The U.S. government does not believe that two of the 26
alleged Mossad assassins responsible for the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai came to the
United States following the murder, a top Obama administration official said
Wednesday.
Rand Beers, the under secretary of
homeland security for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, told a
roundtable at the Heritage Foundation Wednesday that Monday's Wall Street Journal report,
which claimed that "at least two" of the Dubai assassination suspects had
entered the U.S., was flatly inaccurate.
"We have no indication
and they would have had to have shown that passport and that travel
documentation with it to enter this country," Beers said, addressing the Journal story directly. "So we would
know if they had entered with that passport and that name and that picture."
Beers acknowledged that the official U.S. government
position was not to comment on the Journal
report, but confirmed twice he believed the report to be inaccurate.
The Journal
report, which had a Dubai dateline, said, "Records shared between international
investigators show that one of the suspects entered the U.S. on Feb. 14,
carrying a British passport, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The other suspect, carrying an Irish passport, entered the U.S. on Jan. 21,
according to this person."
Mabhouh was assassinated on Jan. 20.
The story goes on to speculate that UAE officials would seek
extradition if any suspects were found in the U.S. and that "the investigation
could prove an irritant to U.S.-Israeli ties if Mossad is implicated."
Asked if the U.S. was vulnerable to infiltration using such
forged passports, which appeared to be issued by visa waiver countries Britain,
Ireland, France, and Germany, Beers said he just didn't know.
"I haven't actually seen a forensic report on the passport
itself to know whether or not a good machine-readable system would have
determined that was a falsified passport," said Beers. "I'm not saying that it's not possible to get
around that with a high technology solution."
The U.S. government has been communicating with both the UAE
and Dubai governments, sharing information about the incident, Beers said. He said that DHS was working with Interpol's
program to share information about missing or stolen passports, but that will
work "only if nations choose to collect the information in a systematic way."
Read More
(2)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE