Australia expels Mossad station chief over passports in Dubai killing

Babylon & Beyond

OBSERVATIONS FROM IRAQ, IRAN,
ISRAEL, THE ARAB WORLD AND BEYOND

ISRAEL: Australia expels Mossad station chief over passports in Dubai killing

It would be difficult to weave as intricate a web as the international spy thriller that first unraveled in Dubai in January. Yet another sinew has been threaded out of the ongoing, worldwide investigation on the killing of Hamas arms procurer Mahmoud Mabhouh.

In recent days, the Australian foreign minister informed the Israeli Embassy that its Mossad station chief, whose identity remains secret, would be leaving the island continent within a week.

Stephen Smith spoke to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, claiming that the officer in question was “involved in state intelligence.” He argued that Australian passports “were deliberately counterfeited and cloned for use” and investigations had proved “beyond doubt” that Israel was involved, reported the Australian publication International Business Times.

Israeli authorities had a warrant out for Mabhouh’s arrest, as did the Egyptians and Jordanians. In 1989, Israeli authorities had failed to arrest Mabhouh for his recently confessed participation in the murder of two Israeli soldiers.

Smith concluded that Australia “remains a firm friend of Israel.”

However, he lamented, “this is not what we expect from a nation with whom we have had such a close, friendly, and supportive relationship.”

The chief of Australia’s Security and Intelligence Organization, David Irvine, managed to convince the Australian government that Israel had a hand in the passport counterfeit after a clandestine trip to Israel earlier this month to investigate foul play. Upon his return, he claimed that four of the passports used during the assassination had been Australian counterfeits, according to news reports.

Smith first announced Canberra’s decision to the U.S. government and then to Israel, and later shared the ruling with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany and Ireland. The Brits had also expelled two Israeli diplomats in March because of the use of forged passports in the Mabhouh killing.

Intelligence-sharing between Australian and Israeli agencies has come to a halt, reported Haaretz.

Though it was not the first time that Israel had forged passports, Smith claimed, this time violated “confidential undertakings” between the two countries, the Associated Press reported.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levy responded, “We regret the Australian move, which in our opinion does not conform to the kind of relations we have with Canberra and their importance.”

Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri told the Palestinian Information Center that Australia should also prosecute Mabhouh’s assassins. At least, he explained, other countries have started to recognize the threat that the “Zionist entity” poses to global security.

— Becky Lee Katz in Beirut

Photos:

Top: One of possibly 26 forged passports, this copy of an Australian counterfeit was used in the assassination attempt. Credit: Dubai authorities.

Bottom: Chief of Australian intelligence David Irvine led the Australian investigation into the passport forgery case in Israel. Credit: Andrew Taylor / The Sydney Morning Herald.

, May 25, 2010

May 27, 2010

Peaceful Protest: JOIN TURKISH AUSTRALIANS ON SATURDAY 29th MAY 2010

Where: In front of Fairfield Council 86 Avoca road, Wakeley-N.S.W
Time: 12:00 – 15:00

Turkish Australians have had enough of the so-called genocide claims by the Armenians & Assyrians and others, who are part of an International conspiracy!!..

Peaceful Protest against the claims of so-called genocide has been organised by Turkish Australians, we urge all Australians to attend and let Fairfield Councillors know that we Australians are not happy with the actions of the councillors who have no idea what happened in 1915,  A.T.A.G calls on the Australian Government to accept the offer made by the Prime Minister of Turkey to set up a Independent Executive Committee made up of Historians, Forensic Scientists, Academics and Experts to look in to the claims of the co-called genocide, this is the only way that will once and for all set the record straight.. The Armenians and others are refusing to take part in such an Independent Enquiry by an Independent Executive Commission, WHY, yet they continue to LOBBY Local, State and Federal politicians to accept their version of the 1915 incidents… Liberal M.P Joe Hockey (aka, HOKEDONIAN) IS PART OF THE SAME CONSPRICY, that continues to paddle the same LIES AND DISTORTION OF HISTORICAL FACTS…
more information on this issue to be continued;…

May 24, 2010

Tayfun Eren vs. Dimitris Dollis (Papandreou’s senior adviser)

Avustralya’da eski Labor milletvekilerinden Tayfun E. Eren dostumuzun hasmı ve Türk davasına 1999’dan beri aktif bir şekilde sürekli köstek olan Dollis ile ilgili arkaplan aşağıda…  En son Assyrian “Genocide” ve Pontus konusunu planlayan ve yürürlüğe sokan kişi bu Dollis… 1999 dan evvel de Avusturalya meclisinde Yunanistan’ın ‘köstebek’ görevini yapıyordu. Şu anda Papandreou’nun danışmanlarından oluyor kendileri…  Ve 1999’dan beri de Yunanistan’ın Dışişlerinde çalışıyor… İlgililerin dikkatine sunulur… Detaylı bilgi isteyenler Turkish Forum’a başvurabilirler…

Saygılar,

Tayfun E. Eren

Haluk Demirbag

—

George Papandreou faces early test after winning Greek elections

GREEK voters have thrown out their five-year-old conservative government and made centre-left leader George Papandreou prime minister, a post previously held by both his father and grandfather.

Mr Papandreou, a US-born former foreign minister, will follow his father Andreas and grandfather George in heading Greece’s government but he faces urgent economic challenges and a major battle to curb corruption.

AUDIO: Peter Wilson talks to George Papandreou

The PASOK socialist party that his father founded in 1974 is expected to win about 160 seats in the 300-seat parliament, reassuring markets by securing a stable majority at a time when urgent government reforms are needed.

Mr Papandreou pledged to “turn a page” on scandals and economic malaise associated with the outgoing conservative government.

“We stand here united before the great responsibility which we undertake,” Mr Papandreou told cheering supporters in central Athens when the result became clear.

“We have a mandate to turn a new page,” Mr Papandreou said as supporters of his Pasok party celebrated the socialists’ return to power after more than five years in opposition.

“Today we start together the great national effort of placing the country back on a course of revival, development and creation. We don’t have a day to waste.”

He said PASOK had waged “a good fight to bring back hope and smiles on Greeks’ faces … to change the country’s course into one of law, justice, solidarity, green development and progress”.

PASOK won by a larger than expected margin of 44per cent to 34per cent over the conservative New Democracy party.

Mr Papandreou, 57, told The Australian last week that if elected he would make several reforms to help members of the Greek diaspora in Australia and elsewhere, making it easier for them to work in Greece and to vote in Greek elections.

He said he would change Greece’s tough education rules so as to recognise three-year bachelor degrees issued by Australian universities as the equivalent of four-year Greek degrees, removing a hurdle that has long frustrated Australians wanting to work in Greece.

He also vowed to allow the one million-plus registered Greek voters who live overseas to vote by mail or at local consulates instead of the current system which requires them to travel to Greece to cast a ballot.

Often criticised in Greece for speaking English more fluently than Greek, Mr Papandreou has fought PASOK’s old-style party chieftains in a bid to modernise the party, dropping from its candidate list several factional heavies including the former prime minister Costas Simitis.

The defeated prime minister, Costas Karamanlis beat Mr Papandreou in elections in 2004 and 2007 but yesterday resigned the leadership of New Democracy to accept responsibility for his failed gamble of calling a snap election just half way into a four-year term of parliament.

Dora Bakoyannis, the 55-year-old foreign minister who served as mayor of Athens during the 2004 Olympic Games, is the frontrunner to replace him as leader of the conservative party, a post once held by her father Constantine Mitsotakis.

Mr Karamanlis had called for an austere series of government cuts to rein in the deficit and national debt but he was hampered by the fact that he had made little progress in the previous five years on his vows to fight corruption and reform an outdated government bureaucracy.

Mr Papandreou campaigned on a promise of a 3 billion Euro ($5b) stimulus package but faces immediate talks with Euro zone officials concerned that Greece’s budget deficit is already twice the 3 per cent of GDP allowed under the rules of the common currency.

The socialist leader has vowed to increase wages and pensions and fund the extra spending by increasing taxes on the rich and cracking down on tax evasion.

Raised in Sweden and the US when his father was in political exile, Mr Papandreou promised to appoint an advisory panel of foreign economic experts and tackle Greece’s high levels of corruption and its tradition of new governments handing out state jobs and contracts to their own cronies.

A senior job in the new administration is certain to go to close Papandreou advisor Demetri Dollis, a former Victorian Labor MP who served as deputy leader of the state opposition before being stripped of his ALP preselection by then leader Steve Bracks in 1999 for spending too much time overseas.

Mr Dollis held a high-level job in the foreign ministry when Mr Papandreou was foreign minister and has worked in Mr Papandreou’s personal office over the past five years.

, October 05, 2009

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Papandreou looks to Greek diaspora as he forms new cabinet

George Papandreou is expected to tap international talent for his government to help tackle Greece’s multiple crises

• Helena Smith in Athens
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 October 2009 10.50 BST

Greece‘s socialist leader George Papandreou was sworn in as prime minister this morning amid clear indications that the new government he will lead will seek to tap talent in the diaspora to address the multiple crises facing the country.

The English-speaking prime minister, propelled into office following an overwhelming victory in Sunday’s elections, is expected to announce a cabinet this afternoon to take on Greece’s financial and economic crisis and social malaise.

US-born Papandreou was educated in Sweden, England and Canada and is a Harvard University fellow. His closest aides include English-speaking Greeks born and brought up in Africa, America and Australia. The 57-year-old politician is himself more comfortable speaking English than Greek.

“Part of my identity is being a Greek of Greece and a Greek of the diaspora,” Papandreou told the Guardian. “I think in many ways being Greek is being ecumenical, open to the world. We are a country that has always been open with ideas and contact with the rest of the world as a shipping nation and tourist destination.”

Through his network of connections as head of Socialist International, the global grouping of leftwing parties, Papandreou has already embarked on talks with renowned experts in the fields of economy and public health. The Nobel economics laureate Joe Stiglitz is in touch with him “on a daily basis”, offering advice on how to rescue Greece’s debt-ridden economy from the brink of bankruptcy.

Also a Harvard professor and international health expert now sits in the Greek parliament following his appointment as a non-elected MP with Papandreou’s Pasok party.

“George has always said there is an untapped world and that is the other Greece in the diaspora that he is going to work with, talk to and take advice from to help us get the country out of this situation,” said Dimitris Dollis, a Greek Australian who is among Papandreou’s senior advisers. “Ties with the diaspora are going to be much stronger.”

Among candidates for prominent cabinet roles are George Papaconstantinou, a graduate of New York University and the London School of Economics who worked at the OECD in Paris, and Louka Katseli, a former economics professor at Yale.

After years of introspection under the outgoing centre-right government, Greece is also expected to become far more “open and outward looking” in its foreign policy under Papandreou, who won international plaudits back in the 90s when he almost single-handedly improved relations with Turkey by daring to pursue reconciliation.

“Being parochial is a state of mind and we want to get out of it,” said a source close to Papandreou who will be one of his senior foreign affairs advisers. “The [outgoing] conservatives chose to tread water in a turbulent sea, no initiatives were taken and relations with out neighbours gradually stalled. Our approach is going to be a lot more cosmopolitan, open and creative which is George’s natural inclination.”

The change in style has been welcomed by western diplomats startled by the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in Greece in recent years.

And amid speculation that Papandreou will assume responsibility for foreign affairs – at least initially – many are hopeful that relations with neighbouring Turkey, Macedonia and the rest of Europe will improve. In Istanbul and Ankara there were scenes of jubilation with some Turks cracking open bottles of champagne when news of Pasok’s victory came through. In recent months ties with Turkey have worsened with tensions in the Aegean rising noticeably.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/06/george-papandreou-sworn-greek-pm, 6 October 2009

[3]

Greek NGO teacher Lerounis returns to Greece after release by Afghan Taliban militants

Greek teacher and NGO worker Athanassios Lerounis arrived in Athens on Saturday following his release earlier in the week by Afghan Taliban militants seven months after they kidnapped him in the Chitral region in northern Pakistan.

Lerounis, chairman of the non-governmental organisation Greek Volunteers, was kidnapped outside his museum in the remote Kalash valley last September, while his guard was fatally shot. He had been working on a cultural project in the area since 2001.

Professor Lerounis, a Greek teacher and social worker, was kidnapped on September 8, 2009 following an attack on the Kalash village of Brun, in Pakistan, where he lived. He was abducted outside the ethnological museum Kalash-Dur he had created himself in Pakistan to preserve and showcase the culture of the Kalash people. Lerounis has also founded two primary schools, three motherhood centers and the Kalash Cultural Center in Bumburate Valley.

Lerounis was released in Nooristan province in Afghanistan on Wednesday, and Pakistani officials took him to Chitral later that night. He was taken to the Greek embassy in Islamabad on Friday morning to await transportation back to Greece arranged by the Greek government.

A visibly moved and relieved Lerounis arrived Saturday at Athens’ ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ International Airport, where he thanked everyone who had helped in securing his release.

“I am very happy to be standing on Greek ground after so many months. A big thank you to the people in Pakistan, the Greek government and the personal interest of the prime minister, who acted as a human being and not a politician,” Lerounis told waiting reporters.

Lerounis also thanked prime minister George Papandreou’s personal envoy to Islamabad, ambassador-at-large Dimitris Dollis, and the Greek ambassador in Islamabad Petros Mavroidis, who accompanied the NGO volunteer on his flight to Greece, as well as all people who were supportive throughout his ordeal.

Dollis confirmed a statement by Wazir on Thursday that no ransom was paid, adding that Lerounis’ release was a big success of the Greek government, Greek diplomacy and the country, and called Lerounis “an example of perseverance”.

Asked if he would return to the Kalash tribe, Lerounis said that “with the support of the Greek and Pakistani government, I would like to return there some day and continue my work”.

http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/2010/10-04-12.ana.html#10, 12 April 2010

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