Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hamas-Dubai: Irish passport numbers were authentic

Yesterday the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs rubbished the identity numbers provided for the Irish passports used in the Dubai Hamas hit on the grounds that they didn't have the right pattern.

Another day, another statement --

The new information also includes additional material relating to the passport numbers. This indicates that genuine Irish passport numbers were used. These numbers correspond to actual numbers on three legitimate Irish passports. However, the identities of the persons recorded on the forged passports do not correspond to those recorded on the valid passports carrying the same numbers.

The department was apparently basing its earlier assertions on what appeared in newspapers as opposed to, er, actual information provided by the UAE government.

The obvious question now is how the Bourne people got valid Irish passport numbers. The UK is sending their organized crime unit to Dubai to work on the UK identity theft cases. Shouldn't this be an easy cooperative venture for the Irish police?

UPDATE: The Department goes through the motions of "inviting" the Israeli ambassador for a meeting. The Minister did not attend. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

FINAL UPDATE: The hit squad used 5, not 3, Irish passports. [now confirmed by UAE sources]

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