Phoenix Magazine: Blind Eye to Mossad Irish Passports Use

international | crime and justice | other press Monday March 29, 2010 16:34 by Citizen X

The DFA will continue to get whatever secret overseas information it needs... on a nod and wink and whisper basis, while no one in Dublin notices that Irish passports are being misused.

Below, in the public interest, is extracted approx. 495 words from Phoenix Magazine March 26, 2010 edition, page 9 (under the 500 word fair-use tradition). It suggests "The DFA will continue to get whatever secret overseas information it needs from the State Department and the Foreign Office on a nod and wink and whisper basis, while no one in Dublin notices that Irish passports are being misused."

Phoenix Magazine March 26, 2010 edition, page 9:

And so the brouhaha over the use of Irish passports by Israeli Mossad assassins in Dubai is over, for a while. Section 10 of the Passports Act 2008, the loophole used by foreign spy services to obtain Irish passports, is to remain unchanged. It provides that “a passport issued under the Act shall be in the name of the applicant as it appears in his or her certificate of birth (whether in the English language or the Irish language) or, as may be appropriate, a certificate of naturalisation or other document produced by him or her to the Minister as evidence of Irish citizenship.”

A consultation between Foreign Minister Micheál Martin and the Iveagh House honchos has decided that this status quo ante shall prevail. The practice of foreign spooks (provided they are “friendly” spooks, ie. American, British, Israeli, etc) posing as Irish citizens will b continue to be overlooked because of a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) hidden agenda.

As a small and relatively unresourced country with many overseas interests and a world-wide diaspora, Ireland has a need for intelligence information. Traditionally, this has been gathered by ad hoc arrangements. Garda intelligence (CSB) and the Defence Forces G2 Directorate of Intelligence (G2) have specific roles in their areas of interest. The rest of Irish foreign intelligence comes from the DFA and is gathered by embassies and roving officials. Around 80% of all Irish intelligence, as with most other states, is Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). This comes from diligent reading and collation of broadcast and published material. The other 20% is “Closed Source Intelligence” (CSINT) “secret” information, ie. intelligence that the subjects would not wish to be known to third parties.

Ireland does not have the resources to gather CSINT. So it piggy-backs on larger diplomatic services, like the US State Department or the British Foreign Office, knowing the CSINT passed on is often gathered by through the CIA or British Secret Service using covert agents or clandestine methods. The quid pro quo in this hidden alliance is that the Irish State does not go out of its way to make things difficult for favoured foreign spook organisations.

The most valuable thing the DFA has to offer is blind eye use of Irish passports, either forgeries or genuine documents obtained by fraud. This is where Section 10 of the 2008 Passports Act is important. Failure to tighten up the Act makes it clear that the use of Irish passports by foreign spooks is still acceptable – provided they do so in a way which appears the DFA is unaware of what is happening.

[…] the DFA’s initial reaction was to state, for some inexplicable reason, that the passports were not genuine Irish passports. This turned out to be untrue and was quickly contradicted when the Dubai police released more details of the passports used. Despite the subsequent posturing by Martin, this play acting fooled no one of importance in the spook world. Things remain as they were [...]