A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Arab governments are dumb if they don't check every Australian visitor for 10 hours at the airport
"A stunning report in this weekend's Sydney Morning Herald alleges that Australian counterintelligence officials are investigating at least three Israeli citizens suspected of using Australian passports to spy in the Middle East. According to two unnamed Australian intelligence sources cited in the Morning Herald report, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, or ASIO, has for at least six months been investigating three Australian-Israeli dual nationals who allegedly have been working for the Israeli national intelligence agency the Mossad. The three suspected Mossad spies are Australian nationals who emigrated to Israel at some point over the last 10 years, a relatively common step for Australian Jews. But these three might have aroused authorities' suspicions when they traveled back to Australia to change their names multiple times, turning their "European-Jewish" sounding names into more "Anglo-Australian" names, according to the report. Then the alleged operatives used their Australian passports to enter Iran, Syria and Lebanon, which do not recognize Israel, the report says. One even sought the help of the Australian Embassy in Tehran in 2004, the report says. The Morning Herald contacted two of the men, who vehemently denied being involved in any espionage activities." Arab government should at least wait before they allow Australians to enter their lands especially that Australians with Israeli passports are entering Arab countries to kill Arabs. (thanks Dina)