Forged British Passports..Don’t Worry, it’s the CIA
I found it a bit ironic that Andrew Sullivan, a professional angster and screecher over Israel’s barbarism and lost soul, linked to an article from Harper’s about a Spanish investigation into CIA activities on its soil. What caught my eye in the article was the following sentence.
El-Masri’s CIA abductors entered Spanish territory using forged British passports, according to the prosecutors.
I did a quick search on Google News and found only a few article which discussed the recent Spanish investigation. Of these articles, only one mentioned the forged British passports. As far as I know, no American diplomats have been expelled from England, nor has the American ambassador been giving a scolding from the Foreign Office. Let’s not forget the words of the British Foreign Secretary about a similar case.
“Such misuse of British passports is intolerable,” Miliband said, adding that the fact that Israel was an ally of the United Kingdom “only adds insult to injury.”
As a wise man once sang,
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully
Pointing out the hypocrisy of how Israel is treated is different than deciding whether or not the other passport-related affair was a smart move. See the recent comments by Avraham Shalom in this article about the capture of Adolf Eichmann.
Update: The BBC is reporting the Britons are taking fewing trips abroad. I am pretty sure it’s because they’re afraid someone will mistake them for some CIA extraordinary rendition team.
Update II: This angle of the story has been reported in the British press and the Foreign Office said that
We have just been made aware of the claim that British passports may have been misused. We have not yet seen the evidence for this claim. As soon as we do so, we will of course look into it. We attach great importance to the integrity of British passports.
Update III: Two Iranians were detained in Bahrain for trying to enter with fake British Passports.