Mote, meet beam

Truthtriumphs

True to form, and just as one would expect!

Tilly

Though it is a tad unlikely that an Israeli passport was used to infiltrate an Arab state, you're quite right about the principle involved. Cloning passports is a serious crime and the perps should be prosecuted.

Zeilig

I'm delighted that MP picked up on this. The silence from those who clamoured for investigations into Israel's alleged use of foreign passports is deafening as is always the case when antisemites (for that is what they are) are hung by their own petard.

Herbert Thornton

If the report is true, we should indeed hope that none of them was carrying an Israeli passport. Incompetence is not unknown in the British army.

On the other hand I see that the report is a BBC report. That alone makes me suspect that it may be somewhat less than truthful.

And when it says that the information came from "witnesses" (whoever they were) I suspect that the BBC and their witnesses may have concocted the whole thing.

Edward McLaughlin

I think the 'now released' bit tells us that your trust is well founded.

Veracity

Let's sit back and watch the world be outraged . Let's sit back and see Milliband outraged. Let's sit back and hear what Clegg and Cameron have to say!Let's sit back and see what the Camel Corps at the FO have to say.

Sandra

Thank you for making my day. I too hope that none was an Israeli passport! I mean..... the SAS are not even secret agents - they are serving soldiers and were only probably trying to undermine poor Gaddafy who was helping to fund our Universities and a FRIEND...I mean it's not cricket is it?

Jez

I think it'll be safe bet that they won't of used false Israeli passports in this instance, Melanie......

- mind you if our almost sage type FOC Secretary, William Hague had anything to do with it, who knows?

EDDIE

Goodness gracious me, your comments are disproportionate

Adam B.

It is also worth noting that the faux "outrage" of the British government towards Israel was markedly absent when it was discovered that Russian agents had used UK passparts. No expulsion of Russian diplomats. Now we learn that the UK itself does the same as well.

What hypocrisy.

Penny

This issue amused me at the time.

The outrage...the 'profound disregard' etc. etc., the 'get thee from our shores'-type noises made by Milli et al.

I know zilch about intelligence, secret services and the like, but what seems obvious to me is that every country has them and the chances of such operatives travelling and using their own passports whilst engaged in whatever it is intelligence services get up to, has to be negligible.

I suspect we do it all the time and Milli's outrage was all bells and whistles, put on for public consumption.

cityca

Ah yes but it's different when we do it, isn't it?

Makes Hague look particularly foolish, which of course, he is.

hippiepooter

Judging from what is currently known, the differences appear to be:

a) The passports were not of existing people

b) The SAS were not on an operation to assasinate anyone.

If this is the case, I think these are crucial differnces, although I'm not neccesarily saying Israel did not have a security justification for what they did.

Wilbur Post

You miss the point Melanie. It is permissible for British agencies to use false passports of different nationalities because the objective was to save innocent Libyans from crazy would be mass murderers. It's a different matter altogether when one is dealing with those snuffing out the life of an innocent Hamas official going about routine everyday activities of purchasing weapons and drugs, the former with the objective of killing Jews and the latter to addle the brains of Palestinian kids. The British intelligentsia understand the distinction. Why don't you Melanie? (sarcasm meter on high).

Uri

What do you expect from duplicitous England?

TomTom

Miliband is son of a Belgian but has acquired that English hypocrisy from assimilation and duplicity from birth

T French

Nice one Melanie.

Charlene

Egg on thier faces, the hypocrites. Just love the way they prostrated themselves before Gadaffi, now he is public enemy number one. The hypocrisy againist Israel is of such virulence it is shamfeful. Of course they prostitute themselves for oil our benighted leaders in the UK.

Mr Sponge

Assuming the veracity of the original story I would insist that one would be Israeli.

That would only be fair.

Andy Gill

I'd love to know which nationalities those passports were.

I think we should call on the British government to apologize, and for the countries involved to expel British diplomats.

salieri

The comparison is unfair. A fictitious identity is not the same as a stolen identity.

Tim

A senior member of Benghazi's revolutionary council said: "They were carrying espionage equipment, reconnaissance equipment, multiple passports and weapons. This is no way to conduct yourself during an uprising.

"Gaddafi is bringing in thousands of mercenaries to kill us, most are using foreign passports and how do we know who these people are?

"They say they're British nationals and some of the passports they have are British. But the Israelis used British passports to kill that man in Dubai last year."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/06/liam-fox-sas-unit-libya

JOHN ROOSEVELT

Israel she make a real song and dance about this and protest in the strongest possible terms.

Perhaps The Guardian could be it's mouthpiece in this great cause.

Carl

One major difference: Even if the claim about passports is true, the British team, unlike the Israeli team in the UAE, was not a Death Squad.

Jez

Hippiepooter;

No mate, they were just there trying to find a Premier Inn, accord to that wet lettuice Diplomat!!

It could have been a stag do organised by Hague maybe or delivering some Milk Tray to the heavily armed to the teeth democracy protesters?

Those SAS lads; Lions led by whimpering, sub standard donkeys.

john

Et encore, Perfide Albion. Plus ca change.....

Neil Craig

A palpable hit Melanie.

Not a comparison the BBC will draw.

Grumpy true Zionist

friend just told me there used to be an ad which went;

'dont be vague
ask for haig' (hague)

hahahahaheeheehee....now you got one

AF

One things for sure it ain't Kosher.

AF

Carl,
how do you or any of us know what their intentions were.They may have done the deed or was it killus interruptus.

Tonyq

Uri: Come, now “…duplicitous England.”?

Perfidious Albion’ is the traditional usage.

Well, maybe. Then again could it be ‘Duplicitous Albion? or, indeed, ‘Perfidious England’?

I think you will have to figure it out for yourself. Or not. Whatever.

Shalom.

Waverider

Tilly

Cloning passports is a serious crime and the perps should . . .

In who's eyes?

Getting caught with duplicate p/ps on one's person is a bit silly (if it is true) but they appear to me to be a standard modus operandi for certain undercover ops.

Grumpy true Zionist

want it to work;

its called 'Sayeret Maktal' and not sadly 'speshul air servus'

JOHN ROOSEVELT

Salieri: "The comparison is unfair. A fictitious identity is not the same as a stolen identity."

Now, who would have made such a fine distinction but a man called Salieri?

Tilly

waverider

Standard practice indeed! No doubt they learned how to do their cloning from undercover immigrants. Or maybe it was the other way round ... oh, dear, never mind...

Stephen Rothbart

Carl, that is why you have false passports! If you had nothing to hide and were in Libya just to escort someone home, you could use your real identity.

The point is not why they were there, the point is that the British government tried to humiliate the Israeli UK Ambassador for an "alleged" Israeli Mossad operation (nothing has been proven yet) while their own troops were equipped also with false passports.

Israel was not criticized just for the deed, but for using false passports from the UK.

Of course all clandestine operatives do this. They would be crazy not to.

But why the fuss by HMG against Israel?

Duh? That's a hard one.

Mr Fraud

And you know this for a fact, also you do realise that its not only Brits in the SAS, Fijians, South Africans and Irish spring to mind.

Ian

Yet another blog that would be better suited to the Jerusalem Post website

Louis Berk

Interesting to read the report at the BBC website that Willaim Hague personally authorised the scheme. I have four words for Bill: foxtrot oscar whiskey hotel.

Joshua

"Yet another blog that would be better suited to the Jerusalem Post website"

Yet another poster who would be better suited to the Electronic Intifada website.

Jez

Louise Berk,

I've four words for Hague; Delta India Charlie Kilo with a '!'

Over?

Ya'akov Perez Golbert

They did not carry on at the time over the Russians' use of forged British passports. What made the British government people so furious was Israel actually defending itself. Jews aren't supposed to behave that way. Jews are supposed to wring their hands and cry "Oy vey!" (And die, of course.)

Joshua

Touché!

Bardirect

Why not start a campaign to get Miliband to make Aliyah, Israel needs politicians with a vestige of integrity. They haven't got any.

Adam B.

Carl thinks the British secret service never killed anyone.

No doubt he thinks the earth is flat as well.

Matt

"One major difference: Even if the claim about passports is true, the British team, unlike the Israeli team in the UAE, was not a Death Squad."

No, Carl. Nothing dangerous like a death squad. For that and other operations that require secrecy and the likelihood of success, the Royal Marine SBS is sent for, rather than the SAS. The Senior Service and all that...

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

Bardirect, re your suggestion that Milliband make aliyah, the last thing that Israel needs is an accretion of left-wingers.

Like some of the demonstrators occupying the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin and blocking the passage of legislation, too many on the left are subversives.

davod

"b) The SAS were not on an operation to assasinate anyone."

Your faith in the honesty of the government is toucing.

What would be your position if they were sent to assassinare Gaddafi?

Kieran E

I think we all expect our agents to have false passports; I think we also all expect that we and every other nation will get very annoyed if they are caught using them, but behind closed doors they (and we) will understand.

Bob

There's more than a slight difference between using false passports for a diplomatic mission and using false passports for the purposes of state assassination.

Tiberius

I'm afraid Salieri is right - facts of each case and all kinds of inconvenient things like that.

david elder

Seagoon, Sellers, Spike, thou should'st be living at this hour!

Remittance Man

We trust most earnestly that none of those was an Israeli one.

Well, one would hope so, given that even the Libyan rebels are unlikely to be Chums of Israel. That being said, with the quality of leadership being exhibited at the FCO, one does have doubts.

Bill bogg

Actually I think the problem was that the British passport lifted by MOSSAD belonged to a real person and so could endanger their life if it fell into the wrong hands.

Edwrad in the USA

To Carl, The Death Squad behind the 7/7/05 bus and underground bombings didn't need fake passports.

Edward in the USA

I too wonder which four countries were the false passports of.

Here are my guesses:
- North Korea
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Russia
- Atlantis, sorry, Palestine

Stan Wright

Do you know for a fact that said passports are illegitimate, or is this merely a conclusion you've leapt to? Many soldiers hold dual citizenship and are perfectly entitled to travel on their non-british passports.