Mossad 'used Aussie passports'

A former Mossad officer says he has no doubt Israel's spy agency hasforged Australian passports for use regularly in intelligenceoperations.

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A former Mossad officer says he has no doubt Israel's spy agency has forged Australian passports for use regularly in intelligence operations.

"Very few people know very much about Australia," Victor Ostrovsky, a case officer at Mossad for several years in the 1980s, told ABC Radio on Friday.

The agency had obtained blank passports in the past from Canada and the UK.

"If not, they just manufacture them," Mr Ostrovsky said, adding there was a company inside Mossad headquarters which was dedicated to forging passports.

Using an Australian passport was an easy cover to take, he said.

"I know people had been under Australian cover not once (but) quite a few times.

"It doesn't take much of an accent to be an Australian or New Zealander, or an Englishman for that matter."

The federal government has warned Israel it will not be considered "a friend" if it is found to have being involved in passport fraud targeting three Australians.

The passports were carried by three other people suspected of being involved in the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmud al-Mabhuh in Dubai on January 20.



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Source: AAP



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