Spoetnik
04-01-05, 14:54
Israeli spy's passport sparks row
Saturday January 1, 2005
The Guardian
The use of forged British passports by Mossad assassination squads triggered a Foreign Office protest.
But just as diplomats were about to call in the Israeli ambassador, it was discovered that civil servants elsewhere in Whitehall were in the process of renewing the UK passport held by a senior Israeli secret service agent.
"David Kimche is... controller of Israeli intelligence service operations in western Europe," a secret Foreign Office memo said in 1974. "He is a member of the diplomatic staff in the Paris embassy. He was born in the UK and for many years had a British passport. This has expired."
The murders of a Moroccan in Norway and Arab activists in Lebanon had infuriated diplomats when it was discovered that both had been carried out by Mossad agents, several of whom were using falsified British documents.
The realisation that Kimche was about to get a new passport astonished officials. "This is really extraordinary," one wrote. "At the same time as the minister is about to protest to the Israeli ambassador over the misuse of British passports for Israeli intelligence operations, we are apparently contemplating issuing a British passport to a man who may well have been in charge of the operation complained of."
Kimche was discouraged from applying.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicspast/story/0,9061,1381811,00.html
Saturday January 1, 2005
The Guardian
The use of forged British passports by Mossad assassination squads triggered a Foreign Office protest.
But just as diplomats were about to call in the Israeli ambassador, it was discovered that civil servants elsewhere in Whitehall were in the process of renewing the UK passport held by a senior Israeli secret service agent.
"David Kimche is... controller of Israeli intelligence service operations in western Europe," a secret Foreign Office memo said in 1974. "He is a member of the diplomatic staff in the Paris embassy. He was born in the UK and for many years had a British passport. This has expired."
The murders of a Moroccan in Norway and Arab activists in Lebanon had infuriated diplomats when it was discovered that both had been carried out by Mossad agents, several of whom were using falsified British documents.
The realisation that Kimche was about to get a new passport astonished officials. "This is really extraordinary," one wrote. "At the same time as the minister is about to protest to the Israeli ambassador over the misuse of British passports for Israeli intelligence operations, we are apparently contemplating issuing a British passport to a man who may well have been in charge of the operation complained of."
Kimche was discouraged from applying.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicspast/story/0,9061,1381811,00.html