Data Mining is interesting but confusing ;(, cant seem to find any good tools for that
Author: rubeel (Page 8 of 18)
محققِ قرآن اور احیائے خلافت کے حامی: محققِ قرآن اور احیائے خلافت کے حامی
علی سلمان
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، لاہور
پا… http://bit.ly/9nCCF0
محققِ قرآن اور احیائے خلافت کے حامی
علی سلمان
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، لاہور
پاکستان میں تنظیمِ اسلامی کے بانی اور مذہبی سکالر ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد کی زندگی میں ایسے کئی موڑ آئے جب انہیں اپنے قول وفعل، بیان و عمل کی وجہ سے اختلاف اور تنقید کا سامنا کرنا پڑا البتہ گذشتہ دو دہائیوں سے انہوں نے کوئی ایسا بیان نہیں دیا تھا جسے عوامی سطح پر متنازعہ قرار دیا جاسکے۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد قرآن مجید کے محقق تھے اور انہوں نے ڈاکٹری کا پیشہ چھوڑ کر قرآن پاک کی تشریح و توضیح اور اس کا پیغام پھیلانے کا کام فریضہ اپنایا اور آخری دم تک وہ اس میں مشغول رہے۔
سنہ اسی کی دہائی میں جب فوجی حکمران ضیاءالحق کی مجلس شوری میں شمولیت کے ساتھ ساتھ انہوں نے سرکاری ٹیلی ویژن یعنی پی ٹی وی پر ان کا درس قرآن کا پروگرام الہدی شروع کیا تو پاکستان میں ان کی شہرت عروج پر پہنچ گئی۔
صدر ضیاءالحق ماڈل ٹاؤن میں یا باغ جناح کی مسجد دارالسلام میں ان کی امامت میں نماز ادا کرتے اور خطبہ سنا کرتے تھے۔
انہی دنوں ڈاکٹر اسرار نے چند ایسے بیانات دیے جن پر انہیں عوامی حلقوں کے ردعمل کا سامنا کرنا پڑا۔ انہوں نے پاکستان کے مقبول ترین کھیل کرکٹ کے بارے میں جرمنی کے سابقہ نازی حکمران ہٹلر کے اس قول کی حمایت کی کہ ’یہ ایسا کھیل ہے جسے بے وقوف کھیلتے اور گدھے دیکھتے ہیں‘۔
جنرل ضیاء الحق نے باغ جناح میں ان کی امامت میں نماز ادا کرنے کے بعد ان سے مجلس شوری چھوڑنے کی وجہ پوچھی تو انہوں نے کہا تھا کہ آپ نے اسلام نافذ کرنے کا جھوٹا وعدہ کیا تھا اور لوگوں کو اسلام کے نام پر دھوکا دیا۔
اگرچہ ڈاکٹر اسرار کی تقاریر کا مرکز کبھی فرقہ واریت نہیں رہا لیکن وہ خود مسلمانوں کے اہلحدیث مسلک سے تعلق رکھتے تھے اور بقول مولانا حیدر موددی ’دیگر مسالک کے علماء کی طرح بعض اہلحدیث علماء بھی تقوی کے معاملے میں اعتدال سے تجاوز کرجاتے ہیں‘۔ انہوں نے پردے کے بارے میں مولانا کے خیالات کو متشددانہ قرار دیا اور کہا کہ ’وہ سمجھتے تھے کہ عورت کے ہاتھ پاؤں منہ سب پردے میں ڈھکے رہنے چاہیئیں‘۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد نے چند برس کے بعد ضیاءالحق کی مجلس شوری سے استعفی دے دیا تھا اور جنرل ضیاء الحق نے باغ جناح میں ان کی امامت میں نماز ادا کرنے کے بعد ان سے مجلس شوری چھوڑنے کی وجہ پوچھی تو انہوں نے کہا تھا کہ آپ نے اسلام نافذ کرنے کا جھوٹا وعدہ کیا تھا اور لوگوں کو اسلام کے نام پر دھوکا دیا۔
لاہور کے سینئر صحافی پرویز حمید نے کہا کہ فوجی آمر سے ہونے والی یہ گفتگو ان دنوں اخبارات میں شائع ہوگئی تھی جس کا اختتام ڈاکٹر اسرار کے اس جملے سے پر ہوا تھا کہ ’میں یہاں بیٹھا ہوں آپ جب اسلامی نظام نافذ کرلیں گے تو میں آپ کے ساتھ شامل ہوجاؤں گا‘۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد اس سے پہلے جماعت اسلامی کو بھی نقطۂ نظر کے اختلاف کی بنیاد پر خیر باد کہہ چکے تھے۔وہ جماعت اسلامی کے پارلیمانی طرز سیاست میں حصہ لینے اور اس کے بانی مولانا موددی کے یک شخصی فیصلوں کے خلاف تھے۔ ڈاکٹر اسرار کا خیال تھا کہ پارلیمانی طرز سیاست کچھ لو اور کچھ دو کی بنیاد پر فیصلے کرتی ہے جبکہ ان کے خیال میں خلافت کا احیاء ہی حقیقی مسلم طرز حکمرانی ہوسکتاہے۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد ایک عرصے تک اپنے خطابات میں یہ کہتے رہے کہ پاکستان کا دشمن بھارت نہیں ہے بلکہ امریکہ یورپ اور اسرائیل اصل مخالف ہیں جو تیسری دنیا کو پسماندہ رکھنے اور ان پر مظالم کے ذمہ دار ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد نے بھارت کے کئی دورے بھی کیے اور وہاں مسلمانوں کے بڑے اجتماعات سے خطاب کیا۔ اپنی وفات سے صرف تین مہینے پہلے بی بی سی لاہور آفس کے دفتر تشریف لائے تو غیر رسمی گفتگو کےدوران میں انہوں نے کہا کہ بھارت میں ایک ایسی مضبوط لابی موجود ہے جو پاکستان سے تعلقات ٹھیک نہیں ہونے دے گی۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد ایک عرصے تک اپنے خطابات میں یہ کہتے رہے کہ پاکستان کا دشمن بھارت نہیں ہے بلکہ امریکہ یورپ اور اسرائیل اصل مخالف ہیں جو تیسری دنیا کو پسماندہ رکھنے اور ان پر مظالم کے ذمہ دار ہیں۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار نے اس موقع پر بھارتی اسلامی مبلغ ڈاکٹر ذاکر نائیک کی تعریف کی اور کہا کہ وہ اسلام کے لیے بہت کام کررہے ہیں۔ان کا یہ بھی تجزیہ تھا کہ پاکستانیوں کی نسبت بھارتی مسلمان اسلام کے زیادہ قریب ہیں۔ ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد نے بتایا کہ ڈاکٹر ذاکر نائیک کے پیس ٹی وی کی طرح وہ بھی پاکستان میں ٹی وی چینل کھولنا چاہتے ہیں لیکن حکام طرح طرح کی شرائط عائد کررہے ہیں۔
اس ملاقات کے غیر رسمی ہونے کا فائدہ اٹھاتے ہوئے میں نے ان سے کہا کہ وہ کچھ کمپرومائز کرکے ایک دفعہ چینل کا لائسنس حاصل کیوں نہیں کرلیتے؟ اس بات پر وہ خاموش ہوگئے لیکن ان کا انداز بتا رہا تھا کہ زندگی میں کبھی کمپرومائز نہ کرنے والے ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد کو یہ بات پسند نہیں آئی تھی۔
ڈاکٹر اسرار احمد کی جگہ اب ان کے صاحبزادے حافظ عاکف سعید تنظیم اسلامی کے امیر ہیں اور بظاہر اب وہ اصلاح معاشرہ کی اس تحریک کو آگے بڑھائیں گے جو ان کے والد نے شروع کی تھی۔ یہ وہی عاکف سعید ہیں جن کی شادی اسلامی مہینے محرم کی نویں اور دسویں کوہوئی تھی۔
جماعت اسلامی کے بانی مولانا موددی کے صاحبزادے مولانا فاروق حیدر موددی نے ایک سوال کے جواب میں کہا کہ وہ اس شادی میں شریک نہیں ہوئے تھے کیونکہ دس محرم جیسے یوم سوگ پر شادی میں شرکت کا وہ سوچ بھی نہیں سکتے ۔انہوں نے کہا کہ جان بوجھ کر کسی کی دل آزاری کرنا کوئی مستحسن اقدام نہیں ہے۔
The 10 weirdest questions asked during job interviews
http://shar.es/m2T1v
The 2010 Census: Will your answers stay private? / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com: http://bit.ly/dhJp8M via @addthis
Why have the British media killed the ‘Kill Khalid’ reviews?: Despite rave reviews in the US, Paul McGeough’s book… http://bit.ly/9JTuVi
Despite rave reviews in the US, Paul McGeough’s book about a failed Mossad assassination attempt has been ignored by British media
By Phillip Knightley
LAST UPDATED 3:10 PM, JULY 21, 2009
In April this year Quartet Books published Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas. It was written by an Australian war correspondent, Paul McGeough, an expert on the Middle East.
The book had come out in the United States to ecstatic reviews. I had heard of McGeough and although I did not know him, when asked to provide a quote for the book’s dust-jacket, I read the manuscript and was happy to do so.
I found it a rare and most exciting book – a serious political history that the author had made into a fast-paced thriller. At its core is the story of how, in 1997, the Israeli intelligence service Mossad tried to assassinate the Hamas leader, Khalid Mishal, in broad daylight on the streets of Amman, Jordan. Under the cover of opening a can of Coca Cola, the assassins sprayed a deadly poison into his ear.
Israel handed over the antidote when Jordan threatened to hang their agentsBut the Mossad agents bungled their escape, Khalid’s bodyguards managed to capture two of them and the others had to hide in the Israeli embassy. As Khalid slipped into a coma, Jordanian troops surrounded the Israeli embassy and after a complaint from a furious King Hussein of Jordan, Bill Clinton pressured the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to right matters.
At first Netanyahu pleaded that it was too late to reverse the effects of the poison. But when Hussein added the threat that if Khalid died, the Mossad agents who were being held by Jordan would all be hanged, the antidote was quickly produced. Khalid survived, just, and the stage was set for his phenomenal political ascendancy.
Containing interviews with all the leading players, including unprecedented access to Khalid himself, McGeough’s book recounts the history of Hamas through a decade of suicide bombing attacks, political infighting and increasing public support, culminating in the battle for Gaza in 2007 and the present day political stalemate.
This is a serious book with an important message about one of the world’s most
turbulent trouble spots. But it received a strange reception in Britain. After two excellent reviews – in the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement – it has been virtually ignored.
The chairman of Quartet Books, Naim Attallah, was so concerned about this that he contacted the literary editors of all the major publications. Most told him that they did not plan to review the book. Further, his sales force informed him that some bookshops were reluctant even to stock it.
Attallah then issued a press release accusing the literary establishment of “an unspoken tactic to limit the book’s public circulation” because of a decision to “dismiss Hamas within the box of ‘terrorist organisation’ without granting a serious consideration to its valid aspects as a voice in the debate”.
He added: “Anyone who hopes for peace in the Middle East must surely recognise that Hamas is an integral part of any move towards a peace settlement. No progress can be achieved without their involvement.”
Khalid Mishal, ill after being poisoned by Mossad agents, is transferred to hospital
It is difficult to attribute motives to organisations for their non-action in any controversy. But it does seem to me that in this case the British literary establishment has a case to answer. I believe it has developed a mind-set that is adverse to controversy. Hamas has been designated a ‘terrorist organisation’. Therefore to review a book about a ‘terrorist organisation’ would leave a book editor open to criticism.
Further, it might provoke a complaint from one of the many organisations that supports Israel. This would require a response.
Memos would have to be exchanged and letters written.
At a time of reduced budgets and staff cuts, many a literary editor would be tempted to decide that to review a controversial book like Kill Khalid is simply not worth the trouble.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/50995,news-comment,news-politics,british-media-kill-khalid-mishal-reviews-paul-mcgeough-mossad-israel-hamas-middle-east
I have nearly read this book and this book is a very interesting account on Hamas and its history. A must read for anyone who wants to know about Hamas.
The Martyr Who Did Not Die
By REVIEW BY GREG MYRE
Sunday, March 8, 2009
KILL KHALID
The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise
of Hamas
By Paul McGeough
New Press. 477 pp. $26.95
Actuarial tables are not kind to the leaders of Hamas. The Israeli security forces reserve a special fury for the radical Islamic group, and it’s tough to be taken seriously as a Hamas leader unless you can prove that the Israelis tried to kill you at least once.
The group’s most notorious bomb maker was killed by an exploding cellphone in 1996. Its quadriplegic founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was in his wheelchair on his way home from a mosque when an Israeli missile struck him down in 2004. This past New Year’s Day, a one-ton Israeli bomb flattened the apartment building that housed Hamas firebrand Nizar Rayyan, killing him, all four of his wives and 11 of their children.
Given this history, Khalid Mishal, a key figure in Hamas since the group was founded two decades ago, can consider himself very lucky indeed. His brush with death came on the streets of Amman, Jordan, in 1997, when an Israeli Mossad agent squirted an exotic poison in his ear. But the would-be assassin and an accomplice were quickly chased down by Mishal’s driver, his bodyguard and some passersby. Outraged that the attack took place on Jordanian soil, King Hussein demanded the antidote from Israel as part of the price for releasing the Mossad agents. Under U.S. pressure, the Israelis reluctantly complied.
This episode made Mishal an instant legend within Hamas. He became a martyr in a group that reveres them and did so without the inconvenience of dying. In “Kill Khalid,” Australian journalist Paul McGeough uses the botched assassination as the jumping-off point for a timely and thorough examination of Hamas, highlighting the ways in which Israel has intentionally and unintentionally aided its rise.
Mishal’s near-death experience has been well reported in previous books and articles, and this book runs the risk of being as stale as month-old hummus. But in the circular nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the same characters keep coming back around, and this 12-year-old drama couldn’t be more relevant today.
Binyamin Netanyahu was the Israeli prime minister who authorized the attempt on Mishal’s life. It proved to be a huge embarrassment, and though Hamas wasn’t part of the negotiations, the reckless Israeli action was one of a thousand cuts that drained the blood out of the peace process that had begun so hopefully with the 1993 Oslo accords.
So what’s new? Well, Netanyahu’s Likud party finished a close second in Israel’s February elections, and he has been trying to form a coalition government with himself as prime minister. If he succeeds, his most immediate security concern will be Hamas . . . led by Khalid Mishal.
Back in 1997, President Bill Clinton intervened to calm the Jordanians and contain the political damage from the attempted assassination. This past week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the region and met with Netanyahu in hopes of restarting negotiations. The cast may be familiar, but one huge difference between then and now is that Hamas is much more powerful, which will greatly complicate any peace effort.
McGeough documents how, two decades ago, Israel encouraged the development of Hamas by allowing it to establish schools, health clinics and other social services. Israel’s thinking at the time was that Hamas could serve as a religious counterweight to Yasser Arafat’s secular Fatah movement and splinter Palestinian loyalties. But once it put down roots, Hamas quickly expanded its role, moving from peace-process spoiler in the 1990s, to suicide-bombing assembly line at the beginning of this decade, to rulers of the ravaged Gaza Strip for the past three years.
For such a key figure, Mishal is not well known, even to Palestinians. He was just 11 when his family fled the West Bank in the wake of the 1967 war, and he last set foot there in 1975. After bouncing around the Middle East, he now maintains a relatively low profile in Damascus, where he lives in a guarded compound reserved mostly for Syrian VIPs and foreign diplomats. Yet as much as anyone else in the region today, Mishal is linked to all the key players. He tends to surface at vital moments — such as Israel’s assault on Gaza in December and January — and McGeough makes excellent use of him to explain the cross-currents that make the Middle East so messy.
To begin with, Mishal must negotiate the friction between Hamas “insiders,” the leaders based in Gaza, and the group’s “outsiders,” exiles such as himself. He also figures prominently in the tensions that pit Hamas against Fatah. He is a full-throated advocate of suicide bombings who issued predictably hard-line statements during the recent fighting in Gaza. Yet on those occasions when Hamas turns to diplomacy, Mishal pops up in Egypt or Saudi Arabia to guide the Hamas delegation.
He depends on Syria for his security and has links in Lebanon to Hezbollah, a group Hamas has long studied and emulated. Mishal is also on good terms with Hamas’s most important patron, Iran, which supplies cash and trains Hamas militants. In short, it’s hard to figure out the Mideast jigsaw puzzle without understanding where he fits in.
As a reporter, I covered Hamas for years, and it was always tricky gauging Mishal’s influence. His exhortations to strike at Israel certainly resonated with the radical youths in Gaza, yet at times it seemed that his perch in exile left him out of day-to-day decision-making by Hamas leaders on the ground.
But Israel has systematically killed many of those leaders, and Mishal’s prominence has grown by process of elimination. McGeough makes a strong case that, even from afar, Mishal is deeply involved in daily events in Gaza. The author was with Mishal in his Damascus compound in September 2007, when Al-Jazeera was broadcasting scenes of Hamas security forces beating Fatah protesters in Gaza. An exasperated Mishal spoke by phone to the Hamas security chief in Gaza and told him to ease up.
Far too many earnest, lumbering books on the Middle East propose recycled versions of the path to peace. McGeough doesn’t offer a solution to the conflict. But he provides a highly instructive account of how Hamas emerged as a potent force and why its faithful honor Mishal as the “martyr who did not die.”
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© 2009 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030602019_pf.html
The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of 12 forged British passports linked to the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the Commons there were “compelling reasons” to believe Israel was responsible for the passport “misuse”.
He said: “The government takes this matter extremely seriously. Such misuse of British passports is intolerable.”
Israel says there is no proof it was behind the killing in Dubai in January.
But Mr Milband said it was “highly likely” the Israeli secret service Mossad was involved and the fact that Israel was a close ally added “insult to injury”.
Strong message
“Given that this was a very sophisticated operation, in which high-quality forgeries were made, the government judges it is highly likely that the forgeries were made by a state intelligence service,” he said.
“We have concluded that there are compelling reasons to believe Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports.”
BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen said the expulsion sent a “very clear message” of British disapproval.
There can’t be a greater violation of trust for one ally to abuse the passports of another ally
Sir Menzies Campbell
Expulsion ‘a strong signal’
“It is a very big step for a government like the British to expel one of the diplomats belonging to one of its important allies,” he said.
The British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder, but Mr Miliband has previously demanded full co-operation with its investigation into how the passports were obtained.
The foreign secretary’s statement indications from Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) that officers had found proof of the cloned passports.
Soca officers had travelled to Israel to speak to those whose passports were copied with new photographs inserted.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Hamas group said it welcomed the decision to expel the diplomat but wanted international efforts to track down the killers stepped up.
Former Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said for a diplomat to be expelled, Israel must have had “some hand” in the matter, or had been unwilling to co-operate with Soca.
ANALYSIS
Tim Franks, BBC News, Jerusalem
There is a clear Israeli desire to talk this argument down from one where it could damage the wider relationship.
As for the more general Israeli view, that is mixed. Many believe that there is a measure of slightly unconvincing righteous indignation from the countries whose nationals had their passports cloned. Those Israelis argue that Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was as much an enemy of the West, as of Israel.
But there are a good number of Israelis who also believe this was a cack-handed operation, which blew the identities of 27 valuable agents, and caused an unnecessary diplomatic stink.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “It is very serious indeed… there can’t be a greater violation of trust for one ally to abuse the passports of another ally.”
Downing Street confirmed that the head of Britain’s diplomatic service, Peter Ricketts, met Israel’s ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, on Monday.
Last month Mr Miliband described the use of fake UK passports as an “outrage” and vowed that the inquiry would “get to the bottom” of the affair.
It is believed 12 fake British passports were used in the plot to murder Mr Mabhouh – the founder of Hamas’s military wing – in his hotel room in Dubai on 19 January.
The names and details on the UK passports used by eight of the 12 suspects belonged to British-Israeli citizens living in Israel. All of them have denied involvement.
Dubai police have used CCTV footage to identify 27 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed Mr Mabhouh.
Other members of the hit squad travelled on fake Irish, French and Australian travel documents, Dubai police said.
Dubai officials said they were “99% certain” that agents from Mossad were behind the killing but Israel has said there is no proof its agents were involved.
Following his death, Mr Mabhouh’s family said doctors who had examined him determined he had died after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that he had been strangled.
Blood samples sent to a French laboratory confirmed he was killed by electric shock, after which the body was sent to Syria.
Thousands of people attended Mr Mabhouh’s funeral at the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus in January.
In 1988 Britain expelled Israeli diplomat Arie Regev over a spying row. He was described by UK sources as a Mossad agent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8582518.stm
• Israeli ambassador told to explain use of fake passports
• Relations with Tel Aviv in ‘deep freeze’, warn British officials
Julian Borger and Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 February 2010 13.05 GMT
The father of Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was killed recently, holds up a photograph of his son. Dubai police say they are virtually certain Mossad was behind the murder. Photograph: Hatem Moussa/AP
Dubai police said today they were virtually certain Mossad was behind the assassination of a Hamas commander, as the incident threatened to turn into a diplomatic row between Israel and Britain over the use of false British passports.
“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. It is 99%, if not 100%, that Mossad is standing behind the murder,” Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim told the National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.
Britain fired the first shot last night in a potentially explosive diplomatic row with Israel by calling in the country’s ambassador to explain the use of fake British passports by a hit squad who targeted Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
The Israeli ambassador was at the Foreign Office this morning for a brief meeting to “share information” about the assassins’ use of identities stolen from six British citizens living in Israel, as part of the meticulously orchestrated assassination of Mabhouh.
“After receiving an invitation last night, I met with Sir Peter Ricketts, deputy-general of the British foreign minister,” Ron Prosor said after the meeting. “Despite my willingness to co-operate with his request, I could not shed new light on the said matters.”
Britain has stopped short of accusing Israel of involvement, but to signal its displeasure the Foreign Office ignored an Israeli plea to keep the summons secret. “Relations were in the freezer before this. They are in the deep freeze now,” an official told the Guardian.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, insisted he was determined to “get to the bottom of” how fake British passports were involved in the killing. He said he “hoped and expected” that Tel Aviv would co-operate fully with the investigation into the “outrage”.
Gordon Brown launched an investigation yesterday into the use of the fake passports, which will be led by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The British embassy in Tel Aviv is also contacting the British nationals affected in the plot “and stands ready to provide them with the support they need”, the Foreign Office said last night.
“The British passport is an important part of being British and we have to make sure everything is done to protect it,” Brown told LBC Radio yesterday.
A UAE official said the number of suspects in the assassination had widened to at least 18. The official said the list included 11 people identified this week, two Palestinians in custody and five others. Two women were among the suspects.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz named the two Palestinians as Ahmad Hasnin, a Palestinian intelligence operative, and Anwar Shekhaiber, an employee of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. They were arrested in the Jordanian capital Amman and extradited to Dubai. Both worked for a property company in Dubai belonging to a senior official of Fatah, the political faction headed by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, the paper reported.
Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said there was no proof that Mossad was involved in Mabhouh’s killing in a Dubai hotel last month, but added that Israel had a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence matters.
There were calls in Israel for an internal government inquiry into whether Mossad was responsible for identity theft from dual nationals, and criticism of its chief, Meir Dagan, for what critics described as a clumsy operation that risked alienating European allies.
“What began as a heart attack turned out to be an assassination, which led to a probe, which turned into the current passport affair,” a columnist, Yoav Limor, wrote in Israel Hayom, a pro-government newspaper. “It is doubtful whether this is the end of the affair.”
Yesterday more details emerged about the assassination plot:
• The Guardian learned that a key Hamas security official is under arrest in Syria on suspicion of having helped the assassins identify Mabhouh as their target.
• Authorities in Vienna have begun an investigation into whether Austria was used as a logistical hub for the operation. Seven of the mobile phones used by the killers had Austrian SIM cards.
• Three of the killers entered Dubai with forged Irish passports that had numbers lifted from legitimate travel documents.
It is not the first British-Israeli row over the misuse of British passports. British officials are particularly angry because the Israeli government pledged that there would be no repeat of an incident in 1987, in which Mossad agents acquired and tampered with British passports.
Lieberman said he believed relations with Britain would not be damaged. “I think Britain recognises 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.
France yesterday also claimed the French passport used by one of the assassins had been forged. A source close to the French intelligence services told Reuters a French passport that Dubai said had been used in the operation had a valid number but incorrect name. “It was a very good fake,” the source said.
Hamas, meanwhile, vowed vengeance for Mabhouh’s killing. At a memorial rally in Gaza, Hamas militants vowed that the movement’s armed wing, Izz-el Deen al-Qassam, “will never rest until they reach his killers”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/dubai-police-certain-mossad-killing