passports,requires numerous intellectual convolutions that only some have the capacity for.

Although I honostly think that the Hamas way is far from being humane in their methods and are brutal, I do have to point out to you in the same line of reasoning that you did: Israel targets civilians and kills them, bombs schools(or maybe by error!), targets URWA buildings with civilians inside, so aren't they also pond scum?? They have killed more innocent civilians than Hamas did!

Pete, this is an Israeli website therefore i am discussing the Israeli element of which there are quite a few. Yes there are other nationalities however my personal view is that this could well be a double bluff by Mossad. I was originally trying to make the point that ISraeli passport details would be harder to gain than say a Palestinian passport therefore to 100% rule out Israeli participation is impossible. So now that i've answered your pointless question What's your reasoning behind it then? Do you honestly think that Hamas/other Arab state are good enough to pull this off?

Of course Mossad is a suspect. What factual material available does not rule out Mossad. There is nothing which proves Mossad did whack the guy. The most curious factor is the use of so many Israeli names on the fake passports. Why would Mossad do that?

they had a motive and a long memory... Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was responsible for the murder of Israelis... perhaps he was planning more. As to the Israelis who identities were stolen, they should feel proud... they are "paying their dues" by being drafted into the service of their beloved new homeland.

"I do not believe the israelis who`s identities were used are innocents, I also think that Britain and Ireland are covering something too, let us wait and see their official reaction." - meagain Ireland says the 3 passports were false. Britain also has two people who's name were used on to of 6 fake passports. Big 'CCTV' Brother, keeping his eye on the world has provided great pictures of the hit squad and show they were no amateurs. Fake Passports? Yes.

Palestinians. Now fit that in with your "and then have the chance to pick exclusively jewish innocent people to frame".? Whats this about exclusively jewish(sic)? Have you seen ALL the people whose names have been mentioned on the passports.? 5 out of 11 !! Well welshman?

imo. but lets be honest. they will find fingerprints and other dna evidence, but sureley nothing will ever be linked to any agents. everyone will know, it was the mossad. the brits/irish/french/germans and maybe some more will do their publically expected "outcries" over the faked passports, while themselves go on to steel identies of their own people for the same purposes. at the end of the day, still nobody will shed a tear about the lonely guy from room 230, let down by his own people and family. see, not even at 01:30 pm the next day anyone was missing the allegedly most wanted hamas guy. the al-bustan management had to break down its own door. at the end of the day, we will laugh with gael, when pulling faces into the hotel cctv, and about the stubby tennis player with the wilson racket, who within no time made the female employee curling hair strands at the lift. wtf did he say ?

may be an entrapment. It seems incredibly bizzare. Or were "inspector Clouseau" in charge.

Whoever did this, did the world a favor! Imagine the suffering that would have been avoided if only someone has assinated the Dictator of Iraq!

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It looks like. either fraud and theft at embassy level or if it was Israeli theft of said details it is strange and very sloppy- to choose five actual British Israeli national names?! Come on, it is very stupid and absurd. There are better ways and far more undetectable. One would choose identities very far removed from Israel. That two Palestinians are involved could suggest another angle- passport details stolen at embassy level and used by the PA??? to frame Israel? Or foreign bodies buying details (it is done) The question is who had access to the personal details of one's passport???? Anyway, something smells rotten here and not quite up to the standard of international espionage.

... involves a bit more than a name. But in any event, I agree with tommie in Portland, that the intrigue about the passports seems to be eclipsing the fact that the target was a piece of pond scum. He was in the supply line of the rockets and mortars being fired into Sderot. He made a moral decision that kindergarten kids were fair game. Someone with sense obviously decided that Earth was no place for him. Good.

As I stated in my previous post 42 according to The Times the British are now investigating whether immigration staff were involved in obtaining the details. "Authorities are considering the possibility that British passport details were copied from the originals by hotel or immigration staff while the holders were travelling."

... or forget an empty packet of Bamba?...

I do not believe the israelis who's identities were used are innocents, I also think that Britain and Ireland are covering something too, let us wait and see their official reaction.

The thing is you get all these people here shaking their heads and saying 'this can't be Mossad, it's too stupid and incompetent'. Er hello? Who does Israel have running its foreign policy but Captain Cock-up himself, Lieberman, with his super sidekick, Major Disaster, Ayalon. They've already shown that they're capable of pissing off half of Israel's friends in the name of looking tough, so this operation is right up their street.

Chris asks how Hamas/Syria/Iran obtained the passport details. Take a walk down to the nearest passport office to Beverley and see who works there. When the passports were renewed Mohamed who works at the passport office saw that the request came from Israel and passed the information on to their handlers.

Leah. This is a common practice by Mossad. To have a passport of a real person diminishes suspisions. The passports may be either forged but even sometimes real obtained with/or without the permission of the passport holder. They should stop this practice immidiatly- this compromises the concept of aliah to israel. Imagine a brit now would think twice before moving to Israel.

Wasn't aware that Name addresses and telephone numbers in a telephone directory also includes dates of birth and passport numbers. Want to try again? These unfortunate individuals passports were photocopied at Ben Gurion Airport on entry for later use.

Post 9/11 passports have changed immensley, as has the way they are issued. If you can photocopy the passport at say Ben Gurion Airport and use these details at say the British consulate in Bali to say your passport has been lost/stolen, washed away by a Tsunami, and there you go one brand new British passport. You got the number, dob all the other details required. It's checked and there you go. If it is HAMAS who are attempting to set Mossad up how did they get access to the passports? Without the owners knowing about it?

This has the allmarks of mossad simply because it doesn't make sense. I mean, who would have such access to various nationality passport databases with the religious detail attached and then have the chance to pick exclusively jewish innocent people to frame - which unsurprisingly also live in ISrael so that the agency can turn around and say 'why would we use Israeli assassins and why would we make such a stupid mistake?' Even if it is not Mossad then i would be very very surprised if this wasn't a superpower because this is way more advanced than the kinda 'day of the jackal' scenario that most ME countries simply couldn't pull off.

I'm happy to hear conspiracy theories if you like, but so often the simplest explanation in life is the true one. The simplest explanation is that Mossad, maybe in a hurry, stole the first convenient real UK identities that came to hand. Using identities of British Israelis would be good because if one of the agents was arrested but not without strong evidence against him, Mossad would have been able to keep the real British Israeli quiet somewhere, while the agent tried to talk his way out.

have these pictures. Someone is bound to recognize one of them. If they ever travel again they will likely get caught.

One thing is for sure,Israel had nothing to do with this job. They would not be so stupid as to steal the identity of Israeli citizens. Who ever did this is a very smart organization,the finger points to Israel,but the real culprits?We probably will never know who did this.

All those Israeli their names are mentioned in the 'Dubai assassinations' needs to prove that none of them was in Dubai at the time & day of the assassination. "Daubai authorities said 11 European passport holders were behind the assassination" Ed. What about "Arab passport holders" ?! Typical arab police investigation !

These so called "israelis" were actually MI6 spies living in Israel that israel knew about for years. A little payback to the British.

If it was Mossad and they used faked passports to cover their tracks, why would Mossad put the documents in the names of people who are now living in Israel and can therefore easily be traced back to Israel? And what about the news stories earlier on that the assassins "photographed all the documents in Mabhouh's briefcase. What forensic evidence could ther be for that? And what about "the two men holding Palestinian nationality" who were extradited to the UAE by Jordan? They wouldn't happen to be Fatah by any chance? Would they? And if they were, they weren't receiving any assistance from the Egyptian government (among others) were they? No doubt they will say they were working for Mossad in order to try to save their own skins (fat chance). And why did Hamas let Mabhouh travel to Dubai to buy arms alone and unguarded? This circus is only just started. By the time it is finished, we will be just as much in the dark as we are now?

In 1945, with the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10 Jews were killed, 350 injured, and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an old-age home were burned down. On 1-2 June 1941 the Farhud pogrom in Iraq killed between 200 and 400 Jews. In 1945, anti-Jewish rioters in Tripoli, Libya killed 140 Jews. ETC!ETC! Living in denial are you?

any competent intelligence service would be able to get a person's information. indeed, even high level hackers of any kind could easily do so.

Identity theft is rife globally whether you know about it or not.The question is how the identities were stolen.Hardly a sign of perpetrators trying to cover their tracks. Although your attempt at distraction has nothing to do with the issue at hand.Hebrew is the official language of Israel. English is the Australian official language that's what the signs use here in Australia. Are you campaigning for street signs to be changed in Lakemba.? How many signs are there in Hebrew in all the Arab countries combined?Millions of Jews lived there for millenia before they were murdered and ethnically cleansed.I haven't heard you complain about any of the above. Now why is that?

there seems to be a concerted effort by forces yet unknown to entrap israel in this assassination. the totally fake irish and german passports would point in the direction of others than mossad. mossad would know how to make good fake passports. nor would mossad leave so many "clues" in an operation as is being claimed by dubai. nor would mossad use seventeen people to kill one person.

.. this exactly the issue, Arab stupidity was in count when planning .. accusing Palestinians will be easy, and using israeli names will help .. but in the same time look in the eyes of the published photos .. all of them have Pal. look, just like myself .. mossad failed .. and you are the contingency plan ..

I made Aliyah to Israel four months ago and am a British passport holder. Believe me, this business is causing a lot of fury amongst friends of mine who are olim and UK passport holders. Israel refuses to comment - but I do believe that some sort of public disavowal of these sors of tactics is needed. Israel tried this with New Zealand passports a few years ago,and used a Canadian identity for a hit in Jordan (both of these were well-covered in the world press at the time). In the NZ case, two agents went to jail for six months; the Canadians demanded that Israel never do this again with their passports. This is not some anti-Israel smear campaign. The only people who would have access to the UK citizens details - outside of the UK government - would be Israel. It's all on the Aliyah forms. Their "stories" would be good as they would have a genuine history behind them. It's pure and simple identity theft - and state sponsored too. Compensation is in order I think.

is this really how we want the world to work? with gangs of shady killers settling scores? Like the UK and IRA in Gibraltar. And mossad ****ed up again using the names of Brits living in Israel, must have been too tempting to use their details, not the first time an ' intelligence agency ' lacked intelligence...

Why are there no photos in the media comparing the innocents with the suspects?

Please, don't give the Palestinians credit for such a brilliant, well planned and executed plan.

I would think that immigraiton services everywhere have records of every single passport that passes through. If you believe that the israeli mossad would randomly use the names of Israel's citizens for such an operation you're a fool.

This has the Mosad all over it....using names and passports of Israeli's....

are obviously a Palestinian hit team from the rival Fatah. The Mossad is too smart to get caught out like this. The Fatah and Hamas hate eachother more than they hate Israelis, otherwise they would have come together and produced the structural makings of a country by now instead of caos. Mossadniks would have looked like Arabs and have Arab names and not been caught out. Using British, Irish and German names was a good try to divert attention from themselves. While everyone is blaming Mossad and Israel, they have gotten away with one of their enemies.

But it's not. Immigration services in Israel have in their database a record of every passport that went through, and they will use it no matter what. And these British Jews thought they immigrated to their national home.Britain would never do this to its citizens but the home of the jews???What a shame

"It is most likely, almost certainly, that someone targeted five Israelis as targets for revenge." It seems to me that it's much more likely that someone picked names at random out of a phone book. One would think, however, that any halfway intelligent planner would have chosen names at random. Unless, of course, the operation was planned by someone who wanted to look stupid. Since the operation was clearly well-planned, it's unlikely that it was done on the spur of the moment. Which means that whoever did it knew where to find their victim -- and that he would be travelling alone. Who would have that kind of information, and how would they get it?

This was an evil man, with the blood of at least two Israeli's on his hands. The Israeli's have a brillant secret police, and this was a very elaborate masterminded plan. I think the protection of the assassins will be protected as will the citizens of Israel to whom had their passports stolen. The names, pictures, and identity are surely bogus. Why isnt the discussion of the evil man that killed so many so very brutally?

You forgot to mention, so far all the Israelis who have had their ID/passport details stolen do not have Hebrew sounding names. Why do you suppose that is? Mr Netanyahu's government is wiping Arabic names off road signs etc... are people in Israel with Hebrew sounding names, more valued than those with Anglo/European sounding names?

...the assassination occurred two weeks ago and already the UAE has all the "evidence" they need to make a "case." Come on, even the Arabs aren't stupid enough to leave behind passports. Such items would've been destroyed immediately when it is determined that they are no longer needed.

... a competitor in the Dubai hotel trade, wanting to show up the defunct security arrangements in this rival hotel...!!

It's completely inconceivable that the Mossad would use the names of Israelis. Agree with Peter SM -- this looks increasingly like Israel was set up. Nevertheless, the world is jumping on the "Mossad did it" bandwagon.

Carelessness and arrogance lead to errors. Recall that members of the CIA rendition team in Italy were identified because they used their own personal credit card information at hotels; they wanted the travel points. Typical corporate entitlement mindset. I can speculate that if Dubai uses some out of the box thinking - like offering a million dollars per head for each assassin - it sure is going to cost a lot of time, money and effort to keep them hidden for the rest of their lives. Unless they are expendable of course. The individuals who played no part in this, but have had their identities stolen, are at serious risk now. That is a crime too.

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Is this a lethal charade, with 17 assasins at least working on one victim, so insignificant that he had no guard or attendant, and nobody seriously missed him until hours after his demise?!... As for the Israelis "involved", it looks way beyond the intricate capabilities of some potential Fatah spy getting-his-own-back...

All Israelis were involved.

with the crazy unknown cast

the ID information to the assasins controllers?A "friendly" power with spies in Israel? Israels "peace partner" with one of theirs in Israeli bureaucracy? Somebody in Israel in the business of dirtying Israels name wherever and whenever.

There are almost 7 billion people in the world. There are 7.5 million Israelis. The chances of five out of 11 fictional names matching the names of Israelis is almost impossible. This statistical reality is quite interesting given the current murder investigation in Dubai. Why did none of the putative 'Israelis' use Arab surnames? Why did none of the visages of the Israelis named an those suspects photographed matched? It is most likely, almost certainly, that someone targeted five Israelis as targets for revenge. But whom, and why? "I'm in shock - I just don't understand how something like this could happen," - Paul John Keeley I can only say Paul that SOMEONE wanted this to happen. It cannot be mere chance that you, Paul John Keeley and four other Israelis were used as cover for someone's all too public murder.

It looks like somebody framed Israelis,picking their names at random from phone books...The big "M" would know better.They would at least pick names from Irish graveyrds.This is a "pal" conspiracy to settle some internal conflict and blame Israel for it...

You know I have been reading all of this and it seems to me that it would be REALLY STUPID TO USE PHOTOS AND NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW LIVING IN ISRAEL? I mean come on! Just think why would mossad do this? it makes no sense. It would be much safer to use fake passport photos of people that have nothing to do with Israel. If Mossad did something this stupid they desreve to be laughed at. and trust me I have no sympathy for the terrorist in question. Things just don't add up. Could this be done directly to blame Israel as in find a reason to start another intafada and get rid of a person that was no longer needed??? 2 birds with one stone type of thing? Why all from Great Britian and Ireland-we all know how much connections Palestinians and other supporters have in England -Just a thought. Anyone?

You know I have been reading all of this and it seems to me that it would be REALLY STUPID TO USE PHOTOS AND NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW LIVING IN ISRAEL? I mean just think why would mossad do this? it makes no sense. It would be much safer to use fake passport photos of people that have nothing to do with Israel. Could this be done directly to blame Israel as in find a reason to start another intafada and get rid of a person that was no longer needed??? 2 birds with one stone type of thing? Why all from Great Britianand Ireland-we all know how much connections Palestinians and others of their ilk have there-Just a thought.

probably was before but now.....