We use false passports too, Australians admit

Julie Bishop

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Israeli intelligence agencies are not alone in using false passports. In fact, intelligence and law enforcement agencies in Australia, the country that is currently involved in a diplomatic spat with Israel due to the latter’s use of forged Australian passports in spy operations, also use forged travel documents. This admission was made yesterday by Australian senior opposition politician Julie Bishop during a live session in the Australian parliament. The parliamentary debate concerned recent revelations that agents of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad used forged Australian passports during an assassination operation against Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found murdered in a luxury Dubai hotel last January. Australian government officials were quick to condemn Ms Bishop’s revelation as “a grievous breach of national security”. But Australian daily newspaper The Age reports that the opposition politician “merely made public an inconvenient truth”. Sources “within the [Australian] intelligence community” told the paper that, not only does Australia produce false passports for its own intelligence operatives, but it also has “a long-standing tradition of providing [Australian] passports to [friendly] overseas intelligence agencies”, including those of Britain, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. The difference between officially approved false Australian passports and the forged travel documents used by the Mossad is that the former do not involve identity theft against unsuspecting Australian citizens. Instead, they involve the creation of an entirely fictitious identity. The Australian government authorizes the creation of such passports around once a year, according to sources.