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| Down Under |
| NZ censures Israel over passport affair |
| 2004-07-16 |
| The government of New Zealand announced a series of sanctions against Israel yesterday following the sentencing of two Israelis who sought to illegally obtain New Zealand passports. The two were accused by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark of being Israeli intelligence agents. Under the sanctions, all Israeli officials wishing to enter New Zealand are now required to acquire entry visas prior to arrival. Prime Minister Clark also announced that New Zealand was unwilling to receive President Moshe Katsav during a visit that he planned to carry out in Australia and New Zealand in August. The visits of senior delegations to and from New Zealand have also been canceled, and the credentials of the new Israeli ambassador will not be approved, while contacts with the local honorary consuls of Israel in New Zealand will be severely limited. At the completion of a trial in Auckland yesterday, in which Elisha Cara, 50, and Uriel Kelman, 31, were found guilty of seeking to obtain a New Zealand passport through illegal means, and of belonging to a criminal organization, the two were sentenced to six months' jail and fined 50,000 New Zealand dollars. After the court passed its verdict, Clark announced that they operated "on behalf of the intelligence services of Israel." Foreign Minister Phil Goff said, "We know this, the government of Israel knows this and it knows why we know," that they are agents of the Mossad. The minister suggested in an interview with Israel Radio that the arrest of the two Israelis was not an isolated incident and hinted at claims made to Haaretz by New Zealand police that the Mossad had allegedly sought to acquire as many authentic passports as possible in a long-term operation. The New Zealand sources pointed to the fact that Cara, who claims to be a tourist agent based in Australia, entered New Zealand 24 times during the past three and a half years. The Australian daily, The Age, reported that Canberra had also initiated an operation to uncover whether its sovereignty had also been compromised by alleged Israeli agents. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #6 IT (Sir Fiz) just might return with more Saooodie Wahhhhhabee 'facts on file' . |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-16 6:00:40 PM |
| #5 Fizzle sure had to dig deeeeeep into his pre-digested Jooo dogma archives! Lol! WTF do you do for an encore? Methinks, seethe. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-16 5:24:44 PM |
| #4 Sir Faisal, is it not time for a camel head count? Don't blame Mossad if some are missing while your ranting in here on the pallroll for the House of Saooodies. Say hi to your wacko pals in Hizb'allah while they remain on earth. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-16 5:12:06 PM |
| #3 Sure |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-16 2:01:26 PM |
| #2 Oh... so no one's got anything to say on this interesting news lol. * 1954 - Egypt cracks Israeli Military Intelligence cell of Egyptian Jews who firebombed sites frequented by Westerners to embarrass Cairo and prevent the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon quits, but denies authorising plot. * 1985 - US Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for passing intelligence to Lakam, an Israeli agency specialising in scientific cooperation. Israel apologises to Washington and dismantles Lakam. Pollard is sentenced to life in prison and is still incarcerated. * 1991 - Four Israelis, widely reported to be Mossad agents, are arrested during an apparent attempt to bug the Iranian embassy in Cyprus. They are released for lack of evidence. * 1997 - Two Mossad assassins are captured by Jordanian authorities after a failed attempt to kill Khalid Meshaal, a Hamas leader, in Amman. They are sent home after Israel frees jailed Hamas founder Shaikh Ahmad Yassin. Israel then promises Canada to never again use its passports. Yassin was assassinated by Israeli helicopters earlier this year. * 1998 - A group of Israelis is discovered trying to tap the phones of a suspected Lebanese Hizb Allah activist in Switzerland. In a closed-door trial, one Israeli, described in the media as a Mossad agent, is fined and given a suspended jail sentence. His three accomplices are released. *In Cyprus, two suspected Mossad agents are arrested and charged with spying on sensitive military installations. They are released after nine months in prison under a plea bargain. |
| Posted by: Faisal 2004-07-16 1:51:40 PM |
| #1 The New Zealand sources pointed to the fact that Cara, who claims to be a tourist agent based in Australia, entered New Zealand 24 times during the past three and a half years. I'm shocked! A tourist agent visiting the place he's marketing as a vacation site! Truly damning evidence. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-07-16 9:23:23 AM |